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Archived News
9th July 2002
Operation Restore Legitimacy
Call to action from the ZIC - Things YOU can do to assist Zimbabwe
Response to Mugabe's anti-AIDS announcement
Obasanjo warns Mugabe on NEPAD
All Zim students must serve in army Mugabe
Zim famine will affect SA
As food runs out, malevolence grows
Oppenheimer denies link to Zim salt shortage
Repression lasts long after Zimbabwe vote
Plot to oust Makoni thickens
Police claim opposition causing Zimbabwe shortages to cause anarchy
Food crisis forcing people from homes
Report shows how Bob rigged the vote
Hackles rise when Zimbabwe paper runs "repugnant" anti-Semitic diatribe
ZDI rejects gun-running charges
Suspected Zanu PF youths brutally attack former MDC official
Police target farmers
Zimbabwe judge on the carpet for 'abuse of office'
Mugabe inquisition into gay politicians
Zimbabwe clergy stand together for peace
Govern well and we'll partner you
DR Congo peace deal unravelling
Farmers challenge Mugabe's cabinet
Zimbabwe muzzles another journalist
Govt refuses to ratify ICC
Lawyers attack Chinamasa
Zimbabwe farmers charged with violence acquitted
Muluzi concedes defeat in bid for another term
Marshalling aid for Africa
MP in trouble over Mugabe suit
Zimbabwe may run dry of beer as maize shortage bites
Zimbabwe makes delicacies from sweet potatoes
3 nations flash cash as famine bites Africa
Leaders to tackle Zimbabwe issue
Hollow peace hopes in shattered Congo
Harare treason witness in Diana fraud
RCMP ends Zimbabwe coup-plot probe
No pay for war vets
Over the top
Zim must issue passport to activist court
Makoni says fixed exchange rate policy undermining export sector
...Meanwhile
Food gap not closing fast enough
GM stock feeds won't affect beef exports, Says EU
Gaddafi muscles in on Mbeki's big day as African Union struggles into being
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From The Star (SA), 2 July
All Zim students must serve in army Mugabe
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government said on Tuesday it would compel all the country's students to undergo six months training in ruling party militias from next year. Higher Education Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi was quoted in the state-controlled daily the Herald as saying that "national service" would become compulsory "to impart patriotism and national consciousness in Zimbabwean youths." The "youth national service programme" was started in December last year under the guise of training unemployed youths, but human rights agencies and election observers say its members were the primary force of bloody intimidation against Mugabe's opponents unleashed on the country before flawed presidential elections in March. Widespread evidence has been published of the militias - nicknamed "green bombers" after a noxious species of dung fly - leaving a trail of death, mutilation and destruction in their wake. An estimated 10 000 youths, many of them press ganged into service, were paid, billeted and fed by the state. Welfare organisations say that the militia camps have become major social problems with high rates of drug abuse and sexually transmitted diseases. Reports say dissent in the camps is growing as pay has mostly been stopped and food is short.
Mumbengegwi said students will only be given their educational certificates after they had completed their six months service. The programme was also needed to arrest the brain drain of thousands of secondary and tertiary education graduates leaving the country, he said. Millions of dollars of taxpayers' money was being wasted "as thousands of college and school leavers skipped the country to work overseas as slaves," he was quoted as saying. "About 90 percent of our pupils leave school and go abroad to study or work," said the headmaster of a large Harare state high school who asked not to be named. "The quality of education at local institutions is poor and the state of the economy offers them absolutely nothing when they leave. This is only going accelerate the flood of kids leaving," he said. According to official statistics, nearly 400 000 pupils leave school each year. "Where are they going to put them?," asked another educationist. "How are they going to pay for this? It's a joke." Mumbengegwi admitted that there would be many unfilled places in tertiary colleges and universities next year as school leavers were forced to undergo service, but he dismissed it as a "temporary setback." Last month Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere created a storm of protest when he proposed a national uniform for all schools across the country. The proposal was abandoned. Also last month, the government, faced with an outcry, scrapped plans to end British-supervised O-level and A-level school-leaving examinations and to replace them with a "Zimbabwean-centred" curriculum.
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From News24 (SA), 2 July
Zim famine will affect SA
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe has a 75% "food gap" - one of the highest in the world, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said upon his return from a fact-finding mission on Tuesday. The gap is defined as a shortfall between the provision of the minimum nutrition required for the population and the food at hand. "This famine will not contain itself within the borders of Zimbabwe," Leon told reporters in Johannesburg. He said a United Nations World Food Programme official told him the 75% food gap was one of the highest recorded in world history. The South African government needed to look ahead and put contingency plans in place because the food shortages would soon start impacting on South Africa. "People are moving out of the urban areas somewhere else because there is no food there," Leon said. "I think the impact on us is going to be immense ... If we continue with our policy on the one hand and their policy on the other, we are facing big, big problems."
Leon, DA land affairs spokesman Dan Maluleke, rural safety spokesperson Andries Botha, and Nick Clelland-Stokes embarked on a two-day fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe and met commercial and small farmers, South African property owners, the UN and farmworkers. They also visited farms occupied by so-called war veterans in Mazoe Valley and in Bindura, north of Harare. Leon said the South African government should protect South Africans who own farms and businesses in the neighbouring country. "South Africa should stand up for the commercial and property rights of its own citizens." Sixty-two percent of all commercial farms in Zimbabwe have been served with Section 8 Land Act notices, making farming activity on those farms a criminal offence on pain of imprisonment. "There are 2 900 commercial farmers willing and ready to produce, but they are told to seize farming. At the same time, the Zimbabwean government is asking for international food aid. I really can't understand that," Maluleke said.
Leon said it was impossible for any importer of basic commodities to sell their products. "The government sets prices at a level completely unrelated to market conditions but forces importers to bring their goods into Zimbabwe on a parallel rate. In the case of salt, the cost of importing it has gone up as much as 100% during the past two months while the controlled selling price has not risen." Clelland-Stokes said it was an eye-opener to "actually be there and see for yourself" what was happening. "There are orchids laden with fruit, but farmers will be criminally prosecuted if they pick the fruit from the trees. It's an entire waste."
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From ZWNEWS, 3 July
As food runs out, malevolence grows
By Michael Hartnack
It is hard to think of any disaster in human history quite comparable with Zimbabwe’s food crisis, where mild adverse natural factors combine with crass malevolence. At Binga, where self-styled ``war veterans" have forcibly closed a church relief project, the first 27 children were reported to have succumbed to malnutrition-related disease, despite Robert Mugabe's oft-repeated pledge "no one will die". On Monday June 22, Land Acquisition Act "Section 8" orders came into force against 2 900 commercial farmers, in terms of which they were supposed to stop all cropping and livestock management programmes. Last week, the regime came up with a new official term: "farmers of European origin", not "whites". They were "confined to their homesteads" from June 22 and must quit their properties entirely by August 5. The Commercial Farmers Union’s spokeswoman Jenni Williams asked: "Do the farmers tend 22 547 hectares of wheat or let it shrivel and die? Do they grade their tobacco, bringing it to the floors to earn US $330 million in foreign currency or does it sit in the tobacco barns? Do they leave unattended thousands of cattle, pigs and other farming animals?" Williams was addressing the same politicians who, in May 2001, spurned warnings to start importing maize (then obtainable at 25 percent of the current price) and boost the commercial maize crop for 2001-2002. Peasant farmers, reliant on ox-ploughing, were unable to exploit the good 2001 early rains.
This past week, peanut butter and salt have disappeared from the supermarket shelves along with maize meal, sugar and cooking oil. Wheat flour is being rationed, and bread shortages are imminent. Milk supplies are drying up, with grave implications for young children. In a few weeks, the majority of the population will be surviving on sweet potatoes and - if they can afford it - rice. We are eating the last of our pig and poultry production and slaughtering the national beef herd as fast as the abattoirs can handle it. The 2 000 farmers not yet given Section 8 eviction orders face the imminent prospect of them. Or they have gangs of carpet-bagger wannabes roaming the country, telling them to get out regardless of formalities. Or they cannot get feed for their livestock and dare not retain what they have grown for fear of accusations of hoarding and sabotage. A ruling Zanu PF functionary was hailed as a hero for "discovering" salt in warehouses belonging to National Foods, in which Anglo American has a 34 percent shareholding. Such is the mood of paranoia whipped up by the Mugabe regime and its media that few were surprised to hear the Minister of Agriculture, Joseph Made, declaring that farmers were "racist and fascist - wanting to continue white dominance" by approaching officials for permission to keep their stock and crops alive. "The confrontational approach by the commercial farmers was another conspiracy to wipe out the indigenous peoples of this country as they had tried in India, Australia and New Zealand," Made said.
The 26 member Zanu PF Politburo met under Mugabe's chairmanship and threatened to "de-register" (ban) the Commercial Farmers Union, a move Zanu PF’s former Justice Minister Edison Zvobgo says would be a blatant violation of constitutional rights. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo claimed "some farmers have vacated farms leaving behind a trail of malicious destruction of property". The state media, meanwhile, played down the gift by Britain of a further £22 million relief. The regime claims it has resettled 354 000 people on former white-owned farms, but independent observers say fewer than 40 000 are squatting on ill-organised and as-yet unproductive holdings. Much land is lying derelict. Many of the "354 000" are urban people with mere pieces of paper, promising them plots at some future date. Up to 500 000 farm workers and their families have already been displaced, and another two million face eviction. A visiting UN mission, headed by Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Kendo Oshima, stubbornly parried all questions on the political dimensions of the crisis. The mission had been specifically told by the Amani Trust of the use of relief food as a ruling party weapon, but he spoke blandly about "expanding their monitoring system" to stop the denial of food to children of suspected opposition supporters. In a masterpiece of understatement, Oshima said 6 million Zimbabweans "face a serious health challenge". People aren't being more-or-less deliberately starved: they are "seriously health challenged". Be ready for allegations the famine is due to broken promises of aid, as well as sabotage "of European origin".
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From The Star (SA), 2 July
Oppenheimer denies link to Zim salt shortage
Harare - Nicky Oppenheimer says he does not own National Foods, an Anglo American subsidiary accused by President Robert Mugabe of hoarding salt and creating a shortage in Zimbabwe. His clarification came after bread queues began forming in the Zimbabwean capital at the weekend when supermarkets and bakeries ran out of the last remaining stocks of this basic commodity. Mugabe threatened to seize National Foods' assets in Zimbabwe and challenged Oppenheimer to explain why the company was hoarding salt. But Oppenheimer said through a spokesperson, Marian Dickson, that he did not own Anglo American Corporation or National Foods, as alleged by Mugabe. Dickson said Tony Trahar was the current chief executive of Anglo, and Oppenheimer was merely a non-executive director of the company. "The company is owned by various shareholders through stock exchanges in various countries, and Mr Oppenheimer only has a very small shareholding in the company. It is thus untrue that he (Oppenheimer) owns the company," Dickson said. Plagued by an acute foreign currency crisis and a massive shortfall of maize, the Zimbabwean government has been diverting what resources it can to maize imports. Both rural and urban consumers had been turning increasingly to bread to feed their families. Aid agencies say many Zimbabwean families can now afford only one meal a day.
