MUGABE'S ZANU-PF HELD LIABLE FOR MURDER
Political Terror Abroad Held
Accountable Under U.S. Law
Washington, D.C. A United States District
Court Judge in New York yesterday
ruled that Zimbabwe's governing political
party, ZANU-PF, was liable for
murdering and torturing its political
opponents in the run-up to Zimbabwe's
June 2000 parliamentary elections.
Washington attorney Charles J. Cooper,
one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, hailed
the decision as a victory for
justice: "These plaintiffs came to this Court
because they had nowhere else
to turn. Savagely beaten and terrorized at
home, they came here looking for
justice and the rule of law."
The
court ordered judgment in favor of the victims of ZANU-PF's campaign
of
violence, all of whom were targeted because of their peaceful support
for
Zimbabwe's burgeoning opposition party, the Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC). The lead plaintiff, Adella Chiminya, was suing on behalf of
her
husband, a senior MDC campaign advisor whom the Complaint alleges was
burned
alive by ZANU-PF assassins while campaigning last spring. Another
named
plaintiff, Elliot Pfebve, was an MDC candidate in the 2000 elections
who
survived numerous assassination attempts, and who is suing on behalf of
his
brother, whom the Complaint describes as having been tortured and
murdered
during one of those attempts. Pfebve expressed gratitude for
yesterday's
ruling: "We thank the American justice system for holding out
some hope for
human rights victims everywhere. This decision lets Mugabe and
his henchmen
know that the civilized world will not allow their political
terror to go
unpunished."
The court held that the plaintiffs'
uncontested allegations "amply
demonstrate that ZANU-PF did not consist
merely of loosely connected,
haphazardly organized individuals or a misguided
mob of marauders randomly
roving and unleashing terror throughout Zimbabwe.
Rather, Plaintiffs'
factual assertions and supporting evidence suggest that
in carrying out the
drive of organized violence and methodic terror portrayed
here ZANU-PF
worked in tandem with Zimbabwe government officials, under whose
direction
or control many of the wrongful acts were conceived and
executed."
The court held that ZANU-PF had been validly served with legal
process when
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who is also First Secretary
of ZANU-PF,
was served two copies of a Summons and Complaint while making a
fund-raising
speech in Harlem last September. The court ruled that although
Mugabe was
personally immune from the suit in his capacity as head of state,
he was not
immune from being served with a complaint in his capacity as First
Secretary
of ZANU-PF.
The decision by Judge Victor Marrero of the
Southern District of New York
was handed down in an exhaustive 130-page
opinion analyzing what it
described as the "unsettled" law of head of state
immunity. While holding
that Mugabe was protected from being personally sued
by the head of state
immunity doctrine, Marrero warned that the days in which
such immunity would
continue to prevail may be numbered. Citing to precedents
involving fallen
strongmen such as Ferdinand Marcos, Radovan Karadzic,
Augusto Pinochet, and
Slobodan Milosevic, Marrero issued a warning: "These
precedents instruct
that resort to head-of-state and diplomatic immunity as a
shield for private
abuses of the sovereign's office is wearing thinner in the
eyes of the world
and waning in the cover of the law. The prevailing trend
teaches that the
day does come to pass when those who violate their public
trust are called
upon, in this world, to render account for the wrongs they
inflict on
innocents."
63 Farmers Settle In Neighbouring Country
The Insider
(Harare)
October 31, 2001
Posted to the web October 31,
2001
Staff Writer
Bulawayo
The Mozambican government has denied
that there is an exodus of white
Zimbabwean farmers into that country. It
said it had licensed only 63
Zimbabwean farmers and had granted each 1 000
hectares. The farmers had
asked for 400 000 hectares.
Soares Nhaca,
governor of Manica, said a large number of Zimbabwean farmers
had been turned
down because they had failed to prove that they had the
necessary resources
for successful investment. He said Zimbabwean farmers
were being treated just
like any other investors and were being given land
concessions valid for 50
years which may be renewed for a further 50 years.
Some of the farmers
are fleeing from Zimbabwe's land resettlement exercise
which has seen
peasants occupy more than 1 700 farms.
Confusion About Maize Situation Still Reigns
The Insider
(Harare)
October 31, 2001
Posted to the web October 31,
2001
Staff Writer
Bulawayo
Confusion about Zimbabwe's food
security continues to reign indicating the
political divide over the
country's controversial land reform programme.
Non-governmental
organisations, which usually bail out nations facing
famines, but at the same
time thrive on food shortages as this gives them a
reason to exist, are
already warning of severe food shortages.
The Zimbabwe Agricultural
Welfare Trust says about 25 000 farmworkers have
been evicted from farms and
have now camped at roadsides. It is calling for
donations of maize, dried
fish and vegetable seeds. "A humanitarian disaster
is about to unfold," it
says. World Vision International says some 500 000
people could run out of
food by December in Matebeleland and Midlands alone.
Agricultural
minister Joseph Made had denied that the country was going to
face a food
shortage until the situation got out of hand forcing the
government to ban
trading of maize and wheat restricting this to the Grain
Marketing Board. The
move seems to have failed to attract any sellers.
According to the Famine
Early Warning System, only 75 413 tonnes had been
delivered to the GMB by
mid-September since the start of the marketing
season in April. The
government increased the purchase price of maize from
$7 500 to $8 500 per
tonne in August but this had little impact on its maize
intake. It further
announced a preplanting maize price of $15 000 per tonne,
an increase of 76
percent over the current maize price.
FEWS says this price will introduce
confidence in the market and is likely
to result in an increase in maize
production in 2001/02 season. It says the
cost of agricultural inputs has
increased by 90 percent since June when fuel
prices increased by about 70
percent. Inputs have increased by 135 percent
since September 2000, in line
with the general inflation level in the
country. These increases are higher
than the producer price of maize at the
GMB, which went up by only 13 percent
and 77 percent, respectively, over the
same period.
To boost
production and ensure that its fast track land reform programme is
a success,
the government has set aside $6.5 billion for the smallholder
sector
Agriculture Input Support Programme to acquire agricultural inputs
for the
2001/02 season.
