Zim Online
Monday 21 May 2007
By Brian
Ncube
BULAWAYO - Families of five Zimbabwe army deserters arrested by
military
police last February say they fear they may have been tortured to
death
after they were removed from a government jail last April and have
never
been seen again.
Some family members who agreed to speak to
ZimOnline said army authorities
had refused to say whether the deserters
were still alive, and if so, where
they were being held. However, they said
the deserters' colleagues still
serving in the army told them they were
tortured to death by military
interrogators.
A close relative of one
of the deserters, Jabulani Moyo, said: "We are
convinced that our son is
dead. We have heard nothing from him since
February. His friend who is a
soldier told us he was tortured to death at
Shamva (an army camp about 20
kilometers north of Harare)."
Moyo, who is from Bulawayo's Nkulumane
suburb, said he and his family would
not press any charges against the army,
saying all they wanted was a "chance
to give our relative a decent
burial."
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, who in the past has refused
to discuss
the deserters' case with ZimOnline, again refused to take
questions when
contacted for comment. "Leave me alone, I have got nothing to
say to you on
that issue," was all Sekeramayi would say before switching of
his mobile
phone.
The five deserters, all from the army's mounted
unit, were arrested on
February 16 in South Africa's Mussina town near the
border with Zimbabwe.
They were part of a larger group of 45 army border
guards who deserted and
crossed over to South Africa to look for better
paying jobs.
They were since their capture held at the notorious
Chikurubi maximum
security prison on Harare's eastern border. Sources said
prison authorities
would at times release the deserters to army
interrogators who would take
them away for several hours but would always
return them to the jail.
Sometime in the middle of April, the
interrogators from the army requested
to take away the deserters. They were
never returned to the jail or seen
again.
A father to one of the
deserters, who did not want his name or that of his
son published, said his
son had initially wanted to resign from the army but
his commanders had
turned down his resignation. "He then told us he was
going to run away from
the army," said the father, in the vernacular Ndebele
language.
"When
they captured him, he phoned us in the morning, on February 17, and
told us
to prepare ourselves for any eventuality, including his possible
death at
the hands of his captors. I believe they killed my son," said the
distraught
father, as he broke down into tears.
Another close relative, who also
spoke on condition her name or that of the
deserter she is related to were
not published for fear of possible
victimisation, said: "Only God knows how
he will punish those who killed
our son."
While the top army and
police commanders are well paid and cushioned from
Zimbabwe's economic
crisis, the lower ranking servicemen and women have not
been spared the
harsh effects of an economic meltdown that has seen
inflation shooting
beyond 3 700 percent and spawned severe shortages of food
and every basic
survival commodity.
Hundreds of junior soldiers and police have over the
past few years resigned
or deserted to seek better paying jobs abroad. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday
21 May 2007
By Prince Nyathi
HARARE - Zimbabwe
public transport fares went up 30 percent in tandem with
last week's hike in
fuel prices in yet another example of a worsening
economic crisis and
rapidly deteriorating living conditions in the southern
African
country.
The price of petrol and diesel, also in short supply in
Zimbabwe, went up
from $27 000 a litre to between $36 000 and $40 000 a
litre on the official
market.
Diesel and petrol, which cost the same
per litre in chaotic Zimbabwe, cost
between $40 000 and $45 000 a litre on
the illegal black market for fuel -
that is the surest source for both
commodities in the country.
"We had to increase our fares because the
price of fuel has gone up
significantly. If we don't do that we will go out
of business," said Timothy
Gumede, who operates a fleet of public taxis in
Harare.
A single trip from most of Harare's low-income suburbs to the
city centre or
industrial areas now costs Z$10 000, up from Z$7 000. This
means a worker
would need $440 000 a month for transport to and from work, a
figure most
cannot afford given the average salary for workers in Zimbabwe
is $350 000
per month.
But soaring transport costs are only one on a
long list of troubles
Zimbabweans have to contend with as the country
grapples a severe economic
crisis marked by unemployment above 80 percent,
acute shortages of foreign
currency, food and fuel and frequent electricity
cuts.
