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Archived News
5th February 2002
Zim land beneficiary list 'a work of fiction'
Party cards run out as Mugabe enforces loyalty
Violence closes 30 Zimbabwe schools: Report
Anti-Mugabe MP claims bid to blind him
Bush, Powell to discuss Zimbabwe
Pro-Mugabe militants block opposition rally, 18 injured
Violence at Zimbabwe rally
Polling agents restricted
My brush with Zanu mob rule on the election trail of terror
Nation on the brink
Mugabe is losing army's support, says war veteran
Africa turns on Mugabe
What happened in Bulawayo
Veteran MP to rule on future of Zimbabwe press
Zimbabwe's cycle of starvation
Zimbabwe faces 'smart sanctions' as EU loses patience over human rights
Jersey warns banks about Mugabe funds
Mugabe's allies revolt over press freedom law
Mugabe press bill invites sanctions
US gets tough on Zim media law
Four killed in Zimbabwe political violence
Grain shortages bite in Zimbabwe
Zanu PF cadres pounce on Zambians in Victoria Falls
Mugabe's delusions of power
Media bill delay may be warning to Mugabe
Youths confess training is military
Food shortages could eclipse all other election issues
Mugabe should resign, say church men
Zimbabwe leaders face financial probe
Mugabe in hunt for 'four hidden correspondents'
Mugabe party recruits youths for brutal militia
Zimbabwe political violence increases
Last chance offered to avoid sanctions
New ID law targets opposition
Urgent need for more food
Harare's coming Presidential polls
The cost of defying Mugabe
Zanu PF faces campaign boycott
Media Bill in the balance
Police re-arrest white MDC youth on murder charges
Tories say, don't rule out troops
Zimbabwe opposition wins voters' roll ruling
UK cracks down on Mugabe
'Mugabe's men gave us marijuana, then ordered us to beat up people like these'
Zanu PF fails to stop Tsvangirai, Obasanjo meeting
Rainforest plundered by Murdoch's ex son-in-law
MDC rallies are cancelled as poll violence spreads
Zimbabwe to let in election monitors as action looms
Zanu PF concerned about violent campaign
Zim crisis threatens Mbeki's hopes for Africa
Moyo’s rude awakening
Mugabe's iron fist
Deadline set for EU sanctions against Mugabe
Crunch time for Mugabe
Zanu PF mobs try to beat votes out of blacks
Slow motion coup d'etat
Attack on Mugabe's media laws
RSF banned from Harare
UK urges Zimbabwe suspension
Women forge ahead with Zimbabwean poll campaign as EU sets sanctions deadline
Mugabe suffers setback
Zimbabwe government to contest court ruling on voters
Robert Mugabe has got away with murder for long enough
Zimbabwe suspension rejected by ministers
Zanu PF accused of using illegal ballots
Mugabe overrules Supreme Court
SA to send 'diverse observer team' to Zim
Obasanjo launches bargain for safe Mugabe exit
Zimbabwe passes draconian media bill
Fury at Zimbabwe media curbs
Threats fail to move Mat in crucial ballot
Zimbabwe puts curbs on media
Zim wants dispute declared with EU
Voters made to dance to Mugabe's tune
New laws make mark on Zimbabwe
Highlights of Zim press bill
EU sanctions won't stop Grace's shopping trips
Zimbabwe relents on media curbs
Violence and hunger stalk Zimbabwe poll
MDC ward chairman murdered
Early date for Harare council polls set
Mugabe lets in poll observers to fend off sanctions
Moyo accused of taking money from Ford Foundation, Wits University and Mbeki's brother's company
Minister’s kids get expensive educations
Discontent in army over pay hikes
Tsvangirai pledges no witch hunt after poll
Thousands rally to support Tsvangirai
Today, police will arrest me for a crime I didn't commit
Army settles on Bennett's farm
Permanent residents to challenge Mudede on vote
Zimbabwe’s music sings the message of dissidents
Three more MDC supporters killed
Zimbabwe murders claim may trigger EU Mugabe sanctions
Mugabe arrests 'Independent' reporter
Confusion, farce over Harare polls
Zanu PF - more than just Mugabe
No refugee influx ahead of elections
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From The Saturday Star (SA), 19 January
Zim land beneficiary list 'a work of fiction'
Harare - Zimbabwe's government is publishing fictitious names of people on lists of beneficiaries of farms seized from whites. It is also carrying names of people who have not received any such land - and in some cases never applied for it. The Independent Foreign Service (IFS) has confirmed reports that most people listed as beneficiaries of the A2 resettlement model for commercial farms, which followed the controversial fast-track programme, had in fact not been given the land. The IFS has also established that many of the names are fictitious, used to create the impression that land was "going to the people". An company executive, who refused to have his name published, said he was surprised to see his name in the state-owned Herald, which published the lists, when he had neither applied for a farm nor benefited from the scheme.
Ministry of Lands and Agriculture officials confirmed that the land acquired so far would not be enough for all of the 54 000 people who had applied. They said fewer than 7 000 people had in fact been allocated land under the A2 model. "The lists being published do not reflect the truth," said a senior ministry official. The ruling Zanu PF party has said 100 000 people applied for land and promised that everyone would be accommodated. It started publishing the names of the A2 beneficiaries to refute press allegations that the land reform programme was only benefiting President Robert Mugabe's cronies and Zanu PF members. The decision to publish the lists was the brainchild of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo. He told the Herald that after publishing the list of the 100 000-plus people to whom the government intended to give land, only "mad people" would claim the land-reform programme was benefiting Mugabe's cronies. He added it was impossible for Mugabe to have more than 100 000 cronies and that anyone who believed that was stupid.
Under the A2 model, farms seized from whites are being distributed to blacks to promote black commercial farming. But ministry sources said the land acquired so far was not enough to cater for the 54 000 who had applied. Zanu PF has so far designated for seizure 6-million hectares of about 8-million hectares of land controlled by whites. Some of the seized farms are subdivided into small plots to cater for as many people as possible. Those who have benefited so far have done so on the strength of their Zanu PF membership, although they might not be personally known to Mugabe. "The lists we are publishing are a combination of those who have got the land, those who qualify for land but have in fact not received it and are unlikely to receive it because the land is not enough, and others who are just made-up names for political purposes," said one official. An investigation by the IFS showed that one of the qualifications for getting the land was proof of ruling-party membership by virtue of holding a Zanu PF card. Those who had been genuinely given land had produced their cards.
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From The Independent on Sunday (UK), 20 January
Party cards run out as Mugabe enforces loyalty
Harare - Funerals are important in African society, so when Elizabeth Mujaji heard last week that her brother-in-law had died in the Chikombe area of rural Zimbabwe, she made plans to travel from Harare to attend the ceremony. First, however, she needed to buy a membership card from Zanu PF, Zimbabwe's ruling political party. President Robert Mugabe's "war veterans" and youth militias have set up illegal roadblocks between most of Zimbabwe's towns, where they assault anyone failing to produce a Zanu PF card and send them back to where they came from to get one. But the main party headquarters in Harare had run out of cards. Mrs Mujaji (not her real name) then sent her three sons into Harare's townships to try to buy one for her, but all returned empty-handed, forcing her to give up her plan to get to yesterday's funeral.
On Friday, an elderly, white, farm manager whose area has been closed off by militia checkpoints explained why he had acquired a party card. Without one, he said, "you are humiliated. We were made to kneel in the road, beg to be let through and sing slogans." He asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. Without the vital card, rural Zimbabweans are finding it impossible not only to travel but to get medical treatment, seeds and other agricultural aid for peasants, or school places for their children. People hoping to be assigned property confiscated from white farmers under Mr Mugabe's controversial land policies have no hope of succeeding unless they produce proof of Zanu PF membership.
In some of the areas worst affected by political violence, such as Gutu and Zaka, traditional headmen and chiefs are asking shopkeepers to sell goods only to those who can show Zanu PF cards. Those who sell to "opposition renegades" risk having their premises burnt down. Last week Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said Zimbabwe was already engaged in a "low-intensity civil war". Such forms of intimidation, affecting almost every aspect of daily life, are commonplace in the more remote parts of Zimbabwe, where most of the country's 12.5 million people live. As the March presidential election approaches they are spreading to the towns, creating far more public concern than the controversial bills now going through parliament which will muzzle the press and make criticism of Mr Mugabe a crime.
"At this rate Zanu PF cards are now an equivalent of the water that we drink and the air that we breathe," said a business executive who was humiliated at an illegal roadblock when he failed to produce a card while driving his children to a boarding school. Apart from acquiring a Zanu PF card, Zimbabweans are also finding it prudent to learn party slogans and liberation war songs from the 1970s. Many who have been unable to chant these on demand have been beaten up. The rush to acquire cards has cut supplies to vanishing point. Officials at Zanu PF headquarters said that while they were doing their best to print more to meet demand, they could not cope. A "parallel market" has sprung up in which cards are changing hands for up to nine times the official price: while the party is supposed to charge Z$34 (about 45p), unscrupulous Zanu PF officials are charging up to Z$300 (about £33.70). Although many Zimbabweans are buying the cards purely for convenience and are unlikely to vote for Mr Mugabe at the 9 and 10 March presidential election, their money will boost the coffers of a ruling party that also enjoys the use of state funds.