FEWS says that official maize stocks were estimated at
233 000 tonnes as of
mid--September, down by 41 percent from the opening
level of 393 000 tonnes
in April. It says these low levels should be
supplemented by immediate
imports of about 200 000 tonnes to meet domestic
consumption requirements
through to March 2002.
FEWS also says the
planned imports of 80 000 tonnes of wheat should be
enough to meet domestic
wheat consumption requirements, estimated at about
364 000 tonnes. Maize
grain prices in all urban markets have risen by at
least 30 since the start
of the marketing season in April 2001.
The highest price increase of 50
percent to $8.33 per kg was recorded in
Bindura, while in Gweru the price
went up by 43 percent, in Harare by 46
percent and by 47 percent in Bulawayo.
The lowest price increase of 34
percent was observed in Chitungwiza. As a
result of these increases, maize
grain is being sold at between $7.78 in
Chinhoyi and $12.20 in Bulawayo per
kg.
Agribank Makes Huge Loss
The Insider (Harare)
October 31,
2001
Posted to the web October 31, 2001
Staff
Writer
Bulawayo
The recently privatised Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe
(Agribank) plunged
from a profit of $31.5 million to a loss of $103.1
million, but management
is not worried about this loss, which was exceptional
in the banking sector
where some institutuions recorded profits eight times
those of last year,
because it is consolidating its position.
The bank
says it made a privision for bad debt of $714 million to handle
the
difficulties in its agricultural loan portfolio. It,however, says it now
has
the capacity to handle an anticipated wide customer base. The
bank
established 13 city branches and 37 national offices. Net interest
income
dropped from $221.3 million to $45 million but other income shot up
from $62
million to$129.7 milion resulting in operating income standing at
$175.2
million, down from $283.3 million.
Operating costs which
increased from $251.9 million to $278.3 million wiped
out the operating
profit plunging the bank into a loss of $103.1 million.
The bank, however,
says its aim of becoming the national bank of first
choice as well as
profitability are both achievable, but it warns: "the
process might be long
and sometimes painfull".
The Global Spotlight Falls On Harare Once Again
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
October 31, 2001
Posted to the web October 31,
2001
Dumisani Muleya
Commonwealth visit finds Harare dodging
Abuja accord, but turns blind eye
THE Commonwealth ministerial team which
visited Zimbabwe last week to follow
up on the Abuja agreement implementation
has refocused the global spotlight
on Harare after a short-lived
respite.
Political analysts say the tour by foreign ministers from
Britain,
Australian, Canada, SA, Nigeria, Kenya and Jamaica brought Zimbabwe
back
onto the international radar after it had vanished following the attacks
in
the US.
This week the European Union (EU) general council of
foreign ministers,
alongside the ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly, also
reconvened on
Zimbabwe in Brussels.
Commonwealth secretarygeneral Don
McKinnon, who led the team with committee
chair Sule Lamido of Nigeria, said
after the visit considerable progress
should be expected
henceforth.
University of Zimbabwe professor of politics Masipula Sithole
was sceptical
about the effect of the visit.
"The dust hasn't settled
yet and I still doubt the sincerity of the
government," he said.
"I'm
concerned the government is just bluffing. It continues to read from
the
agreement only the land issue, and it ignores the issues of
governance."
However, Southern African Political and Economic Series
researcher Prof
Mwesiga Baregu appreciated the Commonwealth findings, saying
that the deal
could hold.
"There was no fatalism that the agreement
will not work. If the Abuja accord
is delinked from the parallel political
process (electoral and governance
matters) it will succeed," he
said.
The team recommended the government should establish a
stakeholders'
committee to explain the agreement to the
public.
Authorities were asked to instruct "the top leadership of the
law
enforcement and security organs to ensure that Zimbabwe's commitments
are
implemented and, where necessary, enforced."
Analysts say this is
where the real challenge lies. They suggest it would be
difficult for
President Robert Mugabe to adhere to Abuja if it undermined
his re-election
prospects in next year's presidential election.
Baregu noted that
progress on the Abuja arrangement would hinge on whether
the signatories
would stick to the "originally conceived ideas, or bring in
extraneous
issues".
The government tried to limit the scope of inquiry for the team
by foisting
on it organisations pushing the official line to give testimony,
while
excluding other interest groups. But the visitors resisted state
dictates.
Harare sought to misrepresent the legal status of its fasttrack
resettlement
programme. It alleged the exercise was proceeding in terms of
the
constitution and in accordance with the laws of the country, but it
is
common knowledge the exercise was given legality through arbitrary laws
and
backdated legislation.
Canada's Secretary of State for Latin
America and Africa David Kilgour, who
incurred official wrath for his views,
managed to bring out some of the
issues the final communique tried to
fudge.
"A number of groups which met with us found out the fasttrack was
not taking
place in accordance with the laws of this country," Kilgour
said.
Britain's Foreign Office Minister Baroness Amos shattered another
official
myth on Abuja. "Britain reaffirms its commitment to the Abuja
agreement.
This is a process and money will not come pending the outcome of
the UNDP
technical team," she explained. The Zimbabwean government had been
peddling
the fiction that London was not fulfilling its side of the
bargain.
Unfazed by realities, Harare brandished as evidence of
compliance with Abuja
the delisting of 20 farms, Zanu (PF) and cabinet
meetings and phone calls
Mudenge made to British Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan and UNDP administrator Mark Malloch
Brown in connection with the
accord. It deliberately evaded the situation on
the farms.
But still the Commonwealth team agreed to play ball. "The
committee
considered that the government of Zimbabwe has established a
process to
implement the Abuja conclusions of September 6 2001, particularly
as they
relate to land reform," it declared.
Commentators said the
communique was quite weak overall, although it touched
on fundamental
issues.
From FinGaz
Govt fails to raise $6.5b for resettled farmers’
inputs
Staff Reporter
11/1/01 8:04:36 PM (GMT +2)
THE
government has failed to raise $6.5 billion it was supposed to transfer
to
the state-run Grain Marketing Board (GMB) last month for a crop input
scheme
for resettled and other small-holder farmers, it was learnt
this
week.