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From The Washington Post, 3 July
Repression lasts long after Zimbabwe vote
Johannesburg - Almost four months after Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's disputed re-election to a fourth term, any hope that the 78-year-old former guerrilla leader would relax his crackdown against political opponents has all but evaporated. Since turning back the toughest political challenge of his career in a campaign marked by violence and allegations of fraud, Mugabe has put restrictions on white farmers at a time when nearly half of Zimbabwe's population faces starvation. He has also continued repression of dissidents and journalists and, most recently, threatened to nationalize one of the country's largest companies. "Things have not improved for Zimbabweans since the election," said an African diplomat based in Zimbabwe. "I'm afraid that things are only getting worse. This government knows it no longer has the popular support of its people, so it must govern with the only tool it has left: force."
The U.N. World Food Program estimates that nearly half of Zimbabwe's 11 million people urgently need international assistance to avert starvation as a result of famine. Donor nations blame the famine on bad weather and the government's policy of seizing the country's most productive farms, owned by whites, and handing them over to poor blacks. Relief agencies say that Mugabe's ruling party, Zanu PF, has used food donations from abroad to reward its supporters and punish members of the opposition MDC. Tawanda Hondora, chairman of Zimbabwe's Human Rights Forum, said the government has required peasants to show Zanu PF membership cards to receive food rations and has stopped organizations thought to be sympathetic to or aligned with the MDC from distributing food. On Saturday, however, Mugabe blamed the nation's food shortage on National Foods, a multinational subsidiary of Anglo American, a South African mining firm. In remarks published in a state-owned newspaper, Mugabe accused National Foods of hoarding such basic commodities as salt. "We will not allow Anglo American to become the principal saboteurs of our economy," he said. If National Foods does not "want to operate in partnership with the government and the people," Mugabe said, "the government would put the enterprise in the hands of the people." Last week, Mugabe's government ordered nearly 3,000 whites to stop farming as he prepared for their eviction next month. Branding them "unrepentant racists and fascists," Agriculture Minister Joseph Made has given them until Aug. 10 to vacate farmland to make way for blacks.
And even as his fellow African leaders court Western investment with an ambitious revitalization plan that promises good governance and democracy, Mugabe's party has continued to intimidate and prosecute independent journalists, opposition politicians and their supporters. Using a new press law passed only days before the March 9-11 election, Mugabe's party has arrested 11 journalists for writing stories critical of the government. An icon of Zimbabwe's fight for independence, Mugabe has portrayed Zanu PF's struggle against the MDC as a battle against a puppet of Britain, the country's former colonial ruler, and his land reform program as the last piece of unfinished business of the independence war. Western governments widely accuse Mugabe of rigging the March election, using youth gangs and militias led by war veterans to wage a campaign of torture and intimidation against MDC supporters, particularly Zimbabwe's wealthy elite of white farmers and their poor, black employees. Human rights organizations say that torture of dissidents has continued in the months since the election, and the U.S. and European governments have refused to recognize the election results or sanction travel of Mugabe and his top lieutenants. But Mugabe has not wavered. "It is sad that nothing is improving in that nation," said Don McKinnon, the secretary general of the Commonwealth, a coalition of 54 nations, many of them former British colonies, which suspended Zimbabwe for a year in March. "We have done more than anyone, but I cannot say that anything that we have done has had any effect on putting the government on another course of action," he told reporters in London last weekend.
The direction that Zimbabwe takes is critical to the success of an economic plan proposed by South African President Thabo Mbeki and other African heads of states. At a meeting of the world's eight leading industrialized countries last week, Mbeki persuaded the West to support - at least in principle - the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), in which African nations commit to good governance and democracy in exchange for increased investment and debt relief from wealthy nations. "Zimbabwe is clearly the West's test case for NEPAD," said an African diplomat in Zimbabwe, "and unfortunately for Africa, it does not appear that Mugabe gives a wink about what the West thinks."
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From The Financial Gazette, 4 July
Plot to oust Makoni thickens
A plot to oust Finance Minister Simba Makoni and Reserve Bank governor Leonard Tsumba from their positions thickened this week when cracks emerged in the ruling Zanu PF over implementation of fiscal and monetary policies to prop up the tottering economy. Official sources said a faction within Zanu PF was feverishly campaigning for the dismissal of Makoni and Tsumba from their positions. The faction is accusing the two men of failing to come up with credible measures to stem a crippling foreign currency crisis, which has gripped Zimbabwe since November 1999 and threatens the entire economy with total collapse. Top business leaders with links with senior Zanu PF politicians are also involved in the behind-the-scenes campaign, which gathered momentum in the past week when President Robert Mugabe shot down proposals from Makoni and Tsumba to ease the hard cash crisis through the devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar.
The Cabinet Committee on Financial and Economic Affairs, chaired by Mugabe, unceremoniously threw out the Makoni-Tsumba proposals to devalue and introduce a dual exchange rate at a meeting held in Harare last week. Both Makoni and Tsumba had suggested the introduction of an official exchange rate based on inflation differentials between Zimbabwe and its trading partners and the commercial rate which would be based on prevailing macro-economic fundamentals. Philip Chiyangwa, Zanu PF’s legislator for Chinhoyi and head of Parliament’s Committee on Empowerment, swung into action immediately after news of Mugabe’s veto on the Makoni-Tsumba proposals. He blasted what he branded as non-performing officials at the finance ministry and the central bank and urged that these be fired, exposing the grand scheme set in motion to relieve Tsumba and Makoni of their official posts. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who has become one of the most influential politicians because of his close ties with Mugabe, is also against any devaluation, saying it would exacerbate Zimbabwe’s record high inflation of 122.5 percent. The Politburo, Zanu PF’s supreme policy organ, similarly rejected the devaluation proposals at the weekend. "There is a behind-the-scenes campaign to get Makoni and Tsumba replaced," a senior Cabinet minister told the Financial Gazette this week. "This is because of their failure to stem the slide of the dollar, the foreign currency crisis and their overall stewardship of the economy," the minister said, preferring not to be named. "The bottom line is that there is no consensus between the politicians and the bureaucrats in the party on how to deal with the foreign currency issue and the economy," the minister added.
The group chief executive officer of the financial group Finhold, Elisha Mushayakarara, a finance ministry permanent secretary for 18 years, is tipped to take over the reins at the Ministry of Finance. The sources said efforts by Makoni and Tsumba to deal with the hard cash shortages and the thriving parallel market had been undermined by senior politicians in Zanu PF who are themselves allegedly involved in illegal foreign currency dealings. Two provincial governors own a chain of bureaux de change in Harare and Bulawayo while some ministers have employed staff to mobilise foreign currency on the parallel market from tourists at major resort centres countrywide. The National Economic Conduct inspectorate is already investigating the practice amid calls by the state media for the shutting down of the bureaux de change. Foreign currency for government trips is also now being secured from the parallel market because of biting shortages on the official market. Makoni has made clear that the Zimbabwe dollar is highly overvalued and that Zimbabwe should normalise its tense ties with international financial bodies such as the International Monetary Fund so as to give the local economy emergency balance-of-payments support. Mugabe has rejected this, saying Zimbabwe must pursue a home-grown economic revival led by his controversial agrarian reforms. Makoni has also publicly called for a return of "sanity" to Zimbabwe’s troubled commercial farming sector, where thousands of Zanu PF militants, many armed, hold sway with Mugabe’s open approval.
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From Associated Press, 3 July
Police claim opposition causing Zimbabwe shortages to cause anarchy
Harare - Zimbabwean police have accused the opposition of causing widespread food shortages in a campaign of "economic sabotage" aimed at creating anarchy in the country. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change dismissed the accusation as government propaganda aimed at paving the way for a state of emergency, which would give President Robert Mugabe even greater powers. The United Nations has said about half of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are in danger of going hungry this year after drought and government seizures of white-owned commercial farms nearly destroyed the grain harvest. However, in a story published Wednesday in the state-run Herald newspaper, police blamed the staggering shortages on the opposition.
"It is believed the underlying cause is economic sabotage maliciously intended to discredit the lawfully elected government of Zimbabwe," the statement in the Herald said. "The artificial shortages, in the minds of detractors, would ferment or agitate the masses to engage in looting and defiance of the law." Opposition leaders believe that "would lead to an ungovernable state of anarchy, which would pave the way for the overthrow of the government," according to the statement. Police said they had mounted roadblocks across the country "to cut off supply routes and trafficking" and prevent the illegal export of staples. They urged security forces be given more sweeping powers of search and demanded the government take control of production and distribution of food and ensure "patriotic Zimbabweans" occupy key positions in strategic enterprises.
The opposition MDC, the greatest threat to Mugabe's rule since he led the nation to independence in 1980, said the government was trying to find a scapegoat for its economic mismanagement and disastrous agricultural polices. About 95 percent of white commercial farms have been targeted for confiscation. MDC spokesman Learnmore Jongwe said the police statement appeared to be laying the groundwork for a state of emergency. Zimbabwe's police have repeatedly been accused of bias against the opposition during the country's two-year political crisis. Human rights groups said police often stood by passively while ruling party militants attacked white farmers and opposition supporters. In some cases, the police helped the militants, they said. Before March presidential elections this year, police commissioner Augustine Chihuri said he would refuse to recognize a victory by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe was declared the winner in a poll that many international and domestic observers called deeply flawed.
According to the Herald report, police said they had confiscated staple food worth $55,000 from black market traders working at the behest of the MDC. The Agriculture Ministry said Tuesday it needed to import $50 million worth of grain to meet even the country's 440,000 tons interim needs. The United Nations said Zimbabwe would need to import about 2 million tons to make it through the year. Supplies of corn meal, sugar, cooking oil, milk, salt and bread have nearly disappeared from supermarket shelves. Bakers said Wednesday they needed 55,000 tons of imported wheat to relieve bread shortages. And church workers reported that 27 children have died of malnutrition-related illnesses in the remote northwest of the country.
