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Archived News
New Zealand government statement on Zimbabwe Elections
Morgan Tsvangirai press release on the elections
Report from Southern Support Centre
26th March 2002
Unions defy Mugabe and call for strike
Commonwealth verdict 'delayed by Mugabe talks'
3 MDC supporters, farmer killed in fresh terror
Mugabe's sister demands farmer's house
All that is needed is to call for a fresh election
Commonwealth turns on Mugabe
African 'brothers' deal blow to Mugabe
Mbeki sacrificed a despot to keep his grand vision alive
Tsvangirai agrees to talks once violence is ended
Swiss impose sanctions on Zimbabwe over election
Seven dead in Zimbabwe violence
Zimbabwe stoppage is illegal, say police
Tsvangirai treason charge dashes conciliation hope
Obasanjo defends Zimbabwe decision
Persecution continues NGOs
Tsvangirai stronger after flawed poll
US blasts Zim for treason charges
Swiss probe Mugabe, 19 others
'A defining moment for Africa'
Mbeki endorses election
There are no excuses for Mugabe
Zanu PF continues to train militant youths
'How can the ANC turn its back on us?'
Cosatu wants facts from observers
Ghana backs Zimbabwe's suspension, decries charges against Tsvangirai
Commonwealth is right
Pressure piles for poll re-run
Mugabe launches fresh round of farm seizures
Food relief resumes in Zim
Nepad's future hangs in the balance
Soldiers' pay slashed
Three UZ student leaders arrested over stayaway
Election leaves the world sleepless
Witch-hunt as Mugabe strikes back with new terror
Amnesty urges UN intervention
Headman's charred remains discovered in Nkayi
Zanu PF baits Tsvangirai
Hunger crisis hits Zimbabwe
Businessman pleads with US for exclusion
Tutu condemns SA stance on Zimbabwe
Mbeki sends 'words of warning' to Mugabe
Zimbabwe crisis 'kills £45bn economic plan'
IEC chief latest observer to reject verdict
Thousands of MDC supporters denied maize in rural areas
Militant tells of Mugabe bribes to raid farmers
Back to business as usual
Weeks of protest await Zim
Africa summit to endorse plan for radical change
Don't punish all of Africa Zuma
Poet faces jail after ridiculing Mugabe
And now for the real war
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From The Guardian (UK), 19 March
Unions defy Mugabe and call for strike
Zimbabwe crisis deepens with no signs of African leaders brokering compromise with opposition
Harare - Zimbabwe's trade unions called yesterday for a three-day general strike against President Robert Mugabe's government while Africa's two most powerful leaders appeared to make little headway in resolving the country's pressing political and economic crisis. The threatened strike marks the first public protest against Mr Mugabe's re-election, which has been widely discredited as violent and fraudulent by local and international observer groups. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) urged its members to stay away from work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to protest against "the state's disregard for the trade union freedoms ... the harassment, beatings and displacement workers are experiencing in the aftermath of the presidential elections". Last year the ZCTU called a strike that shut down the country but new laws imposed by Mr Mugabe have significantly curtailed the right of protest. Legal experts expect the government to declare the new strike illegal. In Harare yesterday presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa scrambled to get Mr Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to agree to a compromise to avert the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. Mr Obasanjo said they made a few suggestions to Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai about how to resolve Zimbabwe's pressing problems. "The economic situation in Zimbabwe is critical," said Mr Obasanjo. "Whatever Zimbabweans have done, whether they have voted or not, they need to eat. They need international assistance and that help will not come unless the leaders of Zimbabwe put their arms together to work together for their country."
The diplomatic initiative increases pressure on Mr Mugabe and questions the legitimacy of his re-election. Neither Mr Obasanjo nor Mr Mbeki attended Mr Mugabe's inauguration on Sunday in a pointed refusal to show approval. The Commonwealth observer mission to Zimbabwe's elections, chaired by the former Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar, issued a hard-hitting report. It found that Zimbabweans were not able to vote freely because of state-sponsored political violence, a partisan police force, repressive legislation and the inability of thousands of Zimbabweans to vote. The report implicitly suggested that Mr Mugabe was not the actual choice of the majority of voters. It was agreed at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Australia earlier this month that if the observer group gave an adverse report, the Nigerian, South African and Australian leaders would be authorised to suspend Zimbabwe. Mr Obasanjo and Mr Mbeki - who flew from Harare to London for a meeting today with the Australian prime minister, John Howard - are frantically trying to stave off such action, apparently by pressing Mr Mugabe to form a government of national unity which would include Mr Tsvangirai and other members of his Movement for Democratic Change. But there are no signs that either Mr Mugabe or Mr Tsvangirai agreed to it. Mr Tsvangirai said yesterday that a national unity government would only have validity if it was for a transitional period in order to prepare the way for fully free and fair elections. "It is time for the nation to heal, but there is no way it can be healed without democracy," he said.
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From The Times (UK), 19 March
Commonwealth verdict 'delayed by Mugabe talks'
Harare - Commonwealth leaders meet in London today to decide whether to suspend Zimbabwe after the presidential elections were condemned as illegitimate by international monitors. The talks come after Zimbabwe’s main labour federation yesterday called a three-day general strike later this week to protest against the post-election harassment of workers. Previously led by Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, the federation’s members are believed to have been among his strongest backers against President Mugabe. President Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Mbeki of South Africa held separate talks in Harare yesterday with Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change. They left hinting that they had offered Mr Mugabe a chance to avoid almost total international isolation and economic collapse.
The two leaders spent about two hours with Mr Mugabe and another hour with Mr Tsvangirai. "They are going to digest the views we have given to them," Mr Obasanjo said. "I believe that in a matter of days they will come back to us." He would give no further details. However, diplomats say that the offer of a deal for Mr Mugabe to talk over the issue with his party will, in effect, prevent the Commonwealth troika - Mr Obasanjo, Mr Mbeki and John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister - from making an immediate decision in London today on the regime’s future, as the Commonwealth summit last month enjoined them to do.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions yesterday pointed to an attempt by police to monitor a closed union council meeting last week and said in a statement that it feared the Government planned to curb union activities. "The ZCTU therefore calls on all workers to stay away from their workplaces from Wednesday to Friday in protest against the state’s disregard for union freedoms. Harassment, beatings and displacement are being experienced by workers in the aftermath of the presidential elections," said the statement signed by Wellington Chibebe, the ZCTU secretary-general.
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From The Daily News, 19 March
3 MDC supporters, farmer killed in fresh terror
Mutare/Harare - Three MDC supporters in Chipinge South were beaten to death on Saturday allegedly by members of the army, as part of a nationwide exercise to punish those who voted for Morgan Tsvangirai, the losing presidential candidate. The tragedy occurred at Chitepo business centre about 40km south of Checheche growth point. The three, whose names could not be released immediately, died at their homes after the assault. Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC spokesman in Manicaland, said the murder was deplorable. He said: "Three of our supporters died after they were beaten up by soldiers. They died at their homes on Saturday. Four others were admitted to Chipinge District Hospital."
In Norton, in another case of post-election violence, Terry Ford of Gowrie Farm was bludgeoned to death yesterday morning by suspected war veterans and Zanu PF supporters who have occupied part of his property since the farm invasions in 2000. The Norton police said they had arrested three Zanu PF youths who are among the settlers on the farm. The officer-in-charge of Norton police station, who refused to be identified, yesterday said: "You will not get anything at the moment. You will get the information from our superiors." He then drove to the police station to get more officers to assist in the hunt for suspected accomplices in the murder, suspected to be armed war veterans. When reporters arrived at the scene yesterday, Ford’s body was lying in a pool of blood at the entrance to his house. Six heavily armed policemen were on guard. One policeman was heard saying: "We simply need reinforcements and instructions to go ahead. If he plays games with us we should shoot him." This was an apparent reference to a war veteran leader at the base whom the workers suspected to have led the team which murdered Ford. Asani Hali, the security guard at the farm, said before Ford was shot two settlers arrived at his house and demanded that he hand over his gun to them, but he refused and ran away. Hali said: "I heard some noise at the Ford house. Later five shots rang out. I was then told by one of the workers that Ford had been shot dead. We suspect it was the settlers who killed him."
From ZWNEWS: We include below a South African newspaper report from 16 months ago...
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From The Star (SA), 17 November 2000
Mugabe's sister demands farmer's house
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government listed another 23 white-owned farms for seizure on Friday, as government officials continued to defy supreme court orders to stop the latest wave of lawless land-grabbing. A week after the country's highest court declared that Mugabe's "fast-track resettlement programme" violated farmers' rights, Sabina Mugabe - Mugabe's elder sister - demanded that a white farmer leave his house so she could move in, the CFU said.
It said in its latest bulletin on the anarchy in rural Zimbabwe that Sabina Mugabe, the local ruling Zanu-PF party MP, had told a farmer, Terry Ford, she intended to take over the farmstead on his Gowrie farm in the Norton district west of Harare. Ford could not be contacted for comment. Sabina Mugabe has been reported to be driving round commercial farming areas in her black Mercedes limousine, leading illegal occupations on to white farms in the district. Earlier this week she forced one of the country's major producers of highly specialised seed crops to stop farming on half of his land in Norton so that self-styled guerrilla war veterans could plant their maize on land, which was already ploughed and fertilised by the farmer.
Friday's "notice of compulsory acquisition" published in the state-owned Herald newspaper brought to 2 318 the number of farms listed for Mugabe's bid to grab 3 000 white-owned farms. The "fast-track" has been under way for a month, with government officials - usually accompanied by armed soldiers and police - trucking hundreds of would-be settlers on to white farms and declaring them to be "state land" in violation of the government's own laws on land acquisition. The bulletin said more and more farmers were being told to halt their farming operations as the arrival of summer rains marks the height of crop planting for the new season. Economists warn that the new harassment will lead to severe food shortages next year.
On Friday last week the Supreme court ordered the government to stop "fast track" occupations, and instructed police to remove squatters from all white-owned farms. CFU spokesperson Malcolm Vowles said lawyers were expected to confirm late on Friday whether all the officials cited by the court had been served with the order, which takes effect 48 hours after being served on officials. But up to Friday, the court order "has had minimal tangible effect," said the CFU bulletin. "There are no indications that instructions have been communicated down the police ranks and local government structures." It quoted a senior administrator who was "fast-tracking" squatters on to a farm in the Kadoma area about 150 west of Harare as saying that he would continue moving people onto land, in spite of the order. He said he had been "instructed by our minister" of local government, Ignatius Chombo, who is also head of Mugabe's national land resettlement committee.
