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Archived News
28th January 2003
Tsvangirai responds to the current cycle of denials
EU debate about Zimbabwe sanctions
Murphy's Zimbabwe decision
Mugabe the problem guest
ICC chief unshaken by firebomb
Police tortured Nkala murder suspects, say defence lawyers
SA ‘kicked Zimbabwe in the butt'
Fly now, pay later with Mugabe
Not-yet accredited journalists face bizarre new demands
Britain agrees deal to let banned Mugabe attend Paris summit
I was tortured for seven hours by Mugabe's thugs
MDC under fire ahead of Cricket Cup
Gwanda bid to divert maize-meal thwarted
Speed uneasy amid guns and roses
Propaganda chief who turned Zimbabwe into 'Planet Moyo'
UK moves to limit damage over invitation to Mugabe
Govt moves to control weather forecasts as drought bites
Mugabe on warpath
Civilians injured as soldiers run amok in Hwange
Zimbabwe foot and mouth hits neighbours
Moyo defends Mugabe's shopping spree
Hosts pick up tab for luxury jaunts
UN panel on illegal exploitation of resources gets new 6-month mandate
ICC backing for Zimbabwe match
Amnesty officials criticise SA’s stance on Zimbabwe
World Food Programme asks Zimbabwe to ease import restrictions
EU to assess Harare sanctions
A word to the French
'Friends' agree to look the other way
Mugabe’s grip tightens on eve of cricket tour
Herald lied 100%, says UN envoy
Zimbabwe food, Aids crises worsening: UN envoys
England cricket team: We don't want to go to Zimbabwe
More words to the French
Govt keeps lid on damning land report
Foreigners questioned in Zimbabwe
Four EU nations object to Mugabe's Paris visit
Zimbabwe opposition chief seeks US envoy
Mbeki, Obasanjo 'timid with Mugabe'
Zimbabwe probes alleged torture of opposition MP
Crazy cricket clowns
Britain leads EU boycott threat over Mugabe
Call for UN force to check food distribution in Zimbabwe
Zanu PF officials accused of abusing GMB facility
'War veterans' order attack on Zim farmer
England team revolt on Harare
Church workers to be charged in Zimbabwe
Firebomb attack on Mugabe party's offices
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From The Times (UK), 22 January
Firebomb attack on Mugabe party's offices
From Jan Raath in Harare
One man died and seven were injured in a firebomb attack on the offices of the ruling Zanu PF party in a Harare township. Police held the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) responsible for the attack, which was the most serious on Zanu PF since parliamentary elections in 2000. Wayne Bvudzijena, a police spokesman, said yesterday that the blast in Kuwadzana township late on Monday was "tied to the (World Cup) cricket games" that are due to be played in Zimbabwe from February 10. He did not elaborate. Paul Themba Nyathi, an MDC spokesman, said: "That’s typical of our politicised police. How do you accuse the MDC before you have carried out investigations?" With a by-election due soon in Kuwadzana, the authorities have sent hundreds of Zanu PF’s youth militia to the area in an attempt to break the MDC’s supremacy in urban Zimbabwe. Ruling-party businessmen have been selling maizemeal, Zimbabwe’s staple diet, to half-starved residents, but only if they can prove that they are Zanu PF members. Police also said yesterday that they had found almost 2,000 rounds of ammunition and 25 bayonets on a chicken farm south of Harare "in what they suspected to be a plot to cache arms, which would be used to cause anarchy in the country" before the World Cup, the state-controlled Daily Herald reported. The International Cricket Conference (ICC) and the England and Australian teams have resisted appeals to boycott the matches in Zimbabwe. The MDC has said that Zimbabweans are angry about the cricket, and human rights groups say that they will stage demonstrations. The ICC said last week that it would reconsider its decision to hold matches in Zimbabwe if the security situation became untenable.
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From The Guardian (UK), 22 January
ICC chief unshaken by firebomb
Andrew Meldrum in Harare and Paul Kelso
The ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed will fly into Harare today to inspect Zimbabwe's World Cup security arrangements in the aftermath of political violence that left one dead and seven injured. In an attack which police blamed on supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, an office of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party was firebombed, killing a party supporter. A police spokesman said 50 people attacked a Zanu PF office in Kuwadzana township with petrol bombs early yesterday. He claimed they were MDC supporters intent on disrupting a by-election and the World Cup matches scheduled for next month. The MDC denied involvement. "The chances are it was an inside job designed to tarnish the image of the MDC," said a spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi. The MDC, which won a majority of the urban seats in parliamentary elections in June 2000, says Zanu PF has stepped up a violent campaign to get hold of the Kuwadzana seat to prove it still has support in urban areas. The seat became vacant in October when its MDC member of parliament died in police custody.
Speed and Ali Bacher, head of the World Cup organising committee, will inspect security arrangements that were agreed when an ICC delegation paid a visit in November. "The safety and security of players and officials in Zimbabwe is clearly an issue for some countries and this meeting is an important opportunity for the ICC to see first-hand how the security arrangements for this event are proceeding," Speed said. Last week the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed that England would fulfil their fixture in Harare on February 13 unless the security situation in Zimbabwe deteriorated significantly. With the MDC and other opponents of the Mugabe government threatening to stage peaceful protests, an eight-man police unit armed with automatic rifles is guarding the Harare Sports Club. An ICC spokesman said yesterday that Speed and Bacher would look specifically at security at airports, hotels and stadiums, and played down the relevance of the unrest. "We are aware of the latest events in Harare but if you look at the report of the original delegation you will see that we foresaw much of what is happening," he said. "While it is regrettable that these things are happening, you have to ask does the threat of violence pose a significant risk to the safety and security plan we have in place, and at this point we don't believe it does."
The delegation's report acknowledged the risk of civil unrest but dismissed the threat to player security, and praised the ability of the authorities to maintain order. "The risk of orchestrated violence from within the country that could place the players and officials at risk is minimal. If food riots occur, it is highly likely that the police and military would be able to contain them," it concluded. The increasing tension in Harare comes as opposition to England's participation has hardened in the UK. In the first proper test of public opinion an ICM poll commissioned by the Guardian found that 58% of people think England's match should be called off. Only 27% support the match, with 15% undecided. Zimbabwe is racked with political chaos and is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980. Maize, bread, milk, sugar, fuel and other commodities are scarce, leaving long lines of shoppers waiting outside stores. The police are also at the centre of controversy after evidence was presented in court that an opposition member of parliament, Job Sikhala, was tortured with electric shocks and severely beaten while in custody.
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From The Daily News, 21 January
Police tortured Nkala murder suspects, say defence lawyers
Court Reporter
Four suspects in the murder of Bulawayo war veterans' chief, Cain Nkala, were tortured during interrogation by the police in Bulawayo, forced to make indications and sign confessions which were dictated to them by their torturers, the High Court heard yesterday. "Neither the confessions nor the indications made by the accused were genuine," the lawyers for Army Zulu, Remember Moyo, Khethani Augustine Sibanda and Sazini Mpofu told Justice Sandra Mungwira at the start of their trial at the High Court. Advocate Eric Morris said of Sibanda, one of the youths shown in a ZBC news footage indicating to the police the shallow grave where Nkala's body was found buried: "The accused states that the indications were extracted by coercion and consisted of information that was given to the accused by members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police for his regurgitation in the form desired by the members." Sibanda, Zulu, represented by Advocate Happius Zhou; Moyo, represented by Advocate Edith Mushore; and Sazini Mpofu, represented by Advocate Morris, are jointly charged with Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, the MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe, and Sonny Nicholas Masera, both represented by Advocate Zhou.
Nkala's widow, Sikhumbuzo Mguni, could not identify her husband's abductors among the suspects. "The State has demonstrated a propensity and willingness to manufacture evidence which is disgraceful and is blatantly amateurish," the lawyers said. "The propensity appears with blatant clarity in the documentary and pictorial evidence presented by the State itself." Advocate Zhou said his clients were "not involved in the plot to murder or in the murder itself". "The accused persons believe this indictment before this court is an unjustified act of political persecution through the use of State machinery." Nkala's widow told the court that on 5 November 2001, the day her husband was subsequently abducted, a stranger who identified himself as Moyo called at their Magwegwe home asking for Nkala. Nkala was away at the time and Moyo waited for him, watching television with Mguni and her children. She said Nkala arrived around 8pm and about 15 minutes later a car pulled up and hooted. "My husband went out to check and he was in the company of our four-year-old son," Mguni said. "I later heard our son crying as he rushed back into the house and at that stage I heard my husband crying out saying: Here are the people who want to kill me'."
She said upon checking she saw about eight men drive off with her husband in a "whitish" truck. "I tugged at one of the occupants, but his colleague hit me on the head with a metal object and I fell down," the widow said. She said she passed out and when she came to, she rushed to a neighbour's house and went to report the incident to a police post in the neighbourhood. Asked whether Moyo helped her at any stage during the kidnapping ordeal or thereafter, Mguni said Moyo did not come out to help when Nkala was being kidnapped and she remembered him being among a number of people, including the Nkalas' neighbours, who came to assist the family. She said she later saw Moyo on 6 November 2001 at a war veterans' meeting in Entumbane to discuss Nkala's abduction and has not seen him since. The trial continues today.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 21 January
SA ‘kicked Zimbabwe in the butt'
Harare - Zimbabwe's state press Tuesday stoked the diplomatic row over Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo with a warning to the South African government that a formal protest over his alleged slur against South African President Thabo Mbeki had set "a dangerous precedent". The state-controlled daily Herald said it was "unfortunate" that the South African foreign ministry had been "sucked in" to "kick Zimbabwe in the butt" in a furore over revelations in the Johannesburg Sunday Times last week of Moyo's recent shopping trip to South Africa, and his subsequent invective-laden reaction. The newspaper revealed that Moyo filled three luxury vehicles and a trailer with food and electronic goods to take home when half of Zimbabwe's population of 14 million faces starvation. The Zimbabwe government had to issue a public reassurance to South Africa that Moyo, when he used the expression "dirty, filthy and recklessly uncouth" in his attack, was referring not to Mbeki or South Africans in general, but to the South African "apartheid" press. The South African official protest quoted another reported remark from Moyo: "If these people, in the name of South Africa, believe they can lead an African Renaissance, then god help them". Zimbabwe claimed Moyo had directed his comments at the South African press, and not at Mbeki.
