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Archived News
23rd June 2002
Mugabe spurns plea to avert famine with food imports
Britain prepares to extend EU ban on Mugabe
PM contemplates Zimbabwe sanctions
Journalist defies rule of Mugabe in court
Zim soldiers in Congo food scam
Fresh wave of farm invasions hits Masvingo
Zimbabwe loses second citizenship case
Five-star luxury may have been at taxpayers' expense
Passport problems
Africa's leaders 'stole $140bn'
Government by the mad
SA using mystery man in Congo?
Internet used in Zimbabwe trial
Nairobi journalist detained at Harare airport
US wary of 'Mugabe's Famine'
IMF suspends technical assistance to Zimbabwe
Gaddafi 'aims to hijack' African Union organisation
Mugabe cuts a lonely figure in Rome
Persona non grata
Mugabe orders 24-hour watch on British "spy" envoy
British diplomat accused of plot against Mugabe
Mugabe's hungry and unpaid stormtroopers threaten revolt
Njube militia flee residents
Villagers shunned in land grab
Teargas fired at Zimbabwe rally
Police arrest 170 MDC supporters
Zimbabwe reporters to face huge fees
Mugabe versus the internet
Why half the planet is hungry
Zim journalists caught in police crackdown
Police brutally assault Daily News staffers
Zim prosecutor plays down Meldrum's offence
Police give evidence in Guardian reporter's trial
Guards lose maize-meal to Zanu PF
Dozens charged in Zimbabwe after rally
Police still deny medical attention for detained journalists and demonstrators
Meldrum trial resumes
Trial of Guardian journalist adjourned
138 MDC supporters remanded in custody in absence of lawyer
Africa wants partnership with G8, says Mbeki
Moi attacked as 'new Mugabe' after poll delay
Last white farmers vow to hang on in Zim
Land reforms to displace two million
Food donors threaten pull-out
Criminal justice
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From The Times (UK), 13 June
Mugabe spurns plea to avert famine with food imports
New York/Rome - President Mugabe, who is spending the week blaming white "imperialists" for Zimbabwe’s desperate food shortages, has been taken to task by the world’s most senior black African official for blocking grain imports. In the margins of the United Nations’ World Food Summit in Rome, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, has twice demanded that Mr Mugabe permit a free market in grain to try to avert a famine. UN sources said that the Zimbabwean President had refused on both occasions. Instead Mr Mugabe told Afrikone, an African television station, yesterday that the West "enjoys seeing Africans suffer ... The more we suffer the happier they are". He added: "The only good imperialist is a dead imperialist." On Monday Mr Annan privately urged Mr Mugabe to lift the state monopoly on all imports and sale of grain into the drought-stricken country, where commercial farming has almost collapsed because of the Government’s land seizures. He repeated the demand later in the week, but was disappointed again. Mr Mugabe ’s defiance threatens Zimbabwe with mass starvation. Six million people face malnutrition unless large amounts of cereals, especially maize, are brought into the country. The Government controls all grain imports and distribution and is expected to import about 300,000 tonnes of grain this year, with a further 60,000 tonnes already promised in food aid. But the UN estimates that Zimbabwe needs 1.497 million tonnes of food, including 1.345 million tonnes of maize.
The summit, which is designed to combat world hunger, is drawing to a close with Third World leaders rounding on their Western counterparts for not attending. President Mbeki of South Africa said that their absence showed that they "do not care about human life". He said that the world’s leaders, including President Bush and Tony Blair, had come to Rome only two weeks ago for a NatoRussia meeting. The fact that they had not returned to discuss how to tackle worldwide starvation suggested that "they obviously don’t think the problem of 800 million starving people is important". Only two Western nations had sent their Prime Ministers: Italy, which is hosting the summit, and Spain, which holds the presidency of the European Union Council of Ministers. Alun Michael, the Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, finally arrived in Rome yesterday. But he did not speak publicly and left after five hours, making Britain the only EU nation not to have made a statement at the summit. British officials insisted that, although Mr Michael had missed the first two days of the summit and would also miss its conclusion today, this did not amount to a boycott.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 13 June
Britain prepares to extend EU ban on Mugabe
Britain is preparing plans to extend the European Union's sanctions against President Robert Mugabe. The proposal would extend the EU travel ban to dozens more senior Zimbabwean figures, according to Whitehall sources. At present, 20 senior figures in Mr Mugabe's entourage are banned from travelling to EU states. British officials expect other European countries to resist plans to extend the sanctions to spouses and children of those on the banned list. "There are objections to making the sons pay for the sins of the father but there are a number of options," said one source. "It should be possible to expand the list to include everybody in the cabinet and in the politburo. That would amount to more than 60 people." The travel ban and a freeze on the assets of Zimbabwean leaders were imposed in February as a sign of the EU's anger over the violence and fraud surrounding the presidential election campaign. British officials said they had "stood back" from the crisis in the hope that South Africa and Nigeria could persuade Mr Mugabe to hand over power or bring the opposition into government. The discussions have made little progress.
Britain is likely to press the EU next month to increase pressure on Mr Mugabe. But the Government will have to convince European countries that tougher action is justified and that Zimbabwe is not simply a peculiarly British obsession. "If the British propose something new on Zimbabwe we will look at it," said one French official. "But frankly, we are much more worried about the civil war in Madagascar. Zimbabwe is important to Britain for domestic reasons." But the British stand received an important boost from Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, who blocked an attempt by Zimbabwe to further weaken western sanctions. The Italians rebuffed a request by Mr Mugabe to hold high-profile talks with Italian leaders. Italian officials said they had turned down a request for "bilateral meetings" on the fringe of the world food summit in Rome. Mr Mugabe is staying at a luxury hotel in the city, exploiting a loophole that requires countries where United Nations events are being held to grant access to all representatives. British officials were delighted by Mr Berlusconi's refusal to meet Mr Mugabe separately or to allow contacts between Italian and Zimbabwean ministers.
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From ABC News (Australia), 13 June
PM contemplates Zimbabwe sanctions
Prime Minister John Howard says it is time to consider what he calls "smart sanctions" against Zimbabwe. In March a committee of three heads of state led by Mr Howard decided to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth, after the controversial election that returned President Robert Mugabe to power. But Mr Howard has told Sydney radio he is now ready to reconvene the committee to consider stronger action. "The behaviour of that government has gone from bad to worse and I think they are going to face a stronger reaction than many of them have imagined," he said.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 13 June
Journalist defies rule of Mugabe in court
Harare - The Zimbabwe correspondent of the Guardian went on trial yesterday in the first major test case of President Robert Mugabe's draconian new media laws. Andrew Meldrum, 50, appeared before a magistrate in Harare charged with "abusing journalistic privilege by publishing falsehoods". The court was packed as Meldrum, an American, pleaded not guilty. If convicted under Section 82 of the media law he faces a heavy fine or up to two years in jail. After yesterday's hearing, Meldrum said the trial was "not only about me". He added: "It is about this media law and also a trial about Zimbabwe's judiciary system. I have committed no crime and the attention will be on this law, which makes it a crime to commit factual errors. I feel calm and if I have to go to jail, it will be in support of a very important principle: freedom of the press." Meldrum, who has lived in Zimbabwe for 21 years, said he had come to the country after independence because he had been attracted by the opportunity to report on a newly independent African nation which seemed to be "full of hope".
Meldrum's trial centres on a bizarre story. In April, an unemployed man who claimed to be a member of the opposition told Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, the Daily News, that his wife had been beheaded by Mugabe supporters in front of her two young children. Meldrum reported the story in the Guardian and credited the Daily News as its source. After the report proved false, both newspapers published retractions. The outline of Meldrum's defence is that the ruling Zanu PF party will brook no opposition and that it routinely terrorises supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The Harare government maintains that the story was part of a western-backed campaign to damage Mr Mugabe's image since his re-election in March and to advance the interests of the MDC. It is also prosecuting two Daily News journalists.
Julia Mususpero, 52, was the state's first witness yesterday. She said her younger sister was not beheaded but died in her arms from an Aids-related illness in Seke, a rural community 20 miles south of Harare. The first day's proceedings regularly descended into farce. The magistrate's arrival was delayed because she "had to breast feed her baby". In the dock, Meldrum was serene. Also in court were his wife, Dolores, an observer from the American embassy, and scores of local and foreign journalists and human rights activists. Beatrice Mtetwa, for Meldrum, said evidence would show "that political violence has been a reality in Zimbabwe for the past two years". Meldrum was reporting the story in good faith, she said, and he would present evidence that the law was applied selectively. The case continues.
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From The Financial Gazette, 13 June
Zim soldiers in Congo food scam
An unspecified number of Zimbabwean army officers have been suspended from duty on charges they masterminded a million-dollar racket in which food meant for southern African forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was diverted and sold on the black market. A Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) spokesman told the Financial Gazette this week the soldiers, who include senior Zimbabwe National Army officers responsible for sourcing and transporting food rations to troops in the DRC, are being tried under a court martial. He did not say how many suspects were involved in the racket. "In this case, the involved servicemen had the duty to source and transport the rations on behalf of the SADC allied troops deployed in the DRC," the ZDF spokesman said without giving any further details. "There is a court martial presently going on. Since the matter is under the courts, we cannot give you further information."
Sources however said the officers would divert trucks and wagons containing food rations destined for soldiers operating under the auspices of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and sell the loot to middlemen. The defence forces spokesman however said Zimbabwe was not prejudiced by the racket, understood to have been going on since SADC forces moved into the former Zaire in 1998 to prop up the beleaguered government of slain Congolese leader Laurent Kabila. "Under the SADC allied forces arrangements/agreement, the DRC government finances the rations demands," he said. Zimbabwe has more than 7 000 soldiers stationed in the DRC while other SADC allies Namibia and Angola have pulled out their troops in line with ceasefire accords signed by the combatants in Zambia nearly two years ago.
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From The Daily News, 12 June
Fresh wave of farm invasions hits Masvingo
Masvingo - Masvingo province has been swept by a fresh wave of farm invasions with those evicted from farms in the area moving onto new properties, plunging the controversial land reform programme into more chaos. At least six properties in Masvingo were last week invaded by illegal farm occupiers defying the government order which halted fresh farm occupations. Mike Clark, the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) regional chairman, said smooth implementation of the reform programme was being hampered by the new invasions. Clark said the illegal farm occupiers were randomly moving onto new properties with their livestock and most of the affected farms were now overstocked. Some of the properties affected by the new invasions include Moria farm in Mwenezi, Umbono, Reinette and Lizunga farms and Quaggapen and Kayalami ranches. About 20 families have moved onto Reinette farm, 30 have occupied Umbono ranch while about 10 families have settled on Lizunga farm.
