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Archived News
21th May 2002
Zimbabwean parties to propose talks
Zim talks were just talk, say analysts
Zimbabwe sanctions fruitless, UK admits
Zimbabwe police force workers to return to farms they fled
Family X suffer the children
Zanu PF youths occupy MDC rally venue
Tobacco sales suspended in Zimbabwe
12,000 evicted from land seized by Mugabe
Riot gear sale to Mugabe was backed by Peres
Alleged Nabanyama murderers set free
EU team jets in to act on Mugabe
Mtukudzi denies endorsing Mugabe's disputed victory
Mbeki in last bid to save party talks
Zimbabwe arrests three journalists
Canada drops Tsvangirai probe
US delays Mugabe flight, Libya steps in
Chipinge police arrest MDC officials, impound vehicles
ESC member resigns over poll
MDC polling agent was murdered
Zimbabwe police chief flouts EU ban
Land to the politburo
Three million face starvation in Zimbabwe
Three Zim journalists get bail
Zim court says media law challenge not urgent
Commonwealth's Zimbabwe safari
The great betrayal
Local judge incompetent: SA
Screws tighten on Mugabe
MDC member dies after attacks
Farmers arrested again
Gloom over Zimbabwe's maize crop
Nepad's Zim quarantine a false start
Six MDC activists charged under new Zimbabwean law
Police bar MDC rally
NGO's under threat, EU on Mbeki's role
Zim pupils turn to SA after exam ban
Harare tops list of poor harvests
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From SABC News, 14 May
Zimbabwean parties to propose talks
The Zimbabwean ruling party Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change were expected to make proposals today for the resumption of so-called unitary talks, the South African Foreign Affairs Department said. Envoys from South Africa and Nigeria on Monday held separate talks with the two parties after Zanu PF decided to pull out of scheduled mediated discussions with the MCD. "It was agreed that representatives from the two parties would consult their principals and report back today regarding proposals for the resumption of discussions," department spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said. Kgalema Motlanthe, the general secretary of the African National Congress, and a Nigerian envoy were in Zimbabwe to mediate in the talks. The unitary discussions were reportedly postponed on the grounds of a pending court case brought by the MCD in a bid to nullify the results of the March presidential elections - won by President Robert Mugabe.
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From The Star (SA), 14 May
Zim talks were just talk, say analysts
Harare - A decision by Zimbabwe's ruling party to postpone talks with the main opposition movement is a sign that President Robert Mugabe is regaining his political confidence after his controversial re-election, analysts say. But Mugabe's Zanu PF government remains vulnerable to international pressure as it battles severe food shortages in the southern African state. He could yet be dragged back to the negotiating table to ease post-election tension, they said. Zanu PF announced at the weekend that it had cancelled further talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) until the courts ruled on an MDC challenge to Mugabe's victory in the March 9-11 presidential elections.
South Africa and Nigeria, Africa's most powerful countries, who have been mediating the inter-party dialogue, have been applying intense pressure to bring the ruling party back to the talks, the analysts said. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has emerged as Mugabe's biggest threat since the 78-year-old former guerrilla came to power 22 years ago, says the elections were rigged. The March poll was condemned as fraudulent by key Western powers, including the European Union and the United States, southern African parliamentarians and the Commonwealth, which suspended Zimbabwe. Some African governments and the Organisation of African Unity endorsed Mugabe's 60-40 victory and South African observers called the polls "legitimate". Mugabe's party insists the veteran leader won fairly and has rejected opposition calls for a re-run. Zanu PF said its talks with the MDC - which were due to resume on Monday after a brief session last month - would not be useful in a political environment "poisoned by the MDC's continuous lies" over Zanu PF's alleged campaign of violence against MDC activists.
Professor Heneri Dzinotyiwei, a political analyst at the University of Zimbabwe, said Zanu PF's decision to suspend talks with the MDC underlined its growing political confidence and its scepticism over the utility of the talks. "What we are looking at is an important political statement from Zanu PF saying that Zanu PF has little to gain from these talks," said Dzinotyiwei, chairperson of political pressure group Zimbabwe Integrated Programme (ZIP). "Zanu-PF is saying that it is confident that it has the ability to defend its political position at home and on the international diplomatic stage," he said. But other political analysts said Zanu PF remains vulnerable to foreign pressure. Brian Raftopoulos, an associate professor at the Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies, said Nigeria and South Africa had the muscle to pull Zanu-PF back to negotiations. "The Zimbabwe economy is in a very serious crisis and needs outside help, and Zimbabwe has a very, very serious food shortage which can only be alleviated with the assistance of the international community," Raftopoulos said. "If Zanu PF gets back into the talks it will be for public relations purposes because in its view these talks are doomed to fail," he added. South Africa has mostly adopted a policy of quiet diplomacy towards its troublesome northern neighbour. Remarks by Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota last week suggested there was a cabinet split over that policy. "The government of Zimbabwe would not listen to us. We asked them to stop the looting of farms and not to follow the route of lawlessness but we failed," he said. On Monday he made clear that view was his own, not the government's.
The Zimbabwe government was gloating on Monday that Mugabe, who has been slapped with travel sanctions by the United States and the EU, managed to go to New York last week for a United Nations childrens' conference without any incident. Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper quoted Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge as saying that Mugabe's UN trip, through France, proved that the "smart sanctions" against Mugabe and his political and business associates had failed. Mudenge said the trip demonstrated the world recognised Mugabe's leadership of the former Rhodesia, which he has ruled since it gained independence from Britain in 1980. "We wanted to demonstrate that the sanctions will not stop us from carrying out our diplomatic functions... that our international intercourse is not affected by sanctions," he said. The United States does not normally prevent visits to UN headquarters, which are not US territory. In an editorial entitled "(Zanu PF/MDC) Talks were doomed to fail," the Herald said while Zimbabwe welcomed Nigeria and South Africa's good faith in trying to restart talks, the talks would be useless and there was no crisis over Zimbabwe's leadership. "Zimbabwe is no longer an international issue except in the minds of the MDC and its blind supporters," it said.
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From The Guardian (UK), 15 May
Zimbabwe sanctions fruitless, UK admits
International sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime have failed to improve human rights in Zimbabwe, a "deeply frustrated" Foreign Office minister was forced to admit yesterday. Baroness Amos, the minister for Africa, said that discussions will be held in the coming weeks with Zimbabwe's neighbouring states to see whether further steps need to be taken to encourage President Mugabe to respect the rule of law. Speaking in the wake of a breakdown in talks between Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF regime and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Lady Amos said there was "no evidence" of an improvement in human rights despite the imposition of EU sanctions and Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth. The measures were imposed after Mr Mugabe's disputed election victory in March, which prompted widespread criticism from Africa and across the world.
Lady Amos said that EU sanctions had imposed "some inconvenience" on Zanu PF leaders. But in an appearance before the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee, she added: "Where we have a government that appears to care very little for what is happening to its own citizens and is not really prepared to take on board the concerns of the international community ... there is a limit to what the international community not just the British Government - can achieve. Will suspension make a difference? It's too soon to tell. It's certainly not clear now what impact suspension has had." Commonwealth ministers on a special action group are due to discuss Zimbabwe at a meeting in Botswana on Thursday. EU foreign ministers will assess the impact of their sanctions at a June 17 summit in Luxembourg.
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From VOA News, 14 May
Zimbabwe police force workers to return to farms they fled
Zimbabwe police have rounded up scores of former commercial farm workers, and forcibly returned them to the farm they fled two weeks ago. The workers had been forced to leave their jobs and homes by supporters of President Robert Mugabe. The former farm workers and their families were living at two camps near Harare, set up by private non-governmental groups. The camps were a temporary home for some of the tens of thousands of farm workers and families who have lost jobs since Mr. Mugabe launched the invasions and seizures of white-owned land more than two years ago. Rev. Tim Neil, director of Zimbabwe Community Development, which runs the two camps, said police on Sunday rounded up scores of the displaced workers and their families, and took them to the farm, which they had fled just two weeks ago, about 45 kilometers away. He said many of those taken in the police raid were children.
The Reverend Neil said he was shocked by the police action. And he said he has filed an urgent application to Zimbabwe's High Court in an attempt to force the government to allow the refugees to return to the camps. At least one of the former farm workers who was taken away did manage to return. He said police did not tell the people now occupying the land why the former workers had been returned. He said the situation was frightening, because the people now occupying the farm were angry. He said one had an automatic weapon, and others were armed with whips and sticks. He said the former workers were forced to sing ruling Zanu PF party songs. Then, he said, they ran into the bush where they spent the night. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said police took the refugees from the camps for security reasons. He gave no other details.
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From ZWNEWS, 15 May
Family X suffer the children
On 28th February 2002 Mr X had his hut burnt down by his Zanu PF neighbour - who is also a cousin. He lost all his kitchen utensils this hut was recently built and all his savings were put into the building. The hedge of branches was also deliberately burnt allowing cattle into the field and they destroyed the entire crop, which would probably have been about four bags of maize. On 27th March 2002, this same X was captured by the militia and severely tortured in their camp nearby. He is now a refugee and living with his three destitute children elsewhere. His children are not in school as there is no money for fees. Mr X reports deep concern about the effects of the violence on his children, who are now finding life very tough. After MDC lost the election, the local ZANU officials made coffins with the names of MDC officials on them one had his name on, and this has deeply upset his children. The children of local Zanu PF officials have imitated their parents and threaten X’s children with death. The children are also now resentful of their parents for their MDC affiliation saying that if it was not for that, they would not have been deprived of their home and safety. The parents are isolated for political reasons and it impacts directly on the children, who are isolated by association.