However, Tuesday's Herald accused the South African government of backing "the view that government business is transacted through newspapers. "It is indeed a dangerous precedent for governments to start holding each other accountable for views published by the media, instead of relying on the official diplomatic channels." It said that senior South African officials -- including central bank governor Tito Mboweni and Defence Minister Patrick Lekota -- had previously made "scurrilous allegations at no lesser a person than President Mugabe," but the Zimbabwe government had never protested. "Does this make Zimbabwe a lesser sovereign state than its brotherly neighbour?" asked the Herald. "We think not," it asserted. The incident is the latest in a series of clashes between Moyo and the South African government in recent years, and occurred as Mbeki's government has embarked on a policy of "quiet diplomacy" with Mugabe's regime in an attempt to end the country's crisis and rescue it from international isolation.
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Comment from The Straits Times (Singapore), 21 January
Fly now, pay later with Mugabe
Greg Mills
On Jan 12, I flew from Singapore to South Africa with Mr Robert Mugabe sitting in the seat directly behind. At Changi Airport, more than 15 trolleys were piled high with shopping in boxes labelled 'Zimbabwe House, Harare'. As we were about to depart, into the aircraft strode the Zimbabwean President, his family and entourage. Aside from their shopping spree, their 10 business-class seats would have cost at least US$30,000. buying a lot of food and humanitarian relief for Zimbabwe's starving population, six million of whom are likely to experience food shortages this year. Yet Mr Mugabe's regime appears to have fallen between the cracks of international concern with attention focused on Baghdad and Pyongyang. Western governments have apparently abrogated their responsibility on the Zimbabwe crisis to South Africa. Pretoria has been unwilling to provide the leadership necessary to extract Zimbabwe from its spiralling economic and political crisis. The reasons for this relate to the weakness of South Africa's own political structures, which are apparently still too fragile in racial terms for the government to risk a more direct, interventionist role.
The cost of doing nothing is too great, however, for the region and for Zimbabweans. The longer South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki fails to act decisively in dealing with his septuagenarian Zimbabwean counterpart, the more he and not only Mr Mugabe will also be viewed as part of the problem. Inside Zimbabwe, increasing food shortages are a direct result of Mr Mugabe's land redistribution programme and related plummeting agricultural output. Inflation is running at 200 per cent. With three-quarters of the population unemployed, the 2003 Budget shortfall is estimated at half of the US$2 billion budget. But Mr Mugabe keeps the lid on political resistance with a cocktail of repression and intimidation of the opposition, and buying off his Zanu PF cadres with farms and access to foreign currency. Amid rumours of an exit strategy for Mr Mugabe engineered by Zanu PF, there are concerns that a relatively sanitised, but hardly democratic or any less corrupt, regime will simply take over where Mr Mugabe has left off. This may be the aim of some of the region's governments, however, given their unease over the rise of the union-based opposition MDC, and the related failure of Zanu PF to make the change fully from liberation movement to political party.
What can be the role for the external community in this environment? Should regional states and institutions be unwilling or unable to take the lead in resolving the crisis and reinstating democracy, this role would have to be taken by other members of the international community. One extreme, though unlikely, is that a major external state or coalition of states might be prepared to intervene directly and militarily. Given events not only in Afghanistan, but also in the former Yugoslavia and potentially Iraq, this 'Taleban option' should not be excluded. The forces required would be small, and success would be assured. Intervention would be welcomed from within Zimbabwe, and the intervening forces would have an assured exit strategy, through the holding of internationally supervised elections. Diplomatically, there would be an incalculable fall-out, in terms of both regional and North-South relations, and it is likely that such an option could be considered only in a case of extreme humanitarian emergency.
External leadership could more plausibly take the form of multilateral action, through the European Union, the Commonwealth, or the United Nations. Extended sanctions through the 54-member Commonwealth would be a symbolic starting point. Concerted involvement of civil society organisations, businesses and the media would also be possible. This could take the form of support for the MDC, Zimbabwean trade unions and other elements of civil society. While simply doing nothing may bring the crisis to a head more quickly (given that humanitarian aid creates a buffer between the populace and the government), it could seriously undermine the reformist tendency throughout the southern African region. The failure to address the Zimbabwe problem already has an impact on the perceived willingness and ability of African states to operate according to accepted standards of good governance, and reflects the absence of the political will required for the New Partnership for Africa's Development reform programme to succeed. A further African catastrophe would have a disastrous impact on Africa, and on external perceptions of its place in the world.
The writer is national director of the SA Institute of International Affairs based in Wits University, Johannesburg. He contributed this comment to The Straits Times.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 22 January
Not-yet accredited journalists face bizarre new demands
By Michael Hartnack
Two international news agencies, Reuters and Agence France Press, last week obtained accreditation for their bureaux and news staff in Zimbabwe, submitting fees in US dollars, demanded by the regime’s newly formed Media and Information Commission. The American news agency Associated Press refused and closed its bureau, although it retains two correspondents. A group of Zimbabwean correspondents for foreign media, including myself, were advised by our lawyers that paying in American dollars would violate exchange control regulations which bar Zimbabwe citizens and permanent residents from paying a Zimbabwean body such as the Media Commission in foreign currency. The regime accuses us of being confrontational, thus we remain without the official press cards which technically were required from January 1, and, in the latest twist, have received a bizarre new set of conditions for getting accreditation. In a letter dated Jan. 6 to our lawyer, Commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso, a doctrinaire revolutionary, sidestepped the U.S. dollar payment issue, saying he is "conducting research" into it, and then invented a brand new excuse for stonewalling accreditation. Correspondents must, he said, "demonstrate our professional authority" based on academic background knowledge or "originality, and having an acute sense of what is significant or profound in a situation or event." Mahoso's voluminous writings in The Sunday Mail, a mouthpiece of the regime, indicate his sense of what is significant will differ acutely from that of most Western editors, since he sees capitalist and racist conspiracies on all sides. Other new Mahoso criteria include publication of ground-breaking books, a long and consistent record of accuracy, integrity, diligence and respect for sources and audiences and readers. We should, he added, be "first providers of the first draft of history ... not fly-by-night mercenaries."
Acceptance of Mahoso's peculiar opinions cannot be made a precondition to practice as a journalist. But that was not all. Mahoso, a lecturer in politics at the Harare Polytechnic, sees his commission’s role as similar to that of the state-run Grain Marketing Board which has a monopoly on grain imports. Foreign news organisations will come to him, and he will assign them correspondents he feels suitable for their needs. Journalists must, Mahoso said, demonstrate "excellence consistent with the role of a national correspondent educating other nations about our nation." All this goes far beyond the draconian press law, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, under which Mahoso’s commission was set up. The concept of a "national correspondent" suggests the journalist is somehow nationalised - a subsidiary of central government. We know how Mahoso and his master, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, would like us to educate other nations about Robert Mugabe's 23-year rule. Mahoso's imaginative elaboration of the Commission's role is both ludicrous and menacing, set against the background of the state media conducting prolonged, mendacious smear campaigns against any perceived opponent of the regime. The state media attempt to rouse xenophobic paranoia through deliberate disinformation. On January 8, for example, state broadcasting announced that unidentified security sources believed the stabbing of an Australian tourist at Victoria Falls was linked to elements opposed to the staging of the World Cup Cricket in Zimbabwe. The next item highlighted the opposition of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to matches being played in Zimbabwe a clear implication Blair was somehow behind the murder, which the Australian High Commission say was a bungled robbery. Arguments against cricketers playing World Cup matches here include that the accompanying journalists will bow to the regime’s inherently obnoxious orders, and that Mugabe, patron of the Zimbabwe Cricket Association, will use the occasion to suggest that the country is now back to normal. But, in my opinion, there is no comparison with sports boycotts of apartheid South Africa. Thabo Mbeki’s South Africa supports Mugabe so it is pointless trying to convey ostracism through a sports boycott.
There are other issues. Firstly, the safety of the players is not so certain since the deliberate creation of paranoia over the Australian tourist's murder. Secondly, were Mugabe to quit tomorrow it might still be improper indeed, morally indecent - for matches to take place when in rural areas people are starving. If the English cricketing authorities stick to their decision to send the team to Zimbabwe, human rights activists should demand they make a major charitable gesture to the victims of Mugabe-made famine. And what if, just if, every time bowlers changed ends spectators chanted the slogan of Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change: "Chinja maitro ’’. That would be something for those accredited first drafters of history. Meanwhile, the not-yet accredited journalists bat on, advised by our lawyers that Mahoso’s commission is to blame for not processing applications lodged two months ago, and that the demand for greenbacks which convert to about Z2 million on the black market violates of our constitutional rights. In theory, the police might turn up at any moment, seize my computer, and drag me away to face charges, which carry a two-year jail sentence, of practising illegally. What is certain is that without press cards we shall certainly not be allowed into the World Cup media tents.
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From The Guardian (UK), 23 January
Britain agrees deal to let banned Mugabe attend Paris summit
Michael White, Andrew Meldrum in Harare and Paul Kelso
Tony Blair's government was last night accused of "outrageous and dishonourable" double standards over Zimbabwe as it emerged that Britain had struck a deal with France that will allow President Robert Mugabe to defy an EU travel ban and attend a Franco-African summit in Paris next month. Diplomatic sources in Harare said the British government had agreed to waive EU sanctions and allow Mr Mugabe to attend the summit as part of a deal in which France agreed not to oppose the renewal of the sanctions against Mr Mugabe and his cronies. Mr Mugabe and 78 of his closest associates are subject to an EU travel ban and their assets in Europe have been frozen. There would have to be an exemption for any of them to travel to the summit on February 19, unless the sanctions are unanimously renewed next week. The current restrictions expire on February 18. In the Commons yesterday Mr Blair said "no agreement" had been reached, a claim that looked disingenuous after EU sources confirmed last night that London was complicit in the deal.
"The British government agreed to lift the sanctions so that Mugabe could attend the summit in Paris on the condition that France would not oppose the renewal of EU sanctions when they come up before the general council," said one diplomat. Earlier Clare Short, the international development secretary, had de scribed Mr Chirac's invitation as "disgraceful". The Conservatives seized on the deal, contrasting the government's apparent willingness to comply with President Chirac's wishes with its opposition to the England cricket team's impending World Cup match in Harare. Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign secretary, said: "The British government has belatedly sought to browbeat the England cricket team into dropping their World Cup match in Zimbabwe. At the same time they now seek to do a deal, driving a coach and horses through the one policy they have been brave enough to pursue against Mugabe."