Clark said: "The new invaders have been taking huge portions of land. The affected properties are now overstocked with cattle and the situation is very serious. There is confusion on the ground and people need direction. As always, we are willing to co-operate but the situation has become chaotic. It appears people are being used for political gains and not for a proper land reform programme." The Masvingo provincial land committee chaired by Governor Josaya Hungwe expressed concern at the new development. The committee was worried about the wave of fresh farm invasions in some parts of the province and resolved that all illegal settlers should be removed. "These people should be removed as a matter of urgency", the committee noted. In Masvingo the government's ongoing evictions have hit a snag as some illegal farm invaders are refusing to leave. About 12 000 people in Nuanetsi, Eaglemont and Wasara-Wasara ranches have defied a government order to leave. Since the evictions started about a month ago, only 700 illegal farm occupiers have been thrown out of farms in the province.
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From The Star (SA), 12 June
Zimbabwe loses second citizenship case
Harare - A Zimbabwean dancer of Mozambican parentage has won a second test case against Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo and Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede after being refused a passport. Ricarudo Manwere, 31, a founder member of the internationally acclaimed troupe Tumbuka, was told by officials he had forfeited his citizenship because, although born in Zimbabwe, he had not produced proof by the Government's January 6 deadline of renouncing any claim to the citizenship of Mozambique, where his father was born. Before the January 6 deadline, the Mozambican High Commission in Harare was overwhelmed with applications for documentary proof persons of Mozambican descent were not eligible for Mozambican citizenship, and were unable to supply it. There are believed to be up to two million Zimbabweans of Malawian or Mozambican descent in Zimbabwe affected by President Robert Mugabe's tough new laws aimed at clamping down on those with a potential right to dual citizenship. The plight of the 30 000 of British descent has received the greatest publicity because Mugabe accuses them of master-minding opposition to his 22 year rule and "fast track land reform programme".
Last month veteran human rights campaigner Judith Todd won what was believed to have been a landmark judgment when Judge Sandra Mungwiro ruled Mudede had no right to strip her of citizenship because her father, former prime minister Sir Garfield Todd, was born in New Zealand. Since then, Mudede has lodged an appeal on the grounds the judge ought not to have heard the case, because her husband may have a claim by descent to some foreign citizenship. In an application heard in chambers at the Supreme Court, Mudede successfully sought a temporary stay of Mungwiro's order to issue Todd with a passport and restore full citizenship rights, including her vote. Todd will therefore be left stateless until the full Supreme Court bench hears the case after what may be a lengthy delay. When Manwere went to renew his passport in order to take part in a tour next month to South Africa and Spain as cultural ambassadors for Zimbabwe, he was told to apply for citizenship, a process taking two years and costing R2000.
Judge Yunus Omerjee ruled Mudede had again exceeded his powers by ignoring Mangwiro's ruling in the Todd case. Neither Todd nor Manwere had taken any steps to claim a foreign second citizenship, the courts heard. Manwere told The Daily News he went back to the passport office this week with a letter from his lawyer advising officials of Judge Omerjee's ruling, but they refused to comply with it. He planned to return on Wednesday with a full copy of the judgment. Zimbabwe human rights lawyers backed Manwere's test case in the hope of establishing a precedent.
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From The Times (UK), 14 June
Five-star luxury may have been at taxpayers' expense
Rome - Taxpayers in the West may have paid for President Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his entourage to stay in one of Rome’s finest luxury hotels. The Times has learnt that Mr Mugabe had the right to draw on a United Nations expenses account to pay for his accommodation during the international meeting to discuss world hunger in the Italian capital. UN officials refused to confirm whether Mr Mugabe had drawn on the trust fund set up to pay for delegations from poorer countries to stay in good hotels. But they said that he would have been able to ask for money to pay for hotel rooms for himself, his wife Grace and his entourage. Mr Mugabe, who arrived in Rome last weekend, has been staying at the five-star Excelsior Hotel on the Via Veneto. Prices for the hotel, which has 35 luxury suites, start at £500 a night for a double room.
Officials at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which organised the meeting, said that it had recently created the trust fund to help delegations from poorer countries with their accommodation. Almost all the African and Third World delegations chose five-star hotels in and around the smart Via Veneto, with the delegations of Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Mozambique staying at the Excelsior. An FAO spokesman said that the richer nations had subsidised the summit accommodation trust fund. He declined to name the donor countries, but said that the Scandinavian nations among other Europeans had been generous. "The aim is to make sure that all the delegates are properly looked after," the spokesman said. Asked why the delegates had been lodged in luxury hotels, the spokesman said that the choice had been made by the Rome Hotel Association, which had helped to block-book rooms and suites.
Sources connected with the meeting said that most Third World delegations consisted of ten to 12 people, but that Mr Mugabe’s delegation had been larger because it included his wife and his Foreign Minister. Yesterday members of the 180 delegations which have attended the meeting began packing their bags. Lucilla De Luca, a spokeswoman for the Excelsior, declined to say whether Mr and Mrs Mugabe were staying on an extra day to take advantage of Rome’s shops and restaurants. Mr Mugabe is banned from the EU because of his human rights record and his mistreatment of political opponents, but was able to circumvent the restrictions because of a loophole allowing him to attend international meetings. He stretched the provision by arriving last Saturday on an early-morning flight from London, giving him an extra two days before the meeting began on Monday.
The ornate seven-storey Excelsior, built at the end of the 19th century, boasts a palatial interior of Persian carpets, tapestries and brocade, marble floors, gilt mirrors and decorations and crystal chandeliers. It is described by one tour guide as "over-the-top Louis XV" in style. "Our luxurious suites provide an unequalled level of comfort and elegance," the hotel brochure says, illustrating the point with photographs of rooms with frescoed ceilings and indoor whirlpool baths. The hotel restaurant, La Cupola, offers fine dining in discreet alcoves and private rooms, while the bar menu includes champagne cocktails at €17 (£10.80) and after-dinner malt whisky at up to €28 a glass. Staff said that Mr Mugabe had largely kept to his suite while at the hotel after his bodyguards had stepped in to manhandle a television cameraman who tried to film him.
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From ZWNEWS, 14 June
Passport problems
Defying court orders, officials of Robert Mugabe’s regime are refusing to issue passports to internationally acclaimed Zimbabwean dancer Ricarudo Manwere, who is due to perform in South Africa and Spain next month, and human rights campaigner Judith Todd. Both fell foul of stringent new citizenship legislation because they had foreign-born parents, and both subsequently won High Court test cases in which judges held that they were entitled to retain their Zimbabwean nationality and passports. Judges ruled that Manwere and Todd, both born in Zimbabwe, could only be held to have renounced Zimbabwean nationality if they had taken active steps to claim a second citizenship and that Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede had no legal right to deprive Zimbabweans of citizenship on the mere assumption they might hold a claim by descent to a second passport. Dual nationality is illegal under the new legislation, which was aimed primarily at 30 000 whites of British descent who Mugabe accuses of masterminding opposition to his 22-year rule and seizures of white-owned farms. However, those worst affected are two million black Zimbabweans of Mozambican or Malawian descent, who may be left stateless.
Lawyers for Todd, 58, daughter of former prime minister Sir Garfield Todd, this week lodged formal objection to attempts by Mudede to suspend an order that he restore all Todd's citizenship rights and issue her with a new passport within 40 days. Sir Garfield, 93, was born in New Zealand. Mudede claimed he did not have to issue Judith Todd with a passport before the Supreme Court heard his appeal, which may not be until next year. Meanwhile passport officials refused to obey a similar order made by Judge Yunus Omerjee for Manwere to receive a passport within 14 days and in time to accompany the Tumbuka dance troupe to South Africa and Spain next month. The judge held that Manwere could not be stripped of his Zimbabwean citizenship because he had failed to produce proof he had renounced Mozambican nationality by Mudede's January 6 deadline. Manwere's father was born in Mozambique. Passport officials first refused to recognise the court order, and then told the dancer to "join the queue" at their offices. Applicants have to wait, sometimes for days, to lodge applications. They are then subjected to a delay of up to seven months before new passports can be collected. Legal sources said Manwere is considering having Mudede indicted for contempt of court.
Todd’s lawyers this week applied to High Court Judge Benjamin Paradza for an order refusing right of appeal to the Registrar General in her case. Mudede contends that the judge who heard Todd’s case in April, Sandra Mungwira, should have excused herself because her husband may be entitled to a second citizenship. However, Todd noted that the judge’s order for her to receive a new passport was granted by consent when state lawyers conceded Mudede had "usurped the prerogatives of the legislature and the judiciary" in depriving Zimbabweans of citizenship. Because the state lawyers agreed, there is no right of appeal and there should be no further delay, Todd’s lawyers said. Judge Paradza will give his ruling next week.
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From The Independent (UK), 14 June
Africa's leaders 'stole $140bn'
Addis Ababa - Corrupt African leaders have stolen at least US$140bn from their people in the decades since independence, the Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, said yesterday. He accused European countries of "sitting" on much of the stolen money stashed in European banks. There was little action from Europe to try to bring back the money to Africa and improve living conditions. European countries and banks providing a safe haven for stolen African money had to share the guilt. He said Africa needed a watertight international convention to allow money hidden in foreign bank accounts to be repatriated. "A man who provides a safe haven for stolen things is equally guilty as the one who stole the things," Mr Obasanjo told representatives of African civic groups meeting in the Ethiopian capital to prepare the African Union to be launched in South Africa in six weeks. The Nigerian leader had been defending a deal he made with the family of his late predecessor, Sani Abacha. It handed over $2bn looted from Nigeria but retained $100m. Mr Obasanjo said he was forced into the deal because European banks insisted on proof the money was stolen, although the Abachas had no business that had a $2bn turnover.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 14 June
Government by the mad
Those fortunate enough to have read last Wednesday’s issue of The Herald would have stumbled across a real gem. A certain Morgan Handidi set out, at length, his ruminations on the state of Zimbabwean politics. The editorial is unfortunately too long to reproduce here in full unfortunate, because it really does deserve to be admired in its full glory. The title of the article "Planned mass action threatens to destroy the MDC" summarises Mr Handidi’s analysis. ‘Nuff said, nothing new in that. But the real value of the essay is in the rare glimpse it gives of Harare’s passages of power. For Morgan Handidi is, of course, the nom de plume of a middle-ranking government minister. The meaning (I don’t want Morgan) is not too subtle to be lost on the minister’s dozens of loyal readers.