There is a second X family across the road, headed by X’s brother. This brother has been persecuted time and again because of his affiliation to MDC. On visiting this second homestead, two small children were found without supervision. They are aged 7 and 8 years. Both should currently be in school, but were sitting unkempt and without energy on a rock. They have been out of school since January 2002. They were trying to break open marula pips with rocks, to get the tiny nuts inside, and this is how they spend their days. This, and other wild fruit is their major food source. Their father has been on the run since January and does not dare to come home, and the mother spends her days away trying to raise money by buying and reselling sugar cane. The children were present at the homestead in August last year when their father was severely beaten by war veterans in front of them. They were apparently deeply traumatised by witnessing this. They also witnessed the burning of their uncle’s hut . These children are not currently benefiting from any feeding scheme, although they should be eligible for the scheme starting at Mururezi School. However, they are not under 5 and not attending school either.
The X family live in Mberengwa East a constituency that experienced one of the highest levels of violence in both the June 2000 parliamentary and March 2002 presidential elections. The experience of the X family is contained in a report on selective feeding in the Mberengwa area by the Amani Trust a respected human rights organisation that deals with victims of torture. The report details political discrimination in food aid programmes, the continuing torture of villagers by Zanu PF militias, and the continual battle by international agencies to get food to those in need against obstruction by government officials. In some cases, people have even been denied access to water. If you would like a copy of the full report, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message total size 73 KB, or about 1 ½ times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From The Daily News, 14 May
Zanu PF youths occupy MDC rally venue
Worried by the support the opposition party is attracting at its meetings, Zanu PF youths in Chipinge South have occupied Chibuwe Grounds, the venue for an MDC rally to be addressed by the party’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, tomorrow. Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC’s spokesman in Manicaland, said the action was calculated to intimidate MDC members and discourage them from attending the rally. This is not the first time that Zanu PF supporters have tried to bar the opposition party from holding a political rally. In January, Zanu PF militants occupied White City Stadium in Bulawayo overnight and beat up MDC supporters who came in to attend a rally the following morning. The police used tear-gas to disperse MDC supporters who were waiting outside the stadium to get in, while no action was taken against the Zanu PF supporters responsible for the violence. One of the MDC members who was severely assaulted later died in hospital. Last Sunday, Tsvangirai addressed 25 000 supporters at a rally in Hwange.
Lucia Matibenga, the MDC’s national chairwoman, Nelson Chamisa, the national youth chairperson, and Lovemore Madhuku, the National Constitutional Assembly chairman, are also expected to address the Chipinge rally. Muchauraya said yesterday: "Police gave us the clearance to hold the rally in those grounds, so I do not understand what the confusion is regarding Zanu PF youths’ action. Since Saturday, they have been toyi-toying in the grounds. Our supporters in that area have informed us they have been intimidated not to come to the grounds. Our preparations have been frustrated as we cannot get access to the grounds. All the same, I can assure our supporters that the rally will go ahead, no matter what happens." He warned that if the Zanu PF youths continued to with their harassment in Chipinge, where hundreds of the opposition party members have fled, the MDC might consider retaliating. The Mutare police refused to comment. Charles Pemhenai, Zanu PF’s spokesman in the province, denied his party had sanctioned the move by youths into the venue. "We are not a Mafia organisation," Pemhenai said. "Why should the MDC tarnish the name of our party by reporting falsehoods? They are lying. There is no such thing. If they have any problems, they should report to the police."
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From The Financial Times (UK), 15 May
Tobacco sales suspended in Zimbabwe
Harare - Sales at two of Zimbabwe's three tobacco auction floors were suspended amid near-chaos when small-scale tobacco growers protested angrily at the prices offered by buyers. The small-scale growers were infuriated by what they saw as unrealistically low prices, though in US dollar terms the prices were little different from those on the opening day of the sales in the two previous years. At the largest of the three floors, where the volume of leaf sold was tiny, the price averaged 167 US cents a kilogramme, down 3.5 per cent from 173 cents last year. Sales were halted after small-scale growers protested at the prices paid and large-scale farmers tore up their tickets, designating rejection of the sale.
The problem is not the prices but the exchange rate. In 2001, the tobacco market was distorted by the yawning gap between the official exchange rate of Z$55 to the US dollar and the parallel market rate, which rose above Z$325 to the US unit during the tobacco sales season. This meant that buyers could source foreign exchange at the official rate and buy tobacco on the floors at prices well above those ruling in world tobacco markets. As a result the average floor price almost doubled last year from 169 US cents a kg in 2000 to 318 cents. But the actual export price averaged only 175 cents, so the apparent surge in prices was the result not of better tobacco or increased demand but currency manipulation. In a move to stamp out this practice, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has imposed new strict rules, so that all purchases are made in foreign currency.
Growers warned the government that even assuming prices rose to an average 200 cents in 2002, at the official exchange rate, the local currency price of Z$110 would be about half the cost of production. This grim reality on Tuesday dawned on the small-scale growers, who initially blamed foreign buyers and their agents but turned on the government after auction officials had explained the economics of the crisis. Some demanded the cancellation of the sales until Simba Makoni, finance minister, agreed to devalue the official exchange rate. Government spokesmen have repeatedly ruled this out, leaving Makoni to choose between a special, "devalued" exchange rate for tobacco (as is the practice for gold exports), or widening the country's exchange controls to stamp out the parallel market altogether. This latter strategy, while popular with government hardliners, would be self-defeating since it would undermine other export sectors that are still able to exploit the parallel market.
The stand-off between growers and the government is likely to be resolved by a devalued rate for tobacco exports. This, however, is unlikely to revive an industry that looks to be heading for a precipitous decline in 2003. Most commercial tobacco farmers have had their properties listed for compulsory acquisition by the state. By the end of last month, 85 per cent of Zimbabwe's 6000 commercial farms were listed, covering some 10.2m hectares (93 per cent) out of a total of just over 11m hectares. This suggests that if the government takes the vast majority of commercial farms, there will be a very small tobacco crop in 2003. This season's crop is estimated at 168m kg, 17 per cent down on last year and almost 30 per cent smaller than in 2000. Tobacco is Zimbabwe's largest export, earning an estimated US$500m last year out of total exports of US$1.7bn. It is small wonder then that in Harare yesterday both growers and buyers were warning that the sale of 2002 could mark the end of the Zimbabwe tobacco industry "as we know it".
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From The Guardian (UK), 16 May
12,000 evicted from land seized by Mugabe
The Zimbabwean government has begun evicting 12,000 poor black families from "illegally" settled white-owned farms and other land, including property owned by a cabinet minister and the church. The state-owned Herald newspaper said the families must vacate the small proportion of white-owned farms in Masvingo province not designated for seizure under Robert Mugabe's land reforms. Squatters must also leave designated wildlife conservation areas, church properties and black-owned farms, including one owned by the speaker of the Zimbabwean parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a close ally of Mr Mugabe. Evictions in other provinces are expected in coming weeks. An agriculture ministry official told Reuters: "That has always been the policy, that the government is not going to allow illegal resettlement. What is going on now is simply that the land committees have been asked to move against those who have settled themselves illegally."
About 95% of white-owned farmland has been designated for redistribution. Last week, Mr Mugabe tightened laws governing the transfer by giving his administration immediate control of those farms targeted for seizure. Any farmer attempting to hinder the redistribution faces up to two years in prison under the revised law. Mr Mugabe says he wants to complete the land redistribution programme by August. His critics say it has been a major contributor to a widespread severe food shortage. There was a further blow to the agricultural economy on Tuesday when angry black tobacco farmers halted the first day of the annual auction of Zimbabwe's biggest hard currency earner because of objections to exchange rate controls in tobacco sales.
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From The Scotsman (UK), 15 May
Riot gear sale to Mugabe was backed by Peres
Jerusalem - The Israeli government has endorsed the sale of heavy riot control vehicles to Zimbabwe, the state-run radio station, Kol Yisrael reported yesterday. The report, on the station’s respected international affairs programme, quoted foreign ministry sources as saying that Shimon Peres, the foreign minister, had authorised the transaction between the Beit Alfa Trailer company and the Mugabe regime, but had specified that it be delayed until after Zimbabwe’s March elections. Use of the equipment during the polling would have embarrassed Israel. The report quoted Mr Peres as saying the deal would boost the economy in the north of Israel, where Beit Alfa, a kibbutz turned weapons producer, is located. In Harare, opposition elements are worried that the new weaponry, which has reportedly already arrived, will be used to intensify the regime’s current crackdown. "The equipment is heavy and can crush any demonstration," a Zimbabwe police official was quoted on Sunday as telling the Zimbabwe Gazette. The paper said police were being trained by an Israeli in how to use the equipment.
After the deal was struck last year, Reuven Canfi, chief executive of Beit Alfa, declined to specify the number of vehicles or their price. The Gazette reported that the Israeli equipment included "customised anti-riot tankers, gas masks and microscopic laser guns". Beit Alpha’s web site, www.bat.co.il, shows the tanker as a vehicle that can have a machine gun mounted on top and features a ram. According to the website, Beit Alpha supplies chemical additives for the water cannons that can be used to restrain "dangerous inmate situations". These additives "demobilise" the inmate, it explains. Key details of the deliberations in Israel leading up to the sale remain unclear after a court ruled that it be kept classified. From documents that were released, it is clear that the defence ministry approved it. The deal proceeded after elections that were characterised by widespread abuse and prompted the Commonwealth to suspend Zimbabwe.
