|
Archived News
23rd April 2002
Rhinos targeted near Zim farm invasion sites
MDC legal challenge to elections
Senegalese Loner Works to Build Africa, His Way
SA, Nigeria block UN action on Zim
State to ignore security rulings
Land invasions and maize crop failure slams poor
Four million face food crisis in Southern Africa
Women vow to expose sexually abusive political thugs
Multi-millionaire 'ordered businessman's murder'
Election roll denied to Zimbabwe Opposition
Remains of victims of violence found
Editor charged with criminal defamation
US slaps arms embargo on Zim
Chefs in massive land grab
Rhinos targeted near Zim farm invasion sites
Mugabe celebrates as terror continues
Concern over SA's stance on Zim
Hasty deal will not end political crisis
I'd rather be unpatriotic than tell lies
Ben-Menashe backs out
Mugabe's airline must pay $28m or lose its planes
Zimbabwe escapes UN censure
Zimbabwe death toll at 54 so far this year
Prophet of hope for a nation in turmoil
Nkala murder docket weak lawyers
Harare Situation
Why the ANC is unmoved by killings, torture
'Private' DRC deal may reignite conflict
Congolese stitch-up
Teachers victimised
Couple leave after 37-day siege
Mugabe's Merc arrives
Mugabe 'dumping people in the wilderness'
Independence flame blows out
Pro-democracy trio held ahead of Zim marches
Ben-Menashe signs contract
War vets torch settlers’ homes
Mugabe's farm endgame recalls Stalin
Libyans arm twist state over land
Congolese chiefs no-shows at talks
Top
From News24 (SA), 16 April
State to ignore security rulings
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government gave notice on Tuesday that it would ignore court orders that restrained police in security issues, according to state radio. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) immediately warned that the ruling meant Zimbabweans would no longer "have the protection of the courts" and that state would disregard any ruling it chose. "It is loud and clear that we are under attack," said ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe. "If a citizen approaches the courts and is given a judgement, but then the government says, 'We will not recognise the judgement and we will do what we feel like doing,' it means we are under repression." High Court Judge Moses Chinhengo late last week ruled in favour of an application from the ZCTU to stop police sitting and monitoring meetings of the union's leadership, the general council. He said that draconian new security legislation, the Public Order and Security Act, which police used to force their way into a general council meeting last month, did not apply because the union's gathering was not a "public meeting." On Tuesday, however, a day after the judge's decision was published in the local press, the government made it clear in a statement broadcast on state radio that it would not heed his ruling, and also attacked the judge who decided on the union's application. "Government is di sturbed by the decision by Justice Moses Chinengo to bar police from ZCTU meetings," said George Charamba, the permanent secretary in Mugabe's information department. "The decision is disturbing in so far as it smacks of an open invitation to the ZCTU to embark on lawless actions with impunity."
Last month police forced their way into the ZCTU's meeting where it was going to discuss the possibility of a national stay-away in protest against state suppression of the labour movement following Mugabe's victory in flawed presidential elections on March 9-11. Charamba said the ZCTU had been "planning an illegal post-election stay-away whose purpose had everything to do with the failed attempt to use violence to overturn the result of the presidential election and nothing whatsoever to do with the labour matters. "Government will fully implement the public order and security act at all times and everywhere in the country without any exception as a matter of the rule of law," Charamba said. "We expect more things to come," said Chibhebhe. "The government is saying loudly they will disregard the judgement. We don't believe it's only this judgement, but any other judgement they will treat with impunity." Observers say it appears that the country's courts are becoming increasingly irrelevant as Mugabe moves in what is seen as a campaign to silence all his opponents. Mugabe has for years declared he would not listen to judges who ruled against his mass seizure of white-owned land, but observers say this is the first time that the regime has openly stated it would ignore the country's courts on any other issues. The new security act, bulldozed through parliament in January, was used by authorities before the election to block hundreds of campaign meetings of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Also on Tuesday, police brought new charges against a journalist over his report in the privately-owned Zimbabwe Independent that the brother of Mugabe's wife, Grace, had tried to enlist her support in his bid to seize control of a local white-owned company. Dumisani Muleya, who is also correspondent for South Africa's Business Day, was arrested on Monday and released after being charged with "criminal defamation," according to legislation drafted by the former white minority Rhodesian regime in the 1960s. He was ordered back to Harare central police station on Tuesday for fingerprinting, said Independent editor Iden Wetherell. "As soon as he sat down, they started to see what else they could charge him with," he said. Muleya was allowed to leave after being charged under the government's new press-gag bill, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, for allegedly "publishing false information." Muleya denied the charge. "The law is a blunt weapon wielded by the president's office to get even with newspapers who have proved inconvenient with their revelations," said Wetherell. On Monday Geoff Nyarota, editor of the independent Daily News, was also arrested and charged under the same law for a report that said Mugabe's officials had rigged last month's elections.
Top
From The East Cape News (SA), 16 April
Land invasions and maize crop failure slams poor
Grahamstown - Zimbabwe's maize crop has failed and South Africans are starting to pay the price. Eastern Cape DA leader and Bedford farmer Athol Trollip today warned that land invasions and political chaos in Zimbabwe has had a direct impact on the spiralling price of maize in South Africa. This is now slamming into South Africa's poorest, he said. Increases in the prices of milk, beef, mutton and poultry can also be expected, he said. He said international humanitarian aid agencies were buying up South Africa maize using the "mighty" dollar in order to try and keep the lid on the "humanitarian and famine crisis in Zimbabwe". Aid buying had placed major strains on SA maize reserves and had artificially driven up local prices. The new maize price had also caused food price inflation to rise "the highest", Trollip said: "Far too many millions, who live below the bread line, are no longer able to pay for basic foodstuffs. We in South Africa are now beginning to pay the price for Mugabe's tyranny. This should not be allowed to happen."
Local farmers told ECN the maize price had gone up by between 70 and 100 percent since the terror attacks on America in September last year. Trollip also warned that the maize price was having a "catastrophic" effect on the depressed dairy industry which was dependent on maize as a source of livestock feed. He said the price of milk - also a basic foodstuff for the majority of South Africans - could be expected to rise soon "probably placing milk out of reach of the poor". "This will have devastating knock-on effects on the health of children and of HIV-positive people who are extremely susceptible to opportunistic disease infection when malnourished." He said consumers could also expect the cost of red meat, mutton and poultry to rise. He said: "Zimbabwe's crises of not having a maize crop due to land invasions and chaos will directly affect South Africans now and for the foreseeable future." He said the Mbeki government's "silent diplomacy has directly led to this crisis in South Africa."
Top
From SABC News, 16 April
Four million face food crisis in Southern Africa
More than four million people in Southern Africa face serious food shortages due to prolonged dry spells, floods and disruption of farming, the UN world food body said in Rome today. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a report that 19 countries in Africa were facing "exceptional food emergencies" for reasons ranging from civil strife, drought, excessive rain and flooding to population displacement. "Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are the worst afflicted, but the situation is also difficult in Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Swaziland," FAO said in its tri-annual Food Supply Situation and Crop Prospects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In Angola the food situation remained precarious due to the long-running civil conflict, the report said. "A food crisis looms over several countries following sharp falls in maize production in 2001 and unfavourable harvest prospects this year." Stocks were depleted in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia and food prices had soared. Maize production in Malawi declined by more than 33 % last year, mainly due to excessive rains and floods, and imports were seriously constrained by transport bottlenecks. "As a result maize prices have risen by over 300% since July last year," the report added. Malawi's government has declared a state of emergency and appealed to the international community for food assistance to avert famine.
The report said the outlook for Zimbabwe's food security was bleak in 2002/03 amid a continuing deterioration of the economy. Zimbabwe's 2001 maize crop was down 28% on the previous year, mainly due to land seizures that had resulted in a 54% reduction in area planted on large-scale farms. The government planned to import up to 200 000 tonnes of maize, but only 10 000 tonnes had arrived by the end of March, mainly because of a severe shortage of foreign exchange. The report said Zambia also faced an extremely tight food situation as a result of a poor cereal crop last season and delays in importing maize. The country has appealed for international food assistance for two million people, declaring a state of emergency in some districts.
Top
From The Daily News, 16 April
Women vow to expose sexually abusive political thugs
Today, more than a month after the presidential election, Nyasha Chinhamo (not her real name) chokes as she recounts how vicious youths supposed to be campaigning for Zanu PF raped her after they spent a nocturnal binge at Murombedzi growth point. Several times she broke into tears during the interview while she narrated her assault and rape at the hands of eight Zanu PF youths who set up a base in Zvimba communal lands as campaigning for the presidential election reached its peak. President Mugabe was declared the winner of the election, but Morgan Tsvangirai, the candidate for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), refuses to accept the outcome describing it as "the greatest electoral fraud in history". "If only someone can explain to me how raping someone would enhance a party's chances of winning an election then I may understand," said the 55-year-old Chinhamo. "I did not do anything wrong. I do not support any one of the two major parties and for these youths to do this to someone old enough to be their mother is unthinkable." The eight youths accosted her when she was coming from a beer drinking and forced her to accompany them to their base, where they held all-night rallies (pungwes). Quite a sizeable number of young girls and women were also present, Chinhamo recalls. "I then decided to leave after some time of forced singing and dancing. Nobody stopped me and I thought all was well," she said. "But as I wandered into the darkness, I heard one of them asking me why I had decided to leave so early. He then touched my bum and . . .then they started molesting me. They all took turns to rape me." Because of the cultural stigma associated with rape, she has not gathered enough courage to report the matter to the police, let alone tell someone in her village "because I drink alcohol, they would all have said I invited it".
It was with against this background that the Federation of African Media Women in Zimbabwe (FAMWZ) recently organised a meeting for media and professional women to discuss the plight of women severely affected by political violence. Abigail Gamanya, the FAMWZ director, said women had been battered and had watched as their husbands, partners and children were beaten and tortured, their property destroyed or been displaced from their homes. She said it was sad that in most conflict situations, women and children suffered the most. Gamanya said women should be educated to speak out on issues such as rape as they usually affected them for the rest of their lives. She said victim-friendly institutions, even at police stations, were critical in dealing with such cases. The meeting agreed there should be a platform through various women's organisations to allow the affected women to speak out on these abuses. The perpetrators of these crimes have largely been the youth brigade members and so-called war veterans who forced young girls and women into sexual slavery. Cultural stigmas around the issue of rape have silenced the women, many of whom will never tell their stories, said Janah Ncube of the Women's Coalition. The impact of sexual violence will haunt these women forever, especially given the high levels of HIV/Aids. Ncube said the coalition had travelled around the country with election observers during the campaign period and was shocked at what they found at one Zanu PF base in Bulawayo. She said used condoms were strewn all over the place where young women and Zanu PF supporters were camped for more than a month.