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Comment from Business Day (SA), 18 March
All that is needed is to call for a fresh election
SA and Nigeria will pay a heavy price if they refuse to act against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for stealing an election. The SA and Nigerian posture in the wake of the elections has already been greeted by derision in the rest of the world and could wreck the Commonwealth. But the real tragedy is that their diplomacy has failed to avert the unfolding catastrophe in Zimbabwe. To reverse this they must now deliver, at the least, a new election that is convincingly free and fair. Some of the longer-term costs are likely to be: SA's diplomatic marginalisation, a loss of credibility via a failure to uphold democratic values, hostility from Zimbabweans who feel cheated, and a threat to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).
The rapid-fire statements last week from the US and UK, calling the election fraudulent, are a turning point. There was no waiting for an SA statement, despite all the major powers' frequent comments that they take a cue on regional issues from Pretoria and see SA as having a stabilising role in the region. SA's call for a government of national unity is a nonstarter as an end in itself, while the days of pondering a response to the results have simply shown indecision and a reluctance to face facts. The election was a betrayal of Zimbabweans, some of whom fruitlessly spent up to 70 hours in queues in an attempt to vote. The SA government's stance cannot but make it deeply unpopular with many Zimbabweans. SA food aid to Zimbabwe will not redeem our popularity.
If the reason for SA's pondering and "quiet diplomacy" is that it fears a political fallout from taking the same side as the UK's Tony Blair and the US's George Bush because of the potential "colonial" connotations, then it has misjudged the environment. In SA the radio talk shows indicate a concern about democracy across the racial spectrum. In the face of such flagrant violations of basic democratic tenets, the major powers were left without an option other than to speak their minds about the election. Any moaning about attempts to exercise new colonial authority should be treated as an attempt to defend dictatorial rule in this case. But the major powers can be criticised for applying dual standards as there is silence on human rights violations in countries upon which they are reliant, usually for wider strategic reasons. Inevitably all countries take advantage of situations to do what is most expedient at the time.
The reaction of African governments to Zimbabwe's stolen election has given the major powers no room to manoeuvre. It has opened a glaring gap between the words and sentiments of Nepad and the deeds of certain governments. Nepad's governance initiative, which covers such aspects as democracy, transparent government, protection of human rights, and sound management of public finances, is presented as "a precondition for development" in the document. Significantly, the document provides for peer review of governance on the continent, although the mechanisms for this must still be given form. Governance is often called the "cost-free" dimension of Nepad as opposed to the other initiatives that call for heavy funding. But the major powers have made it clear: the better the governance, the more money will flow.
Even if it is argued that Nepad is a process, Zimbabwe is too blatant a case of poor governance to allow it to pass. Moreover, it cannot be argued that Zimbabwe is a special case because of the land issue. There is broad consensus on the need for land redistribution the issue is one of simple political intimidation. The world's powers have been effusive in their rhetorical support for Nepad since the new vision for the continent's development began to emerge. The Cold War long over, there is no imminent threat to wester interests. But failed and rogue states, as well as poverty and disease do pose threats. In the aftermath of September 11, and the fight by the coalition against terrorism, the thinking in London and Washington is that the G-8 must provide a tangible alternative to fundamentalism. In addition, the fact has been that rogue states and terrorist organisations often receive a welcome in failing and failed states because of their lack of alternatives for support. That is why Zimbabwe has a wider importance and cannot be pushed aside. Sanctions targeted at the Zanu PF elite would help, but all that is needed is to call for a fresh election. SA would then have done the right thing at the right moment.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 20 March
Commonwealth turns on Mugabe
The Commonwealth humiliated President Mugabe yesterday by suspending Zimbabwe and calling for new elections. African leaders in a Commonwealth committee meeting in London were forced to distance themselves from Mr Mugabe's tainted election "victory". It was a surprising and serious reverse for Mr Mugabe, who had tried to play off "white" countries against "black" states. As his problems mounted following the election controversy, Switzerland imposed further sanctions, including a freeze on any financial assets held by Zimbabwean government officials in Swiss banks. A foreign ministry spokesman in Geneva said: "This decision is made in view of the manipulation of the presidential elections and human rights violations." Although the Commonwealth's measures are mainly symbolic, they caused obvious pain in Harare where Mr Mugabe's associates called it a "bad decision". But Zimbabwe will find it hard to brush off the ruling, which was taken by a committee composed of Africa's two biggest states, South Africa and Nigeria, together with Australia. As Downing Street welcomed the move as a vindication of its policy and "absolutely the right thing to do", the Commonwealth said it would continue to seek "reconciliation in Zimbabwe between the main political parties" The decision followed an election widely judged by outside observers to have been rigged. Many feel that Mr Mugabe's 56-42 per cent "victory" over the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai would have proved impossible without the widespread use of fraud and violence.
Zimbabwe joins Fiji and Pakistan on a blacklist of countries "suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth", meaning that it cannot take part in any of the decision-making meetings of the 54-member organisation. John Howard, Australia's prime minister, who presided over the "troika" of Commonwealth leaders that took the decision, said the suspension would be reviewed in a year. The other members of his group were President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Describing the move as being "at the severe end of the actions that were available to us", Mr Howard said the Commonwealth had salvaged its reputation. "The meeting produced a sensible result," said Mr Howard. "It's a result that maintains the Commonwealth's credibility and consistency of action. I would like to see free, fair and totally democratic elections held as soon as possible."
The Commonwealth move came after a sharp U-turn from Mr Mbeki, whose lieutenants had recognised the election as "legitimate" and congratulated Mr Mugabe. Hours before the decision, Mr Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change, predicted that South Africa would block any attempt to suspend Zimbabwe, on the grounds that it was trying to encourage a dialogue between the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF party. However, Mr Mbeki, and to a lesser extent Mr Obasanjo, were forced to break ranks with Mr Mugabe by the unexpectedly tough wording of the Commonwealth election observers' report, which found that "the conditions in Zimbabwe did not adequately allow for a free expression of will by the electors". Behind the scenes, Tony Blair spoke to Mr Mbeki to exert last-minute pressure on South Africa and to issue a veiled warning that the future of an ambitious plan to provide large-scale aid to Africa in return for economic and political reforms was at stake. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said: "The Commonwealth has today spoken with one voice. The message could not be clearer, nor the messengers more significant. I welcome this decision. It follows as a natural and logical consequence from the damning reports of the Commonwealth observers." As British officials praised Mr Howard for "playing a blinder", the Australian prime minister went out of his way to acknowledge the "constructive" attitude of Mr Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo. But he did not deny the deep divisions had been difficult to overcome during the four hours of talks. Mr Mbeki pointedly declined to speak in public.
The Commonwealth decision shows all the signs of an uncomfortable compromise. Mr Howard refused to say whether he, or the leaders of South Africa and Nigeria, considered Mr Mugabe to be the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe. The Commonwealth called for the international community to increase economic aid to stave off Zimbabwe's food shortages, and Mr Howard urged other countries not to impose further sanctions for the moment. The European Union has imposed a travel ban on 20 senior members of Mr Mugabe's entourage and has frozen their assets. The United States has also imposed a travel ban, a move echoed by Switzerland in its hard-hitting statement last night. Mr Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo seem intent on trying to promote a dialogue in Zimbabwe, which Mr Tsvangirai has ruled out while political violence continues.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 20 March
African 'brothers' deal blow to Mugabe
The decision yesterday to recommend Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth marks a stinging personal blow for President Robert Mugabe made all the worse because the rebuff comes from two "brother" African leaders. Of the three leaders who delivered the blow, John Howard, the Australian prime minister, is of least importance. In Mr Mugabe's mind, Mr Howard is nothing more than a lackey of the British, in common with the rest of the "white Commonwealth". Zimbabwe's official press routinely dismisses Australia as a "British dominion". The other members of the troika, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, delivered the real sting. In Mr Mugabe's carefully crafted mythology, Zimbabwe is waging a revolutionary struggle to redistribute land away from white farmers amid an onslaught from Britain and her allies, all of them consumed by imperialist pretensions. Mr Mugabe has always claimed that African leaders are rallying behind Zimbabwe in this conflict. Their failure to condemn his excesses publicly has allowed him to spin this propaganda line. Yet by joining Mr Howard and pressing for Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth, Mr Obasanjo and Mr Mbeki have finally exploded that myth. Mr Mugabe no longer cares what Tony Blair, President Bush or any other Western leader may think of him. But he cherishes his self-image as one of Africa's most respected elder statesmen. When the leaders of Africa's most populous nation and its richest rebuffed him, they will have dealt a wounding blow to Mr Mugabe's self esteem.
That was all the more pointed in the light of recent events. Mr Obasanjo and Mr Mbeki held a two-hour meeting and a working lunch with Mr Mugabe in Harare on Monday. Both are understood to have urged the Zimbabwean to form a government of national unity including Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mr Mugabe has, in his own mind, just won the greatest election victory of his career and achieved, as he put it, "a giant victory over imperialism". Instead of congratulating him, his fellow African leaders immediately asked him to include his vanquished opponent, believed by Mr Mugabe to be no better than a British stooge, in his government. When Mr Obasanjo and Mr Mbeki failed to secure the assurances they sought, they promptly flew to London, the imperial capital, and rallied behind a "white Commonwealth" leader.
This is how Mr Mugabe will view yesterday's decision. His information minister, Jonathan Moyo, appeared on Zimbabwean television last night and said the suspension was a "bad decision" based on a "bad report" from the Commonwealth observers, which he said had been written "months ago". He added: "They have distorted everything. They couldn't have written such a long report in a week." The Nigerian and South African leaders can both expect harsh words from Zimbabwe's official media. Mr Obasanjo's stance will have upset Mr Mugabe the most. He is one of the few African leaders whose political career began before Mr Mugabe won power in 1980. In an interview with The Guardian of Lagos last year, Mr Mugabe referred to his Nigerian counterpart as "the master" and said: "I always say to him, you are the one who taught us how to fight the white man." Now the master has, in Mr Mugabe's view, rallied behind the white man against an African brother. That will rankle deeply in Harare and the regime will cry betrayal. Mr Mugabe's cavalier brand of diplomacy took his African brothers for granted. They have now shown him the limits of their tolerance.
