Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2001 2:09 PM
Subject: Fw: have not given up on us
: Sunday, October 28, 2001 2:08 PM
Subject: have not given up on us
Dear family and friends,
Anthrax is the disease on everyone's mind at the
moment. Across the world there is talk of envelopes filled with white powder
which carry spores of the deadly bacteria. Zimbabwe now has an outbreak of
anthrax and 15 people are in hospital but in our case the bacteria has not
arrived by post but in the infected meat of an animal which was consumed by
hungry villagers. Our state run media have given huge coverage to the outbreak
of anthrax in Zimbabwe and there have been loud and disgusting statements on the
ZBC radio news that this is the work of white commercial farmers who have
deliberately introduced the bacteria because they are angry about the seizure of
their farms. I will not waste precious words commenting on those ridiculous and
bigotted claims but would like to remind people of a couple of facts. As I
researched the closing pages of African Tears earlier this year, anthrax was
mentioned more than once. In November 2000, 2 people and 32 cattle died in
Makoni from Anthrax. In Makonde 19 people were hospitalised and 38 cattle died
and in Chiota, across the road from my farm, 5 cattle died of Anthrax. At that
time and twice since then I reported that Anthrax had become a real worry - not
because the spores were arriving in white envelopes from international
terrorists - but because the fences were all being removed by 'war veterans' and
there was absolutely no control on the movement of cattle. Regular communal
cattle dipping programmes had ceased and 'war veterans' were refusing to allow
government veterinary inspectors to do their jobs, accusing of them of being
sellouts for visiting white farms. This is still the case now. Perhaps the
saddest thing about 15 people currently in hospital near Kwekwe being treated
for anthrax is that they had eaten infected meat. People are hungry and getting
hungrier by the day.
On Friday morning in temperatures way up in the
30's, I scrambled around Marondera looking for maize meal. In the two biggest
shops there was none of this stable food at all and in the third I finally
managed to get four of the last dozen bags. The headlines on the daily newspaper
that day were: "Shortages of basic goods hits Harare." It is not only in the
capital city though. It is now becoming increasingly difficult to find maize
meal, cooking oil, rice, salt and flour. Soap of all kinds from the strong,
cheap red carbolic type to scented bath tablets is now completely non existent.
Washing powder is the same. In fact almost of all the goods that the government
put price controls on are now getting harder to find. On Friday the Daily News
reported that the shortage of maize and meal is now so dire that 'war veterans'
and police have started setting up road blocks in outlying areas. They order
passenngers off buses and relieve travellers of any maize that they find. In
some cases the passengers are forced to go and sell their maize (1kg or 100 kgs)
at the nearest government run grain depot. In other cases it is just being
impounded. One passenger said: "It is very unfair that they say they are giving
us land to produce maize but we are not allowed to eat it or even carry it to
our families in urban areas." As with the hundreds of thousands of other
infringements of our human rights, it is not possible to seek justice from the
Zimbabwean police as they are actively involved in the activity, man the road
blocks and take part in the impoundement. This is what it is like living in a
country without law and order. Can you imagine being ordered off a bus and being
forced to hand over your food?
This week a delegation of foreign ministers from
the Commonwealth visited Zimbabwe for two days to assess the progress of the
recently brokered Accord in Abuja. Our hopes for sanity were seriously dented
when the Zimbabwean Foreign Minister began making some very angry pronouncements
before the delegation had even arrived. One of the issues of major concern to us
all is pre election monitors from outside of Zimbabwe being allowed into the
country. Dr Mudenge publicly rejected the EU calls for observers. In an
extremely confusing and apparently contradictory statement he said "We fear not
to drink from the cup because there is poison in it." He went on to say: " We do
not want a Milosovic situation in Zimbabwe - giving the opposition money to oust
the government and so on. This will not be accepted or tolerated here. We saw
what happened in Yugoslavia and we will not allow it to happen here." A couple
of days later the Commonwealth delegation arrived and there were some very
stormy sessions, some particularly vitriolic propaganda but no doubt in anyones
minds that the Foreign Ministers saw exactly what is going on here. They were
not taken in by the propaganda, they would not be fobbed off and, although touch
and go, a communique was at last agreed upon and released, the world have not
yet given up on us. I was honoured to meet with two of the delegates very
briefly and will use that as an excuse for my letter being a day late this week.
I have again been humbled to know that complete strangers from the other side of
the world do still care very passionately about the appalling situation in
Zimbabwe and are as horrified as we are about the complete break down of law and
order in our country and outrageous human rights abuses that have affected
thousands of Zimbabweans of all colours and ages. To you all that still care and
have not given up on us, thank you. Until next week, with love
cathy
Media reports on MDC troubles
I have had so many questions, calls and signals of dismay about
recent media reports on MDC troubles that I am forced to respond.
It
astounds me that intelligent people, even foreigners who have been in the
country perhaps only a month, can suspend their powers of analysis and
evaluation to the extent of believing everything they read in "The Herald" or
hear and see on ZBC concerning the opposition in general and MDC in
particular!
Let me assure you that the stories are pure fiction with just
a sprinkling of truth for credibility's sake. It is true that there is currently
an internal commission of inquiry looking into the problems which arose at the
Harare Province election and the subsequent disturbance in Chitungwiza. To
enable the inquiry to proceed without interference, 4 young MPs and a couple of
Chitungwiza leaders have been suspended from their positions until such time as
the commission presents its report and a decision is taken on disciplinary
measures. This is normal procedure during an inquiry.
There is not a
grain of truth in the stories of ethnic in-fighting or questions over Morgan
Tsvangirai's candidature for the Presidential election. We unanimously elected
him our candidate last year soon after the General Election, and no-one, not
Gibson Sibanda nor Welshman Ncube nor anyone else, has any intention whatsoever
of vying for that position.
We are a strong, united party with the
support of at least 9 million people in this country who want change and who
believe that Morgan Tsvangirai is the man to bring that change. There is no way
a couple of internal squabbles can destroy the MDC. There is no way the people
of this country will allow ZanuPF and its CIO, pseudo - NGOs, state-controlled
media & other machinery to destroy the MDC. They are trying, and they will
be up to all manner of dirty tricks, much dirtier than the lies you have been
reading and hearing the past couple of weeks, but we must stand firm and not
allow them to shake our resolve or our certainty that WE SHALL
OVERCOME!
Together we can complete the change for a better life for all
Zimbabweans.
The power is in our hands.
Trudy Stevenson
Secretary
for Policy and Research
October 18, 2001
MDC Infighting – Fact or Fiction?
The state media has been going to fantastic lengths recently in
an effort to present an image to the public of an MDC that is divided and is
fighting itself over various things - the ethnic divide, ideological issues and
factionalism. Just this week I have seen an article in the national media
stating that Chief Ndeweni has "demanded" that the leadership of the MDC pass to
the members of the Executive that come from Matebeleland. This morning there was
an equally bizarre item on the radio to the effect that we were intending to
hold a Party Congress to "resolve" the leadership dispute. For weeks we have
seen stories about the four younger Members of Parliament who have been recently
suspended from their Party posts until an investigation is completed into the
underlying issues.