"This explains the gravity of the situation that we have on our hands and the urgent need for such issues to be addressed on a national platform," said Isabella Matambanadzo, the director of the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre Network. She said her organisation had received shocking renditions of how women had been raped, harassed and tortured at the political bases. Matambanadzo said the current scenario was somewhat similar to the plight of female freedom fighters during Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war where they were fighting for a worthy cause. However, few, if any have gone public on their plight. "We know that the world over, camps are a place of sexual violation of women and the girl-child. The Girl Child Network has documented reports of sexual violations against women and girls during the period leading to and after the election." "Several years ago I spoke with some women ex-combatants who said they had been raped in the training camps during the liberation war. They told me that because of the bigger cause they were fighting for they did not turn it into a sexual rights matter," Matambanadzo said. The persecution of supporters of the opposition MDC continues in the wake of Mugabe's disputed election victory, with women being affected the most. Francis Lovemore, the medical director of the non-governmental organisation Amani Trust, said: "There's an enormous amount of persecution. There's a witch-hunt for people who voted MDC. Whole villages are on the run - a community of about 3 000 people are unable to remain at home." In its political violence report for March, ZimRights noted that "the majority of violators have been supporters of the ruling party, Zanu PF, State agents and war veterans". Apart from reported cases of politically motivated murders and abductions are widespread incidents of rape. Lovemore said: "The victims of the violence are being forced to commit sexual acts. It is being used as a form of torture."
Ncube said: "The recent elections saw an escalation of sexual and physical violence against women in many communities and in many ways. This is actually something we have seen increasingly since the 2000 constitutional referendum that marked the beginning of farm invasions. With the invasions came a class of war veterans who found young girls and women to relieve themselves sexually in their 'camps'. This has continued and gave birth to the youth camps of the recent presidential election. The girls were used to cook, clean and provide sexual relief to these boys." She said condoms were littered all over, but it was not clear whether most of the condoms were used to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. It is for all these reasons that the Women's Coalition has started a campaign to expose the many horrors and abuses inflicted on women in the recent election, the period before and after. I hope we use the information against those who have and continue to fund and protect those inflicting this violence. Theresa Musodza of Rushinga asked: "How can you be a legitimate leader to me when you got that position by raping me, beating me up, burning my property, scarring my son's back, taking over my home and taking away my dignity and humanity?" Ncube said: "If it has happened to one sister, it will happen to you sooner or later. It is just a matter of time." It now remains to be seen how far the efforts by the coalition will go in trying to bring to book those who have perpetrated such heinous crimes against women under the guise of political campaigns. The coalition is also teaming up through the gender forum to help prevent rape, attend to emergencies and rehabilitate survivors through the plethora of women's organisations all over the country.
Top
From The Independent (UK), 17 April
Multi-millionaire 'ordered businessman's murder'
One of Britain's wealthiest men ordered the contract killing of a businessman because of "differences" that had arisen between them, an Old Bailey jury was told yesterday. Nicholas van Hoogstraten, 57,whose wealth has been estimated at pounds 200m, was travelling to Nice when Mohammed Raja was murdered in July 1999 but the court was told the contract was carried out "at his instigation and for his purposes". Mr Raja, 62, was stabbed five times and blasted in the face with a sawn-off shotgun at his home in Sutton, Surrey. According to David Waters QC, for the prosecution, the murder was carried out by David Croke, 59, of East Moulsecoomb, Brighton, and Robert Knapp, 55, of Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick. All three defendants deny murder. Mr van Hoogstraten also denies conspiracy to murder.
Describing in detail the days leading up to the killing of Mr Raja, Mr Waters told the jury of six men and six women: "Two men, so say the prosecution, were directly involved at the scene in the murder: David Croke and Robert Knapp. "The third, Nicholas van Hoogstraten, we do not suggest took any physical part in the murder." Mr van Hoogstraten made his fortune from property dealing in Bermuda, Zimbabwe and around Brighton. For several years, he has been constructing Britain's most costly stately home, Hamilton Palace, in Uckfield, East Sussex, currently valued at about pounds 40m.
Opening a trial expected to last 13 weeks, Mr Waters said a number of witnesses had seen a white Ford transit van parked in streets near Mr Raja's home, and in Mulgrave Road, where he lived at number 63, days before the murder. The van was very distinctive, with yellow wheels, a green stripe and the words "Thunderbird 2" above the driver's window. On Friday 2 July, Mr Waters said Mr Croke and Mr Knapp parked opposite number 63 and, at 10.15am, they approached Mr Raja's home dressed in blue overalls, carrying a gardener's fork and wearing "floppy hats". Mr Raja opened the door and upstairs his two grandsons, Waheed and Rizvan, heard a bang as the sawn-off shotgun went off and shot the hall ceiling, apparently during a struggle.
The court heard that while Waheed dialled 999, Rizvan ran downstairs. He was threatened with the gun but ran through the kitchen and into a TV room after seeing the gunman reloading. Seconds later he heard a second shot and the men made their getaway in the van before setting it alight. Mr Waters said that after extensive inquiries, police found that DNA, extracted from blood found on Mr Raja's front door, matched a saliva sample taken from Mr Croke. He also said that a security guard, who worked at a caravan park where a former wife of Mr Croke lived, recognised the van and said it had been parked there a number of times, during the relevant period. The trial continues.
Top
From The Times (UK), 18 April
Election roll denied to Zimbabwe Opposition
Harare - Computer experts trying to uncover evidence of vote-rigging in Zimbabwe’s presidential elections are being denied access to a digital copy of the voters’ roll. Nearly six weeks after the elections, in which President Mugabe was declared the victor, there is still no publicly available copy of the full list of registered voters. Nor have any official election results been published, apart from the confused announcements over state radio by Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar-General, two days after the poll. The limited information that Roland Whitehead, a human rights activist, and his small team of volunteers have managed to secure indicates huge discrepancies in voting patterns, voters who are dead, multiple registered votes and possibly thousands of voters with fake identity numbers. The disclosures are contained in a legal petition, issued yesterday by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to have Mr Mugabe’s victory set aside. He was said to have won 2.6 million votes, 400,000 more than Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader.
Mr Whitehead believes that he is on the brink of exposing evidence of outright fraud. "The key is the voters’ roll," he said, "but Mudede won’t give it to us. What can we assume, except that he has something to hide?" Mr Mudede has said that he will give them a 100,000-page document containing 5.5 million names. But that, Mr Whitehead said, "is just a truckload of paper. It would be impossible to handle." Each page contains the details of 55 voters, and takes an hour to input on a computer. A comprehensive analysis can be done only on digital data. He has offered to pay Mr Mudede £15,000 for the voters’ roll on compact discs, the same as the official charge for the paper documents. Mr Mudede has refused.
"He can do it, he’s done it before," Mr Whitehead said. In January, Mr Mudede took only two hours to produce the voters’ roll, as it was then, compressed into four CDs, after Mr Whitehead went to court to force him to release them. Before the election Mr Mudede secretly registered another 400,000 people, but only in strongholds of Mr Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party. He has refused to make this "supplementary roll" public. Mr Whitehead did manage to obtain from the Registrar-General’s office the paper documents of the final list of voters in two constituencies in Mr Mugabe’s heartland. He input 5,000 names from one of them, Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe into a computer programmed with the digital formula that the National Registration Centre, the repository of national identity cards, uses to configure ID numbers to be able to check validity. "We ran them through the test and 9.8 per cent were invalid," Mr Whitehead said. "It’s very interesting that with the copy of the roll we got in January, there was not a single wrong ID number." The MDC is again asking the High Court to order Mr Mudede to produce the full voters’ roll. He is due to respond to the challenge in court tomorrow.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 18 April
Remains of victims of violence found
Bulawayo - Christian Women for Love and Care, a human rights group, confirmed yesterday that two skeletal remains of people suspected to be activists of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been unearthed at Lenkubini Village in Nkayi district of Matabeleland North. Sakhile Nkomo, the chairperson of the human rights group investigating the disappearance of several MDC supporters and other villagers in the run-up to last month’s presidential ballot, said her team spoke to villagers at Lenkubini who last week witnessed the remains being pulled out from a drained dip tank. "My team confirms that two skeletal remains were found but the police don’t want to confirm it," Nkomo told the Financial Gazette. "What we are doing now is to ascertain where the remains are but we believe they are in the Nkayi mortuary," she said, adding that she was preparing a full report on the discovery which she promised would be made available to this newspaper and other human rights groups. She said her team ascertained from the villagers that police actually pulled out the remains in full view of several anxious villagers, some of whom have relatives still missing and are feared killed by Zanu PF militias in the run-up to the March 9-11 presidential election. Nkomo refused to disclose if her team managed to identify the deceased. "It’s a sensitive issue and we have to be very careful. We will document everything when the time comes," she said.
Nkayi police refused to comment yesterday. Abednigo Bhebhe, the MDC legislator for Nkayi, said a villager also indicated to him on Monday that bodies had been found after the dip tank had been emptied. "That the bodies were found is true but we are not sure of the number. One villager told me it was three bodies. I am doing my own investigations because I believe there are about six bodies lying at Nkayi mortuary. They passed through the police but the person in charge of Nkayi refused to comment on the issue to me," Bhebhe said. Since the government lost the February 2000 constitutional referendum, ZANU PF has declared Nkayi a no-go area for the MDC. Thirty-two people, most of them members of Zanu PF’s militia, have been arrested in connection with the murder earlier this year of James Sibanda, a headman from Mathendele Village in the same district. Sibanda’s badly brutalised body was found buried in a shallow grave by villagers, leading to the arrest of the 32.
Top
From SAPA, 17 April
Editor charged with criminal defamation
Harare - The editor of an independent weekly newspaper in Zimbabwe was on Wednesday charged with criminal defamation after his paper ran a story alleging President Robert Mugabe's wife's brother was involved in a labour dispute at a white-owned firm. Editor Iden Wetherell said he signed a "warned and cautioned statement" and had his fingerprints taken before being released after 90 minutes. He said he was charged along with Dumisani Muleya, the correspondent for South Africa's Business Day newspaper. Muleya was on Monday charged with "criminal defamation" or, alternatively, with "publishing falsehoods", in a report last week which said that the brother of Mugabe's young wife, Grace, had been trying to use her position to help him seize control of a white-owned company for which he worked. Commenting on his arrest, Wetherell said the police were "perfectly courteous".
Observers say a pattern of growing repression has emerged since Zimbabwe's presidential elections last month. Pro-Mugabe militias have, according to observers, carried out a wave of violent retribution against people suspected of having supported the Movement of Democratic Change in the elections. Now the regime appeared to be targeting the independent press, they said. On Monday Geoff Nyarota, editor of the Daily News, the country's only independent newspaper, became the first person to be charged under the new Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, for a report which said that Mugabe aides had rigged his election. Two weeks ago, Peta Thornycroft, correspondent here for Britain's Daily Telegraph, was arrested and held for four days, on charges she described as "incoherent."