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From The Guardian (UK), 20 March
Mbeki sacrificed a despot to keep his grand vision alive
Robert Mugabe came to believe that if no one else would back him as he clung on to power in the name of anti-colonialism he could at least count on his fellow African leaders. And there were good reasons for him to believe it. From across the continent, presidents showered praise on his tainted re-election. Never mind the violence; never mind the intimidation; never mind the rigging. From Kenya to Namibia, African leaders hailed Mr Mugabe as a champion of democracy. He is worshipped by his people, they said. But Mr Mugabe had not counted on two of Africa's most influential leaders realising there was more at stake than the prestige of an ageing despot desperately trying to justify ever more authoritarian rule.
Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, was sympathetic to Mr Mugabe's plight in some ways but in the end became irritated by the man's stubbornness and his refusal to acknowledge that power was not his by right. But it was Thabo Mbeki who had most at stake at yesterday’s Commonwealth meeting. The South African leader was confronted with the imminent destruction of his laborious work to revive his continent's fortunes, from his grand vision of an African renaissance to his New Partnership for African Development (Nepad). Mr Mbeki had a clear choice: side with Zimbabwe's leader and watch the barrage of scorn from across the globe destroy his vision, or make a stand and save Nepad.
Mr Mbeki has no great liking for Mr Mugabe. The Zimbabwean president and South Africa's ANC were not close in the apartheid years, even though Mr Mugabe was feted as the leader of the "frontline states". But Mr Mbeki was wary of antagonising him. So he attempted a different approach - quiet diplomacy. He tried to engage Mr Mugabe, and persuade him that he was doing enormous damage to his own country and to his neighbours. It had little impact. Mr Mugabe made promises to Mr Mbeki's face, but breached them as soon as it suited him. The South Africans also had much more at stake than the British and others putting pressure on Mr Mugabe. If Zimbabweans decamped in their hundreds of thousands - even millions - because of civil war or starvation, where would they go? South Africa.
But in the end, Mr Mbeki saw Mr Mugabe singlehandedly wrecking his dream. The Americans and British made it clear that if South Africa was soft on Mr Mugabe then Nepad was dead in the water. The visit by Mr Obasanjo and Mr Mbeki to Harare on Monday appears to have sealed their decision. They pressed Mr Mugabe to make concessions but he offered nothing that could begin to persuade the opposition it was worth negotiating. And then there was the violence. The government has once again let loose its thugs on Zanu PF's opponents. In the end, the two men probably concluded that it was not worth sacrificing Africa on the altar of one more aged despot refusing to give up power. The question left hanging is how much further Mr Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo will now go towards ending Mr Mugabe's rule. It is within Mr Mbeki's power to make life very difficult for the Zimbabwean government. But for now, he will hope that a firm stand will be enough to prod Mr Mugabe into realising that he cannot act with impunity, and so save Zimbabwe, and Africa, further misery.
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From The Times (UK), 20 March
Tsvangirai agrees to talks once violence is ended
Harare - Morgan Tsvangirai, the Opposition leader, agreed yesterday to an appeal from the Presidents of South Africa and Nigeria to hold talks with Mr Mugabe’s government, but only after the lawlessness around the country has ended. His agreement came as the Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe from its councils for a year. The decision came after President Mbeki of South Africa and President Obasanjo of Nigeria met John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, in London at the headquarters of the 54-member group. Mr Tsvangirai said that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) executive met yesterday and "arrived at a conclusion that the objective conditions do not exist for meaningful negotiations". He said: "Zanu PF (the ruling party) is engaged in massive retribution of our members" for voting for the Opposition in last week’s disputed elections, and lawlessness by ruling party militias was continuing. "The reports we are receiving are shocking. Mugabe must stop that."
General Obasanjo and Mr Mbeki had put forward proposals when they visited on Monday that the MDC and Zanu PF open talks under the neutral chairmanship of the Nigerian and South African Governments, he said. Mr Tsvangirai indicated that they had not set an agenda. "They did not discuss anything," he said. "In their opinion Zimbabweans must talk to each other. We will not refuse to negotiate. But the whole question is about restoration of legitimacy, which can only be restored in a process acceptable to the people. There is a whole process that requires the dismantling of a political culture that has undermined the confidence of the country." The party was writing to Gen Obasanjo to state its position and make its demands, he said. There was no indication of Mr Mugabe’s response to the visiting Presidents’ overtures. The MDC said that the presidential election last week was a massive fraud and it demanded new elections. The party’s denunciation was supported by Western governments, as well as the Commonwealth observer group, and major Southern African election observer groups.
Ruling party militias yesterday intensified their post- election campaign of attrition against white farmers in many parts of the country, particularly in the Marondera area about 50 miles east of Harare. Sixteen hours after police were called, they responded to calls for help yesterday from Mike Colahan, 47, a farmer, and his wife, Lorna, 46, after they were barricaded in their homestead by squatters. Their siege began at 5.30pm on Monday, when squatters smashed their way into the house. The couple retreated from room to room as the door to each was broken down in turn by the mob and Mr Colahan tried to keep them at bay with a firearm. At dawn the Colahans were in the last room of the house with the mob beating at the door when they lost radio contact with their neighbours. When police finally responded, they arrested Mr and Mrs Colahan and forced them to spend the rest of the day at the office of the local governor. "Mike was charged with discharging a firearm twice," Lindsay Campbell, spokesman for the local farmers’ support group, said.
Two other homesteads in the district were under siege last night with their owners barricaded inside. Andrew Lock, a farmer, was abducted by a Zanu PF mob in the morning, but returned home later unharmed. On Monday two other farmers were held hostage for several hours. Three other homesteads have been looted since Sunday, as well as the local farmers’ club. In the Banket area about 60 miles north of Harare, Douglas Campbell, a farmer and MDC polling agent who was arrested during last week’s voting, was charged by police with attempted murder. The arrest came after he left the polling station and had a stone thrown through a window of his vehicle by Zanu PF youths. As he accelerated away his vehicle backfired. The youths mistook the noise for a firearm, his lawyer said. "There is huge insecurity in the area," Ben Freeth, local administrator for the Commercial Farmers’ Union, said.
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From Reuters, 19 March
Swiss impose sanctions on Zimbabwe over election
Berne - Switzerland said on Tuesday that it had imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, including a freeze on the financial assets of government officials, in response to manipulation of this month's presidential election. The government also said that it would restrict travel by senior Zimbabwean officials to the Alpine state. The announcement came shortly after leaders of the 54-nation Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe from the group after concluding that the re-election of President Robert Mugabe had been undemocratic. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said Berne's decision had been made "in view of the manipulation of the presidential election and ongoing human rights violations." It said it was following the lead of the United States and the European Union after both declared that the election had been neither free nor fair. "The measures are...also intended to prevent Swiss financial institutions from being misused for the purpose of circumventing sanctions applied by other countries," the ministry said. It added that the sanctions applied only to government representatives and not to the civilian population. Switzerland was keeping the humanitarian situation in the country under observation, ready to provide aid if needed.
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From The Australian Daily Telegraph, 20 March
Seven dead in Zimbabwe violence
At least seven people have been killed in political violence in the aftermath of Zimbabwe's controversial March 9-11 presidential polls, according to an AFP tally. The latest deaths bring to 40 the total death toll in political violence since January 1. A white farmer Terry Ford, was shot and killed by suspected liberation war veterans at his farm near Norton, about 40 kilometres west of Harare, overnight Sunday, according to the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU). The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims three of its supporters were beaten to death by alleged members of the country's national army in Chipinge, about 400 kilometres southeast of the capital. "Three of our supporters died after they were beaten up by soldiers. They died at their homes on Saturday," Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC provincial chairman was quoted as saying by the independent Daily News. Their names were not immediately released.
In a statement, the MDC said their polling agent Tafirenyika Gwaze died on Wednesday after he was "abducted and tortured by (ruling) Zanu PF militia" in Mutoko 120 kilometres northeast of Harare. "The group of about 15 Zanu PF militia took him to a ... base where he was tortured the whole night and released the following day. He died soon after his release," said MDC. Another MDC activist, Owen Manyarara died from assault wounds sustained on March 8. He died at his home in northern Madziva district on Sunday, the party said. Darlington Vikaveka, a security guard on a farm near Marondera, about 50 kilometres east of Harare, was beaten to death by group of people early Friday. He was beaten along with a white farmer who suffered some injuries.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 20 March
Zimbabwe stoppage is illegal, say police
Harare - Zimbabwean police yesterday described as "illegal" a three-day general strike by the main trades union called to protest against the government's harassment of workers since the state-rigged presidential elections. With workers due to begin the strike today, Wayne Bvudzijena, chief police spokesman, said: "Their actions are manifestly illegal. "We have got a labour movement which wants to take action and make an expression on issues pertaining to the presidential elections. In our opinion that is a political position they have adopted and we view their action as illegal." Wellington Chibhebhe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), was "invited" to Harare Central Police Station for questioning late on Monday and released after several hours. The strike will be the first direct challenge to 78-year-old President Mugabe since his re-election last week for a fifth term. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said yesterday that he supported the strike and rejected negotiations with Mr Mugabe until the rule of law was restored and instruments of state-sponsored violence were dismantled. He said Mr Mugabe had launched a campaign of retribution against MDC members, particularly in rural areas. "We have received shocking reports and have a refugee problem in Harare and in the provinces." Outside the MDC's central Harare office, hundreds of displaced people gathered to seek assistance and see Mr Tsvangirai.
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From The Times (UK), 21 March
Tsvangirai treason charge dashes conciliation hope
Harare - Hopes of political reconciliation in Zimbabwe were extinguished yesterday after Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, appeared in court charged with treason. Just two days after the presidents of South Africa and Nigeria urged President Mugabe to hold negotiations with his opponent, Mr Tsvangirai was fingerprinted at Harare Central Police station and taken to Harare magistrates’ court. He was accused of plotting to kill the President based on a widely discredited television documentary. Dominic Muzavasi, the magistrate, ordered him to pay bail of Z$1.5 million (£18,950) and surety of Z$3 million in property. Mr Tsvangirai was also ordered to surrender his passport and report to police once a week. The same allegations face Renson Gasela, the Movement for Democratic Change’s shadow agriculture minister, and Welshman Ncube, the secretary-general. Both men were granted bail and were not asked to plead. No trial date was set, but they must appear again in court on April 30.
