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Archived News
3rd June 2002
MDC readies mass action
Nineteenth Meeting Of The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group On The Harare Declaration (Cmag)
Police raid Tsvangirai’s rural home
Editor Nyarota arrested as crackdown on media continues
SA 'not giving up on Zim'
Teachers forced to pay for victory party
Africa's obligations
Nepad should be driven by the people
Congo rebels, oppn hold talks with Mugabe
Top farms grabbed
Farmers, settlers now impostors on land
Zim press men held over sex-for-cops expose
Chinhoyi MDC officials released without charge
Air Zim starts paying off debt
Don't brush Zimbabwe under the carpet
African negotiators to go to Zimbabwe
Press Still Enemy No 1 in Zim
WFP seeks to extend food aid in Zimbabwe
President hands land seized from whites to cronies
Mugabe sees ruin of the farms
Rain lashes city as grand old Lady passes on
Congo's mineral riches still plundered: UN report
Al-Qaida terrorist operatives diversifying finances, UN expert panel warns
Farm evictions a sham
Political violence in Zim 'decreasing'
Zaka MDC activists severely assaulted
Tutu forms Welfare Trust to assist Zim farmers
Nepad calls for leaders with no despotic hang-ups
UN condemns DR Congo 'plunder'
Mugabe 'starves' opponents' children
Mugabe under pressure to talk to MDC
The Standard vindicated over anti-riot gear story
Pro-Mugabe journo 'rewarded' with seized farm
Mudenge's gimmick angers US
Report extract: the politics of hunger in Zimbabwe
Beitbridge millers suspended
Mbeki to attend one-day DRC summit in Lusaka
Mugabe's limousine, a fuel guzzler
Bulawayo residents petition GMB over unfair distribution of maize
Zimbabwe editor charged
Farmers' union says no action on invaders
Human rights under attack across the Limpopo
Letter from the Canadian High Commissioner to South Africa
Dlamini-Zuma urges SA to assist Zimbabwe
Zambia cancels Congo peace summit
Millions at risk in southern Africa
Half of Zimbabwe needs food aid
Mbeki slams selective food aid
Chipinge pupils threatened with death
Journalists return to Zimbabwe court
Police raid Tsvangirai's rural home
Wife of murdered MDC activist fingers out alleged abductor
Sour grapes for SA ministers in DRC
Nigeria holds 'confident' talks with Mugabe
Zim journos face music for 'beheading' story
Cambridge climbdown
Enter Bob's Brigade
Yes, there are alternatives
Ben-Menashe arrives in Zim
Tsvangirai's treason case on hold again
24-hour guard for Nabanyama’s widow
Government and media spar in Zimbabwe
Police summon Independent editor
Farmers urged to grow more wheat
Zimbabwe turns away US food aid
SA Observer Mission report out at last
Pressure piles on Mugabe
Mbeki gets tough with Mugabe
Zimta says hundreds of teachers removed from payroll after poll
Emergency UN meeting as food crisis escalates
Zimbabwe appoints media control panel
Zimbabwe editor hits rock bottom
Intruders kill white farmer
Juvenile killed over maize meal
Lawyer accuses AG's office of delaying hearing of ZBC case
CZI calls for dual exchange rate policy
Chigwedere’s bungling demands that he resigns
Parliament to decide on third term bid
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From The Daily News, 21 May
Editor Nyarota arrested as crackdown on media continues
In their continuing crackdown on independent media journalists, the police in Harare yesterday arrested Geoff Nyarota, the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily News, in connection with a story published last month in which a man alleged that his wife had been beheaded in Magunje. Nyarota's lawyer, Lawrence Chibwe of Stumbles and Rowe, said the editor was picked up early yesterday morning and taken to Harare Central police station where the police charged him before releasing him in the afternoon. Nyarota, who is being charged under a section of the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, denied the charge in a statement recorded by the police. The section under which Nyarota is being charged prohibits the publication of what it terms "falsehoods" and, if convicted, he could face a prison term not exceeding two years or a fine of up to $100 000. The police indicated to Nyarota they would proceed by way of summons if they wished to prosecute him.
This is the fifth arrest in less than a month involving journalists from the privately-owned Press in the country. On 30 April, two Daily News staffers, Lloyd Mudiwa and Collin Chiwanza, were arrested and detained for two nights at the Harare Central police station over the same story. Andrew Meldrum, a correspondent for the British Guardian, was arrested on 1 May and detained overnight over the same report. Three days later, the police arrested Daily News columnist, Pius Wakatama, in connection with the same story which he alluded to in his column. On Thursday last week, the Editor of The Standard, Bornwell Chakaodza, and two of his staffers, Farai Mutsaka and Fungayi Kanyuchi, were detained overnight and subsequently charged under the same law which journalists allege virtually criminalises their profession. The State is alleging that The Standard published falsehoods about the acquisition of anti-riot gear by the government and of "sex-for-freedom" deals between the police and Harare prostitutes soliciting in the streets.
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From News24 (SA), 21 May
SA 'not giving up on Zim'
Pretoria - South Africa was not giving up on its strife-torn northern neighbour Zimbabwe, the presidency said on Tuesday. "The question of cutting diplomatic ties has not even arisen," presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said. "It is not an issue being considered by the president [Thabo Mbeki]. We cannot turn our backs on Zimbabwe." The European Union has reportedly called on Southern African Development Community governments to refrain from "normal diplomatic relations with the Mugabe regime". The European Parliament also recommended tougher sanctions against Zimbabwe, while the Commonwealth's democracy watchdog, the Ministerial Action Group, decided to put Zimbabwe on its priority list. This follows the ruling Zanu PF pulling out of scheduled unity talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last week. Envoys from South Africa and Nigeria, acting as facilitators, instead held separate talks with the two parties in a bid to bring them together.
Zanu PF pulled out of the talks citing a pending court case brought by the MDC in a bid to nullify the results of the March presidential elections - won by President Robert Mugabe. It asked that the dialogue be postponed indefinitely, saying it did not wish to engage in any parallel processes in the meantime. The MDC, however, contended that Zanu PF's conduct amounted to a unilateral withdrawal from the talks, and said the process should be regarded as terminated, not adjourned, according to a statement from the South African Department of Foreign Affairs. Should the facilitators and their principals - Mbeki and Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo - wish to reinstate the process, it would be under a fresh mandate, the opposition argued. Khumalo said South Africa's envoy, African National Congress general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe, would continue to engage both parties. "There is no alternative to negotiations in Zimbabwe," he said. "There is no alternative to Zanu PF and the MDC working together. We will not give up on Zimbabwe. We will keep on talking and talking until we succeed, even if this takes very long."
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From The Daily News, 21 May
Teachers forced to pay for victory party
Teachers at eight schools in Buhera District have received letters from the Zanu PF ward councillor, identified only as J Nyawo, demanding they pay $500 each to finance the ruling party's victory celebrations. The festivities are to be held soon by the party's Gukurahundi Youth Group to mark President Mugabe's disputed victory in March's presidential election. The letter reads in part: "Each school is required to submit a list of teachers, starting with the headmaster, and a donation of $500 per head as attached and signed thereafter. Remember that we have eight schools, to include both primary and secondary. This letter serves to inform you that it is high time you should support your young age group who eagerly participated during the just-ended presidential election and are helping to celebrate and you will also be part and parcel of the celebrations. Please attach a list of names of your school and the amount therein requested to pay." Contacted for comment yesterday, Winnie Chirimamhunga, the regional director in the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture for Manicaland, asked for a copy of the letter in question. She said: "Send me a copy of the letter and I will investigate."
A teacher in Buhera, who refused to be identified, said: "We're still being victimised by the Zanu PF youth brigades." Early this month, The Daily News carried a story quoting Takavafira Zhou, the president of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), saying Zanu PF youths and war veterans had forced 107 503 teachers throughout the country to pay a protection fee to them. Raymond Majongwe, the PTUZ's secretary-general, said last week the union stood by its story and stressed that the teachers were forced to pay the protection fee to war veterans and Zanu PF youths. His remarks came after an official denial of the story by the government and Zanu PF. Majongwe said teachers in rural schools were victims of extortion and have been forced to make contributions towards the 21st February Movement, which marks Mugabe's birthday. This reporter, who broke the story, was arrested over the article and briefly detained at Mutare Central police station. The reporter was released without charge after spending some time in police custody.
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Comment from the Ottawa Citizen, 21 May
Africa's obligations
Mere promises to clean house won't end poverty and corruption
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is doing a fine job of ensuring that next month's G8 summit in Alberta will honour its pledge to make Africa a key topic for discussion. Of course, talking about Africa is easy; figuring out how best to help it escape poverty and corruption is much harder. Most of the countries that will be represented at Kananaskis have decades of experience providing African aid. Unfortunately, much of that experience has been bad: conditions in Africa have actually worsened in recent years. The average life expectancy for sub-Saharan Africans is 47 years and dropping, in large part due to the AIDS/HIV epidemic. One-fifth of Africa's population is affected by war. Nearly 500 million Africans live in extreme poverty, a number that, if left unchecked, will grow to 600 million by 2015. Africa is the only region in the world where the number of children out of school is rising. And so on.
Part of the blame for Africa's decline rests with donor countries and international agencies that tried to apply inappropriate forms of aid. Huge infrastructure projects that dominated aid programs in the 1960s and 1970s saddled Africa with roads, dams and railways it could not afford to operate or maintain and massive debts it could never repay. Trade barriers prevented Africa from selling goods to raise much-needed foreign exchange. Western-supplied arms fuelled many of the continent's bloody wars. But mostly, Africa has regressed because its own leaders have failed to govern effectively and stamp out corruption. Now those leaders want western countries to believe they are ready to take responsibility for their own development. They want the G8 and other donors to write off even more debts and pump as much as $64 billion a year into African nations to eliminate the income gap with developed countries. In return, the leaders promise, yet again, to put their houses in order.