This has left workers unable to feed their families and resorting
to
subsisting for survival and political analysts war that anger among the
workers could spill onto the streets and turn violent.
The Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, the largest workers' representative
body in the
country, has threatened to call nationwide protests by workers
to push the
government and private firms to link salaries to inflation which
at more
than 3 713.9 percent is the highest in the world. - ZimOnline
News24
20/05/2007 17:09 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's top university students could be forced into
the civil
service and banned from emigrating in a new scheme designed to
stop
penniless professionals escaping the country, it was reported on
Sunday.
Under a cadetship scheme, scholars who get their university fees
paid for by
President Robert Mugabe's government would now be compelled to
join the
civil service and would not be allowed to emigrate for several
years, state
radio announced.
University and college students
educated through government loans and grants
would now be compelled to join
the civil service for varying periods before
being allowed to work in the
private sector or to emigrate, the radio said.
Secretary for Higher and
Tertiary Education Washington Mbizvo said the
scheme would come into effect
next month.
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe has been battling a massive exodus of
highly-trained
professionals ever since the country was plunged into
economic crisis seven
years ago.
With annual inflation now at more
than 3 700%, doctors, nurses, teachers and
lecturers have all fled abroad,
leaving many public institutions like
hospitals seriously
under-staffed.
Doctors from Cuba now man many of Zimbabwe's rural
hospitals. Zimbabwe's
junior doctors complain they are paid less than one US
dollar a day.
With no end in sight to the economic meltdown, discontent
is rising.
Reports in the privately-owned Standard newspaper on Sunday
said civil
servants had rejected a 200% pay increase offer from the
government as
peanuts. They are planning fresh strikes next month, the paper
said.
Sapa-dpa
From The Sunday Independent (SA), 20 May
Basildon Peta
A Southern African
Development Community (SADC) mediation team, led by
Sydney Mufamadi, the
minister of provincial and local government, has met
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe in secret, as President Thabo Mbeki
pushes ahead with his
intervention efforts on behalf of the regional body.
Highly placed
Zimbabwean sources said that after meeting Mufamadi in Harare
two weeks ago,
Mugabe established his negotiation team, led by Patrick
Chinamasa, the
justice minister, and Nicholas Goche, the labour minister.
Chinamasa and
Goche have since privately met representatives of the two
factions of the
divided opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to
set the agenda
for negotiations for free and fair elections, due by March
next year.
Mufamadi was accompanied on his secret trip to Zimbabwe by Frank
Chikane,
the director-general in the presidency, and Mojanku Gumbi, Mbeki's
legal
adviser, highly placed sources said.
The three met Mugabe and his two
vice-presidents, Joyce Mujuru and Joseph
Msika. It is understood that, in
the meeting, Mugabe said it would be
difficult to meet the demands of the
opposition before next year's
elections. It is understood that Mufamadi
informed Mugabe frankly that it
would be difficult for Zimbabwe to hold
elections under the current
conditions. Mufamadi also told Mugabe that he
should do as much as possible
to "create a different atmosphere to what has
prevailed in the past".
Sources said it was difficult to predict whether
Mbeki's mediation team
would succeed, because Mugabe could not be trusted.
He has kept quiet about
Mbeki's intervention, but his party spokesperson,
Nathan Shamuyarira, has
been vociferous in his opposition to engagement with
the MDC. Shamuyarira
recently said talking to the MDC was a waste of time,
because it was a
"puppet" opposition.
Meanwhile, Mbeki told
parliament this week that mediation efforts were going
well, though he gave
no details. The SADC appointed Mbeki as its mediator at
an extraordinary
summit in March in Tanzania, called to discuss Zimbabwe,
Lesotho and the
Democratic Republic of Congo. Mbeki was expected to report
back to the SADC
by the end of next month and sources said he was therefore
eager to make
progress. The MDC has hinted that it will boycott elections
unless the
electoral playing field is levelled. Mufamadi is said to have
told Mugabe to
halt his government's political violence to help build
confidence in the
negotiations. Since then lawyers have become the latest
target in what
appears to be an orchestrated campaign of state-sanctioned
violence. A
number have been assaulted in the past few weeks and others have
been
jailed, only to be released without being charged.