The money was supposed to be the first tranche of $15
billion the government
promised to provide to assist resettled and communal
farmers to buy inputs
such as fertiliser, seeds and chemicals, and to meet
transport costs.
But official sources this week said the government had
failed to live up to
its promise and warned that this could adversely affect
many people who had
been resettled on commercial farms seized under the
government’s
controversial land reform programme.
"We have not
received the money until now, but it was supposed to have come
in the week
ending October 19," a GMB official who declined to be named told
the
Financial Gazette.
"The money was meant to benefit established and
especially the newly
resettled farmers, but this has not happened up to
now."
There was no comment this week from GMB’s acting chief executive
Joan
Mtukwa, who had not responded to written questions sent to her last
week.
The GMB had however opened 155 more depots countrywide in
anticipation of
more farmers benefiting from the government’s crop input
scheme and in
anticipation of collecting more maize from communal growers
after the
passing of legislation making the parastatal the sole trader in
maize and
wheat.
The sources said the government, under pressure at
home and abroad because
of its controversial agrarian reform plan, wanted to
be seen as delivering
on its promises to the resettled
farmers.
"Remember that the government has been accused of not doing
enough for the
resettled peasants, which is why it has been trying to be seen
to be doing
something," the GMB official said.
"They (the government)
have to make good on their political statements that
they will make the money
available, although of course this will be
difficult because they do not have
the money anyway. But if they say they
have the money, would you question
that?"
Since January, the government has disbursed $375 million to the
GMB under
the crop input scheme, under which small-holder farmers borrow
funds from
the parastatal at concessionary interest rates of 15 percent a
year. They
also pay a five percent administration fee.
Newly resettled
farmers are supposed to have access to the funds until "they
are on a sound
financial footing".
With the rainy season expected to begin this month,
many communal and
resettled farmers might face delays in planting their crop,
making it
unlikely that they will reap enough to support themselves next
year.
The sources however said they expected the Ministry of Agriculture
to
receive a substantial financial boost from the 2002 budget, which will
be
presented today, enabling the government to meet some of its commitments
to
the farmers.
"We hope that the budget will realise the need for
more money for the
agriculture sector to help black farmers to access funds
for their inputs,"
said an official of the Agriculture Development Fund,
which provides loans
to small-holder farmers.
From FinGaz
Govt to legalise squatter camps on city
outskirts
Staff Reporter
11/1/01 7:43:50 PM (GMT +2)
THE
government is planning to regularise illegal settlements that are
mushrooming
just outside Harare along the Bulawayo road where the landless,
led by
self-styled war veterans, have been allocating themselves residential
stands
since last year.
Sources said this week that due to the political
sensitivity of the issue,
especially for the ruling ZANU PF party which has
promised to deliver more
than one million houses ahead of the presidential
ballot due next year,
local authorities had no option but to formalise the
settlements.
Hundreds of squatters have haphazardly allocated themselves
stands along the
main Bulawayo road, throwing a poser at the Harare City
Council’s town
planners and those of the neighbouring Zvimba Rural District
Council.
The squatters started moving into the area just as other ZANU PF
supporters
began seizing commercial farms across the country in the name of
land hunger
in February last year.
"They (the local authorities) have
no option but to try to regularise the
settlements. They cannot evict these
people because they moved there with
the support of the government and some
of them have already put up permanent
structures," a source close to the
National Housing Taskforce told the
Financial Gazette.
The
regularisation of the settlement will involve changing the areas’ land
use
from agriculture to residential and providing urban services such
as
sewerage, water, electricity and roads.
Currently the squatters are
putting up all forms of housing structures,
which vary from plastic and
cardboard box dwellings to pole-and-dagga
houses. Only a few have built
proper housing units, although there is no
piped water, sewer connections,
roads or electricity.
"The main problem is that the regularisation of the
settlement would involve
the destruction of some of the structures to make
way for roads as well as
water and sewerage reticulation systems," the source
said.
The source said once the settlement is regularised, the squatters
would be
required to comply with certain regulations when they build their
houses,
unlike now when it is a free-for-all.
Harare municipality
spokesman Cuthbert Rwazemba this week declined to say
what the council plans
to do about the illegal settlements, saying most of
them were outside the
boundaries of the city and therefore outside its
jurisdiction.
He said
the Zvimba Rural District Council was responsible for the area
occupied by
the squatters.
The mushrooming of the illegal settlements has hit the
sale of new
residential stands at two nearby housing projects because
prospective buyers
are hesitant to build homes next to an unplanned
settlement.
From FinGaz
AirZim loses credit lines, suppliers demand cash
Staff
Reporter
11/1/01 7:15:22 PM (GMT +2)
INTERNATIONAL Jet A1 fuel
suppliers have withdrawn credit lines to the
national passenger carrier Air
Zimbabwe and are demanding cash upfront after
the company failed to make
timely payments for fuel supplies, it was learnt
this week.
Air
Zimbabwe spokesman David Mwenga told the Financial Gazette that the
new
policy had been in effect for two weeks and was a result of severe
hard
currency shortages that have forced most local firms to delay payments
to
international suppliers
"As far as fuel suppliers are concerned,
they say we must pay for the fuel
when they give us the fuel," he said. "You
can say that is asking for cash
upfront.
"We delayed in payments
because the foreign currency has not been there.
When you need to pay in 15
days and you pay on the 20th day, they will ask
for cash payments. Forty-five
percent of our fuel bill is paid in foreign
currency and, although we have
enough local currency to cover the costs of
our operations, we cannot get the
foreign currency."
He however declined to disclose Air Zimbabwe’s monthly
fuel bill, although
he said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had stepped in to
provide foreign
currency for "critical areas" which include fuel
imports.
The central bank has introduced measures requiring exporters to
immediately
remit 40 percent of their earnings for the import of fuel and
energy.
"We are grateful to the Reserve Bank," Mwenga said. "There are
cases where
some suppliers threaten to impound planes if they arrive in their
countries,
but the bank has been able to help us pay off the critical areas
and so far
none of our flights have been grounded."