Those corridors must be a grim place to inhabit, even for the kings of the Zimbabwean power jungle. For our not-quite-anonymous essayist reveals that he and his colleagues are being assaulted from all sides, not to mention top and bottom, by a bewildering array of assailants so many that they make the Congolese rebel groups seem few in number. British covert operatives; former members of the Rhodesian forces; Selous Scouts; cartels of black businessmen; cartels of white businessmen; top MDC officials; delinquent MDC youth; British spy networks; MDC killer squads; armed robbers and criminals; Brian Donnelly (the British High Commissioner); the CFU; spent forces; and other unidentified groups, some on the run, some not on the run. Not to mention MDC militants, some even trained in Uganda; a shadowy group called Mumvuri waDavid Coltart; and, the ghost of Cecil Rhodes. Even Satan himself apparently sticks in his trident from time to time.
All of these have forces of evil have, of course, been previously and individually identified by other ministers, who perhaps lacked Mr Handidi’s singular strategic outlook. But it is only now that we have been privileged with a coherent outline of just how these multifarious, and seemingly fractious, groups are, in fact, essential elements in the grand imperialist master-plan to conquer Zimbabwe. Did we mention the imperialists? They figured in there somewhere. One question: What is a rubble-rouser? They with the spent forces - apparently have something to do with mass stayaways, according to analysts known only to Mr Handidi. Is this some new kind of secret weapon, like a suicide bomber? Perhaps Mr Handidi would like to explain further? Or perhaps it was really just a typographical error, and some unfortunate sub-editor at the Herald is set to join hundreds of other Zimpapers ex-employees.
And the world is thick with plots: plots to assassinate the president; plots to kill MDC people and blame it on Zanu PF; plots to kill Zanu PF people and blame it on Zanu PF; even plots to lead law-abiding citizens into confrontation with the national guard...and blame it on Zanu PF. Who is the national guard? We hadn’t heard of that one. Perhaps Mr Handidi has unwittingly let something slip? It can’t be easy keeping up with all these plots, and maybe he took his eye off a ball for a moment. The extent of British involvement is simply breath-taking. All these plots are to be co-ordinated by Brian Donnelly, who is apparently planning to flit around the country from one clandestine high-tech mobile communications station to another. We bet Brian Donnelly didn’t realise he would be so busy when he was posted to Harare. Ordinary citizens have really had their eyes opened to the full extent of the total onslaught, for which we are grateful to Mr Handidi. One more question: does all this British stuff have anything to do with all the allegations of le vice Anglais which have been mesmerising Harare in recent weeks?
Can life really be this bad? Are there really so many enemies out there? They say the mark of a first-class mind is the ability to hold two contradictory opinions at the same time. But maybe the strain is starting to show for this particular rocket-scientist. Maybe Mr Handidi needs a very long holiday.
p.s. If you would like a copy of Mr Handidi's essay, please let us know. It's a classic, and you can keep it for your grandchildren.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 14 June
SA using mystery man in Congo?
Are South African intelligence services using a controversial French businessman in their Congo peace bid? The answer to a recent parliamentary question suggests they may be. The man, Jean-Yves Ollivier, has long been regarded as a frontman for French intelligence and business interests in Africa - allegedly also serving as a key sanctions buster for apartheid South Africa. The involvement of Ollivier in the negotiations at Sun City this year was recently questioned by Democratic Alliance MP Raenette Taljaard, who asked Deputy President Jacob Zuma whether Ollivier, or any of his associates, acted as an adviser to the South African government in respect of the Inter-Congolese dialogue - and, if so, whether he was paid for his services. In a startling response, Zuma refused to reply, citing the fact that "the question relates to an intelligence matter". Further inquiries sent by the Mail & Guardian to the Ministry of Intelligence produced a terse "no comment".
Had Ollivier merely been a participant, there appears to be no reason why Zuma should not have indicated this fact. Ollivier's independent participation in the negotiations would have stemmed naturally from his close association with Jean-Pierre Bemba, the head of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC). The MLC is one of the rebel groups that has been fighting the Kinshasa government; in the case of the MLC with the backing of Uganda. A source close to Ollivier says there were discussions between Ollivier and the Department of Foreign Affairs about him acting to assist South Africa, but the source claims this proposal was never consummated. However, Zuma's more ambiguous answer casts new light on the outcome of the Sun City talks, where at the last minute a deal was signed between the Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and Bemba's MLC, a move that sidelined many of the other participants.
South Africa appeared to publicly distance itself from this bilateral agreement, but Zuma's answer raises questions as to whether Ollivier was used to ram through some sort of agreement before the talks ended in total failure. His answer also raises questions about South Africa's bona fides in the process because of Ollivier's close identification with Bemba. Indeed, Congolese sources told the M & G last week that word in Kinshasa was that Kabila felt he had given too much ground at Sun City and was now attempting to renegotiate that deal - the terms of which would have kept him on as transitional president, but located real power in the hands of Bemba, as transitional prime minister. According to the authoritative African newsletter Southscan the secretary general of the MLC, Olivier Kamitatu, has accused the Kabila government of putting in new "zealous and ill-informed negotiators". Southscan reported that on May 25 Kamitatu warned that Kabila's new hardline approach could jeopardise the entire deal and lead to the de facto partitioning of the country.
The involvement of Ollivier in the Congo process raises serious questions about the nature of the outcome. According to intelligence sources, Ollivier has a history of being a middleman for questionable deals between France and Africa. One intelligence assessment states: "The pattern of such deals, which have fuelled the French political system and enriched politicians and senior officials for 50 years, typically exploits two opportunities, the French purchase of raw materials from Africa at well below market price, and French sale of industrial goods, especially military equipment, to Africa at well above market price." Both Ollivier and Bemba were singled out by the report of the United Nations panel of experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources of the Congo. The report stated: "Jean-Pierre Bemba's friends, Jean-Yves Ollivier, Jean-Pierre Dupont and Jean-Pierre Saber, have all used Bangui as the base for their diamond and coffee deals." However, in a later addendum, apparently under threat of legal action, the panel stated: "Mr Ollivier met with the Panel. He explained to the Panel that, while active in the region as an independent political mediator, he is not involved in commercial activities in the Central African Republic and the region."
However, Ollivier himself has boasted that he sees no wrong in using the political contacts he makes - in the course of what he likes to call his "parallel diplomacy" - to help secure favours in business. He doesn't see being favoured in a tender because of his political connections as being corruption, as long as different tenderers offer roughly the same deal. In this regard he has cited the 10% of the Polana hotel in Maputo that he received from the Mozambique government for helping "secure peace" with Renamo. His relationship with President Denis Sassou Nguesso also helped him to get a stake in Congo-Brazzaville cellphone operator Celtel. While he claims never to have dealt in arms, Ollivier did well as a middleman in sanctions-busting deal between the French and the apartheid government. According to an intelligence source this included a huge deal to import South African coal that supposedly originated from Poland.
According to Noseweek magazine, he was also the man who set up the 1989 deal to channel money via the Strategic Fuel Fund to support Ivory Coast politician Henri Bedie on behalf of the South African foreign affairs department - a scheme exposed by the investigation of the public protector into the affairs of the fuel fund. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report found that he had been paid by the old department of foreign affairs to advance South Africa's interests in francophone Africa. However, Ollivier made a seamless transition to a position of honour and influence in the post-1994 democratic South Africa. He was awarded the Order of Good Hope by President Nelson Mandela in recognition of his role in initiating the negotiations that attempted a peaceful handover of power from former Zaire President Mobuto to the then rebel leader Laurent Kabila, the assassinated father of present Congo President Joseph Kabila. Ollivier also developed a close relationship with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and is believed to have facilitated her visit to Congo-Brazzaville last year. He had a stake in several early empowerment deals, including an initial interest in Afrisun and in the local arm of French arms and technology company Thomson CSF, the latter at the same time that Schabir Shaik's Nkobi Holdings was brought into the company. The resultant joint venture, African Defence Systems, has played a prominent and controversial role in the arms deal scandal.
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From Associated Press, 14 June
Internet used in Zimbabwe trial
Harare - The trial of an American journalist under Zimbabwe's tough new media laws moved to the business center of a downtown hotel Friday for an Internet search for the story that triggered the case. Andrew Meldrum, 50, an American reporting for The Guardian newspaper of Britain, is accused of writing a false story about alleged political violence in Zimbabwe. He faces two years in prison if found guilty. His reporting appeared in the newspaper and on its website, but his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said prosecutors had failed to prove he published or distributed false information inside Zimbabwe, a crime under the media law, in force since March. As evidence, police submitted an Internet printout of the alleged article. Mtetwa said an Internet download by police was not "proof of publication" inside the country. The London-based Guardian is not available in Zimbabwe and Meldrum was not accused of downloading the story or publishing it inside Zimbabwe.
On the third day of the trial, Judge Godfrey Macheyo moved the hearing to the business center at the nearby Sheraton Hotel, so police could demonstrate how they found the article on the Internet. After several fruitless searches, police computer expert Sgt. Blessmore Chishaka was unable to locate the April 24 article and told the judge the website was either out of date or the article had been purposely deleted from The Guardian's website. Geoffrey Robertson, a British attorney and an expert in media law who was observing the case, said Zimbabwe's claim a crime was committed on the Internet could have serious implications for electronic journalists. The case raised the possibility that journalists who never set foot in Zimbabwe but publish information on the Internet that Zimbabwe considered illegal could be extradited by friendly countries, he said.
Meldrum was arrested last month after reporting that ruling party supporters allegedly killed a woman. The woman's husband reportedly said she had been hacked to death and decapitated in front of her two children. The story also was reported in a local newspaper as well. Police said the killing never happened and the country's only independent newspaper, The Daily News, retracted the story, saying it was tricked by an informant to discredit the paper, which is often critical of the government. Zimbabwean journalist Lloyd Mudiwa, a reporter with The Daily News, was scheduled to appear in court on the same charges June 20. Independent human rights groups say at least 57 people, most of them opposition supporters, have died in political violence this year both before and after President Robert Mugabe's disputed victory in March presidential elections. New media and security laws enforced since the voting have been described as efforts to stifle criticism of the government. Twelve independent journalists have been arrested since March. Meldrum's trial continues Monday, when the magistrate will be asked to rule on whether Internet evidence is admissible in the case.
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From The Daily News, 14 June
Nairobi journalist detained at Harare airport
Florence Machio, a Kenyan journalist, was on Wednesday detained by immigration officials on arrival at the Harare International Airport for trying to enter the country without clearance from Professor Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity in the President's Office. Machio, 27, the co-ordinator of the Nairobi-based African Woman, an Internet newspaper produced by 40 African women from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Zimbabwe, yesterday said she was detained for one hour. "I am in Zimbabwe to discuss story ideas with my colleagues in the country in preparation for a meeting on the environment to be held in South Africa in September," Machio said. She said after completing her immigration form at the airport, an immigration official said that "since I am a journalist I was not supposed to enter the country without the minister's clearance". Machio said the official then consulted his superiors after which she was asked to fill in a special form which allowed her to enter the country but leave today. She said she told the officials that she was not going to write any story during her stay in the country. "Besides the detention, I was not harassed," she said. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act requires foreign journalists to seek clearance from Moyo before visiting Zimbabwe.
