Zimbabwe beating deaths tied to ruling party gangs

Boston Globe

By Craig Timberg
Washington Post / May 8, 2008
JOHANNESBURG - Gangs of ruling party youths beat to death 11 opposition
activists in a remote Zimbabwean town Monday, setting a gruesome new
standard for the post-election violence surging through that nation,
according to opposition party officials.

Two large truckloads of youths, led by two senior members of President
Robert Mugabe's party, marauded through Chiweshe, a rural area about 90
miles north of Harare, the capital, and beat prominent members of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change with branches, gun butts, bicycle
chains, and whips, party officials said. Four of the victims were teachers,
and at least two were elderly.
The deaths brought to at least 32 the number of opposition activists killed
in the past two weeks, said party spokesman Nelson Chamisa. Thousands of
others have been beaten, tortured, arrested, kidnapped, or chased from their
homes since the March 29 election, opposition officials say.

"They converged and they attacked," said Shepherd Mushonga, a lawyer and
newly elected opposition member of parliament who visited Chiweshe
yesterday. He spoke extensively with witnesses, including several relatives
of the victims, and provided a list of all 11 of the dead. Mushonga said
that two were relatives of his.

He said the violence was intended to weaken opposition resolve ahead of a
possible runoff election. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the
election but failed to reach the majority necessary for a first-round
victory, according to official results.

A second vote has not yet been scheduled, but violence has been focused in
areas that supported the opposition. The attacks have been especially
vicious in areas, such as Chiweshe, that once were strongholds of Mugabe's
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front but supported Tsvangirai in
the election.

In the neighborhood where the 11 people were killed Monday, Mushonga said,
Tsvangirai got 70 votes compared with 15 for Mugabe.

"They want to instill as much fear as possible so either you run away and
don't vote, or you succumb and vote for the ruling party," Mushonga said.

His account was backed by a close relative of one of the victims, who spoke
on the condition of anonymity out of fear that he could be assaulted. He
said he received a text message on his cellphone Monday night saying that
the relative had been "murdered by ZANU-PF youth."

When he arrived in Chiweshe on Tuesday, he found his relative's body
severely battered and bloodied. Funerals are scheduled to begin today.

"When people do that to people, it's not even human," the man said. "I don't
know what will happen tomorrow."

Zimbabwe MDC supporters beaten

Los Angeles Times

At least five are killed when members of the ruling party round up
opposition backers in a village north of Harare and pummel them.
By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 8, 2008
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- Nyasha Putana could not help crying in pain as
ruling party supporters in Zimbabwe whacked his buttocks and the soles of
his feet in front of hundreds of fellow villagers.

At least five people died from beatings at Monday's "political meeting" at
Dakudzwa village, about 60 miles north of Harare, in Mashonaland, according
to witnesses, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and a human
rights worker who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

"They were saying, 'We are saving the country by pain,' " said Putana, 32,
speaking softly from his hospital bed in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, on
Wednesday. "I cried. It was very painful. Right now I can't walk. I can't
even stand.

"They were reading out names from a list. They said, 'This one is from the
opposition, this one is from the opposition.' I was beaten on the buttocks
and feet for over an hour. I was nearly unconscious when they left me."

Zimbabwe Assn. of Doctors for Human Rights, a human rights group that is
keeping track of victims of Zimbabwe's political violence, estimates that
thousands of people have been injured in attacks and beatings targeting
opposition activists since the March 29 presidential and parliamentary
elections. About 700 people are known to have been treated by doctors, the
group says.

Many of the injured cannot get to clinics because of transportation and
financial problems, or because ruling party leaders in rural areas deny some
people access to hospitals.

The MDC reports 24 of its activists have been killed in postelection
violence.

The violence is concentrated in Mashonaland and Manicaland, traditional
ruling party rural strongholds that swung their support to the MDC in the
election. The ruling ZANU-PF lost control of the parliament, and opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the most votes in the presidential election but
did not receive the 50% plus one required to avoid a runoff, the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission said.

During the Monday beating incident, about 100 ruling party supporters
arrived at dawn, ordering people from their houses in Dakudzwa and about
seven other nearby villages to a central point near a Catholic church,
according to witnesses interviewed by The Times by phone. About 400
villagers were gathered outside the church.

"They started telling us, 'We're not going to do anything, we're just
campaigning. You're not supposed to vote for the opposition party. If you
are opposed to the ruling party you should come up and confess and we won't
do anything to you,' " said Rebecca Vela. "More than 10 confessed; they all
got beaten. The women were beaten naked."

Vela said she watched as her husband, Andrew, a teacher, was beaten until he
was unconscious. Teachers were among the first to be targeted, she said.

Several dozen others were beaten when their names were read from a list,
witnesses said. If a man on the list was not present, his wife, child,
sibling or parent was taken and beaten instead, the witnesses said.