"This particular appearance is simply the continued harassment of Morgan Tsvangirai and members of his party," Eric Matinenga, his lawyer, said. "Maybe it is a knee-jerk reaction to events that unfolded yesterday in London," he added, referring to the decision by the Commonwealth to suspend Zimbabwe for a year after the organisation’s observer group concluded that the presidential elections had been neither free nor fair. On Monday, President Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Mbeki of South Africa held talks with Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, telling them a government of national unity was the only way to resolve the country’s crisis. A controversial Australian documentary broadcast last month appeared to show Mr Tsvangirai trying to hire a company of Canadian political consultants to assassinate Mr Mugabe. However, analysis of the videotape showed it had been digitally manipulated, and the head of the consultancy admitted he was under contract to do public relations work for Mr Mugabe.
The charges of treason coincided with the first day of a three-day national strike protesting against Mr Mugabe’s win in the flawed election. However, it won limited support and most areas were reported to be calm. Wellington Chibhebhe, Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, said by midday yesterday 55 per cent of the country’s workforce had gone on strike, but he blamed intimidation by ruling party militias for the low turnout. In the central city of Gweru, he said, businesses had been ordered by soldiers to reopen. "Banks were forced to open and many people were taken from their homes to work," he said. In other areas, war veterans were collecting names from companies of people who had not turned up to work. Police said the stay-away was "an illegal politically motivated action designed to spark an uprising against the democratically elected Government".
The Norwegian observer mission attacked Mr Mugabe’s campaign of reprisals against MDC supporters yesterday and said it was "evidence of a co-ordinated effort not to allow the election results to reflect the will of the people". Six political killings by Mr Mugabe’s militias have been reported since his controversial victory was announced the Wednesday before last. Colin Cloete, president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), said that "harassment, looting, eviction and extortion as well as political retribution have reached alarming proportions". President Mugabe’s sister is alleged to have menaced Terry Ford, the white farmer shot by a mob on Monday, because she wanted his land. Sabina Mugabe, who is an MP, was said to have gone to Terry Ford’s farm in Norton 16 months ago and given him an ultimatum to leave, the CFU alleged.
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From BBC News, 20 March
Obasanjo defends Zimbabwe decision
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the Commonwealth decided to suspend Zimbabwe for a year because there had not been "adequate provisions" in the country's presidential elections to allow everyone to express their will. In a BBC interview, Mr Obasanjo explained the decision he made on Tuesday with two other Commonwealth leaders. They suspended Zimbabwe from the body's councils for a year in response to President Robert Mugabe's controversial victory in 9-11 March elections. Mr Obasanjo added that the answer to Zimbabwe's problems was not more elections but reconciliation and the emergence of a coalition government. He said that Mr Mugabe and his main challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, had both agreed that their parties would hold talks. But Mr Obasanjo said that Mr Mugabe had not reacted well to the Commonwealth decision. "He took it badly as one would expect, but I believe he will understand," he said, adding that he did not think his long-standing personal relationship with Mr Mugabe would suffer as a result.
Mr Obasanjo said it was up to the Commonwealth to take its decision on the basis of the report made by its own observers in the Zimbabwe elections, which in this case was highly critical. "In the end our conclusion is that there are not adequate provisions to make everyone in Zimbabwe express his or her will in that election," he said. Asked what action should now be taken in Zimbabwe, Mr Obasanjo said the first thing that was required was reconciliation. "Whether you run two elections or three elections is not the issue," he said. "The problem of Zimbabwe is reconciliation, the revival of the economy and dealing with ... the shortage of food. We are convinced that the division that now exists in Zimbabwe cannot resolve those essential issues." He said that from reconciliation "some form of coalition government" would emerge, followed by another election in the "short to medium term". But he would not say whether he thought this would happen within Zimbabwe's year of suspension.
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From IRIN (UN), 20 March
Persecution continues NGOs
The persecution of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters in Zimbabwe has continued following President Robert Mugabe's election victory, IRIN was told on Wednesday. Francis Lovemore, medical director of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Amani Trust, told IRIN: "There's an enormous amount of persecution (of MDC supporters). (There's) a witch-hunt for people who voted MDC. Whole areas are on the run - a community of about 3,000 people who are unable to remain at home. About 1,200 MDC polling agents, who were registered to monitor for the MDC, are unable to stay at home, they are on the run." In its political violence report for the period 1-15 March, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (ZimRights) noted that "the majority of violators have been supporters of the ruling party Zanu PF, state agents and war veterans". Apart from reported cases of politically motivated murders and abductions are incidents of rape. Lovemore said: "The victims of the violence are being forced to commit sexual acts, homosexual or heterosexual. It is being used as a form of torture."
ZimRights said its report detailed "politically motivated violence reported in the period directly before, during and after the March poll". "Contrary to the impression given by the state that there were no incidents of violence during the actual polling days, the Human Rights Forum recorded more than 24 incidents of politically motivated violence in this period and on the extended polling day of 11 March," ZimRights said. The forum alleged that since 1 March four politically motivated executions were perpetrated, bringing to 35 the number of politically motivated killings since the beginning of the year. They alleged that 46 people had been unlawfully detained (72 since the beginning of the year) and that 50 people had been abducted (175 since 1 January). The NGO alleged there had been 187 cases of torture, bringing the total to 453 up to 15 March this year.
Meanwhile, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who was formally charged with treason on Wednesday, has dismissed the attempt to prosecute him. Tsvangirai told IRIN: "The position is that this is ongoing political harassment and that we are not going to be (distracted) from our thrust. We are going to go ahead." Tsvangirai was charged for alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Mugabe, which he has denied. Lovemore said she was relieved that the Commonwealth had on Tuesday suspended Zimbabwe from the body for a year. The Commonwealth took the decision to suspend Zimbabwe after it received a damning report on the March presidential election from its observer team. South African President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard had been tasked with deciding what action the Commonwealth should take if the report was adverse. Lovemore said: "The message (sent by the suspension) was desperately important." A national stayaway called for by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions to protest the election result has not resulted in the expected shutdown of major centres. "A high percentage of people were at work," Lovemore said.
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From The Financial Gazette, 21 March
Tsvangirai stronger after flawed poll
Morgan Tsvangirai, the vanquished leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who lost a close but flawed election to President Robert Mugabe last week, is likely to emerge stronger and the real winner in the long run, analysts said this week. Tsvangirai insists he was robbed of victory by Mugabe who he says abused state machinery to rig the poll through pre-election violence and intimidation and by denying thousands of urban voters the chance to cast their ballots. The analysts said Mugabe’s international reputation was now in tatters and that the 78-year-old Zanu PF leader was more isolated now than before the poll widely condemned in Western capitals and in Zimbabwe as heavily flawed. On the other hand Tsvangirai, who turned 50 last week, is emerging as the real power broker in Zimbabwe, if not the power behind the throne, said University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political analyst Elphas Mukonoweshuro.
Mukonoweshuro said Tsvangirai’s emergence as a major player in Zimbabwean politics was demonstrated by the flurry of activity among African leaders now anxious to meet the MDC leader but who in the past had shunned him. Malawian President Bakili Muluzi and Mozambique’s Joaquim Chissano, the leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community, took time from celebrating Mugabe’s victory in Harare on Sunday to visit Tsvangirai. South African leader Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo, part of the troika that make the Commonwealth’s special team on Zimbabwe, on Monday joined the well beaten track to meet Tsvangirai for talks. "The meetings between Tsvangirai and the African leaders are a clear demonstration that in any equation which needs to be put in place in order to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis, Tsvangirai will have to feature very prominently," Mukonoweshuro observed.
Brian Raftopoulos, another UZ political analyst, said the MDC leader’s huge support base shown by his strong run for Mugabe’s office in the just-ended poll had finally convinced regional and African leaders that he was a man to reckon with. "There is now recognition among African leaders that Tsvangirai is a force and the MDC is a force that needs to be respected," Raftopoulos told the Financial Gazette. He said Tsvangirai could emerge much stronger from the current political crisis in Zimbabwe because senior officials of his party had rallied around him. Raftopoulos said there were few options left for Tsvangirai to force a re-run of the election because many Zimbabweans were tired of mass stayaways and Mugabe had enough power to thwart any moves to remove him from power. "Obviously Tsvangirai is in a very difficult situation because the state machinery is still very intact and Mugabe has the support of the regional leaders," he said.
Mukonoweshuro however said the MDC leader could adopt a wait-and-see attitude because he would not lose much by refusing to participate in the proposed government of national unity that would, in the eyes of many, legitimise Mugabe’s administration. "Tsvangirai does not have to do anything because anyone can see that although Zanu PF has political power, it does not have the capacity to manage," said Mukonoweshuro. He said Mugabe would always be haunted by the fact that he did not have the legitimacy to govern because his victory was only recognised by a few African countries. Both Mukonoweshuro and Raftopoulos cautioned Tsvangirai from bowing to pressure from African leaders and some Zimbabweans to join the proposed government of national unity. So while under normal circumstances it is the victor who takes the spoils, in Zimbabwe it might be Tsvangirai - and not Mugabe - who will emerge as the real winner in the long run after the country’s most bitterly contested election in 22 years.
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From News24 (SA), 21 March
US blasts Zim for treason charges
Washington - The United States kept up its harsh criticism of Zimbabwe on Wednesday, blasting as baseless treason charges against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as the latest evidence of President Robert Mugabe's repression. State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said the treason charges, on which Tsvangirai appeared in a Harare court earlier on Wednesday, were part of an orchestrated campaign against democracy by Mugabe that included what Washington has described as last week's "fraudulent" presidential election in Zimbabwe. "This is part of I think an example, the latest example of a kind of retaliation against opposition and supporters that we're seeing under way in the aftermath of the election," Boucher told reporters. He said Mugabe backers were "carrying out widespread retribution" against the opposition in the wake of the March 9-11 election and that at least five opposition supporters had been killed since March 13. "The charges against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai are another example of this kind of repression," Boucher said. "We're not aware of any convincing evidence to suggest that there's any basis to the allegations in this case. We have yet to see any specifics to back up the arrest or the potential charges."
Tsvangirai and several other officials from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are accused of having plotted to assassinate Mugabe. MDC Secretary General Welshman Ncube was formally charged in the affair on March 12, the day before Mugabe was declared the winner of the election by a wide margin over Tsvangirai, who immediately cried foul. The United States and others have denounced the polls as "fundamentally flawed" and moved to impose sanctions against Mugabe. On Tuesday the Commonwealth suspended the country for a year as a result of the elections. Also on Tuesday, a senior US official said Washington had added six Mugabe associates to a travel ban against members of his party and government and could enact financial sanctions against them in the next two weeks. The expansion of the travel sanctions brings to 26 the number of Zimbabwean officials, including Mugabe, who are now barred from the United States.