These leaders promise to conduct "peer review" of how well African governments respect democracy, uphold the rule of law and crack down on corruption. Yet they have already failed their first opportunity to do so by staying silent about Robert Mugabe's repeated assaults on democracy and property rights in Zimbabwe. It's right that Africans take charge of their own development, and yes, they do need western aid for that. But G8 leaders should only provide new money when they're convinced Africa's pledges are more than just words. Africa's needs are huge, but aid spending must not exceed the continent's ability to administer it properly. Donor nations must find better ways to ensure full accountability for money already spent, a review of how well a given project is meeting its intended goal and proof that the government of the country receiving the cash is respecting the democratic rights of its citizens. Some may see this as paternalistic, but it's not. We have an obligation to ensure that African leaders use aid money for its intended purpose.
In order not to punish Africa's poor if these conditions are not met, G8 countries should continue to channel aid to small-scale projects focusing on health, sanitation and education, implemented by non-governmental organizations rather than state institutions. But more helpful to Africans than aid, the G8 members meeting in Kananaskis should take tangible steps to eliminate trade barriers that block African exports to developed countries. They should stop selling arms to governments that use them to attack their neighbours or their own citizens. And they should insist on strict conditions for increasing aid money to African countries led by people who want the world to believe they have changed their stripes - but who often act as if they haven't.
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Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 22 May
Nepad should be driven by the people
Colm Allan and Zohra Dawood
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) is a unique opportunity to improve governance in Africa and lure investment to our suffering continent. But its conception of government accountability will have to be redefined. The inclusion of African civil society, particularly, in its proposed monitoring mechanisms would give the plan real weight on the continent. Nepad's proponents see it as an external partnership between African leaders and international donor governments. Its foundation stone is a commitment to uphold global standards of democracy and good governance. But if these are to become real, Nepad will have to be transformed into an internal relationship of accountability between African governments and their own citizens.
The acceptance of the outcome of the recent Zimbabwean presidential elections as "legitimate" by many African leaders, including Thabo Mbeki, has cast a shadow over Nepad's commitments. In this context, neither African civil society nor international donors are likely to be convinced by mere promises. Both will want to see credible evidence that reform is happening in corrupt and conflict-ridden African states before they increase their support. From the viewpoint of African civil society, good governance means the accountable management of public resources in the best interests of citizens. It is not a personality trait of individual leaders, rather a continuing relationship of obligation between leaders and African people.
To make any judgement about good governance, this internal relationship has to be continuously monitored. Such monitoring needs to go beyond the formal enactment of democratic policies to substantive parliamentary and civil society oversight of the state. World financial institutions, donor governments and African civil society have a common interest in accurate and reliable information, not just on policy reforms, but about the resources available to African governments and how these are managed. African leaders have proposed a peer review mechanism to monitor compliance with Nepad's commitments. Composed of African heads of state, this would review compliance with good governance obligations by member states every three years. This mechanism will fail in its task if reviews happen periodically and rigorous criteria - and the consequences for deviant governments - are not spelled out. It seems that African heads of state will be left to judge their own performance.
The proposed peer review shows that Nepad leaders do not yet recognise accountable governance as a relationship of obligation between governments and citizens, rather than between governments. Competent and independent members of African civil society would be better placed to judge whether African governments are accountable to the people and to monitor compliance with Nepad. What is really needed is the creation of specialised independent monitoring institutions in all signatory states. Such bodies would have a number of advantages - foremost among them their independence from governments and heads of state. They would be able to monitor policy implementation, institutional performance and financial management continuously and in detail. The information they generate would reinforce the ability of African civil society to hold its own governments accountable. It would lay the basis for transforming Nepad into an initiative driven by the African people, rather than African governments alone.
Independent monitoring institutions would be an important break with the ineffectual approach adopted by donor governments and world financial bodies in the past. Many donor governments have been justly criticised for handing out aid on the basis of geopolitical and other considerations, and of judging the way it is used on the strength of their own strategic and political objectives. Financial institutions have been similarly criticised for imposing external macro-economic adjustment programmes on developing states in order to open up their economies and make them more competitive - generally at the expense of social welfare and educational infrastructure. Independent monitors would use as their standards domestic policy undertakings and Nepad commitments. The information they gather, and their assessment of government performance, could then provide the basis for attaching conditions to donor aid. These, in turn, would act as an incentive to Nepad signatories to bring about democratic reforms.
Of course, it will only be possible to base penalties and incentives on their information if the monitoring methods are rigorous and reliable. Two areas would have to be covered. The first is a focus on the central features of democracy, including basic constitutional, legislative and policy frameworks, to establish whether these can support democratic governance structures. Specifically, the monitors would seek to measure the degree of parliamentary and civil society oversight of signatory states. Secondly, a detailed review of public sector performance would be needed. What human and financial resources do governments make available through the national budget? How is the budget organised and how is money transferred to sub-national levels? How effectively do the executive members who manage resources plan for their use? How well do they implement these plans? Finally, how much service delivery or investment in infrastructure actually results? Finding answers to these questions will mean detailed access to information on government budgets, tax revenues and spending. This in turn implies constitutional and legal provisions guaranteeing transparency and access to information. If these legislative guarantees are not in place, monitoring will be a non-starter. Any judgement on the performance of African leaders, or the accountability of African governments, will amount to little more than speculation.
Colm Allan is director of the Public Service Accountability Monitor at Rhodes University. Zohra Dawood is executive director, Open Society Foundation, South Africa, and is writing in her personal capacity.
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From AFP, 22 May
Congo rebels, oppn hold talks with Mugabe
Harare - Rwandan-backed Democratic Republic of Congo rebels and other political groups held talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Tuesday to try to get him to press Kinshasa for renewed peace talks, state TV reported. It was "necessary to explain to the stakeholders that we should go back to the talks to reach a conclusive agreement that will bring peace, unity and the end of war in the country," a spokesman for the group told the television. The groups - who are opposed to the results of the recent Sun City, South Africa talks on the DRC - made the appeal to Mugabe since Zimbabwe was the main ally to the DRC government and because of the way the inter-Congolese dialogue ended in South Africa. Marathon talks aimed at shaping a post-war DRC, where rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda have been fighting government troops supported by soldiers from Angola and Zimbabwe since 1998, ended inconclusively a month ago.
Although all parties agreed on about 40 issues, a power-sharing deal struck by DRC President Joseph Kabila and his former rebel foe Jean-Pierre Bemba was rejected by the major rebel group, the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD). Included in the group that met Mugabe Tuesday were Etienne Tshisekedi, a leading opposion figure to the DRC government, Adolphe Onusumba of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD-Goma). Ten days ago, RCD-Goma and its political allies met South African President Thabo Mbeki, with the same aim of pressing for fresh peace talks. The Sun City meeting ended on April 19 with an accord on the sidelines between Kinshasa and a rival rebel group backed by Uganda, the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC). The RCD and Kigali rejected the accord, and the DRC now risks a return to full-scale war. With about 12,000 troops, Zimbabwe has been the largest military backer of the Kinshasa government in the war in the DRC.
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From The Financial Gazette, 23 May
Top farms grabbed
Zimbabwe’s ruling elite, including the two vice presidents and relatives of President Robert Mugabe, has taken over most of the top commercial farms under the government’s fast-track land reforms, it was established this week. A list compiled from the government’s own advertisements in the state media and reports from commercial farmers shows that among those who have benefited from the model A2 scheme meant to create the new commercial farmer are Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, army commander Constantine Chiwenga, director of prisons Paradzayi Zimondi and even broadcaster Reuben Barwe. Justice Chidyausiku and three others will share the 895-hectare Estees Park farm in Mazowe/Concession which sources this week said was already being pegged and demarcated into four parts. Barwe, chief correspondent of state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), was given the 830-ha Sunnyside Farm in Norton.
Vice President Joseph Msika has been allocated part of Umguza Block in Nyamandhlovu that belongs to the state’s Cold Storage Company while his counterpart Simon Muzenda is said to have taken over Chindito and Endama farms in Gutu. Muzenda however is understood to be in "cordial negotiations" with the farmers to compensate them for their assets reputed to be worth more than $15 million. Mugabe’s sister - Zanu PF legislator Sabina Mugabe - plus his brother-in-law Reward Marufu have also benefited from the model A2 resettlement scheme. Zvimba Member of Parliament Sabina Mugabe is the owner of Gowrie Farm in Norton while Marufu, a brother to First Lady Grace Mugabe, has been given Leopard Vlei in Glendale, Mashonaland Central.
Others who have also been allocated land on some of the country’s top farms include Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, his deputy Godwin Matanga and police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena; war veterans’ leaders Joseph Chinotimba, Mike Moyo, Andy Mhlanga and Patrick Nyaruwata, and governors Obert Mpofu, Peter Chanetsa and Josaya Hungwe. Bvudzijena this week said he had applied for Mabubu Farm in Guruve but turned it down after its allocation to him was announced in the media because he preferred the 35-ha farm he had acquired in the meantime at Koodoo Hill in Banket. He admitted he was already chopping down trees at Koodoo because he was preparing for the summer crop. "I did not take up the one I was allocated at Mabubu because I had already been allocated another plot at Koodoo which I am now preparing for the summer crop," Bvudzijena told the Financial Gazette.
Several ministers in Mugabe’s Cabinet including Samuel Mumbengegwi, Sydney Sekeramayi, Herbert Murerwa, Swithun Mombeshora, Elliot Manyika and Nicholas Goche have also been accorded priority in the allocation of the new farms. Security Minister Goche is listed as the new owner of Ceres in Mashonaland Central; Education’s Mumbengegwi got Irvine Farm in Gutu; Mombeshora (Ormeston, Lions’ Den); Sekeramayi (Maganga Estate, Marondera); Murerwa (Rise Holm, Arcturus) and Manyika (Duiker Flats in Mashonaland Central). Among those who have benefited from the fast-track exercise criticised internationally for lack of transparency is television broadcaster Supa Mandiwanzira, ZBC’s Admire Taderera and scores of former Zanu PF legislators, senior army officers, ministers’ wives and their relatives, permanent secretaries, diplomats and business people sympathetic to Zanu PF.