He said the
central bank had provided the foreign currency to pay the
airline’s fuel
bills, insurance fees and monthly dues to the International
Airline
Transporters’ Association (IATA) clearing house, which handles
payments for
all inter-airline transactions.
"If we fail to pay IATA, then we are in
trouble and we obviously cannot do
without fuel," said Mwenga, adding that
the airline was also using its
foreign currency reserves to pay for fuel and
would continue to prioritise
the search for forex.
"We will continue
doing this until the currency situation improves and we do
not know when that
will be."
From FinGaz
Editors disabuse C’wealth on land issue
Staff
Reporter
11/1/01 7:08:30 PM (GMT +2)
EDITORS of some privately-owned
Zimbabwean newspapers have urged the
Commonwealth to stop labouring under an
illusion that the question of land
is at the core of Zimbabwe’s
problems.
They told a Commonwealth ministerial team which visited
Zimbabwe last week
that President Robert Mugabe’s "survival politics" were
the root cause of
the country’s deepening political and economic
turmoil.
Trevor Ncube, the chief executive officer of the Independent and
the
Standard, his editor Iden Wetherell and Daily News news editor John
Gambanga
appeared before the ministers from Kenya, South Africa, Jamaica,
Australia,
Canada, Britain and Nigeria who were in Zimbabwe to review
the
implementation of the Abuja accord on land reform.
Also in
attendance were editors of the state’s Herald and Sunday Mail
newspapers
Pikirayi Deketeke and William Chikoto.
The Zimbabwe Union of journalists
(ZUJ) was represented by its
secretary-general Basildon Peta.
Editors
from the independent media only appeared before the committee by
chance as
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was coordinating the event,
sent no
official invitations to them.
The editors only got to know of the
interest from the Commonwealth ministers
to meet them through diplomats who
then advised them to mill around the
venue, even though they were not
invited.
Other editors from the private media such as those from the
Financial
Gazette and the Standard were also not on the official list of
media
representatives invited to meet the ministers.
Some Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) officials tried to bar Ncube
and Wetherell
from entering the room where the meeting was being held.
The two only
managed to enter the venue after the CIO officials were
restrained by deputy
secretary for foreign affairs Ngoni Chideya who seemed
worried that their
action was embarrassing the government in full view of
the
visitors.
Ncube told the Commonwealth ministers that "no sane person in
Zimbabwe" was
opposed to land reform.
"The big question is: why should
this land reform be accompanied by the
violence and the lawlessness that we
have witnessed?" he asked.
Ncube said the turmoil in Zimbabwe was part of
Mugabe’s "survival politics"
and if the Commonwealth ignored that factor, its
efforts to return normality
to Zimbabwe would fail.
Wetherell said the
media had not been spared the terror imposed by the state
on civic society
and political opponents ahead of the crunch presidential
election due next
year.
Peta said ZUJ had received reports of 40 journalists being affected
in one
way or another in both the independent and public media by the actions
of
the government or ruling ZANU PF party in the past year.
These
included attacks on journalists and the sacking of nine editors at
the
government’s Zimpapers and others at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation
who had lost their jobs for refusing to toe the line.
He
said some foreign and local journalists had been attacked by war veterans
for
visiting farms while others covering political events in rural areas had
also
suffered similar attacks.
Scores of reporters currently faced criminal
defamation charges and some
foreign reporters had been expelled from the
country, Peta said.
A South African representative asked Peta if he had
any evidence or records
of these attacks and he explained that he had not
brought the documentation.
Peta however promised to prepare a detailed
report to present to the
Commonwealth ministers through their respective
embassies in Harare and they
agreed.
This week, the ZUJ leader
dismissed a Herald story that said he had been
asked to temporarily leave the
room to get the evidence and had never
returned.
Peta said several
journalists were at the news conference which he also
attended last Saturday
and could vouch that he was never asked by Nigerian
Foreign Minister Suli
Lamido to produce any documents as alleged by the
Herald.
"I have
encountered fiction before but this is one of a kind," Peta
said.
Gambanga informed the ministers about the attacks on the Daily
News,
including the bombings of the newspaper’s printing press and its
offices
early this year. He also talked of the assaults of his reporters by
war
veterans.
Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge intervened and insinuated
that the daily had
bombed itself. He also charged that the British funded the
Daily News and
that he had evidence to prove that.
Gambanga explained
the shareholding of the Daily News and refuted charges
that the newspaper
received any British funding.
Both Deketeke and Chikoto however denied
that the government harassed the
media.
Deketeke went on to say that
there were no problems on farms occupied by
ZANU PF supporters and that
independent media reports that farm workers were
being harassed and displaced
were fabricated.
Ncube, referring to Deketeke’s remarks, said: "I just
wish I had brought a
tape to record him then replay this music the day he
gets fired."
From FinGaz
Groups warn of nationwide disobedience
Staff
Reporter
11/1/01 7:06:56 PM (GMT +2)
ZIMBABWEAN civic bodies this week
said they will call for a national
campaign of civil disobedience before the
end of the year if the government
refuses to embrace conditions that will
enable the holding of a free and
fair presidential election.
Brian
Raftopoulos, the chairman of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee which
groups
250 civic rights organisations, said a document containing the
proposals was
submitted to the government this week.
"We expect the government to
ignore these conditions in the way they have
ignored civil society’s demands
in the past and civil disobedience is the
only weapon we have to make them
accept our conditions," he told a news
conference in
Harare.
Conditions presented by the civic bodies include an immediate end
to
violence, a return to the rule of law, an equitable access to the
public
media by all political parties and the creation of a genuinely
independent
electoral commission, which should take charge of the staging of
the
election and the accreditation of international election
observers.
The government has in the past opposed these
conditions.
"There should be a more intensive voter education programme
aimed
particularly at the population in rural areas," Raftopoulos said.
"There
should be no attempt by the government to control voter education as
is
currently proposed.
"Specific constitutional amendments should be
made to guarantee the minimum
conditions set out herein as well as to ensure
that freedom of choice,
movement, association, assembly and expression are
strictly adhered to and
protected."
