|
THE beating stopped as the sun began to go down. After
two-and-a-half hours, the fourteen men and one woman held at Matapi police
station in Mbare township, Harare, had suffered five fractured arms, seven hand
fractures, two sets of ruptured eardrums, fifteen cases of severe buttock
injuries, deep soft-tissue bruising all over, and open lacerations.
The 15 included Wellington Chibebe, the leader of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), and senior officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. “As a case of police brutality on a group, it is the worst I’ve ever seen,” a doctor who helped to attend to them said.
Some of the victims spoke for the first time yesterday about the assaults that took place after police broke up an attempted protest by the trade unions against the Government’s ruinous handling of the economy. The savagery of the attacks is seen as indicating the jitteriness in the Government over its hold on power amid the desperate poverty into which President Mugabe has sunk Zimbabweans. “It was carried out as a deliberate, premeditated warning, from the highest level, to anyone else who tries mass protest, that this is what will happen to them,” a Western diplomatic source said. Last Friday 31 protesters appeared in court charged with public order offences. Six were wearing slings. They were remanded on bail for trial on October 3. Some had been taken straight to court from hospital. Mr Chibebe was unable to appear because of his injuries. The Harare demonstration had been intended as part of a day of nationwide protests. A huge police clampdown meant that none could get under way. The Government had given warning that the demonstrations would be “at the ZCTU’s peril” and denounced them as attempts “to create public disorder to achieve regime change”. Last month Mr Mugabe added his own threat to opposition groups — “Be warned: we have armed men and women who can pull the trigger.” The Government has not responded to the world outrage over last week’s violence. Up to last night, the state media had not mentioned the assaults. When would-be protesters were taken to the cells last Wednesday, they found two teams of five young men in standard police uniform and equipped with heavy metre-long wooden sticks. The assailants also used their boots and hands. Prisoners were called out two at a time and beaten continuously for between 15 and 20 minutes. When one team tired, the second took over. At least two sticks were broken on the bodies of the prisoners. It was 36 hours before they were taken to hospital. “It was maximum force,” Toendepi Shonhe, a local MDC organiser, said in hospital yesterday. A bunch of steel and brass keys that he had in his trousers had been buckled from the blows. Mr Chibebe and another trades unionist were the first to be pushed into a small cell. “We heard the screaming and the sound of beating, but we thought it was from another part of the police station,” said Mr Shonhe. “Then Chibebe came out and his face was covered with blood.” Ian Makoni, 56, a member of the MDC national executive, went in with Lucia Matibenga, a MDC vice-president. As Mr Makoni walked into the cell, he received a hard slap in the face: “The man said, ‘So you think you can rule this country. We won’t let that happen’.”
James Gumbi, a member of the ZCTU council, the last to be beaten, received the force of all five assailants at once. The 15 spent the night in a cell meant for five. “All you could hear was groaning all night,” Mr Makoni said. “It was cold on the floor. We had three blankets. You couldn’t move because the cell was so packed. You had to lie on your painful side. It was torture.” Mr Chibebe did not move. “We thought he was going to die,” Mr Shonhe said. “And we thought they were coming back. One of the policemen said, ‘Wait till you see what we are going to do when it is dark.’ ” Mr Shonhe said: “I will demonstrate again. This is only the beginning. The only way out is for us to come together and face the dictator head-on.” VIOLENT CONDUCT
|
URGENT ACTION
Zimbabwe: Fear for safety/
Ill-treatment/ health concern
PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 46/017/2006
14
September 2006
UA 247/06 Fear for safety/ Ill-treatment/ health
concern
ZIMBABWE Lovemore MATOMBO (m), President of Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade
Unions (ZCTU)
Wellington CHIBHEBHE (m), Secretary General of
ZCTU
Lucia MATIBENGA (f), First Vice-President of ZCTU
Hundreds of members
of the ZCTU and Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
Five babies
Amnesty
International is gravely concerned by credible reports that members
of
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), including those named
above,
have
been beaten at Matapi Police Station in the capital, Harare.
They were
transferred to Harare Central Police Station on 14 September.
Hundreds of
members of the ZCTU and women's organization Women of Zimbabwe
Arise (WOZA)
are
also reported to be detained in Harare and other urban
centres in Zimbabwe.