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From IRIN (UN), 3 July
Food crisis forcing people from homes
Zimbabwe's food security crisis, brought on by drought and a controversial plan to redistribute commercial farms to landless citizens, has forced people to leave their homes in search of food, UN sources said. The creation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to the food crisis is cause for concern as there are no accurate figures on the number of IDPs in need of aid, said the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Harare. The UN's World Food Programme and Food and Agricultural Organisation estimate that about six million Zimbabweans require food aid. In order to enable aid agencies to better prepare themselves to mitigate the complex humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe, the UN is set to begin an independent assessment of the number and situation of food security-related IDPs in the country.
The UNDP said: "Issues around the food security crisis in the country have raised the concern of population movements and IDPs. The matter, however, has become highly politicised on all sides and it is very difficult to get precise figures on [IDPs]." The issue was raised with the government by UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, during his recent mission to Zimbabwe. It was now being pursued by UNDP Resident Coordinator Victor Angelo. "An assessment will be carried out, and a database established, of IDPs in the near future through the Resident Coordinator's Relief and Recovery Unit," the UNDP said. While there was concern that the food crisis in Zimbabwe could cause refugees to flee to Zimbabwe's neighbours - South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique - there had as yet been no reports of this, said the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pretoria. UNHCR Assistant Representative Abel Mbilinyi told IRIN that "if there were any large movements we would certainly know". He said Zimbabweans continued to cross regularly into South Africa but that this was not out of the ordinary. "For the time being we have not been alerted [about refugees fleeing Zimbabwe] either by Home Affairs [in South Africa], or our other offices [in the region], but we are watching what is happening," Mbilinyi said.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 4 July
Report shows how Bob rigged the vote
Some 17,2% of ballots cast in Zimbabwe's March 9-11 presidential election were "directly problematic," the Human Rights Forum of local and international rights groups said on Wednesday. "Of 3 062 303 votes accounted for by the ESC (Electoral Supervisory Commission), at least 526 479 (17,2%) were directly problematic," the forum said in a new report. President Robert Mugabe was declared the winner of the election with 56,2% of the votes, against 41,9% for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "Many results changed even after they had been verified and announced. The total prejudice to Morgan Tsvangirai on these post-verification changes alone was 50 729 votes," the report said. "Over half of all polling booths at some stage lacked opposition observers. In four of the 120 constituencies, opposition electoral agents were banned from verifying the counting of votes. In another five, MDC agents were allowed to be present for only part of the time," the report said. Tsvangirai has refused to accept Mugabe's victory, and the MDC has launched a court challenge to his win.
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From JTA News, 2 July
Hackles rise when Zimbabwe paper runs "repugnant" anti-Semitic diatribe
Cape Town "Vile, repugnant, racist rubbish" was how one Jewish leader reacted to an anti-Semitic article that appeared recently in a Zimbabwe newspaper. A Johannesburg-based journalist, Samu Zulu, prompted Jewish criticism with an Op-Ed piece he wrote for Zimbabwe’s Sunday Mail. In the article, Zulu wrote about 19th-century British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, for whom Rhodesia - as Zimbabwe formerly was known - was named. After describing Rhodes as "the most detestable two-legged white man ever to set foot in Zimbabwe," Zulu went on to say that Rhodes was not a "Briton of Anglo-Saxon extraction, but a Jew whose surname is derived from an island in the Aegean Sea, where his forefathers lived until the 17th century." Zulu also wrote: "Like other Jews in Israel, America, South Africa and even Zimbabwe itself, Rhodes also became a shameless oppressor in his search for wealth and absolute power." The piece prompted Ivor Davis, a former journalist residing in Zimbabwe, to fire off a letter to the Sunday Mail. Davis, a past president of the Hebrew Congregation in Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare, refuted Zulu’s claim that Rhodes was Jewish and then demanded an apology and a retraction for Zulu’s "offensive and repulsive attack on the Jewish people." Attacking Zulu’s reference to Jewish oppressors in the region, Davis then dashed off a list of prominent Jews who had fought against South Africa’s apartheid regime. Davis is one of about 800 Jews remaining in Zimbabwe - 500 in Harare and 300 in Bulawayo. Two decades ago, the country had a population of 6,000 Jews.
Zulu subsequently wrote a letter to the Sunday Mail in which he made no further anti-Semitic comments. But he persisted with his contention that Rhodes indeed was a Jew, quoting from "Rhodes of Africa" by Felix Gross and citing as proof the phrase "the prominent large Rhodes nose." In the same letter, he took a swipe at Davis, referring to him as a "Rhodesian racist." Davis in turn wrote a letter to another newspaper, the Harare Independent, under the headline "Cecil Rhodes a closet Jew?" In this letter, Davis wrote that he had seen "Jewish" noses on many non-Jews, including the present pope. Referring to Zulu’s swipe, Davis wrote, "I am "a Rhodesian racist" - like Cecil Rhodes was Jewish!" Davis, who hails from London’s East End, has lived in Africa for the past 45 years - 33 in Kenya and the past dozen in Zimbabwe. He always has been a fervent letter-writer when he finds an injustice, he told JTA. "Had it been purely about Rhodes being Jewish, then all of us would have had a good laugh," he said. "But the anti-Semitism aspect of it got me going. I feel that it is important to answer these kinds of attacks." Commenting on Zulu’s anti-Semitic allegations, Mervyn Smith, chairman of the African Jewish Congress, said: "This is vile, repugnant, racist rubbish written with only one object - and that is to portray Rhodes as an even bigger villain to the black people of Zimbabwe by labeling him a Jew as well. One has to ask what causes this hate speech," Smith said.
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From The Financial Gazette, 4 July
ZDI rejects gun-running charges
Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) boss Tshinga Dube this week denied a report that the state-owned weapons-maker is supplying arms to Liberian leader Charles Taylor and Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. "It is totally false that we have supplied weapons to the west Africans," Dube, a retired Zimbabwe army colonel, said in response to queries from the Financial Gazette. "It is unfair for people to want to conclude that, because ZDI used the same (international) bank that RUF and the Liberians use, we therefore were supplying arms to them. That is simply not true." In its latest edition, the Paris-based Indian Ocean Newsletter charges that the ZDI is involved in a weapons-selling network which includes gun-runners who supply Sierra Leone and Liberia. According to the newspaper, the weapons are being bought mainly from former Eastern Block countries and delivered to rebel groups in Liberia and Sierra Leone through neighbouring Burkina Faso and Cote de’Voire. It says the ZDI allegedly paid for the weapon purchases through a Hungary-based subsidiary of Italian bank Intesa BCI, while rebel-clients also reportedly paid the Zimbabwean arms utility through the same bank.
For example, the newspaper said the ZDI in April 1999 transferred close to US$1.3 million to an arms supplier through the Hungarian bank. The Zimbabwean arms manufacturer made another US$2.1 million transfer the following month, it charged. In June, shortly after the two transfers by the ZDI, three successive payments totalling about US$300 000 were made to the Zimbabwean firm through the Hungarian bank. It is these payments to the ZDI which, according to the newspaper, were suspected to have been from Taylor and the RUF, both under an international arms embargo. Dube admitted making payments for weapons through the Intesa BCI but said the ZDI was making payments for its normal supplies for its weapons-making plant. He said the firm had provided various suppliers with end-user-certificates confirming that the ZDI was the end-user of all military goods supplied to it. He said the ZDI had only used Intesa BCI at the request of the suppliers of the materials.
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From The Daily News, 4 July
Suspected Zanu PF youths brutally attack former MDC official
About 30 suspected Zanu PF youths wielding axes, iron bars and stones attacked Kefas Madzongera, 33, a former MDC district youth chairman at his Bindura home on Tuesday. Madzongera sustained deep cuts in the head and bruises all over his body. Property worth $17 000 was destroyed in the raid. Madzongera said he was coming from a funeral only to be confronted by the youths at his home. He named some of the youths who were among the group that besieged his home. Sensing danger, Madzongera rushed into his house to seek refuge. The youths then started throwing stones at the house, smashing the windows. Madzongera said: "I realised that the youths were after me because they were shouting obscenities at me. I recognised most of them because that was not the first time I was attacked. They attacked me before in June last year." He said soon after the attack he reported the incident to the police but they did not take any action. "The country is now lawless," said Madzongera. "I called the police and they said they did not have transport to come to my house. I then hired a car and went to the police station where I was given a letter referring me to a hospital for treatment." The police in Bindura confirmed the incident but could not give details.
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From IRIN (UN), 4 July
Police target farmers
Johannesburg - Four commercial farmers have been formally charged with disobeying a ban on farming activity on land targeted for redistribution. On Thursday, Commercial Farmers Union spokeswoman Jenni Williams confirmed to IRIN that four farmers had been formally charged while another 11 had been asked to report to the police station. AFP reported that all 15 farmers in Chiredzi, in southern Zimbabwe, had been ordered to make warned and cautioned statements at their local police station. Nearly 2,900 farmers had been served with notices informing them that their land was targeted for acquisition by the state and ordering them to cease farming. The 15 are the first to be acted against in terms of the order.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 5 July
Zimbabwe judge on the carpet for 'abuse of office'
Harare - The Zimbabwean government plans to order a probe into the conduct of a white judge who last week ordered the arrest of the country's justice minister for contempt of court, the state-run Herald said on Wednesday. High Court judge Fergus Blackie issued the arrest warrant last week after Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa failed to appear in court because he was on a trip abroad. Chinamasa told the Herald the warrant against him was a "gross abuse of judicial office". He said he would recommend to the country's chief justice that a tribunal be set up to investigate the conduct of the judge, who is expected to retire on July 18. Chinamasa told the newspaper he wanted the probe to go ahead regardless of Blackie's imminent retirement. The minister had been due to appear in court to answer charges for criticising the High Court for imposing a six-month jail sentence on three US missionaries convicted of weapons possession in 1999. Concerns have been voiced abroad and at home over the alleged erosion of the rule of law in Zimbabwe and reports that the southern African country's judges are being intimidated.
Meanwhile, president Robert Mugabe on Thursday congratulated the US on its independence day and said he hoped for improvements in relations between the two countries. "I am confident that the years ahead will witness great improvements in relations between our two countries," Mugabe said in his message to his US counterpart, George Bush. "I wish you continued good health, peace and prosperity for the people of the United States of America," Mugabe added. The United States has banned Mugabe and his inner circle from entering its territory, accusing the Zimbabwean head of state of widespread rights abuses and of using violence and fraud to win the March 9-11 presidential election. Last week the US decried an order from Mugabe's government for 2 900 of the country's 4 000 white farmers to stop working their land, calling it part of a misguided reform programme. And this week a US magistrate in New York recommended that Mugabe's ruling party pay $73-million in compensation for several cases of political killings and torture of political opponents.