He said the committee, which is
looking for solutions to Zimbabwe’s
economic, constitutional and governance
crisis, was prepared to brave a
violent response from the government over the
mass action.
Government spokesman Jonathan Moyo has in the past said the
state will
"brook no nonsense" from civic groups and that "civic action is
illegitimate
and mass action will be dealt with
ruthlessly".
Raftopoulos said: "We would be irresponsible if we did not
know the
consequences of our actions, but the consequences of not taking
action are
greater."
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee includes the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU), the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA), Transparency
International Zimbabwe, the Liberators’
Platform, the Media Institute of
Southern Africa, the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace and the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
The ZCTU
and the NCA earlier this year threatened to stage mass action over
the
collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy and demands for a new
constitution
respectively.
Meanwhile Christian Ude, the mayor of
Munich, Harare’s German twin city,
this week said the residents of Munich
"truly welcome all activities of the
civic society of Harare to restore
democratic conditions".
He said residents of Harare, who have been
without a city council for
two-and-a-half years and some of whom have called
for a mass boycott of rate
payments as a result, would not be abandoned by
Munich "in these politically
and economically difficult times".
From FinGaz
Squatters allowed to be govt co-defendants
11/1/01
7:05:48 PM (GMT +2)
SUPPORTERS of the ruling ZANU PF party and their war
veterans illegally
occupying properties belonging to Border Timbers Limited
yesterday
successfully petitioned the High Court for inclusion in the
firm’s
litigation against the government.
Justice Benjamin Paradza
ordered Border Timbers to cite 100 squatters led by
Thomas Chikukwa as
respondents in a court action against the government in
which the firm is
seeking an eviction order against the veterans occupying
its timber-growing
and processing farms.
The company has taken court action against the
government which it says
reneged on promises to delist agro-industrial farms
that were designated for
compulsory acquisition to resettle landless
peasants.
Initially cited in the court application were Agriculture
Minister Joseph
Made, the Commissioner of Police Augustine Chihuri and other
government
officials.
This was opposed by the squatters, who said they
were interested parties in
the court action and needed to be in a position to
defend themselves against
attempts to evict them from the land they are
occupying.
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed Border Timbers, one of
Zimbabwe’s major
foreign currency earners, has warned shareholders that its
viability is in
jeopardy because of the disruption of its operations by the
veterans on its
properties.
— Staff Reporter
From FinGaz - Comment
The way forward
11/1/01 7:39:26 PM (GMT
+2)
NOTHING could be more tragic for Zimbabwe than the deliberate
misinformation
being perpetuated by the government and its sycophantic media
that Harare
has complied with Abuja and must therefore be given funding for
the land
reforms.
The Abuja land pact is very clear on what needs
to be done and by whom: the
Zimbabwe government must implement the accord
first and then be rewarded
with funding from Britain and other international
donors and not the other
way round.
But as all now know, the
government has refused to comply even with the
minimum conditions laid down
by the agreement. These include the eviction of
government supporters from
private farms which they illegally occupied after
March this year and the
ending of any new farm invasions.
But more crucially, the government’s
deeds by which it must be judged show
that it has no intention whatsoever of
implementing the pact, hoping as it
does that its misinformation campaign
spearheaded by the state media will
get it off the hook.
The key
element of Abuja, which has rightly also become the underlying
concern of the
governments of the European Union (EU) and the United States,
is the
restoration of the rule of law in Zimbabwe.
It is clear that once this
hurdle has been overcome, all outstanding issues
in Zimbabwe — this includes
the resolution of the long-festering land
crisis — will simply fall into line
without any more problems.
Not only would funding for the agrarian
reforms be forthcoming once the rule
of law is addressed but the land
redistribution scheme would now become
legal and transparent, thus fulfilling
the other conditions set by Abuja,
the EU and the US.
It would now
also become possible to hold a free and fair presidential
ballot, which is
observed and monitored by credible Zimbabwean and
international observers,
again thus addressing the other major concern of
the international
community.
Just for the record, let it be known that all the concerns of
the
international community are exactly the same as those of Zimbabweans,
minus
the government which sees them as threatening its hold on
power.
It is clear therefore that President Robert Mugabe, if he cares at
all about
staving off inevitable international sanctions against himself and
his
officials, should redirect his abundant energies into the restoration of
the
rule of law rather urgently.
This is no longer an option for him
and, regrettably, time is not on his
side.
If he refuses to play ball,
as he is likely to if one were to judge him by
his past bravado, he must be
under no illusion that there is swelling
consensus both at home and globally
that drastic action will be needed to
rescue Zimbabwe from his
actions.
The President’s advisers would do well to convince him that,
unlike rebel
Rhodesian premier Ian Smith who defied the world for 15 years,
he will be
unable to do the same simply because times have changed and the
world is now
a global village.
In other words, Mugabe will not win the
fight against both Zimbabweans and
the international community, whatever
resources at his disposal.
Indeed Abuja is his face-saving coup de grace
to make amends for all that
has gone awry with Zimbabwe under his rule of two
decades and then to bow
out with some dignity.
Even if the merciful
Almighty God did grant Mugabe his wish to live longer —
as Mugabe himself
pleaded publicly in Masvingo at the weekend — the
President has unfortunately
run out of options except to go.
The message cannot be any clearer.
From FinGaz
Grazing land, plantation set alight
11/1/01
7:04:51 PM (GMT +2)
MORE than 500 hectares of grazing land and a
15-hectare gum tree plantation
were destroyed by government supporters just
as the Commonwealth delegation
visited Zimbabwe to check whether the
government is implementing the Abuja
agreement, the Commercial Farmers’ Union
(CFU) said this week.
Under the accord, Zimbabwe undertook to enforce
the rule of law and to stop
illegal farm occupations in exchange for British
financial support for a
rational, transparent and just land reform
scheme.
In its latest report on developments on occupied farms, the CFU
said:
"Between 500 and 600 hectares of grazing land and a 15-hectare gum
tree
plantation at Butcombe Farm in Mashonaland Central province were
last
Saturday set alight and destroyed."