Members of ZCTU and WOZA are being held in a number of
police stations,
without
access to lawyers, adequate food and medical
care. Five babies are thought
to
be detained along with their mothers,
who are WOZA members. There are
serious
concerns for the health and
safety of all those held.
On 13 September in Harare, Lovemore Matombo -
ZCTU President, Wellington
Chibhebhe - ZCTU Secretary General, and Lucia
Matibenga - First
Vice-President
of the ZCTU, were arrested while
attempting to engage in peaceful protest
about
deteriorating social and
economic conditions in Zimbabwe. Other ZCTU members
were also arrested and
detained in Harare, Beitbridge, Bulawayo, Mutare and
other urban centres. On
the eve of the protests, on 12 September, in an
apparent pre-emptive action,
police had also reportedly arrested a number of
ZCTU leaders at their homes
and offices in Rusape, Gweru, Chinhoyi and
Kariba.
Many of them are still
thought to be in detention in deplorable conditions.
On 11 September,
over 100 WOZA members were reportedly arrested ahead of a
planned peaceful
sit-in at Town House in Harare, to protest against
deteriorating services in
the capital city. Over 100 members of WOZA, and
five
babies, have
reportedly been detained since 11 September at various police
stations,
including Harare Central Police Station, Rhodesville Police
Station
and
Mbare Police Station in Harare, and Makoni Police Station in
Chitungwiza.
Among those arrested and detained at Harare Central Police
Station was a
pregnant woman who reportedly became unwell while in police
custody. Her
whereabouts and condition remain unclear, and police have failed
to keep her
lawyer informed of her situation, despite numerous
requests.
Amnesty International understands that all those held have been
detained as
a
consequence of exercising their right to peaceful
demonstration. Amnesty
International believes that all those detained for
engaging in peaceful
protest
should be immediately
released.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Human rights defenders operate in
Zimbabwe under very restrictive
conditions.
The government of Zimbabwe
restricts operations of civil society through
repressive legislation such as
the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and
the
Miscellaneous Offences
Act (MOA). Police across Zimbabwe reportedly denied
ZCTU
organisers
permission to hold peaceful demonstrations on Wednesday 13
September
2006
after being notified - a requirement under the
POSA.
AI Index: AFR 46/017/2006 14 September
2006
The Telegraph
By
Peta Thornycroft in Harare
(Filed:
18/09/2006)
A judge in Zimbabwe is investigating
allegations that police severely
tortured at least 16 trade unionists after
they were arrested for a
three-minute protest against low wages last
week.
About 30 members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) were
arrested last Wednesday when they demanded better pay and access
to
anti-retroviral HIV/AIDS drugs.
On Friday they hobbled
into court, several with their arms in slings,
and one of their lawyers,
Sarudzayi Njerere, said they had been "tortured
brutally and severely" while
they were being arrested. She lodged a
complaint against Zimbabwe's police
commissioner, Augustine Chihuri.
The defence said the ZCTU members
were denied medical attention after
their violent arrest and forced to wade
barefooted through raw sewage in
Matapi police cells previously condemned by
the Supreme Court as unfit for
human occupation.
The judge
heading the case, Olivia Mariga, ordered an investigation
and the men were
released on bail.
Wellington Chibebe, secretary-general of the
ZCTU, was too badly
injured to attend the court and was granted bail in a
special hearing in
hospital. "Blood was running down my face and then I
passed out in the
charge office and woke up in terrible pain 12 hours
later," he said.
Mr Chibebe said five young men in riot police
uniforms shoved them
into a cell and attacked them with batons. "Maybe it
lasted 20 or 30
minutes. I was howling all the time and my colleague
screamed for mercy.
"My arm was broken protecting my head. They
shouted that many had died
for Zimbabwe's freedom, that we were trying to
overthrow a constitutionally
elected government and were agents of the
West.
"They said they were trained to kill us and that their
instructions
came from above and that no one would ever be able to touch
them."
He said he suspected his assailants were members of the
government
youth militia, not regular policemen.
The government
has made no comment on the assaults, which have been
condemned by Western
nations and human rights groups.