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From the Times of India, 19 January
Violence closes 30 Zimbabwe schools: Report
Harare - At least 30 schools have been forced to close in southeastern Zimbabwe this week as teachers refused to work fearing political violence, the privately-owned Daily News reported on Saturday. The headmaster of one of the schools was stripped naked and beaten by a mob of around 40 supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, the paper said. The affected schools are all in Zaka and Bikita districts, which are strongholds of Mugabe's Zanu PF party, the paper said. There have been political clashes in several areas of Zimbabwe since dates for the presidential elections were announced last week. Elections are just seven weeks away, on March 9-10. State ZBC television reported late on Friday that two bodies had been found in Zaka. It said the two were suspected victims of political violence. A Zanu PF activist was beaten to death in the area last week. The government has called for an end to the violence, but the opposition accuses it of playing a double game by sponsoring violence on the quiet.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 20 January
Anti-Mugabe MP claims bid to blind him
Harare - In a case that could gravely embarrass the regime of President Robert Mugabe, a leading member of the Zimbabwean opposition is suing a prison doctor who, he claims, prescribed medicine that would have blinded him. He also accuses the doctor of falsifying his diabetic record in a way that nearly cost him his life. Details of the alleged mistreatment of Fletcher Dulini, treasurer of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and a leading MP, have emerged as the Zimbawean government faces international condemnation over new laws, introduced in the run-up to elections in March, that make it illegal for the opposition to put up election posters, hold meetings or criticise the president. Dulini was attending parliament in Harare when his wife telephoned him on November 16 to tell him that the police had arrived at 3am to search their house in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city. She said they told her he was wanted in connection with the murder of two Zanu PF activists, Cain Nkala and Limakani Laphahla. Dulini immediately flew home to hear a list of fantastic allegations by the police. They accused him of issuing instructions for the murder of all war veterans, the entire civil service and every activist supporting the ruling Zanu PF party. More specifically, he was alleged to have ordered the murder of Nkala, and to have arranged money and false passports for the killers. Dulini could prove he had not even been in Bulawayo the day he was supposed to have issued the murder instructions. But this was brushed aside and, notwithstanding his status as a senior parliamentarian, he was thrown into the cells.
The abuse of one of the MDC’s "Top Six", as its executives are known, appears to have been intended to show that even the most senior party leaders are not safe. Aged nearly 62 when he was arrested, Dulini suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes and glaucoma. "At first they tried to threaten me with hanging for Nkala’s murder," said Dulini, who spent more than six years in jail for his role in the resistance to the Rhodesian government of Ian Smith. "But what they really wanted was the details of my life, everything about the MDC’s finances and the minutes of Top Six meetings." Dulini described how police interrogators screamed abuse. Questioning never took place until after midnight - apparently to disorientate him through sleep deprivation. During the five days Dulini spent in the cells, his wife brought him the eyedrops he must take three times a day to keep his glaucoma at bay, and special diabetics’ food. He was refused bail by a High Court judge who had been a Zanu PF activist.
Thrown into solitary confinement in Khami prison, Dulini admits he was shocked by what he found. "I couldn’t believe I was still in Zimbabwe," he said. "We used to have the highest standards in Africa. Not any more. Lots of prisoners had Aids or TB. Many died for lack of medication. Nobody gave a damn." Inevitably, there were no eyedrops for Dulini, nor the food he needed. The prison doctor tried to insist that he should use another drug for his eyes, but Dulini knew enough to refuse. In the case Dulini is now bringing, his own eye specialist will testify he would have gone completely blind if he had followed the doctor’s advice. Dulini also accuses the prison doctor of endangering his health by consistently underestimating the level of sugar in his blood - potentially fatal for a diabetic. "My doctor says I was within 48 hours of death," he said.
Despite growing concern about the human rights record of the Mugabe regime, exemplified by Dulini’s treatment, Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, has indicated support for the Zimbabwean leader. Citing the united action taken by those who fought white rule in both countries, Mbeki pledged: "We will not abandon them during their hour of greatest need." Such language is bound to be interpreted by Mbeki’s supporters as a plea to support Mugabe in any showdown with America, the European Union and the Commonwealth over sanctions. In a lengthy statement on the ANC website, Mbeki welcomes Mugabe’ s commitment to "full respect for human rights, including the right to freedom of opinion, association and peaceful assembly". The reality on the ground in Zimbabwe bears no relation to Mbeki’s statement. On Thursday the Mugabe regime returned to the attack against "so-called foreign correspondents", describing local journalists who write for foreign papers as "terrorists" and "running dogs".
The regime has outlawed election monitors, taken the administration away from the independent electoral commission and promised to bring in a new law to control the press. When I travelled to Zimbabwe last week, I appeared to be the only journalist from outside the country to have done so. The police have been given orders not to prevent systematic violence and intimidation practised by Zanu PF activists, war veterans and the burgeoning youth militia. One of the most alarming features of the campaign so far has been the eruption onto the scene of the youth militia, believed to be training at five complexes widely termed as "terror camps". Recruits are press-ganged from the villages and then subjected to indoctrination sessions and given rudimentary weapons - pangas, axes, hoes and some old Soviet SKS rifles. They are let loose to beat and intimidate the public at large, each unit under the control of a local war veteran.
Their weapon of choice is often a stick with a split fanbelt fastened to the end, its hardened rubber edges making a formidable whip that can raise huge welts with a single stroke. This new force is being turned out at the rate of at least 1,000 new members a week. Mugabe’s supporters, meanwhile, appear to be trying to rig the March poll. After prodigious legal efforts, the opposition finally obtained a copy of the electoral register. To their alarm, it contained large numbers of dead voters, some of whom died as long as 15 years ago. Up to 2m other voters, meanwhile, could be turned away on election day because one of their parents was born in a foreign country - sufficient grounds under the recently passed citizenship act for them to be disbarred from citizenship, voting rights and even residence.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 20 January
Bush, Powell to discuss Zimbabwe
United States President George W Bush, and Colin Powell, his secretary of state, will soon meet to discuss the course of action to be taken against the Robert Mugabe regime in light of the deteriorating political situation in Zimbabwe, a senior US official has said. The news comes at a time when The Standard is reliably informed that several offshore financial accounts belonging to top government officials have already been identified by the US and other countries assisting it in its endeavour to clamp down on Zimbabwean officials it accuses of crimes against humanity. In an exclusive interview with The Standard on Friday, US assistant secretary for democracy, human rights, and labour, Lorne Craner, said his visit had been prompted by his country’s concern at the current situation in Zimbabwe, that he had been sent to view the situation on the ground and deliver the special message that "time is running out" for the Zimbabwe government to put its house in order. "We see the situation here very much worsening, and Colin Powell and the President will be discussing what our policy ought to be from here onwards," said Craner.
The assistant secretary, who was on a four-day working visit to Zimbabwe, said evidence gathered during his visit would play a pivotal role in deciding the course of US policy towards Zimbabwe. He said the US government, assisted by other countries, had so far identified several accounts, but could not give further details. "One of the things we are doing at the moment is identifying these financial accounts that exist and secondly, particular individuals that if we did move forward with these restrictions, would be affected." Commenting on what he had discovered during his short visit, Craner - who met officials from the foreign affairs ministry, the speaker of parliament and members of the civic society - said the situation was discouraging. "There’s a situation of great conflict here because the democratic promise that Zimbabwe holds is not being fulfilled. I have been to Zimbabwe before and a lot of countries in Africa and have visited other countries going through democratic transition. And one thing you can say about the last 20 years is that the expectations of democracy is very large."
"I say that because some in this country have tried to portray this as Zimbabwe versus Britain, Zimbabwe versus the US. It’s not, it is Zimbabwe versus democracies around the world." And I think you really see this if you listen to statements by people who are ordinarily not considered mouthpieces of the US, mouthpieces of Britain. People like Koffi Annan (UN secretary-general), Mary Robinson (UN high commissioner for refugees), Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela," he said. "The point is that there is an expectation in this world today that you don’t try to justify or try to talk about a shrinking economy and you don’t try to justify or talk about restrictive media laws or a law that is restrictive on political parties, or a law that is restrictive on ordinary citizens’ rights, as something that is defensible at the very time when other countries - South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Nigeria and others on this continent - are moving to open their economies, to open up their political systems." He said this trend had generally become acceptable globally, particularly by the presidents of South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria who have described it as a necessary precondition for Africa to move into the 21st Century. But for some reason Zimbabwe seemed to be going the other way. "Every time you see all that is going all around the world you have Zimbabwe which is moving backwards with a government that is trying to justify all of these I’ve talked about before it just doesn’t fit into the 21st Century."
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From SABC News, 20 January
Pro-Mugabe militants block opposition rally, 18 injured
At least 18 people were injured in Zimbabwe today when pro government militants blocked the opposition from holding a rally, the party's secretary general said. About 100 militant backers of President Robert Mugabe occupied the main stadium in Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo, where the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was due to hold a rally. About 6000 MDC supporters had gathered outside the stadium early today, but when they tried to enter police cordoned it off and threatened to shoot them, Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general said. A few MDC supporters managed to enter the stadium through a side entrance, but the militants beat and flogged them, Ncube said. Eighteen MDC supporters had escaped the stadium with serious injuries, including one man who lost an eye, Ncube said. At least seven more were believed to be held inside, he added.
Hundreds of police outside the stadium used teargas to break up the crowd outside the stadium and were still chasing them through the city's townships more than one hour later, Ncube said. "So much for Mugabe's promises that he will allow a free and fair election," Ncube said. "They can't organise a rally themselves because no one will show up," he said of Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF. "They are afraid now to be humiliated," in the March 9-10 presidential election, he said. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, is running against Mugabe in the poll, which had already been marred by widespread political violence targeting mainly opposition supporters during the campaign period.
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From BBC News, 20 January
Violence at Zimbabwe rally
Violence has erupted in Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo ahead of a visit by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to discuss the nation's deepening political crisis. Police fired tear gas to disperse rival party supporters who clashed before an opposition rally, witnesses said. At least 18 people were injured. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said its supporters were attacked by militants from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party trying to prevent them from entering a sports stadium for the rally, at which MDC presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai was due to speak. About 150 militants camped in the stadium overnight to block the entrances and stop an expected crowd of 15,000 from attending, the MDC said.
Eddie Cross, an opposition official at the stadium said police refused to remove the militants and "clearly were in cahoots" with them. Thousands of people converging on the stadium fled police tear gas and the rally was abandoned, he said. There was also violence in farming districts north-west of Harare, the Commercial Farmers Union and witnesses said. Chanting militants fanned out in the town of Banket, forcing residents to flee behind locked doors, witnesses said. MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube said the incidents showed Mr Mugabe's promise of free and fair elections was meaningless.