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From The Independent (UK), 5 July
Mugabe inquisition into gay politicians
Robert Mugabe has ordered his spy agency to investigate and compile a list of possible gay ministers and officials in the Zimbabwe government. President Mugabe is well known for his hatred of gays and lesbians, and has described them as being worse than "pigs and dogs". He said the British Government was made up of "gay gangsters". He has ordered the Central Intelligence Organisation to spy on possible gay people in his administration. How CIO officials will arrive at their conclusions is unclear. "That is inside information ... those tasked with the job know how best to achieve it," one said. Mr Mugabe may use the list to rid his cabinet of gays. Officials said he became furious when allegations of homosexuality were raised against the former president Canaan Banana. Mr Banana fled the country before being charged and convicted in 1998 of sodomising an aide.
Alum Mpofu, one of Mr Mugabe's chief propagandists during the March presidential elections and the former head of the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, resigned from his post after allegations of homosexuality were levelled against him. Mr Mpofu was caught in a compromising position with a man at a Harare nightclub. Zimbabwe's Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, Mr Mugabe's spokesman and close ally, has also been implicated in an alleged homosexual affair with Mr Mpofu. In a separate development, the Zimbabwe government plans to investigate a white judge who ordered the arrest last week of the country's Justice Minister for contempt of court, the state-run Herald newspaper reported yesterday. Fergus Blackie, one of only two white judges left in Zimbabwe, issued the arrest warrant last week after the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, failed to appear in court. Officials later said the minister was on a trip abroad. Mr Chinamasa said he wanted the investigation to go ahead regardless of Justice Blackie's retirement in two weeks.
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From The Natal Mercury, 4 July 2002
Zimbabwe clergy stand together for peace
Bishop Kevin Dowling, Chair of the South African Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, has condemned the Zimbabwean use of torture to stamp out opposition to President Robert Mugabe’s government. In a passionate address in St Mary’s Cathedral, Bulawayo, on Saturday, Bishop Dowling said that torture is a grave offence against the image of God present in every human being: "We are here today to stand with and to honour you, the victims of torture. We are proud to know there are people like you who stand for the truth. We commit ourselves to walk with you, as you walked with us in South Africa’s long struggle to overcome apartheid." Dowling was speaking at a service organised by Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, together with the Amani Trust, a Zimbabwean NGO which helps to heal those who have been traumatised by torture. The service marked the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture and provided an opportunity for many victims to tell their stories.
Present at the service were several SA church leaders, including Anglican Bishop of Natal, Rubin Phillip, Auxiliary Bishop of Mariannhill, Pius Dlungwane, and Chair of the KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council, Bishop Matthew Makhaye (Anglican), who accompanied Bishop Dowling in a show of solidarity with Ncube and the Zimbabwean people. In a moving liturgy that lasted almost four hours, many who had experienced torture came forward to tell of beatings, burning of homes, people disfigured and killed in the presence of their children. Showing their wounds to the shocked congregation and displaying documents proving the truth of what they said, several broke down and wept as they recalled what had been done to them, to close relatives and friends. Some had come out of hiding to use this rare opportunity to voice their pain. Clearly, Zimbabwe will need its own Truth Commission at some time in the future.
Even the church had not been untouched in the climate of repression that characterises Zimbabwe today. Ncube has suffered vilification and a campaign of lies in the Zimbabwean media for his bold stand for the truth. Methodist and Anglican clergy told how they had been arrested and held for several days for organising public prayers for peace. Clearly not cowed by this experience, Rev Noel Scott (Anglican) said: "As church we need to stand up for our rights in Zimbabwe, whatever the consequences. We are called to travel in the way of the cross." Bishops led the victims and members of the congregation in carrying 164 large wooden crosses which were placed around the altar to link the suffering of torture victims with that of Christ. The service ended with the bishops laying hands on and praying for each of the torture victims. The Amani Trust is planning to organise similar services in various parts of Zimbabwe. Archbishop Ncube said: "What has been reported today is just the tip of the iceberg." He also expressed great concern that food relief is only being given to members of one party, and that children of the opposition are denied treatment at clinics.
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Comment from Business Day (SA), 5 July
Govern well and we'll partner you
President Thabo Mbeki's mission to forge a New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) with the developed world received a mixed response from the Group of Eight rich countries at its summit in Canada last week. Africa duly got a hearing from the G8 heads, an important first step. But they were miserly on the matter of debt relief and the question of additional aid. A big pot of cash would have been nice for Mbeki - inaugural chairman of the new African Union (AU) being launched in Durban next Thursday - to use as a carrot to encourage all 53 African states to sign on to and embrace Nepad, which is an instrument of the AU. The G8 also stonewalled on the crucial issue of greater trade access for Africa, linking it instead to the Doha round of trade talks (where Africa must form coalitions with like-minded states if it's to make headway). Nor was the G8 willing to announce a clutch of major infrastructure projects for the continent as a symbol of a new commitment and as Mbeki and his Nepad co-leaders had hoped.
Rather, the G8 took Nepad at its word: Africa sets the agenda. Thus the G8's Africa Action Plan says Nepad's concept of a peer review of good governance among African states will "inform our considerations of eligibility for enhanced partnerships". The group will "focus on countries that demonstrate political and financial commitment to good governance and the rule of law, investing in their people, and pursuing policies that spur economic growth and alleviate poverty". In short, the West has concluded that if government in Africa isn't organised to pursue development, no amount of aid will work. In fact the trend in the West in recent years is not to fund infrastructure projects without financial return and fiscal control over aid. Even if Africa hadn't produced Nepad, aid conditionality was and is being tightened, says Ross Herbert of the SA Institute of International Affairs. The US is making new rules to govern their aid pledges; recently the Danes and the Dutch pulled out of countries such as Malawi and Cote d'Ivoire where bad governance is the order of the day.
If the G8 is clear that good governance comes before aid then the AU has its work cut out. The AU and Nepad are integrally linked, but the relationship between them has not been spelt out, says Herbert. Much remains to be defined in both cases - chiefly, how peer review is to work, and the operative protocols of the AU. Nigeria's president Olusegun Obasanjo said in Canada: "If any of us is lagging behind, we will give him a push or a sanction." What this will mean in practice remains to be seen. Until then, it is hard to see the AU/Nepad being able to deal with a rogue state, such as Malawi or Zimbabwe or Libya, Togo, Congo-Brazzaville, Madagascar, or even Kenya, where clinging to power and state pillage is the name of the game. Africa's salvation lies in good governance. It must make tough choices by enforcing Nepad's own benchmarks such as free and fair elections; an independent electoral commission; the rule of law; an independent judiciary; a free press; respect for human rights; and fixed terms of office for presidents.
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From BBC News, 4 July
DR Congo peace deal unravelling
The United Nations has warned of renewed fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A spokesman said there were "worrying" signs of a build-up of Rwandan troops ahead of a possible offensive against a local rebel commander who signed up to a peace deal with the government. Meanwhile, that deal - between the government of Joseph Kabila and another former rebel, Jean-Pierre Bemba - is under threat. Civil society groups have pulled out of peace talks intended to iron out details of the power-sharing agreement signed in April. The deal was intended to end the four-year-long Congolese war but the biggest rebel group, the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), did not sign up. Patrick Masunzu left the RCD to be part of the peace deal but his forces are now under threat from RCD troops and their Rwandan backers.
"We've heard there are between 400 and 500 Rwandan troops and rebel soldiers near Moba in northern Katanga and this is very worrying if it marks the beginning of an offensive," UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure said. Under the agreement signed in April, Mr Bemba was supposed to become prime minister but he has not yet come to Kinshasa to take up his post. The civil society groups complained that they were being ignored at the Matadi talks. Kibiswa Nopes, representing the civil society groups, called on the government and delegates from Mr Bemba's Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) to "stop their circus". Last week, veteran Congolese politician Etienne Tshisekedi toured areas of the country held by the RCD in order to cement the alliance of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) with the RCD. The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has drawn in the armies of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe on the side of Mr Kabila, while Uganda and Rwanda backed different rebel groups.
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From Associated Press, 5 July
Farmers challenge Mugabe's cabinet
Harare - White farmers trying to stave off evictions and arrest have gone to court to challenge the constitutional authority of President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet. The government has 10 days to respond to allegations filed Thursday in the High Court that claim the president failed to reappoint his Cabinet after his disputed victory in March elections as required by the constitution. Commercial Farmers Union spokeswoman Jenni Williams said until the court case is heard and finalized, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made may not legally interfere with any of the 2,900 commercial farmers ordered to stop work on June 24 in preparation for government takeover in early August. "See how the Lord has answered our prayers," said Peter Goosen of "Justice for Agriculture," a newly formed defense organization that brought the action in the name of George Quinnell, a farmer facing eviction from his 1,500 acre Nyalugwe Farm at Karoi, 125 miles northwest of Harare. Quinnell has been continuing to tend 450 acres of irrigated wheat and barley in defiance of the government order to stop work.
Police at Chiredzi, 250 miles south of the capital, Thursday arrested 15 white farmers who allegedly defied the government order to stop tending crops and livestock. The order was part of Mugabe's efforts to seize about 95 percent of the nation's white-owned commercial farms. Mugabe says he wants to redistribute the land to landless blacks to correct inequities from the colonial era. Critics say he is using the issue for political gain and claim many of the farms are going to his cronies. The order has disrupted agricultural production as U.N. experts say 6 million Zimbabweans are threatened by possible famine. Zimbabwe is currently suffering a serious bread shortage. Stocks of maize meal, the staple diet of its 13 million people, already have run out. Made, the agriculture minister, repeated government claims Friday that food shortages were the result of economic sabotage by white-controlled companies.