Lawyers, through
their representative body, the Law Society of Zimbabwe
(LSZ), are
considering a national boycott of the country's courts to protest
against
the harassment. Beatrice Mtetwa, the LSZ president, said "various
proposals
for action are on the table". The International Bar Association
issued a
scathing statement this week condemning Zimbabwe's assault on
lawyers. "The
ongoing assaults and intimidation indicate that Robert Mugabe
remains
unperturbed by widespread international criticism of his attacks
against
political dissenters and human-rights defenders," said Mark Ellis,
the
executive director of the International Bar Association. "The situation
is
deplorable and the international community should not continue to stand
by
and watch Mugabe's government destroy the last vestiges of the rule of
law."
Jamaica Observer
Rickey Singh
Sunday, May 20, 2007
As
a "Community of sovereign states", Caricom has developed an unfortunate
reputation for public silence, too often, on fundamental issues of rigged
elections, gross human rights violations and political repression in member
states of the Commonwealth and within the African, Caribbean and Pacific
(ACP) group.
It was, therefore, a welcome surprise when a departure
from this pattern
emerged from the recent May10-11 meeting of the
Community's foreign
ministers in Belize.
Finally, after recurring
silence at successive summits and inter- sessional
meetings of Heads of
Government as well as its foreign ministers over the
past two years, the
Caribbean Community chose to go public with expressions
of "grave concern"
over the deteriorating political crisis and human rights
violations in
Zimbabwe.
A simultaneous expression of "grave concern" was also recorded
by the
foreign ministers of the 15-member Community in relation to the
humanitarian
disaster in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
Yet, in
the absence of even a formal note being forwarded to either the
government
of Zimbabwe or Sudan, the cynics may well shrug and mockingly
ask: "So what,
who cares about such expressions of "grave concern"?
Truth is, though
difficult for them to openly admit, this is the least that
Caricom's foreign
ministers could possibly do at this time, with evident
approval of their
Heads of Government.
After all, whatever the measure of their private
feelings of disgust or
outrage, individual member governments of our
Community of sovereign states
seem to have been suffering from verbal
paralysis, or the capacity to "talk
their talk" (if yet to walk the talk),
when it comes to publicly denouncing
the genocidal conflicts in Darfur and
the ferocious political repression in
Zimbabwe.
It is reasonable to
assume that the expressions of "grave concern" that
eventually surfaced for
the record at the 10th meeting of Caricom's Council
for Foreign and
Community Relations (COFCOR) in Belize resulted from some
measure of
recovery from a paralysis of spirit.
African diaspora
Perhaps
Caricom's silence, until now, was due to excessive concern not to
antagonise
relations with the African Union (AU), the 53-member state that
replaced in
2001 what had previously functioned separately as the
Organisation of
African Unity (OAU) and African Economic Community (AEC).
Caricom may
well have been too overwhelmed by the political gesture in 2005
of the AU to
unanimously treat us as part of its "Sixth Region--the African
Diaspora",
and opted then to maintain silence on fundamental issues of human
rights and
political repression.
At their July 2005 summit in St Lucia, Caricom
leaders had maintained their
pitiful silence on rigged elections, subversion
of judicial independence and
human rights atrocities in Zimbabwe, as well as
the sickening crimes against
humanity in Darfur and other mind-boggling
man-made tragedies in Africa.
But they were anxious, as they said, to
strengthen ties with the AU. Quite
appropriately, therefore, they had
applauded the earlier decision of a
conference co-hosted by the governments
of Jamaica and South Africa with the
theme: "Towards Unity and United Action
by Africans and the African Diaspora
in the Caribbean for a better
world".
All practical efforts by Caricom to forge and sustain the best
possible
relations with Africa and Asia, whose descendants form the bulk of
the
Caribbean population, and the region's Diaspora, deserve to be
recognised
and applauded.