Since then, things have got worse, with eight local and foreign journalists charged under a new press law initiated by the president, Robert Mugabe. "The agreement has to be respected," Mr Peres was quoted as saying of the deal. A foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on the matter. It is not the first time Israel has supplied weaponry to a state increasingly considered an international pariah. For years it shared an intimate strategic relationship with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
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From The Financial Gazette, 16 May
Alleged Nabanyama murderers set free
Bulawayo - The state has dropped charges against four war veterans implicated in the abduction and murder of Patrick Nabanyama, an opposition Movement for Democratic (MDC) election agent who disappeared without trace days before Zimbabwe’s June 2000 parliamentary elections. The four war veterans - Frackson Ndlovu, Ngoni Dube, Medicine Ndebele and Thomas Munyuki - were set free on Tuesday after appearing briefly before the Bulawayo Magistrates’ Court. State counsel Allan Mabande told the court that charges against the four were being dropped because of lack of evidence linking them to Nabanyama’s murder. The four were part of 10 war veterans accused of kidnapping and murdering Nabanyama, an election agent for MDC legislator David Coltart. Nabanyama was abducted from his Nketa home in Bulawayo five days before Zimbabwe’s landmark general polls in which the opposition nearly upset the ruling ZANU PF’s stranglehold on power. According to the state’s counsel, the four war veterans will now appear as state witnesses in the trial of Ephraim Moyo, Simon Rwodzi, Aleck Moyo, Howard Ncube, Julius Sibanda and Stanley Ncube, who are facing charges of murder and have been indicted for trial at the Bulawayo High Court on May 28. Ncube is the acting chairman of the Bulawayo chapter of the Zimbabwe National War Veterans Association, a position previously held by Cain Nkala, also implicated in the Nabanyama abduction. In an incident similar to the Nabanyama case, Nkala was abducted from his Magwegwe West home here last November and his body was later found in a shallow grave outside the city.
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From The Financial Gazette, 16 May
EU team jets in to act on Mugabe
A high-powered European Union (EU) delegation to pressure southern Africa to act on lawlessness and bad governance in Zimbabwe is expected to meet Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano and other regional leaders early next week. The delegation, comprising EU representatives from Spain, Denmark and its secretariat, arrives in Maputo on Monday and is also expected to meet influential regional leaders such as Malawi’s President Bakili Muluzi, the current chairman of the Southern Africa Development Community, and South African President Thabo Mbeki. The 15-nation EU has imposed smart sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and his close advisers after accusing the veteran Zimbabwean leader of stealing the highly contested March presidential ballot. Mugabe rejects the accusation. The 54-nation Commonwealth, which is led by EU member Britain, has also slapped Zimbabwe with a 12-month suspension after the group’s team to the poll reported that the election was neither free nor fair.
A spokesman for the EU in Harare this week said he was yet to be briefed fully on the delegation’s mandate and who else it would meet. It was not clear yesterday whether the team would visit Zimbabwe or meet Mugabe. The EU, the world’s largest trading bloc and a major aid donor to Zimbabwe, has withdrawn aid to the troubled southern African country citing corruption, skewed economic policies and a haphazard and violent land reform plan. Analysts this week pointed out that Brussels might be forced to widen its measures against Zimbabwean authorities, which are currently limited to travel bans against Mugabe and 20 other officials, to include full sanctions against the country. The experts pointed out that the EU hoped that it could pressure key Mugabe supporters such as Mbeki, Muluzi and Chissano to persuade him to restore law and order, start transparent and legal land reforms and at least agree to wideranging electoral law changes before it is forced to widen sanctions against Zimbabwe. The delegation is expected to read the riot act by making clear to southern Africa that the entire region risks losing crucial development aid and new Western investments if its leaders fail to influence Mugabe to change his management style.
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From The Daily News, 15 May
Mtukudzi denies endorsing Mugabe's disputed victory
Oliver Mtukudzi has denied ever giving the South Africa Times, a UK newspaper, a story carried by The Standard in which he is reported to have endorsed President Mugabe's disputed re-election in March. In the story, Mtukudzi reportedly said he had great admiration for Mugabe as "an intelligent, distinguished leader". He is said to have "chided the opposition MDC for clamouring for a rerun of the presidential election". The alleged comments have triggered an outcry among Mtukudzi's legions of urban fans. MDC supporters have not taken the reported utterances lightly either. Mtukudzi, responding from Canada where he is currently on tour, professed ignorance of the story's contents. He said: "I do not recall the interview and am disappointed that a Zimbabwean newspaper could speak so negatively about me without the courtesy of interviewing me directly. A right of reply in the article would have avoided this."
Mtukudzi said he had no recollection of being interviewed by the newspaper either in person or by telephone. He said: "The only article I gave prior to the London show was with a freelance London journalist called Douglas Rogers who wrote a substantial article released in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday 17 April. A copy of this is coming your way from Douglas Rogers." Mtukudzi said if it were possible, The Daily News could publish that article word for word as it reflects "my opinions accurately and I stand by my opinions as stated in that article". He said he had not defended a violent land reform programme and did not support violence in any shape or form - in the family, workplace, community or nation. Mtukudzi said he believed in free and fair elections. "I did not say the recent elections were free and fair. Politicians - I am not one - have a duty to serve their people and represent their will peacefully. Violations of human rights are a disgrace to those responsible for them." As for his alleged criticism of the MDC for fighting for positions and its call for a poll rerun, he said: "This statement sounds like a set-up to me. As stated, Zimbabweans want honest leadership and to participate in politics peacefully." Mtukudzi said he stood for peace. "Any party that is for peace, I support. I am not a card-carrying member of any party. I am with the people and expect political parties and government to serve me, not harm me. My music is for all people, not political parties."
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From The Financial Gazette, 16 May
Mbeki in last bid to save party talks
Facilitators of talks between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF and the opposition MDC are now consulting South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo in a desperate bid to try to save the negotiations from collapse, it was established yesterday. The facilitators’ move comes a day after they failed in a last-ditch effort to make President Robert Mugabe use his influence to revive the talks, which aim to find a way out of a stalemate caused by Zimbabwe’s disputed presidential election in March. The talks, begun last month, are spearheaded by Mbeki and Obasanjo. Although they were due to resume on Monday, the talks foundered after Zanu PF accused the MDC of negotiating in bad faith by taking the disputed poll, one of the issues under discussion, to the courts.
Authoritative sources said yesterday that Mbeki’s emissary, Kgalema Motlanthe, and Nigerian diplomat Adebayo Adedeji were now going to consult their respective presidents after failing to break the standoff despite a flurry of diplomatic consultations throughout the week. Mugabe told the facilitators during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that Zanu PF was not in a position to resume dialogue with the Movement for Democratic Change against a backdrop of a pending court case challenging his controversial re-election. Sources say Mugabe told the facilitators that the "rule of sub judice" in Zimbabwe did not allow a case before the courts to be discussed outside those parameters. He said he would put in writing the reasons outlining why his party could not resume the talks, which the facilitators could communicate to their respective leaders. The facilitators had been due to receive Mugabe’s reasons by yesterday morning.
Welshman Ncube, leader of the MDC team at the talks who also met the facilitators, said it was not true that the law of sub judice in Zimbabwe prevented such issues from being discussed. Ncube, a constitutional lawyer, said as far as he was concerned the talks were "dead and buried" and his party’s executive would meet soon to discuss what steps to take. He said the MDC would not withdraw its case from the courts and would not also resume the talks at Zanu PF’s convenience. "Our mandate which we were given by our party as the negotiating team has expired and we are going to meet soon to discuss the way forward. But it should be made clear that we are not going to resume these talks at the convenience of Zanu PF," he said. He said according to the rules of procedure of the talks agreed by all the parties, the shelving of the talks being sought by Zanu PF should have been discussed at a formal meeting and a ruling made by the facilitators if the two parties failed to agree.
Zanu PF says it is only prepared to resume the talks after the finalisation of the MDC’s court case or if the case is withdrawn. It has also accused the MDC of making false reports on alleged Zanu PF-instigated political violence. The sources said Mugabe, incensed by the court challenge of his poll win, had endorsed the decision to suspend the talks. They said Mugabe was angered by the lawsuit and had personally concurred with the decision made by Zanu PF’s supreme Politburo to shelve the talks just before he left to attend a United Nations’ Children summit in New York more than a week ago. No date has been set for the hearing of the MDC case, which legal experts say could see Mugabe being dragged to court to answer charges. In a 54-page affidavit filed in the High Court, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai cites Mugabe as the first respondent and calls for the nullification of the presidential vote because of charges of cheating. He wants a re-run, but Zanu PF has refused.
The failure of the talks could further strain Zimbabwe’s already crumbling economy, which is weighed down by a three-year economic crisis. Western nations, including the United States and the 15-nation European Union, have also imposed smart sanctions on Mugabe and his top officials because of their alleged promotion of lawlessness in Zimbabwe. South Africa and Nigeria had hoped that the inter-party talks could help unblock international financial support, cut off by the International Monetary Fund and other key Western donors in 1999 over unresolved governance issues. The talks’ collapse could also scuttle attempts by Mbeki and Obasanjo to launch an ambitious economic development plan for Africa that is funded by the West. The plan is predicated on African governments embracing democracy and good governance, which the West says have collapsed in Zimbabwe.
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From Business Day, 17 May
Zimbabwe arrests three journalists
They reported on Israeli riot vehicles
Harare - The Zimbabwean government arrested three journalists yesterday from the country's only independent Sunday newspaper as it intensified its crackdown on the free press. Newly appointed Standard editor Bornwell Chakaodza who is the former editor of the government-controlled Herald and two senior reporters, Farai Mutsaka and Fungayi Kanyuchi, were detained yesterday afternoon in connection with two stories on Sunday. The first story said government had ordered military hardware and anti-riot equipment from Israel to combat civil protests, while the second claimed some police officers were involved in sex scandals with arrested prostitutes. Standard managing editor Tendai Mutseyekwa said last night the journalists from the newspaper, of which the former editor, Mark Chavunduka, and senior reporter Ray Choto were abducted and tortured by the police and army in 1999, would be detained overnight. He said they were expected to appear in court today.
Meanwhile, tension between the ruling Zanu (PF) party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over the collapsed reconciliation talks heightened yesterday as the two rival parties traded fresh accusations and counter-accusations. The latest row broke out yesterday after Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa wrote to the two cofacilitators of the talks, Kgalema Motlanthe of SA and Adebayo Adedeji of Nigeria, explaining his party's decision to postpone the dialogue. Mnangagwa, the fourth highest-ranking official in the Zanu PF pecking order, said that, although he did not agree with his delegation's "methodology" of deferring the talks, the MDC was all the same to blame. "Whilst we may not agree with the methodology that our delegation chose to employ, it is a fact that the issues they raised are of a serious nature and warrant your intervention before dialogue can proceed," he said.