The youth militias and ruling party members, who had access to voting
figures for the area (which were posted outside polling booths during the
election), threatened at one point to beat everyone present, because 151
people in the area had voted for the opposition, according to witnesses.

The victims were dragged some distance away to be beaten under a group of
gum trees. They were handcuffed and had pieces of cloth stuffed in their
mouths to dull their cries, the witnesses said.

"They had logs, big logs," said Rebecca Vela. "They were beating them on the
buttocks. They were beating them on the legs and under the feet. The
situation is bad."

The runoff date has not yet been announced, but the U.S., Britain and human
rights activists in Zimbabwe have questioned the practicality of a second
round of voting, in an atmosphere of mounting violence.

Brian Raftopoulos of the Solidarity Peace Trust, who recently returned to
South Africa from Zimbabwe, said it was clear the violence was targeted at
opposition activists and supporters.

"The idea is clearly to demoralize MDC structures and to discourage people
from voting in the runoff. My own sense is that a lot of the people who have
been beaten are unlikely to go out again and vote in a runoff. I think they
have been very traumatized," he said.

A South African government representative on the Southern African
Development Community's regional observer team, Kingsley Mambolo, said it
was not possible to hold a runoff under existing circumstances.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

The perpetrators:Update

Violence in Zimbabwe Disrupts Schools and Aid

Robin Hammond for The New York Times

David Kabasa taught first grade until he was chased out by supporters of Zimbabwe’s government. He is now hiding in the capital.

By CELIA W. DUGGER

Published: May 8, 2008

JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe’s ruling party, bent on retaining control after 28 years in power, has broadened its campaign of intimidation and violence to include teachers and even aid workers, disrupting education and basic care for tens of thousands of children across the country, according to humanitarian groups, union officials and the teachers themselves.

Mabelreign Methodist Orphanage, in Epworth, has suffered as many aid groups have been unable to work at full capacity.

Teachers have been upbraided by the ruling party for allegedly siding with the opposition during the nation’s disputed March elections, in which they served as poll monitors. More than 2,700 of them have fled or been evicted from classrooms, the teachers’ union says. Dozens of schools have closed, the union says, and 121 are being used as bases for the ruling party’s youth militias as they harass and beat opponents in the countryside.

Beyond that, the United Nations Children’s Fund says that more than half the 55 nonprofit groups it recently surveyed have partly or fully suspended aid for orphans in Zimbabwe.

After more than a month’s delay, Zimbabwe’s election authorities on Friday finally announced the outcome of the presidential election, giving the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, 56, a significant lead over President Robert Mugabe, the octogenarian leader of the ruling party, ZANU-PF. Still, election officials said Mr. Tsvangirai did not win an outright majority, forcing the two into a runoff.

Human rights groups and diplomats contend that, despite its pronouncements to the contrary, the governing party is trying to win a runoff through intimidation, and there were indications on Wednesday that it planned to hold on to power at all costs. A member of ZANU-PF’s Politburo, speaking anonymously about its secret deliberations, said in an interview that the party had no intention of giving up power through the ballot box.

“We’re giving the people of Zimbabwe another opportunity to mend their ways, to vote properly,” the Politburo member said. “This is their last chance.”

If voters fail to return Mr. Mugabe to office, the Politburo member told a Zimbabwean journalist working with The New York Times, “Prepare to be a war correspondent.”

The political impasse seems likely to persist for months. ZANU-PF and the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, have challenged the election results in more than 50 parliamentary districts, the state-owned newspaper, The Herald, reported Wednesday. Those challenges, which are supposed to be resolved in six months, could overturn the opposition’s newly won control of the lower house of Parliament.

The ruling party, the military and their irregular forces — youth militias and veterans of the liberation struggle against white rule — have for weeks been threatening, arresting and beating those they see as threats, including journalists, election monitors and even people who had simply voted for the opposition.

But the widening net of intimidation now appears to be taking a toll on children too, further fraying a society enduring a precipitous economic collapse.

Services that would normally help tens of thousands of orphans each month — including health care, clean water, sports and social clubs — are now being restricted because of the political violence in large areas of the country.

“Zimbabwe’s children are already suffering on multiple fronts,” said James Elder, a spokesman for Unicef. “To see their situation further deteriorate through violence or intimidation that prevents people reaching them is unacceptable.”

Other aid workers say they have been warned by government officials to suspend their operations, lest they be seen as meddling in the nation’s affairs. Teachers, who served as nonpartisan supervisors at polling stations, have been systematically singled out, with 496 questioned by the police, 133 assaulted by thugs and 123 charged with election fraud, according to the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. Teachers who worked for the opposition also said they had been attacked.

An unsigned editorial in Saturday’s issue of The Herald singled out teachers as part of an elaborate British- and American-financed plot to rig the election and get rid of Mr. Mugabe.