Zimbabwe's opposition and civic leaders reacted with outrage to the deal, and a suggestion that sanctions will also be waived in March to allow Mr Mugabe to attend the Lisbon summit of the EU and its partners in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. "It is like inviting Saddam Hussein to a G8 meeting," said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. "The French are bringing him back on the world stage when we are on the edge of catastrophe," said John Makumbe, chairman of Transparency International Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is in economic crisis, with inflation at 198% and 6.7 million people starving - more than half the population. The UN's World Food Programme has said the shortages are in part a result of the collapse of commercial farming brought about by Mr Mugabe's land reform policies.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 23 January
I was tortured for seven hours by Mugabe's thugs
Harare - In a private hospital a seven-minute drive from the plush headquarters of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, of which President Robert Mugabe is patron, Gabriel Shumba is recovering from being tortured by the secret police. Even as Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the International Cricket Council, and Ali Bacher, head of the World Cup cricket organising committee, arrived yesterday to assess security for foreign players at next month's World Cup fixtures there were reports that government repression had reached a new intensity in the past week. State security agents have picked up scores of activists, particularly in Harare, accusing them of arson and murder. Yesterday the Amani Trust, the human rights organisation that closed its offices late last year in fear of arrest of its executive, had its vehicles impounded and said it had been warned that its offices would be bombed. Police cells in Harare are filled with activists from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. A police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, confirmed an upsurge in civil and political unrest and said the opposition "wanted to cause mayhem". Mr Shumba, 29, a lawyer who returned from South Africa three weeks ago after completing a master's degree, told magistrates in Harare last Friday of his ordeal after he was detained by members of the notorious Central Intelligence Organisation and police detectives from the Law and Order section. He was charged under the Public Order and Security Act with seeking to overthrow the government.
He told the court that a black hood was pulled over his face. "I became apprehensive, I had difficulty in breathing, I was sweating. We drove for about an hour. The hood was removed and I was put in a room. They tied my hands and feet with canvas and I had to bend into a ball. "A plank was put between my legs and hands. They came with a small telephone and put it on a table. It was a receiver. Several gadgets were attached. One was rolled around my left middle toe and was inserted on the left of my mouth. They asked me to clamp my teeth on the wires and hold the receiver in my right hand. A blast of electricity went through my body. At first I went into spasms and I lost sight. I felt my eyes bulging, I couldn't hear anything. I was not breathing, something was choking my throat. The dosage of electricity kept being increased. I kept shivering and trembling. I was bleeding from my mouth and spat blood on the floor. They said they wanted me to lick the blood. I was in the tied-up position and I overbalanced trying to reach down to the blood. Electricity was tied to my genitals. They asked me to open my mouth, the cord had to be inserted and the wire was tied to one of my molars. They switched the electricity on. This time I woke up to find them sprinkling me with water." His ordeal lasted for seven hours. He was then transferred to the cells in police custody.
Police said they arrested Mr Shumba, Job Sikhala, an opposition MP, and four other people in connection with arson which destroyed a new bus. All claim to have been tortured. They were released on bail after being examined by doctors. Further away from the green fields of Zimbabwe's protected cricket world, another opposition MP, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, and five other people were in the dock in the Harare High Court, opposite Mr Mugabe's colonial-style offices. On the first day of the trial this week, Mr Dulini-Ncube, 61, who spent years in prison under the Rhodesian regime, told how he had lost an eye while in custody in Bulawayo last year. His lawyer said at the time that he was denied adequate medical attention for chronic diabetes and his eye had to be surgically removed. He is accused of murdering one of Mr Mugabe's supporters, Cain Nkala, a veteran, like himself, of the war for independence. Three fellow accused, all MDC supporters, appeared in court wearing prison uniforms. They have been in custody for 14 months after Mr Nkala was abducted from his house in Bulawayo. His body was discovered later in a shallow grave.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 22 January
MDC under fire ahead of Cricket Cup
Harare - A lawmaker from Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party was arrested this week by police on unspecified charges, the party announced on Wednesday. Pauline Mpariwa was arrested at her home on Monday and is being held at a prison in Harare, the party said in a statement. She is the fourth MDC deputy to be arrested this month in what the party claims is a deliberate clampdown on opposition supporters and officials. Police could not immediately confirm Mpariwa's arrest. Paul Madzore, another MDC lawmaker from the low-income Harare suburb of Glen View, was arrested two weeks ago for protesting over the arrest of the MDC mayor of the capital. Harare Mayor Elias Mudzuri was arrested in mid-January along with 20 other councillors, municipal workers and residents while addressing a meeting with city taxpayers. Job Sikhala, another opposition deputy, was arrested last week for being in possession of "subversive documents." He was allegedly tortured while in police custody. Earlier this month, Abednico Bhebhe, an MDC deputy from western Zimbabwe, was arrested for sticking up a protest poster that read "Hoot enough is enough".
The government has vowed to crack down on people suspected to be involved in or planning to disrupt the 2003 World Cup Cricket matches to be held here in February and March. "There has been a sudden increase of violence and arrests of MDC MPs and official and leaders of civic organisations since the beginning of the month as preparations for the Cricket World Cup reach advanced stages," MDC representative Paul Temba Nyathi said. He said he disapproved of the decision taken by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to proceed with the matches in Zimbabwe "in light of these sad developments". "The decision callously underlines the point that the leading figures in world cricket are simply guided by profit rather than principle," said Nyathi. Another opposition lawmaker, Tafadzwa Musekiwa, who was in Britain last week, decided to stay in that country and seek asylum after hearing about the arrest and alleged torture of fellow parliamentarian, Sikhala.
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From The Daily News, 22 January
Gwanda bid to divert maize-meal thwarted
From Oscar Nkala in Bulawayo
There was a near riot at Phakama shopping centre in Gwanda on Monday when hundreds of residents surrounded the premises of a milling company to block the delivery of a consignment of maize-meal to an unspecified destination in Manama. It is understood an order to deliver the maize-meal to Manama had been given by Abednico Ncube, the deputy Foreign Affairs Minister. Reports from Gwanda said the residents gathered at the premises of R&F Millers as early as 6am after receiving information that Ncube had ordered the miller to deliver the maize-meal to an unnamed location in Manama. Residents said some had queued for the maize-meal for more than two weeks. Councillor, Petros Mukwena of Gwanda Municipality’s Ward 9 said the residents invaded the miller’s premises and demanded to know why the consignment, one of the few in weeks, was being delivered to Manama when the town had virtually no maize-meal. Mukwena said: "People went there after receiving news that Ncube had on Sunday ordered the miller to mill his allocation and deliver it to Manama. "This angered the people and they came out in large numbers to resist the directive. The miller finally gave in and the maize-meal is now being delivered to Gwanda retail shops as we speak."
Ncube is the Member of Parliament for Gwanda South, an area hard hit by food shortages. People in the area have since early December joined hundreds of others across the province in sleeping outside Gwanda shops to wait for maize-meal and other scarce basic commodities to be delivered. Mukwena alleged that people were forced to go to Gwanda after they realised that Zanu PF’s pre-rural district council election promises of a constant supply of food would not be fulfilled. "People were promised improved food supplies but they are realising that all those were campaign lies because they have not received anything since the elections. "That has forced them to come this far in search of food," Mukwena said. Ncube could not be reached for comment as he was said to be attending a workshop at the District Development Fund training centre, and his mobile phone was switched off.
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From The Guardian (UK), 23 January
Speed uneasy amid guns and roses
Neil Manthorpe in Harare, Nick Hoult in Sydnet and Paul Kelso
If Ali Bacher and Malcolm Speed came to Harare to check out security, they would have been happy men as they drove from the airport to the city centre yesterday. Riot police in full combat gear patrolled the main intersections while helicopters whirled overhead. They said they wanted protection and they certainly got it. These are difficult times for Bacher, the chief executive of the World Cup organising committee, and his counterpart from the International Cricket Council. Tomorrow they will deliver their final verdict on the suitability of Zimbabwe to host World Cup matches amid pressure from England and Australia to shift them, and pressure to leave them alone from most of the rest of the ICC. Recent violence has reopened the debate about security and perhaps provided the England and Wales Cricket Board with a possible means of escape from its current dilemma. But it will probably not be as easy as that. Meanwhile the nagging backbeat of Indian players' refusal to sign their World Cup contracts grows louder. This may yet cause another confrontation.
In Sydney, the ECB chairman David Morgan met with the England players to discuss their concerns about the opening match in Harare on February 13. He is still confident that they will go, despite Nasser Hussain's revelations of "split consciences" among players. "The players are concerned about how their action of playing in Zimbabwe is going to be perceived by the British public," Morgan said. "I don't think there is a single player who would support the regime and therefore I think they are all finding it quite difficult to come to terms with having to go." In Harare, troops poured on to the streets yesterday morning in response to a call for a "stay away" - effectively an unofficial one-day strike - by the opposition National Constitutional Assembly, a coalition of student, trade union and church groups. A police spokesman said the action was aimed at disrupting preparations for the World Cup but Lovemore Madhuku, the NCA chairman, scoffed at the notion of cricket being the target. "The suffering of the Zimbabwean people is more important than this game of wealthy folks," he said. "If the police use brutal force to disrupt our protests, and the cricketers get caught in the crossfire, it is not us but [President Robert] Mugabe's government who is to blame."
Meanwhile, Harare Country Club was hosting a World Cup warm-up match between a Zimbabwe XI and South Africa A. "Our land and family home is gone now," said a former Zimbabwe international watching the game. "I find it increasingly difficult to believe that the World Cup people are even thinking of carrying on here. It's not me that matters, it's the millions starving." What was very clear among both spectators at the Country Club and others in Zimbabwean society at large - workers at the hotel in which World Cup teams will stay, taxi drivers, MPs and shop keepers - was that cricket is no longer a side issue but, despite the NCA's denials, has now become the issue. Cricket has become the vehicle that protesters have chosen to make their point. Many spoke of organised plans to embarrass the event and the country's government when matches begin next month. Should Bacher and Speed successfully negotiate the Zimbabwe hurdle, they still have to face the India issue when the ICC board talks tomorrow. The Indian players have refused to sign World Cup contracts that forbid them from participation in their endorsement deals with competitors of the four main tournament sponsors. India's players earn much more from sponsorship than from playing, and are said to appear in 25% of advertising in India. Despite signing up to the ICC's conditions last March the Indian board last week returned the contracts signed, but with the contentious clauses effectively deleted.