As a comparatively small sub-region of the
global community, it may not be
easy, if at all possible, for Caricom to be
a "friend to all, enemy of
none", to borrow a philosophical outlook that was
articulated by the late
Barbadian Prime Minister Errol Barrow, one of the
architects of our
33-year-old integration movement.
Region's
distinction
Despite what we may lack as a region within the ACP bloc of
states, in human
and natural resources, size or influence, Caricom can,
nevertheless, take
pride in the fact that it represents a sub-region of the
Western Hemisphere
that, warts and all, is proudly distinguished for its
commitment to well
established democratic norms in governance.
For
instance, the Community's historical attachment to multi-party
parliamentary
governance; based on free and fair periodic elections;
independence of the
judiciary, freedom of the press, right to dissent, and
general observance of
fundamental human rights, irrespective of race, colour
or creed.
It
is this history, this distinction in our governance systems that gives
our
Caribbean Community the moral right to speak out against systematic
abuses
of human rights and state-sponsored terrorism as have been occurring,
and
now rapidly worsening, in places like Zimbabwe and Darfur.
In addressing
the specific human rights problems in Zimbabwe, the foreign
ministers
pointed to continuing "political repression of opposition by the
government"
as well as violations of "civil and political rights to assembly
and free
speech..."
On the genocidal conflicts in Darfur, their "grave concern"
focused on "the
continuing deterioration of the humanitarian situation and
its impact on
neighbouring countries of the African region."
In
relation to the politics of international terrorism, the foreign
ministers,
not surprisingly, also revisited the issue of the US authorities'
continuing
failure to bring to justice the Cuban emigré, Luis Posada
Carriles, for his
involvement in the 1976 Cubana bombing tragedy off
Barbados in which all 73
passengers and crew perished.
On the Posada terrorism affair, it seems that
the Bush administration is
determined to remain contemptuous of Caricom's
position as communicated to
Washington since last July's Heads of Government
Conference in St Kitts and
Nevis.
Will our leaders bring up the issue
when they meet with President Bush at
the forthcoming Washington conference
on the Caribbean?
It is Caricom's own commitment to democratic norms and
fundamental human
rights, that provides the moral authority to expose and
denounce
forked-tongue approaches to the rule of law, rights to privacy;
"war on
terrorism" by the USA under the current George Bush administration,
in
addition to a current controversy about political erosion of the justice
administration system.
Caricom's "friends" in Africa and Asia,
whether in Zimbabwe, Somalia,
Pakistan, Israel, Cuba, Dominican Republic or
China--at the Organisation of
American States and/or the United Nations,
would know something of the
source of our moral outrage against systematic
human rights violations and
political terrorism, even when they may have
reasons to differ with our
assessments.
Ironically, while the Caricom
foreign ministers were winding up their
meeting in Belize, Zimbabwe was
scoring a very surprising 26-21 vote
victory, thanks largely to African
votes, to be the new chair for United
Nations Commission on Sustainable
Development (CSD).
Assuming that post would be its environment minister,
Francis Nheme, who is
among cabinet ministers of President Robert Mugabe's
government on a current
travel ban of the European Union.
Africa News, Netherlands
pposition leaders in Malawi Sunday accused the government of
President Bingu
wa Mutharika of breaking international trade rules by paying
for maize it is
exporting to Zimbabwe. But government has since described
the allegations as
"baseless and lacking on facts".
"(The)
Government has take US$300 million from the Reserve Bank of Malawi to
pay
the National Food Reserve Authority for the maize it is exporting to
Zimbabwe," said opposition Malawi Democratic Party (MDP) president Kamlepo
Kalua while addressing a public rally alongside former president Bakili
Muluzi.
Muluzi, who picked Mutharika as his successor
following the end of his
official two five-year terms in 2004, is going
around the country addressing
political allies and drumming up support for
his bid for a return to office
during the scheduled 2009 presidential
election.