It said grazing land, wheat
and maize stover were increasingly being torched
and cases of extortion,
poaching and theft continued to be reported but the
police were still
uncooperative.
No comment was available from the
police.
Commonwealth ministers visited Zimbabwe last week to follow up on
the
implementation by the government of the Abuja accord. The team left
Harare
at the weekend, telling the government to comply fully with the land
accord
and to act against lawlessness.
— Staff Reporter
From FinGaz
Mugabe secretly sends SOS for food aid,
By Abel
Mutsakani Assistant News Editor
11/1/01 7:02:34 PM (GMT +2)
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe has quietly sent a distress call to the
international community
for emergency aid worth $19.8 billion to avert a
fast-approaching
humanitarian disaster caused by shortages of food, foreign
currency and
fuel.
Mugabe last week sent his Finance Minister Simba Makoni to ask
United
Nations Development Programme representative in Zimbabwe Victor Angelo
to
appeal to the world community for help on Harare’s behalf.
Makoni
met Angelo last Wednesday and asked him to help raise $11 billion
from the
international community, which Mugabe has angered by allowing his
militant
supporters to harass the opposition and white farmers and by
pursuing his own
controversial drive to seize white-owned farmland.
The funds would
finance a massive maize and wheat import programme necessary
if Zimbabweans,
who this year harvested well below quantities that are
adequate for
consumption, are not to starve in the next few months.
Makoni is said to
have told Angelo that the government needs another $8.8
billion to help
repair dilapidated public infrastructure across Zimbabwe,
including roads and
bridges washed away during floods two years ago.
Western diplomatic
sources said Mugabe had decided to send Makoni because
the minister, who is
at any rate in charge of the country’s finances, is
perceived to be more
acceptable to Western donor countries than most of his
Cabinet
colleagues.
Most donor countries could in two months’ time impose
sanctions against
Mugabe and his government for refusing European Union and
American demands
to allow international observers to monitor a presidential
ballot in
Zimbabwe next year.
Both Angelo and Makoni could not be
reached for comment this week.
But a senior Western diplomat based in
Harare said: "Obviously Mugabe
himself or his Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge
cannot champion this thing.
"But even Makoni will also find the politics
interfering in what should
clearly be treated as a plea for humanitarian
assistance. The donors will,
for example, want firm guarantees that whatever
aid they give should not be
used as a campaign tool in the election next
year."
The sources said that Makoni had last week also begun approaching
individual
donor countries and was briefing other Southern Africa Development
Community
(SADC) countries on the humanitarian catastrophe facing Zimbabwe if
the
world does not move quickly to offer assistance.
Angelo is now
expected to convene a pledging conference where interested
donors can pledge
what they are prepared to contribute to a basket-fund to
help
Zimbabwe.
International and Zimbabwean agriculture experts warned
Zimbabwe right at
the start of this year that it needed to import more than
500 000 tonnes of
the staple maize and about 80 000 tonnes of wheat to avert
food shortages, a
result of illegal farm seizures, the government’s
fast-track resettlement
programme and the high cost of production.
But
with a tricky presidential ballot looming, the government refused
to
acknowledge the food crisis until just three months ago and then only
to
play down the food imports that are needed.
It said only 100 000
tonnes of maize and 60 000 tonnes of wheat would need
to be imported.
From FinGaz
C’wealth blasts Zimbabwe
Staff Reporter
11/1/01
6:53:15 PM (GMT +2)
THE Commonwealth team which visited Zimbabwe last
week strongly rebuked the
government for not upholding the rule of law and
told it in closed-door
sessions that its fast-track land reforms are
unlawful, according to
officials who took part in the
discussions.
Describing the discussions as very frank and open, the
officials this week
said the Commonwealth team had been blunt, citing its
grilling of Police
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri who was harshly censured
for his failure to
implement lawful orders by Zimbabwe’s courts.
"We
told the government quite frankly that the fast-track land reforms did
not
fully comply with Zimbabwe’s laws," one official said.
"In the
communique, we say some members of our delegation felt the rule of
law had
not been adequately observed, which is our way of just being nice.
The truth
is that all of us except the Zimbabwe government itself were
unanimous that
the rule of law was not being upheld," the source said.
The Commonwealth
mission visited Zimbabwe to probe ways of carrying forward
a September 6
agreement signed in Nigeria’s capital Abuja under which
Zimbabwe agreed to
restore law and order and to stop seizing commercial
farms in exchange for
British funding for its land reforms.
The team’s communique did not fully
censure Harare for its failure to
implement the agreement, but only urged the
government to uphold the Abuja
accord.
The sources said the
Commonwealth ministers took Chihuri to task, throwing
at him specific cases
where they said he had grossly failed to maintain law
and order ¾ as he is
required to do under Zimbabwe’s Constitution.
They said Chihuri was, for
example, challenged to explain why the police had
not complied with a High
Court order issued in early October requiring the
police to ensure farm
occupiers did not interfere with operations at five
farms in Ruzawi district
in Mashonaland East province.
The order was issued well after the signing
of the Abuja agreement.
Chihuri, caught off-guard and visibly shaken,
could only mumble that in
future "the law will take its course," one of the
officials at the meeting
said.
When Agriculture Minister Joseph Made
was told that the government is not
fully complying with its own laws in
carrying out its fast-track reforms, he
reportedly said that if there were
law experts in the delegation they should
remember that they were experts on
the law elsewhere and not in Zimbabwe.
In what the sources said amounted
to bungling by government staff organising
transport for the visitors, some
members of the Commonwealth team found
themselves having to wait for two
hours at Bita farm, the scene of recent
clashes between farm workers and
invaders.
According to the sources, the two-hour wait turned out to be
the most
informative on what the government’s fast-track land reforms
actually entail
on the ground.
"We used the time to tour the
burnt-down ruins of the farm workers’ houses
which the invaders had set on
fire," one source revealed.
"We could also see an unfinished house which
a farm invader was busy putting
up right in the middle of a nice football
pitch which the farmer had built
for his workers."