I am always amazed that anyone listens to the state
media or reads the state controlled newspapers - even more astonished when these
matters get given any credence, but it seems to happen. So I thought I should
give you a bit of an "insiders view" of these issues.
All of the
suspended Members of Parliament are personal friends as well as being
colleagues. Tapiwa, as the Shadow Minister of Finance, works with me very
closely and sits on my Committee dealing with economic matters. They are all
bright, well educated and young - the latter feature is perhaps the most
important because this makes them more vulnerable to the kinds of things that
the CIO gets up to from time to time.
Job Sikhala has been a target of
the CIO from day one - he is a delightful character, very forthright in his
opinions and a history graduate, which gives him special insight into what is
going on in the country. They hate Job with a passion and sometimes he wreaks
havoc in Parliament with his pithy and biting comments. He also has a short fuse
and is easily aroused. Try that on any of the older leaders and they will just
laugh at you - they have been there before. In the early days of the MDC Job was
selected as a tinderbox on which the CIO hoped to launch a violent campaign
against the thugs of Zanu PF. We were able to point this out to Job and he has
been able to take all the punishment metered out on him and his family and still
present the other cheek to his tormentors. Let me tell you - Job is a big man
and that has not been an easy task for him.
Last week I reviewed the
documentation that has been the subject of the dispute between Tapiwa and the
other three - I was astonished and I told Tapiwa so, most of the documents are
so clearly a CIO plant that they should never have been given any credence. They
are crude forgeries and designed to foster conflict and division in the MDC. I
was disappointed that the CIO could not do a better job with all the resources
at their disposal. Tapiwa was astonished that I gave the documents so little
credence. Learmore, in his role as spokesperson for the Party has proved to be
quick and sharp and eloquent. He should have exercised a bit more caution in his
reaction than he did - but he is learning, fast. All of them have accepted, in a
mature way, the actions taken by the Executive to resolve the issue.
Our
senior leadership has warned us very strongly that we must be very careful about
our personal behavior. The CIO are following us around and we are being filmed
and recorded constantly. They are doing this to try and catch us in a
compromising position and then will use this stuff against us in any way they
can. If they cannot find anything then they will simply go out and fabricate it
- this is easier than you might think!
When I accepted a position with
the MDC in 1999, Morgan had me in and warned me that if I went out on a limb for
the MDC I had to accept that I would be opening myself to all sorts of personal
attack. My business interests would be in danger, my family threatened and my
reputation sullied. He wanted me to know that before I committed myself to the
job. He was right but I accepted the role because I wanted to help rescue the
country from the deep despair and hardship that it was in because of Zanu PF
mismanagement and corruption. If we fail, the country is a write off anyway - so
what if in the process we lose what we already have.
I was in the
leadership of the Forum Party and remember well how easily the CIO infiltrated
our ranks and sunk our ship. The MDC is a different kettle of fish - led by
tough seasoned politicians who have been in the front line for many years and
are a tight knit group. The CIO have not been able to infiltrate to any great
extent - even in the lower levels of the Party where you would think it was
quite easy. The temptations are great - we have been shown cheques drawn on
building society accounts for a million dollars in favour of individuals -
rewards to them for dropping an MDC position or withdrawing from an election
contest. Its impossible to think that they have not had some success - fear and
greed are very effective in such a struggle, but my general reading of the
situation is that they have had very limited success.
The manner in which
the conflicts in Harare and Chitungwiza Provinces are being resolved is both
disciplined and principled. When the preliminary investigations found some
evidence it was decided to appoint a Commission of "elders" to investigate - all
three are capable and mature. They were then given a free hand with the clear
instruction that they were to report back as soon as possible but within a month
at the latest. Then the persons caught up in the spat were all told to withdraw
from their Party positions until the report was in. If any evidence is found of
misbehavior by anyone involved, the Parties disciplinary committee will take
disciplinary action. After that they can appeal if they feel that they have not
been heard fairly or a wrong conclusion drawn. These actions were given
unanimous support at the Executive and Council meetings held last
week.
On the issue of the "ethnic" divide, I can remember the days in the
early 60's when Zapu and Zanu fought in the streets and villages for supremacy
in the race for leadership of the struggle against the white government of
Rhodesia. I grew up amongst the Ndebele and know well their deep feelings of
being marginalised and ignored both in Rhodesia and then in the new Zimbabwe.
The late Joshua Nkomo was a regular guest in our home in Bulawayo in the 80's
before and after his forced exile. I am well aware of the deep feelings of the
Ndebele about the attempted genocide of their leadership in the mid
80's.
I am a white man - born and raised in this country, but still a
"Murungu" with all the baggage that that entails. My forefathers were not angels
- they were often ruthless and full of avarice and certainly believed in their
innate supremacy as a race. These things run deep - they will take many
generations to overcome. I am pleased and surprised at how far we have gone in
such a short time already, but no one, least of all the MDC, says it will be
easy.
Since I joined the MDC in 1999, I have never perceived any
substantive signs of any deep ethnic divide. On the contrary, the leadership is
remarkable unified in every way and no cognizance is given on any issue to the
question of race, tribe, religion or even ideological persuasion. I sit next to
Gwisai, a convinced Marxist in Party meetings and we discuss key issues openly
and frankly. We do not agree on everything - but we sail under the same flag and
accept its rules. I feel totally accepted in the structures and have been with
Morgan in all areas of the country. There can be no doubt that he is the leader
of the Party and has the full acceptance of all provincial leaders. When he is
in Bulawayo, the greeting he gets is no different to that in Harare. Mugabe
certainly could not walk the streets of Bulawayo without a heavy security
presence, he would have difficulty in holding a meeting anywhere in the
province, the same cannot be said of Morgan or Gibson, his deputy, who finds
similar acceptance in the Shona areas of the country.
In a unique way,
MDC is an amalgam of different interests and people and this is its strength,
not its weakness. What holds it together is not what others might say - simply
its desire to rid Zimbabwe of the Zanu plague, sure that is there, but its much
more. We share a commitment to a new, more democratic Zimbabwe, under a new
constitution, which will outlaw for many years the presidential dictatorship we
have been living under for the past 20 years. We share a commitment to new
economic policies that will harness our great natural resources to our human
resources within the frame of a dynamic, market driven economy, for the
betterment of all our people. We share a commitment to rid the country of
corrupt individuals and businesses that have bled our economy dry and
impoverished our population. We share a vision of a better future for all our
children, one in which they will each be accepted as individuals and citizens
with equal rights and responsibilities.