Last week about 250 protesters
were arrested and beaten up in
anti-government demonstrations, including 100
women from the Women of
Zimbabwe Arise group.
· Rights groups condemn
'rampant' state violence
· Government fears revolt over economic
crisis
Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg
Monday September 18, 2006
The
Guardian
More than a dozen Zimbabwean trade union leaders were
tortured in police
custody last week, according to harrowing testimony from
their hospital beds
and statements by their lawyers and doctors.
Human
rights groups cited the accounts and gave warning of an increase in
"rampant" violent abuse inflicted by government agents on critics of
President Robert Mugabe's regime.
"Torture in Zimbabwe is both
widespread and systematic, demanding both a
national and an international
response," the Human Rights Forum, a coalition
of 17 Zimbabwean groups, said
yesterday.
More than 100 leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) were
arrested on Wednesday as they were about to launch
marches to protest at the
country's deepening economic crisis.
Many of
those detained are reported to have been so badly beaten by police
that they
suffered broken limbs and other serious injuries. Lawyers said
their clients
were refused medical care or access to their legal
representatives for
nearly 48 hours.
Despite this, union leaders vowed yesterday to continue
their protests.
The ZCTU secretary-general, Wellington Chibebe, was
beaten unconscious and
suffered head injuries and fractures to his arm and
fingers. Speaking from
his Harare hospital bed, his head bandaged and his
arm in a cast, Mr Chibebe
described how the union leaders were taken in
pairs to cells where police
beat them with bars and batons.
He told
the Standard newspaper that he passed out at about 4pm on Wednesday
and
regained consciousness only the next morning. He was not taken to
hospital
until Friday.
He said he was frightened by "the systematic way they were
beating us and
the language they used. They were saying, 'We were trained to
kill and not
to write dockets.'"
An extraordinary court session was
conducted at his hospital bed on Saturday
where he was granted free bail.
The magistrate ordered an investigation into
the assault.
About 30
labour activists also hobbled into court late on Friday after being
beaten.
Lovemore Matombo, the ZCTU president, and Lucia Matibenga, the
vice-president, suffered broken arms. All were released on
bail.
Lawyers for the union organisers said that after their prolonged
beatings
they were initially denied medical attention and forced to wade
barefoot
through sewage in cells condemned as inhumane by the supreme
court.
The Human Rights Forum reported that torture by state agents was
increasing
from the already high level recorded last year. The group
documented 69
cases of torture in July and said incidence of such brutal
mistreatment was
"rampant", with "people in detention at significantly
greater risk".
It demanded an immediate investigation into all
allegations of torture and
the prosecution of all those with substantial
evidence against them.
The Mugabe government has refused to prosecute
police and other agents
accused of torture. In many instances those accused
have been promoted.
The government is reported to be worried about the
threat of a popular
revolt. It has received a report from the secret police,
the Central
Intelligence Organisation, saying that unrest has been growing
as a result
of the economic crisis, according to military
sources.
Inflation of 1,200% has left workers unable to feed their
families properly.
Business Day
Karima Brown and
Amy
Musgrave
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRESSURE
is mounting on President Thabo Mbeki to take action against
Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe following the arrest and assault of
Zimbabwean trade
unionists.
The latest call comes from the Young Communist League (YCL),
which was
kicked out of SA's northern neighbour last week following a visit
to that
country.
"We reiterate our call for speedy intervention by
our government, the
Southern African Development Commu-nity and the African
Union. Our country
is going to be the one that suffers most economically as
continued poverty
in that country leads to ordinary Zimbabweans fleeing here
for better jobs
and food," YCL national secretary Buti Manamela
said.
About 2000 Zimbabweans are deported from SA every week, but many
are known
to come back soon thereafter because of the poor conditions in
their
country.
The league yesterday said it was disturbed by
reports that leaders of the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and some of
its affiliates were beaten by
police because they were planning a strike in
support of a basic living wage
and against poverty and
unemployment.
The annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe reached a new
record high of
1204,6% last month. The previous high of 1193% was recorded
in May.
"All of this points to the determination by
Mugabe to apply an iron hand in
suppressing genuine and democratic attempts
to salvage the situation in that
country," Manamela said.