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From The Financial Gazette, 21 March
Swiss probe Mugabe, 19 others
The Swiss government has blacklisted 20 Zimbabweans, including President Robert Mugabe, who it is now probing for possible ownership of foreign accounts or assets in that country which will be frozen this week, a senior Swiss official said yesterday. Switzerland on Tuesday announced that it was imposing sanctions against Mugabe and his close advisers after concerns in the West that the veteran Zanu PF leader had trashed electoral rules to snatch this month’s highly contested presidential election. The measures include the freezing of all assets that might belong to senior Zanu PF leaders and Mugabe, as well as those in government, and a blanket travel ban on all the 20. Daniela Stoffel-Fatzer, a spokesman for the Swiss government, said Swiss bankers were now investigating Mugabe and 19 others to check if they possessed any such accounts or assets in her country.
Once these assets or foreign accounts had been identified, they would be frozen, Stoffel-Fatzer told the Financial Gazette by telephone from Bern. She said Zimbabwe becomes only the third country in the world after Burma and Yugoslavia to have the assets of its political leaders frozen by her government. Swiss banks, notorious for their secrecy, are a haven for tax evaders and many African despots such as the late Mobutu Sese Seko, who after his death was found to have stashed billions in the Alpine country. Mugabe insists he does not own any foreign assets and has challenged anyone with information to the contrary to expose him.
Meanwhile the United States government has said it is still investigating allegations that some Zimbabweans might be involved in the smuggling of so-called Congolese blood diamonds. A US official said it was too early for investigators to come out with the names of the Zimbabwean army generals and businessmen who might be implicated in the lucrative scam that is blamed for fuelling the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Zimbabwe has more than 11 000 troops in the vast Central African country who were deployed by Mugabe in 1998 after an appeal from former DRC president Laurent Kabila, then under siege from rebels supported by Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
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Comment from BBC News, 20 March
'A defining moment for Africa'
By Richard Dowden
The significance of the decision to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth for a year goes far beyond Zimbabwe and the future of the Commonwealth. The suspension of a medium-sized African country from membership of a powerless club of former British territories sounds the diplomatic equivalent of a yellow card at a friendly football match. But had the troika of President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo, and Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, made the opposite decision, Africa's cause would have been set back a decade. The Commonwealth's judgement on Zimbabwe was a defining moment for Africa to commit itself to good government.
Africa's own plan for its political and economic future - the New Partnership for African Development, known as Nepad - was at stake. Promoted by Mr Mbeki, Mr Obasanjo and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, this is a pact which commits African leaders to better government, respect for human rights, democracy and good economic policies. In exchange, the rest of the world is considering coming up with more aid, more debt forgiveness and a commitment to improve access to its markets for Africa's goods. It is Africa's best - and only - chance of turning itself round. The Americans have made the link quite explicit to South Africa. They told Mr Mbeki: your attitude to Zimbabwe is a test of your commitment to Nepad. Had Africa's heavyweights, South Africa and Nigeria, chosen African solidarity over the principles of democracy and human rights, Nepad would have been dead and Africa would have been left to stew for at least another decade.
When they met at Coolum in Australia earlier this month, the Commonwealth heads of government were split over what to do about Zimbabwe. Britain, New Zealand and Canada pushed for suspension. African rulers, led by Mr Mbeki, were against. When Mr Mbeki, President Obasanjo and Mr Howard were mandated as a troika to judge the outcome of the Zimbabwe election, it seemed likely that Mr Mugabe's African peers would not allow him to be sanctioned. The official election monitors from the Organisation of African Unity, the Southern African Development Community and the Governments of Nigeria, South Africa and Namibia came up with verdicts that blessed the election and Mr Mugabe's victory. The instinct of some African rulers to rally round one of their own at any price, seemed to be prevailing, and several African presidents turned up at Mr Mugabe's inauguration.
This was not a racial split as many suggested. Only the rulers and their courtiers backed Mr Mugabe. Independent newspapers and radios throughout the continent resounded with denunciations of Mr Mugabe and his stolen election. Led by a former military ruler of Nigeria, the Commonwealth election monitors came out with a damming verdict: "The conditions in Zimbabwe did not adequately allow for a free expression of will by the electors." Whatever their own governments' monitors had told them, the presidents of South Africa and Nigeria were bound by their mandate to base their decision on this verdict. They had spent Monday in Harare trying to persuade Mr Mugabe to establish a government of national unity and go easy on the opposition. But he did not give them enough. They made at least one call from London on Tuesday to try to get him to change his mind. In the end they had no choice. They had held out a lifeline to Mr Mugabe and he had not grasped it. The effect of this judgement on Zimbabwe's leader by his African peers should not be underestimated, but he is unlikely to change course easily.
Zimbabwe is now a disaster zone in desperate need of food aid for some 3 million hungry citizens. While South Africa has the power to cut transport links and power to Zimbabwe, full economic sanctions would only ensure that these people die. It may, as Mr Mbeki fears, cause an implosion that would take other parts of southern Africa with it. Mr Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo now have the tricky task of forcing Mr Mugabe to resign, to hold new elections, or to share power with the opposition. They may not succeed, but by formally and publicly sanctioning Zimbabwe they may have saved their own countries and the rest of the continent from a period of ostracism.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 22 March
Mbeki endorses election
President Thabo Mbeki has quietly affirmed the "legitimacy" of the Zimbabwean election, after a week's silence in which he sought to divert world attention from his judgement on the poll by pressing for a coalition government in Zimbabwe. This week's Cabinet statement said: "President Mbeki has noted and accepted the report of the South African parliamentary observer mission adopted by Parliament and the interim report of the South African observer mission." Both missions found that the election was a legitimate or credible expression of the Zimbabwean people's will. The statement said the government "will continue to relate to the government of Zimbabwe as the elected government of that country". The view of Mbeki and his party is at clear variance with his decision, as a member of the Commonwealth "troika" of heads of state, to suspend Zimbabwe for a year in response to the damning Commonwealth observers' report. Calling the suspension "an acceptable compromise", African National Congress spin doctors contrived to suggest that Mbeki won a major concession by staving off sanctions at the London troika meeting and that there were mere differences of emphasis between the South African and Commonwealth observer mission reports. Cabinet spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said all "labels" - including the Commonwealth observer finding that the election outcome "did not adequately reflect the will of Zimbabweans" - expressed "some form of displeasure on issues of legislation, polarisation and violence". How different groups characterised the outcome was a matter "of degree".
Diplomatic sources said this week that "smart" sanctions against Zimbabwe's leaders by the United States and European Union remain very much on the agenda. Britain was likely to be led by the EU. The deciding issue was not so much the participation of Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in coalition rule, as sweeping changes in the policies of the Zimbabwean government. These would have to include orderly land reform under the rule of law, electoral reform and an end to the persecution of the MDC and its supporters. South African diplomacy this week was partly directed at goading Tsvangirai into unity talks. Mugabe is known to blame the MDC leader's reluctance to join a unity process for Zimbabwe's Commonwealth suspension. Mugabe's move to rearrest Tsvangirai and charge him with treason is seen by Zimbabwean commentators as revenge for the latter's stance on unity talks. Reacting in a curious statement, ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said the arrest "was part of the painful process of healing" and a chapter that would close when Zimbabwe moved towards reconciliation, unity and peace. The veiled threat appeared to be that the charges would stand until Tsvangirai played ball. Australian Prime Minister John Howard and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw voiced concern at Tsvangirai's arrest. "Any notion of prosecuting the opposition leader is quite inimical to the concept of national reconciliation," said Howard. In a further intervention Netshitenzhe urged Zimbabweans not to participate in civil protest. The Zimbabwean labour movement had called for a strike in protest against the poll. "On every detail of policy the South Africans are acting as Mugabe's apologist," said Zimbabwe Independent editor Iden Wetherell.
Sources said Mbeki left Harare for London hoping to urge the Commonwealth to avoid any punitive action, on the promise of a national dialogue in Zimbabwe. His hand appears to have been forced by Howard's insistence that the unity process had nothing to do with the status of the election. Commonwealth ministers had made a clear decision in Coolum, Australia, to stay their hand against Mugabe pending the observers' findings on the conduct of the poll. Howard said later that given the mandate from the Coolum encounter and "in relation to the flawed and undemocratic character of the election one really had no alternative than to reach the decision we did". Mugabe, who was banking on the support of Third World Commonwealth members, is said to have been deeply upset when news of the suspension was broken to him. He was partly mollified when told it would be coupled with economic assistance and food aid.
Wetherell said there had been a noticeable change in ruling party atmospherics in Zimbabwe. One sign was an editorial in Zanu PF's media front, The Herald, saying the two million MDC voters had to be accommodated and urging national unity. Mugabe appeared to show an awareness of his international isolation and of Zimbabwe's desperate economic plight. Apart from the Commonwealth decision, only five of 22 invited heads of state attended his inauguration. Western diplomats hope that unity talks will start soon, but Wetherell is pessimistic about an outcome. The MDC was reluctant to be "co-opted and emasculated", as Joshua Nkomo's Zapu had been in 1980. It wanted fresh elections under international supervision and a dismantling of Zanu PF's repressive state apparatus, including a new chief justice and police commissioner. Mugabe was unlikely to make such concessions. Reacting to ANC MPs' endorsement of the election this week, the Democratic Alliance's Dene Smuts said the ANC refused to call "the rape of democracy" in Zimbabwe by its name. "It must be very confusing for the ANC to be instructed to vote one way, only to see the president effectively instructed to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth on the same day."
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Comment from The Guardian (UK), 22 March
There are no excuses for Mugabe
Zimbabwe's election should be judged by its own high standards
Harare There is only one measure by which to judge Zimbabwe's election. It is not by "African standards" as Robert Mugabe and his friends would have us do. It is not by the criteria laid down by a myriad election observers from widely differing political cultures - from Japan to Libya - with an array of tests for what constitutes a good election. It is by Zimbabwe's own standards, after more than two decades of independence. And by those, imperfect as they may have been, the election was a disaster.
Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, recognised that the election was fatally flawed when he agreed to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth this week. So did Thabo Mbeki, if more reluctantly. But others in Africa continue to defend Mugabe by pointing to the violence that plagues presidential ballots in Kenya and the many shortcomings of a Nigerian election. They remind us of the bloody run-up to South Africa's elections in 1994, and note the west has turned a blind eye to the rigging of Zambia's latest election. Wasn't Zimbabwe's vote a model of tranquillity and efficiency by comparison to elections in some other parts of Africa, they ask? Why the double standard? It's a good question, and one asked by those who stand to benefit from seeing Zimbabwe's tainted election accepted by the wider world. Kenya's Daniel arap Moi is certainly not interested in scrutiny of next year's presidential ballot in which he can be expected to fall back on his routine strategy of using violence to divide and rule. But Mugabe's opponents ask whether this is the standard by which Zimbabwe should be judged.
Some of those dispatched to monitor Zimbabwe's election think so, including the head of the Nigerian observer mission, Ernest Shonekon. He knows a thing or two about stolen elections. When Moshood Abiola was deprived of his election victory in 1993 by the Nigerian military, Chief Shonekon was the frontman who took power on the army's behalf. Some of the loudest voices in support of Mugabe have come from South Africa. The deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, wondered what all the fuss was about - 120 political murders was nothing compared with the thousands who died in the run-up to South Africa's first free ballot. And hadn't they managed to pull off a free and fair election? Well, no. Much of the violence then was concentrated in KwaZulu-Natal and the election results there were openly manipulated with the consent of the African National Congress to ensure that Inkatha won the province. That made sense in the South African political context of the time because it went a long way to ensuring the political stability the country enjoys today. But it is no reason to brush off a strategy of murder and terror by the Zimbabwean government as small potatoes.
It is to Zimbabweans' credit that 120 recent political murders are not as meaningless as Pahad suggests, particularly in a country which endured a liberation war in the 1970s and then the massacre of 20,000 people in the Matabeleland rebellion two decades ago, when Mugabe's forces put down the only real challenge to his authority before now. Others have said that those foreign observers who condemned the elections are hypocritical because they have failed to make similar criticisms of ballots in Russia, eastern Europe or Italy. Perhaps so. Italian politics is remarkably corrupt. Does that mean that when we encounter corruption in British politics we should let it go? Voters of any country have the right to be outraged if the loser is declared the winner in their elections.
The point missed by those who defend Zimbabwe's election is that its shortcomings are not the result of under-development or the inability of the system to cope which is implied in talk of "African standards". It did not happen after a civil war. It did not happen in apartheid's death throes. It did not happen because the country is so fractured by religious and ethnic divides that blood-letting is part of the political discourse. It happened because Mugabe was not prepared to accept defeat. His government set about to subvert the will of the people. There were certainly problems in past elections, particularly in Matabeleland in the years after the massacres. Sometimes there was violence against opposition candidates and supporters. But until Mugabe was faced with a real challenge to his power, elections were transparent and largely untainted by rigging. Political gatherings were not banned, nor was criticism of the president. The voters' roll included just about everyone who lived in the country and was over the age of 18, including non-citizens. Above all, people did not live in terror of an election. That is the standard by which many Zimbabweans want Mugabe's claim to victory to be judged.
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From The Daily News, 21 March
Zanu PF continues to train militant youths
Hundreds of Zanu PF youths are still being trained at torture camps scattered around Mashonaland Central, especially in Bindura. In Bindura on Tuesday, scores of the Zanu PF youths, averaging 16 years of age, wielding long sticks, were seen in training at a shopping centre near Bradley Institute. It was not immediately clear who was in charge of the training. Already the youths are reported to have attacked villagers around Bindura, accusing them of having voted for MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai, in last week’s presidential election. Most of the villagers have fled their homes after the youths threatened to kill them. The MDC has called on Zanu PF to disband the youth brigades, trained at the Border Gezi youth training centre in Mt Darwin, as they were beating up innocent people in rural constituencies. In an attempt to stop the violence, Elliot Pfebve, the losing MDC parliamentary candidate in the 2000 general election met Elliot Manyika, the MP for Bindura, during which Manyika, the Minister of Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation, agreed to stop the violence. Pfebve said: "These people have engaged in serious retribution, in spite of whatever they are saying through the media. "For them to attack the same people from whom they stole votes is extremely cruel. If they don’t stop beating up people, we are going to take the necessary measures to protect all our supporters." During the meeting, Manyika was told the MDC would mobilise its supporters to fight back. Manyika indicated he would travel to Bindura to meet with the Zanu PF leadership to stop the violence.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 22 March
'How can the ANC turn its back on us?'
Moses Mzila, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP for Plumtree North, is a hurt man. Almost two decades ago he left his job as a schoolteacher to become a member of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) and opened his home to African National Congress freedom fighters in Bulawayo. He was among the first to construct secret compartments in cars to smuggle weapons out of Zimbabwe for the ANC. "My home, 12 Irene Avenue, was the base for Operation Vula [a plan, launched in 1986, to build-up underground ANC structures in South Africa]. Any ANC member working from Zimbabwe knew my home from 1978 to 1992," says Mzila. He cannot understand how the MDC can be dismissed as a puppet of the West or how ANC members can digest Zanu PF's "struggle credentials" and declare the recent elections in Zimbabwe free and fair. "We - the ANC and Zapu - were comrades in a struggle to bring freedom of speech and association to our people - how can they [the ANC] turn their backs on that?"
Mzila's name appeared on a list of people who the ANC felt indebted to for having served its interests during its struggle against apartheid. He qualified for a pension from the ANC, but could not claim it as he was not a South African. "I do not want the pension, only recognition for our contribution that we were with the ANC," says Mzila. Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union was then anti-ANC. The ANC has concluded its fight, but Mzila's struggle continues. Last November he saw two policemen carrying jerry cans near the MDC's regional office in Bulawayo. Minutes later the offices were on fire. Mzila gave an interview to a foreign news agency describing what he saw. Two days later he was arrested and charged with murder. Later the charges were changed to kidnapping an MDC supporter. "Clearly the powers that be had seen my interview on foreign news networks," he says. Mzila is to appear in court next week. Mzila lives in fear and, like many MDC MPs, is always on the move. He says the MDC is modelled after the non-racial ethos of the ANC. "I saw that the ANC had white, Indians and coloured members - that is why we have people from all racial groupings in the MDC too. How can we be charged with pandering to the West?"
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From News24 (SA), 21 March
Cosatu wants facts from observers
Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions on Thursday demanded of the various observer missions that monitored the recent presidential elections in Zimbabwe that they produce facts to support the conclusions drawn in their reports. The ANC ally said none of the conflicting reports on the election provided a convincing argument to back their conclusions. "In order to convince Cosatu and the South African population at large that the SA Observer Mission and other missions did not go to Zimbabwe with preconceived and fixed positions to legitimise or to condemn the election results, the respective missions are challenged to give us concrete facts and scientific evidence to back up their arguments," the trade union federation said in a statement. "Cosatu believes that the presence of observers did contribute to the improving of the environment and ensuring restraint," the statement said.
Cosatu has argued that it would be difficult to hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe taking into account the political environment since the 2000 parliamentary elections. "Cosatu consistently called for decisive interventions by the international community, in particular SADC, to ensure a free and fair election. The fact that most of the international community chose to ignore our pleas and act only on the eve of the election made it too late to reverse the accumulated damage," the labour organisation said. "On the face of it, there is compelling evidence that the electoral process was fraught with irregularities, violence and intimidation, a biased media, and in some respects bias on the part of the police in some parts of the country. The legislative framework did not allow for a level playing field. The uncertainty created by court ruling, the defiance of the ruling and the last minute introduction of regulations resulted in massive confusion and inadequate preparations by the electoral authorities."
Already heavily involved in the pro-democracy struggle in Swaziland, Cosatu also undertook to engage itself in Zimbabwe. For that reason the organisation said it fully backed a three-day general strike called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions "in support of their fight for basic trade union and human rights". Cosatu deplored the action of police "who forced their way into a private meeting of the ZCTU Executive Council on 14 March, in contravention of the International Labour Organisation's Convention 87 which gives workers' organisation the right to organise freely without interference." The federation condemned the harassment of workers by government militias and the police, "which the ZCTU say has intensified since the 9-11 March election. Cosatu also is concerned at the threat by the Zimbabwe government to deregister the ZCTU and its proposed 'anti-terrorist' law, which would make socio-economic, and political strikes illegal".
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From AFP, 21 March
Ghana backs Zimbabwe's suspension, decries charges against Tsvangirai
Accra - Ghana on Thursday said it fully backed Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth after controversial presidential polls and decried treason charges levelled against main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Foreign Minister Hackman Owusu Agyemang told AFP that Accra totally supported a Commonwealth decision to suspend Zimbabwe for a year. "Basically we are taking a principled stand," he said, adding that Ghanaian observers sent to Zimbabwe had reported the lack of a "level playing field" and of "criteria or international standards for free and fair elections." Longserving Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was declared the winner of the March 9-11 poll by a wide margin over chief rival Tsvangirai, who immediately cried foul. "We as members of the Commonwealth stand by the decision which suspends Zimbabwe," the foreign minister said. "We are not saying that Zimbabwe should be ostracised but there is a need for negotiations."
Agyemang deplored the treason charges laid against Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change leader, who appeared in court Wednesday to face allegations he plotted to kill Mugabe. The state's action "has the potential of throwing everything overboard but we are hoping that the due process of the law will be followed," he said. "Basically the Commonwealth needs to speak to the Zimbabwean government to try and encourage the two opposing factions to talk to each other and accomodate each other." Agyemang said Ghanaian President John Kufuor was "in constant touch" with Mugabe and Nigerian head of state Olusegun Obasanjo to try and defuse the political tension in Zimbabwe. The United States this week added six Mugabe associates to a travel ban against members of his party and government, bringing to 26 the number of Zimbabwean officials, including Mugabe, who are now barred from the United States.