When I read that "statement" from
Chief Ndeweni and the claim that Gibson and Welshman were vying for the Party
leadership I laughed out loud. It is so ridiculous that it's laughable - but it
also encourages me because it reveals how desperate this bunch are and the
lengths to which they will go to undermine the image of the MDC. I am not
concerned about the impact of this nonsense on the mass of our membership or
even the majority of our population; I learned long ago that ordinary
Zimbabweans have a wonderful system of communication that works much more
effectively than any state controlled system. I was concerned that those who do
not have any contact with the MDC on a direct basis, might actually become
disheartened by what they get fed very day - especially if you, like the great
majority of us, cannot afford DSTV or find a copy of the Daily News 5 minutes
after it has arrived.
Eddie Cross
17th October 2001
Zim Standard
Insight with Chenjerai Hove—Violence and political
control
Chenjerai Hove
A FEW weeks ago, I was talking to an elderly
woman about her uneducated view
of politics. She was emphatic that my views
did not always take precedence
over her own since she lives in the
countryside and knows things (kuziva
zvinhu) on the ground. I wanted to
provoke her and it worked.
By the way, she is very old, approaching 90
years of age. We were talking
about rural violence and its consequences for
private and public life.
“You see, my child, we saw people who killed
others during the time of Smit
(Smith). They were liberation war fighters.
They killed people, many people.
Now, where are they? Some of them went mad,
and the politicians on whose
behalf they were killing people are happy,
earning huge bags of money.
“Vakafa nengozi.” (They were killed by the
spirits of the people they
murdered on behalf of the politicians).
So
the discussion went on. The essence of the matter is that the old lady
did
not think it sensible to kill people on a political agenda. She did not
go to
school much, but she went to the school of the market place which
tells
everyone that killing people is bad and it will never be good.
The
violence which the ruling party uses now for the purpose of
political
survival is simple, crude and a case of bad manners. It is
brutality, and
those who try to run a country through various forms of
brutality will one
day reap that brutality. Young people must never be taught
how to kill
people, no matter what happens. They must be taught, by any
reasonable
adult, to respect the sanctity of human life, to respect human
dignity
without conditions.
We should ask ourselves why it is that
African politicians and those of
other developing countries use violence as a
political tool for staying in
power. One view is that they go into power to
make money in all sorts of
dirty ways and, when they are in power, they fear
that anyone else who takes
over from them might want to investigate
them.
At election time, African politicians go around parading as
democrats. They
pretend to be more democratic than the colonial regimes. But
as soon as they
take over power, they behave like traditional rulers. They
forget that
traditional rulers were never elected by anyone. It is a failure
of the
imagination to fail to blend the democratic conduct of tradition and
the new
structures of power which we inherited from the
colonials.
“Mandela would not have survived if he had been in an African
prison under
an African tyrant,” one man wrote many years ago when Nelson
Mandela walked
out of prison with dignity and respect to meet
Winnie.
I tend to agree. African leaders tend to take only the cruel
tendencies of
the colonialists, but not the good things they did like sharing
a cup of
coffee or a drink with the leader of the opposition. The opposition
is
always viewed as a gang of crooks who should have been killed a long
time
ago. Critics of government policies are viewed as personal
critics.
Were writers and other artists to go around thinking that every
art or
literary critic is an enemy, artists and writers would have been
fighting
everyone all over the world. What is an institution without
criticism?
We must not forget that the road to democracy is never built
on the road of
corpses and scars. The genuine road to democracy is made of
the capacity to
accept the views of others even if those views are exactly
the opposite of
what you think.
Let us take an imaginary situation
about this small earth and how we run it.
Imagine if one day we declare that
in the whole world for 24 hours, no one
should tell lies. What a wonderful
world it would be. That would mean we all
ignore our personal views and just
know that two plus two is four.
The problem of African politics and the
politics of dictatorship and tyranny
is that people are fed lies upon lies.
And if they disagree with those lies,
they are beaten to death, tortured and
kidnapped.
Human memory is stubborn. Those who are in the business of
inflicting
violence on others today are the ones who stand up to the nation
to tell
everyone that there is no violence in our country. The Chinos and
others are
the first to announce that the country has no violence, simply
because they
are on the safe side of violence. Those with the wounds and the
corpses of
the violence just gaze at the whole panorama and wonder in which
country the
other guys are living.
Let us face it, there is violence
in this country, and it is on the
increase, especially with the presidential
election coming. People are
dying. People are being killed and tortured in
this beautiful land of our
mothers and fathers.
All it takes for our
political leaders is to go public and denounce
political violence, and any
form of violence. But the ruling party
politicians go the whole way,
threatening the citizens publicly that if they
do not vote for the president,
they will be killed. Such political leaders
should be arrested on the spot.
That is against the whole principle of
democracy.
I have always asked
the simplest question: Why don’t we, Africans, have an
election without a
single corpse by the roadside to the ballot box? Our
elections cannot
continue to be measured in terms of the number of deaths
towards election
time. It is bizarre and stupid to continue to do horrendous
things to the
citizens in order that they may vote for this or
that
politician.
Controlling people through violence will never be a
viable alternative to
how we were taught to live together on this land. He
who owns prisons,
armies and handcuffs is not necessarily on a higher moral
ground than all of
us. Those are instruments of potential decay if they are
not used carefully.
In fact, I would like to imagine a political leader
who searchers for the
ideal of a country with more university students than
prisoners. Our African
leaders think the more there are people in prison, the
safer the country is.
That is a worthless fallacy, an illusion which only
those who delve in the
theatre of the absurd will partake of.
The road
to political decay begins with the use of violence as a political
tool. For,
to teach young people the ways of violence, is to teach them to
inflict that
violence on the teacher, come one day.
“My child, if you kill two people
while you are looking for votes, don’t you
think you have already lost two
potential voters?” so the old woman asks me.
Zimbabwe politicians, especially
those who have the machinery of violence in
their hands, must promise the
citizens of this country that they will insist
on the culture of political
persuasion, not violence. No matter how much
they hide the violence from the
international public eye, no one is ever
going to pretend that it is not
there.
For the mental health of our political system, we must have our
politicians
sign a pledge that they will never make speeches or gestures
which incite
the public to violence. The waving of fists must stop so that we
can develop
a new mental health culture in the field of
politics.
Chenjerai Hove is a renowned Zimbabwean writer.
Standard Plus: In Tha Mix—When madness overrides sense
Fungayi
Kanyuchi
COMMON sense ought to tell the police that beside the bribes and
other
related crimes that they personally commit, Zimbabwe is tottering under
the
yoke of rampant crime and corruption especially within
government
organisations. The salaries within the police force can be
justified only if
the force redirected its energies towards identifying big
time criminals who
continue to drag this country into the dustbins of
eco-political strife.
Events in the past week are testimony that private
media publications are
now an endangered species on the streets of Harare. If
the harassment and
arrests that police details carried out on newspaper
vendors in the past
week were to be applied to real crimes and criminals, I
would give them two
cheers each.
Now, whilst we appreciate the
supposed concern of the police about vendors
disturbing the flow of traffic
and posing a danger to motorists and other
road users, the question that has
to be asked is: What do vendors who sell
publications at street corners and
other strategic points have to do with
this? These are people who, on a daily
basis, brave all sorts of weather to
put food on their tables but now they
are falling victim to information
censoring agents out to eliminate opinions
that are not in line with
government policies and ideologies.