And contrary to
state media reports that only Australia, Britain and Canada
wanted stiffer
action against Zimbabwe, it was actually South Africa which
was rallying
everyone behind-the-scenes to agree that "things are in a mess
here and more
serious action needs to be taken".
The Commonwealth team also criticised
the government because it did not
provide inputs for resettled farmers and
said too many people were being
displaced and many jobs destroyed in
agriculture as well as in downstream
agro-based industries.
In
response, the government repeated the usual and unsubstantiated claims
that
it was more urgent to resettle people now and then to try to
provide
resources later.
Nigerian Foreign Minster Sule Lamido will
present the team’s full report to
his President Olusegun Obasanjo, who will
then brief Mugabe on its findings.
The foreign ministers of the countries
that were part of the mission will
remain in touch with Lamido to ensure that
his report will accurately and
fully represent the findings and feelings of
the whole group, the sources
said.
From FinGaz
CIO trails Zvobgo,
By Sydney Masamvu Political
Editor
11/1/01 6:51:46 PM (GMT +2)
THE ruling ZANU PF’s presidential
election campaign is in turmoil, with
influential party leaders such as
Eddison Zvobgo and Dumiso Dabengwa under
strict surveillance by the spy
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) on
suspicion of trying to sabotage
President Robert Mugabe’s re-election,
official sources said this
week.
Government sources said the CIO had placed Zvobgo, Dabengwa and
Dzikamai
Mavhaire, ZANU PF’s former chairman of fractious Masvingo province,
under
24-hour surveillance.
The sources said Dabengwa’s "deafening
silence" and back-seat approach to
party activities in Matabeleland after the
June parliamentary election and
during the recent mayoral poll was cause for
great concern in the ZANU PF
leadership.
Apart from mobilising funds
for the long-delayed Matabeleland-Zambezi Water
Project, the sources said
Dabengwa — a member of the party’s powerful
Politburo — was not taking his
expected leading role to drum up support for
Mugabe ahead of the crucial
presidential election due by March.
The CIO is also investigating the
re-emergence of what is known as
"South-South" cooperation between senior
ZANU PF politicians in the four
provinces of Masvingo, the Midlands and the
two Matabeleland provinces, the
sources said.
It is believed the
government’s spy agency suspects that some of the leaders
of the
"South-South" alliance are de-campaigning Mugabe’s candidature
and
re-election in private meetings and deliberately staying away from
important
party functions.
ZANU PF sources say Zvobgo’s victory
rallies in Masvingo have stirred
controversy within the party, with some
saying his speeches are not meant to
support Mugabe but to actually sabotage
his campaign.
Zvobgo and Mavhaire are also accused of campaigning for
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), a charge both
deny.
"The differences and signals coming out
from among our senior party
politicians in Masvingo and Matabeleland are
worrying and have a severe
negative impact on our presidential election
campaign. Their activities have
to be checked," a Politburo member told the
Financial Gazette this week.
The Masvingo provincial leadership, headed
by Higher Education Minister
Samuel Mumbengegwi, has since raised its
concerns with Vice President Simon
Muzenda about Zvobgo’s rallies and the
issue could be brought before the
Politburo.
Mumbengegwi is from a
faction led by provincial governor Josiah Hungwe that
supports Muzenda and
which for years has fought a bitter turf war with
Zvobgo and
Mavhaire.
Zvobgo, the veteran tactician once regarded as Mugabe’s heir,
is still
believed to be the most popular politician in Masvingo, Zimbabwe’s
most
populous province and a former ZANU PF stronghold.
Seasoned CIO
spies have now been assigned to dog Zvobgo at every rally that
he addresses
or attends in Masvingo.
According to the sources, junior CIO officers who
were shadowing the former
minister have been re-assigned because most of them
were unable to write
authoritative reports on his speeches at the
rallies.
Zvobgo and Mavhaire have been on a road show in the province in
the past two
months holding what they describe as "victory rallies" to thank
supporters
who voted for them in the June parliamentary
election.
Mavhaire lost his seat to the MDC’s Silas Mangono while Zvobgo
easily won
against that party’s Zachariah Rioga.
In Matabeleland,
Dabengwa — a ZANU PF stalwart and former close confidante
of the late vice
president Joshua Nkomo — is being accused of also
neglecting party
affairs.
Dabengwa could not be reached for comment this week.
The
sources say his reluctance to stump for Mugabe has resulted in the
emergence
of political newcomers such as Jonathan Moyo, Kembo Mohadi,
Abednigo Nyathi,
Sithembiso Nyoni, Obert Mpofu and Bulawayo provincial
chairman Jabulani
Sibanda spearheading Mugabe’s difficult re-election
campaign in Matabeleland,
an MDC powerbase.
ZANU PF won only two seats out of 23 in the two
Matabeleland provinces
during the watershed June plebiscite last year.
CNN
Worsening food shortages forecast in Zimbabwe
October 31, 2001
Posted: 2302 GMT
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- More than 700,000
Zimbabweans needed food aid
during October and worsening food shortages were
forecast, according to
official and independent estimates released
Wednesday.
As many as 30 percent of the population in some districts in
central,
western, southern and arid northern Zimbabwe suffered food shortages
during
October, the U.N.-backed Famine Early Warning System Network and the
state
Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services department said in a
joint
report.
The nation's stocks of grain, the staple food, stood at
about 200,355 tons
in mid-October, the lowest level in two years, or 63
percent lower than at
the same time last year.
Zimbabwe, mostly
self-sufficient in food except in times of drought, will
need to import at
least an additional 200,000 tons of corn, the main staple,
to meet domestic
consumption requirements by March 2002, the report said.
The main
seasonal food harvests begin around May each year.
"Official maize stocks
have continued to decrease during a time of year when
they normally build
up," it said.
In June, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the
World Food
Program said disruptions caused by seizures of white-owned farms
were mainly
responsible for a one-third decline in crops planted by the
nation's 4,000
large-scale commercial farmers, most of them
whites.
Wednesday's report said production losses this year by black
small-scale
peasant farmers were affected by the worst economic crisis
since
independence in 1980 that saw inflation reach a record 83,6
percent.