Kalua said President Mutharika had "bull-dozed" the
central bank into making
the "suspicious" transaction. He claimed the
president flouted Malawi's
fiscal regulations by forcing the central bank to
make the payment because
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is "his friend"
and that Malawi's First
Lady, Ethel Mutharika, is a Zimbabwean. The
Mutharikas also run a farm in
Zimbabwe.
But the Mutharika
administration has dismissed the allegations as "a
fabrication and untrue".
Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Minister
Bintony Kutsaira told PANA
Sunday no money was taken from the Reserve Bank
of Malawi for the
transaction.
"The deal was a normal international trade deal
signed between Malawi and
Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean Central Bank will pay
Malawi some US$120 million
for the maize," he said.
Kutsaira
said in fact the Zimbabwe Central Bank has already made an initial
US$6
million payment for "logistics". "As you know, Malawi recorded a
surplus in
maize (yields) this year and some of the maize has to be sold out
to some
countries in the region that recorded deficits, such as Zimbabwe,"
he said.
"If we do not sell our maize surplus it will be destroyed and
prices on the
market will be depressed."
Malawi is currently discussing with
the governments of the kingdom of
Swaziland and Lesotho- which also had food
deficits- for further maize
exports, he added. Malawi needs about 2 million
metric tonnes of the staple
food, maize, to feed its population of 12
million people. But, according to
the Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Security, the southern African country
recorded a surplus of about 1 million
metric tonnes.
Kutsaira said Malawi expects to export some
400,000 metric tonnes of maize
to Zimbabwe where at least a quarter of the
population, according to the
World Food Programme, is "leaning towards a
serious food shortage".
Some 30,000 metric tonnes of maize has
already been sent to Zimbabwe,
according to the deputy minister. 20 May 2007
- PANA
Comment from Black Agenda Report (US), 20 May
By Joseph Jordan, PhD
On 27 August 1980,
I was a graduate student in African Studies at Howard
University. That
particular moment was quite different and much more
significant than any
other I'd experienced during my studies. I waited
impatiently, along with
many others who had also pushed and clamored for
space in the auditorium.
Finally, the source of our excitement took the
stage. Prime Minister Robert
Mugabe, leader of Zanu PF and the newly
independent nation of Zimbabwe
arrived and received a standing ovation as he
approached the dais. But he
drew the most enthusiastic response when he
noted that Black Americans had
supported and worked for the freedom of
Zimbabwe. He followed that
pronouncement with words I have never forgotten:
"Come home, therefore". In
one movement all in attendance jumped to their
feet and the shouts and
cheers were deafening. Mugabe was at home with his
extended family and, in
our eyes, he was a hero.
Now, almost 27 years later, Mugabe and his
Zanu PF party still rule
Zimbabwe, but much of the gloss of the
revolutionary struggle has long been
dulled by the difficult work of
nation-building and by troubling news of
increasing government repression
and intolerance of dissent. Out of
Zimbabwe's struggle a new nation and
national identity has been established,
ostensibly on the rule of law and on
the idea of the inviolability of the
human rights of its people. Today,
however, even the most stalwart supporter
of Zimbabwe's government should be
compelled to speak out given the latest
evidence and reports of unprovoked
violence on the part of its police and
the military. Mugabe's and Zanu PF 's
rule and leadership recalls the old
question of succession in the African
state and the tendency, in some cases,
for rulers to cling to power long
after their leadership has been shown to
be ineffective. Disturbing and
credible reports continue to pour in from
human rights agencies that have
monitored the day to day situation in
Zimbabwe. Those reports highlight
random beatings and intimidation of
persons who are members of, or suspected
members of, the opposition. Many
have been reluctant to criticize Mugabe and
argue that old enemies in the
country and western nations long dissatisfied
with the path Zimbabwe has
taken are the source of most of the criticism.
Yet the evidence is mounting
and has, for at least the last year, been clear
and unequivocal.
Most will certainly point to conclusions of the
special emergency summit by
the Southern African Development Community
(SADC), a 14-nation regional
alliance of which Zimbabwe is a member, reached
in March in Tanzania. The
communiqué from the summit rebuffed the most
radical calls for Mugabe's
ouster and directed President Thabo Mbeki of
South Africa to continue to
mediate between Mugabe and opposition forces.