Why has
it only come to mind now that the streets need to be cleansed of
these poor
souls before they splash bones, blood and other related body
components and
fluids onto passing pedestrians? What have the police managed
to do about the
commuter-touts-cum-unlicensed drivers who have turned our
roads into bloody
race courses?
Is it because the commuter transport lot are the ones
responsible for the
cell phones and other luxury gadgets that some members of
the force now own,
courtesy of regular palm-greasing?
On a lighter
note, I was in Mutare this past week-end after an invite from
the Africa
University SRC for their freshman welcome bash! I can already see
colleague,
Farai ‘Laurent Kabila jnr’ Mutsaka (nicknamed thus on the
strength of his
facial likeness to the president), dilating his facial
muscles in a smile,
for Mutare is his home base and nothing pleases him more
than seeing his home
town in the paper. Now, I must confess, I was under the
impression that being
a university, a riotous situation would be imminent,
but hell no! The show
went smoothly save for one or two incidents of gate
crashers.
The
Chocolate City night spot was also abuzz with Radio Three DJ, Peter
Johns.
Chocolate City would not be a bad hang out if management were to
spruce up
the place and turn around the beerhall image that the club has
earned itself.
A complete overhaul in terms of interior decor and a good
sound system is a
matter of urgency if the club is to be a competitive night
spot that attracts
many people, even those from out of Mutare.
A few roads down, Gullivers
Night Club, a youth joint which did not kick
that much this week end despite
having 3fm DJ, Witness Matema as the guest.
Gullivers Night Club registered a
low turnout which some attributed to the
presence of three top flight names
at three different venues which meant
that the crowd had to be split between
the three.
A new spot, called simply Smokey’s Bar, opened up last week at
Strathaven
shopping centre. According to the manager, Thamie Msimanga,
Smokey’s will
cater for the contemporary adults. A cross section of music
genres, ranging
from the 80s and 90s blues and jazz vibes will be churned
out. Jazz DJ,
Comfort Mbofana, has been commissioned to take care of some DJ
slots during
the days that Smokey’s is open.
Finally, our girl Lenah
Zinyama continues to kick up a serious storm after
making it in the model
line up for the the Making of SA’s Sports Illustrated
Swimwear 2001 video.
Besides Lenah, other participants from the modelling
world are: Kerry
McGregor (SA), Ana Hickman (Brazil), Megan McKenzie (SA),
Lisa Nel (SA), Liza
Botha (SA), Lisa-Marie Schneider (SA) and Landi
Swanepoel (SA).
Zim Standard
British MPs oppose land funding
Cornelius
Nduna
BRITISH members of parliament have opposed the proposed funding of
the
Zimbabwe government, to enable it to carry out its land reform programme
as
provided for under the Abuja agreement.
In a parliamentary debate
in the House of Commons at Westminster Hall on
Wednesday, the MPs said the
international community should instead divert
its resources towards ensuring
that next year’s elections are free and fair.
British secretary of state
for international development, Claire Short, said
efforts to return Zimbabwe
to the rule of law through the Abuja agreement
had failed and advocated for
the removal of President Mugabe’s government.
Responding to a question
from Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield) on what
action she was proposing to
promote good governance in Zimbabwe, Short
described the situation in
Zimbabwe as “a complete tragedy”.
Said Short: “We have worked hard but
completely without success to try to
prevent the continuing deterioration in
economic and political governance in
Zimbabwe. The economic situation is very
grim, with a 5% fall in gross
domestic product last year and growing poverty
and hunger across that
agriculturally rich country.
“At a meeting of
Commonwealth ministers convened by Nigeria in Abuja on 6
September, the
Zimbabwean government undertook to restore the rule of law
and to act against
violence and intimidation. Unfortunately, there has been
no progress since 8
September. Commonwealth ministers are due to visit
Harare this week to
discuss that lack of progress.”
Winterton, who described Zimbabwe as a
“wonderful country” and the
historical larder of central southern Africa,
further asked Short what
message the British government was sending through
the Commonwealth
ministerial committee to pressurise the people of Zimbabwe
“to reject
President Mugabe and elect a government which can give them
democracy and
progress, and enable Zimbabwe to play a major role in
Africa”.
Responded Short: “Zimbabwe is a naturally wealthy country with a
highly
educated population. It should be an engine of economic growth and
progress
for Africa, but instead, it is deteriorating and damaging the
economic
development of all neighbouring countries. There are other
tragedies: we are
preparing for food aid—imagine that, in a country so
agriculturally rich—and
one in three adults are infected with HIV, the worst
rate in the world.
“Presidential elections are due. It is very important
that everyone in the
world mobilises to try to ensure that the people of
Zimbabwe are given a
chance to have a free and fair election and to change
their government, if
that is their wish.”
Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath)
accused President Mugabe of misleading the
international community that the
land grab would be to the benefit of the
poor when in fact all he was doing
was destroying the country’s agricultural
base.
“Does the right
Honourable Lady not recognise that one of the problems with
President
Mugabe’s regime is that he presents to the media the removal of
white farmers
from land that they own legitimately as a campaign to help the
landless, when
in fact the victims of his policies are the farm workers,
while the so-called
war veterans have been generously provided for by him
and his associates ever
since he came to power? What will the government do
to redress the
misrepresentation of what is happening in agricultural areas
such as Nyanga
and Mutare in the eyes of the world’s media?” said Hawkins.
Responded
Short: “There is no doubt that there is a strong case for land
redistribution
in Zimbabwe. That was the view of the previous government,
and it is the view
of this government. It needs to be done in a transparent,
law-abiding way
that focuses on the needs of poor people rather than
political cronyism and
the destruction of Zimbabwe’s agricultural productive
capacity. The current
push for forcible land seizures looks to be more
political; it followed on
from Zimbabwe’s government losing a referendum and
fearing that they were
losing political support.
“The honourable gentleman is right that in the
early stages, other African
governments had some sympathy with regard to land
redistribution and were
not as critical as they might have been. That is not
the situation any
longer.
Neighbouring countries are seeing the
economic effects on themselves and on
large numbers of black farm workers who
are losing their jobs and living in
poverty. The whole world understands how
bad things are, and we are all
working together to ensure that things are put
right as soon as possible.”
Standard Plus: Meet the Spouse—She sees a new Zimbabwe on the
horizon
Peter Moyo
THE present political climate in Zimbabwe has left
untold suffering and many
scars. Some of the worst affected have been the
wives of the commercial
farmers who have experienced some of the worst
turmoil brought about by the
farm occupations. Among them is Heather Bennett,
wife of Roy Bennett, the
outspoken and popular MP for Chimanimani
constituency.