Mr Obasanjo arrived two hours late in Harare for talks with President Robert Mugabe on the political situation in Zimbabwe. Nigerian officials said the talks would focus on land reforms and concerns over the conduct of the presidential election scheduled for March. Last year, Mr Obasanjo helped broker a deal between Zimbabwe and other Commonwealth countries under which Mr Mugabe committed himself to a free and fair election. Zimbabwe's media had billed the trip as a full state visit, but Nigerian officials said Mr Obasanjo would return home immediately after meeting Mr Mugabe and officials on Sunday evening.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 20 January
Polling agents restricted
Prospects for a free and fair presidential election have been dealt another severe blow following the government directive that monitors, polling agents and election agents, may not travel in vehicles transporting the ballot papers. A statutory instrument published on Friday said agents and monitors had to use their own transport to follow the vehicles. "Monitors, polling agents and election agents shall be permitted to inspect any vehicle transporting ballot boxes at the polling station and at the counting centre, and to follow the vehicle in his or her own transport," said the statutory instrument published in Friday’s Government Gazette. The presidential election, scheduled for 9 and 10 March, is set to be a two way contest between Zanu PF’s Robert Mugabe and MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai. The statutory instrument is the latest in a string of recent regulations apparently aimed at giving President Mugabe an unfair advantage over his rivals. The registrar-general’s office, which conducts the poll, has been accused of being partisan by political parties and civic groups, a charge Tobaiwa Mudede, the registrar-general, vehemently denies.
Meanwhile, the fate of about 30 000 election monitors trained by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) hangs in the balance following the amendments made to the Electoral Act. Under the amendments, only the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) is allowed to monitor the election. The amendments rule out local non-governmental organisations which have previously monitored elections. Foreign monitors have also been barred from monitoring the election. They can, however, provide election observers, only on the invitation of government. ZESN chairman, Dr Reginald Matchaba-Hove, told The Standard yesterday that he would be meeting with officials from the ESC to discuss the issue.
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From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 20 January
My brush with Zanu mob rule on the election trail of terror
Robert Mugabe’s strategy is simple: to intimidate his people into re-electing him. On a lonely country road, Philip Sherwell ran into one of the teenage gangs that are now spreading fear throughout Zimbabwe.
A gang of teenage boys, young men and a few slightly older women emerged suddenly from the shoulder-high grass as we drove along the bumpy road. Clubs and sticks held threateningly aloft, they surrounded the car, pounded the bonnet and screamed at us to produce our Zanu PF membership cards and deliver the party salute. It was an intimidating introduction to electioneering in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Supporters of his ruling Zanu PF party last week turned swathes of rural Zimbabwe into no-go zones at the start of a brutal campaign to return the ageing autocrat to power in the presidential poll in March. Zanu youth brigades and so-called war veterans sealed off country towns, beat up activists from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and, in a new wave of land invasions, hounded out white farmers who support the MDC. In a further act of intimidation, thousands of farmers have this weekend been ordered by police to hand in their legally registered firearms. The strategy is to restrict the MDC to its urban strongholds and terrorise rural areas into backing Mr Mugabe. Even by Zimbabwe's recent violent standards, it has plunged the country into new depths of political brutality.
We followed the trail of terror that party youths have wreaked across Zanu's heartlands north of Harare in recent days. The attacks were conducted as Mr Mugabe promised his fellow southern African leaders at a summit in Malawi that he would end the violence and guarantee free and fair elections. The ringleaders in most incidents, we were told, were products of the notorious Border Gezi youth training camp on which this newspaper reported last week. It now emerges that smaller camps have also been set up in schools and public halls across the north. The government says the camps provide "civic training" for young men. The opposition insists that they teach political terror tactics. Roadblocks are a key weapon. This is how we ran into trouble.
As a mob of about 25 swarmed around our vehicle, I nervously wound down my window a few inches. Amid the chaos, a swaggering man, aged about 20 and wearing a baggy red T-shirt and torn trousers, leant against my door and told me he was in charge. "We are Zanu PF youth," he announced. "Where is your Zanu PF membership card?" My efforts to explain that I was a visitor from Britain were drowned out by his cohorts. Eventually, after showing my passport and convincing them that I did not live in Zimbabwe, the youth responded curtly: "In our country, everyone has to carry a Zanu PF card, even if they are only a visitor. It's the rule." Only when I asked how, if that was the case, I could buy one did he ease off. We would have to return the next day, he explained. Just as we thought we had extricated ourselves, the shouting and chanting started again. "Give the Zanu PF salute," barked another gang member with staring eyes. He clenched his fist and punched the air. We followed suit with a lack of enthusiasm that clearly did not please him. Before he could order us to repeat our performance, however, a pick-up truck carrying a burly white farmer pulled up behind us and the mob turned their attention to a new target. As we drove away, we could see him being made to toyi-toyi (dance and shout Zanu slogans) by the crowd.
Nerve-racking as our experience was on a quiet country road, it was nothing compared with the terror that the youth brigades and "war veterans" have unleashed on MDC supporters in rural towns. In Chinhoyi, 80 miles north-west of Harare, victims of last week's rampages have sought refuge at the party's cramped offices. Ray Mutematsaka, a teacher from the small farming town of Trelawney, had walked for five hours through the night. A gang of youths led by two "war veterans" had burst into his house the previous day, tied him up and beaten him across his back and buttocks. He managed to escape by slipping out through a window after asking to visit the lavatory. "They knew that I am an MDC district secretary, but they still asked me for my Zanu PF card," he said. "The war veterans said I was a traitor and ordered the youths to discipline me. I recognised many of them as my former students. They beat me and said that I should be killed as an example to the others." Similar stories were told at MDC offices in the smaller farming communities of Mutorashanga and Raffingora, which were also attacked and ransacked. Henry Muwungani, 23, had his arm in a sling following the Mutorashanga attack and also said that he feared for his life if he returned. MDC leaders acknowledge that the latest terror offensive will make it impossible for them to campaign in rural areas. They remain positive, however, insisting that the Zanu tactics will backfire. "They are doing our campaigning for us," said Roy Bennett, a senior MDC MP. "We could hardly have been more effective ourselves. They are driving even more voters to us."
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Comment from The Independent on Sunday (UK), 20 January
Nation on the brink
While the EU considers whether President Mugabe intends to hold free elections, the murders and beatings go on.
Richard Dowden
Discussing Zimbabwe some 10 years ago, Douglas Hurd, then foreign secretary, was warned that Robert Mugabe remained, at heart, a hardline one-party-state socialist. Hurd laughed: "His heart? Who cares what is in a politician's heart?" Yet President Mugabe's heart - and how to change it - is now frustrating politicians and diplomats world-wide. At 78 and having been in power for two decades, Mr Mugabe has chosen to follow his feelings, rather than his brain. He remains as astute and articulate as ever, but his heart seethes with the Chimurenga, the 15-year war of liberation which ended white rule and brought him to power. He did not fight it to establish a liberal, multi-party democracy which might one day deprive him of power through the ballot box.
The degree of ruling-party violence and other forms of political intimidation in Zimbabwe continue to escalate, and concern in the West is now so great that EU foreign ministers meet on 28 January to decide if Mr Mugabe really intends to hold free and fair elections in March, with international observers present, and has made efforts to curb violence by his supporters. Meantime, Commonwealth, EU and US officials have begun investigating the overseas assets of Mr Mugabe, his family and associates, in readiness for possible sanctions against Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe, fearing that a free and fair election might cost him the presidency, has launched the second stage of the liberation war. His aims are to obliterate all opposition to his rule and to retake the land that white foreigners seized more than 100 years ago. He is prepared to win at any cost - even the destruction of the country he claims to be liberating.
That is the logic of Mr Mugabe's supposed madness. The painful irony is that, while he pretends to champion the poor and landless, he is giving away huge chunks of the country to South African and Libyan companies in exchange for fuel and electricity. When Zimbabwe awakes from its nightmare, its citizens will find they have less control and ownership of their land and resources than ever. Zimbabwe is slipping into catastrophe, and the rest of the world are trying to stop it. But how? Is there anything that the world can do that would change his heart - or just his behaviour? Neither the tough-talking Peter Hain when a Foreign Office minister, nor the quiet diplomacy of South Africa's President Mbeki have achieved any change.
Mr Mugabe knows how to create a smokescreen out of verbal concessions. His Jesuit training made him legalistic, so, while he holds parliamentary democracy in contempt, he likes to play by the book. If laws don't suit him, he does not ignore them, he forces through a change. Meantime, violent repression has continued unabated. Opposition leaders and supporters continue to be murdered and beaten up, the press is harassed, and the courts threatened or judges replaced. The economy shrank by 4 per cent last year and is expected to fall far farther, half a million Zimbabweans are short of food, two-thirds are unemployed, and inflation rages at more than 100 per cent.
This year things can only get worse. Aid from foreign donors has died to a trickle and the World Bank and the IMF have stopped loans and assistance. Despite offers of aid if Mr Mugabe calls off his party thugs and restores the rule of law, he has not responded. The world has began to search for sanctions to force him to change, but how do you apply sanctions to a government prepared to destroy the country to stay in power? The US and the EU are preparing to impose "smart sanctions" on Zimbabwe's rulers and officials, such as refusing them entry, seizing their private assets and freezing their bank accounts in the US and Europe. In theory, that should hurt those responsible but not the majority of Zimbabweans. The US Congress has already passed the Democracy and Economic Recovery Act and President Bush has signed it into law. It only waits for officials to implement it.
On 11 January the EU demanded that promises Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister, Stan Mudenge, made at a meeting in Brussels be put in writing, signed and delivered by last Friday. He promised that the election would be free and fair, the international media would be allowed to cover it and observers would be invited to watch it. But no letter arrived and the EU too will probably slap similar sanctions on Mr Mugabe and his colleagues at the next meeting of ministers on 28 January. If the US and EU put the sanctions into effect too soon, they will be unable to send observers to the election. They want to be certain that it is going to be unfree and unfair before pulling the trigger. Their last shot may be ineffective anyway. Stuck in the rhetoric of the liberation war, Mr Mugabe will dismiss the US and EU as neo-imperialists.