Under Zimbabwe's constitution, a president is supposed to appoint a new Cabinet immediately after being sworn in. Mugabe, however, has never done so. Government sources said he delayed the appointments because of reconciliation talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. However, the talks broke down over Mugabe's demand the opposition accept the election. Critics say Mugabe has also delayed the appointments in an effort to threaten Cabinet ministers wavering from his hard-line policies. He told a rally: "There are some members of my government I cannot trust." The action in the High Court, in theory, means officials and police cannot execute orders made in the name of the justice and agriculture ministers until the issue has been decided. However, the government has frequently disregarded court orders in the two years since ruling party militants began occupying white farms. The court challenge argues that Chinamasa and Made ceased to be ministers on April 1 because Mugabe failed to publish their reappointment in the official government gazette. Thus the eviction notices the ministers issued on April 29 are invalid, the suit argues.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 5 July
Zimbabwe muzzles another journalist
President Robert Mugabe's government has used its press-gag laws against another journalist, charging a local reporter with "publishing falsehoods," it was confirmed on Friday. Officials of the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily paper, said Chris Gande (33) its correspondent in Bulawayo, had been charged by police there on Thursday under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Gande reported last week that the family of the late Ndebele leader Joshua Nkomo had not been invited to a state function commemorating the third anniversary of his death. Gande quoted Nkomo's daughter, Thandiwe, as saying that the family had not received an invitation. In the end, the state press reported that his widow, Johanna, had been collected by military helicopter and taken to the function in the eastern city of Mutare. Neither Thandiwe nor Nkomo's younger brother, Stephen, a senior Zanu PF official, attended , but gave no reason for their absence. Gande was called to a police station where he made a formal statement in the presence of his lawyer, was fingerprinted, and then allowed to leave. He faces a fine of Z$100 000 (about R18 000) or two years in prison if convicted.
In what is seen as a sustained campaign to silence the country's independent press, Gande is the 24th journalist to have been charged since Mugabe was declared the winner of flawed presidential elections in March. Eleven of them have been charged under the Access to Information Act for alleged falsehoods. Most of them have been arrested and held in police cells before being charged. Journalists' unions point out that no charges have been brought against the state media which, they say, daily carry deliberate smears against opponents of Mugabe's regime. International press freedom organisations say the Mugabe government is among the world's 10 most hostile to the press. In the last nearly two-and-a-half years of state driven lawlessness, the Daily News has been bombed twice, scores of journalists have been attacked by ruling party militias or arrested by police, newspapers have been illegally "banned" in pro-ruling party areas, their vendors have been attacked and had their newspapers destroyed and there is a virtual blanket ban on visiting foreign journalists.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 5 July
Govt refuses to ratify ICC
The government has refused to ratify the International Criminal Court (ICC) formed this week, saying the new body was not one of its top priorities. Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister, Patrick Chinamasa told the Zimbabwe Independent the government would not commit itself to the international court as it had "more pressing internal issues to deal with". Chinamasa said it was difficult to take the court seriously following the US government's unwillingness to participate. "It's not something which we are interested in right now," said Chinamasa. "We have so much to deal with here at home. I will look into that when the time comes and we will certainly do something about it." The government's views come after the Coalition of the International Criminal Court (CICC), a grouping of more than 1 000 human rights NGOs, earlier this year wrote to southern African states imploring them to emulate South Africa and Mauritius and ratify the court. Chinamasa said despite the government's reluctance to ratify the court, it was still committed to international justice as witnessed by its endorsement of the Rome Statute of 1998 which set up the court.
The Rome Statute, the treaty creating the ICC, came into force on Monday, beginning the jurisdiction of the world's first permanent tribunal capable of trying individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICC comes despite stiff resistance from the US government which is threatening to veto UN peacemaking missions worldwide unless its nationals in those operations are granted immunity from the ICC. It also comes a week after the African Human Rights Commission admitted to having collected more than 20kg of recorded evidence of human rights abuses during its investigations in Harare. President Robert Mugabe and his followers are being touted by many human rights groups as candidates for trial by the ICC. If Zimbabwe ratifies the court, it will automatically become one of the countries governing the court which will be based in The Hague. The nominations for the judges will be held in September while elections will be held in January 2003, which is also when the court hearings will begin.
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From The Daily News, 5 July
Lawyers attack Chinamasa
Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, has no jurisdiction to order an investigation into the conduct of High Court judge, Justice Fergus Blackie, following the warrant of arrest the judge issued against the minister, legal experts said yesterday. The lawyers said Andrew Chigovera, the Attorney General (AG), had erred by publicly criticising Blackie’s decision to issue the warrant and might have also been in contempt of the court. Lovemore Madhuku, a constitutional law expert, said in terms of Section 87 of the Constitution, the power to probe the conduct of a judicial officer lay with the Chief Justice and not the government or a minister. "Only the Chief Justice can initiate an investigation," he said. "Chinamasa does not even have powers to suggest, let alone to initiate or recommend, one." He was reacting to Chinamasa’s attack on Blackie on Wednesday. The government-controlled Herald newspaper yesterday quoted Chinamasa as attacking Blackie for issuing the warrant for his arrest. This came after the minister failed to appear in court to answer a contempt of court charge stemming from his criticism of a six-month jail term imposed on three Americans convicted of illegal arms possession in 1999. The minister said the judge’s conduct constituted "gross abuse of judicial office" and that he would advise Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku to set up a tribunal to investigate Blackie’s conduct in the matter. Chinamasa said according to Section 76 of the Constitution the powers of prosecution were vested in the AG. Chigovera earlier criticised Blackie’s decision, saying he should have issued a default judgment against Chinamasa instead of a warrant for his arrest, because the contempt of court proceedings were of a civil, and not a criminal, nature.
Madhuku said: "It is unconstitutional for even Chinamasa to raise the issue with Chidyausiku, because the idea is to maintain an independent judiciary. It is a very serious infringement of the Constitution." He said if Chinamasa was correct in so doing, then judges would be investigated every day, because politicians always conclude that judicial officers are wrong when they give unfavourable judgments. Section 87 (2) of the Constitution reads: "If, in the case of a judge of the Supreme or High Court other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice advises the President that the question of removal from office of the judge concerned ought to be investigated, the President shall appoint a tribunal to inquire into the matter." Madhuku, the chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, said Chinamasa and Chigovera might have been in contempt for saying they believed Blackie was wrong in issuing the warrant of arrest against the minister. "Chinamasa is the accused person and cannot be judge as well," Madhuku said. "Whether issuing a warrant of arrest is correct or not could have been argued in court, but for Chinamasa and Chigovera to say with certainty that Blackie was wrong is contempt. Chigovera, as a lawyer, should have raised his objections in court rather than to lecture the nation on the law." Yvonne Mahlunge, a former chairperson of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers’ Association, said Chinamasa was obviously an interested party and should have delegated the matter to his deputy. She said Chinamasa’s assertion that the powers of prosecution were vested in Chigovera was wrong because there was also room for individuals to institute private prosecutions.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said the court had powers to summon a person considered to be in contempt. When someone is personally served with a subpoena to appear in court and he defaults, then the judge can issue him with a warrant of arrest, the lawyers said. They said a court can institute prosecution if it believes someone is in contempt. A judge can summon the person to explain, they said. Madhuku said the Supreme Court dismissed the argument that powers of prosecution were vested with the AG in Chinamasa's own contempt case. The minister's case was referred to the Supreme Court in October 1999 after his lawyer Sternford Moyo, raised constitutional issues, which among others, included the right of protection by the law. Chinamasa was then AG. The Supreme Court, however, ruled against him, ordering the High Court to proceed with the case.
Madhuku said: "I can only conclude Chinamasa is being dishonest and wants to mislead the nation because he knows ordinary people do not read court judgments and understand the law." "Chidyausiku should make his position clear because Chinamasa's comments raised suspicions that he meets regularly with ministers, particularly after the judge publicly said he supports Zanu PF, he said. Learnmore Jongwe, the MDC's spokesman who is also a lawyer, said it was inappropriate for an interested party to seek to institute proceedings in terms of the constitution for a tribunal to be set up. Jongwe said if Chinamasa was aggrieved by the judge's actions, he should have engaged somebody else in the government to take up the issue. "It is inappropriate at this juncture for someone to go public on an issue concerning a judge," he said. "That is the only reason why these contempt proceedings are being done in the first place." Jongwe said this was another classic example of the disdain being shown by the government for the judiciary.
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From SABC News, 5 July
Zimbabwe farmers charged with violence acquitted
Zimbabwe's magistrates' court has acquitted 10 white farmers charged with public violence against supporters of President Robert Mugabe's land seizure programme, the farmers' lawyer said. The 10 were originally among a group of 21 farmers arrested last August for either assaulting or abetting the assault of black settlers on a farm owned by a white colleague. The farmers, who were detained for weeks last year before being released on bail, had pleaded not guilty, saying they had been caught in violence after coming to rescue one farmer whom the settlers were trying to drive off his property. The farmers' lawyer, Jeremy Callow, said today the Harare magistrate's court had found 10 farmers not guilty after the state had dropped charges against the 11 others in a trial that has been running intermittently since April. "The farmers were acquitted today because the court said there was no credible evidence to support the charges levelled against them, and this is a victory for justice," Callow said. The farmers were arrested on August 6 last year around the northwestern town of Chinhoyi for allegedly assaulting supporters of Mugabe on a white-owned farm occupied by self-styled war veterans backed by the government. Mobs of militants retaliated by burning and looting properties in the area in the week after the arrests.
The Zimbabwean government has pressed on with its seizures of white-owned farms despite criticism that the drive is worsening a severe food crisis in the southern African state. Nearly 3 000 white farmers have been ordered to vacate their farms by August 10 to make way for landless blacks. Mugabe, who is accused by the opposition and many Western powers of cheating in presidential polls two months ago, says he wants to finish his "fast-track" land redistribution by August. Zimbabwe has been in crisis since February 2000, when pro-government militants, led by veterans of the 1970s liberation war, began invading white-owned farms. Zimbabwe is facing a severe food shortage caused by the farm disruptions coupled with drought. Mugabe's government, saying it is trying to correct imbalances in land ownership created by British colonialism, has targeted hundreds of white-owned farms for seizure. Farmers say they support land redistribution but are opposed to the methods employed by Mugabe, Zimbabwe's ruler since the former Rhodesia gained independence in 1980.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 6 July
Muluzi concedes defeat in bid for another term
Blantyre - Malawi President Bakili Muluzi has accepted a narrow defeat he suffered when parliament rejected the controversial bill that was designed to scrap presidential term limits in the country. "It was a give and take process. I hold no grudges nor vengeance against the people who spoke against or made negative remarks on me. I will hold nobody accountable," Muluzi said in a prepared 10 minutes speech on state radio, in his first reaction to parliament's decision. Muluzi's party needed just three votes to secure 128 ballots needed to make a two-thirds majority that could amend the constitution to allow him to stand for a third five-year term in 2004. Some 125 legislators voted in favour of changing the constitution, while 59 were against and five abstained. Muluzi, who virtually banned public debate on the controversial issue in the run-up to the parliamentary vote, urged Malawians to "forgive each other and reconcile." "Democracy calls for tolerance of different views. Now that the debate has been determined, the tension should melt away to pave way for reconciliation," Muluzi added. Muluzi came under heavy local and international pressure to hold a free and open debate on the amendment of the bill. President Muluzi's second term ends in 2004 and with his ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party holding only 95 seats in parliament, he required the support of other groupings to garner the requisite two-thirds majority for the constitutional change.