“Some people are meant to be respectable, and I could not
believe people
could change and commit so much evil. It angers me to see
nothing happening
to such evil people, but I think the Lord has been great in
looking after us
and strengthening us,” says Heather, commenting on the
behaviour of some
ruling party politicians and well-to-do
businessmen.
It was in May last year that she was forced to watch while
their farm was
occupied and workers beaten by alleged Zanu PF supporters. She
suffered a
miscarriage as a result.
“It was in May last year when
about 40 Zanu PF supporters beat up our
workers in front of me and my farm
manager. Roy was not there and I was the
one looking after the farm. They
proceeded to force us to chant slogans for
two hours before they finally let
us go. I had to visit the doctor and it
was discovered that my blood pressure
was up and I later had a miscarriage,”
she said.
The political thugs
took over the house, scattered the cremated ashes of her
husband’s father all
over the house, and killed all their chickens and
cattle.
“I was quite
pained by the miscarriage but I think I was more worried for
the workers than
for myself or the family,” she recalls.
The Bennetts farm coffee in
Chimanimani. In her husband’s absence, she takes
on the responsibility of the
accounts or tries to solve other problems that
might arise.
Her
husband lives a very busy life, she says. “Even when he is at home, he
is not
at home. He is quite a busy man and luckily, I am also very busy,
especially
in trying to help the community. I like the fact that it is a
very small and
close knit community. The project I am proud to have been
part of was ‘Eyes
for Zimbabwe’. It was completely non-political,” she says
about the project
for the removal of eye-cataracts.
“We helped put the programme together
in Chipinge and to ferry people around
and feed them for three days and I was
delighted to see most of the people
having their sight
restored.”
Heather was born in 1962 in Chivhu and has just celebrated her
39th
birthday. Her father moved to the then Rhodesia just after the Second
World
War in which he had been a Spitfire pilot. She is the fourth and last
born
of four children—three boys and a girl. She has two children, Charles,
15,
now in form three and Casey, 13, now in form one.
She has very
strong views about the current fast-track land
redistribution
exercise.
“It seems that the current land issue is a
political tool. People need jobs
and not land. If your child has studied
agriculture, he or she will get the
land. What of all the land the government
is sitting on? We have talked to
the chiefs in our area and they say they
have plenty of land.”
She has a great deal of faith in her husband’s
party, especially in the
president of the MDC.
“I liken Tsvangirai to
Nelson Mandela—always genuinely wanting to help. I
believe Zanu PF are all
there for the money. In the MDC, the guys are not
being paid for most of
their duties.
“I am looking forward to seeing the Zimbabwe that is coming
and I know it
will happen. It’s definite, it’s only a couple more months and
we are
through. I am very positive about this. If I wanted to leave I could
do so
right now but I believe those who wanted to leave did so in 1979,
just
before independence.”
Heather attributes the little Shona that
she speaks to her husband, Roy, who
speaks the language fluently.
They
married in 1984 when she was 22 years of age. Up to then, she had not
known
what she wanted from life. She had just completed a secretarial course
and
done a little office work in Johannesburg.
Says Heather of her meeting
and marriage to Roy, who is five years her
senior: “We met in mid 1984 and
got married in December of the same year. He
was friends with the youngest of
my brothers. In fact, they had been in the
army together. We had a Christian
wedding.”
Zim Standard
Government ordered to delist farms
Farai
Mutsaka
THE Zimbabwe government should delist illegally seized farms,
implement land
reform in accordance with the law, and co-operate with the
Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) and other stakeholders, the Commonwealth
foreign
ministers meeting in Harare resolved yesterday.
Further,
Britain which has pledged to fund Zimbabwe’s land reform programme,
will not
do so until it receives a detailed report showing evidence of
Zimbabwe’s
compliance with the Abuja agreement.
At the Nigerian-brokered meeting
held seven weeks ago in Abuja, Nigeria,
government agreed to return the
country to the rule of law, stop land
seizures and uphold democratic
principles.
Government, through its failure to comply with the Aguja
accord, has, for
the time being, effectively put paid to British aid to fund
land reform in
the country.
In a communique released last night at the
end of a protracted mopping-up
session of the ministers, government was asked
to speedily delist farms
acquired illegally.
Hundreds of single-owned
farms were seized under government’s fast-track
resettlement programme in
contravention of the Land Acquisition Act which
stipulates that only farmers
with more than one farm would be targeted.
The Commonwealth mission
placed no obligations on Britain to immediately
release funds, but ordered
Zimbabwe to carry out land reform in accordance
with the law.
“The
Commonwealth called upon the government to speed up the delisting of
farms
not meeting the requirements (of the Land Acquisition Act), implement
the
land reform in accordance with the laws of the country and to work
closely
with the CFU and other stakeholders,” read the communique.
British
representative, Baroness Valerie Amos, said her government would not
release
any money pending the outcome of a visit by a UNDP technical team
next month,
to assess the situation in the country.
“Britain reaffirms its commitment
to the Abuja agreement. This is a process.
Money will come pending the
outcome of the UNDP technical team. Until the
UNDP has carried out an
assessment mission, it is impossible for the United
Kingdom to release any
funds,” said Baroness Amos.
Another member of the British delegation told
The Standard yesterday that it
was unlikely that his country would release
money before government had
stopped its fast-track programme.
“Britain
is not likely to release funds because it is not happy with the
fast track
programme. You can’t have a programme that divides the society.
It is not
sustainable. For example, yesterday we visited Bita farm and saw
that 265
people will be displaced and replaced by only 82 people. It will be
to the
benefit of Zimbabweans to keep the spotlight on Zimbabwe. I believe
all the
nations involved in Abuja should also be involved in the monitoring
process,”
he said.
The Commonwealth ministers are of the view that President
Mugabe’s
government has done little to honour commitments made at Abuja aimed
at
ending the 20-month-old crisis triggered by the seizure of
mostly
white-owned farms by Zanu PF supporters and war
veterans.
Canada’s secretary of state for Latin America and Africa, David
Kilgour, who
is part of the eight-country Commonwealth delegation, told The
Standard
yesterday that his country was not impressed with President
Mugabe’s
government-sponsored fast-track land resettlement
exercise.
“A number of groups which met with us found the fast-track not
to be
occurring in accordance with the laws of this country. Canada shares
this
view. Land reform must be done legally. Yes some progress has been made
in
complying with the Abuja agreement, but there are still a number of
issues
like complying with the constitution, violence and allegations of
abuse of
press freedom,” said Kilgour.
Earlier, on Friday, Kilgour
said that some Commonwealth nations could
consider sanctions against Zimbabwe
in order to whip President Mugabe’s
government into line.
“It’s my
view, and I think the view of a number of ministers here, that
there has been
virtually no progress on any of the areas that the government
of Zimbabwe
agreed on,” Kilgour said after meeting political parties
on
Friday.
“There may have been less violence, and yet I think even
that’s open to
question. There’s been far too much violence and in my view,
far too little
attempt to comply with with what the government of Zimbabwe
agreed to.