The ICC's plan is to take the $9m (£5.5m) that India would earn from the tournament and place it in a trust pending any compensation claims from sponsors who feel they have not had value for money. Should compensation exceed that level, the Indian board would be required to cover it or face expulsion from the ICC. If the Indian board rejects the compromise and fails to comply with the contracts, they could face expulsion from the tournament. "The compromise is an olive branch to the Indian board but it's very conceivable that if all measures are rejected they could be out of the tournament," said a source. This dispute has also exposed ICC concerns about its contract with Global Cricket Corporation, the Rupert Murdoch-owned company that paid $550m (£350m) last year for the commercial rights to the 2003 and 2007 World Cups. Since then the sports rights market has collapsed and the ICC is desperate to deny GCC cause for legal action or a reason to withdraw from the deal. Bacher and Speed are due to leave Zimbabwe this afternoon after just 25 hours.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 23 January
Propaganda chief who turned Zimbabwe into 'Planet Moyo'
By David Blair, Foreign Staff
Any Zimbabwean who knows Jonathan Moyo, President Robert Mugabe's faithful propaganda supremo, will have laughed wearily when he branded South Africans "filthy and recklessly uncouth". South Africa may be Mr Mugabe's key ally, yet this feckless outburst was typical of a man who has built his career on vituperation and acquired a record of abusing President Thabo Mbeki. Why Mr Moyo chose to attack Zimbabwe's most powerful neighbour again can be simply explained. Anyone who crosses Mr Moyo is, in his mind, "filthy". He was incensed by South African press reports of his two-week shopping spree in Johannesburg, when he filled three luxury vehicles with expensive foodstuffs while six million Zimbabweans faced starvation. Mr Moyo believes that anything in the South African press is under Mr Mbeki's control and responded in his customary fashion with an abusive tirade and the bizarre charge that "British intelligence" had masterminded his embarrassment. This time the Zimbabwean Foreign Ministry had to issue a statement disowning Mr Moyo and calming troubled waters with South Africa.
This episode showed again how Mr Moyo's erratic career has pushed out the frontiers of absurdity. Mr Mugabe is often accused of being delusional yet his information minister has raised delusion to the point where Zimbabweans talk of "Planet Moyo". When the guerrilla war against white Rhodesia was at its height the 17-year-old Moyo went to one of Mr Mugabe's training camps in Tanzania. He fled after six weeks and the camp commander called him the "first successful deserter of the struggle." Mr Moyo preferred the comforts of academia and secured a remarkable array of scholarships. He studied at San Francisco University, the University of Southern California and Stanford. At this stage, and later, he was a fierce critic of Mr Mugabe. While teaching politics at the University of Zimbabwe in May 1999 he described the president as a "national problem which needs urgent containment".
Yet in late 1999 Mr Moyo turned full circle and became his president's most ardent defender. What explains this somersault? Former friends of Mr Moyo believe the answer lies in his murky dealings with his employers. The Ford Foundation gave Mr Moyo a job in Kenya and then sued him over the mysterious disappearance of £67,500. He spent two years at Witwatersrand University in South Africa, which then pursued him over generous research grants that had been paid but never yielded any research. Under these pressures Mr Moyo threw in his lot with Mr Mugabe, becoming information minister in July 2000. Zimbabwean cabinet ministers are, in effect, above the law, so Mr Moyo was conveniently shielded from his pursuers. Mr Moyo has recently begun to fashion a personality cult around himself. A report in The Chronicle, an official daily, of a visit he paid to Bulawayo praised his "mesmerising glamour" and said: "A youth recited a poem dedicated to Prof Moyo. 'Jonathan Moyo why didn't you come before John the Baptist? Jonathan we love you. Jonathan you are great, great, great'."
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From The Guardian (UK), 24 January
UK moves to limit damage over invitation to Mugabe
Anne Perkins, Ian Black, Jon Henley and Andrew Meldrum in Harare
Tony Blair will work to prevent Robert Mugabe attending the EU-Africa summit in Portugal this spring after coming under fire for acquiescing in a controversial visit by the Zimbabwean leader to Paris next month. In a clear attempt to limit the damage from the French invitation, which highlights inconsistencies in EU sanctions, the prime minister is to pressure European partners and African countries to ensure that Mr Mugabe does not attend the Lisbon meeting in April. "So much of this is to do with the political personality of Robert Mugabe that it is unthinkable for some EU leaders to sit with him," one senior diplomat said. A French foreign ministry spokesman confirmed the invitation to the Zimbabwean president and insisted it had been issued "in complete accordance with the relevant rules".
Britain believes that in a difficult situation, the key is the rollover of the so-called "smart sanctions" imposed on Mr Mugabe and his ministers by the EU last year. The sanctions are on the table for next Monday's foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. Under EU rules unanimity is required so France could block the decision. By reluctantly accepting France's decision to host the Zimbabwean leader, Britain hopes Paris will back the attempt to exclude him from the EU-wide Lisbon summit in April. A French foreign ministry spokesman said the sanctions agreement that banned Mr Mugabe and more than 70 other members of his regime from travelling to any European Union country made provision for an EU visa to be issued in a number of "exceptional situations". Those included any trip "for the purposes of conducting a political dialogue aimed at promoting democracy, the rule of law and human rights in Zimbabwe", the spokesman said, quoting from the document. He added that France had consulted "extensively" with its EU partners - including Britain - before issuing the invitation.
Clare Short, the international development secretary, renewed her attack on President Jacques Chirac, telling MPs that Mr Mugabe's policies had made a containable drought into a disastrous regional famine and claiming the French had no understanding of southern Africa. "They think it's Britain and [President Mugabe] in conflict over white farmers. They're not attending to the reality of the suffering of the people," she said. "Like the cricket, it's not sending the right message. It's just the thought of 7- or 8 million people starving - and the government not cooperating with the international strategy to bring in aid." In Harare, European diplomats said France was not the only EU country opposed to sanctions. Portugal, Greece and Italy would all prefer to engage Mr Mugabe rather than isolate him. They believe the sanctions make the Mugabe government more entrenched and have made EU relations with other African countries more difficult. But the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, lambasted France and Portugal for their stance on Mr Mugabe: "We are dismayed by the emerging discordant voices coming from certain quarters within the EU," he said. Brian Raftopoulos, of Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition, supported the French approach. "By letting him go to these summits, they are opening a couple of doors to respectability, but there is a quid pro quo and they want some movement from Mugabe."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 24 January
Govt moves to control weather forecasts as drought bites
Blessing Zulu
The government has extended its controls to include weather forecasts amid revelations that prospects for normal rainfall in the 2003/2004 season are very slim, it has been learnt. Prospects for the current year are also poor. "Prospects for the 2002/2003 agriculture season appear poor," said a World Food Programme Vulnerability Assessment and Monitoring (VAM) Unit report. As the country faces the prospects of yet another drought, Met Office sources this week said the department was under instruction not to reveal information on long-range forecasts without prior clearance from the Office of the President. "The government does not want any information on the weather to be leaked," said the source. "All our (long-range) forecasts are first sent to the President's Office and only then can they be released." The source said government has justified the strict information clamp-down on weather reports saying it impacted on investment in the agro-industrial sector. However, despite these measures the government has failed to adequately prepare for the eventuality of a drought. The WFP weather monitoring unit said production of rain-fed maize would be low this and next season. "The WFP VAM Unit reported that moderate El Niño events suggest that the current weather patterns may extend well into 2004, peaking in the first quarter of next year. For the remainder of the 2002/2003 growing season, with a few exceptions rain-fed maize can be expected to be low," the report said. The report urged the government and the donor community, which have been struggling to meet food requirements, to brace for another major shortage next year. "Given carry-over effects on people's coping capacities from the current crisis, anticipated below-normal harvests for the coming season, and the rapid economic decline, the government of Zimbabwe and humanitarian agencies need to begin preparing for serious and widespread food insecurity for the coming marketing year of 2003/2004," the report said.
The weather experts painted a gloomy picture of the 2002/2003 season in the Southern African region. "There is a chance of rainfall sliding into the below-normal category over the southern part of the region - Botswana, southern Zambia, central and southern Mozambique, much of Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, northern Tanzania, Lesotho and Swaziland," said the Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF) held in Zimbabwe late last year. The meeting was convened to update the January to March 2003 rainfall forecast issued in September last year. The El Niño phenomenon caused a catastrophe in 1999 and is set to hit the region again, said the South African Weather Service (SWS). "A moderate El Niño is expected to persist throughout the remainder of the southern African summer rainfall season," it said. "El Niño events decrease the likelihood of a favourable summer rainfall season over most of Southern Africa. There is 40% to 45% probability for below-normal rainfall from January to March 2003 and from March to May there is a 40% probability for below normal conditions over the entire forecast region. The temperature outlook from January to April 2003 is far above normal temperatures over the forecast region," said SWS. The WFP said the Zimbabwean situation would be exacerbated by the confusion in the farming community resulting in a below-normal area being put under crop this year. "Government estimates the area put under crops at 1,5 million hectares as of December 31. The figure represents only 65% of the area planted in the 2001/2 season," said the WFP report.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 24 January
Mugabe on warpath
Dumisani Muleya
President Mugabe is reported to be on the warpath against senior officials who he suspects are involved in a power-sharing plot with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to dislodge him from office. Official sources said Mugabe has ordered a thorough-going investigation into the matter which Information minister Jonathan Moyo has described as a "coup plot". Mugabe's perceived heir-apparent and Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Vitalis Zvinavashe have been linked in press reports to an approach made in December by retired Col Lionel Dyck to Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai about arrangements for Mugabe's early retirement and a transitional government leading to elections. They have both denied any involvement.
The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is playing a leading role in the probe under the direction of Internal Branch director Mernard Muzariri, the Zimbabwe Independent understands. Seasoned officers have been deployed to investigate the unprecedented political moves which have led to fulminations by Moyo whose career would be the first casualty of Mugabe's exit. Mugabe is also understood to have assembled a crack Zanu PF taskforce comprising party inquisitors with an intelligence background. The team is believed to include Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi, State Security minister Nicholas Goche, former PF-Zapu military intelligence chief and Home Affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa, and former State Security and now Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi. The Police Internal Security Intelligence unit could be involved too. Airforce of Zimbabwe commander, Air Marshall Perence Shiri, a fierce Mugabe adherent, would act as a technical adviser, sources said.
It is understood Mugabe met the team on Monday and they are expected to meet again today. "Those involved are in deep trouble because Mugabe is livid," a source said. "They trod on a political mine and it went off." However, several of those cited as taskforce members were quick to deny any connection to an investigation when contacted by the Independent. "I'm not aware of any investigation," Mnangagwa said. Dabengwa claimed it was "news" to him and Sekeramayi said he did not want to talk about it. Mohadi said: "We are not doing anything like that." Mnangagwa was reportedly in South Africa on Monday, clearing a vehicle. He had been due to meet Mugabe on Monday in what sources said was likely to be an uncomfortable exchange.