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Comment from New Vision (Uganda), 21 March
Commonwealth is right
Zimbabwe has been suspended from the Commonwealth group of nations for one year following last week's controversial election. A troika of leaders, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, delivered the organisation's verdict after considering it election monitors' report. The Commonwealth is right to take this stand. A fortnight ago, at its heads of state summit meeting, it was agreed that sanctions of any sort be held back pending the election itself. It was rightly deemed premature to judge the country before the poll was carried out. But the circumstances surrounding the voting process have been widely seen to be undemocratic. It is not the first time the group has suspended nations - Nigeria and South Africa have been themselves been out in the cold as recently as less than ten years ago, while Pakistan, where a military government took power, and Fiji where a coup overthrew an elected government, have been the latest suspensions. But Zimbabwe is the first case of a fraudulently conducted election. The country failed the standard set, ironically enough, in its own capital, as the 1991 Harare declaration committed all Commonwealth countries, regardless of their political or economic conditions, to certain basic principles. Democracy, human rights, judicial independence and sound economic management are some of the ideals Zimbabwe has failed to live up to. The Commonwealth has sent out strong signals that to belong, one must meet basic group standards. After all, which club with a dress code would consistently tolerate shabbily dressed patrons? But if and when Zimbabwe reforms, they should be readmitted. The ball is now in Harare's court.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 22 March
Pressure piles for poll re-run
Growing international pressure for an election re-run is likely to further isolate President Robert Mugabe after Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth this week. The calls have been backed by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai who says the recent presidential poll was stolen by Mugabe. Tsvangirai yesterday said his party was pressing for an election re-run in line with growing international demands. Tsvangirai, who was on Wednesday charged with high treason in connection with an alleged assassination plot against Mugabe, said the MDC wants a fresh election under independent local and international supervision. "We are pushing for the restoration of democracy and legitimacy," Tsvangirai told the Zimbabwe Independent. "That's what we are going for. There must be a re-run." Tsvangirai said his party's demand for a re-run was in line with established Commonwealth protocols, which provide for the restoration of democracy through free and fair elections. Following Zimbabwe's suspension in London on Tuesday, those stipulations, contained in the Millbrook programme, will assume greater urgency.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was part of the Commonwealth troika that suspended Zimbabwe, yesterday defended the club's decision, saying there had not been "adequate provisions" for a free and fair poll. He told the BBC there would be another election "sometime". Obasanjo telephoned Mugabe after the London meeting - also attended by South African President Thabo Mbeki, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon - to inform him of the outcome. He "erupted", according to Obasanjo. "He (Mugabe) took it badly as one would expect, but I believe he will understand," Obasanjo said. Sources said Mugabe was however mollified by the prospect of an international package for emergency food aid.
Mugabe, with the support of his African allies, claimed victory after last week's flawed poll while Tsvangirai, backed by the SADC Parliamentary Forum, the Commonwealth, the European Union and the United States, rejected the election as "daylight robbery". Tsvangirai's call for a re-run follows his rejection of South African-led attempts to press the MDC into a government of national unity. Mbeki's efforts to hold off Commonwealth measures against Harare rested on hopes for a political accommodation in Zimbabwe. That is unlikely to be forthcoming as the MDC, backed by the international community, insists on a restoration of legitimacy through a free and fair poll.
Yesterday Zapu, the Bulawayo-based opposition party, said the election should be staged again under UN monitoring. "The attempt by African leaders, surprisingly led by Mbeki and the ANC, to redefine democracy to encompass floggings, executions and outright genocide as essential elements in an African context is outrageous," it said. "The lowering of democratic standards to accommodate, legitimise and protect dictators should be resisted at all costs." Professor Tom Lodge of Witwatersrand University said Mbeki's endorsement of Zimbabwe's suspension after clear signals from his government that South Africa considered the election acceptable had bruised him. "He looks indecisive and weak," Lodge told Reuters. "He is a fence-sitter, and a very uncomfortable fence it seems to be."
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From The Independent (UK), 23 March
Mugabe launches fresh round of farm seizures
The Government of Zimbabwe has said it will seize hundreds more white farms, despite rising international pressure on President Robert Mugabe after his controversial election victory. The government has published a list of 388 farms, including ranches owned by South Africa's wealthy Oppenheimer family, for seizure. Early yesterday hundreds of white farmers and black farm workers attended the funeral of a white farmer, Terry Ford, who was shot on Monday at his farm west of Harare. He was the 10th white farmer to have been killed since farm occupations by war veterans began two years ago. The Government also announced plans yesterday for massive food imports. The country is facing starvation due to drought and the chaos which has followed the occupation of white-owned farms. The Agriculture Minister, Joseph Made, said the government wanted to import 200,000 tons of corn. State radio reported that over the next 18 months 1.5 million tons of corn will need to be imported.
In its report on the elections, published yesterday, the Commonwealth observer group said paramilitary youth groups "were responsible for a systematic campaign of intimidation against known or suspected supporters of the main opposition party, the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change]." About 1,200 polling agents of the MDC are on the run from Mr Mugabe's youth militias. The President is continuing with the military training of hundreds of his ruling party's young men at camps around his stronghold province of Mashonaland Central, according to Zimbabwe's only independent daily, the Daily News. The youths are then unleashed on villagers accused of having voted for the MDC. A spokesman for the MDC, Percy Makombe, said most people who had registered to be MDC polling agents at the 4,500 polling stations around the country were no longer able to stay at home. "They are on the run and some of them are being accommodated at the homes of our party officials in Harare," Mr Makombe said.
The MDC has published a list of 76 homes of its followers and officials which have been burnt in reprisal attacks. Francis Lovemore of the Amani Trust, a human rights group, said: "There's an enormous amount of persecution of MDC supporters around Zimbabwe. Whole areas are on the run." He said some of the victims of the reprisal attacks were being forced to perform homosexual acts at Zanu PF bases as a form of torture. Others were being raped. The MDC has called on the ruling party to disband its militias. In attempts to stop increasing violence, particularly in Mashonaland Central province, MDC officials in Bindura met Elliot Manyika, Mr Mugabe's minister in charge of the youth brigades. Mr Manyika reportedly promised to appeal to the Zanu PF leadership in the province to stop the violence. The country's main trade union conceded yesterday that a national strike called to protest against intimidation during the election had been a failure. The few businesses that had observed the strike reopened yesterday on what had been planned as the last day of a three-day mass action. Lovemore Matombo, on behalf of the unions, said that new security laws had hindered strike organisers and that threats by the authorities and bias in the state-dominated media had stopped workers joining the action.
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From News24 (SA), 21 March
Food relief resumes in Zim
Harare - Emergency food relief programmes resumed on Thursday in Zimbabwe, after a halt during the presidential elections, to help more than 500 000 people suffering from severe food shortages, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. Food aid was being distributed in the southern regions of Chipinge, Masvingo, Zvishavane and Hwange, said WFP official Pierre Saillez. "We didn't want the distribution to coincide with any political concerns," he said, explaining the halt in relief operations one week before the March 9-11 polls. "Now we are putting our teams back on the ground, with urgency. We must fight malnutrition at all costs," he said. The relief operation under way will distribute 110 000 tons of food to 400 000 people in southeastern and southwestern Zimbabwe. The WFP operation in Zimbabwe began in late February, with distribution to 100 000 people, after President Robert Mugabe's government finally admitted that the country faced a massive food shortage. Zimbabwe is traditionally self-sufficient and an exporter of surplus food, but its grain reserves are empty due to erratic rains, a national economic downturn, galloping inflation and disruptions to commercial farming brought about by the government's controversial land reforms. The bad weather and poverty have been compounded by almost two years of government-backed violence on white-owned farms, which account for much of Zimbabwe's commercial agriculture.
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From SABC News, 22 March
Nepad's future hangs in the balance
As world leaders gather in Monterrey, Mexico, to discuss the future of development aid, and President Thabo Mbeki's initiative, the New Partnership for Africa Development (Nepad), the Bush Administration is warning that the disputed Zimbabwe election is a serious obstacle to it's participation in Nepad. US Africa policy experts and government officials gathered for the first time since the Zimbabwe election, to air their differences and discuss them with Zimbabwe's ambassador. Some policy experts, such as John Prendergast, had dire predictions for Nepad. "We're here to mourn the burial of democracy in Zimbabwe and the eerie death watch of Nepad," Prendergast told delegates.
While one of the Bush Administration's top diplomats on Africa, does not agree there is a death wish underway for Nepad, he says what he describes as Zimbabwe illegitimate election is a serious obstacle. "If Africa doesn't step up here it's going to cripple our ability to provide the kind of economic development assistance we want to provide, not the humanitarian aid, or the other kinds of things that are our pet projects, but serious economic assistance. The Commonwealth has stepped up and we are gratified by that but we are looking forward to the rest of Africa stepping forward on this," Charles Snyder, of the US State Department, said. Snyder cited the treason charges against Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader, as one of the reasons why the US is so outraged. He said he was convinced the videotape which purportedly supports the claims, is doctored.
Zimbabwe's ambassador to the US rejected this analysis, and accused the US of meddling. "One doesn't see why, when a citizen of another country is correctly charged and is to appear before the courts of another country, there should be protests from another country. We think this is really double standards," said Ambassador Simbi Veke Mubako. Mubako did not address US concern about the future of Nepad or the effect the turmoil in Zimbabwe is having on the economies of neighbouring countries. However the strong words from the Bush Administration is a clear warning to regional leaders, that the future of Nepad is on the line.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 22 March
Soldiers' pay slashed
The Zimbabwe National Army's controversial 100% salary increases awarded to soldiers just before the presidential election looked distinctly short-term when the soldiers this week discovered that their March salaries had been cut back to pre-election levels. Soldiers who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent said salaries of war veterans and known Zanu PF activists were not affected by the adjustments. The army last month awarded salary increments to infantry soldiers in line with a new salary regime called the Military Salary Concept that sought to reward general duty soldiers ahead of specialists. Members from specialised units such as doctors and engineers were excluded from the 100% windfall. Soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity said their salaries for this month were cut by more than half. "The move to award us salary increments before the election was a political ploy to ensure that we campaign for Zanu PF. We now realise that we were used," said an irate infantry soldier.
Zimbabwe Defence Forces spokesman, Colonel Mbonisi Gatsheni, dismissed the claims that the salaries had been reduced. "Nobody had their salaries increased in the first place," Gatsheni said. "What actually happened is that there was a rationalisation of military salaries that enabled all army personnel in the same rank to fall within the same salary scale but with different allowances." He said he was not aware of any soldiers who had salaries reduced. The soldiers however said the net salary for a private in the army fell from $28 000 last month to $15 000 this month, the pre-election level. The soldiers are not the only ones duped into campaigning for Zanu PF in the presidential election, it seems. Thousands of youths who unleashed a reign of terror were still to be paid more than $18 000 they were each promised for campaigning for Zanu PF.
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From The Daily News, 22 March
Three UZ student leaders arrested over stayaway
Three University of Zimbabwe (UZ) student leaders were arrested on Tuesday night for allegedly working with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and the opposition MDC in organising the mass stayaway which started yesterday. Philip Pasirayi, the secretary for information and publicity of the Zimbabwe National Students’ Union, Madock Chivasa, the treasurer of the Students’ Executive Council, and Eddington Shayanowako of the Students’ Representative Assembly (SRA), were held at Harare Central police station. The three were arrested at around midnight on Tuesday. Yesterday the riot police were manning all the UZ gates, while others patrolled the campus since Monday when the institution opened.