Western nations have refused to back Mugabe’s land reforms because they allege the land redistribution exercise is only benefiting supporters of the veteran Zimbabwean leader. The reforms have been blamed for triggering wanton violence on farms by veterans of the country’s 1970s war of independence and land-hungry supporters of the governing party, as well as severe food shortages which have left millions of Zimbabweans threatened with starvation. About 250 white commercial farmers out of about 4 500 have fled Zimbabwe since the violent seizures, which have largely gone unpunished, began in earnest in February 2000. Another 250 have been chased off the farms since the March presidential election despite a government directive that they be allowed 90 days to vacate properties listed for resettlement. A spokesman for the Commercial Farmers’ Union this week said the union supported the model A2 land reforms as long as they were legal and above board.
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Comment from The Daily News, 22 May
Farmers, settlers now impostors on land
Pretender and impostors is how the Minister of Home Affairs, John Nkomo, described the 12 000 people being removed from farms in the Masvingo Province last week. Nkomo was not talking about commercial farmers and their employees; he was talking about people who had apparently settled themselves on these properties. The minister said that anyone who moved onto a farm after 31 March 2001 must now leave that property, go back to where they came from and apply through the proper channels for land.
If we take 31 March 2001 as a starting date, think about all things that a man, his wife and, say, their three children might have done in the 13 months they have been living on someone else’s farm. For 13 months, completely unhindered by either the legal owner of the land or the police, the man will first have built himself some sort of shelter. This may have been a few sticks leaning up against a frame and covered with scraps of plas tic, or it might have been a fairly substantial circular hut. Poles were cut from the farmer’s plantations, bark stripped and the timbers embedded in holes painstakingly dug with crude tools. Thatching grass was cut from the farmer’s now fallow fields and carefully laid over the roof frame and tied on with bark, raffia or wire. Trees were cut and firewood stacked, latrines were dug and shower stalls erected. A crude fence either of "liberated" wire or of thorns was erected around the new home and the man and his family began to make a life for themselves.
For weeks, the man patiently waited for government assistance with ploughing of the land. When the DDF tractors came, the land was barely scratched with the blades. The driver was in a hurry and the space was far, far less than the settler had hoped for. The man and his wife queued for day for free seed from the government and then for a couple of handfuls of fertiliser. At last they were ready and together the man, his wife and their three children went out and planted the little square of maize. The wife knew this would never be enough food to feed the family for the year, so she bent over with her badza (hoe) and dug beds into the hard, dusty soil. She carefully planted beans and tomatoes, rape and cabbage and readied a mound for sweet potatoes and pumpkins.
The rain is never good in Masvingo and this year was no different. And so every day the family walked miles to the farmer’s dam with cans and buckets which they filled with water. It was a long, hot walk and the family looked across to the fields where the white farmer used to grow his crops. They were barren of life and only weeds thrived. The family walked faster and worked harder to secure their little square of food. A little rain came and the maize germinated and began to grow. The vegetables began to produce enough for the family to have an almost decent meal at night and they settled into their new way of life. They all missed their friends from home, from the village. The woman missed sitting in the sun, doing her knitting and laughing with her neighbours. The man missed his mates and their weekly strolls to the beerhall at the growth point. The children missed their friends, missed going together to herd the mombes (cattle) and catch the goats which had broken their tethers. But this was their new home now. This was uncrowded land and the government had promised them so much.
Sometimes they managed to afford batteries for the radio and they would listen to all the ministers promising schools, clinics, roads, boreholes and irrigation pipes. They had great plans and dreams for the future. They knew many of the wild animals had been snared and poached by other settlers who were not farmers, but there must be some left and they would surely return. They knew many of the trees had been sacrificed to build their houses and feed their fires, but surely they would plant more in the years ahead. The maize was coming on well, but the man and his wife decided they would have to sell half of the fertiliser the government had given them. They needed school fees and the children needed new T-shirts and shoes. The rain stopped and the dry days became weeks and then months. God help them, it was a drought. Still the white farmer’s fields were empty, most of his workers had gone and now most of his cattle had been sold. The vegetables withered in the roasting sun and for most of the day, the couple toiled backwards and forwards for water to keep the last of their vegetables alive.
It was not often they could afford the batteries for their radio anymore, but they sold a few sweet potatoes and sat together listening to Minister Nkomo as he spoke on the radio. Could it be them Nkomo was referring to? "Pretenders and impostors who arrived after the 31 March 2001"? Surely they were not the "non-deserving applicants" he spoke about. But where would they go now, their place in the communal land had long since been given to others. How could they now do as Minister Nkomo ordered and "move out to where they came from"? But it was too late, the police trucks came and it was all over. As they left with what was left of their ragged possessions they looked for the last time across the white farmer’s fields. He too had gone. He too was not wanted in this place. The settler and the commercial farmer were now the same - impostors on the land.
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From The Star (SA), 22 May
Zim press men held over sex-for-cops expose
Harare - An editor and a reporter from Zimbabwe's Sunday independent newspaper, The Standard, have been summoned by the police and questioned over pictures of prostitutes they published two weeks ago, the editor said on Wednesday. Bornwell Chakaodza and reporter Farayi Kanyuchi were on Tuesday charged under the country's censorship laws after their paper published revealing pictures of prostitutes. The photos illustrated a story in which it was alleged that police officers were having sex with prostitutes instead of arresting them. Chakaodza said that police "phoned for us to appear at the police station for publishing obscene photographs". The two men were freed hours later. This is the second time Chakaodza and Kanyuchi have been questioned over the same story in less than a week. Last Thursday, the two were arrested and spent a night in jail over the story. They were charged on that occasion with abuse of journalistic privilege under a tough new media law enacted by President Robert Mugabe just days after his controversial re-election in early March. The journalists have denied last week's and Tuesday's charges. At least a dozen journalists have been arrested or re-arrested in Zimbabwe since the country's new media law was enacted.
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From The Daily News, 22 May
Chinhoyi MDC officials released without charge
Six executive members of the MDC’s Mashonaland West provincial executive were on Monday released without charge by the Chinhoyi police after they had spent a night in the cells for allegedly contravening the draconian Public Order and Security Act. Silas Matamisa, the Mashonaland West MDC chairman, his deputy, Simon Mudzingwa and four officials were picked up by the police on Sunday morning from their respective homes for allegedly holding a secret meeting with commercial farmers on the outskirts of the town last month. They were alleged to have hatched a plan to topple and assassinate resident Mugabe during the meeting with the commercial farmers. Other members arrested were Leonard Maphosa, Henry Muungani, Alexio Harinongwi and Matamisa’s son, Ronald. Tapiwa Muchineripi, the quartet’s lawyer on Monday said: "My clients were released without charge and the police will proceed by way of summons."
The MDC head office in Harare, meanwhile, condemned the arrest of the four. Learnmore Jongwe, the party’s official spokesman said: "The MDC view the arrests as another desperate effort by Mugabe’s illegitimate regime to harass and frustrate party officials in a bid to weaken the party. No such meeting took place as alleged by the police and the arrest is viewed as part of the ongoing onslaught on MDC officials by a desperate illegitimate regime." The party’s president Morgan Tsvangirai, the secretary-general Welshman Ncube, and the shadow minister of agriculture and MP Renson Gasela will appear in court next week to answer charges of plotting to assassinate Mugabe. The trio, if convicted could be sentenced to life imprisonment or death.
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From The Financial Gazette, 23 May
Air Zim starts paying off debt
Air Zimbabwe has started paying off a debt of US$28.6 million owed to an American bank which had threatened to sell off two of the national airline’s aircraft to recover the money, airline sources said this week. The sources said Air Zimbabwe two weeks ago made a US$5 million (about $225 million at the official exchange rate) payment to the Export-Import Bank of America and is frantically trying to make other payments before the end of this month. The US$5 million payment follows threats by the US-based bank, which guaranteed the purchase of the airline’s two Boeing 767 aircraft in 1989, to seize the planes after the airline had defaulted on repayments. Air Zimbabwe board chairman Livingstone Gwata this week refused to discuss what arrangements the airline had put in place to clear the debt but confirmed that something was being done to settle the matter. "All we can say now is that the airline is alive and well. Arrangements for payment are now in place, but as a board, we cannot go into details about that. I can assure you that no aircraft is going to be sold or taken away," Gwata told the Financial Gazette. The sources said negotiations between the bank and the Zimbabwe government, the shareholder of Air Zimbabwe, had resulted in the extension by two months of the debt’s clearance deadline and a new payment schedule. Details of the new payment schedule were not immediately available, but the sources said the US$5 million payment was part of this deal. Air Zimbabwe had been in default to the Export-Import Bank for almost 18 months since the government passed the debt to the airline to pay off in December 2000. The government had earlier paid about US$200 million for the aircraft.
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From ZWNEWS, 23 May
Don't brush Zimbabwe under the carpet
It is vital that at the 26-27 June summit in Kananaskis, Canada of the G-8, the world’s most powerful nations do not promise financial aid and investment under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) while Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party remains in power. The South African and other African leaders argue that Nepad’s pledge of democracy and good governance in Africa is on course, and that the Zimbabwe crisis is being sort-of-dealt-with through now-stalled talks about a government of national unity. Even more worrying are signs that summit host Canada is going along with this pretence. Canada’s High Commissioner in South Africa, Lucie Edwards, said in a breath-taking statement recently that the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth following the disputed March presidential elections was "a sign of real political will to apply the principles of good governance within the region.’’
First, Mbeki, whose country is heavily subsidising Mugabe, did his best to stop Zimbabwe being suspended from the Commonwealth. Second, the scale of repression, violence, seizures of farms by Zanu PF chefs and general gross violations of human rights has got even worse since the rigged election. In addition, millions face starvation and Mugabe’s officials are denying food aid to areas which voted for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Even to mention "principles of good governance’’ in the region while this situation continues is a travesty.
The G8 groups the following countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. If you live in one of these countries, please contact your elected parliamentary representatives. Give them a simple message: the Zimbabwe problem is not solved, and should not be swept under the carpet at the Kananaskis Summit.