Meanwhile the Zimbabwean government on Wednesday deported a former top US official. John Prendergast, a co-director of the International Crisis Group (ICG), the respected Brussels-based political think-tank, was refused admission and arrested when he arrived at Harare international airport, a friend who asked not to be named said. "They just turned him round and now he's waiting for the next plane out," said a friend who was telephoned by Prendergast from the airport. US embassy spokeswoman Heather Lippett said "a US citizen was detained and deported" from Zimbabwe, but would not name Prendergast, whowas also the director of African affairs on former United States president Bill Clinton's National Security Council. "The government of Zimbabwe has not provided the embassy with any information regarding the motivation for this action," she said. The ICG is composed mostly of former senior officials of Western governments, including Australia's former foreign minister, Gareth Evans. Prendergast has helped author reports criticising Mugabe's regime and also lobbied for the imposition of sanctions targeted specifically against Mugabe and members of his ruling clique. The sanctions, initiated by the United States and the European Union, include a ban on travel to countries imposing the measures.
Top
From News24 (SA), 17 April
US slaps arms embargo on Zim
Washington - The United States slapped an arms exports embargo on Zimbabwe on Wednesday, piling up new punishments in protest at what it described as President Robert Mugabe's subversion of democracy. The State Department said it would deny, with immediate effect, any applications for licences to export and transfer defence articles and services to Zimbabwe. It also suspended existing commercial defence export licences for the southern African nation. The move responded to "Zimbabwe's subversion of the democratic process, which culminated in a fatally-flawed presidential election March 9-11," said deputy spokesperson Philip Reeker. Secretary of State Colin Powell voiced US disdain for Zimbabwe's government last month, declaring that the election was marred by government-sponsored intimidation and violence, and a result which did not reflect the popular will. The United States, along with other governments, decided to impose personal sanctions against Mugabe and some associates in protest at the election and what it says were other repressive moves by the longtime leader. The Commonwealth has suspended Harare for a year.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 18 April
Chefs in massive land grab
Zanu PF bigwigs including Cabinet ministers, army generals and police head Augustine Chihuri have hijacked the fast-track land reform plan and are grabbing the best of the commercial land meant for resettlement, it was established this week. Investigations by the Financial Gazette reveal that Cabinet ministers, senior army, intelligence, prison and police officers and top Zanu PF officials have been involved in a massive land grab of top commercial farms around Zimbabwe since the farm invasions intensified two years ago. Rag-tag armies of landless peasants, independence-era guerrillas and Zanu PF supporters invaded commercial farms in the name of land hunger in February 2000, prompting President Robert Mugabe’s administration to embark on land reforms that have been criticised as lacking transparency and likely to benefit his cronies.
The fast-track reforms were initially intended to settle more than one million families during the last two years but have been bogged down by lack of finance, massive corruption and the land grab by top ruling party officials. Chihuri forced out prominent Shamva farmer Peter Butler last year and the government-owned Sunday Mail featured him proudly showing off his maize crop at the disputed Woodlands Farm barely two months later. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeremayi is embroiled in a wrangle over the ownership of Maganga Estate near Marondera which about 80 families, including some war veterans, claim was allocated to them for resettlement. Transport and Communications Minister Swithun Mombeshora has been visiting a farm in Mashonaland West during the last three weeks telling its owner that he wants to grow a winter crop at the property, farming sources said this week.
Elliot Manyika, the Youth Minister and architect of Mugabe’s re-election, has taken over Duiker Flats farm while his deputy Shuvai Mahofa is said to have shopped around several farms around Gutu in December and indicated an interest in at least five of them. Mahofa’s family was early this month forced to pay compensation to the family of a war veteran killed during a battle over the ownership of one of the farms, Lothian, in Gutu. Other government ministers to acquire farms recently include State Security Minister Nicholas Goche and Mines and Energy’s Edward Chindori-Chininga. Sources say other government ministers, provincial governors and senior party officials are now touring their home provinces every weekend to shop for the best properties they can grab. Peasants who have invaded a Cold Storage Farm in Nyamandhlovu claim that they been ordered to vacate the property because it has been earmarked for a senior Zanu PF official, who is believed to be Vice President Joseph Msika. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Scores of spies from the Central Intelligence Office (CIO), others from the President’s Office and senior police, army and prison officers have also been implicated in the massive land grab that is being carried out with police complicity. Senior Zanu PF official Saviour Kasukuwere, an ex-CIO official, is already ploughing on Pimento Park farm in Mashonaland Central where war veterans’ leader Joseph Chinotimba and Zanu PF Mashonaland Central youth chairman Dick Mafiosi have also allocated themselves land, according to the sources. In Esigodini, horticultural farmer Alistair Coulson this week said his Glenala farm was being eyed by a senior prison officer and a local police chief who had visited it several times and ordered him to vacate the farm, a major supplier of vegetables to Bulawayo, Gweru and Zvishavane. Thomas and Edith Bayley, an elderly couple which owns Dunbury Farm in Mazowe, has been engaged in a standoff with Zanu PF youths who are demanding that the couple leaves the property, their home for the past 70 years.
A Commercial Farmers’ Union official this week said the standoff at Dunbury "was symptomatic" of what happens on farms that are earmarked for a senior party official and that 150 farmers had been forced out of their land since the March 9-11 presidential vote. The farmers’ union spokesperson said what was worrying was that the police seemed to have abandoned their civic duties by openly participating in the land grab, a charge denied by the police yesterday. She said it was equally disturbing that the government was allowing senior officials to grab land meant for the resettlement of genuinely landless Zimbabweans. Tarwirei Tirivavi, the spokesman for the Zimbabwe Republic Police, said police officers wanted land like other Zimbabweans but denied that they were involved in the land grab or refused to attend to pleas for help from besieged farmers. Tarivavi said the farmers ’ allegations were "mischievous" and said some of the commercial farmers were manipulating the land issue for political purposes. "We now have a society with people who seek to be victims," Tirivavi said.
Top
From The Star (SA), 17 April
Rhinos targeted near Zim farm invasion sites
Harare - More than 50 rhinos have reportedly been snared or killed by cartels working in cahoots with newly resettled villagers on farms adjacent to wildlife conservancies, a state daily reported on Tuesday. The Herald quoted Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema as saying that there had been an unprecedented level of poaching on some farms over the past few months by people taking advantage of the country's land reforms. The animals killed included both black and white rhinos, said the report. Nearly Z$100-million about R20-million) worth of wildlife has been lost to poaching, illegal movement of wildlife, over-hunting, subsistence and commercial poaching in ranches and other game areas recently, according the report. A recent World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report states that wildlife in Zimbabwe's conservancies are now severely threatened by illegal invasions by war veterans and landless villagers. Last week war veterans issued ultimatums to some white farmers in Zimbabwe to leave their farms with immediate effect. Among the affected farms are some private conservancies whose wildlife has been indiscriminately ravaged by the war veterans. Zimbabwe has earned more than Z$2-billion (about R403-million) annually from sport hunting in the past four years.
Top
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 19 April
Mugabe celebrates as terror continues
Bulawayo - Zimbabwe marked Independence Day yesterday with Robert Mugabe promising to stay in power and many of his people living in a state of terror that shows no sign of easing. As military parades, a fly-past by air force jets and a rally were held in the capital, Harare, yesterday a woman of 27 described how she was attacked by a mob loyal to the president's Zanu PF party while she was pregnant. Four weeks before she gave birth the woman, who cannot be named for her own safety but is a supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was badly beaten. She is now in hiding in the southern city of Bulawayo. After the attack she was bleeding but knew she would get no help from the local clinic when she was told dismissively by a nurse to go to "Tsvangirai's place" - a reference to Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC.
In her dark hut, with only her 10-year-old son for company, she went into labour. "I think it took an hour. I cut the cord myself, wrapped the baby in a sheet, and lay down and slept until morning. Then I went to wash myself and the baby in the river." She spoke quietly, wincing with pain so severe she could not be touched, nursing her three-month-old baby. Three days earlier, unable to walk, she had been rescued by an MDC supporter, and driven by a circuitous route to avoid police and militia road blocks, to a non-governmental organisation, the Amani Trust. In Bulawayo, doctors found no bones were broken, but an orange-sized clot of blood had grown on her bladder where she had been beaten. The baby needed attention, too. When he was three weeks old, a group of 12 so-called war veterans arrived at her hut late at night, beat his mother, grabbed the baby, and swung him by his ankle around their heads. "I was screaming and I escaped and forced myself to walk to an MDC house."
They lived in a dry, remote area 160 miles east of Bulawayo. The district is strongly pro-Mugabe and no one moves without a ruling Zanu-PF party card. The MDC has virtually disappeared. Scores of injured people from the region have arrived at Amani Trust in Bulawayo in recent days. They said food aid in the area was being restricted to Zanu PF supporters after the World Food Programme's non-governmental organisation partners left distribution to civil servants. Care International, a Canadian NGO, has closed one feeding scheme in the district after the complaints proved justified.
In Harare, Mr Mugabe, 78, spoke at a football stadium only one-third full, despite sharing the bill with a match between the country's two top teams. Last month he claimed victory in presidential elections widely condemned abroad. He told the crowd he would defend his position. "Whatever our detractors might say, we are a self-made democracy that does not stand beholden to anyone except God," he said. Mr Mugabe's 22-year rule, culminating in a land seizure programme and violent repression of the opposition, has plunged Zimbabwe into economic crisis, with shortages of food and basic goods, triple-digit inflation and unemployment of 70 per cent. There is no work in the beaten woman's village. She has two sisters there, but only one has visited since the beatings began. "I am MDC and it is dangerous for them to come and see me," she said. The baby's father, an MDC activist in Harare, does not know he has a new son.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 19 April
Concern over SA's stance on Zim
Amnesty International has voiced "deep concern" over South Africa's unclear stance on a European Union resolution on violence by militia members and "war veterans" in Zimbabwe, tabled at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Amnesty's UN lobbyist Cathy Turner said Amnesty saw South Africa as a "key player" in the commission and among African states, and had not yet committed itself to the resolution. Amnesty and the rest of the world community expected South Africa to take a stand against human rights violations because of its experience of apartheid, she said. Rumours were rife in UN corridors that South Africa might sponsor a "no action" motion against the resolution. This device, routinely used by China to block scrutiny of its human rights record, would prevent the commission from considering the EU resolution. Turner pointed out that the African bloc in the 53-member commission tabled a resolution last year stipulating that only they had the right to table issues of concern to the continent. Similar sentiments were echoed at the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development talks, which opened in Dakar, Senegal, this week. South African presidential economic adviser Wiseman Nkuhlu, who is at the summit, told the SABC that African countries wanted to be left alone to deal with African issues such as Zimbabwe in their own way.
