Messages From Zimbabwe

The annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe, already the highest in the world, has hit a new record level of 2.2 million percent, the central bank’s governor revealed on Wednesday.

“Statistics provided by the CSO (central statistical office) indicate that it is now at 2.2 (million percent),” Gideon Gono said in a brief address in Harare ahead of a speech by veteran President Robert Mugabe.

The figure is the first from the authorities in Zimbabwe since the announcement of the rate for February, when it was put at around 165,000 percent.

The head of the CSO, Moffat Nyoni, confirmed the figure but said it was only a rough barometer as it was based on limited data.

“We can confirm that that is the figure we have given to… users, but that is not the sort of data we would normally publish with confidence because it was not based on the sort of information we would normally use,” Nyoni told AFP.

“The information was based on fewer observations than we would be confident with due to scarcities.

“However, with the information we have managed to obtain, this is the rate of inflation.”

Mugabe, who was controversially re-elected for a sixth term in office last month in a ballot boycotted by the opposition, said that increasing levels of production was key to efforts to tame inflation.

“As a country our declared battle against the scourge of high inflation must be accomplished,” he said.

“The more goods we have, the less demand there will be…. Once demand is satisfied, then prices will begin to fall.”

The 84-year-old president, who has frequently blamed the country’s economic woes on a package of targeted sanctions imposed by the West, reiterated his attack on the “illegal” measures.

“We must be of one accord. The sanctions must be defeated,” he said.

Once one of Africa’s best peforming economies, Zimbabwe has been in meltdown since the turn of the decade when Mugabe embarked on a controversial land reform programme which saw thousands of white-owned farms seized by the state.

Inflation first passed the 1,000 percent threshold in May 2006 and has been rising almost continuously ever since.

The government has tried a series of measures designed to slow down the inflation juggernaut, including ordering shops and businesses to effectively halve the price of basic goods last year.

The plan was abandoned after it led to widespread shortages in shops.

Retailers now have to increase their prices several times a day for goods purchased with billion dollar bank notes.

With salaries lagging ever further behind the cost of living, many Zimbabweans now make do with only a meal a day and have long given up on so-called luxuries such as jam.

Even staples such as bread and cornmeal are now hard to come by, costing several weeks’ wages.

Urban areas have been hardest hit with rural areas managing to overcome the worst affects of what Gono has called Zimbabwe’s “economic HIV” by growing their own produce.

(Source)

Zimbabwe’s rival parties were locked in talks in Harare last night, putting the finishing touches to a draft document intended to pave the way for power-sharing negotiations to begin later this week. Even in its draft form, however, the so-called memo of understanding is already dividing the three parties it aims to unite. Scheduled to be signed tomorrow, the document was to lay the ground rules for a two-week round of intensive negotiations during which ZANU PF and both factions of the Movement for Democratic Change would discuss the formation of an inclusive government to put an end to the crisis. However, Morgan Tsvangirai’s wing of the MDC insist they won’t sign the draft until their demands are met. They are calling for the appointment of an African Union envoy to the Southern African Development Community-led talks, the release of all political prisoners, cessation of violence and disbandment of all militias before they join the negotiating table.

With just 24 hours to go until the scheduled signing ceremony, Tsvangirai suggested time was not on the negotiators’ side. “We will not sign until the conditions are met,” he said last night. “And Wednesday is too early” to get those conditions in place, he added. Even if the MDC conditions are met, the MDC’s chief negotiator, Tendai Biti, believes “ZANU PF will not budge on real issues of governance”. However, a member of President Robert Mugabe’s party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested otherwise. He said finding a solution was in everybody’s interest. What ZANU PF is likely to do next if the MDC refuses to sign the memo of understanding is unclear. Under Zimbabwe’s constitution, the new parliament should be convened on Thursday, when a new cabinet should also be appointed. However, if the MDC refuses to agree to talks tomorrow, Mugabe could well constitute a cabinet of his own picking a day later - something the other parties would hope to avoid.