Protests can also be sent to High Commissioner Edwards at the following addresses:
The Canadian High Commission, Private Bag X13, Hatfield, 0028, Pretoria, South Africa. 27-12-422-3000 (phone); 27-12-422-3071 (fax); eMail
Please also lobby Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrietien. The Prime Minister has a website - www.pm.gc.ca and can be contacted at the following addresses:
Office of the Prime Minister, 80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, K1A 0A2, Canada. 1-613-941-6900 (fax); eMail
There is also a Canadian Government website dedicated to the Kananaskis G8 Summit at www.g8.gc.ca. On that site (under "Contact Us") is a facility to send your comments regarding the forthcoming G8 Summit.
Please seek assurances that the Zimbabwe crisis will not be brushed aside, and that aid and investemnt under the Nepad plan will be withheld while Mugabe is permitted to hang on to power.
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From CNN, 23 May
African negotiators to go to Zimbabwe
Blantyre - The Southern African regional trading bloc plans to send a mission to Zimbabwe to help mediate the resumption of talks between the government and the opposition, officials said Wednesday. The 14-nation Southern African Development Community was prompted to send the mission after calls by visiting EU officials to intervene in the stalemate which followed Zimbabwe's contested March presidential elections. Officials from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling party Zanu PF recently called off the talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The Movement for Democratic Change accuses Zanu PF of rigging the elections in which long time leader Mugabe was declared the winner. The opposition demanded new internationally supervised elections, but the government refused. It decided on protest action following the collapse of talks brokered by South Africa and Nigeria, which were aimed at setting up a government of national unity.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 24 May
Press Still Enemy No 1 in Zim
Harare - Journalism was never the safest line of work in Zimbabwe, but since President Robert Mugabe enacted a new media law just days after his messy re-election, the job hazards are growing. Eleven journalists from the private and foreign press have been arrested in the 10 weeks since the law took effect - more if you count those who were just questioned by police and those who have been arrested more than once. Nine are being prosecuted under the euphemistically titled Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the parade of journalists through police stations shows no sign of ending. A further worrying development is a crackdown by the Zimbabwean authorities on local journalists providing critical reportage for foreign publications. Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo is known to be intent on identifying such journalists and shutting them down. A Zimbabwean journalist has been suspended after writing for the Mail & Guardian. It is suspected that the Zimbabwean High Commission in South Africa relayed the journalist's name to the Zimbabwean authorities.
On Wednesday Andrew Meldrum, a correspondent for Britain's The Guardian, among others, and Zimbabwean journalist Lloyd Mudiwa of the Daily News, were remanded out of custody until May 30. They face charges of publishing falsehoods under a provision of the act called "abuse of journalistic privilege". Their case stemmed from a front-page story in the Daily News, alleging that a woman had been beheaded by Zanu PF supporters. The story was later proved false and both the Daily News and The Guardian published corrections. Another Daily News reporter, Collin Chiwanza, was arrested over the beheading story, but a judge tossed out the charges against him. Daily News editor Geoff Nyarota was detained for four hours on Monday and charged for the same story. He was charged on April 15 with fabricating information, for a story alleging the registrar general had manipulated election results. Another editor, Bornwell Chakaodza of the weekly The Standard, and his reporter, Farayi Kanyuchi, were arrested for the second time in less than a week on Tuesday over a story claiming that police were having sex with prostitutes instead of arresting them. Their first arrest was related to the story, the second related to the accompanying rear shot of a prostitute wearing a thong.
The Foreign Correspondents' Association has filed a lawsuit asking the supreme court to declare the most restrictive parts of the law unconstitutional violations of free speech. But the court, which was expanded last year to include four new judges considered loyal to Mugabe, ruled last week that the matter was not urgent, meaning the case could languish for months in the court docket. Lawyers for local media are coordinating with the foreign correspondents to challenge the law from different angles, but in the meantime they expect to continue their weekly trips to the magistrate's court. The new law gives Moyo sweeping powers to decide who can work as a journalist and to discipline journalists through a new commission. It also limits foreign ownership of media in Zimbabwe and bars foreigners from working as correspondents based permanently here. Moyo, already known for his venomous and personal attacks on journalists, cleared any doubts about his view of press rights when in the state-run Herald he called press freedom "only a small and subsidiary part" of constitutional guarantees of free expression. The government's crackdown has drawn condemnation from regional and international press rights groups. The Paris-based Reporters without Borders earlier this month declared Zimbabwe one of the 10 worst countries in the world in which to work as journalists - ranking it alongside war zones like the West Bank and Afghanistan.
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From Business Day (SA), 24 May
WFP seeks to extend food aid in Zimbabwe
As famine stalks the once self-sufficient Zimbabwe, the World Food Programme (WFP) is making moves to extend its food relief programme to the country's impoverished urban areas. The WFP is currently assessing the starvation levels in cities and towns with a view to providing humanitarian assistance to urban dwellers who are not already part of its feeding programme. More than 1-million people in Zimbabwe's urban areas are facing hunger. WFP programmes officer Willem Thuring said his organisation was worried about food shortages in urban areas. "While the current emergency operation of the WFP in Zimbabwe targets the most vulnerable population in rural areas, we have also been concerned at the increasing level of food insecurity in some of the urban centres," he said. "The WFP has, together with other partners, carried out some preliminary assessments of the nature and extent of these food insecurity problems. A possible response is still at a preparatory stage and therefore the WFP is not in a position to provide details now until assessments are complete." The Rome-based food relief agency is currently feeding more than 600 000 people in Zimbabwe's sprawling and poverty-stricken rural areas. The organisation has warned the number of people in need of food aid could double soon. It is estimated that more than 3-million people are facing starvation. However, the government has announced that about 7,8-million people of which over 5 million of them are children will need humanitarian assistance over the next 18 months. Of the 7,8-million people affected by the drought and policy-induced food scarcity, 5,9million are in rural areas while 1,9-million are in urban areas.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 24 May
President hands land seized from whites to cronies
Almost 300,000 acres of prime land seized from white farmers in Zimbabwe has been handed out to President Mugabe's closest allies, including 10 cabinet ministers, seven MPs and his brother-in-law. Land has also gone to key officials who supervised the widely condemned presidential polls in March, when Mr Mugabe won re-election after a violent campaign. Zimbabwe's army commander, its police chief and the civil servants placed in charge of the land seizures have rewarded themselves with farms. Mr Mugabe's land campaign, which targets 95 per cent of the 4,000 white farmers for dispossession, is supposedly aimed at helping the rural poor.
Yet the launch of the Model A2 resettlement scheme last November, designed to create a new class of black commercial farmer, has sparked a scramble for land by Zimbabwe's elite. The winners names have been listed in successive editions of the weekly Sunday Mail. Most have staked their gains in the two months since the election. An analysis of these official lists shows that almost half of Mr Mugabe's cabinet has been given land. Herbert Murerwa, the industry and trade minister, has been awarded Rise Holm farm near Arcturus, east of Harare. David Parirenyatwa, the acting health minister, has been allocated Rudolphia farm in the same area. Swithun Mombeshora, the transport minister, has won Ormeston farm near Lion's Den, north-west of Harare. Vice-President Joseph Msika has been given a farm in the Umguza block in Matabeleland North province, while Reward Marufu, Mr Mugabe's brother-in-law, received Leopard's Vlei farm near Glendale, north of Harare.
Squatters invaded many of these properties when they were owned by white farmers. Mr Mugabe refused to evict the occupiers, but attitudes have changed since the farms were handed out to the black elite and many of the squatters have been moved on, clearing the way for the new owners. A member of the farming community said this sudden willingness to apply the law was evidence of "cherry-picking" by the president's allies in his Zanu PF party. "We wondered why the occupiers were being moved off and then we saw who the new owners were. This is an effort to supplant a white face with a black fat-cat face," he said.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 24 May
Mugabe sees ruin of the farms
Mike Mackenzie could not believe his eyes when a motorcade of gleaming Mercedes escorted by motorcycle outriders roared up the drive of his Zimbabwean farm carrying President Robert Mugabe. Mr Mackenzie, one of 4,000 white farmers whom Mr Mugabe's government is intent on dispossessing, found himself playing host to an impeccably courteous president who feigned surprise at the news that the farm had all but been brought to a halt. "He was very, very pleasant, relaxed, warm to us, the whole family. We took pictures of him with us, he signed a map of the farm in my office and I showed him around," said Mr Mackenzie, 68. The impromptu visit to Clydesdale farm near Banket, 55 miles north west of Harare, was unprecedented in the two years since Mr Mugabe launched the invasions of white-owned land.
The farmer's first warning of the presidential visit came when he walked into his office and found Joseph Made, the agriculture minister, sitting behind his desk. Mr Made said Mr Mugabe was on his way. The motorcade arrived, carrying Mr Mugabe, his wife, Grace, Peter Chanetsa, the provincial governor, and a posse of armed security men en route to a nearby lake. "He greeted us warmly," said Mr Mackenzie. "I was surprised, but pleased to see him. I took it as a sign from God. I took him around the farm . . . I didn't tell him of our troubles because I wasn't asked." Along with 2,000 other farms, Clydesdale was invaded by Mr Mugabe's supporters last year and about 40 are occupying its 3,000 acres. Last week, Mr Mackenzie was served with an eviction notice giving him three months to leave.
Throughout the crisis Mr Mugabe has consistently used white farmers as a convenient scapegoat and urged his supporters to seize their properties. Yet as he toured the farm he appeared oblivious to the destruction wrought in his name. He wanted to know why a 140-acre field had not been planted with wheat, desperately needed to avert Zimbabwe's disastrous food shortage. Grace Mugabe, described as "charming" by Mr Mackenzie, intervened before he could answer. "She pointed to this small field of cotton and said, 'That's why'. " The occupiers now decide what crops can be planted when, and the cotton, which they had sown, had prevented Mr Mackenzie from growing his usual 175 acres of wheat. Mr Mugabe cast an approving eye over Clydesdale's 160-acre citrus orchard and then saw that no fields had been cleared for a tobacco crop. He asked why. Mr Mackenzie tactfully replied that, as the government had given him three months to leave, "we didn't know whether we would still be here to grow another crop". Mr Mugabe was introduced to Mr Mackenzie's wife, Liz, and their white farm manager. "He was interested in everything," said Mr Mackenzie. "He wanted to know our family history and I told him my father arrived from Scotland in 1925, went broke and went back there, then went broke in Scotland and came back here in 1938. We have been here ever since."