The
league was scathing about interventions by Mbeki and the international
community, saying "firmer and visible" interventions were needed to halt the
"dictatorial trail" of the Zimbabwean government.
The Congress of
South African Trade Unions also condemned the arrest of
their Zimbabwean
counterparts.
It is expected that Mbeki's policy on Zimbabwe will come
under attack at
Cosatu's four-day elective congress. Opposition parties also
called for
stronger action against Mugabe.
An alliance of independent
human rights groups yesterday demanded the
immediate prosecution of police
and soldiers who allegedly assaulted and
injured labour leaders who had been
attempting to stage antigovernment
protest marches across the country. The
Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said
torture in the troubled southern African
nation was "both widespread and
systematic" - evidenced, it said, by the
savage ill-treatment while in
custody of leaders of the main labour
federation arrested in Harare last
Wednesday.
It said the leaders
were subjected to beatings and torture that left them
with bone fractures
and other serious injuries.
Wellington Chibebe, the federation
secretary-general, suffered a broken arm
and hand, and head
injuries.
Harare magistrate Peter Mufunda held a court hearing at the
state
Parirenyatwa hospital on Saturday and deferred court action against
Chibebe
to October 3. Chibebe is accused of inciting protesters to cause a
breach of
the peace.
Mufunda ordered an investigation into the
treatment of at least 16 labour
leaders in Matapi police cells, one of the
capital's harshest jails, after
their arrest. With Sapa and DPA
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Alois Phiri Mbawara
LONDON - As
Zimbabwean Youth living in the UK, we had an unprecedented
opportunity to
attend a fund raising dinner hosted by Global Afrikan
Congress (GAC) for the
forthcoming Global Afrikan congress to be held in
Harare from the 1st- 6th
October 2006.
It was an opportunity to have a first insight and
analysis on how the
African Community perceives the Zimbabwean crisis. The
GAC resolution is to
"Break the Embargo Against Zimbabwe" - "repairing the
damage, re-addressing
the injustice and recognise Robert Gabriel Mugabe and
the Government of
Zimbabwe as the only structure mandated and committed in
dealing with the
land reform programme in Africa".
The most
insightful moment of the evening was that the solidarity
event was a clear
indication that Mugabe has successfully sold the current
economic and
political meltdown in Zimbabwe as being due to "illegal"
sanctions imposed
by EU and US because he has "returned" Zimbabwe's land to
its "rightfully
owners" and has provided a "promising future" to all African
people
worldwide.
It was painful to sit there and listen to all these
people who were
speaking in solidarity with a leader who has lost the
mandate to rule the
former breadbasket of southern Africa, a leader who
unleashes riot police
armed to the teeth and the army on poor workers crying
to a better deal, a
leader who has literally destroyed the country as he
continues to maintain
his stranglehold on power. If only they could all see
the amount of
suffering that is going on in Zimbabwe at the moment - of
course they have
been told that people are suffering because of the targeted
sanctions
because Mugabe has successfully sold his story to those willing to
listen to
him.
Global Afrikan Congress is a network of
well-established African
communities. These are true African moguls of
Caribbean and Eastern African
roots who been in the UK for more than 30
years and are working flat-out in
keeping the African (Black) history
alive.
The Congress is behind the fighting for enslavement and
African
Colonisation to be declared as a crime against Humanity and for
reparations.
The dinner was served with African food with some conchies
reggae music,
with the delegates Gee Bernard,Priestess Ifayoriju, Glenroy
Watson, Kijanji
Bangarah and guest speaker George Shire chanting and
referring to the
history of Marcus Garvey, Haile Selassie and claiming
fighting for the
emancipation from mental slavery.
So the
solidarity message was to condemn the targeted sanctions
against Zimbabwe.
The Council said "the Bush and Blair blockage has no legal
foundation and no
United Nations mandate", and called on all Africans to be
in the forefront
of breaking what they called internationally illegal
blockage against the
southern African country.
It is sad that Mugabe has managed to
penetrate these well-developed
African communities in his quest to divert
attention from his misrule and
submitting "Agrarian land reform" as his idea
of emancipation from colonial
rule when infact only a few have benefited
from the chaotic programme. It is
a fact that people in Zimbabwe today are
suffering because of Mugabe's
knee-jack policies, his iron-fisted rule, the
stolen elections and related
issues.