The SABC also reported that Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade had criticised the "trade union stance" - continental solidarity adopted by the African states on Zimbabwe. Agency reports have speculated that President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo did not turn up at the conference as a possible rebuke to Wade for his critical stance. Turner said the EU had held talks with the African states on the resolution, which asks Zimbabwe to ratify the UN convention against torture and urges the government "to fully cooperate with all relevant mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights, including inviting them to visit the country." Requests by several UN human rights special rapporteurs to visit Zimbabwe have been turned down by the government.
Sources said that at South Africa's insistence the EU incorporated a paragraph recognising "the importance of fair, just and sustainable land reform" in Zimbabwe. The UN representative from Spain, now chairing the EU bloc, closely consulted the South African delegation on the wording. The resolution urges Zimbabwean authorities to allow civil society "to operate without fear of harassment or intimidation", as well as seeking government assurances of "full respect for freedom of opinion and expression, including freedom of the press in relation to all types of mass media." Reports also indicated that South Africa might be softening its support for an optional protocol to the UN Convention against Torture. After 10 years of drafting, a compromise proposal has been tabled which would allow human rights experts to inspect prisons round the world. Human rights monitors in Zimbabwe have alleged widespread torture of opposition members by militiamen and war veterans.
South Africa's permanent representative at the UN in Geneva, SG Nene, originally pledged to co-sponsor a motion to pass the proposal. But last Wednesday diplomats were baffled when Nene stated that all such new human rights treaties should be adopted by consensus, not by a majority vote. Raising the bar in this way would almost certainly ensure that the proposal dies. However, Turner said the South Africans "now seemed to be on board". Nene could not be reached for comment on South Africa's position this week. Foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa confirmed that the African bloc at the UN would abstain when the vote on the European resolution is taken on Friday. South Africa had not decided how it would vote.
Top
From IRIN (UN), 18 April
Hasty deal will not end political crisis
Regional and international pressure to end Zimbabwe's bitter political conflict may result in a hasty deal that could undermine democratic principles, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned. As Zimbabwe marked 22 years of independence from Britain on Thursday, President Robert Mugabe struck a conciliatory note in his address to the nation. Talks between the ruling Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are set to begin on 13 May under the stewardship of South African and Nigerian facilitators. However, concern has been raised that the intense regional and global interest in finding a solution to the political impasse could result in a deal that endorses an election many observers believe was flawed.
AFP reported on Thursday that Mugabe made fresh appeals for Zimbabweans to unite in the wake of the disputed March election that returned him to power. "Let us build our country, let us bury our differences. It is time to close ranks ... time to grow, time to develop and time for the empowerment and enrichment of our people, and this can only be done when a nation is united," Mugabe reportedly told a rally attended by 40,000 people at a sports stadium in Harare. Zimbabwe is in the grip of severe food shortages and faces an economic meltdown. John Prendergast, co-director of the Africa programme of the ICG, told IRIN on Thursday: "At some point well into the negotiations, one can imagine a scenario where a plan is laid down and Zanu says they can live with it under strong pressure from South Africa. Yet this plan could be absolutely unacceptable to the rank and file of the MDC. The MDC leadership would be under intense pressure to make a decision, either they alienate their rank and file or they stand on principle and risk isolation regionally and internationally."
There was a recognition by the South Africans of the "enormous gulf" between Zanu PF and the MDC, he said. But they "appear to be focused on this for as long as it takes, they have the confidence of President [Thabo] Mbeki and President [Olusegun] Obasanjo". The objective of the South African and Nigerian facilitators was to immediately get dialogue going, said Prendergast "Only later will they start to put forward potential compromises and positions both parties might be able to move forward on. However, it's important that South Africa maintain the objective of neutral facilitation." It was inevitable, he said, that liberation movements throughout Southern Africa, including the ANC, would have "issues" with the MDC's origins, platform and composition. Said Prendergast: "Not only is the model of a labour and civil society based political party considered by some to be threatening on a political level, [they] also have different views on how the region will move forward on political and economic policies. Therefore, the starting point for the ANC-MDC relationship will be more problematic than the starting point for the ANC-Zanu PF relationship, which is not all roses either."
Observers and role-players needed to be aware of the possibility of a "diplomatic ambush" should a final plan be presented that is deeply flawed. "Nobody wants to see this thing escalate with [consequent] reverberations throughout the region. That would cause deterioration in investor confidence and the economic climate. Everyone wants a solution, but the solution must be based on [democratic] principles. "We have a Commonwealth judgment on the election - echoed by the vast majority of Zimbabwean [NGO/civil society] groups and the international community with the exception of a few important governments and regional groups in Africa - that these elections were not free and fair. Therefore, to ignore that and cobble together something that simply legitimises a process that does not meet the minimum standards for democracy, should not be the foundation for an agreement to end the stalemate," Prendergast said.
Prendergast had on Wednesday attempted to enter Zimbabwe to hold discussions with Zanu PF and the MDC. However, when he arrived at Harare airport, police and customs officials expelled him. Prendergast was a senior member of the US State Department during Bill Clinton's presidency. "I had spent time with key people in the South African government and the [ruling African National Congress] ANC, talking about their negotiating strategy, so I intended to speak to both sides [in Zimbabwe] about possible compromises [that could be worked out in negotiations]," Prendergast said. Prendergast's expulsion from Zimbabwe came after the editor of Zimbabwe's Daily News, Geoff Nyarota, and South African newspaper Business Day's correspondent, Dumisani Muleya, were arrested and charged with abuse of journalistic privilege. A conviction on the charge could mean a two-year jail term under the new Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. On Wednesday police used the same legislation to charge another editor, Iden Wetherell of the Zimbabwe Independent, AFP reported.
Top
Comment from The Financial Gazette, 18 April
I'd rather be unpatriotic than tell lies
Professor Masipula Sithole
On this our 22nd Independence anniversary, many will struggle to put up a case for our achievements over the past 22 years. While this patriotic front (no pun intended) is desirable, I would rather be unpatriotic than tell lies. It is true that peace and stability; education and health are prominent in our litany of achievements. Let us not forget to include also in this impressive list the more recent achievement: land redistribution. But we know, don't we, what the state of our education and health is in today. Moreover, many of these achievements were registered during the first decade of independence when schools and clinics mushroomed all over the place. Yet we know, don't we, that many of these schools and clinics are now in different stages of disrepair. I know the University of Zimbabwe is in a shocking state of disrepair, in as much as there has been a mushrooming of tertiary institutions all over the place.
This we all know. There is no patriotism in lying about it. In fact, it is unpatriotic to lie about a national disaster or problem. It serves no national interest. This relative peace and stability we have enjoyed over the years since the liberation war of the 1970s has been in spite of ourselves. We all know, don't we, that in the 1980s there was no peace to talk about. We were at war against each other, ala Gukurahundi in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces. Ironically, the relative peace we enjoyed in the 1990s was peace without prosperity as things began to fall apart at all fronts, including in health and education where we had made inroads in the 1980s. We know, don't we, that since the 1980s the economy has been doing badly, very, very badly: unemployment is now between 60 and 70 percent, meaning that only between 30 to 40 percent of our potential workforce has a job; inflation is now over 113 percent with no end in sight; there is now no foreign currency. In the past we used to get foreign currency, albeit in limited amounts. Shall I say more? There is even a shortage of sadza, not to mention cooking oil, sometimes fresh milk, and even the Chimombe brand! If patriotism means not making these observations with outrage and concern, then I would rather be unpatriotic than lie or keep quiet. For, to keep quiet about these things is being unpatriotic.
Towards the end of the 1990s, the independence war veterans took over the politics of this country. They would be in control of Zanu PF politics since they destabilised the President in 1997. They have controlled and directed this country's politics, agriculture and hence the economy since then. Just stop and reflect for a moment. Since the drums of war on Heroes' Day at the Heroes Acre in 1997, the war vets have increased their presence and control of this country's politics and economy. Only a few will deny that the Border Gezi Youth Training Centre is a facility for the war vets to reproduce themselves. We can't continue running the country this way and hope to prosper. Hazviiti. Akwenzi. It just can't happen, no matter how much we would wish it to.
By sheer coincidence, just about the same time as the war vets took over the political and economic direction of this country, we plunged ourselves in the unending war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wars are expensive and that war is expensive. We have been in that war since 1998. We are now in the fifth year of that war, for whatever it is worth. And it looks like we are not going to get anything from it at the end, just like it happened in Mozambique. Only that in Mozambique we were guarding the Feruka oil pipeline plus the stability of a neighbour in our long backyard. As we began the decade of the 2000s, we started a low-intensity Gukurahundi in the rest of the country, mainly in the rural areas. We declared war on each other mainly on party lines. Zanu PF on one side and the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on the other. This low-intensity war has so far cost 116 lives. Nearly 70 000 are internal refugees running away from their houses in the aftermath of post-election violence. Teachers are being forced away from their schools to leave pupils without instructors; women are being raped; citizens are being tortured. Now there is this Public Order and Security Act and the "Access" to whatever thing.
Is this patriotic, really? Is this what the liberation war was about? I am supposed to seek police permission to hold a seminar in a hotel room. Just imagine, all this after independence! I don't remember this during the Rhodesia Front regime. Honestly, kuti a seminar yoita need police permission! Even during times of war! Comrades we are doing badly on all fronts, even hondo yeminda we sing in self-adulation tiine nzara. We have done it the wrong way in as much as it is the right thing. I would rather be unpatriotic than tell lies. Just some three weeks ago, we nearly plunged ourselves into a full-scale civil war. Were it not for divine intervention blood would be flowing all over this country. This again of our own making. Let's examine this proposition next week, but meanwhile let's all be patriotic and pray for the success of the talks between Zanu PF and the MDC.
Professor Masipula Sithole is a lecturer of political science at the University of Zimbabwe and director of the Harare-based Mass Public Opinion Institute.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 April
Ben-Menashe backs out
Treason charges against opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two of his senior officials face collapse as the key witness in the alleged assassination plot against President Robert Mugabe, shadowy publicist Ari Ben-Menashe, yesterday distanced himself from the case saying "it's now none of our business". Ben-Menashe had been due to appear as the state's star witness. Tsvangirai, together with MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube and secretary for agriculture Renson Gasela are due to appear in court on April 30 to answer the charges, which are punishable by death or life imprisonment. The three opposition party heavyweights were involved in the talks with Ben-Menashe's public relations firm, Dickens & Madson (Canada) Inc, in a bid to secure the services of the company. The charges arise from meetings held in London and Montreal where the firm is based.