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From The Cape Argus, 23 May
Rain lashes city as grand old Lady passes on
Gaborone - Lady Ruth Khama, wife of Botswana's founding president Sir Seretse Khama, died early on Thursday in Gaborone Private Hospital. Lady Ruth, much respected and admired in her adopted country, had been ill for some time with cancer of the throat and had been losing weight over the last two months. She was admitted to hospital about six weeks ago. Lady Ruth was regarded as a force for good in Botswana. She was president of the Botswana Red Cross for three decades and patron of SOS Childrens' Villages for the last 20 years. Botswana citizens, hearing the news on Thursday, remarked that Wednesday night was the first rain in three months. A storm had uprooted trees in the capital city of Gaborone, which many saw as a significant coincidence.
The couple knew the sting of prejudice in the first years of their controversial marriage across what was then a firm colour line. "They knew it better than anyone," a family friend said on Thursday. They met while Khama was studying law in England. The British government prohibited them from returning to Botswana under pressure from D F Malan's apartheid government. The couple also suffered antagonism from the Bangwato tribe at first, but Khama convinced the tribe he led to accept his white English wife. Lady Ruth leaves behind her son, Vice-President of Botswana, Lieutenant-General Ian Khama, twin sons Tshekedi and Tony, and daughter Jaqueline. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, but she is expected to be buried with her husband - who died in 1980 - in Serowe, the tribal capital of the Bangwato tribe, 350km north of Gaborone.
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From SABC News, 24 May
Congo's mineral riches still plundered: UN report
The illegal plunder of Congo's mineral riches by the government's allies and opponents is continuing unabated and criminal networks based outside Africa may be using Congo's resources to launder money, a UN appointed panel said in a report. The exploitation of Congo's natural wealth by foreign armies and their rebel supporters has resulted in "widespread conflict, indiscriminate arming of large portions of the population and considerable insecurity" and battles are still being fought for control of areas rich in gold, diamonds, coltan and timber, it said. The interim report to the UN Security Council yesterday was a follow-up to a report last November that said some of Congo's allies and opponents were using security concerns as an excuse to maximise control over Congolese territory and exploit the country's mineral riches for their own profit.
The exploitation involves "a large number" of government officials, rebels and foreigners who are using the three-year civil war "to amass as much wealth as possible," the panel said in the November report. Based on a two month fact-finding mission earlier this year, the panel said in yesterday's report that it believed "that the illegal exploitation of Congolese resources is continuing, and that it is being consolidated in many areas". For example, it said, despite the sharp decrease in the price of coltan last year, commercial operators linked to parties involved in the war in Congo have continued to export a substantial volume of the mineral, which is widely used in high-tech equipment. "Another example of the continuing exploitation is an increase in licensing fees, taxes and customs levies, apparently to compensate for decreased revenues from the trade in coltan," the panel said.
The immediate impact, the panel said, has been "the further collapse of most local economies and the deepening impoverishment of most Congolese families." The five member panel said it has been attempting to piece together the commercial chains for specific commodities to determine where they end up and where they're being processed. The panel has determined some countries, including some in western Europe, that are end users or transit points for the commodities. Although the report did not identify the countries, the panel said it visited Britain, Belgium, Germany and France to discuss the implications of the exploitation of Congo's resources. The panel said it submitted questions to 11 African transit countries about measures to curb the illicit flow of commodities: Burundi; Rwanda; Uganda; Zimbabwe; Central African Republic; Kenya; Mozambique; the Republic of Congo; South Africa; Tanzania and Zambia.
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From the UN, 22 May
Al-Qaida terrorist operatives diversifying finances, UN expert panel warns
Terrorist operatives from the Al-Qaida network appear to have diversified the base and security of their finances by acquiring valuable commodities and using the Internet to move money, according to a new report by a United Nations expert group. "As a result of the freezing of assets that has been and continues to be carried out globally, there are allegations that Al-Qaida, for now at least, may be diversifying financial aspects of its logistics support by converting parts of its assets into gold, diamonds and other precious stones, for example lapis lazuli and sapphires," states the report of the Monitoring Group established by the Security Council to ensure enforcement of sanctions against Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaida organization, the Taliban, and their associates.
The report also notes that criminals and terrorists are using the Internet to move their money without detection. "The Group is particularly concerned about the use of the Internet by Al-Qaida and many of its associates, not only regarding financial transactions but also in support of their communications, command, control and logistics," the report warns, noting that experts are looking into ways to "disrupt and neutralize" these criminal actions. States are working to cut off terrorists' financial resources, the report says. By the end of March, no less than 144 countries had blocking orders in place in the context of the fight against terrorism. As a result of these orders, $103.8 million in assets have been blocked worldwide since 11 September 2001. The Group estimates that approximately "half of this sum represents assets connected with Usama bin Laden and Al-Qaida."
The Group makes a series of recommendations regarding the Security Council's list of those subject to the sanctions, proposing, for example, that it be translated into each of the UN's six official languages. The Group encourages all States to become parties to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, and those nations involved in the trade of rough diamonds to take part in the Kimberly process, a negotiating procedure to establish minimum acceptable international standards for national certification schemes covering the import and export of rough diamonds. On the arms embargo, the Group recommends that, in order to increase the transparency of international weapons sales, all arms-producing countries join the Wassanaar Arrangement on export controls for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 24 May
Farm evictions a sham
Claims that President Robert Mugabe's government is evicting farm occupiers and tackling war veterans is a smokescreen to convince the international community that there has been a return to the rule of law, diplomats and farmers said this week. The government was appearing to clean up its act to obtain urgently-needed food supplies they said. But nothing was happening on the ground. Diplomats said the move was calculated to remove charges of lawlessness from international deliberations on Zimbabwe. Commercial Farmers Union executives reported the only movement they could see was of people settled on farms belonging to prominent persons. The government has been orchestrating a blaze of publicity around evictions it claims to be making of settlers on delisted farms and conservancies, particularly in Masvingo. This comes ahead of a key regional summit on the food crisis to be held in South Africa next month. Zimbabwe is anxious to whitewash its battered reputation to get aid flowing.
"There is no evidence that the so-called evictions are really taking place," said a senior Western diplomat. "I think government is just trying to hoodwink the international community." The CFU said yesterday there had been no visible movement of settlers from its members' farms. CFU Masvingo regional chairman Mike Clark said "information to hand is that there is no relocation of settlers from members' farms. We are aware that police and army officers have visited selected farms in the area owned by prominent persons," he said. "Some of the settlers on those farms have begun to drift onto adjoining farms." Settlers on Nuanetsi and Eaglemont ranches in Mwenezi had refused to move, he said. CFU president Colin Cloete said while instructions had been given at government level, there was no evidence of this translating into action at the district level. "There was talk but no one really walked the talk," he said. Cloete said the situation on the farms and conservancies continued to deteriorate with officials handing out Section 8 notices. It is understood the land committee chaired by Vice-President Joseph Msika is keen to see farmers planting wheat to avert shortages next year and give the impression that normalcy is being restored in agriculture. A turnaround in government's public position was detected at the time of President Mugabe's meeting with United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan in New York on May 9. This was followed by strong statements a week later by Home Affairs minister John Nkomo threatening to crack down on illegal land occupiers and "rogue" war veterans. The state media immediately welcomed the evictions and the arrest of militant war veterans' leader Andrew Ndlovu. The role of minorities in developing the country was emphasised after two years of attacks on whites.
Nkomo said police would act against any farm invaders, be they senior government officials or ordinary people. Sources said the government was using the evictions to give a false impression to the world that it was working to address state-instigated lawlessness that has gone largely unchecked since 2000. The United Nations (UN) Standing Committee on Humanitarian Affairs and Southern African Development Community (Sadc) leaders gather for the crisis meeting on hunger in Johannesburg on June 6/7. The meeting is important to Harare because Zimbabwe is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions due in part to famine caused by state-sponsored farm invasions which have undermined the once-thriving agricultural sector and sabotaged food production. At the same time the country is facing a severe drought. It is estimated over seven million people - about 54% of the population - would by the end of the year be surviving on food relief.
Western aid organisations are currently battling to tackle widespread hunger. Britain has since last year provided £10 million while the United States and other donors have provided substantial sums in humanitarian assistance. The issue of regional famine, which is also afflicting Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique has of late assumed greater urgency. Last week UN resident coordinators in Southern Africa as well as representatives from other UN bodies and Sadc gathered in Victoria Falls to discuss the issue. UN resident representative in Zimbabwe Victor Angelo, who convened the meeting, said there was need for urgent action to prevent disaster. "Countries should react now in order to save money, save lives and to limit human suffering," he said.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 25 May
Political violence in Zim 'decreasing'
Politically motivated violence appears to be decreasing in Zimbabwe, according to the latest report by a local human rights group. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum's (Human Rights Forum) latest report on political violence, released on Thursday, indicates that the number of incidents have decreased as tensions subside. "Reported cases and instances of political violence have decreased in comparison to the cases reported in the first four months of 2002. There has been a decrease of 50% in the reported cases of torture, compared to the month of April," the Human Rights Forum report stated. However, the report noted that "notwithstanding this decline, it is regrettable that two lives were reportedly lost in the first fortnight of May". This brought to 57 the total number of politically-related deaths in 2002.