Expulsion from the Commonwealth would, strangely, hurt him more; he likes the Commonwealth and its chummy meetings, and respects the verdict of some of his fellow leaders. They helped him in the struggle for Zimbabwe. Now Zimbabwe has been put on the agenda of the Ministerial Action Group, the body that deals with the bad boys. On 30 January the ministers will decide what to do and may well recommend suspension. That would mean Mr Mugabe could not go to the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government in Australia on 2 March, a week before Zimbabwe's election. The key country at the next Commonwealth meeting is Nigeria. Only Britain, Australia and New Zealand have so far come out in favour of suspending Zimbabwe. That sounds ominously like the old white Commonwealth uniting and may spark a reaction among African and Third World members to defend Zimbabwe. Nigeria's decision will be crucial. President Obasanjo tried to bring Zimbabwe and Britain together last September on the land issue and secured an agreement, but within a week Mr Mugabe tore it up and continued to seize white-owned farms. Mr Obasanjo is furious.
The only country capable of imposing effective economic sanctions on Zimbabwe is South Africa, but it faces a terrible dilemma. If it were to shut off fuel and electricity supplies, Zimbabwe would be closed down in days; but that might precipitate an exodus of tens of thousands of Zimbabweans seeking refuge in South Africa. Two other factors also make South Africa pause: most of its best farmland, as in Zimbabwe, is owned by whites, and if its poor blacks see their government punishing Mr Mugabe he might become their hero; secondly, Zimbabwe's opposition is neither clear nor united on what sanctions it wants. Yet South Africa cannot allow Zimbabwe to fall into starvation, chaos and civil war; and the US has told the South Africans that if they want to be taken seriously they must sort out Zimbabwe.
Everything turns on the election, but it may not produce a clear result. In the Seventies the young commanders of the nationalist fighters in the bush made Mr Mugabe the leader of the liberation movement. Today they are the commanders of Zimbabwe's armed forces and their destiny is tied to his. Recently the chief of staff, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, said the armed forces could not accept a president who had not fought in the liberation struggle. That rules out Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition. If he wins and the army mounts a coup against him, the world will have to impose sanctions and intervene. But if there is no clear winner in a bad election, South Africa will be forced to act.
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From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 20 January
Mugabe is losing army's support, says war veteran
The Zimbabwean army is disillusioned with Robert Mugabe and will not support his attempts to cling to power if he loses the forthcoming presidential election, according to a former guerrilla commander who was close to Mr Mugabe during the war that brought him to power. Wilfred Mhanda, who now leads a war veterans' group that opposes Mr Mugabe's rule, contradicted a recent claim by Vitalis Zvinavashe, Zimbabwe's chief of staff, that the military would not recognise any leader who had not fought in the bush war. The claim was designed specifically to unsettle Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mr Mhanda was once one of the most trusted commanders of Zanu's military wing and still has widespread contacts in the army. Many of the men he once fought alongside are now senior officers. "People are extremely concerned about the direction things are going, in particular the economic situation . . . the violence, the killings and the tarnishing of war veterans. No senior army leader is comfortable," he said.
I met Mr Mhanda in Johannesburg to interview him for the BBC as he was preparing to return to Zimbabwe, where he is the chairman of the War Liberators Platform - a group that opposes Mr Mugabe's policy of seizing white-owned farms. The chief of staff and a few other elite officers have benefited hugely from Mr Mugabe's patronage, but at the level of colonel and brigadier and below the support dwindles, according to Mr Mhanda. In the last parliamentary elections, held in 2000, a number of constituencies with large military garrisons voted against Mr Mugabe. Mr Mhanda joined the guerrilla struggle against white rule in what was then Rhodesia at the age of 16. He quickly rose through the ranks of Zanla - the military wing of Zanu - and was sent to China for military training. He met Mr Mugabe in 1976 just after the Zanu leader's release from prison and spent days briefing him on the political situation.
Mr Mhanda said that as he came to know Mr Mugabe he began to fear for the future of the movement. "He was very secretive, stubborn and uncompromising and also, whenever he develops an attitude against you, he will not change his mind . . . He is very vindictive." After falling out with Mr Mugabe over the direction of the movement, Mr Mhanda watched in horror as many of his senior colleagues were purged. Although he fought in a bush war that targeted white farmers in Rhodesia, Mhanda is furious that Mr Mugabe is using war veterans to attack commercial farmers. "They have a contribution to make in the development of our country," he said. "There was no reason for Mugabe to move against them. He had all the instruments of power and a majority in parliament to affect a more equitable distribution of wealth. The fact that he did not do so is not the fault of the whites." Mr Mhanda is not a member of the opposition MDC but he believes that a growing campaign of protest by the opposition and groups such as his War Liberators Platform will lead to the end of the regime: "Even if he [Mugabe] were to win the election he would not last long."
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From BBC News, 21 January
Africa turns on Mugabe
In a blow to President Robert Mugabe's attempts to portray himself as fighting colonialism, two major African countries have criticised his policies. Both South Africa and Ghana have expressed their concern at the situation in Zimbabwe, where Mr Mugabe faces difficult elections in March. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has also urged Britain and Zimbabwe to "give peace a chance" after talks in Harare. On Sunday, an opposition rally was broken up in the second city of Bulawayo by police and a pro-government militia. South African President Thabo Mbeki told journalists: "The instability [in Zimbabwe] has gone on for far too long. The levels of poverty and conflict are increasing, and if you add to that a fraudulent election, it has to be avoided." Correspondents say that the reference to a "fraudulent election" is unlikely to be well received in Harare. Mr Mbeki was speaking after meeting German President Johannes Rau and said that the region must do everything to ensure that the elections were free and fair. He did not say what South Africa would do.
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang told the BBC that "attempts to pass laws which sought to suppress the legitimate aspirations of Zimbabwe's opposition, muzzle the media and outlaw international observers would undermine the credibility of the presidential elections." Zimbabwe's parliament is expected to reconvene on Tuesday to pass a law which bans foreign correspondents and introduces tight controls on local journalists, including the threat of a two-year prison sentence. Laws banning election monitors and giving police powers to disperse political rallies have already been passed. The BBC's Kwaku Sakyi-Addo in Accra says that Ghana supported Zimbabwe's black liberation movements in the 1970s, led by Robert Mugabe. Our correspondent says that this is the first time that Ghana has criticised Mr Mugabe over the political violence of recent years. Mr Mugabe worked as a teacher in Ghana and his first wife, Sally, was Ghanaian.
Mr Obasanjo met both President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai before leaving for Nigeria early on Monday morning. Last September, he brokered a deal in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, under which Zimbabwe promised to end political violence, while Britain agreed to fund the programme of land reform. On Sunday, an opposition rally was broken up in the second city of Bulawayo by police and a pro-government militia. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was due to address the rally as part of his campaign for the 9-10 March elections. The Zimbabwe Government says it has kept to the deal but white farmers and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accuse Mr Mugabe of reneging on his promises to end political violence and obey the law with regard to land reform. In Bulawayo, the MDC says that self-styled "war veteran" supporters of Mr Mugabe occupied a stadium where the MDC was due to hold a rally. Then police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of opposition activists, while leaving the "war veterans" unmolested, according to the MDC. At least 18 people were reportedly injured. MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube said the incidents showed Mr Mugabe's promise of free and fair elections was meaningless.
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Witness statement, 21 January
What happened in Bulawayo
The MDC had informed the police that they were having a rally and on Saturday had organised a highly successful and colourful showboat (a vehicle procession with loudspeakers and music) inviting people to the meeting due to be addressed by MDC vice president Gibson Sibanda. That evening however, news filtered through to the MDC offices that Zanu PF had deployed 200 militia inside White City stadium. MDC youth who had gone to guard the venue overnight, as is normally the case, walked into the ambush and were savagely assaulted with chains, iron bars and batons. One of the youth was driven out to Solusi on the Plumtree Road and tortured, while being asked who had killed Cain Nkala. He was later brought back to the stadium where more beatings followed before he was released. The MDC has video and photographic images of the brutalized youth. In the meantime the local MDC leadership were imploring the police to do something about the invasion of the stadium. These discussions with the police went on till well after midnight.
Not everyone has a cell phone. On Sunday morning, more MDC youth made their way to the stadium from their homes to help pitch the tents and set up sound equipment. Little did they know what was in store for them. There were a few policemen at the stadium at the time and they literally escorted the MDC youth into the stadium fully aware that Mugabe’s militia were camped and waiting in the stadium. Within an hour the MDC office began to receive reports of badly injured youth stumbling out of the stadium. Vehicles were mobilised and the youth were sent for medical attention. Gibson Sibanda, along with other senior MDC officials, rushed to White City, only to find that the police had cordoned off the stadium.
By the time the Bulawayo public had begun to arrive at the venue for the 9 a.m. rally, the news had got out about the militia, and the beatings they had inflicted. The police were clearly protecting the militia and were not going to allow the rally to take place, despite the best efforts of Sibanda in his negotiations with the police. The public broke into song telling the police "Into yenza yo asi thandi" and toyi toying up and down the road facing the stadium. Predictably the police responded by sending in the heavily armed riot squad, who fired tear gas canisters at a peaceful crowd airing their grievances in song. The crowd immediately scattered, but the police went into hot pursuit mode and followed the public into the residential areas. More tear gas followed. Elderly women eking out a living selling vegetables and tomatoes were forced to flee the burning gas and could not carry their tables on their heads and flee. The scene was reminiscent of Soweto in the apartheid years, and yet SADC trusts Mugabe. In the end, thousands were teargassed, scores of MDC youth badly beaten by the militia and the rally was called off while Mugabe wined and dined with Obasanjo.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 22 January
Veteran MP to rule on future of Zimbabwe press
Harare - The future of Zimbabwe's media and its chances of covering the election rests in the hands of Dr Eddison Zvobgo, 66, a veteran politician and the only man President Robert Mugabe fears. As chairman of the parliamentary legal committee through which every piece of legislation must pass, he is scheduled today to present a report on whether the press bill, which will make journalists outlaws, is constitutional. Every barrister and legal academic in Zimbabwe says key clauses in the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill are unconstitutional but it is only Zvobgo's voice which will be heard by Mugabe's inner circle. In his office, a double-storey colonial house, Dr Zvobgo looks frail and says he is under "terrible stress". He will not discuss the recent statement by the armed forces that they would not recognise the result of the election if they were won by Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader. "What I can say is that this is going to be a watershed election," he said. "The process is in place. There may be imperfections, nobody runs away from that, but let us resist the temptation of judging the election six weeks in advance."