It said the costs of seeds, fertilizers and other producer
inputs rose by 90
percent since June this year -- and 135 percent since
September 2000.
The consumer price of the corn meal staple rose by up to
50 percent since
April this year.
"The high rate of inflation, pulled
up by the continued increase in food
prices, could lead to serious food
security problems," the report said.
Shortages and continued price
increases, despite a price freeze on basic
foods announced by the government
Oct. 12, were a pattern that had triggered
food riots and civil unrest in the
past, the report warned.
Zimbabwe consumes about 80,000 tons of grain,
mostly corn, a month.
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 1
November
Pay £70m to victims, court tells
Mugabe
New York - President Mugabe was dealt a humiliating blow last
night when his Zanu PF party was ordered by a New York court to pay $100 million
(£70 million) compensation to victims of violence that engulfed Zimbabwe's
parliamentary elections last year. It is unlikely that the money will be paid,
but lawyers for the victims plan to begin freezing and appropriating Zanu PF
assets in Zimbabwe and worldwide. One of the plaintiffs, Maria Stevens, whose
husband, a white tobacco farmer, was abducted and killed by militants, said the
award proved that some of Mr Mugabe's followers "are absolute thugs and
terrorists". Even if she never sees the money, she said, the case brought
further credibility and attention to the accusations of human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe. "At least I can tell my children I did everything in my power," she
said last night from her new home in Britain.
Any money received from the suit will go first to the
plaintiffs, to provide for their children's education and living costs, and the
remainder to a welfare fund. Three victims, including Mrs Stevens, testified in
New York last week. Adella Chiminya described how her husband, Tichaona,
campaign manager for Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, was burned alive in his car by Zanu PF activists in April.
Elliot Pfebve joined the class action to seek justice for his brother, Matthew,
beaten to death when a mob of more than 300 attacked their home. The Zimbabwe
Human Rights Forum documented more than 1,000 crimes from beatings to torture
committed during the 2000 election campaign. It said 31 people were killed in
violence widely attributed to supporters of the ruling Zanu PF, who were later
given an amnesty for their crimes.
From ZWNEWS:
Contrary to the Daily Telegraph article above, damages in the case have yet to
be awarded. The judgement handed down on Tuesday found that Zanu PF was liable
to pay compensation. The case will now be referred to a lower court where the
amount of the damages will be assessed. The ruling handed down by Judge Marrero
was a default judgement, because the defendants in the case - Robert Mugabe,
Stan Mudenge, Jonathan Moyo and others, as well as Zanu PF, did not contest the
case. The defendants did later request the US government to oppose the case,
which was done through a "suggestion of immunity" letter from the US State
Department submitted to the court. The court did reluctantly take account of
this "suggestion of immunity", which argued that the case could not brought
against the individual defendants for reasons of diplomatic immunity. The court
did, however, find that Zanu PF as a party was not immune. Because
the defendants did not contest the case, almost all rights to appeal have
effectively been waived. The last remaining option - an "application to vacate"
- would have to be made to Judge Marrero. From the tone of his judgement, legal
sources say, it is unlikely that he would agree. Jonathan Moyo, Minister of
Publicity, and one of the defendants, at the time first claimed that the case
did not exist, and then that it was "a non-event". Charges of criminal
defamation were brought against several Zimbabwean journalists for publishing
articles about the case.
From The Mail & Guardian (SA),
31 October
Zimbabwe's farm workers
'disappear'
Harare - with no end in sight to violence on Zimbabwe's
white-owned farms, lawyers for farm workers are increasingly worried over the
fate of tens of thousands of workers and their families, who have effectively
disappeared. Pro-government militants, who have occupied farms for 20 months
now, have blocked off huge swaths of the countryside, making it difficult for
workers' advocates and aid agencies to count how many people have been displaced
by the violence. The only common factor among the estimates is that tens of
thousands of people have been forced from their homes and jobs on the farms, and
no one knows where they have gone.
In the farming community of Hwedza, 100 kilometers southeast of
Harare, schools, homes and shops catering for farm workers were deserted. Some
homes have been burned, and farmers said the workers became so afraid of the
pro-government militants that they decided to pack up and take their chances in
the bush. The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) estimated in a survey of the farms
last month that about 75 000 people, including workers and their families, have
been forced off the farms where they were previously housed and employed. But
workers' advocates put the number far higher. The Farm Community Trust of
Zimbabwe, which promotes workers' rights, estimates the number of displaced at
300 000, based on the government's own data on resettlement.
The General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of
Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), the labour union for farm workers, says the number is more
like 800 000, including workers who lost their jobs on farms that closed because
of the violence. "Exactly to say how they are surviving, given that these people
are not given termination benefits as such, it's a mystery. They are surviving
on the generosity of the villagers," GAPWUZ president Clement Sungayi said.
"Most of them are just going into the rural areas, or into squatter camps" in
the bush, he said. Sungayi said he and other GAPWUZ officials have struggled to
track down the displaced workers' whereabouts, but have been blocked from
searching the areas near occupied farms by ruling party militants.
"It looks like the war vets (liberation war veterans) have the
upper hand when some of these issues come up," he said, referring to the
militants who have helped to organise the farm occupations. So far, he said, the
government has turned a blind eye to the workers' plight, in part because of the
perception that workers and their union back the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC). But Sungayi said workers come from all political
persuasions. The only time government officials have agreed to meet with
representatives of farm workers was at the regional summit here in September,
when leaders from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) forced the
government to meet with a broad cross-section of Zimbabwean society.
Sungayi and other advocates said the need to find the workers
and determine their needs was quickly becoming desperate, as Zimbabwe faces a
massive shortage of food grains before the next harvest. "The situation is
critical, in that they are not getting food. And if they are not getting wages,
they are not going to buy food," said Godfrey Magaramombe, director of the Farm
Community Trust. Farmers have set up several initiatives to provide some care
for workers affected by the government's land reforms, but CFU officials said
those efforts only work if they know where the workers are. "Once they've left
the farms, a significant number of them we don't know what has happened to," CFU
director David Hasluck said