"The Human Rights Forum, in the midst of this lull, urges the Zimbabwean government to take meaningful steps towards achieving an environment of peaceful political competition. Further to this, of critical importance is the restoration of the rule of law and the end to impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of violence," the organisation said. The Human Rights Forum is a consortium of NGOs working in the field of human rights. One of its core members, the Amani Trust, which specialises in documenting instances of torture and assisting victims, is to receive an international award for its work. The Centre for Victims of Torture (US) is presenting their annual Eclipse Award to Amani chair Tony Reeler in recognition of his advocacy on behalf of human rights in Zimbabwe and the work of Amani Trust in the care of victims of torture. The trust said the presentation would take place in Washington on 25 June in observance of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
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From The Daily News, 24 May
Zaka MDC activists severely assaulted
Masvingo - Two MDC officials were severely beaten up in Zaka on Wednesday as they prepared for rural district council elections scheduled for August. A policeman at Zaka Police Station, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the police were investigating the case. The MDC alleges police officers at Zaka Police Station took part in the beatings. Shaky Matake, the MDC vice-chairman for Masvingo, said political violence had erupted in Gutu, Zaka and Bikita where rural district council elections are due to take place. He said his party had pressed charges against the Zaka Police Station officer-in-charge for allegedly assaulting the two MDC activists. "The fact that police participated in the beatings leaves us with no option but to file criminal charges against the officer-in-charge," he said. "We expect the police to do their duty impartially but they are not doing so."
The officials assaulted are Johannes Chingore, the chairman for Zaka West and Henry Chitapa, the district co-ordinator. The MDC said it suspected the assailants were Zanu PF supporters. According to MDC officials the terror campaign against their members is being spearheaded by a war veteran and Zanu PF youths whom the party has identified by name. The two MDC officials were reportedly abducted at Mushungwa business centre by a group of suspected war veterans. They were beaten up before being taken to Zaka Police Station, where the beatings continued. According to a medical report, Chitapa needs to see an ophthalmologist because he reportedly sustained injuries to his eyes. The victims were later given 24 hours to leave the district. Chingore said: "We were ordered to renounce our MDC membership. Some of the police officers assaulted us. We were told not to stand as MDC candidates in the forthcoming rural district council elections." A report was made to the police in Masvingo, they said, but so far no action has been taken. "We are still investigating the case," said a policeman who refused to be named. "The two were recorded as CRB number 0013437 and 0013438."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 24 May
Tutu forms Welfare Trust to assist Zim farmers
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and donors have formed a welfare organisation to assist Zimbabwe's embattled commercial farmers and their workers. The Zimbabwe Agricultural Welfare Trust (ZAWT) was established recently in Britain to provide a focal point for international support for the beleaguered farming community. It was registered with the UK Charities Commission and is accountable to the Charities Commission of England and Wales. The organisation has two Zimbabwean and seven British trustees. Tutu - who of late has expressed concern at the Zimbabwe situation including President Robert Mugabe's disputed re-election - is the patron of the trust, while humanitarian activist James Maberly is the chair. The veteran anti-apartheid campaigner and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner recently said Mugabe had "gone bonkers in a big way" and criticised the South African government for endorsing the Zimbabwean leader's controversial election victory. Maberly was born in Kenya and was brought up in Zimbabwe. He now works from his studio in Suffolk holding regular exhibitions across the UK and travels periodically to Zimbabwe.
"Our mission is to undertake the task of alleviating the hardship and suffering amongst members of the farming community of Zimbabwe, namely farmers, farm workers, others connected with agriculture and the families of all such persons who have been directly affected by civil unrest," said ZAWT administrator, Lao Watson-Smith. "We undertake to provide assistance with and promotion of physical and mental health, education, financial needs and general welfare of the agricultural community," he said. Watson-Smith said Zimbabweans and the international community could ill-afford to ignore the plight of local farmers and their workers. "Agriculture is the bedrock of the ailing Zimbabwean economy, yet the agricultural community at all levels has borne the brunt of these events," he said "Gangs of self-styled 'war veterans' have invaded farms, intimidated and assaulted farmers and their workforce, appropriated or destroyed livestock and property." He said Zimbabwe's violent and haphazard land reforms have created a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions.
"Apart from the documented cases of torture and killings on Zimbabwean farms, numerous labourers have been rendered homeless, jobless and without access to education and healthcare as farms have had to be abandoned and businesses closed," Watson-Smith pointed out. However, the ZAWT said it recognised the need for fundamental land reform in Zimbabwe and the right of all Zimbabweans to democratically determine their futures. "ZAWT has no political allegiance or agenda," said Watson-Smith. "Its aims are purely humanitarian in that by supporting the individual people, families and communities who make up the human side of Zimbabwean agriculture, we may contribute to keeping a key part of Zimbabwean society, as well as its economy, alive."
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Comment from The Daily News, 24 May
Nepad calls for leaders with no despotic hang-ups
The radical New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), conceived by three respected African leaders, has been received with mixed feelings on the continent. Some believe it offers a partnership with the rich nations of the West that could, within a very short period of time, catapult the continent out of its squalor of poverty to levels of development comparable, at the very least, to those of Asia. Others squirm at the prospect of relying too much on the charity of the West to propel their countries to prosperity. They blame the same rich nations for dumping them onto the scrap-heap of underdevelopment in the first place. These are the same countries which colonised them and gouged out their natural resources to develop[p their own economies. After independence, the same rich countries offered the African states trade and aid on an unequal basis, always mindful of dictating their own terms. These detractors of Nepad maintain that the West seems to have a vested interest in the continuing poverty of the continent. As long as that status remains, Africa has little or no bargaining power to speak of.
Most of the detractors are the same people whose aversion to the quid pro quo that goes with Nepad is almost pathological: they hate it when the West demands that they run their countries as true democracies, with free and fair elections, the rule of law, a free Press and unfettered freedom for the opposition parties. Nepad is obviously not for African leaders with despotic hang-ups, who believe that it is "unAfrican" to hold elections under the supervision of an independent commission and to give the opposition as much access to the media as the ruling party. This is why Nepad is so radical. It calls on African leaders to run their countries almost as democratically as the Western leaders who are offering them aid run their countries. To the latent dictators who run many African countries, this is so unacceptable they are willing to scuttle Nepad on that basis alone. For such people, the pride of being an African transcends even the need to end the monumental poverty so evident on the continent. Being anti-colonialist, being anti-West and being insanely Afrocentric is far more important than swallowing their pride and accepting aid "with strings attached". What they fear most is the so-called recolonisation of the continent.
But Nepad envisages an equal partnership: there will be investment from the Western countries, estimated at US$64 billion (Z$3 520 billion) at the conference in Dakar, Senegal, last month. For their part, the Africans will ensure that the investors obtain a good return for their money, in a country where democracy, good governance and the rule of law flourish. But above all, the people will benefit: there would be jobs, schools, hospitals and clinics, good roads and an infrastructure that ensures the country prospers steadily. Why any African leader would not wish all this for their people can be explained only by a glance back at the history of African independence. Many started off wanting their people to gain the economic as well as the political kingdom they had attained at independence. But somewhere along the way, as in Zimbabwe, they wandered off the straight and narrow path and began to concentrate on staying in power, come what might. Rivals were eliminated ruthlessly and any dissenting voices silenced brutally. This is why Zimbabwe has become the virtual fly in the ointment of the success of Nepad.
Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdelazziz Bouteflika and Abdoulaye Wade, the initiators of Nepad, have been told by the West if the Zimbabwe crisis is not resolved, there is very little chance of Nepad getting anywhere. So, the tragedy of Zimbabwe, its violence, its misgovernance, its inability to hold a free and fair election, its racism and its xenophobia could doom the continent to more decades of poverty. All this for the sake of keeping one old man in power.
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From BBC News, 25 May
UN condemns DR Congo 'plunder'
UN - The latest United Nations report on the Democratic Republic of Congo says rebels and foreign governments are still plundering the country's resources, everything from diamonds to animal skins. It portrays the DR Congo as a place where rebel movements and foreign armies are using the cloak of war to disguise what has become a blatant exercise in self-enrichment through the illegal plunder of scarce resources. The report says that direct confrontation between rebel groups and the Congolese Government has all but disappeared - but it says that fierce conflict is continuing on the rebel side of the ceasefire line, as different factions compete for access to gold, diamonds and other mineral resources. On the other side of the ceasefire line, it says that Zimbabwean troops that were drafted in to support the DR Congo's Government have been reinforced in areas such as Kasai, where Zimbabwean parties have interests in diamond mining. The report says there are also growing indications that criminal networks, based inside and outside Africa, are becoming increasingly involved. The conflict over resources has an obvious impact on local populations who are often forced to flee fighting. But the report notes that local people also suffer because they are receiving no benefit from the theft of precious minerals from their home areas. The report says that national wildlife parks, particularly those in the east of the country, are being ravaged by illegal mining, poaching and hunting for game meat and ivory - practices that destroy unique ecological sites and will ultimately deprive local populations of potential revenue from tourism when peace eventually returns to the region.
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From The Observer (UK), 26 May
Mugabe 'starves' opponents' children
President accused of a vicious campaign of poll reprisals
President Robert Mugabe has been accused of stepping up a campaign of 'mutilating torture' and starvation of ordinary Zimbabweans who voted against him in the flawed elections that returned him to power. An independent inquiry by the Danish group Physicians for Human Rights says the attacks appear to be aimed at destroying support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The upsurge in anti-MDC violence follows an explicit warning by Mugabe immediately after his re-election three months ago of his plans for its supporters. 'We will make them run. If they haven't run before, we will make them run now,' he told a rally of his Zanu PF party in rural Zvimba on 31 March. The doctors' report now accuses the President's supporters of denying food to tens of thousands of people in drought-stricken areas, where millions are facing food shortages because they backed the MDC.
While estimates vary of the number of people who could starve between 600,000 and three million - the report's authors estimate a shortfall of supplies of maize, the staple food, of between 400,000 and one million tonnes. People in rural areas have three main ways of getting maize: through government 'food for work' programmes; buying it from the government-controlled Grain Marketing Board and through donor schemes for school pupils and the under-fives. All three sources are being manipulated politically to deny food to the families of opposition supporters, the study says. 'Those who do not carry a Zanu card are not allowed to purchase maize from the board, and known MDC supporters report having maize stolen from them if they are lucky enough to buy it.'