“If we find or perhaps the UNDP follow-up Monitoring in
November finds that
nothing is happening, and Canada or other countries
wanted to decide on
sanctions, that’s certainly something the government can
do,” Kilgour said.
At the end of the committee’s mission, more than 30
civic, political,
church, farmers’ and other groups and made submissions to
the committee.
Only sanctions can stop Mugabe
Robert Mugabe has reneged on the Abuja
deal and is ready to destroy
democracy with violence. The international
community must now target the
regime directly.
John
Prendergast
Sunday October 28, 2001
The Observer
President Robert
Mugabe can't believe his luck. At the beginning of
September, he faced
humiliating public criticism and an ultimatum for the
first time from fellow
African leaders.
A special delegation of Commonwealth foreign ministers
meeting in the
Nigerian capital Abuja secured Mr Mugabe's commitment to
upholding
Commonwealth principles of democracy and restoring the rule of law.
South
African Development Commission (SADC) leaders had also given Mr Mugabe
four
weeks to address the land crisis or face isolation. The Commonwealth
Heads
of Government Meeting (CHOGM) loomed in early October, with
Zimbabwe
possibly facing suspension. The European Union and the United States
had
also threatened moves against Zimbabwe. Then, on 11 September, the
attacks
in the United States blew the steady diplomatic march on Zimbabwe off
the
map. CHOGM was postponed until next year, and Mugabe now believes,
quite
rightly, that the world's attention is focussed elsewhere.
In
the past two months, there has been no evidence at all that Mr Mugabe
or
leaders of his ZANU-PF party have tried to implement the Abuja
agreement,
nor has he done anything to satisfy the concerns of his SADC
colleagues.
Since Abuja, more farms have been invaded and burned, and farm
workers
beaten and threatened. On 12 October the leader of the opposition
Movement
for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, was ambushed by armed men
while
driving to a political meeting. Most disturbing are new reports that
weapons
and ammunition are being brought to Zimbabwe from the Congo,
where
Zimbabwe's armed forces have been fighting on behalf of Kabila. Many
of
these weapons are expected to end up in the hands of ZANU-PF supporters
in
the lead up to the presidential election next year.
The
presidential election is the primary reason for the current
political
violence in Zimbabwe. It is dressed up by the government as a
campaign for
land reform - but in fact the land campaign is a vehicle for
political
intimidation of the opposition and the disenfranchisement of
thousands of
black voters. Shifting several dozen white farmers from their
properties
will do little in the end to alter the balance of power in
Zimbabwe.
Evicting tens of thousands of black farm workers from their
constituencies
is shaping up as a key tactic for ZANU-PF in its efforts to
retain the
presidency in 2002. ZANU-PF has already lost in the cities -
senior party
officials readily admit they cannot win in Harare and Bulawayo -
so keeping
control of the rural vote has become all the more
important.
The international community must therefore maintain a very
tight focus on
ensuring that the 2002 elections are free and fair. It should
begin by
putting much more concerted and coordinated pressure on Mr Mugabe to
end the
political violence, admit international election monitors and allow
the
opposition a voice. As he has shown no sign of living up to any
personal
commitments he has given so far, that international pressure should
be
reinforced by personal sanctions. Rhetorical pressure, demands and
threats
have had no impact thus far on Mugabe's calculations. Specific
actions like
targeted sanctions, however, may be a different story, as the
government's
abuses begin to have specific ramifications for those
responsible.
The International Crisis Group has detailed these 'smart'
sanctions in its
recent reports on Zimbabwe: a freeze on overseas
held-assets, personal
travel restrictions and visa bans on President Mugabe,
senior ZANU-PF
figures, and their families. The people of Zimbabwe have
suffered enough;
they do not deserve to suffer the effects of broader
sanctions or further
cuts to aid. Direct personal pressure is the only method
that may finally
make Mr Mugabe live up to the commitments he has
given.
The next few days are crucial. A return delegation of Commonwealth
ministers
has just visited Zimbabwe to assess progress on the Abuja
agreement. Britain
has already indicated it believes the deal has not been
honoured, although
whether it will take action is not clear. On 29 October,
the European
Union's Foreign Ministers meet, with Zimbabwe on the agenda. It
is not a
priority - the war on terrorism understandably still preoccupies
Europe, as
it does the United States.
But the ministers are deeply
concerned about Zimbabwe's refusal to allow EU
election monitors to enter the
country and are likely to further suspend
economic aid. They may also
consider imposing personal sanctions on the
ZANU-PF leadership in future. But
if this strategy is to succeed, personal,
targeted sanctions must be part of
the package and other governments must
adopt them as well. understood to be
considering the imposition of targeted
sanctions as outlined
above.
This strategy should be encouraged, and adopted by other
governments if it
is to succeed. SADC should act to isolate Mugabe who has
blatantly failed to
meet its one-month deadline for action. Commonwealth
nations, while not
meeting at heads of government level until early March
next year, should
impose their own sanctions on a bilateral basis. The United
States should
take similar action, either through Congress passing the
Zimbabwe Democracy
Act, or by an executive order of the
President.
There is no more time to waste in Zimbabwe. Apart from the
horrific
violence, hyperinflation has set in and the economy is shrinking by
as much
as 8 per cent per year. Officially, the rate of inflation in
September was
83 per cent, but anecdotal evidence from market traders in
Harare suggests
the real rate for basic commodities is more like 300 per
cent. One US dollar
buys 55 Zimbabwe dollars at official rates, 350 on the
black market. Hungry
Zimbabweans are stealing produce from farms across the
border in South
Africa to sell at market, or simply to survive. Many are now
living on one
meal a day, when they used to have three. In an effort to curb
inflation,
the government has fixed food prices, but these may simply drive
more
businesses into bankruptcy, and more people into
unemployment.
There are hints that the Commonwealth may want to give Mr
Mugabe and his
government more time to implement the Abuja agreement before
imposing
sanctions. But there is already ample evidence that the Abuja deal
is dead.
It would be a great disservice to the people of Zimbabwe and
Southern Africa
if, at this crucial time, the world really did keep looking
the other way.
·John Prendergast is Co-Director of the Africa Program at
the International
Crisis Group.
The ICG's latest report on Zimbabwe
can be read at www.crisisweb.org -
click
on Zimbabwe to read the briefing paper "Zimbabwe: Time for
International
Action"
The Age Melbourne
Commonwealth fails to sanction Mugabe
Source:
DPA|Published: Sunday October 28, 10:29 AM
HARARE, Oct 27 DPA
Commonwealth monitors issued a weak declaration late
today on President
Robert Mugabe's compliance with the September 6 Abuja
accord on restoring the
rule of law.
Representatives, evidently deeply divided over the extent of
statesponsored
violence and intimidation, were also split over whether the
issue was the
redistribution of 5,000 whiteowned farms to black Zimbabweans
or the
77yearold president's determination to win a further sixyear term by
any
means.
Britain's Baroness Valerie Amos, junior foreign office
minister for Africa,
said she was "struck by the depth of feeling and emotion
around not only the
land but human rights, freedom of expression and the rule
of law".