The editorial described the teachers as having been trained in South Africa and by the National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit group based in Washington whose chairman is Madeleine K. Albright, the former American secretary of state. It said the teachers were fleeing “to avoid the long arm of the law.”

The Herald reported Wednesday that five teachers had been convicted on election fraud charges. Four of the five had failed to account for 11 to 16 votes at their polling stations and were fined 12 billion to 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars — less than $200 — or given two to three months in jail. A fifth teacher miscounted 163 votes and faced six months or a fine of 30 billion Zimbabwe dollars.

Raymond Majongwe, who heads the teachers’ union, said he believed that the ruling party wanted to ensure that teachers did not supervise polling stations in the runoff so they could be replaced with party loyalists.

The teachers give harrowing accounts of their ordeals, most begging that their names not be used. “I’ll be hunted and killed,” said a high school math teacher from the rural Guruve District in Mashonaland Central Province.

He and five other teachers were hauled from their homes on April 26 by about 30 members of the ruling party’s youth militia, who beat them with iron bars, bicycle chains and thick tree branches. All are now in hiding.

The math teacher said he tried to explain that the teachers were not active in politics, but the young men insisted that they were all members of the opposition who had conspired to rig the election against Mr. Mugabe.

A first grade teacher said she escaped through a window in her house, carrying her 11-month-old daughter, but the youths chased her down and beat her on her back and head as she shielded her screaming baby with her body. They shouted vulgar words at her.

Civic leaders and lawyers have also been sought out.

Fambai Ngirande, a critic of the ruling party who works for the National Association of Nongovernmental Organizations, said a plainclothes security agent picked him up last week outside his office in Harare, drove him around the capital and warned him he was being watched.

On Wednesday the police arrested Harrison Nkomo, a human rights lawyer who has represented journalists arrested in recent weeks, including a New York Times correspondent cleared on charges of violating the country’s restrictive media laws.

Mr. Nkomo’s law partner, Beatrice Mtetwa, said Mr. Nkomo had been charged with undermining Mr. Mugabe’s authority by making a critical comment about the president to a law officer at a bail hearing on Friday for a Zimbabwean journalist he was representing.

The law officer, who apparently was related to President Mugabe and shared his last name, said Mr. Nkomo had told him to tell Mr. Mugabe to quit because Zimbabwe’s people were suffering. “Harrison said he didn’t say anything of the sort,” Ms. Mtetwa retorted.

With Zimbabwe caught in a destructive limbo, senior diplomats from the Southern African Development Community, a regional bloc of 14 nations, have met with Mr. Mugabe in Harare and with Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president who heads the bloc, in Lusaka. On Thursday, they are to see South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, whose role as mediator has been rejected by Zimbabwe’s opposition, which says it has lost faith in his impartiality.

Tomaz A. Salomao, executive secretary of the regional body, said it had also this week sent five experts to look into allegations of violence in Zimbabwe.

The opposition party has sent a team to investigate the killings of its supporters on Monday night in the rural Chiweshe area of Bindura District in Mashonaland Central Province. Health officials at Howard Hospital there said the police had brought in five people who were dead on arrival Tuesday morning and a sixth who died that afternoon. Most of the victims suffered from head and chest injuries sustained during beatings by war veterans and ZANU-PF youth militias, they said. A mortuary attendant confirmed that there were six bodies.

On a visit Wednesday to three elementary schools in Mashonaland East Province, officials at each said teachers had run in terror after war veterans roughed them up and paraded them at public meetings.

“I was manhandled in front of everybody and ordered to denounce” the opposition, said a headmaster, whose crime, he said, was supervising a polling station where Mr. Tsvangirai had beaten Mr. Mugabe.

As children in tattered uniforms chased one another across the playground, a father complained that his fifth grader’s teacher was among those who had fled, leaving no one to educate his son. He also mourned the decline of what was once one of Africa’s finest education systems.

“We are not only destroying the education system,” he said, “but the future of our children. President Mugabe must call off this violence.”

Two journalists in Zimbabwe contributed reporting.

Military top brass protect benefits of patronage

The Zimbabwe Times

By Clyde B. Chakupeta
(May 8, 2008)

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe seems to be making the same mistake that was
committed by Ian Smith - that of undermining the importance of voters.

Smith made the unforgettable statement that Zimbabwe (Rhodesia then) would
never be ruled by a black person in his life time and “not even in a hundred
years time”.

But that statement was contradicted in1980 when the black government came to
power. Smith went on to live for more than 20 years with a black man at the
helm. Mugabe now says, “Zimbabwe will never be ruled by the MDC.” Mugabe
downplayed the strength of the MDC. He never thought they could, not only
offer him a formidable challenge, but defeat him in an election as well.