However, Ben-Menashe - a former Mossad spy involved in a number of episodes ranging from the Iran/Contra affair to the Zambian US$6 million maize scam last year - yesterday said he was no longer involved in the case and did not want to talk about it further. "We no longer have anything to do with the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai's case," he said in a telephone interview from Canada yesterday. "We have nothing to do with that anymore. We are now involved in doing some lobbying work for Zimbabwe abroad." Ben-Menashe, who was in the country last week on an undisclosed mission, insisted the alleged Mugabe assassination drama was no longer Dickens & Madson's business. "What happened in the past happened. We are not involved in legal issues. We are not working on anything to do with that case," he said.
The controversial lobbyist visited the country in February to give evidence to the police. If he remains resolved not to give evidence in person it will be a major blow to the state's case already facing problems of extra-territorial jurisdiction. There has been speculation that Ben-Menashe would not turn up to give evidence because he wouldn't want his controversial record laid bare. The Independent heard this week that the docket for the treason case had not yet gone to the Attorney General's office. "I can confirm that the docket is not yet with the AG's office," said Director of Prosecutions Joseph Mishawka. Other sources at the AG's office this week said it was imperative that the state produces other credible witnesses to bolster its case. "He is a sitting duck to any defence lawyer in the witness box," the source said. Asked whether he was in the country last week and if he was coming to testify in the case, Ben-Menashe again said he had nothing to do with the matter. "I think it doesn't really matter whether I was there. I really can't comment on my travels," he said. "I want to emphasise we are not working on the Tsvangirai case."
Top
From The Times (UK), 20 April
Mugabe's airline must pay $28m or lose its planes
Harare - Robert Mugabe faces losing his treasured state airline for failing to pay debts of over $26 million (£18 million) to an American bank. The Zimbabwean President has often been accused of using the state-owned fleet as his own private airline to fly him, his new young wife Grace and their cronies on overseas jaunts. Increasingly strapped for cash, the Government has now received a final demand from the US government-owned Export-Import Bank of the United States (Exim) to settle the bill for two Boeing 767 aircraft or the planes will be seized. Air Zimbabwe has not paid the instalments on its leasing deal with Exim since December 2000 and, with fines for late payment, now owes the US Government nearly $28 million. EU "smart" sanctions already block Mr Mugabe from many of his favourite destinations. His opponents have long derided him for the amount of time he spends abroad with his wife, reputed to be a profligate shopper. Losing the pride of Air Zimbabwe’s fleet would seriously cramp his style and damage his prestige among his neighbours. One Western diplomat in Harare said: "He would hate to be marooned in Zimbabwe or be like Yassir Arafat and have to ask his few allies to lend him a plane if he wants to go anywhere." He is Africa’s most-travelled President. According to an investigation by the Zimbabwe Independent business weekly he spent £180 million in a decade during the 1990s on fuel and crews for commandeering planes for his and his cronies’ use. Long-suffering Air Zimbabwe passengers and the airline’s beleaguered staff are used to the presidential entourage descending on Harare airport without warning to demand the use of one of its small fleet - it has five planes in all.
In December last year, 40 passengers were thrown off a London-bound flight to make room for President Mugabe and his party, who then diverted the plane to Spain so he could have treatment at an eye clinic. More than 100 passengers were left stranded at Gatwick when he ordered the pilots to come and collect him. Later that week another 40 passengers were left in London when he demanded another Air Zimbabwe flight to divert and pick up more of his party, who had stayed on for a holiday. Last month Mr Mugage instructed the regular London-bound flight to stop in Geneva so that it could collect a package for him. Grace Mugabe would frequently demand a plane to go to London and Paris on shopping trips. On the return flight she would have seats removed from the Boeing to stack her purchases. A visa ban means that Mr Mugabe can no longer visit London, although he was already boycotting Britain after suffering the indignity of Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, attempting to make a citizen’s arrest as the couple left Harrods in 1999. Air Zimbabwe still flies to London and if the bank does not get its money by April 30 then it could ask friendly governments such as Britain’s to seize the aircraft if they land in the UK. Exim, funded by the US Treasury but an independent agency of the federal Government, will not say what its tactics will be to reclaim the Boeing jets. Alice McNutt Miller, its managing director, has, however, written to Air Zimbabwe and the country ’s Finance Minister, demanding that they settle their debt by the end of this month. She says that it includes $26,150,545.79 on the lease and a $1,675,430.07 interest charge for late payment. The letter says: "This is to formally advise the Lessee that if Ex-Im Bank does not receive the entire past-due rent, together with interest thereon, amounting to the sum of US$27,825,975.86, by April 30 2002, Ex-Im Bank will instruct the Lessor to take all necessary and appropriate action."
Zimbabwe does not have the foreign currency to pay that bill, with its economy crippled by farm takeovers and lack of overseas investors. Exim has formally asked Air Zimbabwe to stop using the planes until the dispute is settled. A senior bank spokesman confirmed the letter had been sent to Air Zimbabwe in Harare. Air Zimbabwe executives would not say yesterday how they intend to resolve this embarrassing episode. David Mwenga, their spokesman in Harare, would say only: "We are talking to Exim bank." Senior airline sources say that negotiations have been going on for several months now and the Government is exploring various options to hang on to their only two 767s. Mr Mugabe could turn to his old friend, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi, to bail him out by paying the bill. Air Zimbabwe would not say yesterday whether it is considering dropping its flights to London at the end of the month for fear the planes could be impounded. It could be that the ailing airline will now travel only to "friendly" countries which would give an undertaking not to seize the jets on behalf of the bank. Without the two long-haul 767-200ERs, the airline would be left with only the three Boeing 737s it uses on regional routes. The airline, with 1,400 employees, has an enviable safety record but since independence has not made a profit. The top management tend to be political appointees. Mr Mugabe often takes planes out of commercial service on domestic flights for his own use. When he stages rallies in Victoria Falls or other cities he commandeers aircraft to ferry Zanu PF officials and supporters. The visa ban means Mr Mugabe has to choose holiday destinations such as Malaysia, though he can still fly to North Korea and Libya, two countries with whom his regime enjoys cordial relations.
Top
From BBC News, 19 April
Zimbabwe escapes UN censure
African countries have joined forces to block an attempt by the European Union to investigate and censure Zimbabwe for alleged human rights abuses. The United Nations Human Rights Commission, at its annual meeting in Geneva, voted 26 to 24 not to take action on a draft resolution that urged Zimbabwe to invite UN human rights experts into the country. The draft, presented by EU countries, had also expressed concern at "violations of human rights by the government of Zimbabwe". Zimbabwe's leader, President Robert Mugabe, won re-election in a controversial vote in March. Diplomats said the resolution faced strong opposition from a bloc of 14 African countries led by Nigeria. They also won support from some Asian and Middle Eastern countries. The Nigerian delegate, Pius Ayewoh, told the commission that the EU had ignored the problems caused by Zimbabwe's colonial past. He said there could be no debate on human rights without first focussing on the issue of land. Current African members of the commission include Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, South Africa, Kenya, Libya, Nigeria, Senegal, Swaziland and Zambia. China, Cuba, and Syria also supported the African countries, which effectively also stifled any debate on the issue in the commission. "It's scandalous that there was no action," said Loubna Freih of Human Rights Watch. "On top of that it was not a strong resolution."
Top
From The New Zealand Herald, 20 April
Zimbabwe death toll at 54 so far this year
Harare - Zimbabwe human rights groups said on Friday three people had been killed in political violence in the past two weeks, bringing the death toll this year to 54. The groups said the violence had persisted since President Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election in last month's presidential poll that is widely seen as deeply flawed. A police spokesman dismissed the report as a "lie", saying political violence had been on a sharp decline since the March 9-11 poll. "The continuing violence claimed a further three lives in the fortnight under review, bringing the total number of politically related murders this year to 54," the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said in its latest report. The forum said the death toll so far this year had surpassed the number of politically related killings last year, but gave no figures for 2001. "Political violence will continue to claim lives for as long as there is no concerted effort by the government and the police to put an end to it. More so for as long as state agents are perpetrators themselves," the association of 11 local human rights groups added.
It cited among its sources, reports from individual member organisations, newspaper stories and statements from the mainly-white Commercial Farmers Union whose members' farms Mugabe has been forcibly acquiring. Ten white farmers have been killed in the violence that has accompanied the invasion of farms by pro-government militants since 2000. Police spokesman Inspector Tarwireyi Tirivavi said the number of deaths given in the rights groups report was false. "They are lying. They are including in that figure people killed in non-political violence. The number of politically related deaths has gone down a lot since the elections," Tirivavi told Reuters, without giving figures. The European Union said this week it was concerned about what it called continuing political violence and human rights abuses against opposition supporters after Mugabe's re-election. The EU slapped sanctions on Mugabe and his close associates earlier this year and, along with Zimbabwe's opposition, the Commonwealth and the United States, denounced the veteran African leader's claim of victory as fraudulent. Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party insists the March 9-11 election was free and fair. But opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has filed a petition challenging Mugabe's victory, saying he has "shocking evidence" of electoral fraud. On May 13 the two parties will resume talks widely seen as unlikely to bridge the gap created by the opposition's demand for an election re-run, which Mugabe, 78 and in power since 1980, has ruled out. The MDC says more than 120 of its supporters have been killed in state-sponsored unrest in the last two years.
Top
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 18 April
Prophet of hope for a nation in turmoil
At a time of violent political upheaval, millions of Zimbabweans regard singer Oliver Mtukudzi as a symbol of unity.
It is a long way from the courtyard of the Queen's Hotel in Harare, where his all-night shows in the Eighties and Nineties were legendary, but when Zimbabwe's musical giant Oliver Mtukudzi plays in London this weekend it will, in many ways, be a homecoming. Thousands of Zimbabweans have fled their country in recent years for economic and political sanctuary in the UK, and many of them will descend on the Stratford Rex on Saturday to welcome a man who is both the social conscience and creative musical force of an entire nation. Mtukudzi is here to promote his new album Vhunze Moto ("Burning Embers" in his native Shona language). It is the 44th album in a career that stretches back to the late Seventies, when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, Ian Smith was in power and the country was in flames. Two decades on, Zimbabwe is burning once more, wrecked by horrific political violence, economic meltdown and one of the worst Aids crises in Africa. If "burning embers" is an appropriate metaphor for the nation, Mtukudzi's role as artist, social commentator and national unifier is as vital today as it has ever been.