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Comment from the Washington Times, 3 July
Marshalling aid for Africa
Helle Dale
The name of former U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall is often taken in vain. Marshall Plans for Russia and for Eastern Europe were advocated throughout the 1990s, and today there is even talk of a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan and for the Palestinians. Last week, the African continent joined the competition for a Marshall Plan of its own at the meeting of the G-8 countries in Kananaskis, Canada. To put it mildly, it is hard to see how a program designed to help Western industrialized countries rebuild themselves after the devastation of World War II, more than 50 years ago, can possibly be used as a model for solving the very different problems that affect these newer candidates for U.S. aid. Or could it be that "Marshall Plan" in the minds of its most recent advocates simply means a very large infusion of foreign aid? That may be closer to the truth. African leaders attending the G-8 summit came with truly great expectations. At a previous meeting in June in Durban, South Africa, they not only agreed on the proposal for an ambitious New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), but also calculated its price tag, an additional $64 billion annually. But that was not to be. Leaders of the industrialized nations praised certain elements of the plan, particularly its emphasis on accountability and conditionality. And Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who is headed into an election, vied with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to express his concern for conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Chretien's proposed African Action Plan, however, was found short of both funding and specifics by critics among NGOs and human rights groups - indeed, by African leaders themselves.
In all, the Africa Action Plan finally adopted by the G-8 would reduce the debt of 22 countries that follow "sound economic principles and good governance" by $19 billion. There was, however, no new commitment to giving half of all new foreign aid to Africa, as proposed by the World Bank. Canada pledged $500 million, Britain some $800 million and the United States $500 million to fight AIDS and $100 million for education. Western leaders promised to help Africans build institutions and fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases, always a good cause to be sure but one that has deep cultural and systemic problems at its center. Said Mr. Chretien, "There are some people who will say that it's not enough. But it is a departure - you could see the reaction of the African leaders. They were excited." Perhaps it is more accurate to say they were doing their best to save face. The reluctance to commit larger sums is understandable. Africa is a graveyard of international development plans, and some of them have certainly done more harm than good. Between 1980 and 1988, sub-Saharan Africa received $83 billion in international aid, a period during which living standards continued to decline by 1.2 percent per year. One reason was that foreign aid as often as not helps perpetuate military dictatorships -in places like Uganda, Zaire and Liberia. Consider, for example, the United Nations' Program of Action for African Economic Recovery (UN-PAAER) adopted in 1986. This is what U.N. Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar had to say in his 1988 review of the program: "The overall economic condition of Africa has worsened since the adoption of UN-PAAER. The continent's gross domestic product in per capita terms declined by 2.0 percent in 1986 and a further 2.2 percent in 1987, and is today lower than it was in 1980."
As Africa's leaders themselves recognize, what is needed is good governance and access to Western markets, which remain restricted by high tariffs in crucial areas like textiles. And it would indeed be churlish to dismiss the apparently good intentions of the African leaders who have proposed the Nepad plan. The emphasis on accountability and peer review of progress towards economic and political liberalization among African countries themselves earns them a fair hearing. Foreign investors will certainly be interested in how far this evaluation process will go. The first test, however, has already been flunked by the South African president, Thabo Mbeki himself. South Africa's neighbor Zimbabwe has over the past year declined into outrageous political corruption, election fraud and starvation now threatening 6 million people. The only country with real clout to pressure Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is South Africa, and Mr. Mbeki has chosen to stand by rather than expose another black leader to criticism. Other African leaders hastened to declare Mr. Mugabe's outrageously rigged re-election in March to be legitimate. To help their distressed continent, they will have to do far better in tests to come.
Helle Dale is deputy director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 7 July
MP in trouble over Mugabe suit
Movement for Democratic Change MP, Evelyn Masaiti, who with three other MDC activists successfully sued President Mugabe in the United States, faces disciplinary action when Parliament resumes sitting next month. According to information reaching The Standard, Mugabe and some ruling party MPs were bitter that Masaiti's lawsuit had humiliated the 78-year-old president and wanted the Mutasa constituency legislator to be "fixed". A US judge ruled on Monday that Mugabe should pay Masaiti; losing MDC candidate for Bindura, Elliot Pfebve and his sister, Enfridah; Maria Stevens, wife of slain farmer, David; and Adella Chiminya, wife of murdered MDC activist, Tichaona, a total of US$73 million in compensatory damages arising from political violence which affected the plaintiffs before the 2000 legislative polls. Although Mugabe might not comply with the judgment, analysts say this may further hurt his already battered international image. Mugabe, together with a number of his henchmen, have been barred from entering the US and European Union countries due to rampant human rights abuses. Justice, legal and parliamentary affairs minister, Patrick Chinamasa, who is also the leader of the House, told The Standard he would consult the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, on how to deal with Masaiti. Said Chinamasa: "In light of the developments we will look into the matter in consultation with the Speaker. That is what I can say at the moment regarding that issue."
Contacted for comment, Masaiti said she was not afraid of reprisals from the ruling party. "They have been threatening me all along saying that I was not respecting the laws of this country by suing Mugabe in the US. I will continue fighting them until they realise that what they are doing is wrong. Only illegitimate governments are afraid of granting human rights to their people. I will not give up. I will continue fighting for freedom. All I wanted was to register that my human rights were violated. I wanted the world to know that there are no human rights at all in Zimbabwe. The world has a right to know that Mugabe is a dictator who can't stand any opposition," Masaiti told The Standard. The Mutasa MP escaped death by a whisker prior to the 2000 general election when she was severely assaulted by Zanu PF supporters and war veterans who later burnt down her home after she had fled away. Adella Chiminya's husband, Tichaona, who was MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai's personal aide, was murdered when they were bombed in Buhera, while Maria Stevens' husband, David, was slain by war veterans who had invaded his farm. Despite being a victim of political violence himself, Elliot Pfebve's brother, Matthew, was murdered by ruling party supporters. All the cases happened before the 2000 general election when more than 30 MDC supporters were allegedly killed by ruling party hooligans. Mugabe had pleaded immunity saying he was a head of state and could not be brought before the US court. The US judge however said Mugabe could not be immune as he was being charged in his capacity as leader of Zanu PF.
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From PANA, 6 July
Zimbabwe may run dry of beer as maize shortage bites
Harare - Beer drinkers in Zimbabwe turned gloomy Thursday after one of the country's largest breweries said there could be shortages of the drink in coming weeks due to the unavailability of a key ingredient: maize. Zimbabwe is facing a critical shortage of maize, which is also the staple food, and other cereals this year due to a crippling drought which has left an estimated 7.8 million people in the southern African country facing starvation. Chibuku Breweries chief executive Pearson Gowero said the company had resorted to importing its own maize requirements from South Africa after a state-owned grain procurement agency, the Grain MarketingTop
From The People’s Daily (China), 5 July
Zimbabwe makes delicacies from sweet potatoes
University of Zimbabwe researchers have made history by improvising and making delicacies such as French fries, bread, and drink from sweet potatoes, according to the Zimbabwe Inter Africa News Agency on Thursday. The breakthrough has been achieved by Tunga Rukuni and Miss Angeline Murungamiri as well as fellow colleagues in the Faculty of Agriculture in the university. They mooted the idea by demystifying the popular tradition of making French fries, wheat bread, and fruit juices by proffering alternatives using sweet potatoes. The process of deep-frying is the same as in the process of making French fries, but the only new element is the sweet potatoes. "You will be amazed what we can do with sweet potatoes," said Rukuni, an executive of the Development Technology Center. "We can make chips, bread cakes, sweet potato ketchup and even jam." To make these delicacies, they slice sweet potatoes and dry them using solar dryers and then grinding them into powder. This powder is then processed into cakes and drink. Project leader Miss Mutungamiri said a bakery in Chinhoyi helped them with facilities to make the sweet potato bread. She said this would go a long way in providing an alternative to the nation, which is continually facing shortages of wheat. "Sweet potatoes, when processed into flour, can make a wide range of foods and this is what we need in the country," she said. "Besides making up for the shortage of wheat in the country, they say variety is the spice of life," she said. Plans are underway to make the products available to rest of the country.
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From The Saturday Star (SA), 6 July
3 nations flash cash as famine bites Africa
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says three countries have responded to its call for about R5-billion in aid to alleviate food shortages in six southern African countries. However, more contributions are needed to avert a catastrophe, according to the organisation. The donations by the United Kingdom (R281-million), Canada (R10-million) and the Netherlands (R5-million) were a direct response to a WFP appeal last week for urgent help in raising about R5-billion to reduce hunger among 13 million people facing starvation in southern Africa. "These are the first countries to formalise their donations to WFP's appeal for close to one million tons of food aid," the UN agency said on Friday night. "WFP's regional emergency operation is designed to help feed 10,2 million people until the next main harvest in March 2003. Major contributions from other donor countries are being finalised."
Britain's contribution to the WFP's regional appeal in Johannesburg was signed on Friday by Sam Sharpe, head of the UK's department for international development in southern Africa and Judith Lewis, WFP regional director for East and southern Africa. Lewis said the three donations were timely and crucial. "Seven million people in the region are very hungry and that number will only grow over the coming months." She said WFP would conduct rolling assessments to monitor the degree of deterioration in regional food security. The supply of affordable maize, volume of commercial food imports, effectiveness of government agricultural policies and the possibility of another El Nino phenomenon, among other factors, would all impact on the number of hungry people. She said the British, Canadian and Dutch contributions would be used to buy about 50 000 tons of food immediately. Cash donations were particularly valuable because they enabled the WFP to buy food in the region and begin distributing it within a month.
According to Lewis at least 12,8 million people would need food aid in the region over the next nine months. The WFP was appealing for 67 percent of the region's cereal food aid. She said the amount was the maximum WFP felt it could realistically mobilise and distribute. WFP would target the most vulnerable households, such as those affected by HIV/Aids and those headed by women, children and the elderly. The humanitarian crisis affecting Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland had been caused by a "perfect storm" of natural and man-made disasters and failed government policies. WFP is the UN's frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. In 2001 it fed more than 77 million people in 82 countries.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 7 July
Leaders to tackle Zimbabwe issue
Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon is to hold talks with President Thabo Mbeki and other Commonwealth leaders attending the launch of the African Union this week to find ways to restart reconciliation talks in Zimbabwe. While Zimbabwe's political and economic woes have been strictly avoided during preparatory talks for the closure of the Organisation of African Unity and launch of the African Union this week, concerns are mounting about the worsening humanitarian situation in the country as the stalemate between President Robert Mugabe's government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change continues. Mbeki, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard recommended Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth for 12 months after a flawed presidential election in March. Peace talks between Zanu PF and the MDC, facilitated by Mbeki and Obasanjo, stalled after the ruling party withdrew, pending the outcome of the opposition's legal challenge to the country's election results.