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From News24 (SA), 14 June
US wary of 'Mugabe's Famine'
Washington - The American congress has accused Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of using famine as a "deadly weapon" against his own people. During a sub-committee briefing dealing with famine in southern Africa, members of congress warned aid organisations that Zimbabwe should be categorised separately when United States food aid was distributed. United Nations representatives, non-governmental organisations and USAid - the US government's aid organisation - testified about the scope of the disaster facing countries such as Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho. The World Vision organisation estimates at least 10 million people will need food aid in the next six moths. Concerns are also mounting that the El Nino meteorological phenomenon is likely to make the situation worse, with droughts predicted for the forthcoming harvesting season. The message conveyed by congress was that the United States would do its part in famine relief, but that policy-makers should have a better understanding of where failed government policies and corruption had caused most of the misery. The situation in Zimbabwe was describes as "Mugabe's famine". Congressional African sub-committee chairperson Ed Royce said: "My fear is that images of dying Zimbabweans are likely to be flashed on television screens shortly and it is important for Americans and the rest of the world to understand the cause of the problem. It is not mainly a problem of drought as Mugabe wants the world to believe. Here, we are dealing with a government, similar to that of North Korea, which is prepared to subject its opponents to famine," he said. It appeared the committee supported proposals to try and circumvent the government and distribute food aid directly to starving Zimbabweans.
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From SABC News, 15 June
IMF suspends technical assistance to Zimbabwe
The International Monetary Fund's executive board announced yesterday that it had adopted a declaration of non-cooperation on Zimbabwe's overdue financial obligations, suspending technical assistance to the southern African nation. A declaration of non-cooperation is a remedial measure taken to encourage members that fail to settle overdue financial obligations, the IMF said. Zimbabwe incurred arrears to the IMF in mid-February 2001, and was seven months later declared ineligible to use IMF resources. It was then removed from the list of countries eligible to borrow resources under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, the IMF said in a statement. As of June 12, 2002, Zimbabwe's overdue obligations totalled US$132 million. The country had paid the IMF US$1,6 million in 2001 and US$3 million in the first half of 2002. Expressing regret over the further increase in the level of Zimbabwe's arrears to the fund, the IMF board urged Zimbabwean authorities to make full and prompt settlement of Zimbabwe's overdue financial obligations.
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From The Independent (UK), 15 June
Gaddafi 'aims to hijack' African Union organisation
Addis Ababa - The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, is using his country's oil wealth to buy influence across Africa, according to diplomats, in an attempt to dominate the African Union (AU), due to be launched in South Africa next month. Colonel Gaddafi sees the AU, modelled on the European Union, as his brainchild. Officials are saying he wants to use it as a power base to propagate his views on politics. Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa, who is keen to preserve the credibility of the AU for Western donors, was in Tripoli yesterday in a diplomatic offensive to stop the Libyan leader from scuppering the Union's launch. Nelson Mandela, Mr Mbeki's predecessor, is also involved. Diplomats say Mr Mandela's decision to visit the Libyan jailed in Scotland for the Lockerbie bombing before Mr Mbeki's trip to Libya was part of the initiative to appease Colonel Gaddafi. Mr Mandela called for the Libyan to be transferred to serve his prison term in a Muslim country.
Mr Mbeki fears Colonel Gaddafi's bid to control the AU will derail the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad), which is backed by Tony Blair and other G8 leaders and is due to be an AU project. Under Nepad, countries adhering to democracy and good governance will receive aid from richer countries in addition to other concessions. The Libyan leader has deployed several diplomats to lobby African countries to delay the Durban ceremony because he wants the AU to be launched in Sirte, Libya. That would automatically give him the chairmanship of the AU. Colonel Gaddafi wants the Durban meeting downgraded to an annual summit of OAU leaders pending the launch of the AU in Libya at a later stage. But diplomats attending an OAU-Civil Society summit here say his ambitions will sabotage any programmes intended to help Africa's recovery.
"Mbeki knows that any move to put the AU under Gaddafi will immediately kill both the AU and Nepad because no Western country will pour aid into a programme or institution run by Gaddafi," said one diplomat. Another diplomat said: "Gaddafi sees Nepad as Mbeki's project with the West, and if he [Gaddafi] were to assume the reins of power at the AU, then the whole programme is dead and buried." Colonel Gaddafi has been unrelenting in his bid to buy influence and scupper the launch. OAU officials said he has paid off the arrears of about six African countries, enabling them to regain voting powers in the OAU, after they were suspended for non-payment of subscriptions. Other diplomats said he had acted for up to as many as a dozen countries. The Libyan leader's money does not come without strings attached, however. A West African diplomat who refused to have his name or that of his country published said: "We made a deal with Libya whereby we would support and vote for all resolutions proposed by Mr Gaddafi at OAU summits in exchange for his help."
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Comment from The Zimbabwe Independent, 14 June
Mugabe cuts a lonely figure in Rome
President Mugabe this week cut a lonely figure at the Rome FAO food summit. Television cameras showed him seated alone, his ministers behind him, receiving the occasional greeting from African ministers present. But he was shunned by leaders of any consequence who refused to allow the summit to become a focus of anti-Western demagoguery of the sort Mugabe specialises in. Thabo Mbeki correctly identified problems of access for developing-country products (the US) and subsidies (the EU) as obstacles to fair trade and development. But Mugabe's claim that industrialised countries were not interested in finding a solution to problems affecting Africa was effectively rebuffed by USAid head Andrew Natsios who pointed out that "tyrannical and predatory" leaders like Mugabe were the main hindrance to recovery on the continent. "He is causing the crisis in Zimbabwe," Natsios pointed out. And despite the bluster of Zimbabwean ministers in the official press, that is very much the consensus now.
Mugabe did manage a meeting with Kofi Annan. But the UN secretary-general reportedly used it to urge Mugabe to lift the GMB's chokehold on the import and sale of grain in Zimbabwe. Britain's international development minister Clare Short noted that the FAO summit was typical of the old-style UN meetings where thirdworld despots attacked the West while insisting they be given more handouts. Thankfully the UN is moving away from that sort of grandstanding. But the stayaway by world leaders except the Italian and Spanish prime ministers (Italy hosted the summit and Spain is current EU president) demonstrated a growing refusal to entertain Mugabe's posturing. His statement that Western powers wanted to see developing countries suffer was precisely the sort of statement that he is no longer able to get away with. He was the cause of suffering in his own country, officials pointed out. It was "distasteful to see the president of Zimbabwe giving the impression that he really cared about his citizens", Natsios remarked.
And EU parliamentarian Glenys Kinnock pointed out that Mugabe was using UN meetings to parade himself while people in Zimbabwe suffered because of his policies. It was "sheer hypocrisy", she said, for members of the Zimbabwean regime to be discussing efforts to ease poverty and hunger when their actions have helped to make the threat of widespread starvation a reality. UN Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson pointedly remarked that some leaders were engineers of hunger and deprivation. The evidence is clear enough. Farmers have been forbidden to plant crops on listed farms. Their willingness to plant winter wheat has been thwarted by Agricultural minister Joseph Made's refusal to give them assurances that their Section 8 notices will be lifted. The havoc caused by sweeping land seizures, including the illegal seizure of irrigation equipment and other farm implements has directly impacted on food production. Nobody except the delusional circle around Mugabe is now disputing that. And the uncertainty surrounding the land issue has discouraged investment in agriculture across the board with damaging consequences for downstream businesses.
This is not a programme of giving "Zimbabwean land to Zimbabweans" as the president fatuously pretends. The victims of these wholesale dispossessions are Zimbabweans - farm workers and their white Zimbabwean employers who Mugabe has chosen to demonise in his racist campaign to deprive them of their livelihoods for exercising their democratic right to support the opposition. Political intolerance, lawlessness and racism are the core policies driving Zanu PF's "third chimurenga". In what other country is it found acceptable for the government to wage a violent campaign against its own law-abiding citizens on the grounds of race or political affiliation? That the world has finally woken up to this reality as famine now stalks the Southern African region is welcome, however belated. No amount of silly stories about Italian businessmen lining up to invest here can disguise the truth about Zimbabwe's descent into penury. Travel writers brought here to write puff pieces last year don't appear to have been deceived either. This regime spells disaster not only for Zimbabweans but for the region we used to help feed. Mugabe hoped to be the centre of attention in Rome. He was. He has become the symbol of African misrule. No wonder everybody else kept their distance!
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Comment from The Times (UK), 14 June
Persona non grata
The West must enforce sanctions on Mugabe's cronies
After countless warnings and condemnations, the West finally responded to the fraud of Zimbabwe’s presidential election with "smart" sanctions. With the aim of not further hurting the people of Zimbabwe or exacerbating the economic collapse, these were deliberately focused solely on President Mugabe, his ministers, cronies and entourage. Banned from travel to the European Union and America, they were to be denied the indulgences and excesses that have become the hallmark of African dictators: the shopping trips to Paris, the expensive treatment in private London clinics and the sale of arms and luxuries. Hopes that this ban would begin to hurt the Zimbabwean leader or modify his behaviour have now been exposed as hopelessly naive. As the country’s Opposition gave warning, Mr Mugabe has deliberately and cynically stepped up the harassment of his opponents and intimidation of all those resisting his dictatorship. The occupation and seizure of white farms has continued apace. The first arrests have been made under the draconian new press laws. Trials have opened of those accused of treason. Judges have been threatened and human rights activists beaten up. For all this, Mr Mugabe has suffered barely a day’s inconvenience. His African critics, silenced by his gerrymandered election victory, have fallen silent. The Opposition has been unable to mount any further challenge while its members are picked off, one by one, by the police, Zanu PF thugs and the notorious "veterans". The outside world has begun to lose interest in what looks like a hopeless situation, while news of what is really happening to the famine-stricken country has dwindled to a trickle as news licensing laws restrict journalistic reporting.