Surprisingly, Vhunze Moto has not been banned in Zimbabwe. The album cover depicts a map of the country in flames, and the track from which the title comes, Moto Moto ("Fire is Fire") is a moving Shona ballad that fans interpret as a warning to President Mugabe of impending catastrophe. "Even embers are fire," it translates. "Why wait until it's a huge flame to accept that it's fire?" Despite its often upbeat jiti rhythms and soaring vocal harmonies, a sense of foreboding permeates much of the album. Tapera ("We Have Been Decimated") is a tragic ballad about Aids - more than one million Zimbabweans are HIV positive. Perhaps most controversial is Magumo ("How Will It All End?"), a call-and-response number sung in Shona and Ndebele, the language of the minority Matabele, 20,000 of whom were killed in the genocide Mugabe unleashed in Matabeleland in the Eighties. "You may have the power, much power, and you oppress those who are weak. How will it all end?" Mtukudzi asks.
To millions of Zimbabweans, Mtukudzi's lyrics are nothing less than the teachings of a Shona prophet, and the inferences they draw are clear: Zimbabwe is burning and Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party will soon have to suffer the backlash. For Mtukudzi, though, there are no such simple interpretations. "I'm not a politician, I don't understand politics," he tells me, speaking from Harare. "My songs are about what I see around me, the happiness and sadness in my country. I don't believe in singing for a particular time. My songs should mean something yesterday, today and tomorrow."
Mtukudzi never openly refers to politics in his work, nor does he openly criticise Zimbabwe's leadership. Instead, he uses Shona imagery and African parables to tell stories that his listeners can interpret for themselves. On Yave Mbodza ("What Kind of Rearing is That?"), Mtukudzi asks why the ancient Shona practice of a parent chewing traditional root medicine and passing it on to a baby is no longer followed. On the surface, it is a simple morality tale. Look deeper, say his fans, and Tuku, as they like to call him, is singing about the corruption of the ageing generation of Zanu PF rulers who are keeping all the goodness of the country for themselves. "Oliver is an iron fist in a velvet glove," says John Matinde, a DJ on SW Radio Africa, a station set up in London last year to broadcast to Zimbabwe the music and independent news that state-owned radio no longer airs. "It is an open secret that he is referring to the political situation in Zimbabwe, but Oliver speaks in tongues. People can interpret him any way they wish."
The minstrel observing from the sidelines - it is a tactic that has served him well. Unlike his friend Thomas Mapfumo - Zimbabwe's only other bona fide international superstar - Mtukudzi has never allied himself with a political party, even in Zanu PF's heyday after independence. It has meant that, although state radio no longer plays his new work, the government has not been able to ban him either, and respect for him among the people is greater than ever. He still plays more than 100 concerts a year in Zimbabwe, many in remote rural areas where people cannot afford to buy his albums. The shows are always sold out and fans will cross the country to watch him. That said, he does not have an easy ride either. Several recent concerts have been cancelled after warnings that the CIO - Mugabe's notorious Central Intelligence Organisation - would beat up fans if he performed certain songs. A pre-election concert near Harare was invaded by 30 Zanu PF youths, who tried to force the band to wear Zanu PF T-shirts and caps during the performance. Mtukudzi refused, carried on the concert, and publicly rebuked the youths.
But the track that has caused most controversy is Wasakara, from the album Bvuma ("Tolerance"), which was released at the end of 2000 when the political violence was gaining momentum. Wasakara refers to an old man and the chorus translates: "You are old, you are spent, it is time to accept you are old." Zimbabweans immediately interpreted it as a reference to the 78-year-old Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980 and shows no sign of stepping down. Once again, Mtukudzi refuses to commit to interpretations. When I ask him what Wasakara is about, he says: "It's about a man getting old." Asked what he thought of the MDC using it as their anthem, he replies: "I'm happy for people to get meaning from my songs." And when asked why state radio no longer airs his new albums, he responds, with perfect PR spin: "Maybe it's because my PR is weak. I should promote myself more." It is possible that were he not speaking from Zimbabwe he would be more forthcoming, but Mtukudzi has always been opposed to confrontation and remains the ultimate unifier.
He is also the ultimate performer. He sings, plays guitar and dances throughout his shows - often for four hours straight - although, at 49, he has stopped playing Pungwes, traditional 12-hour concerts that would end at 6am. His nine-piece Black Spirits band (with three rousing backing singers) have been with him since the Eighties, and they contribute to his big-voice gospel-blues sound, which merges Zimbabwean jiti and South African mbaqanga, while retaining a style all its own. In Zimbabwe, they even call the genre "Tuku music". What, though, of his fans in London? So many Zimbabweans now live in exile in the UK that on the streets back home they refer to London as Harare North. "I will tell them their parents and families are missing them, and that they must not forget where they come from," says Mtukudzi. "One day, I hope they will go back."
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 April
Nkala murder docket weak lawyers
Dockets on the murder of Zanu PF activists Cain Nkala and Limukani Lupahla in November last year have serious loopholes which could weaken the state's case if and when it goes for trial, the Zimbabwe Independent learnt this week. Government and the police went out of their way to lay blame at the feet of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change at the time. Despite a high-profile public exhumation of Nkala and footage of the charred remains of Lupahla, together with confessions of two alleged conspirators, police have yet to conclude investigations. A law officer at the Attorney-General's office, who cannot be named, said the two cases were investigated by senior officers in the force and a thorough job in the preparation of the docket had been expected, but this was not the case. "If these seasoned officers failed to include key elements when the case was still fresh at the beginning of the year resulting in the docket being returned, it just shows the weakness of the investigation," the officer said. "The docket has not improved much from what it was when it was initially submitted," he said.
Legal sources said the delay in putting the docket together was ample evidence that the state case was weak. "The longer one takes to prosecute such cases, especially having created the impression that there was a lot of evidence, the more it becomes difficult to successfully prosecute," said a source close to the case. "The police have to back with real evidence their utterances on television that the accused were guilty of the crime. In the frenzy of trying to be politically correct, police abandoned all ethics of investigating crimes of this magnitude." The state media this week reported that the dockets on the murders were lodged at the AG's office in January only to be returned to the police to "attend to certain aspects of evidence". The dockets were then taken back to the AG on April 9. The murder of the two activists resulted in the arrest of MDC MP Fletcher Dulini Ncube and 14 other party supporters. Two of the accused confessed their role in the murder and this was repeatedly flighted on national television under the title "Fighting Terrorism". A senior lawyer based in Harare this week said the two witnesses paraded to confess their roles in the murder of Nkala were the weak link in the state case. "I think there was a lot of unnecessary talk before the dockets were prepared. Any defence lawyer will have a field day with those guys on the witness stand," he said.
Top
Comment from The Nation (Kenya), 20 April
Harare Situation
L. Muthoni Wanyeki
Last week, the post-elections mediation effort by Nigeria and South Africa between President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition MDC began in Zimbabwe. In neighbouring South Africa, Zimbabweans from key academic institutions, human rights, legal and media organisations met with some external participants from the rest of Africa to analyse recent events in Zimbabwe and strategise on what civil society could and should be doing now. Zimbabwe has been the subject of more heated debates and the cause of more deep disagreements among those who normally find themselves in concurrence than anything I can remember. And the unfortunate result has been that the provision of appropriate, strategic and useful solidarity to Zimbabweans, as other Africans, has been next to impossible.
Let us first consider the facts. One, the obviously increasing limitations on the rights to freedom of expression and association through fast-tracked legislation in Zimbabwe. Fact two, the formal and informal militarisation of the Zimbabwean state through the increasing placement of ex-combatants and high-ranking military personnel into key positions throughout the civil service as well as within law-enforcement agencies and the enforced recruitment of Zimbabwean youth, particularly in the rural areas, for militia training. Fact three, the violence wrought against ordinary Zimbabweans, again particularly in the rural areas. And fact four, the growing number of Zimbabweans who are internally displaced as a result of violence, now estimated at more than 70,000.
So why is there such disagreement on whether what is happening in Zimbabwe is acceptable or not? Do these facts not relate to basic human rights standards - African or otherwise - that can be applied objectively? Those present at the strategy session spent considerable time analysing the causes for this disagreement. The first and most important reason behind the African response can be found in Mugabe's own comments during the elections. He repeatedly referred to the second "chimurenga", that Zimbabwe was purportedly going through, saying that these were therefore a "different kind of elections." The implication was that when there is a higher goal, a popular uprising, a revolutionary purpose, all actions are apparently justified. It is this call to chimurenga that most African leaders and (however misguidedly and unfortunately) many African progressives have responded to. But more concretely, another fact is simply that there is a very real material basis to Mugabe's call - both internally and externally. A Kenyan colleague based in South Africa expounded on this point simply. The need for land re-distribution in Zimbabwe is inescapable and unavoidable. The United Kingdom has effectively reneged on its independence agreement to fund land re-distribution efforts beginning ten years after independence.
However, it would be unwise to blindly support this current fast-tracked land redistribution effort. Not only because of the evident flaws in the process and the havoc it has wrought on ordinary Zimbabweans. But because documentation already exists about the failings of previous land re-distribution efforts in Zimbabwe. Those failings and problems need to be investigated and addressed. As do more serious current allegations about those benefiting from current efforts before we buy into the idea that what is going on is for the benefit of ordinary Zimbabweans. That aside, yet another fact is that the response of the international community and its media has been completely disproportionate and therefore ultimately unhelpful in relation to its responses to similar situations in the rest of Africa - witness the coverage and reactions to recent, also contested elections from Madagascar to Zambia. This observation is in no way meant to urge a downward levelling of international response. But clearly race has coloured both coverage of and international responses to Zimbabwe. And if the impact of recent events in Zimbabwe on ordinary, non-white Zimbabweans is not responded to across Africa, that is in no small measure due to the fact that that the impact is not known by other Africans.
As we await the outcome of the mediation efforts and their results in terms of actually addressing the deteriorating situation of most ordinary Zimbabweans, let us heed the appeal from those Zimbabweans present at the strategy session. Zimbabwe is not an either/or situation, as is being currently portrayed. Both the internal and the external have to be addressed. In the meantime, we in no way go counter to the use of the nationalist and pan-Africanist claims of Mugabe and Zanu PF by pointing out and insisting that the human rights situation in the country be dealt with. In the words of the Zimbabwe Liberators' Platform, a forum for genuine ex-combatants and war veterans: "The first deliverable of any freedom struggle is freedom."
Ms Wanyeki is executive director, African Women's Development and Communication Network.
Top
Comment from The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 April
Why the ANC is unmoved by killings, torture
By RW Johnson
Robert Mugabe's speeches at Zanu PF rallies held during his presidential re-election campaign consisted, over and over again, of crude abuse of Tony Blair, a hymn of hatred against British colonialism and an insistence that his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, was part of a British plot for the recolonisation of Zimbabwe. In his last speech, however, he sounded a new note: there was, he said, a Western and especially Anglo-American - plot to destroy Zanu PF and evict it from power because it was a national liberation movement. If this plot succeeded in Zimbabwe it would then be applied successively against all the other ruling liberation movements in southern Africa.