His committee of three, two from the ruling Zanu PF and one from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, has won some notable successes in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, it managed to force amendments to the Public Order and Security Bill, which liberalised the roughest parts of the legislation. Then Dr Zvobgo, a Harvard-educated solicitor, told his colleagues on the ruling party benches that much of a draft labour bill was ultra vires, beyond its authority. The bill would have outlawed strikes and de-registered trade unions which took part in boycotts. Dr Zvobgo was dropped from Mr Mugabe's cabinet after the general election last year but remains one of the most popular MPs and was re-elected with a huge majority. He was a founder of Zanu-PF in 1963, its spokesman at Lancaster House negotiations in 1979, and a long-serving cabinet member but he will not campaign for Mr Mugabe in March's presidential elections. Mr Zvobgo may have been party to many of the worst pieces of legislation on the statute books and repeated states of emergencies in the 1980s but he has long been critical of the Zanu PF leadership.
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From The Guardian (UK), 22 January
Zimbabwe's cycle of starvation
Harare - The weary Zimbabwean farmer had been accused of a lot of things in the past couple of years, but this one was new. After armed government men burst through his gates and hauled off the last of the maize he used to feed his livestock, one of them accused him of trying to starve the country's black population. "I told them that the grain is for my stock and the men who work here and their families," said the farmer, who asked to be anonymous because he feared reprisals. "I told them that now I'll have to slaughter my pigs because I've got nothing to feed them, but they took it just the same. And why not? If you don't have enough food to feed people, then it's better to take it from the animals." With just seven weeks until t he presidential election on March 9 and 10, President Robert Mugabe is all too aware that people will not vote for him on an empty stomach. The wholesale confiscation of the most productive farms has created a potentially catastrophic food shortage, and in desperation the government is seizing animal feed and any other grain it can find. This year's harvest will be the second disastrous crop in a row. And the impact of that catastrophe will fall at precisely the moment when Zimbabwe goes to the polls. By then much of the country's livestock will already have been slaughtered.
Many rural areas - notably parts of Matabeleland, Masvingo and Mashonaland - are already facing serious food shortages. In the cities, shops are bare of the cheaper basic maize, and supplies of the more expensive, refined variety are limited. Cooking oil has not been seen in many areas for weeks. The few stores that have milk, ration it. The government blames white farmers for the crisis, saying they are hoarding food to bring down Mr Mugabe. The president's critics say the situation is entirely of his making because the farm seizures by "war veterans" have left huge tracts of land fallow. The thousands of small-scale farmers Mr Mugabe said were desperate to start planting have yet to materialise. The north of the country is not untypical. Mile after mile, the land stands barren. The farmers have fled, had their supplies looted or been ordered not to plant by the armed gangs on the land. There is little incentive anyway. The "war veterans" often claim any crop as their own.
The World Food Programme and regional organisations warn that 500,000 Zimbabweans already face serious food shortages which could lead to starvation within weeks, and that grain supplies are sufficient to feed millions more only for another two months. The government says it needs 150,000 tonnes of maize immediately and a further 200,000 tonnes by April. And it will need many hundreds of thousands of tonnes more if the land remains idle. Zimbabwe's neighbours are as concerned about the consequences of a food crisis as they are about the political violence. South Africa is preparing a military base near its northern border as a refugee camp in case tens of thousands - possibly hundreds of thousands - flee what Pretoria describes as "meltdown". That is taken to mean a number of potential disasters, from starvation to civil war. The present food shortage was caused by the sharp fall in the maize harvest last year, initially because of poor rains but compounded by the farm occupations under Mr Mugabe's fast-track land redistribution plan. The 2001 harvest fell 40% short of the more than 2m tonnes of maize Zimbabwe consumes each year. This year promises to be even more serious, with the annual harvest in March and April expected to produce less than half the country's needs, according to the government's own statistics. The mostly white Commercial Farmers' Union goes further and says that large-scale farms will produce only 200,000 tonnes of maize this year - enough to feed the country for just six weeks.
On December 28, the government imposed new regulations which gave farmers, millers, packing companies and distributors a fortnight to deliver all maize and wheat to the state grain marketing board. After that, it began raiding farms to seize stocks. The GMB's manager, Justine Mutasa, has astonished much of the country by claiming that there is no shortage. "There is so much maize in the country and we may not even need to import if we manage to impound all the maize from commercial farmers," he said. The CFU's vice-president for commodities, Doug Taylor Freemen, said the accusation against the farmers was nonsense. By seizing animal feed to give to people, he said, the regime was forcing farmers to slaughter their stock. The numbers of cattle, pigs and chickens had fallen sharply. While their slaughter provides a temporary boost to the meat supply, the numbers of breeding animals has been drastically cut. And the seizures are taking food not only from animals but farm workers and their families. "The disruption of this new legislation is that it will have a domino effect on food security, namely the production of milk, eggs, chicken, pork and beef," he said.
Yesterday, the government trumpeted the seizure of 36,000 tonnes of maize from farms. But its critics say that it is merely trying to stave off the inevitable until after the presidential election. After months of denying that there was a crisis in the making, the government conceded the reality last November. It is now looking to foreign governments, through the World Food Programme, to bail it out. But donors are reluctant to give food if it is used by the ruling Zanu PF party to buy votes. "There is no way we are going to help Mugabe hang on to power by giving him the power to decide who eats and who doesn't," said a European diplomat. "He is the one who has dragged his country to the brink of starvation, and if he wants to stop it going over the edge, it has to be on our terms." After weeks of wrangling, the agreed terms include handing the distribution of food over to two foreign agencies, Care and World Vision, and a Zimbabwean Christian organisation. But the government insists that local officials are consulted during the food distribution, and it is highly likely that in rural areas they will be on hand to claim credit for the deliveries in languages that the foreign aid workers do not understand. An initial shipment of 8,500 tonnes of maize donated by the US is on its way from Tanzania and more has been pledged. Whether the supply is maintained will depend in part on whether the Zimbabwe government honours its pledge to allow food to be distributed without manipulating it for political purposes
Even after the immediate crisis passes, whoever governs the country after the presidential election faces a long haul to rebuild agriculture. Some white farmers who have seen their cattle herds slowly poached have decided to cut their losses and slaughter the lot in the hope of reaping at least some reward. As a result, according to the government's own central statistics office, the number of breeding cows fell from 508,000 three years ago to 378,000 last year. This year it is expected to fall to just 282,000. But statistics in Zimbabwe seem meaningless these days. What does it matter how many cows a farmer has, if they are competing with humans for food?
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From The Independent (UK), 22 January
Zimbabwe faces 'smart sanctions' as EU loses patience over human rights
Brussels - Zimbabwe faced the near certainty of EU sanctions yesterday after failing to give assurances on press freedom, or to say how international observers will be able to monitor the presidential elections. A letter from the Zimbabwean government was dismissed by diplomats as vague and insubstantial, raising the prospect that European foreign ministers will impose targeted sanctions - such as visa bans and a freeze on overseas assets - on senior government figures next Monday. Zimbabwe was given a last chance to avoid confrontation during talks in Brussels 10 days ago. With growing cynicism about its promises, Harare was asked to show how it intends to guarantee press freedom, and to detail a timetable for the invitation of overseas observers. Zimbabwe's parliament is expected to ram through a media Bill today which effectively stamps out the free press.
Yesterday's letter, from the Zimbabwean Foreign Minister, Stan Mudenge, stuck to generalities, arguing that "the government is inviting national, regional and international election observers", and that it "reaffirms its practice of allowing journalists, both national and international, to cover important national events, including elections". Glenys Kinnock, the Labour MEP, described the response as "totally inadequate", adding: "This four-page letter is further evidence that the government of Zimbabwe has no intention of meeting the two most important criteria. They have failed to undertake that violence and intimidation must end, and a time-scale for the entry of election observers should have been clearly given." A diplomat added: "The letter does not have the detail we want, and we will have to consider the next steps, such as smart sanctions." Mr Mudenge's letter also included some of the aggressive rhetoric that marked his speech in Brussels 10 days ago. He argued: "We believe that 'demanding' or 'insisting' on the sending of European Union observers to observe our presidential election is not consistent with the spirit of the Cotonou Agreement [which governs relations between the EU and a bloc of developing nations]. There was also an attack on EU countries, including Britain, which Zimbabwe said has "funded opposition parties" in what it described as "blatant interference in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe".
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 22 January
Jersey warns banks about Mugabe funds
Jersey yesterday became the first offshore centre to warn banks and financial services businesses to be on the alert for funds deposited by members of Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe. The Jersey Financial Services Commission issued a notice stating the names of Mr Mugabe, his wife Grace and 23 ministers and associates of his regime. Its action came a week after it emerged that the US and Britain have begun investigating the overseas assets of Mr Mugabe and his associates in readiness for possible sanctions against Zimbabwe. The commission, which regulates Jersey's 70 banks, 30 fund administrators, 250 trust company businesses and 150 investment firms, said it had "no reason to suppose" that Jersey was being used by the Mugabe government.
But it added: "Nevertheless, regulated institutions should review their files to determine whether or not they have any connection with any of the named individuals. They will then wish to satisfy themselves that they know the customers concerned (including proper knowledge of the source of funds) and have taken any appropriate action to address any reputational risks that may arise." It said any financial institution that suspects the legitimacy of funds held by the people listed should "review its relationship with that customer" and make a suspicious transaction report to the island's Financial Crimes Unit.
Richard Pratt, director-general of the commission, said: "We do receive a fair amount of business from Africa and we make no allegations about President Mugabe or his associates. Given the action of the US and the UK in identifying assets, this is a live issue which we think our regulated institutions and authorised intermediaries should be aware of." The Jersey regulator, whose role is similar to Britain's Financial Services Authority, oversees a financial offshore centre with £350 billion of deposited assets. It is proud of its regulatory regime, which is ranked alongside that of Switzerland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Guernsey and the Isle of Man by the Financial Stability Forum of the Group of Seven industrialised nations.