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From The Daily News, 23 January
Civilians injured as soldiers run amok in Hwange
From Our Correspondent in Bulawayo
Several people were last weekend seriously injured in Hwange when soldiers allegedly ran amok, beating up residents at random. The residents said yesterday they were living in fear of the soldiers, seen patrolling the streets of the coal mining town after the beatings. Eyewitnesses said trouble started when a soldier believed to have served in the Democratic Republic of Congo broke the windscreen of a car owned by Wankie Colliery Company. Colliery officials confirmed the incident, but referred all questions to the police. Inspector Mthokozisi Manzini-Moyo, the Matabeleland North police spokesman, confirmed the incident. But he referred further questions to army officials at 41 Brigade in Hwange, who refused to talk to The Daily News. According to the residents, the soldier who broke the windscreen was one of four soldiers drinking beer outside Jabulani Beerhall at Lwendulu Village. "When a colliery worker confronted the soldiers they threatened to beat him up, but other residents who had witnessed the incident came to his rescue," said one resident. The four soldiers were reportedly overpowered by the residents and fled from the scene. "Later in the afternoon when the people had forgotten about the incident, the soldiers returned in an army truck and descended on the residents," said the source. He said the soldiers, who attacked anyone in their path, stormed into Jabulani Beerhall where they attacked revellers with sticks and other weapons.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 24 January
Zimbabwe foot and mouth hits neighbours
By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg
The political and economic chaos in Zimbabwe was blamed yesterday for an alarming spread of foot and mouth among cattle in neighbouring countries that is putting southern Africa's meat industry at risk. Angry farmers in Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia say that assurances given by the Zimbabwean authorities that outbreaks of the highly-contagious disease were under control were "dangerously misleading". They said that the outbreak, first detected in herds in the east of the country last July, was in danger of running out of control throughout the region because the Zimbabwe government did not have the foreign exchange needed to pay for vaccine. They also argued that the Harare government could not control the cross-border movement of cattle by small farmers to raise money to feed their families in a country where eight million people are facing starvation. "The situation is out of control," said Gerhard Schutte of the South African Red Meat Producers' Organisation. "The devastation that can be created in South Africa is much larger than the problem Zimbabwe has in trying to find the foreign exchange necessary to pay for vaccine." Botswana, which shares an 800-mile unfenced border with Matabeleland in eastern Zimbabwe, is suffering widespread outbreaks of the disease and hundreds of head of cattle have had to be destroyed. Stuart Hargreaves, principal veterinary officer in Zimbabwe's agriculture department, said there was no confirmation that the outbreak of foot and mouth in Botswana originated in Zimbabwe. But he admitted that there was smuggling of cattle across the border by farmers seeking to take advantage of the favourable exchange rate of the Botswana pula, the strongest currency in the region. Cattle farmers in Zimbabwe's other neighbours have reported signs of the disease among small, informal farming communities close to the border.
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From The Star (SA), 23 January
Moyo defends Mugabe's shopping spree
By Basildon Peta
Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe's spin-doctor, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, has re-launched his tirade against South African journalists. This time he is accusing them of engaging in "garbage journalism" after local newspapers exposed Mugabe's spending spree in Singapore. The exposé was actually made by Dr Greg Mills of the South African Institute of International Affairs, who was on the same flight with Mugabe and saw 15 trolleys laden with his shopping. Mills raised the matter in an analysis of conditions in Zimbabwe written for the Independent Foreign Service. But Moyo said it was public knowledge that Mugabe was on holiday and "only juvenile delinquency will imagine him away on holiday without luggage". Moyo said anyone who thought Mugabe "should travel without luggage or should not buy anything is a sascam (Zimbabwean slang for a demented person) and belongs in a mental asylum". He wondered how Mills, whom he described as a racist, had managed to photograph Mugabe's luggage in a security zone.
"The attempt to do a sensational story out of the president's luggage was reprehensible and objectionable in the extreme, particularly because it was a racist story provided by Greg Mills of the South Africa Institute of International Affairs, who was well known for supporting apartheid," Moyo's department said in a statement published in the state-owned Herald newspaper. "We are seeing a new and worrying development where racist elements in the apartheid press and other liberal circles are working with British intelligence operatives to ridicule and character-assassinate African leaders in general and President Mugabe in particular," the statement added. Mills hit back at Moyo's department on Wednesday, saying his allegations were "as contemptible as they are fallacious, and further evidence of the Zimbabwe government's desperation". Mills noted that the spin-doctor notably did not try to deny Mugabe's ownership of the considerable volume of luggage and shopping. "Neither I nor the South African Institute of International Affairs were supporters of apartheid. "The institute was founded in 1934. It did not, in opposition to apartheid, accept any funding from the government until 1993," Mills added. Moyo has been facing legal action for allegedly defrauding several foundations, including the American Ford Foundation and Wits University.
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From The Times (UK), 24 January
Hosts pick up tab for luxury jaunts
By Daniel McGrory
The French Government knows from costly experience that whoever invites Robert Mugabe is expected to pick up the tab, and the Zimbabwean leader certainly does not travel cheaply. Mr Mugabe is so short of funds nowadays his hosts are not only expected to pay for his airline fare and sumptuous hotel accommodation but also the cost of his entourage. This invariably includes his young wife, Grace, some of their children, handpicked cabinet ministers and bodyguards. Mr Mugabe has only just returned home from a lavish Christmas holiday in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, largely paid for by his hosts. The President claimed that he combined his vacation with "bilateral talks", hence this trip could be described as official, though there is little to show in Zimbabwe for his brief negotiations. On the flight back to South Africa, passengers were delayed while Mr Mugabe, the First Lady, children and other camp followers took up ten seats in business class which were set aside for him. Travellers on the flight watched as 15 trolleys, piled high with packages and shopping bags, labelled - State House, Harare - were also loaded on board. The cost of the ten airline seats was estimated at £20,000. In recent years Mr Mugabe and his family have enjoyed the largesse of the Malaysian Government which has become a popular destination now that so many other countries have banned him. His hotel bills are said to run into five figures as he demands the most luxurious accommodation on the grounds of "personal security". He says the bodyguards are necessary after the gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, attempted a citizen’s arrest on the Zimbabwean leader as he left the Hilton Hotel in Brussels in 2001. Opposition leaders have criticised the amount of time the Zimbabwean leader and his wife spend abroad nowadays rather than dealing with the worsening economic crisis at home. One MDC leader said: "He never seems to turn down any invitation to get out of his own country." Apart from his jaunts to the Far East last year, Mr Mugabe was also to be found at business, security and environmental summits in Africa — all paid for by his hosts.
The bankrupt state-owned airline, Air Zimbabwe, can no longer afford to shuttle around Mr Mugabe and his entourage. Until now, loans from Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, have helped keep the airline in business, though now it cannot pay its fuel bills. Recently the South African Government has provided international flights. British officials are likely to block any attempt for Mr Mugabe and his family to change planes at Heathrow as he has done in the past. In the past he has ordered paying passengers off Air Zimbabwe flights and told the crew to change their original destination. On his last official visit to Paris, in March 2001, President Mugabe was given the red carpet treatment by his host, President Chirac, who was invited to inspect an honour guard of 75 plume-helmeted soldiers of the Garde Républicaine at the Elysée Palace and accommodated at one of the city’s most expensive hotels. The liability of inviting Mr Mugabe is that he can overstay his welcome, as the Spanish authorities discovered to their cost. In December 2001 he took a 20-strong party to Spain, where he was ostensibly receiving medical treatment. Air Zimbabwe, which is crippled by an £18 million debt, had to divert two flights to collect Mr Mugabe and then return a week later for the rest of the retinue who had extended their holiday. In June 2002 he was in Rome at a five-star hotel with two ministers and a sizeable staff for a UN summit on hunger. The previous month he had taken a dozen ministers to New York for another UN summit and was given VIP treatment as he changed planes in Paris.
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From The United Nations, 24 January
UN panel on illegal exploitation of resources gets new 6-month mandate
New York - The United Nations Security Council today unanimously decided to ask for a new six-month mandate for a panel of experts investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In adopting resolution 1457, the Council asked the panel to recommend measures that could be taken to ensure that the DRC’s resources are legally extracted, on a fair commercial basis to benefit the Congolese people. The panel was also asked to review and analyze previous information in order to verify, reinforce and update its findings, and/or clear parties named in its previous reports, with a view to adjusting the lists of those involved in illegal activities. The panel should also include information about steps taken by governments in response to its previous recommendations, including information on how capacity building and reforms in the region are affecting exploitation activities. In the panel’s last report, released in October 2002, the experts said that a ban on the export of raw materials originating from the DRC would be counterproductive, and recommended that punitive measures be taken to curb the illegal exploitation of the country's natural resources by criminal organizations and persons. The experts also suggested that financial restrictions be placed on 29 companies based in the DRC, Belgium, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and that a travel ban and financial restrictions be imposed on 54 persons, including senior officials in the DRC, Zimbabwe and other countries in the region.
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From The Guardian (UK), 24 January
ICC backing for Zimbabwe match
Paul Kelso and Andrew Meldrum in Harare
England's controversial cricket match against Zimbabwe will go ahead in Harare despite the country's worsening political and humanitarian crisis, the International Cricket Council confirmed yesterday. Chief executive Malcolm Speed, speaking after a meeting of the ICC's 12-member board, said the six matches scheduled for Zimbabwe would proceed amid a massive security operation. Only a late, dramatic deterioration in security will now stop the games being played. The government has called for the Zimbabwe matches to be shifted to South Africa in protest at human rights abuses by President Robert Mugabe's government, but during a two-hour teleconference, David Morgan, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, declined the opportunity to request that England's match be moved, or to withdraw from the fixture. The ECB has consistently said that the financial consequences of pulling out of the match are too great for it to consider without the offer of government compensation. Mr Speed, who returned from a 24-hour visit to Harare yesterday, said that while the security situation in Zimbabwe had deteriorated since November, when an ICC delegation first visited, the board was satisfied that the safety of players and officials would not be affected. "The board reaffirmed their earlier decision, which was that there was no reason to relocate the matches," he said. "The ICC have sought to go through the issues with safety and security of players and officials as the sole criteria. We have neither the mandate or the authority to make decisions on political grounds."
Political violence and food and fuel shortages have increased in Zimbabwe in the last three weeks. Opponents of the Mugabe government claim that dozens of opposition supporters have been arrested and tortured in a clampdown ahead of the tournament. Mr Speed said he was aware of the claims but said he had been assured that with 433 police officers on duty in and around the stadiums in Harare and Bulawayo, the players and officials would be adequately protected during their stay. "I think the situation had deteriorated," he said. "That is one of the factors that I put before the board this morning. We then focused on how that affects cricket players and officials going in there under a high level of security to play cricket matches. That is the basis on which the board made its judgment. Cricket is played in some dangerous places, lets not beat around the bush. There are a number of dangerous cities in which one-day and Test-match cricket is played. Players don't enjoy it but it's a fact of life. Many of us would wish that cricket could be played without that extensive security presence, but we will see it in South Africa and other places too." Mr Speed said that if the safety of the players could no longer be guaranteed the matches could be shifted with five days notice. A decision on whether to go ahead with two matches scheduled for Kenya will be made next week.