Where Mr Mugabe has most effectively mocked his critics, however, is in Europe. The sanctions against his regime are proving unenforceable. Britain, which insisted on the participation of fellow European Union members in the new restrictions, has allowed a notorious member of the ruling party to be waved through immigration at Gatwick. Spain is shortly to play host to Mrs Mugabe on one of her regular shopping sprees. Her husband has been staying for a week at a five-star hotel in Rome while he denounced the West for the famine in his country. And the promised freeze on assets has had negligible effect, with only two accounts, totalling £76,000, suspended. The entry into
Britain of Olivia Muchena, a minister holding Cabinet rank, is particularly shameful. She is part of Mr Mugabe’s inner circle, and has been accused of using political violence to intimidate the Opposition. She is not, however, on the list of 20 "principal architects" of Zimbabwe’s policy, and therefore is free to come and go. If these new, targeted sanctions are to mean anything, they must be wider, more effectively policed and painful in their bite. Western countries hosting international meetings cannot, under their own rules, prevent undesirable leaders attending. But they should do far more to make them unwelcome. Mr Mugabe is one of Africa’s least welcome leaders. That should be made painfully clear to him and all his cronies.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 16 June
Mugabe orders 24-hour watch on British "spy" envoy
Officials in Zimbabwe claimed yesterday that the British high commissioner, Brian Donnelly, had been placed under 24-hour police surveillance following allegations that he is co-ordinating efforts to overthrow Robert Mugabe. The Foreign Office has rejected the accusations against Donnelly. "The British high commissioner is not and has never been involved in this kind of activity," it said in a statement. The high commission in Harare said the 57-year-old diplomat was on leave at an unspecified location and there were "no concerns about his wellbeing". Zimbabwean police confirmed a report in yesterday’s edition of The Herald, the government-controlled newspaper, which said Donnelly was being watched by security agents because of "activities to undermine the legitimate government of President Mugabe". It followed a story in the paper last week - dismissed by the Foreign Office as rubbish that claimed Donnelly had established a "sophisticated communications network" to co-ordinate an opposition rebellion.
The reports are seen as a sign that Mugabe, 78, could be planning a new purge as the opposition Movement for Democratic Change prepares to stage mass demonstrations in the next few weeks. Assistant commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, the chief police spokesman, said surveillance of Donnelly would "allow the security organs to establish his activities". Anything incompatible with his diplomatic status would be reported to Zimbabwe’s foreign affairs department. A Zimbabwe government official said Donnelly’s diplomatic immunity meant he would not be arrested. "But it doesn’t mean that his activities will be tolerated," he said. The Herald claimed Donnelly, who arrived in Zimbabwe a year ago from Belgrade, was widely thought to be a high-profile intelligence officer. "It is believed that Mr Donnelly was sent to Zimbabwe to execute a Milosevic type of operation to oust President Mugabe from power," it said. Donnelly was Britain’s ambassador to the former Yugoslavia when President Slobodan Milosevic was driven from power two years ago.
The newspaper claimed Donnelly had been named in a plot by two officials of the Law Society of Zimbabwe who face subversion charges. Sternford Moyo and Wilbert Mapombere were said to have written letters to the high commission expressing gratitude for support given by Britain to help "restore the rule of law". Lawyers, journalists, farmers and business people who "frequented or were frequented by Donnelly and his British intelligence operatives" are also under surveillance, The Herald said. Donnelly has also served in Greece and at Nato in Brussels since he joined the diplomatic service in 1973. He has rejected frequent claims in the state-controlled media that he is a political saboteur. Zimbabwe’s relations with Britain have been increasingly strained since February 2000 when gangs of so-called war veterans began violent invasions of white-owned farms as part of Mugabe’s land reform programme. A report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, has given a warning that Zimbabwe is sliding towards civil war and accuses Britain and other European Union countries of doing little to stop it.
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From The Observer (UK), 16 June
British diplomat accused of plot against Mugabe
Harare - Relations between London and Harare reached a new low yesterday when Zimbabwe placed the British High Commissioner, Brian Donnelly, under surveillance over accusations that he is co-ordinating efforts to overthrow President Robert Mugabe. The allegations were flatly rejected by Britain. Officials, including the chief police spokesman, confirmed an article which appeared in yesterday's edition of the government-controlled Herald newspaper. A Foreign Office spokeswoman in London said: 'The High Commissioner is not and has never been involved in these kind of activities. The allegations in the Zimbabwean press are baseless.' The Herald cited allegations that Donnelly was plotting to overthrow the government through mass demonstrations and that he would be commanding the operations from hi-tech mobile communications centres to be deployed throughout the country'. It was also alleged that Donnelly, who was the British ambassador to Yugoslavia until a year ago, was masterminding plans to oust Mugabe in a 'Milosevic-type of operation'. Zimbabwe government officials said Donnelly would not be arrested because he has diplomatic immunity. 'But because he cannot be arrested, it doesn't mean that his activities will be tolerated,' said one official, who declined to be named. Recent warnings from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change, that there would be mass protests against Mugabe's continued rule may have rattled the government. 'These so-called plots and conspiracies are the creation of an increasingly paranoid regime,' said Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent . 'The only plot in Harare is the overwhelming desire of the majority of people to be rid of an unpopular dictator.'
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From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 16 June
Mugabe's hungry and unpaid stormtroopers threaten revolt
Matabeleland - The first signs of rebellion among President Robert Mugabe's supporters have emerged with threats of an uprising by members of the youth militia he created. Jabulani Sibanda, the chairman of Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF party in Bulawayo, was forced to lock himself in a lavatory at his office last week when he was threatened by a knife-wielding gang from the Green Bombers, the unofficial name for the force. One militia commander, who asked to be known only as David, said he had orchestrated the attack "to show our bosses how angry and hungry we are, and that they are no longer safe". They are furious at being left with no pay and little food after waging the brutal campaign that helped keep Mr Mugabe in power in Zimbabwe's March presidential election. David said he was discussing with senior colleagues from other battalions a violent uprising that would topple Mr Mugabe. "There is no end to this while he is in power," he said. "Even if we tried to leave the militia, our colleagues would be ordered to find us and kill us." In a frank interview with The Telegraph, David and two of his men admitted their violent role in the election build-up. They spoke of trying to kill an opposition MP, on the orders of government ministers, after the false promise that they would receive cash and land seized from white farmers. "We've turned ourselves into killers and thugs - and for what?" asked David, 35. "We have no money, no jobs and no future. All we have is hungry stomachs and bad dreams about what we've done." He described the missions of murder, abduction and arson on which he sent young men and women earlier this year to help keep Mr Mugabe in power. "We did everything they wanted," he said. "We won the election for them, but they have treated us no better than donkeys. They have used us and thrown us away."
The 40,000-strong youth militia was formed as part of the re-introduction of compulsory national service in 2000 and reports directly to the government. At camps across the country, thousands of young men and women have received political indoctrination and training in weapons, torture and violence. During the election campaign, they were ruthless. Unhampered by threat of arrest, and often drunk or high on drugs, they unleashed terror and intimidation on voters and political rivals. Now they are resentful of their bosses' neglect. Sam, 19, was part of the gang that attacked the Bulawayo party chief. He said: "Every month we are told the same - that the money will come, but it never comes." A comrade, Joshua, 21, added: "We are nothing to them." David and the other two talked freely about their brutal campaigns. David had assigned Sam - "a more naturally merciless man" - to the "killing gang", while Joshua had been confined to "abduction and arson".
Joshua revealed that he had helped to raze St Peter's village, near Bulawayo, after its inhabitants failed to turn up to a Zanu-PF election rally. Sam admitted trying to murder David Mpala, an MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, in March after being offered a cash reward. "I stabbed the man and ran away, certain he was dead," Sam confessed, unwilling to make eye contact. "But some people from a village found him and took him to hospital. I never got paid after it was reported in the newspaper that he had lived." David said the three of them had witnessed the attack on Martin Olds - one of the first white farmers killed - in April 2000. He died after holding off 70 raiders during a two-hour siege at his farm in Matabeleland. "I was driving the Jeep to bring the militia in," said David. They had gone there to help the self-styled "war veterans", who were on a mission to seize land. "We had orders from the highest level that someone important wanted Mr Olds's land," said David. "He was also a supporter of the MDC, we were told." After the farmer was killed, the militia helped to loot the farm. A year later, Mr Olds's mother Gloria, 68, was also shot dead by war veterans. David said: "I think that woman had become an irritation to our bosses. She was outspoken and a supporter of the MDC. That's why they wanted her out of the way." Sam said: "We didn't always agree when we were told that the white men were our enemies and that they had stolen from us in the past and now we had to steal from them. A lot of them did good things for the black people. They gave them work and built schools and clinics."
David said he had been promised £30 a month to command a 500-strong group, but had never received the full amount and had not been paid since February. He said Sam and Joshua had received £5 on joining the militia, but nothing since. Before the election in March, life had been easier. The militia, housed in camps around the country, had been given three meals a day, beer and various narcotics. "We had to have full bellies and to be drunk or high on drugs to carry out our jobs," said Sam. "We had everything we needed so we didn't notice the money so much." Now, the atmosphere at the camps has worsened. Food is scarce and the dormitories are full of resentful, hungry young people, plagued by drug withdrawal symptoms and restless nights spent reflecting on their crimes. "I want to be paid so that I can go and see an n'anga [traditional healer] and be cleansed," said Joshua. "I feel the spirits of the people I have harmed visiting me all the time. I want to go back to being a nice man - the man I was before." Council elections will be held in August, however, and militia members are again under pressure to intimidate voters and break up opposition rallies. Zanu PF chiefs have visited the camps for the first time for months, seeking to whip up support and to crush any opposition. "I don't want to do those things any more," said Sam. "My parents are so unhappy." David added: "We're in a jail of our own - never free to leave and always being punished for what we do. We'll never have our lives back until Mugabe is gone."
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 16 June
Njube militia flee residents
Bulawayo - About 50 Zanu PF youth militias who have been terrorising residents of Njube and Entumbane suburbs in Bulawayo have fled the area amid fears of an imminent clash with residents. The youths are reported to have left in haste last week following strong rumours that local youths were planning a second attack in two months on the Zanu PF base at E Square. Njube residents rose against an estimated 200 Zanu PF thugs following post election attacks in March, forcing the withdrawal of a majority of the militia. Only 50 hardcore militia who played a leading role in the disruption of MDC pre-election rallies at White City Stadium remained. Residents who spoke to The Standard said the departure of the terror gang had restored a sense of security after three months of terror by marauding Zanu PF youths. "We are very relieved that this force of terror has left. We can now send our children to the shops without fear," said a resident. Last month, there were reports that the youths were waylaying children and the elderly on their way from shopping centres and grabbing foodstuffs and cash. The youths claimed that they had resorted to daylight robbery because Zanu PF had abandoned them. 'They were a nuisance around here. They said the party had not only failed to pay them the promised lump sum of $18 000, but abandoned them as well," said a resident. Police at Njube however denied ever receiving any reports of attacks on residents by Zanu PF youths. Meanwhile, another Zanu PF militia base in Pumula South has been relocated to an unknown destination.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 16 June
Villagers shunned in land grab
Zaka, Masvingo - As government winds up its accelerated land seizure exercise, thousands of villagers and desperate farm workers have been left in the cold while most of the prime farming land has gone to the undeserving, The Standard has learnt. "The so-called fast-track land reform programme swept past us like a whirlwind," Magombedze Magura, a kraal head in the dry Zaka communal area said last week. Magura's homestead is perched on a small hilltop, close to the Jerera-Chiredzi highway, and like many other drought-stricken villagers who reside in this part of the country, he does his farming in the hills. Their area is only five kilometres away from a block of commercial farms which were compulsorily seized for resettlement by the government. None of Magura's people have benefited from the exercise except one war veteran who allocated himself a plot on a farm close to his home. The war veteran, who is now a base commander on the farm, chased away villagers who had earlier chosen that piece of land for themselves.