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From The Independent (UK), 23 January
Mugabe's allies revolt over press freedom law
Harare - The Zimbabwean President faced a rebellion by some of his closest allies yesterday when they refused to endorse a media law that seeks to stifle criticism of Robert Mugabe and shut down the free press. The unexpected revolt in the ruling party's caucus, which could be a turning point for Mr Mugabe, forced the government to postpone the adoption of the Bill for the second time in less than a week. The delay came after many MPs in Zanu PF, the ruling party, broke ranks by saying they were opposed to Mr Mugabe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill, whose restrictive clauses have sparked worldwide protests. The Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, had promised that the Bill would be approved, but yesterday he suddenly adjourned parliament without indicating when the measures would be considered next. There was immediate speculation that Mr Mugabe might bow to international pressure, and that the Bill might be permanently shelved.
But analysts cautioned that the recalcitrant MPs might yet be brought into line by Mr Mugabe and forced to push through the Bill or face serious consequences. Even among the President's cronies, the Bill is viewed as the worst of the repressive legislation passed by Zimbabwe's parliament before the presidential election this March. A Zanu PF legislator who attended the caucus meeting said: "We are sick and tired of being used to pass repressive laws aimed at entrenching Mugabe's hold on power while the masses are suffering. We would rather spend time campaigning for Mugabe in our constituencies so that he wins a free and fair election, instead of being used to rubber-stamp laws that violate constitutional rights." The proposed law would impose stiff jail sentences on Zimbabwean journalists criticising President Mugabe, and require them to apply for annual licences. It would also ban foreign journalists from working in the country or publishing stories that cause "fear, alarm and despondency". The parliamentary committee responsible for scrutinising Bills and making recommendations to parliament rejected the media law as unconstitutional last week, forcing the Justice Minister to postpone consideration while amendments were drafted. Yesterday the MPs said that despite some 36 amendments the Bill was still too restrictive, and differed little from the one they had rejected.
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From The Guardian (UK), 23 January
Mugabe press bill invites sanctions
Harare - Robert Mugabe has virtually guaranteed that international sanctions will be imposed on Zimbabwe by pressing ahead with draconian legislation allowing his government to ban newspapers and stop journalists reporting. The government party, Zanu PF, resubmitted its press bill to parliament yesterday with only minor changes, five days after it said it would revise it following a storm of foreign and domestic criticism. At the time Mr Mugabe assured southern African leaders that Zimbabwe's lively independent press would be allowed to continue to publish. But the revised bill gives the information minister the power to decide who may work as a reporter and which newspapers may publish. A clause which made it an offence to spread "fear and despondency has been dropped, but the bill retains the offence of spreading "rumours or falsehoods under the guise of authentic reports". Foreigners with residence permits will be allowed to work as reporters, but only with the information minister's approval.
The decision to press ahead with this bill, on the heals of tough new security and election laws which are widely seen as part of the government's strategy to steal the presidential election in March, will reinforce demands for the EU and Commonwealth to impose selected sanctions on Zimbabwe's leaders. The two organisations meet separately next week. But the president's more immediate concern is to force the legislation through parliament today. Mr Mugabe is so concerned about the unrest in Zanu PF provoked by the bill and the other new laws - one effectively bans the right to strike - that he dispatched party whips to harangue MPs yesterday. The government was forced to withdraw its original press bill after a revolt in parliament last week led by Eddison Zvobgo, once one of Mr Mugabe's closest allies, now a key obstacle to his re-election. Fifteen years ago Mr Zvobgo, a Harvard-trained lawyer, rewrote the constitution to give sweeping new powers to the president. For a long time he was seen as likely to succeed Mr Mugabe, but his undisguised ambition led to a rift. In September 2000 Mr Zvobgo attacked the government's seizure of white-owned farms, saying: "We have tainted what was a glorious revolution, reducing it to some agrarian racist enterprise. We have behaved as if the world owes us a living. It does not."
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From News24 (SA), 22 January
US gets tough on Zim media law
Washington - The United States has increased pressure on Zimbabwe, registering fresh concern about a tough new media bill and warning the country's leaders they could still face punitive personal sanctions. The new US warning, in line with mounting international criticism of what are seen as President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian policies, has come despite a slight easing of the bill's provisions and a surprise adjournment of parliament - which had been due to take up the proposed legislation on Tuesday. US state department spokesperson Richard Boucher said: "We remain concerned there's still this bill within Zimbabwe's parliament which would give them control over independent media. "We think it's another tragic example of President Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian rule, his government's apparent determination to repress freedom of speech and dissent." Boucher said Washington still was consulting other governments on a plan to impose "smart sanctions" on Mugabe, members of his family and other government leaders. "We're still talking to other countries. We're still considering what we can do, and we're still watching developments in Zimbabwe very closely." The US congress last year passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which allows for targeted sanctions against people identified as responsible for political violence in the country. The United States said last week it was considering acting in line with the law. Britain and the European Union also said they could move (on this).
Zimbabwe's new media law is being debated after the passage earlier this month of tough new electoral and security laws that the opposition says are aimed at clamping down on them ahead of presidential election scheduled for March 9 and 10. Journalists have been in uproar against the media law and were not placated by slight tinkerings with the legislation on Tuesday. The press bill originally proposed by Mugabe's government banned all foreign journalists from Zimbabwe and imposed stiff penalties for criticising the president. The revised bill would allow "permanent residents" to work as journalists. Foreigners could be accredited to cover "a specific event over a limited period of time," if they obeyed other still-restrictive clauses in the bill, according to a draft. The new version also removed a clause that criminalised criticism of Mugabe - although a tough security law approved earlier this month already outlawed statements "causing hatred, contempt or ridicule" of the president. Violations of the law would still be punished by stiff fines and up to two years in prison. Mugabe is tightening the screws on opposition to his 22-year rule, as he faces the toughest challenge to his presidency from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the two-year-old Movement for Democratic Change.
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From Reuters, 22 January
Four killed in Zimbabwe political violence
Harare - Zimbabwe police said on Tuesday they were investigating the deaths of four people in political violence over the past week as President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party and the main opposition party traded accusations on the murder of their supporters. State television reported that police had arrested 29 people in the past two days over the violence which has flared up between the two main political parties in the run up to presidential elections set for March 9-10. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Tuesday four of its supporters were murdered by ruling Zanu PF militants in the past week -- three of them in the southern Masvingo province. But the ruling party rejected the charge, claiming the three dead men found in Masvingo were Zanu PF supporters murdered by MDC activists. "I don't know about our people being involved in any murder. What I know is that the MDC killed three of our people last week," said Zanu PF Masvingo province chairman Samuel Mumbengegwi. A police spokesman said they were investigating the deaths. "We are looking at these cases, and until we complete our investigations we are not apportioning any blame to any party," the spokesman said.
MDC Information Secretary Learnmore Jongwe said in a statement the three men - named as Richard Chatunga, Amos Mapingure and Isaac Munikwa - were murdered by "Zanu PF thugs." Jongwe said another man, Moffat Soko Chiwaura, 59, was allegedly abducted by Zanu PF youths in December and was found dead on a farm in northeastern Zimbabwe last week. The MDC has accused Zanu PF of training a private militia under the guise of a national youth service to lead a violent campaign against the opposition in the run-up to the elections, in which President Robert Mugabe faces a tough challenge from MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. "We call upon Mugabe's regime to disband the Zanu PF militia," Jongwe said. The accusations come after at least 20 people were hurt in street battles between ZANU-PF and MDC supporters in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo on Sunday. The MDC says nearly 100 of its supporters have been killed in political violence since February 2000 when militants led by veterans of the 1970s war against white rule began often violent seizures of white-owned farms with government backing.
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From BBC News, 22 January
Grain shortages bite in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's grain shortages are approaching critical levels despite government attempts to import from neighbouring countries, the state broadcaster has reported. Mealie meal - the maize-derived staple in southern Africa - has been hard to come by for as much as two weeks, sources in Zimbabwe say. The wholesale land seizures of white-owned farms over the past few years has slashed commercial maize production, while the shifting of black workers off those farms has left families going hungry. State media are reporting that the first 2,000 tonnes of a 150,000 tonne maize tender are due to arrive from South Africa on Wednesday, to replenish reserves which the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation said were at "critical" levels. But the rest of the tender has yet to be made public.
According to local experts, the only country in southern Africa with a grain surplus - and a narrow one at that - is South Africa. "The [Zimbabwean] government have pretty much mismanaged the tendering process," one Harare-based economist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told BBC News Online. "There's very little on the way. For months they denied there was a need to import, and by the time the government changed its tune most of it was allocated. There's not much more than a week or two's supply left." Even if the government can source more supplies, there is little foreign currency to buy it and too little transport and fuel to distribute it to the areas it is most needed, he said.
The government now says it needs about 600,000 tonnes to make up for domestic output which fell to 1.48 million tonnes in 2000-01, from 2.04 million tonnes the previous season. The UN's World Food Programme is appealing for $60m to help feed nearly 600,000 people in the countryside officially at risk of starvation. And, with unemployment at 60%, inflation at 112% and three in four Zimbabweans living in poverty, the situation is thought unlikely to improve in the near future. According to the state-owned Daily Herald newspaper, the government has seized 36,000 tonnes of maize from commercial farms who were refusing to hand it over to the Grain Marketing Board. The GMB is now Zimbabwe's monopoly supplier. More than 6,000 tonnes was seized from a German-owned farm, the paper said, despite efforts from German embassy staff to stop the process. But sources in Zimbabwe said the maize being impounded was yellow maize mostly destined for animal feed, and rarely used for human consumption.
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From The Post (Zambia), 22 January
Zanu PF cadres pounce on Zambians in Victoria Falls
Bulawayo Zanu PF cadres last Tuesday stopped Zambian cross-border traders in Victoria Falls and confiscated their goods, accusing them of contributing to food shortages and escalating prices of basic commodities in the resort town. Police later raided a warehouse believed to belong to the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) and seized goods, including maize-meal and sugar, on suspicion that the supplies were stolen. Victoria Falls was last week reported to have run out of maize-meal and a wide range of basic commodities, including sugar. The shortage reportedly incensed Zanu PF supporters, who marched to a warehouse where the Zambians store their goods overnight before clearance at the border. "They looted goods worth thousands of dollars," said David Mulenga, a Zambian cross-border trader. "They did not beat us up but they kept threatening and accusing us of trying to sabotage Zanu PF."