(Source)

The Movement for Democratic Change appreciates the focus of the United Nation Security Council on the Zimbabwean crisis.

We acknowledge that the Security Council has recognized the magnitude of the problems facing Zimbabwe and their impact on the southern African region.

The international community has recognised that the violence in Zimbabwe is state-sanctioned. Over a hundred people have been killed, many thousands beaten, tortured and displaced and millions now facing economic hardship and starvation.

The suffering of the Zimbabwean people is worsening every day and a peaceful negotiated transition is urgently required.

In light of this, the MDC calls upon the African Union to work with SADC in establishing the framework in which a negotiated solution can be formulated.

The MDC would like to express its gratitude to countries and organisations that continue to support the Zimbabwean people in their struggle for freedom and stability.

Ends….

(Source)

In a dramatic change in policy, South Africa has agreed to an “incremental” threat of UN sanctions against Zimbabwe. It’s a move that Zimbabwe has warned the Security Council could push the country toward civil war. Contrary to Pretoria’s steadfast position against even putting its neighbour on the Security Council agenda, South Africa has argued that the Mugabe regime should at least be given a 30-day warning of impending sanctions. According to diplomats in closed-door discussions at the Security Council this week, South African ambassador Dumisani Kumalo argued for threatening sanctions as an alternative to immediate imposition, as proposed in a US and British draft resolution. “We have been standing still and now you want to go 200 miles per hour,” Kumalo was quoted by diplomats as saying.

Kumalo pointed to a long tradition of Security Council sanctions, which have usually been preceded by 30- or 60-day warnings. Until the shift, SA had consistently argued that Zimbabwe should not be discussed at the council, as it did not meet the UN Charter’s criteria of threatening international peace and security. The tough American and British resolution would immediately slap an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, and financial and travel sanctions on a list of 12 high-ranking Zimbabwe officials, starting with President Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe’s UN mission said, in a letter provided by the UN yesterday, that the punitive measures proposed by the US and Britain against President Robert Mugabe’s government could turn Zimbabwe into another Somalia, where warring factions have clashed for 17 years.

Those sanctions, the mission said, would lead to the removal of Zimbabwe’s “effective government and, most probably, start a civil war in the country because, in their obsession with ‘regime change’, Britain and the US are determined to ignore real, entrenched, fundamental and enduring issues that lie at the heart of Zimbabwe’s internal politics”. The mission claimed the nation was not at war with itself, posed no threat to its neighbours or any other country, and would put the Security Council in the position of becoming “a force-multiplier in support of Britain’s colonial crusade against Zimbabwe“. Mugabe’s government acknowledged through its UN mission “some isolated and localised cases of violence have indeed occurred in Zimbabwe” since the March 29 vote. But the mission’s letter accused Tsvangirai’s opposition party of “premeditation, planning, stage management and exaggeration of this violence, with ever-increasing signs of very active British and American encouragement and collusion, as part of a grand strategy aimed at inviting foreign intervention in Zimbabwe“.

Despite some anticipation, the US decided not to present its resolution for a vote yesterday. Diplomats said it would most likely be voted on at the weekend. Though Russia has expressed opposition to the resolution, diplomats speculated a veto would be an extreme move by Moscow. Nine votes, without a veto, are required for passage on the 15-member Security Council. The United States can count eight yes votes or abstentions. The ninth vote belongs to Burkina Faso, which is being lobbied hard for its support by both sides, diplomats said. American diplomats are said to be unconcerned about disturbing talks in Pretoria between the MDC and ZANU PF. ZANU PF and the MDC met yesterday in Pretoria for the first time since the controversial presidential run-off elections on June 27.

They advanced tentative power-sharing proposals, but are still divided on who will lead a coalition. In a phone interview with The Star yesterday, Tsvangirai said: “This is not talks. This is talks about talks.” As day one of the talks came to a close last night, The Star was reliably informed that ZANU PF wanted “an inclusive government”, in which Tsvangirai would be given “a senior post”, with Mugabe as executive president. For its part, the MDC was pushing for Tsvangirai to be installed as prime minister, with executive powers, with Mugabe as ceremonial president.