With eight months left before Zimbabwe's suspension expires, the Commonwealth troika has not spelt out steps for the country's readmission. Insiders say Mbeki and Obasanjo "wanted the dust to settle" after the election and suspension drama before raising the issue again. Mbeki has also stepped back after a confidential letter he wrote to Mugabe, which urged him to restart the peace talks, was leaked to the Zimbabwean press. Since Zimbabwe's suspension, international aid has almost dried up, exacerbating the food crisis. Western countries are also reluctant to invest in the land redistribution programme because of the political instability in the country. McKinnon is apparently eager to hold talks with Mugabe on the political and economic crisis but Mugabe has not yet responded to the request for a meeting. Commonwealth officials say McKinnon will attend the inaugural session of the African Union on Tuesday as an observer and is hoping to hold discussions with African heads of state who are Commonwealth members. "It is of utmost interest to the Commonwealth to see Zimbabwe back in the family as soon as possible," said a senior Commonwealth official.
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Comment from The Observer (UK), 7 July
Hollow peace hopes in shattered Congo
Fabienne Hara
With nearly half of Congo's territory occupied by foreign forces, the chances of it holding together as a nation have never looked so slim. The war currently being fought in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo involves the armies of at least three neighbouring countries, numerous rapacious rebel groups and militias that are funded by government sponsors in Kinshasa, Kigali and Kampala - and is leading towards the permanent partition of the Congolese state. This may seem surprising to those who follow the affairs of Central Africa. After all, a cease fire was signed at Lusaka in July 1999 by all six nations who were then fighting on Congolese soil, the United Nations established a military observer mission (MONUC), hundreds of millions of dollars have been pledged for the demobilisation of rebel and militia groups and, in the past few months, there has been the Inter-Congolese Dialogue - an attempt to heal the political schisms of the DRC and begin to rebuild the shattered state. But the ongoing violence in the eastern regions known as the Kivus and Ituri, recent large-scale movements of rebel forces in eastern and southern Congo and the failure of the Inter Congolese Dialogue to reach an inclusive political agreement shows this progress to be hollow. The fact is that nearly three years after Lusaka, there has been no political settlement to end the war. Half of the country is occupied and 35,000 Rwandan troops remain in the DRC. Uganda, which pledged to withdraw its troops under a military disengagement plan agreed at Lusaka, has returned its forces several times and continues to sponsor rebel fighters. Angola and Burundi also maintain a small number of troops in Congo. All those countries that fought the wider war - especially Rwanda - push their own agendas through political and military proxies. MONUC estimates there are 8,000 to 12,000 active Rwandan militia fighters in eastern Congo, in addition to Rwanda's troops.
Zimbabwe, another signatory to the Lusaka cease fire, also remains in the DRC, although is not directly involved in the fighting. President Joseph Kabila relies on Zimbabwean troops to protect him - and the Zimbabwean army and the Harare government are major beneficiaries of business agreements with the DRC. Zimbabwe is most reluctant to withdraw from the Congo while its own domestic situation is so grave. Meanwhile MONUC - the UN mission in which the Congolese people have placed so much hope - remains unable to deploy military observers to the east because of the resistance of the Rwanda-backed rebel troops. Tension between Rwanda and the Kinshasa government is the most dangerous fault line in the Congo. Since the overthrow of the dictator Mobutu in 1997, Rwanda has sought to direct the political future of its giant neighbour. It also has genuine concerns about its own security, but Rwanda's pursuit of its objectives is posing serious problems for Congo's peace prospects. Most recently it was the anti-Kabila RCD (Rassemblement congolais pour la Democratie), with Rwandan support, that thwarted the Inter Congolese Dialogue. While the majority of delegates from unarmed opposition groups and civil society, as well as Angola, Uganda and Zimbabwe, reached agreement on a transition power-sharing arrangement in Kinshasa, RCD and Rwanda rejected it. They demanded the establishment of a federalist government, effectively legalising Rwandan influence in the Kivus - partitioning the country politically as they have already partitioned it militarily. If not, Rwanda and the RCD threatened to revive ethnic and regional tensions to prevent political reunification, sink the country into general chaos and so seek to justify Rwandan occupation for several years to come. Indeed, since the Inter Congolese Dialogue, the RCD has been talking up threats of renewed hostilities. With Rwanda's considerable military power on its side, this constitutes a serious risk to the potential success of any transition or power-sharing deal. Reports of further troop build-ups in the east further increases the risk of confrontation between Rwanda, Uganda, and Kinshasa's proxy forces.
Knowing it cannot defeat Rwanda militarily, and without a cohesive national army of its own, the government of President Joseph Kabila is supplying and arming Congolese militia groups and Rwandan Hutus opposed to the government in Kigali to keep the Rwandan forces at bay. The government of DRC has been regularly criticised for supporting these Hutu factions - some of whom were involved in the genocidal massacre of Tutsis in 1994. The continued existence of these groups has been an important justification for Rwanda's military expansion and reluctance to embrace a more democratic system of government. However with Rwanda now clinging to the Kivus, and appearing less than sincere about withdrawal of its troops, President Kabila has every incentive to try to win support from local Kivu groups and make the situation in the east as difficult as possible for RCD and Rwanda. The DRC government has attempted to step up international pressure on Rwanda by taking it to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Kigali of waging a war of aggression. Rwanda is playing its own diplomatic games, refusing to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, after the ICTR announced that it would investigate leaders of the Rwandan Patriotic Front - the Tutsi-led armed force that eventually formed the basis of the current regime of President Paul Kagame.
While the regional conflict in eastern Congo appears to be a microcosm of the national and international crises, the fighting also benefits 'conflict entrepreneurs' in all the neighbouring countries. A self-funding war economy has built up - largely replacing the traditional agricultural economy. Farmland is being destroyed, cattle are being killed as war and the extraction of minerals become the main means of survival. There is increasing evidence that military force is being used to gain and control large swathes of productive territory. In Ituri, battles have followed the location of gold deposits and the RCD and the Rwandan army are directly involved in the exploitation of all kinds of minerals. President Kagame has himself called this a 'self-financing war'. About half of Rwanda's oversized army is now reliant on occupied foreign territory to survive. A formal peace agreement and withdrawal from Congo would mean demobilising huge numbers of men into a tiny, poor country. With the political and military dynamics spinning out of control, the humanitarian crisis in the DRC is reaching staggering dimensions. 2.3 million people are displaced. Massacres and murder are common. Rape is used by all sides as a weapon of war. It is thought that about 400,000 people have died as a direct result of fighting with a further 1.6 million dead from starvation or disease. Oxfam estimates that in the worst affected areas one in four children dies before reaching the age of five. A recent malnutrition survey of South Kivu found more malnourished adults than children. The World Food Program interprets this as meaning that the malnourished children have already died. The complexity and brutality of the Congolese conflict seem almost insurmountable at the moment. Not only are the local realities unimaginably grim, but the regional stakes are very high. However there are ways in which the international community may be able to help bring this terrible war to an end.
First, it is time to give more equal weight to the security concerns of Rwanda and the DRC. Disarmament and demobilisation of the Hutu militias are necessary to ensure Rwanda's security - but so is Rwanda's withdrawal necessary for the security of the Congolese. The DRC government has little incentive to stop supporting militias while Rwanda rejects terms that may bring a political settlement and clings doggedly to the occupation of the east. The security corridor proposed by the UN Security Council at the border of Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo is no substitute for a serious disarmament and demobilisation plan. It will not lead to Rwanda's withdrawal, which must be negotiated as part of a general strategy for peace, security and development in the Great Lakes. The aim of the international community must be to pressure Rwanda to support the peace process and accept a genuine power-sharing agreement in Kinshasa, independent of its influence or control. The appointment of a new UN Special Envoy for the Congo is a positive step. His task should be to press the demobilisation agenda, stop the DRC supplying rebel groups and finalise a comprehensive deal that will resolve Rwandan concerns and bring the RCD into a government of transition. The mandate of MONUC must also be strengthened so that it can protect demilitarised areas from reoccupation prior to the total withdrawal of all foreign troops. MONUC should also be given a mandate to help resolve local conflicts and protect access routes for humanitarian agencies. Rwanda still benefits from the international community's feelings of guilt about failing to prevent the 1994 genocide but it is important that judgement is not skewed by the past. Without a more concerted international effort, the people of the region face more chaos - in which the violent partition of the Congo will continue unchallenged, and the Kivu provinces remain a battleground for militias armed by Kinshasa and troops under the control of Rwanda and Uganda. Thirty-two years after its independence, the Congo deserves to be free from its neighbours' greed and their own colonial tendencies. Otherwise the international community may once again find itself accused of neglect.
Fabienne Hara is Co-Director of the Africa Program, International Crisis Group
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From The Scotsman (UK), 8 July
Harare treason witness in Diana fraud
A former Israeli intelligence agent at the centre of treason accusations against Zimbabwe's opposition leader is being investigated by British police for allegedly attempting to sell false information about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, for £500,000. Ari Ben-Menashe, whose hotly disputed "evidence" in the Zimbabwe case could send the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to the gallows, is accused of trying to convince Mohammed al-Fayed, owner of Harrods, into paying for information three years ago. He is said to have approached Mr Fayed in 1999 with claims he had evidence the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, had plotted to kill Diana. The princess died in a Paris car crash in August 1997, along with Mr Fayed's son Dodi. "Subsequent investigations established that the Mossad conspiracy theory was nonsense and the matter was reported to police," said Mr Fayed's spokesman, Chester Stern.
News of the alleged deception, which Scotland Yard has confirmed is still under investigation, casts fresh doubts over the reliability of Mr Ben-Menashe's evidence in the case against Mr Tsvangirai. That case centres on a grainy and dubiously edited video purporting to show Mr Tsvangirai discussing a plot with Mr Ben-Menashe to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Mr Tsvangirai, whose popularity had threatened to unseat Mr Mugabe at elections in March, denies the accusations. The opposition leader claims he was set up by Mr Ben-Menashe, who has admitted to being a long-standing friend of Mr Mugabe. The shadow justice minister, David Coltart, said yesterday: "We are fast building a strong picture of Ben-Menashe not exactly being a man of good standing."