As Mr Speed was announcing the decision to play, a shadowy Zimbabwean group called Organised Resistance vowed to stop the matches from taking place in Zimbabwe. "Malcolm Speed will regret his failure to heed the clear warning signs that Zimbabwe be boycotted as a World Cup cricket venue," it said. The organisation sprang up about six weeks ago when the ICC announced its intention to proceed with the matches. From its inception it has been underground to avoid torture by the Zimbabwe police. When Pakistan played in Zimbabwe in November, three demonstrators handing out anti-government leaflets were arrested and beaten by police. Organised Resistance criticised Mr Speed for seeing only the Zimbabwe police and government-approved bodies on his latest visit. He did not meet with the mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, whose qualified endorsement of the Zimbabwe games in December was trumpeted by the ICC. Last week he was arrested without charge and jailed for 48 hours. Zimbabwe police have used torture and beaten at least eight opposition supporters including MPs, lawyers and human rights activists in the past week, according to medical evidence. Claiming that they are taking action to prevent disruption of the cricket, police have arrested 20 others. An ECB spokesman said Mr Morgan had stressed the need to monitor the security situation, and said it was not too late to move the matches. "Today wasn't the last opportunity to shift the matches. A decision made for today is not necessarily the one for tomorrow."
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From SABC News, 24 January
Amnesty officials criticise SA’s stance on Zimbabwe
Amnesty International has criticised the South African government's quiet diplomacy stance towards Zimbabwe. Amnesty officials have just returned from a week long fact finding mission to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, its leader, and its alleged human rights abuses have been making headlines almost every other day. Today, Amnesty International (AI), briefed the South African media on its latest findings. It says the Zanu PF government is increasingly clamping down on political opponents. Amnesty International says it's disappointed with South Africa's attitude towards its northern neighbour. With millions of Zimbabweans facing famine, the human rights group confirmed that the Mugabe government is using food aid as a political tool. Sharmala Naidoo, of the AI, said: "Food is being distributed along political lines." This was denied by July Moyo, Zimbabwe's Social Welfare minister, following talks earlier today between James Morris, the UN special envoy, and President Mugabe on the food shortages in the country.
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From VOA News, 24 January
World Food Programme asks Zimbabwe to ease import restrictions
The head of the United Nations World Food Program met with the President of Zimbabwe in Harare Friday, pressing him to relax his country's restrictions on grain imports. Famine in Zimbabwe has put some seven million people at risk. Food agency head James Morris said President Robert Mugabe expressed gratitude for U.N. efforts to ease the situation. Critics of Zimbabwe's government say price controls and import restrictions hamper the flow of food into the southern African country. The Mugabe government says grain import restrictions are necessary to protect consumers and to prevent third parties from abusing food aid for political purposes. International food agencies say famine conditions have been exacerbated by disruptions inherent in Zimbabwe's controversial land distribution, under which white-owned commercial farms were appropriated by the government to be given to black farmers.
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From The Financial Times (UK), 24 January
EU to assess Harare sanctions
By Judy Dempsey
Brussels - EU ministers are braced for a dispute when they meet on Monday to decide whether to extend sanctions against Zimbabwe that entail a travel and visa ban on the country's leadership. The debate will be overshadowed by France's decision to invite President Robert Mugabe to a Franco-African summit next month, much to the annoyance of Britain. Portugal yesterday said it wanted a review of policy as it was to host a EU-Africa summit in April. Lisbon fears that if it declines to invite Mr Mugabe, African states will boycott the summit. But if Mr Mugabe is invited, EU countries could stay away.
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From ZWNEWS
A word to the French
Anyone wishing to comment to the French government about its invitation to Robert Mugabe to attend a meeting of African leaders on February 19 should send a letter or fax to the French Ambassador in London: HE Monsieur Gerard Errera, The French Embassy, 58 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7JT; fax number 44 (0) 207 073 1004.
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Comment from The Zimbabwe Independent, 24 January
'Friends' agree to look the other way
South African and Nigerian ministers are preparing the ground for a smoke-and-mirrors act that will see President Thabo Mbeki trying to convince Tony Blair and the Commonwealth that the situation in Zimbabwe has materially improved and that a power-sharing plan will see a platform for recovery. France and Portugal, as our story reveals today, are already turning a blind eye to the deteriorating situation on the ground in Zimbabwe in order to fulfil their pretensions as Africa's patrons. Both have made President Mugabe's attendance at summits in February and April a condition for their agreement to renew EU sanctions against Zimbabwe next month. Despite the Byzantine intrigues of the past month when Morgan Tsvangirai first blew the whistle on the importunities of key figures claiming to be carrying the head of their leader, Mbeki is no further forward than he was last March in his attempts to produce a reformed leadership in Harare capable of addressing the myriad problems Zimbabwe faces.
While South African diplomacy may have inspired the flash of unsheathed daggers in Harare's corridors of power, it has not succeeded in turning around the Zimbabwe situation. That is partly because the ANC has been unable or unwilling to articulate a democratic agenda, instead indulging Zimbabwe's arthritic leadership with well-worn gestures of solidarity. Mbeki's obsession with the politics of race in South Africa, his deep dislike for Tony Leon's party and growing resentment of Cosatu have produced a policy in Pretoria largely hostile to the MDC despite ongoing contacts. In order to resist further sanctions against Zimbabwe, South Africa wants to believe that progress has been made north of the border on a range of issues. And it is once again prepared to buy into a number of hollow assurances that were touted ahead of a visit by Foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to Harare on Wednesday. These include the fiction that "land reform" is complete and law and order has been restored on the farms, that farm labourers of Malawian, Mozambican, South African and Zambian descent will have citizenship restored to them, that proposed changes to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act will make it less arbitrary, and the withdrawal of Zimbabwean forces from the Congo will remove an obstacle to regional peace. The cricket World Cup is already being held up as evidence of a return to normality. The government will seek to show that its victory in recent by-elections confirms not its capacity to bludgeon the opposition but genuine popular support for the ruling party despite the fact that it hasn't a single solution to the current crisis. Dlamini-Zuma made gullible comments about the situation in Zimbabwe during her last visit in October, just as Membathisi Mdladlana did this month. It is significant that Pretoria would never think of despatching Mosiuoa Lekota or Tito Mboweni up here!
Nigeria will join in this programme of deception designed to let President Mugabe off the political hook for another year. France and Portugal - probably with the support of Italy and Greece - will at the same time indulge Mugabe in Paris and Lisbon on the spurious grounds that this will expose him to the views of other leaders who favour reform in Zimbabwe. While Britain appears to be opposed to letting Mugabe into Europe via the revolving door of summitry, it is reportedly prepared to accept his presence on condition France and Portugal drop their opposition to a renewal of EU sanctions. The MDC will meanwhile be urged to drop its court applications on electoral malpractice. This would be an error. Last week's High Court findings in two Gokwe constituencies in the 2000 poll show the MDC has a strong case. There would certainly be no willingness on Zanu PF's part to drop repression or improve its record. Indeed, repression has if anything intensified since last March. It is virtually impossible under Posa for the opposition to campaign anywhere. The mayor of Harare was arrested merely for reporting back to his constituents. A civic protest in his support was crushed by ruling-party militias who spent two hours assaulting Harare civic activists. The police charged the victims with a "breach of the peace". MPs and lawyers have been arrested and tortured according to evidence produced in court last week. As a result of the politically-driven sabotage of commercial agriculture the country faces starvation. And political favouritism in food distribution will ensure most of the victims are opposition supporters.
This is what the South Africans and Nigerians are agreeing not to notice. And we must ask what sort of information is being dispatched from the French embassy in Harare to the Quai d'Orsay that leads President Chirac to believe he can so contemptuously disregard the views of ordinary Zimbabweans who are being beaten, tortured and starved by Mugabe's officials. At the end of the day there has been no breakthrough in Zimbabwe's political logjam and certainly no restoration of the rule of law.Mbeki knows that. If South Africa wants to see a transition to democracy through independently and internationally supervised elections ahead of 2008, then it should say so. That would engender the trust of the majority of Zimbabweans who had an election stolen from them last March and are bitter about South Africa's cynical endorsement of that blatant theft. It is about time President Mbeki declared a commitment to the restoration of democratic rule in Zimbabwe. He should stop looking over his shoulder to see what the DA or PAC might be saying and instead do the right thing. As for the French, let it not be forgotten that they were giving assurances of solidarity to the Sani Abacha regime in Nigeria, encouraging it to ignore Commonwealth protests, right up to its very end. They must not for one minute think that sort of diplomacy is acceptable here. President Chirac is tarnishing his much-vaunted Franco-African summit by entertaining individuals who are responsible for serious and ongoing human rights violations. How does Europe's guardian of liberté justify that?
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From The Observer (UK), 26 January
Mugabe’s grip tightens on eve of cricket tour
Zimbabwe’s opposition face arrest and torture as the World Cup draws closer
Paul Harris in Harare
They came in the dead of night. Job Sikhala was woken by a phone call from a neighbour warning that vehicles were approaching his home shortly before 4am. Sikhala knew he was in danger: as an opposition MP with Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change, he was a prime target for Robert Mugabe's secret police. Yet the politician had made precautions. Snatching up a few possessions from his room, Sikhala hurried to the cellar and the secret tunnel he had built under his home. He escaped. But Mugabe's spies are everywhere in Zimbabwe today. Sikhala was picked up by police at a hotel later that day. His nightmare was about to begin. He was taken to Harare Central Police station before being put on an unmarked minibus and driven for an hour. Blindfolded and terrified, Sikhala was led down three flights of stairs by his police guards. He could see nothing and his interrogators would not tell him where he was. But Sikhala knew what awaited him. In Zimbabwe, those arrested in the middle of the night always expect the worst. 'I knew it was a torture chamber. I knew something terrible was about to happen,' he said. The secret police beat him on the soles of his feet with wooden sticks. His torturers took it in turns as they demanded details of how the MDC works and what plans it had for the coming months. Then they tied an electric wire around a toe on each foot and electrocuted him, burning his flesh. 'They did that for 10 minutes and one of them said "You haven't even started talking",' Sikhala said. Wires were attached to his penis and testicles. The current was turned on. Another wire was clipped to his tongue. They shouted the same questions, over and over. What was the MDC doing? Who were its supporters? Why was he with them? He tried to answer them, but could barely speak. Another wire was attached to his left ear and more shocks sent down the cables. Then one of the torturers urinated on him. 'At that moment I urinated myself also. Then they made me wriggle in it and said I had to pretend to swim,' Sikhala said. 'I had given up life. Whatever the outcome, I had given my life to God at that point. I cried about never seeing my two kids again. Would they know that their father had been killed by these people? That I had died in this way?'