Mnangagwa, repeating Zanu PF delegation leader Patrick Chinamasa's claims, cited the MDC court petition challenging the presidential election results, ongoing opposition rallies, its description of the government as illegitimate, MDC political adverts, opposition complaints about violence and recent remarks about the talks by British High Commissioner Brian Donnelly. However, MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube, who heads his party's delegation, said the problem was that Zanu PF was not serious. The European parliament in Strasbourg, France, hotly debated the Zimbabwe crisis yesterday as it renewed efforts to bring pressure to bear on President Robert Mugabe. The house discussed the political violence and the unfolding humanitarian disaster due to acute food shortages.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 17 May
Canada drops Tsvangirai probe
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have dropped investigations into the alleged assassination plot against President Robert Mugabe by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, it emerged yesterday. Sources in Montreal, where the inquiry was being conducted, said the RCMP - Canada's national police force - stopped the probe after Harare authorities failed to provide sufficient evidence for the investigation to continue. The RCMP decided to investigate the case because the alleged plot took place on Canadian soil. A spokesman for the Canadian High Commission said yesterday: "I can confirm that the RCMP has ceased their investigation. The Zimbabwe government failed to provide the necessary information." RCMP spokesman Richard Huard recently told the Zimbabwe Independent further investigations would largely depend on the authenticity of the case.
Tsvangirai and two other top MDC officials stand accused of high treason over the alleged plot. The accused, who include MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncu-be and party secretary for agriculture Renson Gasela, have so far appeared twice in court and are on remand. They are due to appear again on May 31 when defence attorneys will apply for the setting of a trial date or removal of their clients from remand. The three have denied the charges. The RCMP opened the probe after Australia's SBS channel on February 13 screened a documentary which included surveillance video footage purporting to show Tsvangirai in Montreal plotting to kill Mugabe. The video, secretly recorded by a hired security firm, was reportedly provided to SBS documentary producer Mark Davis by Ari Ben-Menashe, who is the chief executive of a Canadian political consultancy firm, Dickens & Madson, which has links to the Zimbabwe government.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 17 May
US delays Mugabe flight, Libya steps in
Claims that President Mugabe was free to travel wherever he wanted in France and the United States on his recent trip to New York for a United Nations conference on children were firmly rejected this week by French and US officials. Foreign Affairs minister Stan Mudenge was quoted on Monday as telling the state media that sanctions would not stop Zimbabwe's leaders from carrying out diplomatic functions. He pointed out that despite the European Union's imposition of smart sanctions, the presidential party flew to New York via Paris. "We used Paris, an EU country (sic) and were not hindered to use their international transit facilities," Mudenge said. Everybody on the delegation was free to go into town." Spokesman for Zimbabwe's permanent mission to the UN, Emmanuel Gumbo, dismissed reports that Mugabe's movements had been restricted in New York. He said the president had "25 green lights ahead of him to travel anywhere he wishes in the United States".
US officials who asked not to be named said this week Mugabe's visa had been issued in terms of the 1947 UN headquarters agreement which confined the visiting leader to a 25-mile radius of the UN building in downtown Manhattan. French ambassador Didier Ferrand yesterday confirmed that Mugabe's party did not leave the airport transit lounge during their Paris stopover. "The French are abiding by the decisions of the European Union," he said. "During his stopover on the way to New York and back the president was in the international zone of Charles de Gaulle Airport. Mugabe's visa application was made "at the last minute", the Zimbabwe Independent was told, and was not ready by the time Air Zimbabwe's flight on Sunday, May 5, on which the presidential party was booked, left for London. As there was no Air Zimbabwe flight out on Monday, May 6, they finally left on Tuesday morning, May 7 aboard a Libyan plane sent to collect them.
The Independent heard this week that Mugabe was picked up at the airport in the early hours of Tuesday, May 7 by a Libyan Boeing 767 jet, which took him to Paris where he connected to New York - arriving there on Wednesday morning. The same plane flew him back from Paris, arriving at Harare International Airport last Sunday. Air Zimbabwe spokesman Moses Mapanda this week confirmed that the Sunday night London flight had been delayed on May 5. "The flight to London was delayed due to operational reasons," he said, without elaborating. It is understood the US Embassy in Harare had to seek guidance from the State Department in Washington on the issuing of visas to Mugabe's party. "The special visas were only issued sometime on Monday and these had geographical restrictions to the Zimbabweans, under the UN headquarters agreement," a US official said.
Notwithstanding the restrictions imposed, Mugabe took the opportunity in the United States to fire pot shots at the West and grandstand in front of the few heads of state present. Heads of state present included Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, Rex Meidani of Albania and Jorge Sampaio of Portugal. "It is hideously ironic that when children are starving in Zimbabwe because of his flawed economic policies," a US official observed, "the president should suddenly find it necessary to attend the UN. It is reported that the presidential party spent three nights at the New York Palace Hotel and Towers where the cheapest room costs US$450 a night and the most expensive US$2 100. A planned show of solidarity by Coltrane Chimurenga's December 12 Movement and Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem failed to materialise, most probably because of the travel restrictions placed on Mugabe. Diplomats who spoke to the Independent this week on condition of anonymity said Mudenge's claims were misleading. No foreign leader, however odious their policies, was prevented from attending sessions of the UN under specific conditions.
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From The Daily News, 17 May
Chipinge police arrest MDC officials, impound vehicles
Police in Chipinge South have arrested four MDC members, including three senior officials of the party in Manicaland and impounded two vehicles that were carrying supporters to a rally at Chibuwe Stadium. The four are Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC spokesman in Manicaland, Christine Chishakwa, the provincial chairperson, Elliot Anahu, and Hardmore Chimoko. Muchauraya was arrested at a roadblock at Mwacheta after he allegedly questioned a policeman about his conduct when he stopped an MDC truck ferrying supporters to the stadium. He was taken to Middle Sabi Police Station. By late yesterday, Muchauraya, Anahu and Chimoko were still in police custody. Police at the station refused to comment and referred all questions to Wayne Bvudzijena, the police spokesperson, who could not be reached for comment yesterday. Bvudzijena regularly refuses to entertain questions from The Daily News.
The MDC district youth chairman, Parudzai Manyerenyere, who was with Muchauraya at the time of the arrest, said the party had received a report about the arrest and the vehicles that had been impounded. The police said Anahu had a knife which was confiscated. Chishakwa was arrested on Sunday but released on Tuesday without charges being preferred. She said the police accused her of organising an illegal rally but released her two days later. In a bid to frustrate MDC supporters and to stop them from attending the rally, the police yesterday mounted two roadblocks about 30km apart, along the Chiredzi road. Plainclothes policemen took down the registration numbers of vehicles as they drove past the roadblocks. Asked whether this was normal practice, a police officer who refused to be identified said it was an instruction from his superiors. But despite this, about 10 000 people thronged the stadium to hear the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, speak. Tsvangirai reiterated the need for a rerun of the presidential election, saying the 9-11 March poll was not free and fair. To an enthusiastic crowd, Tsvangirai said: " I do not believe Mugabe won the presidential election freely and fairly. At most, he won about 900 000 votes. If he challenges me, let's go for a rerun."
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From The Daily News, 17 May
ESC member resigns over poll
Bulawayo - A member of the four-person Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), appointed by President Mugabe, has resigned because of differences over the fairness and conduct of the 9-11 March presidential election won controversially by Mugabe. Yesterday, Richard Majwabu-Moyo, a lawyer in Bulawayo, told The Daily News he had sent his letter of resignation from the ESC to the chairman, Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, who is a lawyer and war veteran. But Gula-Ndebele insisted yesterday there were no differences among the commissioners. "As far as I know, there is no commissioner who has resigned," Gula-Ndebele said. But Majwabu-Moyo insisted he sent his resignation letter to Gula-Ndebele. "I'm no longer a member of the commission," said Majwabu-Moyo. "I resigned on 8 April after I felt that I was not comfortable being a member of the commission." He said he resigned after the election and dissociated himself from the ESC's positive report on the conduct of the poll. But he declined to disclose why he felt uneasy with being associated any longer with the ESC and referred all questions to Gula-Ndebele, who insisted Majwabu-Moyo had not resigned.
Majwabu-Moyo was appointed to the commission by Mugabe in 1998. The remaining members of the ESC are the chairman, Gula-Ndebele, Chief Albert Bepura and Joyce Kazembe. The three submitted a report to Mugabe in which they said the election was held in very difficult economic, social and political conditions". The report said: "There existed requisite conditions for the free expression of the will of the Zimbabwe electorate and the poll result is a reflection of political trends and the will of the Zimbabwe electorate." This conclusion is in direct contradiction to the "very difficult economic, social and political conditions" stated in the report's introduction. The report mentions a number of other issues which led the international community, including some African countries, to condemn the election as flawed, saying the results were not an expression of the free will of the people of Zimbabwe. Investigations by The Daily News revealed that the conduct of the poll had displeased Majwabu-Moyo. Though the ESC's figures on the election results tallied with those announced by Tobaiwa Mudede, the registrar-general, there was a discrepancy of more than 400 000 votes on a constituency-by-constituency count. A Daily News story on the difference in the figures resulted in the arrest of the paper's Editor-in-Chief, Geoff Nyarota, under the new draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Nyarota was charged of abusing journalistic privilege by allegedly publishing "falsehoods".