In their press statement,
the GAC said it considered the current
situation in Zimbabwe to be a "direct
result of the betrayal of the
Lancaster House Agreement by the United States
of America and the United
Kingdom and association supported from their
fellow European family".
"The Global Afrikan Congress wishes to
inform the world that it is
holding its 3rd Biennial Family Gathering in
Harare, Zimbabwe from the 1st -
6th October 2006 in solidarity with the
people and Government of Zimbabwe."
It continued: "GAC notes that
the Western blockades against Zimbabwe
are totally illegal and unjust and
above all have no legitimate mandate or
approval from the United Nations.
The GAC by decree of its Congress at the
historical Gathering of
Afrikans/Descendants in Bridgetown Barbados 2002
fully supports the people
and Government of Zimbabwe to break the British/US
Western illegitimate
blockade, and calls upon all Afrikans to be at the
forefront of this
struggle against this unjust act of blatant racist
imperialist
ploy."
It was sad to note that such an articulated event did not
have any
representative from the Zimbabwean community except for Mugabe's
visible
Central Intelligence Officers (CIO) present which was a clear
indication
that our opinion as ordinary Zimbabweans on our crisis is not
valid by our
African counterparts standards.
This has given us
young Zimbabweans and the Zimbabwean Community as a
whole homework to revise
our strategy on fighting the regime in Harare. It's
high time we respect and
follow the fundamental principles of art of war,
our attack formation has to
change. For the past six years the deterioration
of the political and social
climate in Zimbabwe has proven that the only
feasible resolution is in the
hands of ordinary Zimbabweans (Pro-democracy
forces) and the major influence
of our African counterparts. It is high time
we use Mugabe's tactics (not
violence) to disintegrate Zanu PF rule which
has become a culture and which
needs to be eradicated at grass roots level.
We Zimbabweans need to
penetrate within our fellow African communities
and submit them with our own
vivid analysis of the state of affairs in our
motherland. We need to get
involved in these African communities, civic
societies and articulate with
them and explain that land reform is very
crucial but in 2000 it was used as
another trick from Mugabe's propaganda
book to avert a looming defeat at the
hands of the popular MDC after massive
defeat in the Constitutional
referendum. A worthy cause was used to divert
attention from his misrule and
present the world with total lies and
fabrications on the situation on the
ground.
The real story of Zimbabwe is the police and army
brutalities,
oppressive laws such as AIPPA and POSA, the effects of
operations
Murambatsvina, Gukurahundi atrocities and the gross human rights
abuses that
continue in Zimbabwe today. There is an urgent need for the
emancipation of
the people of Zimbabwe from Mugabe's terror rule. At this
point in time it
is very crucial for all pro-democracy forces to put their
differences aside
and use one attack formation to deal with Mugabe and his
government.
One wonders whether Munyaradzi Gwisai was right on his
Socialist
ideology towards confronting Mugabe's tyranny?
Alois
Mbawara is one of the leaders of Free Zim Youth. He can be
contacted on freezim6@yahoo.co.uk
 Guide Mike Scott near elephant bones, a legacy of drought, at Hwange National Park. (John Donnelly/ Globe Staff) |
HWANGE NATIONAL PARK, Zimbabwe -- Wildlife guide Mike Scott followed footprints of one large animal after another -- elephant, buffalo, kudu, leopard, lion -- and then stopped suddenly, sniffing the air. ``Shall we follow our noses?" he said, heading toward a powerful stench that grew more noxious by the step.
While cycles of nature have always brought wide-scale death to Africa's wildlife, the acts of man have recently exacted a heavy toll in Zimbabwe.
In the past year, many animal water holes at Hwange, the crown jewel of Zimbabwe's parks system, have run dry as old pumps failed and there was no money to repair them. In the last three years, poaching has risen after park ranger salaries were reduced to almost nothing by inflation.
The country's long economic crisis, spurred in part by the government's seizure of white-owned farms starting more than six years ago, has led to an almost complete cutoff in money to Zimbabwe's national parks, among the most beautiful in southern Africa. Desperate for help at Hwange, the government in recent months has been relying on an unlikely source: a conservation society made up almost exclusively of whites.