Said the communique: "We have made an appeal to the (Zimbabwean)
government
and its law enforcement agencies to look into these very
serious
allegations".
Amos hoped the delegation's three day visit to
Harare extended 24 hours
beyond its schedule would be "another staging post
along the way" in
resolution of Zimbabwe's problems after 21 years of
independence.
She said the depth of feeling "makes it even more difficult
for the parties
concerned to talk in a rational way".
She said Britain
would honour its pledges at Abuja to resume funding of land
reform,
committing "substantial resources" but only if a forthcoming United
Nations
Development Program assessment was favourable, if proposed land use
was
sustainable, and the methods used "transparent".
In the past, much of the
land taken over by Mugabe has gone to wealthy
members of the political
elite.
Canadian representative David Kilgour under secretary of state for
Latin
American and African Affairs said his country felt the seizure of
whiteowned
farms by Mugabe's militant "war veterans" was unlawful and
unconstitutional.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido, believed to have
been pushing for a
formula causing least potential offence to his Zimbabwean
hosts, said
today's protracted argument over the communique had been "very
difficult and
very complicated".
He said the delegation had received
"conflicting reports" and a "wide
divergence of views on violence on
whiteowned farms as well as whether
government had done enough to uphold
law."
Kilgour warned earlier that if Mugabe failed to meet Abuja
commitments to
restore law and order before the elections, Canada might
consider economic
sanctions.
Mugabe hounds anti-racist
Judith Todd, who combated white rule, now faces
harrassment from Mugabe's
forces as she fights for the freedom of Zimbabwe's
press.
Andrew Meldrum in Harare
Sunday October 28, 2001
The
Observer
When Judith Todd was arrested last week and taken from her home
in Bulawayo
to Harare for questioning, she had plenty of time to think during
the
five-hour drive. And to remember.
Todd, 57, is the daughter of Sir
Garfield Todd, the 93-year-old former Prime
Minister of Southern Rhodesia.
One of the few whites to align herself with
the African nationalist cause,
she was repeatedly detained by Ian Smith's
government, at one point going on
a hunger strike.
Last week, after her release from custody in which she
had been held along
with four other members of the board of Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe,
she said: 'It all felt so similar. The same type of
vehicles, police
officers sitting on each side of me. The only difference was
that back in
1972 the police were all white and now they are all
black.'
But, as Commonwealth Ministers visited Harare to assess President
Robert
Mugabe's delivery on his promise to end violent seizures of
white-owned
farms, she expressed her determination to defend press freedom in
a country
where it is increasingly under threat.
She spoke to The
Observer of the company's determination to carry on
publishing the massively
popular Daily News. Its printing presses were
destroyed by bombs in January.
Forensic experts say the bombs were created
by army explosives
experts.
She said: 'There are many terrible things being done in this
country today.
I shiver when I read about the atrocities, the beatings, the
torture, the
killings being carried out.'
Of her arrest last week, she
added: 'It is foolish to think the independent
press of Zimbabwe could be
intimidated by such measures. I am pleased this
took place while the mission
of Commonwealth Ministers was here. They can
see what kind of harassment the
independent press faces here on a regular
basis.'
Todd and four other
board members were questioned over a lawsuit pressed by
Mutumwa Mawere, a
businessman with close ties to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
Mawere is trying to
gain control of the Daily News .
She was eventually released in Harare
last Thursday night but was ordered to
report to police the following day and
was not returned to her Bulawayo home
until Friday evening.
She said
the Daily News gave the people a 'daily injection of the truth'. As
a result
it was 'incredibly popular'.
She continued: 'Make no mistake, the Daily
News is under a great deal of
pressure. The staff receive threats and are
intimidated and have been the
victims of violence.
'Everybody at the
newspaper is very dedicated: the drivers, the engineers,
the delivery people
and the vendors. They all are under pressure and they
have all shown
tremendous dedication to getting the newspaper out.
'The Daily News
editor Geoff Nyarota has won several international awards.
With each award
everybody gets continuing support and succour to carry on.'
Meanwhile,
the Commonwealth Ministers were expected to censure the Mugabe
government for
doing little to end the violent seizures of white-owned
farms.
But the
Ministers, who extended their two-day mission by a day until
yesterday,
differed over the tone to adopt in their final communique against
a
government that says it has been doing nothing wrong, diplomats said.
'I
think by and large there is a consensus on the fact that the government
of
Zimbabwe has so far not done much to fulfil its obligations under the
Abuja
agreement, but the hurdle is on how this should be recorded while at
the same
time encouraging the Zimbabwean authorities to be more
co-operative,' one
African diplomat said.
Seven weeks ago in Abuja, Nigeria, Zimbabwe agreed
to end 20 months of
invasions of white-owned farms by black people, in return
for financial help
from the former colonial power, Britain, to create a just
land reform
programme.
Conference sources said the Commonwealth team -
in meetings with farming,
Church, civic and opposition groups on Thursday and
Friday - had left the
government isolated in its assertion it was working to
end the land crisis.
'What has emerged is that the government of Zimbabwe
has a different
interpretation from the majority on what is going on on the
ground and it
would be ideal to get a strong statement out,' one source
said.
John Makumbe, a political analyst and one of Mugabe's leading
critics, said
the Commonwealth must make no apologies in its
assessment.
'The truth is the Abuja agreement has not worked and the
government has no
intention of making it work and you cannot go soft in that
regard,' he said
yesterday, after a group of human rights activists met the
Commonwealth
team.
On Friday, Canada's Secretary of State for Latin
America and Africa, David
Kilgour, told reporters the visiting Ministers
believed the Zimbabwe
government had done little to honour the Abuja
agreement.
'It's my view, and I think the view of a number of other
Ministers here,
that there's been virtually no progress on any of the areas
that the
government of Zimbabwe agreed to move on,' Kilgour said.
In a
deal that was brokered by Nigeria and overseen by the Commonwealth -
which
groups Britain and its former dominions and colonies - Mugabe's
government
agreed to put an end to the land seizures by self-styled veterans
of the
1970s war against white rule.
Critics accuse Mugabe of using the land
issue to fend off a challenge to his
rule at the presidential election that
is due by April next year, while his
ruling Zanu-PF party continues to accuse
Britain of meddling in its affairs.
Sanctions against Zimbabwe possible
New Zealand Herald -
28.10.2001 5.00 am
HARARE - Commonwealth ministers visiting
Zimbabwe think President Robert Mugabe's government has done little to honour
commitments to end a crisis over seizures of white-owned land, the Canadian
representative said Saturday (New Zealand time).
Sanctions, at least by some nations, could
be a possibility, David Kilgour, Canada's secretary of state for Latin America
and Africa, told reporters in Ottawa by telephone from Harare.
Seven weeks ago in Abuja, Nigeria, Zimbabwe
agreed to put a stop to 20 months of invasions of white-owned farms by black
settlers in return for pledges of financial help from former colonial power
Britain to run a just land reform programme.
