Messages From Zimbabwe

For a wad of worthless Zimbabwean banknotes President Mugabe’s militias burnt six-year-old Nyasha Mashoko to death. The target of the ZANU PF thugs had been the boy’s father, Brian Mamhova. They came for him on Friday night - three truckloads of them, plus a Mercedes Benz from which alighted three armed men in suits, Mr Mamhova said. The militiamen had been promised Z$25 trillion (£12,500) to kill him, which seems a high price on the head of a district councillor but which is no problem for a Government that sees printing money as the best way out of a crisis. Mr Mamhova was elected a councillor for the MDC in elections on March 29 for the Harare South district council, an area of farms and rundown houses on the outskirts of the capital, close to Harare airport. At 8pm on Friday Mr Mamhova was asleep. His wife, Pamela Pasvani, 21, his son, Nyasha, his younger brother and a nephew were in an adjoining room. “They [the militiamen] got in the room where I was and they were searching me against the wall,” he said. He managed to break free from the men holding them and slipped past the others in the darkness. He stopped running when he was 100 metres away, and hid behind a bush. “They were running past me,” he said, and he heard them muttering that they were about to lose their bounty. “They locked the door where my wife was. They smashed the windows and threw petrol inside. Then they lit it,” he said.

“Inside the house, my young brother broke the door. I thank God, otherwise they would be burnt, all of them. He took my nephew out of the room. Then he went back into the room and he took my wife, but it was late. She got 80 per cent burnt. My son was burnt to pieces.” “Then they beat everybody there, my neighbours, everyone. Many of them are in Chitungwiza hospital [the nearest state hospital] now.” His brother and his nephew escaped with minor burns. “I am in a hidden place now. They are hunting me. They are saying they want to kill me. It is terrible.” The perpetrators of such crimes act with impunity, he said. “When they did this, they were led by their local ZANU PF chairman. He lives close to our place. All of them are still there, now.” Mr Mamhova was left with only the shorts he was wearing. “Everything was burnt. There is nothing left. The clothes, the blankets, the food, all burnt. Somebody gave me some clothes.” His wife died on Saturday in ward C6 of the burns unit of Harare hospital. “No one survives more than 50 per cent burns,” a doctor there said. She was 18 weeks pregnant.

The terror tactic of burning people alive has been little used by ZANU PF in recent years but seems to be being revived. Last Wednesday, in the village of Jerera in Zaka district in the southeast of the country, a group of gunmen described as being in riot police uniform broke into an MDC office and fired on six people. Then they poured petrol over them and set them ablaze. Two died in the fire. A photograph of one of them, published in a local independent newspaper, was remarkably like the picture of one of the charred victims of the xenophobic violence in Johannesburg two weeks ago. Two others are in Harare hospital with 30 and 40 per cent burns respectively. The remaining two have disappeared. In 1963, when the black nationalist movement fighting against the white minority Rhodesian Government split, youths on either side of the divide locked people in their houses in urban townships and threw petrol bombs inside. The leader of the youth wing of one faction - the newly formed ZANU, forerunner to ZANU PF - was a young school teacher named Robert Mugabe. “If you look back at the methods of ZANU PF since it was formed, the only one who was there from that time is the President,” Willas Madzimure, a Harare MP, said. “Which means he knows exactly how to do it.”

(Source)

ZNU 124 is released this morning. In this programme, I look at the potential that MDC Mutambara has to sway decisions in Parliament, and then a look at the events over the past week including the arrest of Mutambara, the double detention of Tsvangirai and the incident involving British and US diplomats at a roadblock. And I also have a quick look at the returnees from RSA being abandoned in Masvingo.

You are able to hear the programme in the multiplayers in the right hand side bar of The Bearded Man blog, here or even downloaded here.

Thank you for your continued support.

Take care.

‘debvhu

Opposition officials accused ruling party militants of preventing the Movement for Democratic Change from holding a rally Sunday, a day after a court lifted a ban on opposition rallies.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said President Robert Mugabe’s supporters cordoned off the area where opposition leaders were to speak in a Harare suburb, forcing the opposition to cancel the rally.

However, two other gatherings will go ahead as planned in Harare, Chamisa said. A court on Saturday had struck down a police ban on opposition rallies.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, meanwhile, continued campaigning Sunday in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second main city, his spokesman George Sibotshiwe said.

Tsvangirai faces off against Mugabe in a presidential runoff on June 27. Tsvangirai won the most votes in the first round in March but not enough to avoid a runoff.

Also Sunday, a court ordered police to release opposition lawmaker Eric Matinenga, who was taken from his home Saturday and detained at a station outside the capital. He was accused of fomenting violence, lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said.