Yet, Philip Alston, a United
Nations Special Rapporteur joined the growing
list of human rights officials
to call Mugabe to task. He called on
Zimbabwe's government to immediately
halt the use of lethal forces on
members of opposition forces. Alston
identifies several specific cases: "the
killing of Gift Tandare, and the
shooting of Nickson Magondo and Naison
Mashambanhaka at point blank range."
He states, "Mugabe owes the Zimbabwean
people a speedy and impartial inquiry
into these and other instances of
violence and intimidation." Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and a recent victim of in a police
beating, has announced his support for
Mbeki's mediation and has indicated
willingness to trust his leadership.
Another test for Mugabe and Zanu PF
looms ahead as the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) has begun to
organize mass stay-aways of workers to
bring more pressure on the government
to address wage and other issues.
These actions are likely to further test
the already strained relations
between the government and civil
society.
What is the appropriate response of the solidarity community?
What
responsibility do we have, and to what historical processes do we tie
our
response? First, we must be sure that our response should be a measured
one
that acknowledges the difficulty of the transition to stability after
centuries of colonial rule. Second, we must recognize that we have a greater
responsibility to honor our covenant with the people of Zimbabwe. It is
these articles of faith that require us to speak out directly against the
violations of human rights that have marked the rule of President Robert
Mugabe over the past few years. Perhaps it was our fault that we did not
maintain the intensity of contact first established during those long years
of the armed struggle. Maybe we could have been more materially involved. It
would be easy to dismiss our critique as misguided at best, and complicit
with western (i.e., US, Great Britain) powers that have long shown disdain
for Mugabe's rule. Neither of these is as important as the protection of the
rights of Zimbabwe's people. It would be both unethical and disastrous to
remain silent. As responsible and committed activists we must press Zanu PF
and President Robert Mugabe to restore the full protection of all agencies
of government to all of Zimbabwe's people without qualification. If we
remain silent we break the covenant we entered 27 years ago in a small
auditorium in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Joseph Jordan is Senior Policy
Advisor, TransAfrica Forum and Director
of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for
Black Culture and History at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill
News24
20/05/2007 22:15 -
(SA)
Angus Shaw
Harare - A photographer working for the
independent Standard newspaper was
threatened by police after he
photographed the wounds of lawyers assaulted
by police, his newspaper said
on Sunday.
A marketing executive for the paper was also detained for
publicly
criticising the arrest of a street vendor by police who accused him
of being
a lawyer, the paper reported.
Davison Maruziva, editor of
the weekly Standard, called the harassment part
of "the state's terror
crusade".
"First, it was leaders of the opposition and civic society;
then their
supporters and the lawyers who defended them," he wrote in
Sunday's edition.
"Now they are coming for the messengers who carry images
of their excesses
to the wider domestic and international
public."
The Standard last Sunday published a dramatic front-page picture
of welts
and bruises inflicted in an assault on attorney Beatrice Mtetwa,
head of the
Zimbabwe Law Society, when police broke up a gathering of
lawyers in Harare
the previous week.
'The intention is to scare
us'
The Standard said Boldwill Hungwe's alleged crime was photographing
"the
results of the savage beating" of Mtetwa, who also is a prominent human
rights lawyer.
Hungwe was accused of unspecified offences under
security laws carrying the
penalty of imprisonment or a fine, but he was not
charged with any offence.
On Thursday, marketing executive Alexeos
Maziyikana witnessed the
handcuffing of a vendor accused of illegal street
selling and expressed his
concern over the man's arrest, the paper
said.
Maziyikana was accused of interfering, arrested for being "a street
lawyer"
and later released, it reported.
The paper said deputy editor
Bill Saidi recently received a bullet in the
mail after publishing a cartoon
showing baboons poking fun at an army
officer's pay slip.
Maruziva
called the incidents "pure harassment" of Zimbabwe's independent
media.
"The intention is to scare us away from covering their acts of
naked
brutality," Maruziva wrote.