(Source)

The deportation of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe has now been halted, Gordon Brown said.

The Prime Minister told MPs that while officials continued to deal with the issue on a case-by-case basis, no returns were currently taking place.

“No-one is being forced to return to Zimbabwe from the United Kingdom at this time,” he said.

Mr Brown, who has been under pressure to stop the deportations in the wake of the violence surrounding the disputed presidential election, said that ministers were also looking to help failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers who were unable to work.

“They are prevented from leaving the UK through no fault of their own,” he said. “They are provided with accommodation and vouchers to ensure that they are not destitute but we are looking to see what we can do to support Zimbabweans in this situation.”

Mr Brown, who was making a Commons statement on this week’s G8 summit in Japan, appealed to the entire international community to back the imposition of United Nations’ sanctions on Robert Mugabe’s regime.

British officials had thought they had the support of the entire G8 for a resolution in the UN Security Council after the leaders signed up to a statement calling for measures against regime figures responsible for the violence.

However, on the final day of the summit, Russia - one of the five permanent Security Council members with the power of veto - denounced the draft resolution drawn up by Britain and the US as “excessive”. With the position of China - another permanent member - also unclear, Mr Brown said detailed negotiations were now taking place at the UN headquarters in New York.

He acknowledged that the draft resolution - which also calls for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe - went further than the G8 statement, but urged members to support it.

“It is very important that the whole weight of the international community is behind the efforts to secure a transition in Zimbabwe,” he said. “I believe that time is short for doing that and it is very important that the UN pass its resolution as soon as possible. I hope that all countries and all continents will come behind it.”

(Source)

Robert Mugabe’s regime of thugs and militia has intensified its reign of terror as reports of political violence and torture of MDC supporters across Zimbabwe continue to emerge. Reliable sources on the ground told Newsreel on Tuesday that Gokwe has been completely shut down by armed groups and youth militia, with extensive road blocks preventing aid agencies from reaching victims of torture in the area. We have been unable to clarify Monday’s initial reports that a refugee centre in Gokwe was attacked over the weekend, but information received indicates that there has been widespread violence in the area over the past few days. Our sources have said that at least 32 civilian victims are being detained at the Gokwe hospital with serious burns and axe wounds as a result of torture and that there are three confirmed deaths.

Newsreel has also learnt that ambulances have been refused access to the hospital to remove the victims for treatment and that medical emergency crews have been held up at roadblocks surrounding the Gokwe area. Sources said a Red Cross crew was stopped by youth militia while trying to gain access to the Gokwe hospital. The crew was then detained and questioned for eighteen hours before being turned away. The information from the ground coincides with a report from the MDC that ten party supporters who were attacked by ZANU PF thugs in Gokwe over the weekend were being detained at the Gokwe Hospital. The MDC said two soldiers hijacked ambulances transporting the injured on Sunday. They are now at the Gokwe hospital where they have not received any medical attention due to a lack of medicine. Among those in need of urgent treatment is the Gokwe MP Costin Muguti, who was abducted from his home by men in army uniforms and severely beaten. He was handed over to the police at the Gokwe Centre where he is reportedly still in custody.

At the same time, 14 people who were abducted during a militia raid on a refugee centre in Ruwa on Sunday night are still missing. The attack came as the group of more than 300 men, women and children were sleeping at the Ruwa local squash courts, where they have been sheltering since last month. The group were removed to the so called “place of safety” after fleeing to the South African Embassy in Harare in the week leading up to the election run off. The refugees fled their Epworth homes after an upsurge of violence there, and turned to the embassy for refuge. They were removed to Ruwa after an agreement facilitated by the South African ambassador and approved by the International and Zimbabwean Red Cross.