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From The Daily News, 17 May
MDC polling agent was murdered
Morgan Tsvangirai’s election agent in Gokwe during the disputed March presidential election was murdered, a family spokesperson who received a report from the police last Thursday said this week. Tipason Madhobha’s body was found on 2 May in a stream under unclear circumstances. He had been missing for almost three weeks. He was buried last Friday in Kufazvinei village. He was the polling agent for Tsvangirai at Sugwiza Primary School. But the police in Gokwe and Gweru this week refused to comment on the matter. The Midlands provincial police Press liaison officer, who only identified himself as Inspector Mandipaka, referred all questions to the police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, who has kept his word about not speaking to The Daily News. Mandipaka said: "Speak to our spokesperson Bvudzijena. If he does not speak to you, the same applies."
The family spokesperson said when they went to the police in Gokwe to collect the body for burial after they were told that a post-mortem was going to be carried out in Bulawayo, they discovered that it had not taken place and the body was still at Gokwe hospital mortuary. The family alleged that the police had prepared an affidavit which was supposed to be signed by a family member, before the body could be taken without a post-mortem report. But that request was refused and the family demanded to have a post-mortem carried out before taking the body, the spokesperson said. "We waited for some time at the charge office before we were taken to the CID offices. One officer gave us a report and told us that "your person" was murdered. The police said the post-mortem was carried out by Dr Chimusoro. "The police report was attached to the burial order that we left at the Registrar General’s office for the death certificate to be processed. The report was written "murdered" but we did not see the description of how he was murdered," the family spokesperson said.
Furere Makumucha, Madhobha’s uncle, said Madhobha, 25, went missing on 10 April after he left his home with four neighbours. They were looking for stray cattle. Makumucha said their problems started in Ganye in Manokore village about 15 km from his village, Kufazvinei. "I was told that when the five were in the area they were told by an elderly man that Zanu PF youths in Ganye did not tolerate any strangers and they risked being attacked if they met the youths," Makumucha said. Investigations by The Daily News have established that Zanu PF youths were camped at Ganye Secondary School in Fundikwa village, where Madhobha was found dead. Makumucha said that while in the area, the five, including Tafara Kufazvinei and Edmore Mutami, were called by unknown people. They ran away in different directions. Makumucha said that on 2 May, a young man from Manokore village came and told him that Madhobha was found dead and his body was dumped in a shallow stream near Ganye dam. The body was then taken to Gokwe Hospital by the police. Manokore is adjacent to Fundikwa village. Although the MDC claimed that Madhobha was killed by Zanu PF supporters, his family, including his four-month pregnant wife, Dadirai,19, insisted that the death was mysterious and they expected the police to unravel it.
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From BBC News, 18 May
Zimbabwe police chief flouts EU ban
BBC News has learned that the head of Zimbabwe's police force has been allowed to visit France despite a travel ban imposed as part of international sanctions against President Mugabe and his senior officials. A leading British MP has condemned the decision to allow the official, Augustine Chihuri, to attend an Interpol Conference in the city of Lyon. Augustine Chihuri is a key member of Robert Mugabe's inner circle. As commissioner of police he has been implicated in widespread human rights abuses. Because of this, Mr Chihuri is among leading government officials subject to so-called "smart sanctions" by the EU and the United States. Central to these is a ban on travel, but BBC news has learned that not only was Mr Chihuri allowed to enter the EU, he attended an executive conference of Interpol, the international policing body.
Diplomatic sources in Paris said Mr Chihuri had been allowed to visit Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, only after consultation with other EU members including Britain. In London a Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that Britain had been consulted and said members of the Interpol executive were allowed to travel without restriction because of an international agreement which pre-dated the sanctions. The chairman of the UK parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee Donald Anderson said he was appalled by the news. He said Britain should have ordered its representative on the executive to boycott the meeting. Mr Chihuri's visit and a recent trip to the UN in New York by Mr Mugabe place a major question mark over the effectiveness of the sanctions for which Britain lobbied so vehemently. If the hope was to isolate the Harare government, the sanctions are quite simply, not working. Interpol has refused to comment on the affair - Mr Chihuri is still a vice-president of the organisation which stresses respect for human rights as one of its core values.
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From ZWNEWS, 18 May
Land to the politburo
Commissioner Chihuri is one of 181 government and Zanu PF officials who have already seized, or are in the process of seizing, farms as their personal property. In Chihuri's case, the farm is Woodlands A in the Shamva area owned by Pat Butler. Wayne Bvudzijena - the police spokesperson well known for refusing to speak to the independent press - has two farms in which he has an interest. Shepherd Gwasira, the ZRP Officer Commanding Mashonaland West has added 110 Ha to the 2000 Ha he already has. Albert Mandizha, the Senior Assistant Commissioner in Bulawayo, has been granted the 1200 Ha Sanga Farm in Goromonzi. Inspector Marufu, OC Gwanda has his eyes on a farm in Esgodini. Godwin Matanga, Deputy Police Commissioner, is after Nurenzi Farm, in Hwedza. The two vice-presidents, Zanu PF MPs, civil servants, senior army and air force officers, leading war veterans (including Joseph Chinotimba, who is after two properties), the chief ZBC correspondent - and relatives of some of them - are all part of the scramble for land. Many of these VIP settlers already have government land leased to them, as revealed in the Dongo List dating from 1999.
If you would like a copy of the list of VIP beneficiaries of farm seizures, please let us know. It will be sent as an Excel attachment to an email message - total size 73 Kb, or about 1 1/2 times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From The Natal Mercury (SA), 16 May
Three million face starvation in Zimbabwe
A relief agency on Thursday warned that as many as three million Zimbabweans might face starvation in two weeks' time as the European Union prepared to dispatch a high-level delegation to lobby southern Africa regional leaders to do more to rein in President Robert Mugabe. Previous relief agency estimates have identified about 550 000 people in need of food aid in Zimbabwe. However, the Famine Early Warnings Systems Network said in Harare on Thursday that as many as three million people would need food aid on a daily basis from June. Analysts have previously dismissed the 550 000 figure as an underestimation. Harare economic consultant Eddie Cross said the latest figure - an estimate by the Washington-based famine network which monitors the global food situation - might also be too low. Cross said most of the previous estimates had been based on rural analysis of the food situation without taking into account the many people living in the urban areas who could hardly afford any food items. Zimbabwe's unemployment rate stands at 60 percent. In its Zimbabwe Humanitarian Situation report, the famine network said Zimbabwe needed to mobilise $345-million (R3,5 billion) to import 1,3 to 1,4 million tons of maize to meet the country's consumption requirements this year. The slow international response to a call by the World Food Programme for humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe would exacerbate the food situation. Zimbabwe's food import programme has been hampered by an acute shortage of foreign currency leaving the burden of providing food aid on relief agencies.
Reports said a high powered delegation of the European Union would meet SADC regional leaders from Monday to pressure them to act on lawlessness and bad governance in Zimbabwe to put the country back on the road to economic recovery. The EU delegation arrives in Maputo on Monday to meet President Joacquim Chissano. It was also expected to meet Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi, the current SADC chairman, and President Thabo Mbeki. It was not clear whether the team would meet Mugabe. The 15-nation EU has imposed smart sanctions on President Mugabe and his close advisors after accusing the Zimbabwe leader of stealing the March presidential election. The EU has also withdrawn all aid to Zimbabwe citing corruption, skewed economic policies and a haphazard land reform programme. Meanwhile, Denmark has closed its embassy in Zimbabwe in protest at Mugabe's rights abuses. Zimbabweans at the Danish embassy in Harare are demanding hefty severance packages from the Danes. They argue that the embassy closure was unexpected and they had no prospects of getting other jobs.
In Harare, three more independent journalists were arrested and charged on Thursday over reports in the last issue of The Sunday Standard that criticised the police, the newspaper said. Editor Bornwell Chakaodza and reporters Farai Mutsaka and Fungayi Kanyuchi were questioned at the main Harare police station before being charged under strict new media laws, said assistant editor Brian Latham. The charges related to two articles carried on Sunday on the importation by police of sophisticated Israeli-built riot control vehicles and alleged police corruption, he said. The three are accused of "abuse of journalist privilege by publishing falsehoods", an offence punishable by up to two years in jail. Chakaodza, the editor, faced two charges for allowing the reports to be published. The three were jailed overnight and are due to appear in court on Saturday, Latham said. Police had no comment.
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From The Star (SA), 17 May
Three Zim journalists get bail
Harare - A Harare court on Friday ordered the release on bail of three journalists from the independent Zimbabwean weekly The Standard, ahead of a trial set down for June 3. The paper's editor in chief, Bornwell Chakaodza, and reporters Farai Mutsaka and Fungayi Kanyuchi were arrested on Thursday and charged with abuse of journalistic privilege and publishing false news. The court freed the three on bail of Z$10 000 (about R1 850) each and also ordered that they should regularly present themselves to the police before the trial. Mutsaka was arrested for writing that Zimbabwean riot police had bought state-of-the-art military equipment and anti-riot equipment from Israel and Kanyuch was accused of reporting that police had sex with prostitutes instead of arresting them. The police have denied the allegations in The Standard. Under tough new legislation on the independent and foreign press in Zimbabwe, journalists convicted of publishing false information face a jail term of up to two years. Chakaodza was arrested when he went to the police station to check on the two reporters. He was charged with two counts of publishing falsehoods for both reporters' stories, the paper’s deputy editor Brian Latham said.
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From The Star (SA), 17 May
Zim court says media law challenge not urgent
Harare - Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has ruled that a case brought by journalists challenging a controversial media law did not need to be heard urgently, their lawyer said on Friday. The court found that the challenge, which was filed last week by journalists working for foreign organisations in the southern African country, had failed to demonstrate that it deserved a special hearing. Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer for the Zimbabwe Foreign Correspondents Association, said the registrar of the Supreme Court had written a letter informing her that the case would be handled through the normal procedure. Unless a case has been accepted as urgent by the court, matters in the Supreme Court normally take months and sometimes up to a year before they can be heard.