Matinenga, also detained on similar charges earlier in the week but released due to lack of evidence, is among scores of opposition activists arrested in recent weeks. Matinenga, himself an attorney, has represented opposition leaders in a string of high-profile court cases.

The opposition and rights groups cite a rise in violence and intimidation in the run-up to the vote and some Zimbabweans worry that Mugabe will try to steal the election.

Tsvangirai’s party, blaming state agents, says at least 60 of its supporters have been slain in the past two months.

Tsvangirai, who his party says has been the target of at least three assassination attempts, left Zimbabwe after the March vote but returned in late May to campaign for the runoff.

(Source)

Grace Mugabe collected US $80000 from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for her latest shopping spree in Rome, according to authoritative sources. The move infuriated some top central bank officials who described it as “reckless and inhuman”. “It’s common cause that we need every penny of forex we can get to buy food and other basics. We don’t have any money for designer clothes,” said a top RBZ official. Grace’s latest cash handout came after she was given another $100000 of scarce foreign currency by the central bank to finance her holiday with President Robert Mugabe and their three children in Thailand and Malaysia in January. “Every one of their foreign trips is an opportunity to raid the central bank forex coffers. It’s so unfortunate because we simply don’t have the money for her kind of purposes…” said another RBZ source. Although one greenback was fetching at least 1.5 billion Zimbabwe dollars on the parallel market this week, Grace bought her US$80000 at the old fixed exchange rate of US$1 to Z$30000. The sources said this all effectively meant she got the money for free.

Zimbabweans now cynically refer to Grace as the “First Shopper” and not “First Lady”. Although Mugabe, Grace and their top cronies are banned in Europe, they are still free to travel to UN summits. They were therefore able to attend this week’s UN food summit in Rome, despite the fact that Mugabe’s destructive policies have made his countrymen desperately short of food back home. While Mugabe attended summit sessions, sources said Grace remained ensconced in a R11000-a-night suite, with a spa bath, at the Ambasciatori Palace Hotel. Aware that the world press was keeping an eye on her, she did not make any public shopping appearances, preferring to shop through her aides or via prior arrangements with designer shops. The ability of other top Mugabe cronies to access cheap forex at the central bank in Harare has enabled them to leave a luxury lifestyle while the country burns. Meanwhile, companies that need forex to import machinery and inputs for production have to either resort to the expensive black market or simply close shop.

(Source)

Manicaland, in eastern Zimbabwe, was one of the provinces where Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party was shocked by the strength of support for the opposition MDC in March. The party lost a string of parliamentary seats and Morgan Tsvangirai outpolled Mugabe in the presidential race. But it is hard to believe the province is ready to repeat this defiance on June 27. In Rusape, ZANU PF youth militias jog along the streets, singing liberation songs. Some wave clubs or axes at passing vehicles. Chinese-made ZANU PF pickup trucks are everywhere. In Mutiweshiri, villagers are being enticed to party rallies by the arrival of a truck from the government-run Grain Marketing Board, loaded with imported maize meal. Only those pledging support for ZANU PF will benefit. Goodwill, a secondary school teacher explained what this meant. “I should be apolitical, but the government has labelled all teachers as MDC sympathisers, so I won’t eat.”

Goodwill has greater reason than hunger for fear. A ZANU PF youth militia raided the school where his wife teaches. The youths, armed with axes and sticks, led the teachers out to the playing field, ordered them to lie on their stomachs then beat them on the legs and buttocks. When these beatings began in April, they were generally superficial, but attacks with axes, clubs and now guns causing deaths and serious injuries are becoming more common. Goodwill was tipped off that his school would be raided and has started sleeping out in the open to avoid attack. In Nyanga, David, another teacher fleeing violence is sleeping on a relative’s floor, too scared to live at home. “I have been unable to access any assistance,” he says. “The international NGOs are saying there are no resources for displaced people, Perhaps it is because we are seen as political.”

Without even his limited income of £4 per month, David relies on his extended family for support. But in the absence of UN refugee centres or feeding stations, family networks are coming under strain, as more refugees arrive from rural areas. MDC activists say they are under siege. Promise, a newly elected councillor in Mutare, gave an account of a typical attack. “I was asleep at home when I heard a knock on my door at 4am. I ignored it, but the ZANU PF people tricked my mother into opening the door. They dragged me into my back yard and asked my age. When I said I was 36, they said I would get a beating for every year. They hung me upside down and beat me all over”. Promise has a broken hand and complains that his ears have not stopped ringing since the attack.