A Matabeleland North province police spokesman Inspector Alfred Zvenyika said investigations were under way. He said, acting on information, the police raided the NRZ facility and recovered beer cans, maize-meal bags and large amounts of sugar. "We acted on a tip-off from the public," said Inspector Zvenyika. "Some of these people you say had their goods looted are smugglers and what they are doing is unlawful." According to Zimbabwean law, the export of basic foodstuffs is banned. But smugglers have sprouted along the borders, particularly along the Mutare-Mozambican border and the Victoria Falls-Zambian border. The government's introduction of price controls on basic commodities late last year has triggered serious shortages because manufacturers have no capacity to continue producing goods at a loss or for thin profit margins. Maize stocks have seriously dwindled and there are severe food shortages in the south-western parts of the country. The government is planning to import maize to avert starvation.
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Comment from The Washington Times, 21 January
Mugabe's delusions of power
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is in denial. The aging strongman promised to hold free and fair elections at last week's 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Malawi. This, just after the Zimbabwean parliament, dominated by his Zanu PF party, passed laws to criminalize criticism of the president, ban independent election monitors, and deny millions of Zimbabweans living abroad the ability to vote. Indeed, there is much to criticize about Mr. Mugabe's reign. His "land reform" policy backs militant blacks in the forced takeover of land from white - and more recently, black - farmers, preventing the production of tobacco, which supplies Zimbabwe with 30 percent of its export earnings.
Yet Mr. Mugabe still doesn't realize he is on his way out. In February 2000, voters rejected a new constitution which would grant him 12 more years in power and the right to confiscate farmers' lands without compensation. He ignored the will of the people then, just as he does now. At the SADC meeting, Malawian President Bakili Muluzi's request that Mr. Mugabe resolve his country's political and economic crises did not phase the Zimbabwean dictator, who has been in power for 22 years. A smug Mr. Mugabe emerged from the meeting announcing that "All is well that ends well." There would be no change in his land-robbery policy, he insisted.
At home, Mr. Mugabe is militantly averse to any opposition. Last weekend government-backed militants beat and critically injured opposition activists. Ruling party members also burned down the offices of the Movement for Democratic Change opposition party. Meanwhile, Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, revealed Wednesday that the United States and the United Kingdom were tracking the assets of Mr. Mugabe and his associates. Zimbabwean officials were transferring the money, thought to be millions of dollars, to safe havens in Europe and the United States ahead of the March elections, Mr. Royce said.
Washington and the European Union are considering freezing the accounts of Mr. Mugabe, his family and other government officials and limiting their travel abroad. This is well-advised, and would send a distinct message to Mr. Mugabe that his corrupt practices are unacceptable. In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the British Commonwealth if there is no reform by March, an action that would likely leave the country in irreparable disrepair. A man who must steal land, money and power to remain on the throne is very weak indeed. The international community, and especially the SADC, must use the next two months to pressure Mr. Mugabe to stop blocking democratic reform. Unless he finds his way back to reality before then, Mr. Mugabe will be whistling past his own political graveyard.
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From Business Day (SA), 24 January
Media bill delay may be warning to Mugabe
Flawed bill inspires virtually unheard of dissent from Zanu PF
Dissent is growing within President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party over draconian media laws designed to muzzle the press and suppress information ahead of the presidential election in March. In the first sign of cracks in Mugabe's own party as the presidential election approaches, the government failed again yesterday for the second time in a week to introduce in parliament the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill in the face of mounting resistance in cabinet and parliament. The bill, along with several other pieces of repressive legislation, has been severely criticised internationally since it was first publicised. An amended bill, which eases proposed curbs to press freedom ever so slightly, was released yesterday. In the short term, yesterday's delay hinders efforts by Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe's information minister and staunch ally, to gag the media. But in the medium term the delay, caused by opposition from Zanu PF MPs to the media laws, shows Mugabe's grip is loosening and that he faces a tough campaign for re-election. Moyo is an unelected MP appointed by Mugabe.
Leader of the House Patrick Chinamasa was forced to delay debate on the bill for the second time yesterday because of heightening opposition within Zanu PF - an unheard of occurrence in Zimbabwean politics - to the legislation that even party members described as Draconian and "fundamentally flawed". In a key setback to Mugabe's efforts to suppress challenges to his rule ahead of the election, official sources said the bill was held back after a Zanu (PF) caucus meeting yesterday morning at which MPs refused to be whipped into line by Moyo. The move to frustrate Moyo's legislative efforts is seen as a rare act of defiance against Mugabe. The caucus refusal to endorse the law shows the extent of the dissent within Zanu PF over Mugabe's rule. This first emerged with opposition to the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, which sought to outlaw strikes, by parliament's legal affairs committee, chaired by Eddison Zvobgo, Mugabe's fiercest rival.
But this week, in a confidential document, the parliamentary communications committee also came out against the media bill. Though chaired by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the committee is dominated, like all others, by Zanu PF MPs. It not clear when the amended bill will be introduced. Sources said it contained 39 amendments. Zvobgo's legal affairs committee will examine it before another attempt is made to squeeze it through the House. Zvobgo is said to have indicated it would be futile for government to push the bill through in its current form because ruling party legislators would not support it. Sources said there were internal dynamics in Zanu PF causing the ruction. Sources said another problem was the bad blood between Zvobgo, and allies Moyo and Mugabe. The rivalry got worse two years ago during the abortive government-sponsored Constitutional Commission of Inquiry. Moyo clashed with Zvobgo over the reform exercise and their relations have since been strained. Moyo is Mugabe's adherent while Zvobgo has literally become the president's enemy.
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From The Financial Gazette, 24 January
Youths confess training is military
Contrary to claims by Zanu PF that its national service youths are not receiving military training, the Financial Gazette this week spoke to some of the graduates of the training programme who all confirmed that military tactics and political indoctrination were the key components of the course run by the Border Gezi Centre in Mount Darwin. The youths said they had been promised jobs in the army and the police force in exchange for spearheading President Robert Mugabe’s violent campaign to win re-election on March 9 and 10. But the five youths interviewed on condition of anonymity for their own security said most of them were not happy with the promises of job offers after the presidential poll. They said they would have been happier if they had been given the jobs now.
Youth Development and Employment Minister Elliot Manyika last week said the national service youths were not receiving military training because Zimbabwe was not at war and there was absolutely no need for such training. He said the army was well placed to defend Zimbabwe. The government has said the youths are being trained in courses such as carpentry, agriculture, craftsmanship, bricklaying and other technical services. But the youths told the Financial Gazette that it was not possible to have effective training in these disciplines within the short periods the courses were being run. The courses last between one and three weeks. During the training, the youths said they were divided into groups of about 50 to create psychological bonds that would enable them to act as a group once deployed in the field. A substantial amount of time was spent on fitness exercises, followed by gun-handling and shooting lessons. Those who demonstrated political awareness in favour of the ruling Zanu PF were made the group leaders, who regularly interacted with uniformed officers to develop their leadership skills. The youths said they were also given political lessons on patriotism and Zimbabwean history, with emphasis being placed on how Zanu PF helped liberate Zimbabwe.
The youths denied that Russian mercenaries, who once helped Zimbabwe in its war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had been re-hired to conduct the training. "To be honest, I have not seen any white man at the centre - not even Health Minister Timothy Stamps," one youth said. "All the military aspects of the training have been conducted by officials from the army and the police." The youths also emphasised that the military training was not offered to everyone. Those suspected of being followers of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and those who failed to demonstrate sufficient support for the ruling party were withdrawn from the centre. "Although the idea of national youth service is a noble one, everything that is being done now is for the election. Maybe proper national youth service will start after the election," another youth said. The youths said their occasional deployment to do cleaning services in urban areas was an attempt to hoodwink the public about their real mission. "Nobody needs training to be a sweeper," one of the youths said.
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From ZWNEWS, 25 January
Food shortages could eclipse all other election issues
By Michael Hartnack
As Zimbabwe slides toward widespread famine, the supply of staple food could now eclipse all other issues in presidential elections. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai declared Wednesday, in his starkest warning yet, that "hunger and starvation now loom for millions", and agricultural sources said the country would run out of maize next month since it was now impossible to import sufficient to meet the monthly national requirement of 150 000 tonnes. Only the government denied there is a crisis. "There is so much maize in the country, and we may not even need to import if we manage to impound all maize from commercial farmers," said Justice Mutasa, spokeswoman for the state-controlled Grain Marketing Board. Even by the propaganda standards of President Robert Mugabe's government, the claim was astonishing. The government maintained this week it had seized 36, 000 tonnes of maize from white commercial farmers, but there are doubts about the truth of this announcement. Meanwhile, supermarket shelves are virtually denuded of supplies of mealie meal, the staple diet; farming sources reported last week that only 40 000 tonnes of maize were left; the Catholic Church and the United Nations Development Programme say that 500 000 Zimbabweans already in urgent need of relief in the western Matabeleland and central Midlands areas.
In trademark fashion, Mugabe's officials and the state-controlled media accuse commercial farmers of hoarding maize to destabilize the government, and scatter the rest of the blame on milling companies and patchy rainfall. The statistics tell a different story: production has slumped drastically because of invasions of white-owned farms by government supporters. In the 2000 season, commercial farmers planted 150 000 hectares to maize, in 2001, 69 000, and currently only 45 000 is planted with an expected yield of 200 000 tonnes -- just over a month's supply for the nation. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who until September repeatedly denied there would be any shortfall in food production, now says that 98 000 tonnes of maize have been requested from the World Food Programme. Made also maintains that next month will see a bumper 3-million ton maize harvest from black farmers, including 300 000 people settled on recently acquired white-owned land. This claim is contradicted by government appeals for U.S.$60 million in donor assistance. The United States responded with an initial 8 000-tonne shipment.