In as much as both parties did not receive the desired majority (so ZEC
says), the given percentages should reveal to Mugabe that he is not an
indomitable power. Who rules and when he or she rules depends on the
electorate. For Mugabe to shout ‘never ever’ is a sad repetition of history.
Smith said the same, but found himself living under a regime he never
thought would rule the country.

People voted Mugabe out and it boggles the mind that again he will soon be
shouting empty rhetoric at gatherings of non-critical audiences and waving
his dangerous fist around. He needs to realize that the wishes of the people
are mightier than his fear of retribution for past sins. He has caused the
torture, mutilation, assault and death of Zimbabweans. To want to remain in
power is to want to terrorize the country further. His gluttonous desire for
power should not be allowed to fester more than it has done already. He has
managed this far thanks to his cunning and manipulation of the security
forces.

Mugabe has been using various strategies to coerce the top army and other
security chiefs to support him. Senior security and military officials are
living large in a sea of deprivation. Each time the Zimbabwe government buys
new cars for ministers; these commanders get new cars as well. This is a new
car almost every two years. If you were one of them, would you want to have
a situation where a new dispensation takes away that kind of comfort?

But there are several other privileges. One colonel I know has two cell
phones and a landline – all bills being settled by the government. Many of
these people are “veterans of the war of independence”. School fees for
their children is paid by the government, even up to university level, most
of them outside Zimbabwe .

This year, the Zimbabwe government expanded the Fort Hare University
scholarship scheme to cover several other universities, including Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan, Cape Peninsula , Witwatersrand, Walter Sisulu,
KwaZulu-Natal , Venda , Rhodes, and Johannesburg Universities . Some 481
students are said to be benefitting. Remember this was a vote buying
measure; the parents of those kids were bought over to Mugabe’s side. And
these students swell the ranks of informers that spy on behalf of the regime
among Zimbabweans in South Africa .

How much does a student need in South Africa per year? Here’s a very
realistic estimate. Fees are R12 000 to R25 000 depending on programme of
study and university. Accommodation is at least R12 000 per year. Food is at
least R10 000 per year. Put in some other expenditure such as travel and
clothes and you are looking at R35 000 minimum. This adds up to a total of
R16 835 000! Consider also that this is minimum expenditure on first year
students only. This gives an indication of how much the regime is prepared
to spend to buy votes.

The role of the military and security agencies in Zimbabwe’s plunge to state
lawlessness and state violence may need to be expounded on. For senior
officers the benefits of supporting Mugabe’s violent agenda are too evident:
promotions to senior positions; offer letters for multiple ownership of
farms; vehicles and other expensive gadgetry and use of security servicemen
as labourers and security guards.

Then we have the mayhem perpetrated by the war veterans, Zanu-PF activists
and Zanu PF youths who are induced into violence on behalf of Mugabe by the
donation of a few goodies in the midst of hunger and poverty. Moreover there
has been an increasing militarization of the state with military and
security personnel now driving operations at parastatals and government
departments.

This development is a reflection of Mugabe’s growing reliance on the
military to maintain his iron-fisted grip on power. Prior to any major
election, these military and security men are dressed in civilian attire and
sent out to campaign for the ruling party. Those unfortunate to have fallen
foul of these men have both physical and emotional scars to show for the
“treachery” of supporting the opposition.

Persons at the forefront of Mugabe’s reign of terror need to be reminded
that he always gets rid of those whose services he no longer requires. It is
unfortunate that most of the people being used by Mugabe to perpetuate his
stay in power do not realize that he will easily discard them.

Finally, the perpetration of politically-motivated violence against people
in general and against those agitating for a better Zimbabwe in particular
needs to be fully documented. Individual cases of violence among the
thousands resulting from each major election should be available when a new
dispensation sets in.

It is therefore imperative that every able person in Zimbabwe puts pen to
paper to record all details of human rights abuses they witness.

(Clyde Chakupeta is based in Georgetown , Guyana)

'Blunder' by MDC may see Mugabe keep reins

IOL

      Hans Pienaar
    May 08 2008 at 07:19AM

President Robert Mugabe could rule Zimbabwe for another year, going by
utterances of the country's electoral chief and a new round of court
challenges to the March 29 election results.

In Pretoria, ambassador Kingsley Mamabolo, head of the SA observer
mission, claimed the failure of the Movement for Democratic Change to supply
its collations of results in Harare wards had prompted the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release its own tallies as the final result.

This allowed Mugabe to remain in power, as no presidential candidate
won more than the required 50 percent of the vote.

The MDC's blunder was made during the verifications of last month's
re-count, which Mamabolo and others of the Southern African Development
Community observer mission, headed by Angola, witnessed. Critics have
rejected the re-counts as fatally flawed because the ballots were removed
from ZEC premises and were with Zimbabwe's armed forces for some time.