Eleven journalists have been arrested for alleged "abuse of journalistic privilege" under the new media law which critics say severely curtails press freedom. President Robert Mugabe signed the measures into law days after his controversial re-election in March. Three journalists - American Andrew Meldrum, a permanent resident in Zimbabwe who writes for Britain's Guardian newspaper, and Zimbabweans Jan Raath and Peta Thornycroft - went to court with a case sponsored by foreign correspondents arguing that their rights were in danger. Raath is a correspondent for Britain's Times Group of Newspapers, South African Press Association (Sapa) and German news agency DPA, while Thornycroft writes for Britain's Daily Telegraph. The journalists are contesting the constitutionality of some sections of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which lays down heavy fines and jail terms of up to two years for crimes such as publishing "falsehoods."
The journalists have asked the Supreme Court to declare as unconstitutional sections of the Act which require registration of media houses and licensing of journalists. The appeal also challenges clauses barring foreigners from working in Zimbabwe as journalists and from practising without accreditation from a government-appointed media commission, on the grounds this interferes with the right to free expression. Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper reported on Friday that Information Minister Jonathan Moyo had opposed the journalists' urgent application, saying their rights were not in immediate danger. Three journalists were arrested on Thursday for publishing two allegedly false stories, including accusations that some policemen were demanding sex from prostitutes caught soliciting on the streets. The media bill was rushed through parliament ahead of the March presidential poll.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 18 May
Commonwealth's Zimbabwe safari
Ministers from eight Commonwealth countries are due to meet in a safari lodge in northern Botswana Friday to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe won re-election in March in a disputed poll. "The group's mandate is to address serious or persistent violations of... principles on democracy, good governance, human rights and the rule of law," the Commonwealth Secretariat said in a statement. The Commonwealth announced a one-year suspension of Zimbabwe's membership of the 53-nation group in March, saying the violence-scarred election failed to reflect the will of voters. The Kasane meeting, which will group ministers from Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Malta, Nigeria, Samoa and The Bahamas is also expected to discuss situations causing concern in other Commonwealth countries. Commonwealth Secretariat representative Joel Kibazo said representatives of the group, appointed at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Coolum, Australia, in March, would start talks around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) at the lodge in Kasane, about 900 kilometres north of Gaborone. Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon has urged the ruling Zanu PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to find a way to co-exist. He has also said the Commonwealth backed a call by presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa for reconciliation in Zimbabwe between the two foes. Nigerian and South African mediators failed to kickstart talks between the two political opponents Monday after Zanu-PF decided to pull out of scheduled mediated discussions with the MDC.
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Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 17 May
The great betrayal
President Thabo Mbeki emerged from his talks with the Nordic leaders on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) this week almost rubbing his hands with glee. Mbeki's overwhelming relief at the positive response of European powers is linked to the impending meeting of the G8, whose stance will be crucial to Nepad. We seriously doubt ordinary Zimbabweans share his enthusiasm. Mbeki's message was that he and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo have brought Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to heel, and that Nepad's pledge of African democracy for Western economic assistance remains on course. Presumably because they are anxious for an African success story, European leaders, including Britain's Tony Blair, are colluding in this lie. The most grotesque case of wilful blindness was a statement by the Canadian High Commissioner in South Africa, Lucie Edwards, that the "dangerous corner" of Zimbabwe has been "passed relatively smoothly", that "the first test had been overcome", and that Mbeki and Obasanjo's acceptance of Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth had saved the day.
What are the facts? This week Zimbabwean human rights monitor the Amani Trust reported that attacks by Zanu PF youth brigades and "war veterans" have intensified since the election in a "campaign of violent retribution". Highlighting "a sustained attack on opposition supporters by agents and supporters of the ruling party", Zimbabwe's Human Rights NGO forum reported 16 cases of torture and kidnapping in the last two weeks of April alone. Since the election, eight journalists have been prosecuted under the Access to Information Act, which - in an uncanny echo of apartheid press law criminalises inaccurate reporting. Mugabe's government may have started to move illegal squatters off white farms, but farm seizures have taken a sinister new twist as Zanu PF grandees personally evict farmers and grab their land, houses and other possessions. The principal of a well-known Harare secondary school has been prosecuted under the Public Order and Safety Act for questioning the legitimacy of the election in a circular to parents. Famine - the direct consequence of the systematic disruption of commercial agriculture - stalks a land once self-sufficient in staple foods. And this week Zanu PF unilaterally called off reconciliation talks with the Movement for Democratic Change.
The promise of unity government had been Mbeki's trump card in his attempts to avert Western eyes from a manifestly fraudulent election. One argument is that until the African Union (AU) is launched, there are no mechanisms for African self-policing on governance and human rights. This is nonsense. We have a regional peer review system in the Southern African Development Community, set up at the April 2000 mini-summit at Victoria Falls. It has been ineffectual, much as the AU peer review mechanism is likely to be. It is not enough to say that if one is serious about African economic and political resurgence Nepad is the only game in town. With corrupt and brutally repressive governments in place, passively endorsed by South Africa and the West, no amount of aid will make a difference. It is little short of ominous that Nepad is being laid on a foundation of lies and the international betrayal of the rights of ordinary Africans.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 19 May
Local judge incompetent: SA
A high court judge presiding over a $270 million corruption case involving a former Noczim manager, is himself facing allegations of incompetency and inefficiency in South Africa, where he was employed prior to his appointment, The Standard reveals this week. Justice Nicholas Ndou, who was appointed by President Mugabe last year in August, is alleged to have cost the Northern Province Legislature R2,6 million ($15,6 million at the official exchange rate) when he was its accounting officer. Reports from South Africa also indicate that Ndou left behind two civil judgments against him, one for tax evasion of R34 650 ($207 900-official rate) and the other of R7 715 ($46 290-official rate) for non payment of rent at his Pietersburg home. The Standard is in possession of a letter from the Legislature of the Northern Province confirming that Ndou was forced to resign from his post. The letter, which was signed by the legislature's secretary, says: "Having considered the issues of incompetency and inefficiency, the Legislature Service Board was left with two options, either to discipline him or ask him to resign. Mr Ndou chose to resign and the resignation was coupled with a severance package which was agreed upon between him and the legislature."
A report from the South African auditor-general which is now before Robert Malavi, the speaker of the Northern Province Legislature, says Ndou failed to detect and rectify financial irregularities which caused the province to overpay officials, dish out double salaries to staff and then failed to recover the money. It is also alleged that Ndou had two employers for eight months following his appointment to the Zimbabwean bench. On top of his Zimbabwean salary, the Northern Province is alleged to have paid him a monthly salary of R30 538 ($183 228-official rate) for eight months. Pressed to explain why he was on two salaries for eight months, the judge said: "Ask the Northern Province Legislature why I was paid even after they accused me of being incompetent and inefficient." Efforts by The Standard to get comment from Ndou on all these issues were unsuccessful as he was said to be in Namibia on business. In Zimbabwe, Ndou is presiding over the corruption case involving former Noczim operations manager, James Makaya, in which the latter is alleged to have prejudiced the parastal $270 million.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 19 May
Screws tighten on Mugabe
International community gets tough after reconciliation talks fail
Kasane - The Zimbabwean government faces harsher penalties and the prospect of sanctions on top of those already imposed by the US and European Union. The Commonwealth's powerful democracy watchdog, the Ministerial Action Group, decided at a meeting in Kasane, Botswana, on Friday to make Zimbabwe a priority. This follows indications that the suspension of Zimbabwe by the troika of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and Australia's John Howard had failed to coax Robert Mugabe's government towards respect for human rights and democracy. Now the Commonwealth democracy watchdog has decided to put Zimbabwe back on its priority list. This could open the way for discussions on sanctions, something that the establishment of the troika had tried to forestall. "Most member states are losing their patience, but there is not much we can do about the situation there," Botswana's Foreign Minister and C-Mag chairman Mompati Merafhe said.
Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon told the Sunday Times this week that all his efforts to talk with the Zimbabwean government had failed. This week also saw the European Parliament turn up the heat, by recommending tougher sanctions against Zimbabwe. The resolution, binding on all the EU's 15 member states, will be tabled before the body's Council of Ministers. It also comes on the eve of a visit to the Southern African region by an EU delegation which hopes to pressurise regional leaders to take a tougher stance on Zimbabwe. The EU resolution called on Southern African Development Community governments to refrain from "normal diplomatic relations with the Mugabe regime". The demand was followed by a veiled threat by the Euro MPs that the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the Group of Eight industrialised nations' support would be "jeopardised" if African leaders continued to cooperate with Mugabe.
The latest actions follow the breakdown in reconciliation talks between the ruling Zanu PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and the continued harassment of the media and the opposition. The European Parliament also singled out President Thabo Mbeki, calling on him to show "consistent support for the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law" and "demonstrate the quality of leadership that befits the powerful and crucial regional position of South Africa". It called for new presidential elections in Zimbabwe, as well as stronger action against Mugabe's government. It also recommended that Zimbabwe's debt repayment arrangements be reviewed and that screws be tightened on access to financial markets.
Meanwhile, the British government, which has been the chief campaigner for tough action against Zimbabwe, said it was unclear whether Zimbabwe's suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth and targeted sanctions against Mugabe's government had had any impact. Foreign Office Minister Baroness Valerie Amos said there was no evidence that Mugabe had improved his record on human rights, democracy and respect for the rule of law following the suspension in March and in the face of EU sanctions. Following a widely criticised presidential election, Mbeki, Obasanjo and Howard decided that Zimbabwe be suspended from the Commonwealth councils for one year, during which time dialogue between the governing and opposition parties would be encouraged. SA's presidential spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, said South Africa would continue to press for dialogue between the MDC and Zanu-PF. "There is no replacement for dialogue and we believe an all-inclusive government in Zimbabwe is the only way to ensure that the polarisation is dealt with," Khumalo said.