Promise, like many other MDC officials, has fled his area and wonders how his party can campaign with its activists in such disarray: “Nothing can stop ZANU PF stealing the election now”. The only optimistic thought he can offer is that, “the village people surprised us with their courage on March 29 and they may do so again”. But it will not be easy for villagers to vote freely. According to Promise, ZANU PF has activated “sniffers” in each ward to “consolidate fear.” And villagers in Honde Valley have been instructed to vote with solid ZANU PF supporters, so their ballots can be monitored. The police are careful not to get in the way of ZANU PF. But many officers have encouraged the MDC to resist attacks. Promise recalls one officer telling him: “You are the majority now.”

The MDC set up self-defence groups in April, which resisted attacks in parts of Manicaland and Masvingo. Abendigo, a senior provincial official still at his post, said: “For a while we could say to them, if you burn one house in Chikuku, MDC will burn two”. But these groups, armed only with sticks, are now outgunned. ZANU PF has deployed army units and issued its own militias with guns. Reports of shooting victims are now streaming in. In Zaka this week, armed men attacked an MDC office, shooting those sleeping inside, then pouring petrol over them, setting them alight and locking the office to trap them in the blaze. Two people were killed and two more suffered life-threatening burns. The Zaka attack demonstrates ZANU PF’s new willingness to use lethal force. The MDC is powerless to resist and local officials are confused as to what response to offer. Some despair of victory on June 27, as so many supporters have been driven from their homes.

Others remain optimistic, but call for a delay in the voting or the deployment of peacekeepers. As Abendigo says: “People are blaming the leadership for fleeing violence, but leaving the voters to face it. Many people say to us, ‘Where are you? Can’t you save us? Can’t you give us guns’?” Karl, a senior trade unionist in Mutare explains ZANU PF’s tactics. “When ZANU PF names you as an opposition supporter, you have to confess your sins and hand something over to show your repentance - your MDC t-shirt or membership card - to prove you have been born again and baptised in the name of Robert Mugabe”. Karl believes that ZANU PF is not prepared to relinquish power and has plans to respond to all possible outcomes. The violence might be sufficient to deter opposition voters, allowing Mugabe to win outright.

Alternatively, Mugabe could announce victory, despite a Tsvangirai win, and call for a government of national unity under his presidency. Karl’s assessment is that many opportunists within Tsvangirai’s ranks would take the chance of power. If, “by some miracle”, Tsvangirai is declared the winner, Mugabe’s generals are signalling their readiness to stage a coup. Mugabe’s new unofficial slogan is, according to Karl: “There will be war if I lose”. Two months ago, areas like Manicaland were hopeful, confident that a change of government was possible, despite Mugabe’s will for power. Hope has now faded. The outcome of Zimbabwe’s election will depend on whether the poorest and most marginalised people defy their hardships.

(Source)

Zimbabwean police have stopped several US and UK diplomats as they were trying to investigate political violence.

US ambassador James McGee told the BBC there had been a bid to force their convoy off the road in Bindura after they refused to go to a police station.

He said their tyres were later slashed and a Zimbabwean driver working with a US security official was beaten up.

Last month, Mr McGee and diplomats from five other missions were briefly detained by Zimbabwean security forces.

Earlier, the South African government said Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had been released by the police on Wednesday after the intervention of President Thabo Mbeki.

A spokesman for Mr Mbeki, Mukoni Ratshitanga, told the Associated Press that he “did engage the government and Mr Tsvangirai was released”.

Mr McGee told the BBC that 10 US embassy officials and four officials from the UK High commission diplomats had been in Bindura, north of Harare, when they were stopped by the police.

When they refused to go to a local police station and drove away, they were chased, he said. Later, their tyres were slashed.

The ambassador said war veterans allied to the government had then threatened to set fire to the cars with the diplomats inside.

A Zimbabwean driver working with an US embassy security official was also beaten up by the group, he added.

Mr McGee described the incident as extremely serious and a violation of all diplomatic protocols, and that his government would raise it at the very highest levels with the Zimbabwean authorities.

The BBC’s Caroline Hawley in Johannesburg says the incident comes as human rights groups talk of an escalating campaign of state-sponsored violence ahead of the presidential run-off vote between President Robert Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai at the end of the month.

Mr Tsvangirai resumed his campaign after spending eight hours in detention, but there are growing fears about the credibility of the election, she says.

(Source)

Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton says he refused to be lectured by Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe at the United Nations global food summit in Rome, so boycotted his speech.

Mr Mugabe blamed Britain “and its friends” including New Zealand, for crippling his country economically with illegal sanctions. He said sanctions have crippled Zimbabwe’s economy “and thereby effect illegal regime change in our country.”

Mr Anderton says it was an easy decision not to turn up for the speech. He says he has no time for Mr Mugabe given what he has put his people through and it would have been been a bit rich to have been lectured by him.