While the re-count had not altered the original outcomes of the
parliamentary poll, giving the opposition a majority for the first time in
28 years, discrepancies in a small number of wards might have had a
significant effect on the presidential result.

The ZEC announced that Mugabe won about 43 percent and the MDC's
Morgan Tsvangirai just under 48 percent. The MDC claims this robbed
Tsvangirai of an outright win.

Independent researchers working for the Idasa think-tank in Pretoria
calculated that a "swing vote" would number in the lower tens of thousands.
Their projections showed Tsvangirai won either just over 50 percent or just
over 48 percent, depending on the scenario.

Critics say fiddling with ballots, such as those in Harare wards the
MDC was unable to corroborate, could have made the difference.

On Wednesday, a Pan-African Parliament (PAP) observer mission said in
Midrand that the SADC observer mission failed to comply with the regional
bloc's election principles, and those of the AU.

Marwick Khumalo of Swaziland, who led the mission, said ZEC head
George Chiweshwe had assured him a runoff "would not extend beyond the next
12 months" - inducing laughter from the PAP assembly.

Mamabolo said discrepancies revealed by the re-count were minute,
vindicating the SADC mission's appraisal of the ZEC's professionalism and
meticulousness.

He pointed out that the Zimbabwean constitution demanded that a runoff
election be held within 21 days after results were announced. But it also
allowed postponement of a runoff due to conditions on the ground, such as a
lack of resources. His understanding of the constitution was that Mugabe
would be the caretaker ruler of Zimbabwe during this time.

Sapa-AFP reports that a delay of at least six months could result from
the filing of 105 petitions challenging the results in wards or
constituencies.

This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on May 08,
2008

Masunungure says Tsvangirai made a blunder

The Zimbabwe Times

By Our Correspondent

BULAWAYO, May 8, 2008 (thezimbabwetimes.com) - A leading political analyst
has slammed MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as risk-averse, saying his decision
to go into self-imposed exile at a crucial time was one of the worst
blunders his party had ever made.

Addressing journalists at a workshop on post-election reporting here
Wednesday, head of the University of Zimbabwe political science division,
Professor Eldred Masunungure, said the MDC desperately required risk-taking
leadership “not cowards who fled from intimidation”.

Masunungure, who also heads the Mass Public Opinion Institute, a research
think-tank that accurately predicted victory for Tsvangirai in an opinion
poll published during the run-up to the controversial March 29 poll, said
Tsvangirai's decision to go into exile would be used by Zanu-PF as cannon
fodder to justify oft-repeated claims by Robert Mugabe that the MDC leader
was a coward who fled from the liberation struggle.

“The post-March 29 self-imposed exile by their political leadership has been
one of the worst blunders the MDC has ever made,” Masunungure said. “The
leadership has been the first to flee intimidation. You have a shepherd
leaving his flock. It’s politically imprudent. It forces one to ask. ‘If
gold rusts, what will silver do?’ Its ill-advised.”

Masunungure said it was also ill-advised for Tsvangirai to seek sanctuary in
Johannesburg or any part of the continent because he would still be easy
prey if there were plans to assassinate him. “You can’t hide from a
determined regime or assassin,” Masunugure said.

He said the decision by the MDC leadership to flee Zanu-PF violence
reaffirmed the view that Zanu-PF and its leader were a risk-taking
leadership while the MDC was risk-averse.

Tsvangirai has said he would only return to Zimbabwe after verification of
results from the March 29 election, in which he says he beat Mugabe.

The MDC leader has spent weeks outside Zimbabwe. He says he is mounting a
diplomatic offensive to force the announcement of the correct results and to
also step up pressure on his rival to concede defeat and hand over power. It
remains unclear if the verification process, which the electoral commission
refused to undertake before announcing the results, will take place.

“I am sure that the verification exercise will not be difficult because we
will all have to compare the figures and ultimately come out with the
outcome that everyone can agree to,” Tsvangirai said in an interview
broadcast on French news channel France 24 on May 1.

“Once that is done, then we know who has won the election and then I will
make the necessary steps to go back.”

But Masunungure said: "They want to lead but fear risk. I want to suggest
that the import of this is that the presidential price is likely to go to
risk-takers. The MDC’s risk orientation is important at this point. Their
being away at this critical juncture is an indication of risk fearing.
Politics is not easy. It’s not kindergarten.”

Masunungure said the only way forward at this juncture would be a government
of national unity.

He presented three post-election scenarios. The first one was that the
incumbent, Mugabe, wins the run off election by default after Tsvangirai
pulls out.

“In this scenario, nothing really much will change. The fact of the matter
is that the Mugabe regime has become the minority regime.”

He said the second scenario was that Tsvangirai would win the run off. In
this case, since Tsvangirai has a simple majority in Parliament, he would
face difficulties in ruling.