The Friends of Hwange, using more than $1 million in donated private funds, last month finished rebuilding more than half of the park's 50 water holes, where animals drink and bathe, and paid for fuel to run the pumps and for anti-poaching patrols. In the coming months, Friends of Hwange members will visit the park frequently, becoming shadow rangers.
Around Africa, conservation groups have long played a significant role in helping to run parks systems. But in recent years, there has been nothing quite like the hasty takeover at Hwange, providing another example of the disintegration of President Robert Mugabe's government.
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's ruler since independence in 1980, ordered the forcible seizure of farms from white landowners starting in March 2000 in what many analysts saw as a strategic move to hold on to power. Whites, who made up less than 1 percent of the population, controlled 70 percent of the country's arable farmland. But the widespread farm takeovers created an economic disaster: a flight of foreign capital, plummeting agricultural production, and an annual inflation rate now hovering around 1,000 percent.
Turning to whites now strikes some Zimbabweans as bizarre.
``We live under a lunatic regime -- the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing," said Peter Mundy , who until recently was the parks service's ornithologist. ``On one hand, the government chases off all the white farmers, and on the other hand, they are trying to get some help from the whites. It's an abrogation of the government's responsibility, but they have no money."
A spokesman for the parks service, Edward Mbewe , did not return several telephone messages seeking comment, but a prominent environmentalist said the government's move benefits everyone.
The parks face multiple stresses. Tourists have become as rare as lion sightings, scared off because of the country's political crisis and scarce fuel for their vehicles. And in addition to poaching, specialists say, legal hunters have been allowed to kill an unsustainable number of big-game animals, including lions, in areas adjacent to Hwange.
Hwange, larger than the state of Connecticut, was in the early 19th century the royal hunting grounds of the Ndebele warrior-king Mzilikazi. Unlike many refurbished national parks around the continent, it lacks romantic lodgings and other amenities. Its spartan wooden cabins desperately need fresh paint and new furniture. But it does offer unspoiled settings for visitors to experience wildlife roaming freely.
``The park is still simple," said Vilma Gianini , a Swiss architect working in Zimbabwe who was on Scott's walking safari tour. ``There's no swimming pools. Just a few campsites and a few chalets. And the bush -- that's it."
The park is home to a tremendous variety of wildlife, including more than 100 species of mammals and nearly 400 species of birds. But during a four-day visit this summer, animal herds were rarely seen. Other recent tourists to Hwange had similar experiences.
``There was hardly any animals, almost no wildlife in the plains," said David Coltart, an opposition lawmaker to Mugabe's government who recently spent five days in the park. Coltart blamed an upswing in poaching and uncontrolled hunting near the park.
Hermanus ``Buck" deVries, 70, who lost his Hwange-area hunting safari business and farm in 2003 when more than 100 armed men forced him off the land, also said that unregulated hunting in the past three years had almost wiped out many of the large species.
Hunting is legal outside Hwange, but it is regulated, with each reserve given quotas for the number of animals that can be killed. During the past year, the government has banned hunting of lions in some areas after counts showed that the numbers of the big cats in Hwange had dropped from 500 in 1996 to about 100 today. But some people say that lion-hunting persists.
``You've got total breakdown of law and order here. There's no more trophies," deVries said in an interview in Bulawayo, about 150 miles south of Hwange, referring to the hunting of lions, rhinos, and buffalos. ``What hunters are shooting now is rubbish."
DeVries and others said hunters have reported paying $25,000 in recent years for the chance to legally shoot an elephant, $10,000 for a leopard, and $7,500 for a buffalo. Before the ban on lion-hunting, hunters paid $30,000 to $34,000 to shoot a lion.
On a recent afternoon, Scott, 42, the wildlife guide, was driving slowly on one of Hwange's back roads when another vehicle approached. Scott jumped out and warmly greeted the other driver, Leon Varley , 50, a longtime safari operator in southern Africa. They swapped intelligence.
``Chizarira's getting hammered" by poachers, Varley said, referring to a small park about 75 miles northeast of Hwange. ``A lot of elephants poached last year. They also caught guys moving ivory. Said it was going to the Chinese."