The researchers have documented cases of MDC families told they cannot take part in the 'food for work' schemes. The most serious allegations about maize, however, concern denial of supplementary food to children. In one area of Zimbabwe's Midlands, the visiting doctors found evidence of the deliberate starvation of under-fives from MDC families by local Zanu headmen. In an account disguising the real names of people and places for fear of fresh reprisals, they found children denied maize at a 'central feeding point in YY school'. Three headmen in charge of supplies to the under-fives 'made it clear the food was not for MDC children, but only for Zanu children.' A representative of the international donor of the food tried to sort out the problem, making it clear that it was for all the villagers. He believed this was agreed, and rode away on his motorcycle. Yet before he had gone 500 yards, 'the local Zanu-PF councillor announced: "Even if stone was to melt, MDC children will not get the food, because it is Zanu food".' In another incident recorded by the researchers in the Matabeleland South constituency on 15 May, women wanted supplies which had been delivered by army lorries that day. 'Mrs P went to a business centre to buy maize. She and others from her area did not get any as Mr U, the district Zanu PF chairman, said MDC supporters should not benefit.'
The evidence of people denied food coincides with a sharp increase in intimidation and violence aimed at MDC supporters. On 2 May, the doctors examined a man, N, in the country's second city, Bulawayo, who had been tortured so badly he is disabled permanently, the report claims. N and a friend were kidnapped by a group of men, and taken to a nearby militia camp. 'There they were ordered to remove their shoes as their kidnappers chanted Zanu slogans. 'The militia beat him and his friend on the soles of their feet. He was beaten all over the body, and burned with cigarettes on both upper arms and on his head. 'One person took a flaming log from the camp fire. One person sat on his chest and another held his right foot. The foot was forced against the burning log and held there.' A medical examination by the doctors found an open burn wound 5.5ins (9cm) long and 3.5ins (9cm) wide on his right foot. Similar damage to the man's left foot was so severe that it left him unable to walk. A wound almost two inches (5cm) deep in the centre of the sole exposed the tendon.
The MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai told The Observer yesterday: 'The illegitimate Mugabe regime has implemented a systematic campaign of violent retribution against all those suspected of voting for the MDC. Not only is Mugabe prepared to use violence to achieve his objectives, he is prepared to exploit Zimbabwe's horrific humanitarian crisis for his political ends. Thousands of MDC reporters are being denied food aid. My biggest fear is that an integral part of Mugabe's retribution campaign is the forced starvation of thousands of people suspected of opposing his illegitimate regime.'
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read the report by the Physicians for Human Rights, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message - total size 285Kb, around six times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 26 May
Mugabe under pressure to talk to MDC
Mbeki and Obasanjo determined to get Zimbabwe leader back to negotiations.
South African and Nigerian presidents Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo are to hold talks with their Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, to persuade him to resume talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe, the chief facilitator in the now-derailed unity talks between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF and the MDC, said Mbeki and Obasanjo were determined to get dialogue restarted as soon as possible. "The two presidents will be able to pull it off," he said on Friday. "They will marshal all forces necessary to get the talks going. It is the only way for the country to move forward." Presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said Mbeki and Mugabe were expected to meet on Thursday at a one-day summit on the Democratic Republic on Congo in Lusaka, Zambia. The two leaders could decide on a date for talks on Zimbabwe then, he said.
Mbeki and Obasanjo were mandated by the Commonwealth to facilitate talks in Zimbabwe following the widely criticised presidential election in March which saw Mugabe retain power. Motlanthe and Adebayo Adedeji, Obasanjo's envoy, spent several weeks consulting the leaders of the two parties on the agenda and rules of procedure. The talks, scheduled to have begun on May 13, were scuppered when the Zanu PF delegation, led by Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, sent a letter to Motlanthe saying it wanted the talks shelved. It claimed discussions could proceed only once the MDC's court action challenging the outcome of the elections was concluded. "The rules of procedure provided for a postponement . . . Our understanding was that we would then get to Harare and discuss this at the plenary. The Zanu PF delegation clearly breached the rules of procedure (by failing to arrive)," he said.
Motlanthe and Adedeji have since met Mugabe to "seek clarification" on Zanu PF's position. Mugabe said that his party was still committed to dialogue but was concerned about the MDC's court action. The two envoys then met MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube, who explained that in terms of Zimbabwean law, the MDC had to file its court papers within 30 days of the election. "The MDC explained to us they filed this petition on the very last day, on the 30th day, because they thought they should just preserve their right of recourse to court. "We met [MDC leader] Morgan Tsvangirai and he said they were committed to the dialogue and tensions would be reduced once the dialogue commences. He said the court action should not be regarded as a stumbling block to the dialogue," Motlanthe said. The MDC said if Obasanjo and Mbeki were able to bring Zanu PF back to the table, it would be ready.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 26 May
The Standard vindicated over anti-riot gear story
Zimbabwe has emerged as one of the major customers of Israeli arms manufacturer, Beit Alfa Trailer Company (BAT)'s in the buying of customised anti-riot tankers. According to information on BAT's website, Zimbabwe has joined the ranks of Israel, Angola, Uganda, China, Chile Sri-Lanka and others, where BAT says its Jet pulse water cannon system is in "active use". The confirmation by BAT contradicts police denials that it bought state of the art anti-riot tankers from the Israeli company. The police even arrested two Standard staffers, editor Bornwell Chakaodza and senior reporter, Farai Mutsaka, for revealing that the heavy anti-riot gear had arrived in the country and was ready for use against civil dissent. In arresting the two, the police denied ever buying such equipment and charged the scribes with "publishing falsehoods" under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The two are to appear in court on 3 June.
The Standard actually paid a visit to the Police Support Unit headquarters at Chikurubi where it witnessed an Israeli expert demonstrating to officers how to effectively use the water cannons. The equipment bought by the police includes five Riot Control Vehicles model RCU 4500 I which have the latest in water cannon technology. The vehicles' command control panel allows the operator to mix additives such as scorching tear gas, pepper spray or dye. The tankers are also equipped with surveillance cameras. Israel state radio, Kol Yisrael, last week quoted foreign ministry sources as saying that Shimon Peres, the Israeli foreign minister, had authorised the sale but had specified that delivery be delayed until after Zimbabwe's March presidential election to avoid embarrassment to Israel.
Approached for comment by The Standard last week, an official at BAT refused to talk on the matter saying the company's general manager, Reuven Canfi, was the only one authorised to comment on the Zimbabwean sale. "No one can help you here. Only Mr Canfi can comment on that issue, but, unfortunately, he is abroad and will only be back next week," said the lady who answered the phone. However, Canfi is on record as having defended the sale of the tankers to Zimbabwe, insisting that the sale was in fact "humane" as demonstrators would face water cannons and not live ammunition. The company said it would not sell armoured cars that carried gun ports to Zimbabwe. "As long as they are using food colour, instead of live ammunition, I am happy. It does not matter if it is Zimbabwe, Chile or Angola, we help the government to save lives," reports quoted Canfi as saying.
When details of the sale emerged last year, there was heated debate in Israel over the morality of selling such heavy equipment to President Mugabe's repressive regime which has received international condemnation for its abuse of human rights. Alon Liel, a former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry wrote an opinion piece in Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper, expressing concern that the equipment would be used "to pursue the courageous proponents of democracy or the farmers trying to continue working their land". Nomi Chazan, a member of the Knesset from the liberal Meretz party said the sale would not help Zimbabwe-Israel relations: "I think it is outrageous, and I don't think it helps Israel-Zimbabwe relations." However Yuval Steinitz, a legislator from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party, said he supported the sale as it would help save lives.
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From The Sunday Independent (SA), 26 May
Pro-Mugabe journo 'rewarded' with seized farm
Zimbabwe's most prominent pro-government journalist and the head of the Electoral Supervisory Commission have been rewarded for helping return President Robert Mugabe to power with gifts of free farms taken from commercial farmers under the guise of land redistribution. Reuben Barwe, a pro-Mugabe television journalist and the chief correspondent for the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), confirmed this week that he had been given 60 hectares of land, but not the 830 hectares that a government list of beneficiaries put him down for. Barwe, who has been severely criticised by independent media monitors for consistent bias in favour of Mugabe, said the 830 hectares had been split among 25 people, whom he did not know. "I don't have that land but I wish I had it," he said. "I applied like everybody else. I haven't even started doing any project. There are so many people with farms."
Another confirmed recipient is Mariyawanda Nzuwa, the chairperson of the electoral commission, which played a key role in frustrating the level of support for opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, in the March poll. Another recipient of a free farm is Bonniface Chidyausiku, Zimbabwe's ambassador to the United Nations, who said he had applied for 300 hectares of land and was expecting to get them. The commissioner of police, both vice-presidents, at least eight cabinet members and seven MPs are also in line to get farms. Barwe said drawing attention to the fact that his name was on the government list of beneficiaries was an attempt to "demonise anyone who works in the public media". "I applied like everybody else and know that everybody who applied for land got the land, including people in the private sector and the opposition," he said.
According to sources, the farms handed to Mugabe's cronies are being cleared of war veterans, the ostensible beneficiaries of Mugabe's populist land grab. Responding to charges that Mugabe was rewarding his cronies, Jonathan Moyo, the minister of information, this week said the charge was "patently stupid and indecent". Moyo, who has also applied for a farm, said ruling party officials were not excluded from a programme to allocate seized land to 54 000 new black commercial farmers. Party officials were not given special preference, but nor were they denied land, he said. Barwe and other government officials now join at least 10 of Mugabe's cabinet members, including both vice-presidents, Mugabe's sister, Sabina, and Chidyausiku as new farm owners. Mugabe's sister, who is a Zanu PF MP, said she had applied for land and received "about 700 hectares, but the majority is under wildlife. The former owner of the land told me that he had put wildlife, so I did a compromise with him that you can leave your wildlife there until it comes time to move your wildlife". Asked when he would leave the rest of the property, she said: "It's up to him actually. I cannot just send him away. I can't kill him because he did not move." Asked if she had paid for the land, she replied: "You do not know the law of Zimbabwe."
Mugabe turned the screws on farm owners even tighter this week when his government said it would stop paying compensation for the improvements on white-owned farms seized by the state. Speaking at a workshop for newly resettled farmers on Friday, the minister of agriculture, Joseph Made, said Zimbabwe will stop paying white farmers for improvements to land seized under the government's controversial land reform scheme. "We will be making a full statement that we are suspending compensation for improvements on farms," Made said. "We want to put the resources into investments that can see us support new farmers to ensure that we have food at our table," he said, according to Sapa-AFP. Until now, the government had agreed to pay for improvements to the land such as buildings, irrigation systems and dams in instalments over a period of years, but not for the land itself. An official from the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which represents 4 500 farmers, most of them white, said some landowners had begun receiving payments from the government. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said if true, Made's statement "removes the last glimmer of hope that farmers will be treated by minister Made in a fair and lawful manner with regard to land acquisition".