“The third major scenario is political accommodation,” Masunungure said.
“The most talked about option is the government of national unity (GNU).
Some people dismiss it outright.

“But we should pose and think through this option. It is not only desirable;
it is inevitable. If any of the candidates wins even a ‘thunderous victory’,
none of the two can go it alone. The configuration of parliamentary
representation dictates political accommodation.

“The outcome (of the March 29 poll) teaches us that the voters rejected the
winner take all, or loser lose all.”

Masunungure did not elaborate on how the electorate had rejected the “winner
takes all” concept of elections.

“Should one want to go it alone, the President will face a governability
problem. I still think it will be difficult to put in place a functional
government.

“Let me quickly add that this GNU thing is a political formula and cannot be
a permanent solution. It should not last the life of Parliament. Under the
present circumstances it has to be short lived. It should be a transitional
arrangement. The longevity has to be subject to negotiation.”

Biti faces arrest on return to Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe Times

By Our Correspondent

HARARE, May 8, 2008 (thezimbabwetimes.com) - Opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) secretary-general, Tendai Biti, currently based in
South Africa, faces arrest on his return to Zimbabwe.

The police have indicated that they are keen to interview Biti for allegedly
declaring the results of the March 29 harmonised elections illegally in
contravention of the Electoral Act.

The police say the electoral law gives the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) the exclusive right to announce poll results.

In early April Biti declared that Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, had won
the presidential election.

Senior police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed
Tuesday that the police were on the hunt for Biti with a view to questioning
him.

 “It’s not a secret that the police are keen to question the MDC secretary
general on a number of issues relating to the contravention of the Electoral
Act,” Bvudzijena said: Bvudzijena said.
Bvudzijena claimed that Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri had
already written to Biti advising that the police were keen to interview him
on his return.

In a letter, the police commissioner said the police were not amused by the
manner in which Biti was “urging (sic) and abetting political violence”
through his political rhetoric.

Chihuri wrote: “What is very conspicuous in the Zimbabwean political arena
today is your prominent role in urging and abetting political violence
through unbridled rhetoric. The police have been looking for you so that you
could assist in investigations surrounding the above-mentioned issue
concerning the electoral laws and other matters.”

But the opposition has denied that such a letter was ever written to Biti or
his office.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa accused Chihuri of playing to the gallery
adding that by announcing the results of the March 29 poll Biti had not
committed any crime.

Chamisa said: “When Biti announced the results ZEC had already posted the
same results outside all polling stations across the country. He did not
create the results, ZEC did. All he did was to inform our supporters.
Remember ZEC was announcing results at ward level.”

He added: “It’s very clear Chihuri is playing to the gallery of a defeated
regime. This is a tragic comedy in the making. Unfortunately Zimbabweans are
not amused at all”.

A government official has indicated that Tsvangirai may also face arrest on
his return to Zimbabwe. Government sources say the police were under
pressure to create grounds for charging the MDC leader with treason.

Last week Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa suggested that Tsvangirai may
have committed a crime after a document leaked to the state media claimed
that the MDC leader had invited the Britain and the United States to
intervene militarily to end the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Chinamasa was then quoted by the state media as saying Tsvangirai would
“meet the obvious consequences of the law” if he was found guilty of treason
by inviting foreign military intervention in Zimbabwe in his official
capacity as leader of the opposition.

Bvudzijena, however, denied that the police were keen to interview
Tsvangirai although he said that the police would have interest in any
criminal activity by the opposition leader.
Tsvangirai has in the past said it was not safe for him to return home as he
faces the prospect of arrest.

“It is no use going back to Zimbabwe to become a captive,” the MDC leader
told Canada’s The Globe and Mail in an interview in April. “Then you are not
effective. What can you do? Do you want a dead hero?”

Tsvangirai, who went into exile on April 8, says he is using the time he is
out of the country to launch a massive diplomatic offensive aimed at
intensifying pressure on  Mugabe to hand over power peacefully.
For the first time since Independence in 1980, Zanu-PF has lost its
parliamentary majority in Parliament to the opposition, while Mugabe has
lost an election.
Tsvangirai is said to have been offered asylum by Botswana’s President
Seretse Ian Khama and has been shuttling across the sub-region from his base
in Gaborone, where he is a special guest of the state.
Tsvangirai said: “I’m mobilising international support; I’m being effective
in making sure that the issue of Zimbabwe remains on the international
radar.”
During the time he has been out of the country, pressure has been mounting
on him to return and challenge Mugabe inside the country.

The MDC says over 20 opposition activists have been bludgeoned to death by
Zanu-PF militants, hundreds have been arrested and over 5 000 have been
displaced as a post-election terror campaign targeting opposition supporters
has spread to Zimbabwe’s rural districts.

The MDC refuses to disclose when Tsvangirai and Biti will be returning to
Zimbabwe.