Without doubt this is a conviction quietly shared by the ruling groups in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa and it goes far to explain their reaction to the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe. Had the Soviet Union not abruptly collapsed and the Cold War ended, there is little doubt that sentiments such as Mugabe's would have been heard from these leaders as they greeted each visiting delegation from the USSR and the Eastern bloc. This is, indeed, the great submerged motif behind the Zimbabwean crisis. The world had changed so that Presidents Joachim Chissano, Sam Nujoma and Thabo Mbeki find themselves, incongruously, hobnobbing with the Queen at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, rubbing shoulders with Bill Gates at World Economic Summits and shaking hands with George W Bush at G8. It is no longer politic to make ringing speeches in which all these liberation movements are depicted as locked in a continuing, indeed endless, struggle to the death against imperialism.
But this is not to say such notions have disappeared, merely that they have become tacit, sotto voce. They remain almost the deepest beliefs such leaders have, providing them from their earliest years with a heroic definition of themselves and their movements and where they fit into the grand sweep of history. Since the eruption of the Zimbabwean crisis following Mugabe's defeat in the constitutional referendum of February 2000, there have been repeated summit meetings of the region's ruling national liberation movements (NLMs). Such summits were not thought necessary until Mugabe's defeat opened up the prospect that a ruling NLM might actually lose power. This nightmare could only be explained by a fresh assault from imperialist forces, in which case they were all threatened. Immediately, Mugabe's struggle to stay in power became a struggle for their own survival too. Supporting Zanu PF was no longer just a matter of solidarity but of fundamental self-interest.
It is this perspective which explains why Mbeki, though he might prefer Mugabe to hand over to a younger man or constitute a government of national unity, has been unwavering in his insistence that Zanu PF must retain power. It is why the ANC will always regard Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC as a lesser breed - at worst Inkatha-like puppets, at best the unintentional dupes of imperialism. It is why the ANC is so wholly unmoved by all the killings, torture, beatings and rapes inflicted on the MDC: such things happen in the struggle against imperialism and the only solution is the final triumph of national liberation. It is also why most of the election observers sent by Mbeki were wholly unbothered by such matters as ballot-stuffing by Zanu PF and the manufacture of between 600 000 and one million bogus votes for Mugabe; why they were unwilling to recognise Zanu PF thuggery even when they were the victims of it themselves; and why they did not even stay for the ballot count. For they had really gone on a mission of solidarity with Mugabe, not as impartial observers at all. Their mission was to help cement him back in power and to describe such a result as legitimate. The verdict that the election would pass muster had been decided long before the observers set out.
The NLMs share what can only be termed a common theology. National liberation is both the just and historically necessary conclusion of the struggle between the people and the forces of racism and colonialism. This has two implications. First, the NLMs - whatever venal sins they may commit - are the righteous. They not merely represent the masses but in a sense they are the masses, and as such they cannot really be wrong. Secondly, according to the theology, their coming to power represents the end of a process. No further group can succeed them for that would mean that the masses, the forces of righteousness, had been overthrown. That, in turn, could only mean that the forces of racism and colonialism, after sulking in defeat and biding their time, had regrouped and launched a counter-attack. Thus it follows that having won, a NLM should stay in power forever. Many NLM true believers still favour a one-party state - even if it has become impolitic to say so - for if other parties are allowed or encouraged to compete with the NLM, they can only become the vehicles of imperialist counter-attack. Hence the extraordinary self-righteousness, even now, of Mugabe and the Zanu PF leadership. However much they kill and torture, they are utterly convinced of their superior moral standing. They are the elect. The only alternative to them, they believe, must be a return to British colonialism - even though this requires a certain degree of mental gymnastics, given the way in which British colonialism intervened in 1980 to help get rid of Ian Smith and smooth Mugabe's way to power.
The real truth about the NLM governments is that they allow a corrupt elite to cling to power indefinitely. The Zanu PF elite is now benefiting from "blood diamonds" in a way which even King Leopold's ghost would admire. None of the NLM governments shows much concern for their own poor and all of them have lamentable records of delivery. In every country they govern life expectancy is shrinking and living conditions are generally worsening. Not surprisingly, this is leading to the rapid decay of the NLM culture - but just as Karl Marx spoke of the uneven development of capitalism, so their decay is uneven too. It has reached a terminal condition in Zimbabwe first, and the other NLM governments are rushing to resurrect it. But the same decline will gradually face them all. This is, indeed, the awful warning in Mugabe's current predicament. If ordinary black voters across southern Africa see Mugabe ejected from power by his electorate, they will be electrified to face up to their own self-righteous elites who are determined to rule and enrich themselves forever in the name of liberation.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 21 April
'Private' DRC deal may reignite conflict
Political parties and civil groups from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday joined a deal between the Kinshasa government and Ugandan-backed rebels to create a transitional government. The pact, signed by the government and the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) on Wednesday, effectively leaves the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) out in the cold, raising fears that a four-year-old war in the DRC will reignite, with changed alliances. The deal will see President Joseph Kabila remain as head of state and install MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba as prime minister, a new post. Adolphe Onusumba, the leader of the RCD, angrily rejected the agreement, under which his rebels were offered a number of positions, calling it "a coup and an insult to the Congolese people." Said RCD security chief Bizima Karaha: "The problems of the Congo are well-known. We came here to solve them and the deal between Kinshasa and the MLC does not solve them. We must continue these talks with or without them. We will not be taken hostage." MLC secretary-general Olivier Kamitatu, for his part, maintained: "It is a partial solution, but it means that from today there will be peace for millions of Congolese people."
Since war broke out in the DRC in 1998, the country has been divided in three zones. The RCD controls the eastern third of the huge central African country, the MLC the northern third, and the government the remainder. Talks facilitator Sir Ketumile Masire, former president of Botswana, dismissed the accord as a "private meeting" outside the scope of the eight-week-long Inter-Congolese Dialogue held in Sun City, South Africa. He said it fell "outside Lusaka," referring to an accord signed in the Zambian capital by Kinshasa, both rebel groups and their foreign allies in 1999, and from which the Sun City talks took their mandate. But most delegations to the talks in South Africa rushed to sign it, including two rebel splinter rebel groups - RCD/ML Kisangani and the RCD-National - and the pro-government Mai-Mai militia.
Kabila will retain command of the army and most of his current presidential powers under the pact, but the MLC said he would in future not be able to "sign a single document without Bemba." The signatories to the accord privately admit that the two men are likely to clash and that the exclusion of the RCD poses the risk of a renewed war with Rwanda. Kamitatu said of the Bemba-Kabila cohabitation: "It is our duty to make them get along." And Raymond Tshibanda of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party commented: "We are signing. I do not see any other way out at this stage. It is not fully satisfactory because it does not bring everybody aboard, but failing that we have to start here. We did not want to go back to Kinshasa after 50 days having failed to come up with anything at all." The government's public order minister, Mwenze Kongolo, said: "What this means is that millions of people in our country can resume a normal life, something which they have not had for years."
The MLC and government delegates opposed attempts by South African President Thabo Mbeki and Masire to prolong the talks in search of a deal that would include the RCD. "For us the dialogue is over," said Kamitatu. He said the alliance and its foreign backers would pursue a peace accord with Rwanda and the RCD. "The DRC, Angola, Uganda and Zimbabwe will speak to President (Paul) Kagame and try to bring him into our accord. We do not want to aggravate the situation in the eastern Congo and we hope that the peace will prove contagious." Angola and Zimbabwe have troops fighting alongside the government army. The document gives no time-frame for the transition, which is designed to lead to the first elections in the former Zaire since independence from Belgium in 1960. Delegates embraced each other after the deal was unveiled, repeating over and over "it is a historic moment."
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 21 April
Congolese stitch-up
Johannesburg - It seems that the tentative agreement reached among the majority of participants in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue at Sun City might have been a stitch-up after all. Over $5-million of South African tax revenue might have been spent on what was already a done deal between two of the major belligerents in the Congo's 42-year reign of chaos. By Thursday afternoon, the second deadline for consensus to be reached by the 400 or so delegates, no one was prepared to release an official statement. But the consensus was that Joseph Kabila's unelected government in Kinshasa had settled on an agreement with Jean-Pierre Bemba's Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) that would confirm Kabila as interim president and head of an integrated army, and give Bemba the position of prime minister, with full powers to appoint an interim cabinet. The agreement more or less pushed aside a series of compromise formulae proposed by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has effectively cleared his diary in order to see a successful outcome of the talks. But many parties point out that the unlikely alliance between Kabila and Bemba has been under discussion between the two parties for some time - possibly brokered by a shadowy background figure, a European businessman with close links to both parties, as well as to the South African presidency.
The Mbeki plan had proposed that Kabila should indeed hold the post of interim president, but had suggested that he be supported by a triumvirate of vice-presidents, chosen from the main armed groups, the MLC, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) and a representative of civil society. This had failed to reach consensus largely because of the intense rivalry between the MLC and RCD, who did not care to be seen as equals. Political parties representing civil society were also fearful of being dominated by the three large armed organisations that had been holding the country hostage for so long. While a series of expensive negotiations in at least five different countries have foundered since the process was initiated by the Lusaka Declaration in 1999, it would seem that the Kabila and Bemba factions have been holding quiet talks on a private division of power for several months. The exhausting Sun City process could prove to have been a largely wasteful exercise, culminating in the rubber-stamping of a deal that had already been struck.
So great is the desperation for some sort of arrangement to end the debilitating war in the Congo that most members of Congolese civil society, as well as the main Mai Mai guerrilla groups operating independently throughout the country, were prepared to accept the proposal. After all these years of deadlock, at least a first base had been reached. "If the only solution at the end of the Sun City process is a two-way deal that the rest of us can join in on in the near future, then let's go for it," said one key participant. "At least the various parties involved in the talks have now got to know each other for the first time, and have developed a dynamic which can lead to the emergence of a consensus." The one major group that, at time of going to press, was not prepared to play along was the RCD. It feels it has been outflanked by the MLC, and marginalised after two years of bitter but stalemated war against the Kinshasa government. "What does this agreement mean?" asked Dr Bizima Karaha, a member of the RCD leadership. "It just means that one guy called Bemba will get a job. But we didn't come to Sun City just to get jobs for people, we came here to find solutions." Unfortunately for the RCD, other delegations, and a wide range of public opinion inside the Congo, will be happy to see them sidelined. The RCD is widely regarded as not representing a truly Congolese constituency, but rather of being a proxy for the Rwandan army that has largely occupied the eastern Congo since 1994. Hatred for what is seen as an army of occupation has naturally rubbed off on the Goma-based movement, regarded as the instigator of the present war.