“If it wasn’t so tragic it would be laughable. He took over a country that was renowned as the bread basket of Africa and now he has millions of people virtually starving. He was blaming everyone including New Zealand.”

Mr Anderton speaks at the conference tomorrow and will call for a coordinated approach to the issue from the UN.

The Iranian president used the summit to attack Israel and America. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims US policy in the Middle East has been aggressive, yet he said that the state of Israel will certainly disappear.

Mr Ahmadinejad also slammed the West over its handling of the food crisis, accusing certain “big powers” of sometimes acting with “devilish” motives.

(Source)

Britain will join a global summit on soaring world food prices today amid condemnation of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe’s presence at the crisis summit in Rome. International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander will snub Mr Mugabe after saying it was “obscene” he was allowed to take part in the meeting. Mr Mugabe, blamed for wrecking his country’s economy and leaving starving millions dependent on food aid, can attend despite an EU travel ban as it is a United Nations-organised event. There were ugly scenes last night as the Zimbabwe leader’s bodyguards clashed with photographers outside his luxury hotel. Mr Mugabe rushed inside and said nothing to reporters while onlookers watched in amazement.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has urged wealthy nations to use the summit to agree “urgent and concrete actions” to address rising malnutrition rates. Emergency aid combined with investment in local agriculture and rural communities was required quickly to prevent the situation worsening, it will tell world leaders. Debt campaigners called for affected countries to be granted a moratorium on repayments and for Haiti, which has been hit by food riots, to have its 1.3 billion debt cancelled. Christian Aid and Jubilee Debt Campaign said an emergency World Bank grant to Haiti, announced on Friday, was a “sticking plaster” that would only cover 10 weeks of debt repayments. Jubilee director Nick Dearden said: “It is shocking that while many millions of people in the world are going short of food, their government are still being forced to shell out millions of pounds a week to rich countries and banks.”

A European food safety chief suggested another solution - lifting the ban on feeding animal remains to pigs and chickens, imposed to prevent the spread of BSE to allow grain to be sent to suffering countries. Patrick Wall, chairman of the European Food Safety Authority, told The Times he was not sure it was “morally or ethically correct” during a global food shortage to feed grain to animals. The Government said it was awaiting advice on the issue but would not accept any change without proof it posed no risk to public safety. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was “vital” that the three-day summit agreed measures to increase food production and agricultural productivity in the world’s poorest countries - and said the issue would be high on the agenda when the G8 leaders meet in Japan next month. But today’s meeting, due to be attended by many heads of state, seems bound to be overshadowed by Mr Mugabe’s first official trip abroad since disputed elections in March.

Mr Mugabe faces a run-off presidential election on June 27 against Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The campaign has been marred by widespread allegations of violence and intimidation directed by the regime at supporters of the MDC. The president used an FAO meeting in 2005 to launch attacks on then-prime minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush, calling them “international terrorists”. Gordon Brown boycotted an EU-Africa summit in Portugal last December because Mr Mugabe was attending but the importance of the food price issue meant Mr Alexander would still go to Rome. But the Prime Minister’s spokesman said the International Development Secretary would not have “anything to do with” the Zimbabwean president during the gathering.

Mr Alexander told the BBC: “I think it is obscene. I will neither shake hands with Robert Mugabe nor meet Robert Mugabe. I will take the opportunity to make clear my abhorrence at his attendance at a meeting which is supposed to be about increasing the supply of food while his policies have directly the reverse effect in Zimbabwe.” The controversy revived calls for Mr Mugabe to be stripped of his honorary knighthood, conferred on him by John Major’s government in 1994. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Ed Davey said: “Mugabe’s award undermines our honours system. He should be stripped of his Knighthood as soon as possible. “Due to his position as a head of state, Mugabe may be allowed to walk the streets of Rome with impunity, but there is no reason on earth why he should do so as an honorary British Knight.” Channel 4 News reported that the first steps were being taken to remove the honour. A Foreign Office spokesman said the situation was under review and further action could not be ruled out.

(Source)

ZNU 123 released. I have been unable to upload the file to Odeo for an unknown reason (reports that it is an ‘invalid file’), but it is available on Switchpod and 4shared… and in the multiplayers on The Bearded Man blog…

This programme looks at the next chapter in the Makoni question, the continued violence in Zimbabwe. Amazing (Dis)Grace’s announcement that Bob ain’t goin’ nowhere, whilst I also look at Mugabe’s order to have his picture in churches, and the apparent dereliction of duty by the Commissioner-General of the ZRP, Augustine Chihuri.

Thank you for your continuing support of ZNU.

‘debvhu