He was vaguely aware of his torturers talking about drowning him in a nearby reservoir. They drove him back to Harare police station, where he was charged with plotting against the state. As soon as he was released, supporters took him away to a secret location for hospital treatment. Sikhala's arrest and torture was only one of dozens in recent weeks. A huge and brutal crack down is underway, aimed at crushing any form of opposition to the regime of President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party. The reason is simple: in a few weeks' time Zimbabwe will host six international matches of the Cricket World Cup. The event will provide a perfect opportunity for Mugabe to present a sanitised view of Zimbabwean life to the world. But the event will also attract scores of foreign journalists, who are currently banned from entering Zimbabwe. Mugabe is determined that by the time they get here the opposition will be in no condition to create trouble. The main focus of the crackdown is the MDC, whose leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, goes on trial for treason next month. In the past three weeks MDC activists, councillors, MPs and sympathisers have been arrested and jailed. Some, like youth leader Fanuel Tsvangirai, are missing. One MP, Tafadzwa Musekiwa, has fled abroad.
But it is not just the MDC. So desperate is the ruling party to ensure that the cricket matches pass off peacefully that any form of opposition is ruthlessly crushed. Zanu PF's youth wing, the so-called Green Bombers, have been sent into opposition areas to terrorise and intimidate the locals. They have set up camps and any whiff of dissent is dealt with brutally. Journalists have been beaten and the sight of a white face - especially that of a foreign journalist - is an invitation to arrest and torture. Even as police were preparing Sikhala's arrest on 14 January, four activists for the Combined Harare Residents Association were being tortured by the Green Bombers, named for the green uniforms they wear. The four were touring the crowded township of Kuwadzana on a 'familiarisation' trip ahead of a by-election there, which the CHRA wants to ensure is fair and open. But their presence was too much for the Green Bombers. They were frogmarched into a militia base, one of four that have been set up in Kuwadzana. 'There was no lighting and it was getting dark. I heard one of them call the police and he told the others that the cops had said they could "work" on us first and they would come over later,' Barnabas Mangodza, one of the victims, said. The 'work' soon began. Some of the youths scrolled through the address books on the group's mobile phones and found numbers for MDC activists. One of the militia said: 'Now we are going to beat you. Who is going to be first?' Mangodza stood up. Eight people held him while six others hit him with whips, sticks and their fists. Similar treatment was meted out to the other three: Jameson Gazirayi, Joseph Rose and Richard Mudehwe. The ordeal lasted two hours. Finally, the police came and the Green Bombers left. Despite their wounds, Mangodza and the others were arrested and fined Z$5,000 (£55). Their crime was 'behaviour likely to disturb the peace'.
Zimbabwe is a country gone mad. A stolen election last March and the disastrous confiscation of the country's white-owned commercial farms have triggered complete economic collapse. Starved of foreign currency and in the grip of 500 per cent hyper-inflation, all basic commodities have run out. In the cities people queue for entire days to get fuel, bread, salt and cooking oil. The countryside is the worst off. Drought has gripped the land, withering crops and killing cattle. An estimated seven million people are facing starvation in a country that used to be an exporter of food. But the ruling elite still prosper. Inflation has created two economies. Those with foreign currency can afford anything. Those without can afford nothing. Both Mugabe and his reviled Information Minister Jonathan Moyo recently travelled abroad to buy their own supplies. Mugabe flew first class to Singapore, returning with 15 boxes of goods. Moyo travelled to South Africa by convoy, where he loaded up with canned food, rice, sugar and bread. The hypocrisy has shocked many. 'Don't send us cricketers, send us food,' Wilfrid Mhanda, head of the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform and a former black liberation fighter who now opposes the government, said. 'When the English cricketers come here they will do just as Mugabe does. They will eat and drink well, while we are starving.'
For most Zimbabweans - 70 per cent of whom are unemployed - life is spent in a desperate search for enough to eat. Yet even in buying food, Mugabe's grip on power is tight. Zanu politicians are given food to distribute. Party cards must be shown to receive it. The Green Bombers loot shops of food, which they sell for a profit. In Chitungwiza, their actions sparked ugly riots two weeks ago. There are now 1,500 of the militia in the township, which has an MDC mayor. More are coming. The son of one local councillor was injured so badly he was taken to hospital - because he wore an MDC T-shirt. 'The Green Bombers made him try and eat his own shirt,' the councillor, who was afraid to give his name, said. The MDC is reeling under the pressure, but plans are still being drawn up for protests inside and outside the six matches to be played. The Government is gearing up too. It has set up a special police taskforce to crush any dissent near the games. 'We will be in full force,' police commissioner Augustine Chihuri said last week. But amid the chaos and violence there are signs of hope. Zimbabweans can turn the tide. One such is Chitungwiza shopkeeper Lloyd Moyo, 28. The Green Bombers had stolen so much bread that he stopped selling it. But local people begged him to carry on. They promised to protect him from the militia. So far, they have. Standing in front of his ramshackle grocery store, Moyo raised a brave voice of challenge. 'I am not afraid,' he said. Behind him, stapled to a wall, was a photograph of him taken on the day his shop opened. Above it was a proud handwritten message. 'Life is full of problems,' it read. 'But we shall have victory in the end.'
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 26 January
Herald lied 100%, says UN envoy
By Henry Makiwa
James Morris, the UN special envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, yesterday dressed down the state-controlled daily, The Herald saying it had peddled "100% lies", in yesterday's front-page lead story. Morris who says his deep-seated concern for the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe should be accurately reflected, told journalists, diplomats and government officials at a press conference, that he was shocked to see The Herald publish a story purporting that he had accepted the irreversibility of the land reform exercise. Morris, a special envoy of UN secretary general Kofi Annan, is visiting Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian situation as part of his tour of Africa. Morris said The Herald's lead story entitled: 'Help New Farmers: UN Special Envoy', constituted a gross misrepresentation of what he had said when addressing journalists on Friday afternoon. According to The Herald report, Tim (sic) Morris, had accepted the irreversibility of the land reform exercise and had urged humanitarian agencies working in Zimbabwe to provide farmers with water and inputs.
Said Morris yesterday: "The comments in The Herald were 100% lies. I did not comment as The Herald purportedly reports in its front page story today (yesterday). I did not accept that the land reform process was irreversible as they (The Herald), quote me as saying. It was gross misrepresentation of the worst form. "What I did say was that the future of Zimbabwe depended on the success of a robust agro-based economy. It is also embarrassing that The Herald repeatedly quoted me as 'Tim Morris' when my real name is James Morris. Ironically, I have a 36-year-old son called Tim who will probably be attributed to The Herald's utterances, not myself!" Morris said, drawing roaring laughter from the audience. Disappointed with this kind of gutter reporting, Morris said he had since written a letter to the editor of The Herald, a copy of which is in the possession of The Standard, stressing his concern over the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Reads part of the letter: " I am writing to correct the misrepresentation in the 25 January edition of The Herald of the substance of my meetings with the government of Zimbabwe. I particularly stressed the importance of reaching former commercial farm workers, as well as vulnerable populations in resettlement lands, and those living in urban areas. This takes into account serious concerns on the deteriorating food security throughout the country."
Zimbabwe is in the throes of a crippling food shortage which threatens over seven million of the country's 11,6 million people. Mugabe's chaotic land reforms are being held responsible for the hardships being experienced in the country. Morris' visit to Zimbabwe is part of a tour of Africa to reassess the humanitarian situation. Already, he has been to Ethiopia and is expected to visit three other drought-hit countries: Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia. On Friday, he met Mugabe at State House to review the current responses to the Zimbabwean crisis and follow up on the findings of his first mission in September last year. Said Morris: "I have discussed with Mugabe and the foreign minister (Stan Mudenge) on six occasions over the issue of political interference in the distribution of food, and they have both accepted that there is need for change to boost international confidence. "The UN will soon start working with the government to monitor the distribution of food," Morris said.
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From SABC News, 25 January
Zimbabwe food, Aids crises worsening: UN envoys
UN envoys in charge of food aid and efforts to battle HIV/Aids in Africa said today that Zimbabwe's food and Aids crises were getting worse and urged the government to make a huge effort to overcome them. "This is a tragedy, a catastrophe that the world finds itself in," James Morris, the World Food Programme chief, told reporters during a two-day trip to Harare accompanied by Stephen Lewis, the special envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa. Morris lamented the government's controversial drive to force some productive farmers off the land while the country faced a food crisis. Food shortages had worsened the impact of Zimbabwe's HIV/Aids pandemic, and the government faced a major challenge in rebuilding a farm sector that used to be the bread basket of southern Africa, he said. Lewis said severe food shortages had worsened an HIV/Aids pandemic which is killing an average 2 500 Zimbabweans a week and accounts for up to 80% of hospital admissions in the capital Harare. "When the body has no food to consume, the disease is consuming the body," he said, adding that the impact of the disease would be felt more seriously in years to come and well after Zimbabwe's political problems had been solved. "What is required of Zimbabwe and other southern African countries is a Herculean effort to subdue this disease," Lewis said.
More than half Zimbabwe's 14 million people are suffering food shortages caused by drought and reduced output from formerly very productive farms which President Robert Mugabe's supporters have taken over from white commercial farmers. Morris said that in meetings with Mugabe and his cabinet ministers, he had emphasised the need for Zimbabwe to revive its key farming sector, open up grain imports to commercial traders, promote irrigation and tackle water and health issues. Asked whether he was aware that while Zimbabwe was grappling with the food crisis, white commercial farmers with a record of production had been forced off their land, and were now living in urban areas, Morris said: "There was a significant highly productive sector that is no longer involved in agriculture. That is a real loss to this country and to the world." Farming officials say between 600 and 800 out of 4 500 white commercial farmers are actively farming while the majority have been removed from their farms under Mugabe's controversial land redistribution programme.