"I think they (government) are not brave enough to come to us and tell us that they have the land for themselves. We have waited for a long time to get somewhere to plant our crops but to no avail," says Magura, wiping sweat from his face. "We hear they have another programme for the better off urban dwellers while the rural people for whom land is the primary source of income go empty-handed," he adds, his wrinkled face betraying deep-rooted frustration. In many other rural districts of the country, it's the same story for communal people with no political connections. "We have nothing to show for our stay on the farms as we have had no water, clinics and schools for our children for over two years. We were just used as pawns by Zanu PF in its desperation to ward off a stiff challenge from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change," says Johaness Ndoro, one of the villagers who was last week evicted from a farm near Chivhu.
Last month, government instructed all peasants who had invaded farms after March 2001 to return to where they had come from originally. "When Mugabe was campaigning, he actually praised us for expressing our desire for land through our occupation of the farms. He never told us we would be evicted two months after the election but I had all along heard people saying muZanu tamba wakachenjera (you have to treat Zanu with suspicion) without thinking seriously about it, but now I understand what it means," Ndoro adds. Now the 57-year-old-man has to go back to his rural home to face the scorn of fellow villagers who warned him against taking part in the farm occupations. They had tried to stop him from leaving his rural home arguing that Zanu PF would dump him once it won the election. "Because I genuinely needed land, I decided to go and stay in the forest, safeguarding the piece of land I intended to farm on for the rest of my life," he says. He leaves behind a deep well he had dug in his new yard, some cattle and goat pens and 10 hectares of cleared farm land.
Unbeknown to Ndoro, while he was clearing the land, a top government official who went through all the "formalities of applying for land" through the district administrator's office in Harare was being allocated his plot. "I feel as used as a condom. I did all the donkey's work with my hands thinking that I had secured a good piece of land, only to be evicted by this regime," he says. It's not just the peasants who have found no joy in the land reform exercise. Many farm workers, whose existence is closely tied to the farms, are reduced to squatters every time a farm owner loses his land. While war veterans were given special preference in the distribution exercise, farm workers, who were accused of ganging up with their white employers in support of the MDC, were not accorded the same treatment. Despite government promises that they would get land, the majority are now destitute.
Says Gift Muti, the grassroots co-ordinator of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPUWZ): "There was no special provision for the workers as government had promised. The few farm workers who managed to get land did so through their own initiative. The majority are surviving from hand to mouth. Those who are lucky to be close to soils with alluvial gold have turned to gold panning for survival." What makes the plight of farm workers even more pathetic is that as migrant workers, they do not have identity documents. "They do not have land, citizenship status and in some cases hope of a return to their past stable lives on the farms. It's a sad situation," he says. The new farm owners, mainly Zanu PF officials and war veterans, do not want to employ farm workers whom they believe voted for MDC. Neither do they have the capacity and wherewithal to pay and look after them like their previous owners. While farm workers and peasants like Ndoro count their loses, many Zanu PF officials, war veterans and business people who benefited from the programme, are now contemplating what to do with their vast tracks of land. Most of them had farms before the fast track land reform exercise. Topping the list of people who obtained land ahead of desperate peasants and farm workers are vice presidents Simon Muzenda and Joseph Msika as well as several ministers and governors. Senior civil servants and army personnel and Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri are also proud owners of land, as are many other people well-connected to government. "We hope one day, by the grace of the Lord, we will have a fair and transparent land reform exercise which will cater for us all," said a distraught farm worker.
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From CNN, 16 June
Teargas fired at Zimbabwe rally
Harare - Riot police used teargas and fired shots in the air on Sunday to halt a Zimbabwe opposition rally held to mark South Africa's youth day, arresting more than 30 activists and a freelance television journalist. A freelance journalist at the scene said police armed with batons, guns and teargas attacked the rally of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 20 minutes after it had begun. MDC youth chairman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters police fired shots in the air and arrested more than 30 party activists, including MDC parliamentarian Munyaradzi Gwisai. Freelance television cameraman Newton Spicer was among those arrested, his wife, British-born journalist Edwina Spicer said. The rally was commemorating anti-apartheid protests in South Africa in 1976 when police killed hundreds of students.
Police Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the police had stopped the rally because some MDC activists had gone around the city beating people up and trying to provoke trouble. "We had told the organisers they could not hold their rally at the Harare Gardens because that venue and the city atmosphere is not conducive for political gatherings," he told Reuters. "We based our decision on the Public Order and Security Order (POSA) but we had agreed that they could hold their rally at their offices. We intervened when their people went around trying to provoke a situation," he added. Bvudzijena said police had arrested 15 people.
Edwina Spicer said her husband had been asked to report to the police after filming at the MDC rally. "When he presented himself to the police, he was arrested and locked up but has not been told under what charge they are holding him," Spicer said. The Spicers' son is an MDC youth leader. Chamisa denied the MDC was out to cause trouble and accused the police of being heavy-handed. "The bottom line is that they are out to attack us whenever we try to carry out normal political activities," he said. The MDC says Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party has been trying to destroy its structures and has disrupted many of its public meetings since President Robert Mugabe won a controversial presidential election in March. The election was condemned as seriously flawed by Western powers and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is demanding a re-run. Mugabe, Zimbabwe's ruler since independence from Britain in 1980, says he won fairly and accuses the West of trying to impose Tsvangirai as leader of the southern African state.
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From The Daily News, 15 June 2002
Police arrest 170 MDC supporters
Mutare - Nearly 170 MDC supporters, including 11 top officials in Birchenough Bridge, Chipinge North, were on Thursday beaten up and arrested by heavily armed police after attending their party’s gathering in the area. By late Thursday night, the supporters were being held at a police base in the constituency. Among those arrested are James Mkwaya, the provincial organising secretary, Prosper Mutseyekwa, the vice-chairman, Lloyd Mahute, chairman, and Christine Chishakwe, the provincial vice-chairman for the women’s league. Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC provincial spokesman said on Thursday the MDC members were arrested at Mapari holiday resort. "After the police denied us room to hold our rally in the area, we went to Mapari holiday resort centre where we held our meeting peacefully. In the middle of our meeting, armed police suddenly surrounded us in a cow-horn formation similar to that used by the Zulus under Chaka and beat us up indiscriminately for no reason," Muchauraya said. Brian Makomeke, the acting police spokesman in Manicaland, said he was not aware of the arrests but would investigate.
On Wednesday, the police raided the Buhera home of Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, for the second time in a month. Tsvangirai said his caretaker was arrested in the latest raid and he was seeking legal recourse. A Mutare lawyer, Chris Ndlovu engaged by the MDC to represent the arrested, was thrown out by the police when he went to the police station on Thursday. "I was told to leave immediately. As policeman escorted me to my car, they advised that I should leave to avoid problems. They threatened to harm me and so I left," Ndlovu said. Muchauraya condemned the arrests saying they were a selective application of a section of the notorious Public Order and Security Act. "Two days ago, our rally in Mutare South was disrupted by Zanu PF supporters and so-called war veterans in the presence of the police," Muchauraya said. "They just watched as the armed Zanu PF supporters paced up and down at the venue of our rally."
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From The Independent (UK), 17 June
Zimbabwe reporters to face huge fees
The Zimbabwean government has gazetted new tough media regulations requiring foreign journalists wanting to operate an office in Zimbabwe to pay US$12,000 (£8,000) in application and licence fees. The new regulations are in line with a draconian media restrictions made law days after Robert Mugabe was re-elected in a controversial presidential election in March. The fees are to be paid in US dollars to the media commission, run by a well-known government supporter, Tafataona Mahoso. The commission will enjoy overweening powers to refuse accreditation. Under the law, foreign journalists applying to open an office in Zimbabwe will pay a non-refundable $2,000 application fee and another $10,000 to operate. A foreign journalist will pay $100 to apply and $500 for the accreditation. Zimbabwean journalists working for foreign media will pay $50 and $1,000 respectively, and if working for the local media will pay about $20 and $100 in Zimbabwe dollars respectively. Local publishers, cinema operators and advertisers will pay the Zimbabwe dollar equivalent of $10,000 to register. Every mass media service in Zimbabwe will also be required to pay a levy of 0.5 per cent of its annual gross turnover. Mr Mugabe's government has already arrested 11 journalists, including Andrew Meldrum of The Guardian, who is on trial after being accused of publishing a false report.
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From the Guardian (UK), 17 June
Mugabe versus the internet
Zimbabwe's trial of a Guardian reporter could undermine its own view of national sovereignty
Geoffrey Robertson
Andrew Meldrum, the Guardian's correspondent in Zimbabwe, is on trial in Harare, accused of "publishing falsehoods" in this newspaper's online service. His case is important, not only as the first test of the Mugabe government's repressive media laws, but because it amounts to an attempt to inflict these laws on the rest of the world. The Guardian newspaper is unavailable in Zimbabwe, but the prosecution insists that its criminal courts have jurisdiction over editors and journalists abroad whenever their "falsehoods" are downloaded by intelligence officers who spend their days surfing the net for criticisms of their country. The crime of "abusing journalistic privilege" by publishing falsehoods carries up to two years' imprisonment. It is found in the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act - a disingenuously titled piece of legislation which in reality provides for the licensing, controlling and punishing of editors and journalists, 10 of whom have been charged so far. The act was rushed through parliament in January, and these charges relate to stories which discomfited the Zanu PF government in the run-up to the election.
The prosecution contends that the crime is one of strict liability i.e. that the journalist is guilty if the allegation reported turns out to be false, however credible or newsworthy it was at the time of publication. On this basis it will become risky to report any allegation made against the government, lest it turn out to be unfounded. Editors and reporters convicted under the act may not only be jailed but may also lose the licence to practise their profession that the act now requires them to obtain. The magistrate in the Meldrum case must decide the crucial question of where the website story is published: in London, where it was uploaded on to the Guardian Unlimited webserver, or in Harare, where Sergeant Blessmore Chishaka downloaded it last month at the Central Intelligence Organisation. If the crime of false publication was committed in London, the Zimbabwe court should have no jurisdiction. But if committed on downloading in Zimbabwe, the court would have jurisdiction to punish not only Meldrum but the editor of the Guardian and anyone else responsible for the uploading. (Mr Rusbridger, like General Pinochet, would have his travels truncated: no family holidays at Victoria Falls, or in countries like China and South Africa which have easy extradition arrangements with Zimbabwe.)