But both Scott and Varley believe that Hwange can rebound. After a walk in which he followed tracks to 13 bathing hippos and four black-backed jackals, and also found pearl-spotted owls and a fish eagle, Scott said that last year's drought had one major benefit -- forcing the government to seek outside help.
``You kind of need a crisis like this for people to do something," Scott said.
John Donnelly can be reached at donnelly@globe.com 
People's Daily
The struggling national airliner Air Zimbabwe has managed to rake in
some
revenue this year, but still remains in the doldrums due to mounting
operational expenses, The Sunday Mail reported.
The parastatal
still remains technically insolvent and officials are
mulling pegging the
airfares in foreign currency, the newspaper said.
Statistics from
the company reveal that the total revenue by March
this year was at 1.8
billion Zimbabwe dollars (7.2 million U. S. dollars),
while expenses stood
at 3.6 billion Zimbabwe dollars (14.4 million U.S.
dollars).
Luxon Zembe, a board member of the company, revealed during the update
of
the group's turnaround strategy that although 80 percent of the airline's
revenue was in local currency, 90 percent of its expenses were in hard
currency, a situation that has adversely affected operations.
By March this year, the cargo that was freighted plummeted to 3, 203
tons
from the 7,484 tons for the comparative period last year, while
passengers
also went down from 467,000 to 231,000.
Source: Xinhua
New Zimbabwe
By
Staff Reporter
Last updated: 09/18/2006 12:33:06
ZIMBABWE'S acting
Information Minister faced public humiliation Sunday when
police suggested
he had lied over a shooting incident which is said to have
occurred at his
Harare residence on Saturday night.
Mangwana, who is also Minister of
State for State Enterprises,
Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies, told state
radio that gunmen had opened
fire on his Harare home. The minister claimed
he was being intimidated
because of his fight against
corruption.
News that unknown gunmen had attacked his home was top of
radio bulletins on
Sunday morning.
State radio speculated that the
attack may have been carried out by elements
opposed to President Robert
Mugabe's anti-corruption crusade launched in
2004, but which has so far
netted only minor figures.
However, police on Sunday rejected any claims
that shots had been fired on
the minister's residence. In fact, according to
police spokesman Oliver
Mandipaka, "only STONES were thrown" at the
minister's home.
The only shots fired, Mandipaka said, were warning shots
by a police officer
guarding Mangwana's residence.
The new version of
events will likely prove an embarrassment to Mangwana who
could not be
reached for comment late Sunday.
The Herald
Zim's unemployment only 11pc: CSO
New Ziana.
THE
Central Statistical Office (CSO) said on Thursday the rate of
unemployment
in Zimbabwe is 11 percent - and not 80 percent as is widely
believed by some
people.
CSO acting director-general Mr Moffat Nyoni said this while
responding to a
question from Mufakose MP, Ms Paulina Mpariwa, at a workshop
to sensitise
legislators on the transformation of the CSO into an autonomous
body.
"It is 11 percent, that is what we found," he said. "We do not know
where
the 80 percent comes from."
Mr Nyoni said had the figure of 80
percent been correct, the situation in
Zimbabwe would have been such that
rescue planes would be airlifting people
from the country, as they would
more or less be dying from starvation.
He said the figure was not
correct, as it was not based on any definition
used internationally, which
linked unemployment to income.
"If a person can put food on the table
from selling tomatoes, then they are
employed," he said.
Mr Nyoni
said the problem of incorrect unemployment figures was not unique
to
Zimbabwe, as he had met statisticians from other countries that had
similar
experiences.
Many people have a tendency to assume that earning a living
from the
informal sector was not a form of employment.
The majority
of people in Zimbabwe are moving away from the culture of
looking for
employment in large companies as they discover that they can
earn more from
starting their own businesses. Many of the people that have
taken this route
have achieved great success and, in addition to competing
with established
companies, have managed to improve their standards of
living as well as
create employment for others.
In the majority of cases, such people were
retrenched or left redundant when
some companies with Western connections
closed shop and relocated to
neighbouring countries when the economy
deteriorated.
The Zimbabwe Government has adopted a deliberate policy to
promote the
informal sector to become the engine for economic growth through
availing
financial resources to small and medium entrepreneurs. - New
Ziana.