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's ruler since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980, says his land seizures are meant to correct colonial imbalances which left 70% of the country's best farmland in the hands of minority whites. Earlier today, Morris told a group of journalists who accompanied him to a child feeding centre in a poor Harare township that one million urban Zimbabweans were short of food. Morris said a combination of drought and reduced production by commercial farms seized by Mugabe from white farmers for redistribution to land less blacks had cut Zimbabwe's average farming output by about 75% in 2002. "While the response of the international community has been incredible so far, the long-term solution for Zimbabwe is in having a viable agricultural sector," he said. Morris said he had again called on Mugabe to relax government restrictions on grain imports to ease the worsening food crisis, but that the government had refused to lift price controls to make it viable for traders to import grain. Critics say sweeping price controls and the government Grain Marketing Board (GMB)'s monopoly in importing staple maize and wheat grains have hampered the flow of food to Zimbabwe. Mugabe's government says its food price controls and the GMB monopoly are meant to protect consumers and prevent third parties from abusing food aid for political purposes. Morris said he was "100% certain" that food aid brought in by the WFP and other international agencies was being distributed fairly. "I cannot speak for the government about their own supplies through the GMB," he said.
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From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 26 January
England cricket team: We don't want to go to Zimbabwe
By Andrew Alderson, Chief Reporter
The England cricket team is to issue a public statement explaining that the players are opposed to taking part in the forthcoming World Cup match in Zimbabwe but have no choice in the matter. The unprecedented declaration will explain that the team has deep-seated concerns about the behaviour of President Robert Mugabe's regime, which faces worldwide condemnation for driving white farmers from their land and deliberately starving political opponents. It will also say that the players are concerned for their safety and want the match moved to South Africa. Their concerns were heightened after threatening letters were sent to their dressing room on tour in Sydney last week. The players will state that they are agreeing as employees of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to go to Zimbabwe only because of its contractual obligations to play the qualifying match. The announcement will be made this week - possibly today - on behalf of the players by Richard Bevan, the managing director of the Professional Cricketers' Association. The statement will inflame the public and diplomatic row over the match, which is to be played in Harare on February 13. The Government has urged players not to go but has refused to compensate the ECB, which would face fines of more than £1 million should the team pull out.
Ministers were accused of attempting to pass the buck when Nasser Hussain, the team captain, demanded that the Government take responsibility for deciding whether his team should travel to Zimbabwe. In an article for The Telegraph, Hussain said that leaving the decision to cricketers was "ridiculous". He has asked ministers to appoint a body to take the "major political judgment" required. The players' reluctance to tour Zimbabwe on moral grounds has intensified in recent weeks and last Friday Hussain attended a meeting with David Morgan, the ECB chairman, and Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, when he told them of the players' intention to issue a statement. The players, he indicated, had been disturbed to receive personally addressed letters from a group purporting to be Zimbabwean freedom fighters outlining the reasons against making the trip and indicating that match security could be breached. "Nasser Hussain advised me that the players that were ready to go a week ago are less ready now," said Mr Morgan. "They were receiving threats about the possibility of disturbances and riots."
Despite the growing threats of violence outside England's match, the International Cricket Council said that there were no security reasons for moving the World Cup match to South Africa. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, indicated that he might use Britain's veto against the planned visit by Mr Mugabe to a Franco-African summit in Paris next month. The Conservatives had accused Mr Straw of hypocrisy after it was suggested that ministers would not oppose the Mugabe visit. The Prime Minister was thought to have agrees not to raise objections to the visit to Paris on February 19, on condition that France agree to the extension of European Union sanctions that prevent Mr Mugabe and his inner circle from travelling to Europe. The sanctions imposed a year ago expire on February 18. A senior official said that the Government was still considering using the veto. "We will be taking soundings at Monday's meeting. We have not ruled it out," he said.
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From ZWNEWS, 26 January
More words to the French
Anyone wishing to comment to the French government about its invitation to Robert Mugabe to attend a meeting of African leaders on February 19 can also contact the following Zimbabwean address: Ambassador of France M Didier Ferrand, PO Box 1378, Harare - 74-76 Samora Machel Ave (11th floor, Old Reserve Bank Building) fax 730078, tel 703216, 704393, 704069, 705738, 706780, 730078 .
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 26 January
Govt keeps lid on damning land report
By Chengetai Zvauya
The ministry of state responsible for Land Reform has produced a damning land audit report which highlights the systematic looting of prime farms by senior government officials and Zanu PF cronies, The Standard has learnt. The explosive report is a culmination of a land audit exercise carried out by the ministry to assess the status and ownership of farms acquired under the controversial land reform programme. Highly placed government sources told The Standard yesterday that Flora Buka, the minister of state for Land Reform, was sitting on the damning report, which should have been presented to President Mugabe by now. They said senior government officials and politburo members were among several influential people implicated in the looting of prime farms by Zanu PF cronies, at the expense of the landless people. "The report authenticates reports that government officials and Zanu PF cronies have corruptly awarded themselves more than one farm in various provinces. Names of several top government officials, army, police and CIO officers and many others are appearing in several provinces. In short, the report paints a classic picture of looting that has characterised the affairs of the party over the years," said the source.
The ministry started auditing farms in October last year and completed the exercise in early December after touring all the provinces. Contacted for comment, Buka admitted that there were problems associated with the talked about land reform exercise which saw thousands of white farmers being driven off their land. "We are in the finalisation phase of the report and we are going to publish it soon. It has some problems but we are not at liberty to discuss them with the press now,'' she said. So far, government claims to have resettled over 300 000 families under the A1 model scheme as well as about 51 000 others under the A2 model scheme. Most of these A2 model farmers did not take up their pieces of land. Meanwhile, the parliamentary portfolio committee on land and agriculture has also started making field visits to resettled farms to assess the ownership status and level of production on the farms in the wake of reports that most of the new farmers have deserted their plots.
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From ONE News (NZ), 27 January
Foreigners questioned in Zimbabwe
Five foreigners being questioned by Zimbabwe on suspicion of being journalists who entered the country under false pretences are church workers reporting on development work, Western diplomats said on Sunday. Zimbabwe police said they were questioning five journalists from Kenya, Finland, the United States and Germany and could charge them under Zimbabwe's tough media and security laws. "Our laws say foreign journalists must apply to come into the country, and these journalists also have some interesting documents suggesting they could be on some clandestine mission," Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said. But diplomats said the five were not professional journalists and they had not disguised their mission. The police said the they were being questioned as free people from their hotel but diplomats said they were effectively under detention. "We are trying to get to the bottom of this...and whatever misunderstanding there is, but the information we have so far from those being questioned is that they are not free to move from the hotel," one Western diplomat said. "We are making representations to the Zimbabwean authorities to find out what is going on but our information is that these people are not professional journalists, but church workers looking at development projects for church magazines," said the diplomat, who declined to be named.
One of the five, American Kathleen Kastilahn, told reporters by telephone from Zvishavane that the five were met by Zimbabwe police on Friday night when they arrived at their Zvishavane hotel and accused of harbouring spies. "But the five of us are here to look at various projects being carried out by the World Lutheran Federation Development Services in agriculture, food aid, water and so on and to write reports for the church magazine and for a forthcoming international conference called Healing the World," she said. "Our mission was very open, and those of us who had to apply for visas did so, and there was no attempt to hide what we will be doing here," Kastilahn said. "But obviously they are not treating us as church workers. They have confiscated our passports, they are not allowing us to move or even to exercise," she added. She said other foreigners being held with her are Pauline Mumia from Kenya, Rolf Hallstrom from Finland and Ute Heers and Falk Orth, both from Germany. Fanuel Jongwe, a journalist with the Zimbabwe Daily News, said by telephone from Zvishavane he had been invited by the World Lutheran Federation to see the organisation's development projects in Zimbabwe's Midlands province. "We are actually surprised with what is happening because there is nothing sinister at all about the trip. But the police are holding us here saying they are investigating us under POSA (the Public Order and Security Act)," he said.
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From SABC News, 27 January
Four EU nations object to Mugabe's Paris visit
Four European Union (EU) nations raised objections on Saturday to France's plans to invite Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to Paris next month in defiance of a travel ban and want to discuss the issue today. Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany registered their objections just before an EU deadline at midday (1100GMT), according to a diplomatic source. France asked its EU partners on Thursday to grant the temporary exemption from the ban to allow Mugabe to attend the Franco-African meeting on February 19-21. It fears other African nations would boycott the summit if Mugabe is not also invited. Britain, which has spearheaded EU measures against its former colony, had previously indicated it would not block the Paris visit in the interests of having wider sanctions renewed. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss in Brussels today whether to renew the sanctions, which include a travel ban on Mugabe and his senior officials over alleged trampling of democracy and human rights. If the four nations refuse to allow Mugabe to visit Paris, France could well decide to block the renewal of sanctions, which are due to expire on February 18. Washington on Friday called the French invitation to Mugabe "regrettable" and urged EU countries to effectively enforce the travel ban on Zimbabwean leaders. The ban was imposed last year to protest against March elections the EU and United States considered illegitimate and in response to the confiscation of white-owned farms under Mugabe's land redistribution system.
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From The Washington Times, 27 January
Zimbabwe opposition chief seeks US envoy
By Geoff Hill
Johannesburg - Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), wants President Bush to send a special envoy to Zimbabwe. "I would say to President Bush that he has done good work in sending special envoys to trouble spots around the world," Mr. Tsvangirai said in an interview with The Washington Times. "It is now time to send a special envoy to Zimbabwe." Mr. Tsvangirai said that he would be happy to discuss his country's political crisis with a representative of the US president, and that such an initiative could advance efforts to restore democracy. In the past three years, a coercive land-reform program has seen all but 600 of Zimbabwe's 5,000 white commercial farmers forced off their land - contributing to a famine that the United Nations says has left 7 million people in need of food aid this year. Another 2 million black Zimbabweans have fled to neighboring South Africa as human rights groups accuse Zimbabwe's police, army and intelligence service of widespread torture and extrajudicial killings. On the economic front, the local currency trades on the street at 1,800 to the dollar, though the government refuses to devalue from the official rate of 55. President Robert Mugabe, 78, won another seven years in office last year in elections tainted by widespread reports of intimidation and political violence by Mr. Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. The United States and some other Western governments refused to recognize the result.
Mr. Tsvangirai said in the interview that he would be willing to discuss the idea of an exit plan for Mr. Mugabe and the setting up of an interim government whose sole task would be to restore law and order and arrange fresh elections. "I think that such a solution would be a matter of convenience to all parties," he said. "The only way forward is to have a real, free election in Zimbabwe. But I would want the election to be supervised internationally. We have never had a free and fair election in this country." In December, a retired officer from the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), Col. Lionel Dyck, held talks with Mr. Tsvangirai, reportedly at the request of armed forces chief Gen. Vitalis Zvinavashe and parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mr. Tsvangirai revealed details of the discu |