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From News24 (SA), 17 May
MDC member dies after attacks
Harare - An activist from Zimbabwe's opposition MDC has died of wounds sustained in several assaults by members of the ruling party, the MDC said in a statement on Friday. Philip Gumboreshumba Chiunya, an MDC official in Sadza in the east of the country, was attacked by supporters of Zanu PF "on four separate occasions before and after the presidential election" in March, his party said. Chiunya died of his injuries in a Sadza hospital on Tuesday, according to the MDC, which alleges massive fraud as well as political violence in the March 9-11 poll that saw President Robert Mugabe returned to office. A police spokesperson was unable to confirm or deny the report. "It seems nothing will stop Zanu PF from its murderous path," said the statement released to AFP. "They believe that they have a right to decide who lives and who dies." More than 50 people have been killed in political violence since January 1, according to tolls compiled by human rights organisations. Most of them were opposition supporters. The MDC claims that about 100 of its activists and supporters have been killed in the past two years.
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From the CFU, 18 May
Farmers arrested again
Four Mashonaland West farmers were today arrested and are to be charged under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) for allegedly holding a meeting without permission. One of the four, Ben de Jager signed a warned and cautioned statement and was released whilst the other three, Ms Jean Simon, Mr Buster Peale and Mr Geoff Kirkman, Raffingora farmers are in detention in Chinhoyi. Geoff Kirkman is recovering from heart by-pass surgery late last year and must be allowed medical care. Douglas Taylor Freeme, CFU Vice President was in attendance and confirmed seeing the three arriving by police vehicle from Raffingora where they were picked up this afternoon. He indicated that the allegations are that the four held a meeting on Ormeston Farm, Lions Den. It is alleged that authorisation to hold the meeting was not granted by police - but said meeting never took place.
Taylor-Freeme confirmed that the accused are adamant that no such meeting ever took place and that the arrests are a blatant attempt to harass productive members of the farming community. He said, "The allegations are without foundation and their arrest is pure harrassment. These farmers should be busy grading their tobacco and planting wheat instead they are being held on baseless charges." On the eve of polling in the presidential election, a dozen farmers, including Kirkman and Peale were detained for 3 days without definitive charges being made until they were remanded out of custody on Tuesday 12th March 2002. They were arraigned under POSA and are still due to appear in court on those charges. An additional group of farmers, including Simons made warned and cautioned statements - the state was to proceed by way of summons. Simons, Kirkman and Peale farm in the Raffingora/Banket area whilst De Jager farms in Lions Den a distance away.
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From Business Day (SA), 19 May
Gloom over Zimbabwe's maize crop
Victoria Falls - Zimbabwe, normally a regional breadbasket, may harvest even less maize than previously expected, worsening the outlook for a nation desperately short on food, a report said on Saturday. Preliminary reports from a new crop and food supply assessment indicate the harvest now underway could produce only 510,000 tonnes of maize, down from earlier forecasts of 600,000 tonnes. Zimbabwe needs about two million tonnes of maize to feed its 13 million people. This year's crop is less than one third of what the country produced in an average year during the last decade, the report said. The study conducted by the UN's World Food Program (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) said that Zimbabwe would need to import 1.77 million tonnes of maize to survive until the next harvest begins in March 2003.
UN officials representing southern African nations were meeting on Saturday in the western resort town of Victoria Falls to organize a regional plan for dealing with the food shortage. Plans are already in place to import 431,300 tonnes of maize, leaving a shortfall of 1.3 million tonnes. "This cereal balance analysis highlights the potential for a human catastrophe in Zimbabwe," the report said. "To avert a humanitarian crisis and potential famine, maize imports and the required financing must be sourced and secured without delay," it said. The food shortage is compounded by a four-year-old economic crisis, which has left about 80 percent of the population in poverty and without enough money to buy foods to replace locally grown maize. Large parts of southern Africa, including Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are facing a serious threat of famine, with more than five million people in need of emergency food aid according to the UN.
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Comment from The Zimbabwe Independent, 17 May
Nepad's Zim quarantine a false start
Remarks by the Canadian High Commissioner to South Africa and shuttle diplomacy this week by South Africa's Thabo Mbeki reveal a worrying trend: The G8 countries are preparing to swallow the deception that African leaders have the Zimbabwe crisis "in hand" and thereby qualify for the US$64 billion on offer for trade and investment under the Nepad plan. Canada will host the G8 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, at the end of next month. Nepad is on the agenda. Canada's High Commissioner in Pretoria, Lucie Edwards, said on Monday that the Commonwealth troika's decision in March to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth re-assured the international community that the sponsors of Nepad were serious about developing and implementing a peer review mechanism for the plan. She described Mbeki and Obasanjo's leadership role in the Commonwealth decision to suspend Zimbabwe as "Nepad passing its first test". "The decision of the Commonwealth troika, two of whose members were prominent African leaders and Nepad leaders (Mbeki and Obasanjo), to suspend Zimbabwe was seen as a sign of real political will to apply the principles of good governance within the region," she pronounced with breathtaking disregard for the facts on the ground.
Mbeki fought long and hard against having Zimbabwe suspended at the troika's London meeting. He was in the end persuaded that the Commonwealth and Nepad's survival depended on him doing the right thing, although he had difficulty seeing what that was. His government endorsed the presidential poll outcome. Since then neither he nor Obasanjo have said a word about the lawlessness and deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe. This week the Amani Trust, which has proved a reliable barometer of human rights abuses, cited youth brigades and state agencies as involved in rights violations. Organised violence and torture had persisted since the election, Amani Trust said, and had if anything intensified. Press freedom has also been under attack as the government arrests and prosecutes journalists, ostensibly for errors of fact, but in reality for exposing the regime's trail of violence and misrule.
On the land there has been arbitrary seizure of farms and property by politically powerful individuals in open violation of the Abuja accord. Again, neither Mbeki nor Obasanjo have said anything. They argue that their diplomacy has harnessed the two main political parties in Harare to a national dialogue. This claim has silenced other Commonwealth members who participated at Abuja and enables the G8 powers to avert their gaze from the growing crisis of governance in Zimbabwe on the grounds that Mbeki and Obasanjo have everything under control. We know that to be a fiction. Mosiuoa Lekota admitted as much last week. Ms Edwards excused the lack of progress on Zimbabwe by disingenuously suggesting that peer review as a mechanism had not been developed at the time of the presidential election. It is new so give it a chance was the subtext. It would be interesting to know what all those SADC ministerial visits last year and this year were about, not to mention the visits by Mbeki and Obasanjo. And how do we explain Sadc's endorsement of the election outcome? If that was not peer review, what was it?
The Canadian statement this week signalled that collective self-deception about peer review has become the official line. Zimbabwe as a topic will be quarantined so its contagion does not infect the Nepad process even though the Zimbabwe crisis itself is demonstrably infecting the region. Statements following Mbeki's visits to Oslo and London this week confirm that nothing will be allowed to get in the way of the Nepad juggernaut. The West wants an African success story and Nepad, they hope, is it. Zimbabwe's crisis meanwhile cannot be so easily swept under the G8 carpet. It is the elephant in the living room. It cannot be ignored. The humanitarian disaster that is already unfolding across the land is the direct product of bad governance, not drought. And this tragedy has been allowed to develop precisely because African leaders indulged President Mugabe by recognising his flawed victory in the presidential poll.
If G8 leaders cannot see the contradiction between that act of political dishonesty and Nepad's proclaimed commitment to good governance, the project is doomed from the outset. There will be no African recovery, no renaissance until leaders like Mbeki and Obasanjo get to grips with rogue rulers in their midst. That means speaking out on human rights abuses, lawlessness and economic sabotage. The G8 should make this clear. Looking the other way in Canada is no basis for future relations between the developed world and Africa.
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From Business Day (SA), 21 May
Six MDC activists charged under new Zimbabwean law
Harare - Police charged six opposition activists yesterday on allegations that they plotted against the government, their lawyer said. The activists, arrested on Sunday in the provincial town of Chinhoyi, 115km northwest of Harare, were charged under a subversion clause in new security laws that carried a penalty of up to 20 years in jail without the option of a fine, lawyer Tapiwa Muchineripi said. In a separate incident, four white farmers, detained on Saturday near Chinhoyi, were also charged under the same clause, the Commercial Farmers Union said. It was the first time charges of subversion by "coercing or attempting to coerce the government" have been used since the laws were passed in January. Coercion includes threats against the state or the actual use of "violence, boycotts, civil disobedience or resistance". Muchineripi said Silas Matamisa, the provincial chairman of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), his deputy and four others were released yesterday to be summoned to court at a later date. They were accused of plotting against the government with unidentified white farmers in their district at a secret meeting on the outskirts of Chinhoyi on April 24. The four farmers, whose alleged crimes were evidently not linked to those of the opposition officials, were also freed to be summoned to court later, the union said. The farmers denied holding an illegal or subversive meeting in the Lion's Den area on April 6 as alleged by police.
The charges came a day after the opposition announced plans for a campaign of civil disobedience and mass action to unseat long-time ruler President Robert Mugabe, declared the winner in a disputed presidential election in March. The opposition and independent human rights groups blame ruling party militants backed by the state for most of the political violence that has wracked the nation since March 2000. The opposition has demanded a rerun of the polls, citing the disquiet of many international observers over intimidation and alleged vote rigging. Mugabe vowed on Saturday to crush protests or mass action to oust him by opponents supported by Britain, the former colonial power, and whites. "If called upon by the demands of the situation to do something, we will do it effectively," he said. Zimbabwe is becoming increasingly volatile as famine looms due to farm disruptions in Mugabe's programme to seize white-owned land and erratic rains. United Nations food agencies estimate 3-million Zimbabweans will face starvation by next month. Three journalists were arrested last week for reporting that the government had imported Israeli anti-riot equipment in anticipation of worsening food shortages and civil unrest. Israel confirmed the sale of water cannon, chemical additives and other riot control equipment.