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, said substitute foods for Zimbabwe's 13 million people were at least twice as expensive and in short supply, partly as a result of the farm invasions, and maize was irreplaceable as stockfeed. He appealed to voluntary organisations and foreign governments to make ready for a relief operation, if need be after "the induction of a new MDC government in April." Maize supplies have also been hit by current political violence. A senior policeman was allegedly implicated in looting by militants of 45 tonnes of maize from a farm in the Raffingora area earlier this month. A recent check on all supermarkets on the road from Mutare to Harare indicated bare shelves. In the capital, the OK Bazaars First Street Branch had only 20kg bags (at Z$491) and 5kg bags of super refined meal at Z$194 - far beyond the pockets of 80 percent of Zimbabweans who are living below the bread line. (The official exchange rate is Z$80 = £1, the "parallel" rate is as high as Z$600 = £1).
Relief agencies have apparently fended off initial demands by the Mugabe government that it distribute all food aid. Officials of the UN Development Programme and the World Food Programme confirmed this week they had had discussions with the Zimbabwe government and received assurances they would, now be allowed to distribute relief supplies. But the MDC and other government critics say that those distributing relief are being closely monitored by the ruling Zanu PF party and Central Intelligence Organisation. During the calamitous 1993-94 drought Zanu PF insisted all relief, even that donated by charity, go out under the aegis and propaganda stamp of the ruling party.
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From The Star (SA), 23 January
Mugabe should resign, say church men
Two Southern African church leaders called on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday to step down, saying it would benefit Africa. "While we honour President Robert Mugabe for the role he played in helping to bring liberation to this continent, it is tragic to see Zimbabwe in the current economic state, and therefore, we believe it would benefit Africa if he stepped down," said a joint statement by the presiding bishop of the Methodist Church in Southern Africa, Bishop Mvume Dandala, and the general sectretary of the Botswana Christian Council, David Modiega. "We urge the heads of government in the Southern African Development Community region to assist him to do so with dignity," the statement added.
Dandala, who is also head of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa, and Modiega met in Botswana last week to share the role churches can play in easing the situation in southern Africa. Having deliberated together on pressing issues facing the region and its people, Dandala said they identified poverty, HIV and Aids, and peace and stability as the main challenges. "We pledge our support in the fight against the spread of the virus and the disease. We reject out of hand the view that HIV and Aids is divine punishment." Dandala urged all the churches to urgently teach people how to avoid this pandemic, and to care for the resultant victims and orphans. Recognising the magnitude and the extent to which the scourge has spread among our people, he said: "We wish to challenge our national governments to spend more on health care and the provision of all essential services in order to ensure equal quality of life for all of God's people."
As churches in the region they recognised the fact that they could not escape the effects of globalisation on people and the church should be a significant agent of change in their lives. "We as church leaders are of the view that the church should facilitate change that will impact positively on the lives of millions of our people. "We recognise the need for sustained peace, democracy and justice for all." He said they supported the people and the churches in Angola and Zimbabwe as they sought the path to democracy, stability and peace in their countries. "We plead with our compatriots in Zimbabwe to retain the dignity of their leadership and to remain champions of the rule of law," said Dandala.
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From BBC News, 23 January
Zimbabwe leaders face financial probe
With less than seven weeks to go until elections in Zimbabwe, investigators in the UK, southern Africa and the US are working to track assets held by its leaders. Under discussion are plans to introduce "smart sanctions", targeting property held overseas by President Robert Mugabe and his closest allies, rather than hitting the Zimbabwean population as a whole. European Union foreign ministers are meeting on 28 January to discuss what can be done. And the US House of Representatives has already passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, empowering the application of sanctions against Zimbabwe's leaders. The principle, according to independent Harare-based economist John Robertson, is to split open Mr Mugabe's heavily factionalised Zanu PF party. Smart sanctions, he says "would speak to people not yet fully entrapped by the government's rewards system". Those already well entrenched, however, could see a different outcome. "They will be able to muddle through for six months or so without suffering except for their ability to move around the world... If you're looking for measures that will simply close them down, that won't do the job," he says. Even so, many human rights activists believe smart sanctions could have a rapid effect. "Sanctions are essential before the election," one activist said. "It would unbalance them... they're terrified, and they're gambling that no-one will actually do anything."
As yet, no-one can quantify the scale of the assets in question, and some may be a great deal more difficult to locate than others. Real estate is probably the easiest asset to trace. Financial investigators think it likely that members of Zanu PF, Mr Mugabe's party, have used proceeds from 20 years' access to the national treasury to buy houses and other real estate in the UK, the US and elsewhere. Proof of ownership is likely to be hidden several layers deep beneath "shell corporations" - companies which exist only on paper and intermediaries. But it is believed the expertise and records exist to make tracking possible. Zimbabwe's economy is in such a parlous state that the spoils are not as readily available as once they were. Foreign currency is especially hard to come by, despite government rules which cap official exchange rates at less than one fifth of that available on the street, and which cream off 40% of all official foreign currency transactions. The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Zimbabwean troops have been sent on a government support campaign, has for the past few years supplied an alternative source of funds. In June 2000, at the behest of the United Nations Security Council, a committee of impartial experts started investigating allegations that parties to the war in the DRC were exploiting its resources. Their report - published on 13 November 2001 - made it clear that Zimbabwe's armed forces have realised huge sums from exploiting timber, copper, diamond and other DRC resources.
Through a company called Cosleg, the UN said, senior army officials - most of whom are close Mugabe allies, having served with him in the war of liberation in the 1970s - have made fortunes in the DR Congo. Others are believed to have profited from pay-offs resulting from official tenders for government supply. The Congo operations link directly into the highest levels of Zanu PF through Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa, the UN said. Mr Mnangagwa was "the architect of the commercial activities of Zanu-PF", the UN report said. The presence of Zimbabwean forces in the Congo has provided a conduit for getting money safely secreted away, via a maze of middlemen, offshore companies and independent contractors. And resources redirected from the DRC are helping fuel a land-grab within Zimbabwe separate from the ongoing clearances of white farmers and their black workers. Mr Robertson told BBC News Online that members of the armed forces are touring Harare buying houses and commercial property with bundles of cash - consisting both of Zimbabwe dollars and foreign currencies - amassed in the DRC.
Tracing money, however, presents a far bigger challenge. Traditional havens, such as Switzerland and Luxembourg, for illicitly acquired funds have become more co-operative with authorities, but typically require hard evidence before getting involved in investigations. Ironically, London may prove a more problematic destination to investigate, as last year's revelations about assets squirreled away by late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha showed. Of the $1.6bn or so traced by international investigators, much of it passed through London financial institutions as well as Swiss ones. Sources close to UK financial policing say staffing levels are inadequate to deal with both the Zimbabwe investigation and the high-profile, urgent attempts to uncover sources of terrorist funding. City institutions are being asked to focus on possible Zimbabwean connections in the course of their normal duty to look out for shady transactions. And other private sector groups, such as forensic accountants, are being asked for assistance.
Another avenue which proponents of smart sanctions want to explore is that of travel. An array of senior figures in Zanu PF and their families - led by Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace - shuttle back and forth to London and New York on shopping expeditions. For this reason, in some circles Air Zimbabwe's six planes are known as the "Zanu-PF taxi service", with planes commandeered for semi-official business at a few hours' notice. Clamping down on that could hit senior figures where it hurts: The comfort zone. It also penalises those members of the hierarchy whose children are educated abroad. Both Mr Mnangagwa and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, to name but two, have children in college or school in the US.
From ZWNEWS: The Financial Services Commission of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, recently issued a warning to the financial institutions on the offshore financial centre to be on the alert for transactions, funds, and accounts linked with past and present members and associates of the Zimbabwe government. Describing them as "Politically Exposed Persons" - a category under its money-laundering regulations - the Commission listed the following names : HE Robert G Mugabe, Mr Simon V Muzenda, Mr Joseph Msika, Mr Moven Mahachi, Mr John Nkomo, Mr Patrick Chinamasa, Dr Stan Mudenge, Dr Simba Makoni, Dr Nkosana Moyo, Dr Sydney Sekeremayi, Dr Swithun Mombeshora, Dr Joseph Made, Dr Ignatious Chombo, Dr Timothy Stamps, Dr Herbert Murerwa, Dr Samuel Mumbengegwi, Mr Francis Nhema, Mrs Joyce Mujuru, Mr July Moyo, Mr Border Gezi, Mr Nicholas Goche, Professor Jonathan Moyo, Mrs Grace Marufu Mugabe, Mr W Chikukwa, and Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi. Richard Pratt, director-general of the Commission, was quoted on Tuesday as saying: "We do receive a fair amount of business from Africa and we make no allegations about President Mugabe or his associates. Given the action of the US and the UK in identifying assets, this is a live issue which we think our regulated institutions and authorised intermediaries should be aware of."
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 25 January
Mugabe in hunt for 'four hidden correspondents'
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's regime launched a hunt for foreign journalists inside Zimbabwe yesterday, accusing four correspondents of entering the country illegally and having "intelligence cover from a hostile state". The Daily Telegraph was accused, along with three other newspapers, of sending journalists to Zimbabwe "under the guise of being tourists" in defiance of a virtual ban on correspondents visiting. The latest threat to the international press came as Mr Mugabe's attempt to push through a draconian media law descended into chaos. For a fourth time, his aides failed to bring the bill before the House, triggering an unprecedented public row between a senior cabinet minister and Eddison Zvobgo, a veteran figure in the ruling Zanu PF party.
The Herald, the official daily newspaper, said yesterday it had found journalists from The Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Economist and the Sunday Times of South Africa staying in hotels or "safe houses" owned by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. It quoted George Charamba, permanent secretary of the Information Department, as saying: "Our net is closing in on them and we should be able to account for all of them before the close of the day." The journalists were accused of breaking regulations compelling foreign journalists to seek permission one month before visiting Zimbabwe. Clearance is almost always refused. Three correspondents were expelled last year and the BBC was banned. Since then some journalists have entered Zimbabwe as tourists and filed reports under their own names. The Daily Telegraph has a permanent correspondent in Harare, but no |