Some Zimbabweans Said to Have Lost Confidence in Electoral Commission

VOA

      By Peter Clottey
      Washington, D.C.
      08 May 2008

A cross section of Zimbabweans have reportedly lost confidence in the
country’s electoral commission after both the opposition and the ruling
party filed law suits challenging the results of the March 29 parliamentary
election. The ruling ZANU-PF party says it is dissatisfied with the results,
which led to ZANU-PF losing its parliamentary majority for the first time
since the country’s independence. The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) is also challenging the parliamentary results. Some political
analysts say the controversy surrounding the results of the parliamentary
elections favor incumbent President Robert Mugabe since it enables him to
continue with his 28-year rule.

John Makumbe is a political science professor with the University of
Zimbabwe. From the capital, Harare he tells reporter Peter Clottey that the
opposition is dancing to the tune of the ruling party.

“I think this is really unfortunate because while the MDC has a case in the
sense that the figures released do not really tally with the figures that
were displaced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) throughout the
country, there is a case where they should challenge results. But we know
the way the court system works in Zimbabwe it is going to take forever for
the court to settle that matter. And until the court settles the matter,
Robert Mugabe will be running the country or running it down,” Makumbe
noted.

He said the chances of the opposition MDC winning a run-off election would
be a Herculean task.

“It will be very difficult for them to win the run-off because the people
have been thoroughly intimidated, a lot of people have been displaced, they
would not be in their constituencies, the political field is grossly uneven,
and ZANU-PF is using all this extra time to rig the elections because now it
knows if MDC agrees to run, it knows the names of the people who would be on
the ballot box. And so they are already marking their ballot papers for
Mugabe. And so they are likely to rig this election in over drive really.
So, MDC has little chance winning this run-off,” he said.

Makumbe said President Mugabe would not listen to envoys sent by regional
leaders to try and mediate the political impasse that ensued after the March
29 disputed elections.

“Mugabe will not pay much attention to these people. He will give them a
lecture on liberation politics. He will talk for something like three to
four hours about his contribution to liberating this country, and he would
ran on and on about British and American imperialism, a lot of rubbish.
Nothing of what they would say would make him change his course of action,”
Makumbe pointed out.

He said the woes of ordinary Zimbabweans would significantly get worse if
there is no change in the country’s leadership.

“Definitely if Mugabe would still be in charge of this country the economic
malaise will continue. The meltdown will get worse and unemployment reach
almost 100 percent, and we are already looking at a situation where the rate
of inflation is approaching 200,000 percent. And while Mugabe is in office,
nothing is going to improve. There will be no economic turnaround,” he said.

Dos Santos says Tsvangirai must stand

The Zimbabwe Times

By Raymond Maingire

HARARE, May 8, 2008 (thezimbabwtimes.com) – Angolan President José Eduardo
dos Santos, who is thecurrentchairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics,
Defence and Security Co-operation has urged MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai
to abandon plans of a poll boycott.

He says it is against the laws of Zimbabwe for Tsvangirai to boycott.

The MDC leader has said he does not see any need for a run-off against
President Robert Mugabe whom he says he defeated in the March 29
presidential election.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has declared there was no outright
winner and called for a run-off between the two bitter rivals.

ZEC says Tsvangirai garnered 47,9 per cent of the valid vote while Mugabe
won only 43,2 per cent.

But SADC Executive Secretary Tomas Salomao, who is part ofa SADC Ministerial
Committee assigned to assess the political situation ahead of the run off,
says the opposition would be breaking the law if it boycotts the crucial
poll.

“The message of the chairperson of the organ is to urge the political
parties in Zimbabwe to participate in the run off in full observation of the
law,”  Salomao told state television yesterday.

The MDC claims conditions for a free and fair election have been further
compromised by post election violence visited upon its supporters by Zanu PF
militant groups. At least 24 MDC supporters are said to have died since
March 29.

President Eduardo dos Santos mandated an SADC ministerial committee to visit
the country to assess the political situation and preparations for the
run-off.

The troika arrived in Zimbabwe on Tuesday to assess the situation ahead of
the run off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

The SADC team comprises Angolan External Affairs Minister, Mr Joao Miranda,
SADC Executive Secretary Tomas Salomao, Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister
Mathendele Dlamini and Ambassador Rajab of Tanzania .

The delegation met President Mugabe on Tuesday and ZEC chairperson George
Chiweshe on the Zimbabwean elections.

Salomao said the troika urged President Mugabe to ensure the run-off for
presidential election is held in a “secure environment”.

Salomao said the SADC troika urged Chiweshe to expedite the announcement of
the run-off poll date in accordance with the laws of the country.

“The sooner the run off takes place the better,” said Salomao.

“So I believe that they know that according to the law, the run off is held
21 days after but also the law gives them room to extend that decision.