Elizabeth Karonga, the UZ’s spokesperson, yesterday confirmed the arrests of the three students and the presence of the riot police on the campus. She said they were handed over to the police in Avondale by the UZ security guards after they were found on campus in breach of their terms of suspension. Karonga said: "They were picked up by our security officers and handed to the Avondale police. They breached their suspension requirements by entering the campus." On the heavy police presence on the campus, Karonga said: "The UZ is a public place and the police are policing it like any other public place." But Saki Otto, the SRA vice-chairman, said his colleagues were arrested for their alleged links to the ZCTU and MDC. Otto said: "The police told the three that they were picked up because they were working with the ZCTU and the MDC to organise protests against the outcome of the controversial presidential election."
He said the students’ organisations were not affiliated to any political party. "Our stance as students is that we are not an extension of any political party, but we have common battlegrounds for all democratic principles and constitutionally enshrined rights to be observed in Zimbabwe," Otto said. He said the students were worried by the deployment of the riot police on the campus since semester opening and urged the UZ authorities to instruct them not to provoke students. "The riot police killed a student here last year. The administration is well aware of this. We will not continue to tolerate the brutalisation of students," he said. Some students were yesterday attending lectures while others remained in their rooms.
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Comment from The Washington Times, 22 March
Election leaves the world sleepless
Clarence Page
Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, means "place where one does not sleep." That's what a black Harare journalist told me last summer as he drove me around his town. When Shona tribesmen first settled the area, he said, the lions in the nearby forest interrupted the night so forcefully with their roars that settlers had a hard time getting much shut-eye. More recently, as I watched from afar while President Robert Mugabe appears to have stolen his re-election fair and square, the entire country of Zimbabwe has become a tough place to sleep. Terry Ford, for example, is sleeping permanently. He was a 55-year-old white Zimbabwean farmer. He was killed Mon day, a day after Mr. Mugabe, 78, was sworn in for a hotly contested fifth term. Mr. Ford was the 10th white farmer to be killed since 2000 in Mr. Mugabe's so-called "fast track" land reform.
Ownership by Zimbabwe's tiny white minority of 90 percent of the best farmland is a real issue, dating back to the country's independence in 1980. Great Britain and the United States pulled out of the original land reform plan a few years after independence, charging corruption in Mr. Mugabe's government. Mr. Mugabe did not make an issue out of the land dispute until a few years ago, when white farmers provided a convenient scapegoat for a mounting political backlash against Mr. Mugabe by his fellow blacks. Mr. Mugabe's supporters in the United States (yes, he still has a few; I think I have heard from all three of them) cynically blame Mr. Mugabe's horrible international image on the Eurocentric view of the world's major media. Indeed, there have been many more blacks than whites killed, injured, jailed or made homeless during Mr. Mugabe's land seizures and other political power grabs, but their cases usually don't sizzle through the world's media as much as Mr. Mugabe's black-on-white crimes.
Nevertheless, Mr. Mugabe can't blame his country's troubles on the media. Besides, those of us who supported Mr. Mugabe from this side of the ocean in his battle against Rhodesia's white-minority rule are more obliged than anyone else to hold him accountable, racially and otherwise, now that he and his political party Zanu PF are in charge. The larger story in Zimbabwe goes beyond race or tribe. It is the story of a postcolonial Third World nation struggling mightily to join the new, emerging globalism. Mr. Mugabe's opposition is quite real and growing, born out of his country's labor movements and fed by a new, young black professional class struggling and striving to join neighboring economic giant South Africa in the new global economy.
No other sub-Saharan African country besides South Africa has more potential than Zimbabwe for development based on its natural and human resources. It has one of the continent's highest literacy rates. Its agricultural strength made it the breadbasket of southern Africa until drought and political turmoil in the last two years caused famine and fuel shortages. Harare today bristles with young entrepreneurial professionals, easily detected by their cell phones, laptops and, in many cases, American and European educations. If countries that have Zimbabwe's potential fall to the old big-man form of tribal despotism, it is bad news for a world trying to bridge widening gaps between rich and poor. After two decades in office, Mr. Mugabe has become a hindrance to his country's future progress. Even the pragmatists within Mr. Mugabe's party have urged him to step aside while he still can be remembered with some semblance of honor as the father of his country. Instead, he clings to the old despotic form of African leadership, tribally based and eager to play the race card when his back is up against the wall, no matter who else gets hurt.
"You know what we say around here, we thrive on our optimism," Geoff Nyarota, editor of the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily told me by cell phone after the votes were counted. Mr. Nyarota knows optimism. His printing press and offices were bombed last year, apparently by Mugabe supporters. Still his staff comes to work every day and puts out a paper that has helped fill the gap left by Mr. Mugabe's closing of independent radio and TV broadcasters. Zimbabwe maintains some semblance of democracy because its courts, its press and other institutions are weak by American standards but strong by African standards. The country's best hope is the relentless optimism of its people. Mr. Mugabe has angered them by putting his corruption right in their faces and thwarting the popular will. The opposition began calling for national strikes as soon as the votes appeared to be miscounted in the recent election. The voice of a new Zimbabwe is rising. It has many miles to go before it sleeps.
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From The Observer (UK), 24 March
Witch-hunt as Mugabe strikes back with new terror
Kadoma - Waves of violent retribution and repression are shuddering through Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the discredited presidential election as Robert Mugabe defies international pressure by entrenching himself for another six years in power. More than 10,000 Zimbabweans are on the run, hiding from the beatings, torture and killings of suspected opposition supporters by Mugabe's forces, according to human rights monitors and opposition officials. James Nevana, 32, was a polling agent for the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the remote Gokwe East constituency. After Mugabe was declared the winner on 13 March, Nevana was abducted by Mugabe's youth militia and tortured at one of their 'Taliban camps'. His genitals were repeatedly pierced by a bicycle spoke, rupturing one of his testicles, and he was forced to drink a poison which is causing him terrible stomach pains. He was admitted to hospital on Friday. 'He did not commit any crime, he was working for democracy', said Wallace Humana, 26, the MDC chairman for Gokwe East who helped Nevana escape. 'Seven people were killed in my constituency during the election period. Some were tortured and died later, some died instantly. Nine have been abducted. In those torture camps they do inhuman things.' Humana bravely returned to Gokwe yesterday to try to get police to search for the missing people, who were taken to the militia camps.
Furiously reacting to his suspension from the Commonwealth, Mugabe dashed hopes of national reconciliation with the post-election violence, in which five MDC members have been killed, and by formally charging MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai with treason for allegedly plotting his assassination. In addition, violence has stepped up on white-owned farms. One farmer and one security guard were killed last week, 50 farmers were illegally evicted and the government seized 388 properties, including a huge estate owned by the South African mining magnates, the Oppenheimer family. In Harare police closed down weekly public discussions at the popular Book Cafe, using the new draconian Public Order and Security Act. 'We are not at liberty in our own country,' said Newton Muparaganda, who fled his home in the central city of Kwekwe. 'I should be able to support the party of my choice. But I have been stoned, I have been beaten. I had to leave my job and my family is in hiding. The international community should do something to help us or many people will suffer and more will be killed.' He is one of more than 80 people staying at a three-bedroom house in Kadoma to escape continuing state-sponsored violence against anyone suspected of supporting Tsvangirai and the MDC.
The offices of Amani Trust are flooded daily with people suffering from post-election violence. 'It is a witch-hunt. We have a human rights crisis on our hands and it is growing daily,' said Frances Lovemore of Amani, which assists victims of violence. 'We estimate that 10,000 to 30,000 people have fled their homes because of violence. They are refugees in their own country. We need to create a place of safety for them. A tented village under the flag of some international organisation might protect the place from being attacked.' Soldiers and youth militia were going from hut to hut in remote areas with lists of people who served as MDC polling agents and other MDC officials, said Lovemore. 'They are being hunted down across the country. Anyone suspected of supporting the MDC, it is terrible.' The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Red Cross have been approached about the desperate situation, but so far have declined assistance. 'We need international organisations and observers to come back', said Evelyn Masaiti, an MP for the MDC, who was beaten by three soldiers. 'Maybe their presence will help to stop this post-election violence.'
Liah Makoni's bright red lipstick and makeup cannot disguise her swollen, bruised face . She was beaten after the elections by the youth militia and her Gokwe shops destroyed because she was identified as an MDC supporter. 'They told me to go to Tony Blair because they would kill me here in Zimbabwe. I was lucky to escape. The police would not help me,' she said. She is one of 80 people staying at the Kadoma house. The women sleep inside, while the men take turns on watch and sleep on newspapers and long grass outside. Like hunted prey, their eyes brim with fear. They rush forward to blurt out stories of terror. 'It is frightening,' said Makoni. 'Even here at this house, we don't know when they will attack us again. Please do not forget us.'
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 24 March
Amnesty urges UN intervention
The United Nations has been urged to probe human rights violations by President Mugabe's government. Amnesty International, the powerful human rights watchdog, has called for the inclusion of Zimbabwe on the agenda of the 58th session of the United Nation Commission on Human Rights, which runs until 26 April in Geneva, because of the human rights violations perpetrated by Mugabe' regime. Zimbabwe joins the ranks of countries already labelled problematic - Colombia, Indonesia, Israel, the Russian Federation, Chechnya and Saudi Arabia. The human rights watchdog said human rights abuses by the Mugabe regime had reached alarming levels and could only be stopped by UN intervention. The group said human rights violations in Zimbabwe had been heightened by the land invasions, inspired by Zanu PF supporters and war veterans. "The human rights situation in Zimbabwe has not been scrutinised by the commission, despite the continuing systematic violation of fundamental human rights in that country. During the past year, Amnesty International has become deeply concerned that there is not only a clear pattern of state-condoned or facilitated arbitrary arrest, torture and intimidation," reads Amnesty International's report to the UN. "Amnesty International believes that the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe must be addressed by the Commission on Human Rights. The systematic and widespread violations of human rights in Zimbabwe fit the mandate of several thematic mechanisms of the commission."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 22 March
Headman's charred remains discovered in Nkayi
Police in Nkayi last week unearthed the charred remains of a local headman who was allegedly murdered by Zanu PF militia two weeks before the disputed presidential election. Police were led to his grave by youths they had arrested. The discovery of the body has raised |