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From The Daily News, 20 May
Police bar MDC rally
In what could signal a hard-line stance towards the opposition MDC, police yesterday barred the party’s rally at Trojan Nickel Mine in Bindura, despite an earlier approval. The refusal comes after Thursday’s announcement by the MDC that it would not accept fresh demands by Zanu PF at the inter-party talks. There were immediate threats from Zanu PF, with President Mugabe warning they would not "tolerate any more nonsense and rubbish about an uprising". Yesterday, thousands of MDC supporters who had waited in vain to be addressed by their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, at Trojan Stadium, were told of the cancellation by Tapera Macheka, the MDC’s chairman for Mashonaland Central province. Under the draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA), the police have to be notified of any political gathering in advance. But Macheka said the police were notified on 8 May of the MDC’s intention to hold the meeting. The police responded the next day but did not indicate whether or not the MDC could go ahead with the rally.
When the MDC sought clarification they were told that the rally would not go ahead, resulting in an appeal to John Nkomo, the Minister of Home Affairs, last week. Nkomo reportedly gave a verbal nod for the MDC to hold the rally. "But this morning, when we asked the police whether the minister’s approval had been put on paper, we were told another story," Macheka said. "The minister said we could go ahead with the rally on condition we did not bring in our supporters from other constituencies, a position we agreed to." Contacted for comment, Nkomo said he was at a funeral and could not, therefore, speak to The Daily News. Tsvangirai yesterday expressed disappointment in the selective application of POSA by the police. He said the MDC was going to take legal action against the police, as well as challenge the constitutionality of POSA from which the police were drawing their discretionary powers. Tsvangirai said his party was particularly disappointed by the last-minute cancellation of the Bindura rally, especially as the police had approved it earlier.
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From IRIN (UN), 20 May
NGO's under threat, EU on Mbeki's role
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (Human Rights Forum) claims its members are under a mounting threat from the authorities, which perceive them as anti-government. Human Rights Forum co-coordinator Tor-Hugne Olsen told IRIN that "we fear at the moment that while the main targets in the past have been members or alleged/perceived supporters of [opposition Movement for Democratic Change] MDC [now the targets] are other parts of civil society". He said: "The NGO that seems to be most under attack at the moment is Amani Trust." The trust, which focuses on highlighting incidents of torture, had been attacked in government-controlled media and its offices were recently visited by police. Olsen said: "Strong rumours about legislation in preparation, designed to hamper activities of NGOs, are of special concern to the Human Rights Forum at the moment."
On Thursday last week, the same day the European Parliament adopted a resolution strengthening their position on Zimbabwe and smart sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his associates, a programme officer for Transparency International was called in for questioning by police in Bulawayo under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). Transparency International's Andrew Nangogo said: "The programme officer was not arrested, he was just called in by the police to give them information on a meeting we had held. [The police] wanted information regarding statements that were made at that meeting. He still has to give his report to them. But the remarks that were made [at the meeting], as far as we are concerned, were not in violation of the Public Order and Security Act." The Amani Trust's Tony Reeler told IRIN: "It's a multiple level problem. At the top level there have been repeated threats from the state, that NGOs are politically undesirable. [State controlled] press recently carried a story in which a minister made fairly threatening statements that NGOs were anti-government etc." The Amani Trust had received "some fairly unwelcome attention in the last two weeks from the Police Internal Security Unit".
Reeler said: "We have not been able to get any explanation from them as to why. They have been requesting that members of my staff go to them for meetings, they've paid a visit to our offices in search of one of the members of our staff who was away on leave. The next day we got a request for three members of staff to visit the police at their offices, again with no cause, and a few staff have been visited by these people at their homes. Fortunately they were not there." None of the trust's staff have yet met with police. "We are attempting to get an explanation from police management to find out what the problem is. The political statements made by ministers regarding NGOs are threatening, we've heard there's pending legislation to deal with NGOs. Given what's happened to the journalists it may be an indication of how they will move against human rights organisations."
Political opponents and journalists have run afoul of the POSA and Access to Information and Privacy Act. Eleven journalists have been arrested in the past month. The European Parliament meanwhile has singled out South African President Thabo Mbeki's role in dealing with Zimbabwe and the consequences for the New Programme for African Development (NEPAD)in a resolution adopted last week. It stated: "The European Parliament calls on President Mbeki to show wholehearted and consistent support for the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and accordingly to demonstrate the quality of leadership that befits the powerful and crucial regional position of South Africa." The parliamentarians also called "on African leaders, particularly in the SADC region, not to resume normal diplomatic relations with the Mugabe regime and thereby jeopardise ... NEPAD and the prospects for the launch of an 'African renaissance' by the G8 summit in Canada this July".
In intensifying actions against Mugabe, the parliament resolved that the European Union (EU) member states and the council take measures to extend the EU's proscribed list of banned Mugabe associates to include other key figures. These included: "The vice-presidents, all ministers, senior military, police and secret service commanders and leading businessmen who have helped to bankroll Zanu PF or benefited from its corrupt activities, and who play a role in sustaining the regime and its campaign of violence, and also include their respective spouses and children, as they also spend illegally acquired money abroad." The parliament also called for the publication of details pertaining to assets already identified and frozen as a result of the policy of targeted sanctions and the examination of Zimbabwe's debt situation and drawing rights in international financial institutions.
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From The Daily News (SA), 20 May
Zim pupils turn to SA after exam ban
South African private schools are being inundated with requests for help from parents of Zimbabwean schoolchildren who have been banned from writing foreign exams. The Zimbabwean Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture told schools at the end of March that they would no longer be allowed to enter for foreign exams such as GCSE and Advanced Subsidiary and that all schools would have to enter their candidates for examinations offered by the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council. About 2 500 pupils have been affected by the change in regulations, which has come into effect more than halfway through their course. Since April, private schools in South Africa have received daily calls from parents hoping their children will be able to complete their exams here.
The southern African representative for Cambridge Examinations, Ray Howarth, confirmed the last Cambridge A level examinations would be delivered to Zimbabwe in June due to the changed laws. Howarth said the restriction meant pupils would not be able to write the November exams. Parents who could afford it were approaching schools in neighbouring countries as they had been caught off-guard. Although only a few South African private schools offered the British O and A level exams, others had offered to help in other ways. Kearsney College marketing director Colleen Ross said her school had told the British Council it was willing to set up the school as an exam centre and pupils could register and write exams through the council. "We have the facilities and quite a few teachers who have experience with the GCSE exams. We have also offered to accommodate pupils."
Although acknowledging that it had received a substantial number of queries from Zimbabwean candidates, the British Council exams manager Shamima Jooma said the council's involvement in the matter had not yet been confirmed. Sources said the council was being cautious because it was a politically sensitive matter. Michaelhouse rector Guy Pearson said his school had also received a number of queries and that several pupils had already been interviewed. Hilton College director of development Iain McMillan said the college had offered places to pupils who wanted to come to South Africa.
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From IRIN (UN), 20 May
Harare tops list of poor harvests
All of Zimbabwe's rain-fed crops have failed and the country only has a quarter of the food it will need for the next 12 months. "I have never seen the country so dry and it is supposed to be end of the rainy season. I can't imagine what it will look like after the traditional dry season," UN Development Programme (UNDP) resident co-ordinator for Zimbabwe Victor Angelo told IRIN. Angelo had just returned from chairing a weekend meeting of regional UNDP country coordinators where the grim regional food security predictions of the last few months appear to be coming true. The latest harvest figures show that Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and Lesotho are, as feared, going to be the worst off. Swaziland also faces serious food shortages and Botswana and Namibia, though battling, have resources to cope. Last week a government source said that northern Namibia's subsistence farmers could only expect one-third of their usual crops.
Zimbabwe tops the list with the second year in a row of poor harvests in the south and centre of the country. The only safe crop was commercially-farmed tobacco. Besides the drought and poor rainfall, commercial food production in Zimbabwe has also been disrupted by a land restitution programme. "The northern provinces are better off but they produced barely enough for household subsistence and very little of this will reach the market. Zimbabwe's food stocks are exhausted so there is no stock. At least 1.5 million mt needs to be imported," Angelo said. Malawi only has a 65 to 75 percent crop and will need to import at least 3.5 million mt. Last week field workers said that though the harvest had eased shortages slightly, at least three million people are still in need of food aid. "South Africa, who would traditionally supply the region, only has a little to spare over their needs and have already committed their surpluses. There is not much left to buy so we have to get the private sector involved, and other humanitarian assistance," Angelo said. The shortfalls would have to be imported from elsewhere like North and South America but some countries don't have the foreign currency to import, Angelo said.
His concerns are echoed in a recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) Food Security Network report that warned that the poor regional reserves and corresponding price increases will make it even harder to access extra food. Angelo said: "Lesotho is also becoming very bad although it is completely out of the news." Lesotho has already declared a famine, while Zimbabwe and Malawi have declared disasters. "It is a very serious crisis. We see the writing on the wall but that writing seems to be invisible. The key players don't seem to be paying attention," Angelo said. "They seem to be focused on Afghanistan, Angola, the Middle East. We need to create awareness of the situation." Angelo said that to survive many people were eating wild fruit and berries and killing their livestock, confirming previous fears that most people had exhausted all their coping mechanisms.
The resident coordinators did find though that not all countries in Southern Africa are facing empty larders. "Botswana and Namibia have problems but they have resources. Botswana is not a concern. It is a well-managed economy and can generate foreign currency to import when it needs to. However, they must be aware that the ports in the sub region will be under severe stress because of the imports for other countries and they must plan ahead," a statement released at the end of the resident coordinators meeting said. The north of Mozambique is "fine" but areas in the centre and south are under stress, Angelo said. The stress in the south occurs frequently and they have traditional food assistance to count on. "It is because these types of crises are predictable that they are therefore perfectly preventable," Angelo said in the statement. The coordinators plan to give the points raised at the meeting to a multi-agency team currently finalising a regional food security assessment due for release in June.
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