Last week the prosecution, which likens the world wide web to television broadcasting, sought to demonstrate how Guardian Unlimited is published in Zimbabwe. The court moved to the business centre at the Sheraton Hotel where Sergeant Blessmore quickly accessed Guardian Unlimited and called up every article written by Andrew Meldrum except the offending piece. "Possibly it has been deleted," he concluded. In that case, of course, President Mugabe's laws would have already caused the censorship of information which would otherwise be available now in Britain, and throughout the world. The case resumes today, with the prosecution relying on a copy of the webpage downloaded last month. The defence proposes to produce expert evidence to explain the difference between "push" technologies like broadcasting which transmit or direct information to particular areas and the "pull" technology of the world wide web, by which information reaches Zimbabwe only as a result of an electronic message sent from that jurisdiction which pulls the copy off the web server in London - the place where, as a matter of common sense, it is made available to the public.
Courts throughout the world are grappling with the legal consequences of publication on the ubiquitous and directionless web. For example, Australia's high court is deciding whether it has jurisdiction in civil defamation over a Wall Street Journal website in New Jersey. But the Meldrum case is the first to assert local criminal jurisdiction over foreign web postings. Countries with more barbaric laws against seditious writing (Iran and Libya, for example) would doubtless welcome a precedent. This prosecution may prove an "own goal" for Robert Mugabe. He claims that his laws, however repugnant to other countries, are of concern only to Zimbabwe: they provide no warrant for the international community to interfere in his internal affairs. But by giving these laws extraterritorial effect, asserting jurisdiction over web publishers wherever they may be located, his laws are attacking freedom of speech abroad as well as at home. Even on his own outdated theory of national sovereignty, this would entitle other countries to take action against Zimbabwe to protect the freedom of speech of their own citizens. These new media laws are blatant infringements of the country's constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression: the acid test of the country's judiciary will be whether, in subsequent proceedings, it has the independence to say so.
Geoffrey Robertson QC is co-author of Robertson & Nicol on Media Law, published by Sweet & Maxwell. He attended the Meldrum trial at the request of the Guardian.
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From The Observer (UK), 16 June
Why half the planet is hungry
The world's leading expert on the causes of famine, Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, answers crucial questions on why people starve when democracy falters
Why, in the twenty-first century, are 800 million people living in the shadow of hunger?
Widespread hunger in the world is primarily related to poverty. It is not principally connected with food production at all. Indeed, over the course of the last quarter of a century, the prices of the principal staple foods (such as rice, wheat etc) have fallen by much more than half in 'real' terms. If there is more demand for food, in the present state of world technology and availability of resources, the production will correspondingly increase. The demand for food is restrained mainly by lack of income. And the same factor explains the large number of people who are hungry across the world. Given their income levels, they are not able to buy enough food, and as a consequence these people (including their family members) live with hunger.
But it is not adequate to look only at incomes. There is need to look also at the political circumstances that allow famine and hunger. If the survival of a government is threatened by the prevalence of hunger, the government has an incentive to deal with the situation. Incomes can be expanded both by policies that raise overall income and also by redistributive policies which provide employment, and thus tackle one of the principal reasons for hunger (to wit, unemployment in a country without an adequate social security system). In democratic countries, even very poor ones, the survival of the ruling government would be threatened by famine, since elections are not easy to win after famines; nor is it easy to withstand criticism of opposition parties and newspapers. That is why famine does not occur in democratic countries. Unfortunately, there are a great many countries in the world which do not yet have democratic systems.
Indeed, as a country like Zimbabwe ceases to be a functioning democracy, its earlier ability to avoid famines in very adverse food situations (for which Zimbabwe had an excellent record in the 1970s and 1980s) becomes weakened. A more authoritarian Zimbabwe is now facing considerable danger of famine. Alas, hunger in the non-acute form of endemic under-nourishment often turns out to be not particularly politically explosive. Even democratic governments can survive with a good deal of regular under-nourishment. For example, while famines have been eliminated in democratic India (they disappeared immediately in 1947, with Independence and multi-party elections), there is a remarkable continuation of endemic under-nourishment in a non-acute form. Deprivation of this kind can reduce life expectancy, increase the rate of morbidity, and even lead to under-development of mental capacities of children. If the political parties do not succeed in making endemic hunger into a politically active issue, hunger in this non-acute form can go on even in democratic countries.
What should rich countries do, and is trade liberalisation the answer?
The rich countries can do a great deal to reduce hunger in the world. First, the displacement of democracies in poor countries, particularly in Africa, often occurred during the Cold War with the connivance of the great powers. Whenever a military strongman displaced a democratic government, the new military dictatorship tended to get support from the Soviet Union (if the new military rulers were pro-Soviet) or from the United States and its allies (if the new rulers were anti-Soviet and pro-West). So there is culpability on the part of the dominant powers in the world, given past history, and there is some responsibility now for rich countries to help facilitate the expansion of democratic governance in the world.
Second, hunger is related to low income and often to unemployment. Poverty could be very substantially reduced if the richer countries were more welcoming to imports from poorer countries, rather than shutting them out by tariff barriers and other exclusions. Fairer trade can reduce poverty in the poor countries (as the recent Oxfam report Rigged Rules, Double Standards discusses in detail). Third, there is a need for a global alliance not just to combat terrorism in the world, but also for positive goals, such as combating illiteracy and reducing preventable illnesses that so disrupt economic and social lives in the poorer countries. Trade liberalisation on the part of the richer countries could certainly make a difference to employment and income prospects of poorer countries. The situation is a little more complex in the case of liberalisation of the poorer countries. Even those countries which have greatly benefited from the expansion of world trade (such as South Korea or China) often went through a phase of protecting industries before vigorous expansion of exports and trade. So, trade liberalisation is partly an answer, but the economic steps involved have to be carefully assessed: the policies cannot be driven by simple slogans.
What is the solution?
There is no 'magic bullet' to deal with the entrenched problem of hunger in the world. It requires political leadership in encouraging democratic governments in the world, including support for multi-party elections, open public discussions, elimination of press censorship, and also economic support for independent news media and rapid dissemination of information and analysis. It also requires visionary economic policies which both encourage trade (especially allowing exports from poorer countries into the markets of the rich), but also reforms (involving patent laws, technology transfer etc.) to dramatically reduce deprivation in the poorer countries. The problem of hunger has to be seen as being embedded in larger issues of global poverty and deprivation.
Countries of the South increasingly seek food self-sufficiency. Could this solve the problem of hunger and starvation?
Food self-sufficiency is a peculiarly obtuse way of thinking about food security. There is no particular problem, even without self-sufficiency, in achieving nutritional security through the elimination of poverty (so that people can buy food) and through the availability of food in the world market (so that countries can import food if there is not an adequate stock at home). The two problems get confused, because many countries which are desperately poor also happen to earn most of their income from food production. This is the case, for example, for many countries in Africa. But if these countries were able to produce a good deal of income (for example through diversification of production, including industrialisation), they can become free of hunger even without producing all the food that is needed for domestic consumption. The focus has to be on income and entitlement, and the ability to command food rather than on any fetishist concern about food self-sufficiency.
There are situations in which self-sufficiency is important, such as during wars. At one stage in the Second World War, there was a real danger of Britain not being able to get enough food into the country. But that is a very peculiar situation, and we are not in one like that now, nor are we likely to be in the near future. The real issue is whether a country can provide enough food for its citizens - either from domestic production or imports or both - and that is a very different issue from self-sufficiency. We have to look at ways and means of eliminating poverty, and to undertake the economic, social and political processes that can achieve that.
Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998, is Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. This is a longer version of an article, expanded by the author, that appeared last week in Le Monde.
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From The Star (SA), 17 June
Zim journalists caught in police crackdown
Harare - Lawyers were trying on Monday night to secure the release of about a hundred opposition supporters and three newspaper employees after they were attacked and arrested by police for holding an "illegal demonstration," senior newspaper staff said. Several of those arrested had suffered severe injuries, but police had refused to allow them medical attention in the cells of Harare central police station, more than 24 hours after they had been hurt, said the staff. Heavily armed riot police fired tear gas and then baton-charged several hundred demonstrators of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change gathering in central Harare to commemorate the anniversary of the "Soweto uprising" in then apartheid-ruled South Africa in 1976. Among those hurt was Guthrie Munyuki, a reporter for the independent Daily News who was covering the demonstration. He suffered a fractured wrist when he, a photographer and a driver for the newspaper were forced by police to lie on the ground and were assaulted with rifle butts and batons. "Our lawyers are trying to get doctors to see him, but it has not been possible," said John Gambanga, the paper's news editor.
The incident was the latest in a worsening crackdown by authorities against public dissent after flawed presidential elections in March that gave 78-year-old President Robert Mugabe another six-year term of office. The independent press has been a major target of authorities. Also under arrest on Monday was prominent MP Munyaradzi Gwisai, who has been repeatedly detained for organising demonstrations. The state-controlled daily Herald newspaper quoted police chief superintendent Dorothy Kupara as saying that that the demonstration had been banned because it was part of the MDC's alleged plans to "stage countrywide demonstrations to topple the government of President Mugabe". MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the police violence was part of "a sustained campaign of police brutality... whose sole objective is to instil fear in a cheated and restive population with the false hope that such action will avert a people-oriented response to the regime's theft of elections." Mugabe, who came to power in 1980, won the election, but some independent observers and the MDC said his victory was achieved by a massive campaign of violent intimidation of voters, mass disenfranchisement and outright fraud.
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From The Daily News, 17 June
Police brutally assault Daily News staffers
Three Daily News staffers were brutally assaulted by the police - with one of them sustaining a fractured arm - when the riot police attacked and arrested a total of 85 people, mostly MDC members attending a rally in central Harare yesterday. The rally, organised by the MDC to mark International Youth Day, ended in total disarray when the riot policemen, armed with AK rifles, baton sticks and teargas canisters, descended on two unsuspecting crowds in Africa Unity Square and at Number 8 Mbuya Nehanda Street, the MDC provincial offices. Daily News reporter Guthrie Munyuki sustained what a medical doctor confirmed last night to be a fracture above the right wrist. The doctor examined Munyuki at Harare Central Police Station. Also arrested and brutally assaulted by the police were Urginia Mauluka, a photographer, whose elbow was swollen last night, and Shadreck Mukwecheni, a driver.