Made told the workshop that the government had so far taken 7,4 million hectares of land and divided it among 210 520 black families for small-scale farming. Another 54 000 people have applied for land under a scheme aimed at taking entire commercial farms and giving them to black owners, but only 13 000 had so far been allocated farms, he said. Although making up less than 1 percent of the population, white Zimbabweans had owned about 30 percent of the country's land. The land reforms have targeted as much as 95 percent of white-owned land. The CFU said that since the presidential elections, at least 250 white Zimbabwean farmers have been forced off their properties by pro-government militants and new settlers. Some of the white families were given only hours to leave their homes, without being allowed to take their possessions with them, the CFU said. Pressure on white farm owners and their workers continued as before this week, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu has associated himself with a new welfare trust aimed at assisting both farmers and farm workers. Tutu is the patron of the newly formed Zimbabwean Agricultural Welfare Trust, which is based in Britain.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 26 May
Mudenge's gimmick angers US
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the United States, Simbi Mubako was summoned to the offices of the US State department a week ago to explain what it said were misleading utterances from the Zimbabwe government following Mugabe's trip to a UN conference in the US. The US government accused Zanu PF of trying to gain political mileage out of the trip. According to informed sources, the US government was not happy with the Zimbabwean government's attempt to use the trip by Mugabe and his ministers to the United Nations Conference on Children in New York, three weeks ago, as a public relations campaign to reflect that sanctions were not working or being adhered to by the US government. It is understood that the US government asked Mubako to relay its extreme displeasure to the Zimbabwe Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was told that the Zimbabwe government knew full well that the US government was under an obligation to permit travel to UN for participation in UN meetings.
Contacted for comment, permanent secretary for foreign affairs Willard Chiwewe denied knowledge of Mubako's summoning. "I have been out of the office for sometime now and I have not been briefed on the latest developments so I am not in a position to comment." Mugabe and his delegation were allowed into New York under the laws of the UN Geneva Convention which allows all leaders access to the UN headquarters in New York. The US and European countries imposed sanctions and travel restrictions on Mugabe, some government officials and service chiefs, and some businessmen whom it said were responsible for human rights violations which reached their peak during the presidential elections.
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From The Observer (UK), 26 May
Report extract: the politics of hunger in Zimbabwe
Extracts from the report by the Danish group Physicians for Human Rights, which documents the politicisation of Zimbabwe's growing food crisis. The full report contains detailed fieldwork examining the distribution of food in particular villages and towns, on which these findings and conclusions are based
Summary and Conclusion
The Presidential election in Zimbabwe took place on 9th - 11th March 2002. In a process described by almost all international observers as "unfree and unfair", President Robert Mugabe was announced the winner of the poll. Gross human rights violations were documented throughout the current election process, and were an important factor in condemnation of the election outcome. Since the elections, there has been little international media attention to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, and this could lead to the misperception that the situation has improved, or normalised in the post election period. This is not the case; politically motivated, government-endorsed violence continues against those perceived to be supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
President Mugabe has stated publicly in the post election phase, that the government intends to repress its political opponents. Parliament has effectively been rendered irrelevant by its adjournment until August. New laws seriously restrict freedom of expression, association and assembly, and recent developments clearly show that the government intends to exploit the repressive powers given to it by these new laws. Furthermore, a senior member of Zanu has declared that the government will not respect the rulings of the court, if in disagreement with the interests of the government.
We document in this report that mutilating torture beyond any doubt is practised by government supporters against their political opponents in Zimbabwe in the post election period. The fact that perpetrators do not care whether they torture people who can identify them, or whether their acts of torture or ill treatment leave marks that can easily be recognised as caused by torture, underlines a clear assumption on their part of impunity. This assumption appears well founded: no prosecutions against perpetrators have been made in any of the cases of torture and ill treatment that we documented, and this points to a deliberate policy by the authorities.
Furthermore, since the previous report published in January this year, we document a new phenomenon - the political manipulation of hunger in some areas to exclude those labelled as "MDC supporters" from all routes of gaining maize, the staple food. In rural areas, access to food is controlled by government mechanisms such as "food for work", and through regulation of all maize sales through the parastatal Grain Marketing Board. Food distributed by international donors is also in some districts proving to be subject to political manipulation by Zanu PF. The abuse of power related to food is not limited to war veterans, youth militia and elected councillors, but includes headmasters, businessmen, chiefs and traditional leadership. Denial of access to food, particularly when children are victimised for the perceived political beliefs of their parents, should be considered a serious violation of human rights. It is apparent that there is the potential to influence government policy on distribution of food, through donor pressure and control at their own feeding points, and thereby restore some human rights in Zimbabwe.
Food: a politicised commodity in Zimbabwe, 2002
The entire southern African region currently faces severe food shortages, largely as a result of a serious drought. Worst hit countries include Malawi and Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe the food situation has been exacerbated by the farm invasions which have reduced the production of maize and other staple crops to a fraction of normal output. The disintegration of the commercial farming sector also means that the likelihood of Zimbabwe feeding itself as a nation in the foreseeable future is bleak. Estimates from the United Nations and World Food Programme of how many Zimbabweans face imminent starvation vary from 600,000 to 3 million, and the maize shortfall is estimated at between 400,000 and 1 million tonnes. Maize is the staple diet of Zimbabweans. There are three main ways of rural dwellers accessing maize at the moment. These are:
1. Government "food for work" programmes: it is a long standing policy that in times of drought, families with no harvest and no money to purchase food should perform public labour, for example repairing rural roads, in return for food.
2. Purchasing of maize through the government controlled Grain Marketing Board (GMB): by government ruling, all sales and movement of maize, including the price, is controlled by the government. GMB depots are found in all rural districts, and are the only buying points for maize at this time.
3. Donor feeding schemes for school children and under-fives, controlled to varying degrees depending on the district and the donor policy, by the donors themselves, the government, and the ruling party and its affiliates at ground level. This latter group include Zanu controlled rural district councils, traditional leadership, youth militia and war veterans. Other bodies including the official opposition have no recognised role in food distribution. At the rural level, in some places it has been documented the MDC are completely excluded from participation and control.
Hunger is politically abused in Zimbabwe at this time
The first two maize access mechanisms are run entirely at the discretion of government employees, and are particularly open to political selectivity: in rural areas, and also some urban areas, only known Zanu supporters are allowed to benefit. Those who do not carry a Zanu card are not allowed to purchase maize from GMB even if they have the money to do so, and known MDC supporters report having maize stolen from them if they are lucky enough to buy it. (The Daily News, 18th March and 25th March, key informant interviews from 8 districts. See also section following.) It is also documented, including in the cases in this report, that members of "MDC families" are not able to take part in "food for work" programmes.
International donor feeding schemes are at times politically abused
Denial of access to food, particularly when children are victimised for the perceived political beliefs of their parents, should be considered a serious violation of human rights. It is apparent that an important window of opportunity to influence government policy on distribution of food, is through donor pressure and control at their own feeding points. It is precisely because donor food remains the only viable option at all, for so many thousands of children who will otherwise starve, that this report is dealing in detail with the reality of food discrimination.
It is also categorically clear that donors are aware of the potential for political manipulation of food, and are pro-actively prepared to intervene when problems arise, and to correct them (see first two cases following). The purpose of this section is therefore not to suggest that all donor feeding is being manipulated but to highlight that problems currently exist in some areas, and could lead to politically-determined starvation. Donor practice can make a difference, one that at times may reach beyond access to food and positively influence access to other facilities within the vicinity of feeding points.
The national scale of abuse of donor feeding schemes is not known at this time. In some districts, donor feeding is running apparently without problems, for example in most districts of Matabeleland, even though Matabeleland residents report widespread control of government-sourced maize. Discrimination has been reported in rural areas where Zanu has a strong support base and MDC is a minority party, such as parts of the Midlands and Mashonaland. In these districts, donor food is at some feeding points manipulated by Zanu to exclude MDC children.
It appears that this food discrimination is most easy to manipulate in the under five feeding. The names of "MDC children" do not exist on some feeding scheme lists, as the lists are drawn up in the first instance by committees consisting entirely of Zanu supporting government structures. Such structures include: rural district councils, chiefs, headmen, headmasters and other prominent community members. Food investigation: summary and conclusion
During one short visit to one district, many first and second hand testimonies were collected about politically discriminatory practices against MDC supporters affecting all avenues of access to food, including that distributed by international NGOs, and including access to water. Interviews from other districts also indicate food discrimination elsewhere.
* In all cases of problematic food distribution, those implicated in politically manipulating access to food are Zanu PF supporters; such abuse of power is not limited to war veterans, youth militia and elected councillors, but includes headmasters, businessmen, chiefs and traditional leadership.
* In the two cases of selective feeding practices brought to their attention during late March 2002, the international donor intervened and brought an end to the discriminatory practice. Information collected in May has been forwarded and assurances given that intervention will once more be made.
* Donors are able to restore non selective practice of feeding schemes through a firm policy of "Food for everybody or food for nobody".
* Where donor practice has changed owing to complaints, the experience has been empowering for those previously discriminated against.
* However it is clear that some schemes have been discriminatory for months without the donor being aware. This points to a need for much closer monitoring on the ground.
* Monitoring should include verification that all qualified villagers are on the feeding lists. This will imply contact with key informants from the local community other than the Zanu PF dominated leadership; "ZANU leadership" clearly includes not just those structures that are normally assumed to be political, such as elected councillors and government officials, but also school staff, business people and traditional leadership.
* Particular monitoring is needed for feeding points that are placed outside of large institutions, where the programme depends on the ethical behaviour of single individuals.
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read the report by the Physicians for Human Rights, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message - total size 285Kb, around six times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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