The Canadian government yesterday confirmed that an inquiry into if Mr Tsvangirai might have a case to answer in Canada for hatching the alleged murder conspiracy with Mr Ben-Menashe in Montreal has come to nothing. "The investigation carried out by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been closed because I understand that all investigative avenues were exhausted," said a foreign affairs spokeswoman, Marie-Christine Lilkoff. It has also been claimed that Mr Ben-Menashe's Canadian-based consultancy firm, Dickens & Madson, played a role in illegally trading weapons for diamonds in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A former Mossad operative, Mr Ben-Menashe was also accused of lying under oath during the Iran-Contra affair in the United States and was dubbed a "notorious and chronic liar" by the Jerusalem Post after selling false stories about Israel's atomic weapons.
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From The Globe & Mail (Canada), 6 July
RCMP ends Zimbabwe coup-plot probe
An RCMP probe into a murder conspiracy allegedly hatched in Montreal against Zimbabwe's President now appears to be closed or closing without turning up proof that such a plot ever existed. Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's Opposition Leader, remains charged with treason by local authorities for allegedly plotting a coup against Robert Mugabe. The RCMP says it still has a file open on the case. But sources - and the Foreign Affairs Department - say police have found no evidence of a political murder conspiracy, an allegation made by Montreal consultant Ari Ben-Menashe. "I can confirm that the investigation carried out by the RCMP has been closed because I understand that all investigative avenues were exhausted," Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Marie-Christine Lilkoff said. Foreign Affairs asked the RCMP to look into the affair in February after sensational allegations emerged that Mr. Tsvangirai had travelled to Montreal to meet with political consultants and discuss the assassination of Mr. Mugabe.
Mr. Ben-Menashe, who provided a tape of Mr. Tsvangirai to back up his claim, is a former Israeli intelligence operative with links to Mr. Mugabe. He is a controversial figure. Among other things, he is currently under investigation by British authorities looking into allegations that he tried to sell information suggesting that the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 was a murder conspiracy hatched by the Israeli intelligence service. A spokesperson for Scotland Yard confirmed it received a complaint of criminal deception from U.K. businessman Mohamed al-Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed, who perished with Diana in a Paris car crash. Mr. al-Fayed made the complaint three years ago after being approached by Mr. Ben-Menashe with information "suggesting the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, was somehow involved in the Paris car crash," said Chester Stern, a spokesman for Mr. al-Fayed.
Mr. al-Fayed has long maintained the deaths were no accident, but part of an assassination conspiracy. "Against that background of his robust views, Mr. al-Fayed has received a number of . . . offers of information to support his view in exchange for money," Mr. Stern said. He said Mr. Ben-Menashe was asking for the equivalent of C$1.1-million ($750,000 U.S.) for the information. Investigations by Mr. al-Fayed's people determined that the Mossad conspiracy theory was "nonsense," Mr. Stern said. So instead of shelling out money, a criminal complaint of deception was made to Scotland Yard. Scotland Yard officials confirmed this week that detectives continue to investigate the matter, although it has been more than three years since the original complaint was made. "We can confirm the Metropolitan Police Service is investigating an allegation of attempted deception first reported to us in April, 1999," spokesman Mike Cobb said.
Mr. Ben-Menashe was out of the country this week and was not available to comment. In the case of Mr. Tsvangirai, Mr. Ben-Menashe set up video cameras in the ceiling of his Montreal boardroom to secretly film the African politician - and the tape appeared to show the Opposition Leader talking about the "elimination" of Mr. Mugabe. The videotape was passed along to Zimbabwe authorities, who charged Mr. Tsvangirai based on that evidence. The allegations were made public as the country's elections were heating up. Mr. Mugabe was re-elected, although the dodgy nature of that election got Zimbabwe suspended from the Commonwealth for one year.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 7 July
No pay for war vets
War veterans are up in arms because of the failure of President Mugabe's regime to pay them their pensions and war victims compensation funds for the past month, The Standard has learnt. The non-payment of their 'dues' has put these freedom fighters on an inevitable collision course with government. Cash-strapped war veterans in Harare, led by Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association chairman for Harare, Joseph Chinotimba, were reportedly prevented at the last minute on Thursday from demonstrating against the Zanu PF regime. The bankrupt government forks out $350 million in pensions for the 50 000 strong war veterans body, whose violent election campaign ensured Mugabe's continued presidency for another six years. Government is also paying compensation to 125 000 people who suffered injuries and losses during the 1970s liberation war. These did not receive anything in June either.
Investigations by The Standard revealed that by yesterday, government had still not paid the war veterans. They were to have been paid by 26 June. War vets secretary-general, Andy Mhlanga, confirmed that members of their association had not received their monthly allowances for June and accused the government of not taking them seriously. "We had war veterans coming to our offices from all over the country seeking assistance over non-payment of their dues. We are seeking an audience with the government authorities responsible for this mess. We have decided that whoever is responsible shall meet the costs incurred by the war veterans in relation to transport and food," said Mhlanga.
Acting director of the pensions office, Edson Goronga, on Friday afternoon confirmed that his office had not yet paid the war veterans. "An error occurred because of our new computerised system which resulted in some people not being paid because their names were left out. We are in the process of rectifying the problem and will reimburse the costs incurred by those war veterans who travelled to Harare to check on their money," he said on Friday. Two weeks ago, the war veterans demanded an increase of their monthly allowances from $7 000 to $20 000. They are also demanding that education allowances for their children be increased from $5 000 to $35 000 per term and funeral allowances to be upped to $20 000. If the cash-strapped government accedes to the latest demands, Zimbabwe's already overburdened tax payers will fork out an extra $650 million per month towards the war vets' bill which would amount to $1 billion per month.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 7 July
Over the top
A European ambassador to a troubled central African country was left fuming last week after he hosted a dinner party for diplomats, foreign politicians and members of the opposition. Sadly, for the deeply disturbed ambassador, news of the dinner party was leaked to the troubled central African country's propaganda comic, resulting in red faces and resentment all round. While it is not illegal to hold dinner parties in the troubled central African country, it is illegal for three or more people to gather to discuss politics - unless they are members of the ruling Zany Party meeting to discuss important issues of state like arson, murder, starvation and torture. Still, the fuming European ambassador's residence is officially his territory and thus out of bounds to what passes for a police force in the troubled central African nation. It is also officially out of bounds for the men in dark glasses and cheap nylon suits, though it is understood that there are ways and means of bypassing these inconvenient regulations.
According to the state's main comic, guests included ambassadors from various imperialist states, a diplomat from an increasingly disobedient and confused southern African state, a known trouble maker and opposition politician from the same southern African nation and, perfidy of perfidies, the leader of the troubled central African country's opposition. According to an interview the comic held with the troubled central African nation's propaganda minister, St Jonathan, they might have met to discuss mass action. Just days before, the troublesome southern African politician had helpfully pointed out to his northern neighbours that much-needed change had come to his own country as a result of something called "rolling mass action." The observation did not pass unnoticed by leaders of the troubled central Africa nation who have a desperate fear of any form of mass action, rolling or not, and have imported some pretty impressive equipment to suppress just such an eventuality.
Besides, said an official from the Zany Party, sporting a sinister smile, much needed change was brought to the confused southern African country in order to bring about the demise of an almost white regime that spoke a curious language that involved lots of coughing. The situation in the troubled central African country was entirely different as there would soon be no white people left anyway, no matter what tribe they came from or dialect they spoke. Surely that meant that change was unnecessary, he asked hopefully. At this point, a member of the opposition pointed out that even in the confused southern African country change was brought about to allow for something called democracy and freedom of expression, adding that languages and colour of skin were the irrelevant issues. The Zany Party spokesman shook an angry finger at the seditious comment and pointed out that such deviant and intolerable views had no place in the troubled central African country where it was a well-known fact that the running dogs of imperialism, white fellows to a man, were responsible for the mess. "Furthermore we know they're hiding all the maize, wheat, bread, salt, sugar, milk, cement and everything else they can lay their hands on," he said.
It was at this stage that the angry European ambassador shook his head sadly and pointed out that it was none of anyone's business whom he invited to dinner in the first place and it was about time everyone grew up - to which the Zany Party spokesman said smugly that that was just the sort of comment he expected from a neo-colonialist bent on undermining the rule of law in the troubled central African country, which was why it was necessary to devote men in dark glasses and cheap nylon suits to the important task of observing just who did attend dinner parties at various embassies in the capital.
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From The Star (SA), 8 July
Zim must issue passport to activist court
Harare - Zimbabwe's High Court ordered the government on Monday to issue a passport to a veteran human rights activist in a ruling that could have major implications for millions of Zimbabweans of foreign descent. The government plans to appeal Judge Benjamin Paradza's ruling that a passport be given to Judith Todd, 57, who was stripped of her Zimbabwean citizenship because she took no steps to renounce a possible claim to a New Zealand passport. Todd was born in Zimbabwe, but her father, former Rhodesian Prime Minister Sir Garfield Todd, 93, was born in New Zealand. He moved to the southern African nation, which was still a British colony when he led it, as a missionary 70 years ago. Paradza granted Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede permission to appeal his ruling to the Supreme Court, but said Judith Todd had to be issued with a passport in the interim and ordered that this be done within 14 days.
Lawyers for Todd, a human rights worker as well as a pioneer of the nation's independent media, expect the appeal to be heard in about three months. Last year President Robert Mugabe introduced tough new citizenship laws aimed at stripping 40 000 white Zimbabweans of British origin of the right to vote, claiming they had not properly renounced their claim to British citizenship. However the law, which bans dual citizenship, will also affect more than two million Zimbabweans with Malawian and Mozambican parentage. Mudede has demanded that any Zimbabwean suspected of having a claim to a second citizenship must produce proof from the foreign country that they do not secretly hold its passport. Many embassies refuse to provide such proof, saying they do not provide consular services to non-citizens.
At a High Court hearing in May, Judge Sandra Mungwiro ruled Mudede's actions illegal, and refused him the right to appeal her ruling. But Mudede claimed Mungwiro should not have heard the case because her husband may have a secret claim by descent to Malawian nationality and approached Paradza for permission to take the matter to the Supreme Court, now headed by Mugabe loyalist Godfrey Chidyausiku. Zimbabwe has been gripped by more than two years of political and economic turmoil, as the increasingly unpopular Mugabe clings to power. Independent human rights groups say scores of people, most opposition supporters, have died in political violence this year surrounding Mugabe's disputed re-election in March. Observer groups said the vote was marred by rigging and intimidation.
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