Speaking on his mobile phone from his cell at Harare Central where he and what he estimated to be 44 other men and 40 women were being held, Munyuki said also in the cells were Highfield MP Munyaradzi Gwisai and Newton Spicer of Edwina Spicer Productions, a Harare media production house. Munyuki said also held was Stuart Mukoyi of Kuwadzana 3, who sustained serious injuries when he was allegedly assaulted by the police. A doctor was called in to examine Mukoyi who, according to Munyuki, was lying motionless on the cold cement floor with no blanket last night. It is this doctor who also examined Munyuki in the cells. "The doctor examined me 10 minutes ago and has just left," Munyuki said at 8.45pm. "He said I sustained a fracture above the right wrist. The whole arm is now swollen and very painful. I cannot move my fingers. After they arrested us the riot police ordered Urginia, Mukwecheni and myself to lie face down. They assaulted us on the buttocks with rifle butts and batons. I counted six officers who assaulted me. The same was happening to Urginia and Mukwecheni. I tried to block one blow with my arm and received a heavy blow above the wrist."
Munyuki said Mukoyi had sustained more serious injuries and had been lying motionless in the cell. "He is stretched on the cold floor and cannot talk, walk or even sit. The doctor said he was concerned about him and has gone to see the police officers about him." The doctor later spoke to The Daily News. He said he preferred not to be mentioned by name for professional and security reasons. He confirmed Munyuki had sustained a fracture and said Mukoyi was in a bad condition and was starting to have convulsions. "I suspect Mukoyi sustained serious abdominal injuries consistent with severe beating," said the doctor late last night. "He is now having convulsions." Munyuki said he was sharing the same cell with Gwisai, Spicer, Mukwecheni and one Alf Nyahunzwi, a legal consultant who lives somewhere in the Avenues area of Harare. He said apart from Gwisai, Mukoyi and himself, three other people had been injured, including another woman who allegedly sustained a broken leg. He said the woman was released.
Trouble started when the riot police descended on the rally organised by the MDC in Africa Unity Square and at the MDC offices in Mbuya Nehanda Street. A total of 60 people, including the journalists, were arrested at the MDC offices, while 25 more were rounded up in the square. Eyewitnesses said the police had driven a Puma vehicle, registration number ZRP 316X, into a crowd of about 2 000 gathered outside the MDC offices in Mbuya Nehanda Street, causing people to flee in all directions. They said armed riot policemen arrived at the MDC offices 20 minutes after the rally started and used brute force to break it up. Learnmore Jongwe, the MDC official spokesman, said the police had fired shots into the air to disrupt the rally, before arresting people "most of whom were just passers-by caught in the cross-fire". A security guard on duty in the area said he counted five gunshots. Munyuki, Mauluka and Mukwecheni, who arrived on the scene after the rally had been dispersed, were arrested at 1.15 pm.
"The police said they had known people from The Daily News would come to cover the rally because 'your newspaper always acts in cahoots with the MDC. You always lie about the police. After this you can write about real police brutality.'" Mauluka's camera was seized and smashed on the tarmac. Munyuki said the police had recorded the details of the arrested men and women but had not formally charged them. "They merely herded us into the cells," he said. "They did not even search us or ask us to remove our shoes, as normally happens." As a result Munyuki had his cellphone on him last night and was able communicate with his office from the third floor of Harare Central. A police officer said last night that the detained people would be charged under Section 31 (c) of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).
The section states that: "Any person who, at a public gathering behaves in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner intending to prevent the transaction of the business for which the gathering is called together, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding a $50 000 or two years in jail, or both." Bvudzijena said the police stopped the rally because MDC activists had gone around the city beating up people and trying to provoke trouble. "We had told the organisers they could not hold their rally at the Harare Gardens because that venue and the atmosphere in the city are not conducive for political gatherings," he told Reuters news agency. "We based our decision on POSA but we had agreed that they could hold their rally at their offices. We intervened when their people went around trying to provoke a situation." Meanwhile in Bulawayo, the police dispersed a crowd of about 2 000 people from Stanley Square in Makokoba Suburb near the city. They then detained Thokozani Khupe , the MP for Makokoba, and Gertrude Mtombeni, a member of the MDC national executive.
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From The Star (SA), 17 June
Zim prosecutor plays down Meldrum's offence
Harare - A Zimbabwean prosecutor told a court here on Monday that an American journalist charged with publishing falsehoods may not be jailed if convicted in a landmark trial under a tough new press law. Thabani Mpofu said if Andrew Meldrum was convicted, the state would not seek his imprisonment but would try to have him fined. "This case before you is, in my submission, not the worst case of its type. There was foundation laid elsewhere. The accused published a falsehood, which falsehood is derived from elsewhere," Mpofu said. "Should the accused person be convicted, the state will not ask this court that the accused be imprisoned," he said, because the story had appeared earlier in the private Daily News, and because the story had an identifiable source.
The comments arose as magistrate Godfrey Macheyo considered whether he had the jurisdiction to preside over the case. The maximum fine Macheyo can impose is Z$10 000 (about R1 800), compared to the Z$100 000 maximum sentence allowable for the offence Meldrum is accused of committing. A Z$10 000 fine would be just a tenth of the maximum, but the law also provides for up to two years in prison. But Mpofu said the anticipated sentence in Meldrum's case was not a prison term because he did not create the story, but reproduced a false story. However, defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa expressed discomfort at discussing the possible sentence before the actual trial even started. "We are putting the cart before the horse," she said. Meldrum, who works for British daily The Guardian, is charged with publishing falsehoods under a three-month-old press law. The charges arise from a story initially carried by the Daily News that President Robert Mugabe's supporters had beheaded an opposition sympathiser in front of her children. The story was discredited after the man claiming to be her husband was found to have fabricated it.
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From The Guardian (UK), 18 June
Police give evidence in Guardian reporter's trial
The magistrate trying the test case against Andrew Meldrum, the Guardian's correspondent in Zimbabwe, yesterday admitted he had only read the new media law over the weekend and suggested the trial should be referred to the high court. Godfrey Macheyo said that his lower court did not have the authority to levy fines of more than Z$10,000 (£127) while the maximum penalty under Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act is up to two years in prison and a fine of Z$100,000. But both Beatrice Mtetwa, the lawyer retained by the Guardian to represent Mr Meldrum, and state prosecutor Thabani Mpofu, who said the case was not an example of the worst type of such an offence, urged him to continue trying the case in the magistrates court. Mr Meldrum, 50, a US citizen who has lived in Harare since 1980, has been charged under the controversial new law with abusing journalistic privileges by publishing falsehoods. He has pleaded not guilty to knowingly publishing false information without verifying the facts.
The story at the centre of the case was printed in the Guardian in April. It reported claims in an independent local newspaper, the Daily News, that Brandina Tadyanemhandu, 53, a mother of eight, had been decapitated in front of several of her children by supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party near Karoi, 120 miles north-west of Harare. The story was carried by a number of British papers and international news agencies. The account was confirmed, at the time, by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. But doubts have since been raised about the credibility of the woman's husband, and the MDC has admitted it fears he tricked it. The Daily News has carried an apology. Yesterday police sergeant Blessmore Chishaka told the court the allegedly false story was downloaded from the Guardian's website in London. Cross-examined during the trial - which has become a test case of international jurisdiction over the internet and freedom to report in Zimbabwe - he confirmed he was the officer who obtained the disputed article and that it was published on the Guardian's website in Britain. Sgt Chishaka agreed that someone in Harare could not place material on the website remotely nor delete material from it. Ms Mtetwa has told the court that it does not have jurisdiction to hear the charges because the article complained about has not been published in Zimbabwe. The hearing is due to continue today.
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From The Daily News, 17 June
Guards lose maize-meal to Zanu PF
Bulawayo - Zanu PF officials on Wednesday impounded 130 bags of maize-meal meant for workers at Safeguard Security company. The officials, who claimed they belonged to the "Zanu PF consumer council", accused Safeguard management of making profit by selling the maize-meal at more than the stipulated price. Gugulethu Moyo, the deputy secretary of the company’s workers union, said they approached their management to buy maize-meal for them about three months ago. He said they asked the management to deduct the money for the maize-meal from their salaries. Moyo said this was after many security guards had spent time queuing for the scarce commodity while others relied on bread only while on duty. Brian Willis, the managing director, said the company’s management had bought the maize-meal for the workers on the understanding that even if the company purchased the maize-meal at black market prices the workers would still buy it. The arrangement was extended to all the company’s 1 400 guards in Bulawayo, Hwange, Beitbridge and Zvishavane, and had been in effect until Thursday’s incident.
On Monday the company bought the maize-meal from a milling company at $750 for a 10kg bag instead of the $380 stipulated by the government. The company has receipts to confirm the price at which they bought the maize-meal. Moyo confirmed the workers had agreed to buy the maize-meal at black market prices. Willis said: "The whole thing was done purely to assist the workforce. They were spending an equal amount of money to buy the maize-meal from us. No profit making was involved." The police in Bulawayo said on Thursday the impounded maize-meal was now in police custody. This is not the first time Safeguard Security company has been confronted by Zanu PF functionaries over maize-meal. A few months ago a group of so-called war veterans accused the company of hoarding maize. But a search of the company’ s warehouse yielded nothing.
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From BBC News, 19 June
Dozens charged in Zimbabwe after rally
Dozens of Zimbabwean opposition activists arrested at a rally on Sunday have been charged with violating strict new public order legislation. A police spokesman told the BBC that 62 members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had been charged at a court in Harare and later released on bail. Several of those arrested said they had been tortured by the police. The detainees included three journalists who work for the independent Daily News. The newspaper says police broke the arm of one of the journalists, but officials have not confirmed this. Also among the detainees was an opposition member of parliament, Munyaradzi Gwisai. He told the BBC that women had been beaten up by police in MDC premises on Sunday, and that they had been made to crawl on the ground. He said that people had been blindfolded and tortured in the police cells, describing the conditions as "savage". But a police spokesman told the BBC that he was not aware that any opposition activists had been injured. He said the opposition was prone to exaggeration and that Zimbabwe has a "very humane" police force. All 62 people released on Tuesday will go back to court for a remand hearing on Thursday.
Meanwhile, another magistrates' court in Harare has deferred until early July a decision on whether to proceed with charges against an American journalist who works for a British newspaper, The Guardian. Andrew Meldrum is charged with publishing falsehoods under drastic new press laws. He could face a hefty fine or a prison sentence of up to two years. Last week, state-run media reported that President Mugabe had put security forces on high alert to crush any mass demons |