"It's my view, and I think the view of a
number of other ministers here, that there's been virtually no progress on any
of the areas that the government of Zimbabwe agreed to move on," Kilgour said
after he and other officials, led by Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido, held
talks with political parties.
"There may be a little less violence, and
yet I think even that's open to question. There's been far too much violence and
in my view far too little attempt to comply with what the government of Zimbabwe
agreed to," Kilgour said.
In a deal brokered by Nigeria and overseen
by the Commonwealth, which groups Britain and its former colonies, the Zimbabwe
government agreed put an end to the land seizures by self-styled veterans of the
1970s war against white rule.
But, referring to a planned mission next
month from the UN Development Programme, Kilgour raised the prospect of
sanctions on Friday: "If we find -- or perhaps the UNDP follow-up monitoring in
November (finds) -- that nothing is happening... and Canada or other countries
wanted to decide on sanctions, that's certainly something the government can
do."
Officials of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party
who met the ministers on denied accusations levelled by the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) that there had even been an increase in farm
invasions in the past few weeks.
Critics accuse Mugabe of using the issue to
fend off a challenge to his rule at elections due by April next year while
ZANU-PF accuses Britain of meddling in its affairs.
The Commonwealth delegation, which also
includes ministers from Britain, Kenya, South Africa and Australia, was to
continue its meetings tomorrow. Kilgour said they might meet Mugabe again after
speaking to him on Friday (New Zealand time). Diplomats said the president told
them he was committed to the Abuja accord.
The ministers went to Bita Farm, where two
people died in a clash between farmworkers and new settlers last month.
"The problem is that the farmers don't want
to co-exist with us," said Better Choto, spokesman for 81 families who took
plots on the farm, 140km (90 miles) southwest of the capital Harare.
"They organise their workers, our fellow
Zimbabweans, to fight us," Choto said. "If they want us to co-exist peacefully,
they have to respect the government policy on land".
The settlers were handed the plots under the
"fast-track resettlement programme" -- the name the government has given to what
others see as state-sponsored farm invasions.
The son of the farm owner told the
Commonwealth group that the farmworkers had retaliated after they were attacked.
According to the mainly white Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) which groups 4,500 farmers, at least 680 farms have been
occupied afresh since the Abuja agreement on September 6.
But ZANU-PF said that the government had,
since the deal, moved people from occupied farms to farms it had allocated for
resettlement under the "fast-track resettlement programme".
"As far as ZANU-PF is concerned, Abuja has
succeeded. We can confirm that save for a few areas, the general picture is
stabilising," said ZANU-PF Chairman John Nkomo.
"The British have been using the opposition
to sing the chorus of lawlessness."
- REUTERS
Mozambique Denies Uncontrolled Entry of Zimbabwean
Farmers
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Xinhuanet
2001.10.29 01:41:47
MAPUTO, October, 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Soares Nhaca,
governor of the central
Mozambican province of Manica, has said there has
been no "uncontrolled
entry" of Zimbabwean commercial farmers in
Mozambique.
The local Sunday newspaper Domingo quoted Nhaca as saying
that his
province has licensed 63 Zimbabwean farmers, who have been granted
about
1,000 hectares each.
The government regards the Zimbabwean
farmers just like any other
investors, he said, adding that they are welcome
as long as they indeed
have money to invest.
He added that a large
number of applications from Zimbabwean farmers had
been turned down when the
applicants could not show that they possessed the
resources necessary for
successful investment.
According to the governor, the 63 successful
applicants were given a
total of 63,000 hectares, rather than the 400,000
they had initially asked
for.
It was learnt that the land was being
granted to the Zimbabweans under
normal terms of the Mozambican land
legislation and the land concession is
valid for 50 years and may be
renewed for a further 50.
As for the local residents, Nhaca said his
government has been
explaining to them that the arrival of foreign farmers
does not mean that
Manica peasants will be pushed onto poorer land.
Enditem
News24
No early end to Zim crisis
Harare - A statement issued at
the end of a Commonwealth mission to probe
what steps have been taken to end
violence on Zimbabwe's farms in exchange
for help with land reforms showed
there is little hope for an early end to
the crisis.
Ministers from
seven Commonwealth countries who made up the investigating
team issued a
cautious communique at the end of their three-day mission,
calling on the
government of President Robert Mugabe to implement the
agreement signed in
the Nigerian capital Abuja on September 6 and probe
reports of rights abuses
and violence.
Under the terms of the Abuja agreement, Zimbabwe pledged to
curb the
violence that has raged in the countryside for 20 months in exchange
for
British financial backing for its land reform programme. Harare has said
it
has set up trouble-shooting committees to respond to incidents on
farms.
But Keith Martin, Canada's shadow secretary of state for Africa
and Latin
America who was part of the Commonwealth mission, said reality was
"very
different from what the government is saying.
"The reality is
frightening. Farmworkers have a loaded gun pointed at their
heads and I find
that quite chilling," said Martin.
The Commonwealth ministers also said
in their statement that Harare has
"established a process in accordance with
the Abuja accord".
But Martin said that the procedure of the talks
"ensured that there would be
a very mild (final) statement because the
mission was operating under rules
of consensus and with Zimbabwe being part
of the process (...) it had to
reflect Zimbabwe's
position".
Expressing fear for the stability of the southern African
country, Martin
added, "Zimbabwe must not be allowed to get into a spiral of
violence and
anarchy".
If the Abuja accord is not satisfactorily
applied, Martin said the
international community must act and "remove the
government of Zimbabwe from
the Commonwealth".
Writer and political
commentator Chenjerai Hove said it was unlikely that
Harare would change its
political strategy as a result of the Commonwealth
ministers'
visit.
"I don't think we are going to change much. We are going towards
elections
violently, nothing is going to change," Hove said, adding that
the
Commonwealth team had been "thoroughly and properly hoodwinked" and
had
ended up with "a diluted version of what is happening on the
ground".
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), which represents 4 500 white
farmers who
own more than two thirds of Zimbabwe's prime farmland, responded
cautiously
to the outcome of the talks.
David Hasluck, director of the
CFU, said it was important that the ministers
agreed on the "urgent need to
get farmers to plant without interference, to
build confidence and reduce
conflict".
In the absence of mechanisms to monitor the implementation of
the Abuja
accord, analysts say the main problem is that Abuja is not a legal
but a
political agreement.
A team of experts from the UN Development
Programme (UNDP) will visit
Zimbabwe in November to decide on the procedure
and details relating to the
application of the Abuja land deal.
But
Harare has remained adamant that land reforms will take place with or
without
Abuja. "Abuja or no Abuja, land is getting back to the people. No
amount of
lies, besmirching and demonising will stop the process," an
editorial in the
pro-government Sunday Mail said.
Local media reported that the talks were
divided on racial grounds, with
Australia, Britain and Canada allegedly
taking a stance opposed to that of
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.
- Sapa/AFP