“But it is clear that you cannot extend for ever. You need to extend for a
reasonable date just to ensure that you have everything in place to have a
very smooth run off.

“At the same time the ZEC needs to ensure that when they announce the date,
everything is in place in particular when it comes to logistics to ensure
that the elections are held without any disruptions.”

Salomao said the SADC team was keen to meet Tsvangirai who is currently
outside the country to persuade African leaders to impress upon Mugabe to
concede defeat.

Meanwhile, a team of retired generals from South Africa on Wednesday visited
some Harare health institutions where scores of opposition supporters are
receiving treatment for injuries sustained at the hands of pro-Zanu PF
militants.

Retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi, a top ally and advisor to former Finance
Minister and losing presidential candidate in the March elections, Dr Simba
Makoni says he was part of the team that visited the hospitals.

“We visited clinics where these political victims are receiving treatment,”
said Major Mbudzi.

“Everywhere we were going it actually pathetic. The situation is terrifying
to say the least.”

It is said government was not represented during the tour, which comprised
political parties and NGOs dealing with displaced people.

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu could not be reached for comment.

But MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said his party, which bears the brunt of
the abuses, was also not part of the delegation.

“We were also surprised to hear that some of the beatings were committed
after Vice President Joice Mujuru openly incited people to beat members of
the opposition in Mount Darwin," said Major Mbudzi.

“The generals did not make any public comments but there was some empathetic
attention from them and they did see the situation was very desperate.”

Zimbabwe held a relatively peacefully harmonized elections on March 29.

The country has since witnessed massive violence on mostly opposition MDC
supporters and election agents who stand accused of plotting the downfall of
President Mugabe.

Armed soldiers have been deployed mainly in known Zanu-PF strongholds such
as Mudzi, Guruve, Mount Darwin, Manicaland and some parts of Mashonaland
East to punish the people for voting against Mugabe.

The 84 year old leader is campaigning for a new term as President after
being at the helm of government for 28 years since independence from Britain
in 1980.

Diplomatic pressure for Mugabe has intensified over the past few weeks.

SADC convened an extra-ordinary summit in Lusaka last month to discuss the
stand off in Zimbabwe emanating from ZEC's failure to release the
presidential election results.

The African Union has also dispatched the chairman of its executive arm Jean
Ping for talks with Mugabe.

PAP doubtful over runoff

Business Day

 08 May 2008

THE Pan African Parliament (PAP) could send an observer mission to monitor
Zimbabwe’s presidential election run-off, but believes a negotiated solution
is the best option.

Marwick Khumalo, who led the PAP mission to observe Zimbabwe’s March 29
elections, said yesterday Zimbabwe’s environment was not conducive to free
and fair elections. “A runoff will exacerbate the situation; the crisis is
deepening,” Khumalo said.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairman Justice George Chiweshe had told him
the presidential election run-off would be delayed, but not for “longer than
12 months ”, Khumalo said.

Until a new president was chosen, the Zimbabwean parliament could not be
sworn in. Wilson Johwa

Replace Zimbabwe dollar with rand to curbhyperinflation

Financial Times

Published: May 8 2008 03:00 | Last updated: May 8 2008 03:00

From Mr Ron Schurink.

Sir, Now that Zimbabwe seems set for a presidential run-off, it is surely
time for a "complete Southern African solution" to be presented for that
country's woes. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has to
pick up on discussion in South Africa about replacing the Zimbabwe dollar
with the rand, even if institutions, and the media, hesitate to promulgate a
plan having a bearing on currency markets.

Clearly, a replacement on a basis to be decided by experts will be the
quickest possible way out of hyperinflation and a huge impetus towards
business recovery. Presented in alliance with the SA government and Reserve
Bank - supported by the euro-wise European Central Bank and the Bank of
England? - it mocks any allegation of "colonialist imperialism".

The European Union's lesson that regional economic integration speeds up
wealth creation should not be lost on us here. Zimbabwe's rescue could be
the first step towards an upgraded SADC, a supra-national macroeconomic
manager of not only currency but also power and other utilities.

Let us hear how the two presidential candidates respond.

Ron Schurink,

1621 Birchleigh, South Africa

Comment from a correspondent

MDC not opposition party

      IF THE opposition won 110 votes in Parliament on March 29 why does the
press (with the exception of The Zimbabwe Times) continue to refer to the
Movement for Democratic Change as the opposition MDC. Since the
parliamentary election results were announced it is Zanu-PF which is now the
opposition, unless ZEC announces after the recount that Mr Robert Mugabe’s
former ruling party miraculously won.

      Until the confusion caused by ZEC is cleared we should all refer to
the MDC as either the former opposition party or as “the winning MDC”. It is
nonsense to call the MDC the opposition when the party has the majority of
seats of Parliament.

from one of your compulsive readers in Zim