In Kinshasa, reaction to rumours of the deal between Kabila and Bemba ranged from jubilation to cautious optimism in Thursday's press. "Miracle at Sun City!" exclaimed one headline. "Government and MLC sign accord behind back of RDC" proclaimed another. A third led with an editorial that warned: "Uncertainties still hang over our country." Yet as long as the RCD is kept out of the process, the country's future will indeed remain uncertain. Although Karaha says that the party has no intention of resuming its armed conflict but will instead continue to fight through the political process, the threat of continued armed destabilisation is always there. Further consultations between Mbeki and the major protagonists continued deep into the night in an attempt to break this impasse. The big question was how it was possible that this unlikely consensus should have been reached between Kabila and Bemba, who had also been intent on unseating him from power. But politics, especially Congolese politics, is a strange game of speak and double-speak, and contradictory actions and alliances.
According to a source in Kinshasa, Bemba's key bargaining chip was the River Congo. While he had been shelling Kabila's forces from the front, he had been quietly allowing traffic along the river that he effectively controlled to continue unmolested from the back. This meant that crucial food supplies were able to reach the besieged capital from the vast, fertile hinterland - a critical consideration for both Kabila and Bemba in the battle for the hearts and minds (and stomachs) of the population of Kinshasa. A delegate to Sun City summed up this tentative agreement thus: "Like all agreements, it can either collapse or grow. Most people in the Congo want to see it grow to embrace all parties. The Congolese people simply want to see an end to the war."
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 21 April
Teachers victimised
The ministry of education, sport and culture has started dismissing teachers and education officials who were blacklisted by war veterans and Zanu PF supporters during the presidential election campaign period, The Standard has learnt. Already several teachers, suspected to be supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, are no longer on the payroll of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and many more have received suspension letters, pending dismissal. Nearly all teachers who fled their schools due political violence are being reported to be on a list that was compiled by war veterans and the Zanu PF militia. This move has caused anxiety among teachers who are not sure who is next in the firing line. Two regional directors and a number of officials at the ministry's head office have also received a retirement request from the PSC. One of the officials who preferred not to be named said: "It's true that I am one of the affected. The request was made under Section 18.4(g) of the Public Service Regulations of 2000, which empowers the PSC to ask employees to retire if it's in the interest of the public service."
Under these regulations, an employee is notified of termination of service three months in advance. Worried by this development the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) says it will urgently seek an audience with the minister of education, sport and culture, Aeneas Chigwedere. Zimta's first vice-president, Erisson Huruba, told The Standard ahead of the organisation's 21st Annual National Conference in Bulawayo last week that they had received many reports of teachers whose services had been terminated, or replaced in circumstances that are not clear. "Although we are still to finalise the issue, the feeling here is that we will have to take up the issue with the minister who has indicated his willingness to discuss the issue," he said. A teacher who attended the congress said: "War veterans and Zanu PF activists have compiled a long list of teachers they claim were supporting MDC during the past presidential election. Many of these teachers are now out of employment." President Mugabe has vowed that all civil servants who were involved in opposition politics will be dismissed from the service.
Top
From News24 (SA), 21 April
Couple leave after 37-day siege
Mazoe - An elderly farmer and his wife, who have been kept confined to their house under guard by Zanu PF youth militia for 37 days, had to abandon their farm in Mazoe on Saturday as the farmer needed medical attention. The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said in a media statement on Sunday that the farm - 30km from Harare - was under a compulsory notice of acquisition, but the owners were to argue their case in administrative court. Thomas Bayley (89) and his wife Edith (79) were both in poor health and their son and his wife - who lived in another house on the farm - had been forcibly evicted by war veterans a few weeks earlier. "Comments made to the Bayleys by the war veterans and police officers have led the Bayleys to believe that some 'big shot' wants their farm," CFU spokesperson Jenni Williams said. The occupation began when war veterans arrived on the farm on March 13. They beat up the workshop foreman and his two brothers with steel bars and chains to get keys to the workshop, tool cupboards and diesel tanks. One of the men died from these injuries, Bayley's son said. Two days later a crowd of about 40 people occupied the farm. A police assistant inspector came to the farm, but said he was unwilling to take any action before consulting his superiors. The next day the police returned to charge Bayley junior with possession of an antique set of traffic lights which he said he had acquired legitimately from the City of Harare scrap heap in 1988. The following week the district administrator, three members of the local Lands Committee and a police inspector came to the farm and advised the "war veterans" to vacate the security-fenced area around the house, but the war veterans refused. They then also evicted the farm workers from their houses and moved in, Williams said.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 21 April
Mugabe's Merc arrives
President Mugabe's state-of-the-art limousine, a customised armoured Mercedes Benz S600 LV AMG (Pullman size), has arrived in the country, The Standard has learnt. Mugabe's vehicle arrived together with two Mercedes Benz S320 saloons ordered for his two vice presidents, and 19 presidential escort trucks. A third S320 has already been allocated to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the speaker of parliament. The total value of the vehicles is estimated at over $250 million. Government last year floated a tender resolution TBR 0751 for the supply of vehicles for top government officials. Mugabe's Merc, which was manufactured to personal specifications in Germany by the company Cloer, was transported into the country from South Africa. Dr Swithun Mombeshora, the minister of transport and communication, confirmed that the vehicles had been procured. "We were given directives by the president's office last year and we made a request to the tender board to bid for the resolution. The rest of the details can be provided by the ministry of finance and economic development as it is not the responsibility of my ministry," he told The Standard. Efforts to obtain comment from the finance ministry were unsuccessful at the time of going to press. The president's office requested Cloer to bullet proof Mugabe's limousine to the highest level possible, that of B7 Dragunov high level protection. Intelligence sources told The Standard that upon arrival, Mugabe's limo was taken to a local garage where it was swept for bugs.
Top
From The Sunday Independent (SA), 21 April
Mugabe 'dumping people in the wilderness'
Zimbabwe's food crisis, exacerbated by drought, is deepening as President Robert Mugabe's economic and land-grab policies come home to roost for ordinary Zimbabweans. Shortages of basic commodities spawned by Mugabe's decision to impose price controls last year are worsening by the day, and an expensive black market for such daily needs as cooking oil, sugar and maize meal has sprung up. Queues for basic foodstuffs form at dawn at supermarkets around the country and last until dusk, often without any such items being on sale. Desperate citizens simply want to make sure they won't lose out should consignments arrive. Hundreds of thousands of people in the arid southern parts of the country are facing mass starvation despite efforts by the United Nations to distribute relief supplies.
Mugabe's indiscriminate seizures of white farms, which started in February 2000, combined with a crippling drought, have caused a 60 percent drop in agricultural output and the country needs to import 700 000 tons of maize and wheat to feed its people. State hospitals and clinics that cater for the needs of at least 90 percent of the population are short of basic drugs and equipment. There is no end in sight to crippling foreign currency shortages that have been caused by the destruction of the commercial agriculture sector, the key foreign currency earner through tobacco exports. The business sector now buys all its foreign currency on the black market. One South African rand fetches 30 Zimbabwe dollars, one US dollar buys Z$330 and the British pound is worth Z$450. Companies have no option but to pass the costs of these hard currency transactions on the black market to the consumer.
But it is Zimbabwe's 113 percent annual inflation and the resultant price hikes and shortages of basic commodities that have caused misery to many. A black market for basic commodities is now thriving because of the price controls, which have forced manufacturers to either slow down or stop production. Because of the extreme difficulties in getting these basic goods in the supermarkets, most of the fixed official prices become irrelevant as those who can afford it resort to the black market. Economists have one explanation for Zimbabwe's debilitating economic woes - Mugabe's 22-year-long mismanagement of the economy and his determination to remain in power by whatever means, which culminated in his re-election in the widely discredited March election. They say the only solution to reversing Zimbabwe's relentless slide towards conditions of deprivation is to implement radical economic policies that will bring back international donor support and much-needed foreign investment to help alleviate the record unemployment rate of 60 percent.
Mugabe's approach has centred on force, which has led to human rights abuses and disregard for property rights. This has achieved the effect of attracting economic sanctions from major donor countries. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank pulled out in 1999, citing Mugabe's mismanagement. Mugabe has since said that his government officially abandoned free market policies and IMF and World Bank-sponsored economic policies in favour of a Marxist command system, which it followed in the 1980s with disastrous consequences. Mugabe has also announced a new agriculture-driven economic policy based on boosting agricultural productivity on farms seized from whites for peasant resettlement. Economists say this policy is a recipe for disaster.
"His resettlement scheme has been about dumping people in the wilderness without giving them the basic infrastructure needed for them to maintain productivity," said James Jowa, a respected economist. "Modern economies are not driven by agriculture, but by industry," Jowa said. His sentiments were shared by other economists, who argued that Mugabe had failed to implement agrarian reforms that were production oriented in favour of ad hoc land seizures. "As far as things stand... there is no hope for this country as long as Mugabe hangs around," said a central bank economist who preferred to remain anonymous. "This is why all major firms in the banking, manufacturing and tourism sectors are relocating to other regional countries."
The following items give a guide to what food price increases mean in everyday terms for Zimbabwe's people. A 5kg bag of low-grade maize meal, which cost Z$50 (R4,30) around this time last year, now costs Z$125 on the official market and Z$400 on the black market. A similar quantity of special-grade maize meal, which cost Z$120 in April last year, now costs Z$200 on the official market and Z$500 on the black market. A 750ml bottle of cooking oil that cost Z$40 a year back now costs Z$150 on the official market and Z$300 on the black market. A kilogram of salt, which cost $19 last year, now costs Z$45.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 21 April
Independence flame blows out
In what traditionalists have described as a bad omen, the Independence flame blew out as soon as it had been lit by President Mugabe on Thursday at the occasion to mark the country's 22nd birthday. As Mugabe was walking away from the torch which symbolises Zimbabwe's independence, the flame blew out and he had to return to light it for the second time. Superstition has it that the blowing out of such a flame signifies an unpleasant happening. Generally, it is viewed as symbolising the end of an era. Peter Sibanda, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha), said the blowing out of a flame or fire symbolised the plunging of society into darkness. "When a fire or light blows out, it means there is no guidance or light, only darkness, but this is not politics," he said. The outspoken Zinatha leader also questioned why traditional leaders were always being left out of national events. "Traditional leaders are not being included in the country's affairs. Only the government and Christians are. We wonder why we are being disregarded," he said, adding: "Was there an agreement during the war that when power was obtained, the spirit mediums would be left out?"
Top
From The Star (SA), 22 April
Pro-democracy trio held ahead of Zim marches
Harare - Zimbabwean police on Monday arrested three top officials of a pro-democracy movement, one day before planned national anti-government protests, the group's spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said. Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), national co-ordinator Edna Zinyemba and information officer Maxwell Saungwene were arrested early on Monday afternoon, Mwonzora said. Police arrested |