The group had been promised twenty four hour protection, but were forced to form their own security patrols. On Sunday night a group of masked men with shotguns burst into the squash courts and started beating up the refugees, including pregnant women and children. Eight people were hospitalised. The fourteen people who are missing were mainly young men who were part of the camp’s security patrol. An official from The Federation for Red Cross and Crescent Societies in Johannesburg told Newsreel on Tuesday that it was still providing basic humanitarian care at the Ruwa refugee site, but that it was not responsible for providing security. The official said the group would not be commenting further of the issue.

(Source)

A Robert Mugabe supporter who is said to use a newspaper column to attack Britain and the West is receiving tens of thousands of pounds a year of taxpayers’ money.

Today the Ministry of Justice said it was investigating the affair as a “matter of urgency”.

Peter Mavunga, 54, allegedly uses his column in the pro-Mugabe Harare Herald newspaper to attack the Zimbabwean dictator’s opponents and rant against the UK and the West.

Yet it was reported today that Mr Mavunga earns £25,000 from British taxpayers as a court probation officer for the Ministry of Justice.

One UK-based opposition activist said: “It’s rich that he criticises the British Government yet is happy to make a living working for them.”

Anti-Mugabe campaigner Dumi Tutani, 38, who fled to London in 2001, added: “Mavunga is putting down the country that offered him sanctuary. He knows he can say what he likes because this is a democracy.

“If he’s such a big fan of Mugabe’s, why doesn’t he return to Zimbabwe to live?”

Mr Mavaunga is thought to have come to Britain to study journalism in the 1970s.

In his column Mr Mavunga is said to have claimed this year’s rigged polls - in which Government mobs killed dozens of opposition workers - were “held in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity”.

Last week, Mr Mavunga, who lives in Newham, East London, allegedly accused one woman of lying about her torture to win UK asylum and said: “It was the sort of story that helped shape and reinforce attitudes of people in Britain.”

In April, he reportedly branded opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC “liars and hypocrites” and added: “They’ve become so used to lying that it’s part of their vocabulary.”

Mr Mavunga declined to comment when challenged by the Daily Mirror about this role at the Harare Herald.

A spokesman for the Probation Service said today: “These views have been expressed in an individual capacity; these are not the views of London Probation. We are looking into this as a matter of urgency.”

Mr Tsvangirai won March’s elections but Mr Mugabe demanded a re-run, which he won unopposed after violence forced his rival to quit.

(Source)

There are recent widespread reports that ZANU PF and MDC are talking and are about to conclude an agreement to form a Government of National Unity (GNU). Nothing can be as malicious and as further from the truth.

As a matter of fact, there are no talks or discussions taking place between the two parties and most importantly, there is no agreement in the offing.

Whilst the MDC pursued dialogue in a bid to establish a Government of National  Healing before the 12^th June 2008, the sham and catalyptic election on 27 June 2008totally and completely exterminated any prospects of a negotiated settlement.

It is now the firm view of the MDC that those who claim they have got a mandate to govern should govern. Chitongai tione.

Hon Tendai Biti, MP

MDC Secretary-General

(Source: via email)

The proposed new full-time mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis, AU Commission chair Jean Ping, and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa are expected in the country this week amid speculation they will be seeking to bring MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe together.

African diplomats told The Standard last week that the two would be expected to arrive from the G-8 Summit in Japan and that they will be in Zimbabwe as part of efforts to get the MDC and ZANU PF to begin talks on a transitional arrangement.

Mbeki flew into Harare yesterday on his way to the G8 nations’ summit, which runs in Japan from tomorrow until Wednesday, when he and Ping are expected to travel to Zimbabwe.

During his two-hour stop over, Mbeki met Mugabe and representatives of Arthur Mutambara’s MDC formation, which was represented by Mutambara, Professor Welshman Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga at State House.

Ncube told The Standard that there had been no discussions and that the meeting had been for the leaders to mandate their negotiators to seek a settlement to the impasse.

Tsvangirai and his negotiators did not attend the meeting. They have said they will meet Mugabe in the presence of Ping.

Last week, the AU’s 11th Summit in Egypt passed a resolution enjoining the two Zimbabwean political parties to begin talks as a first step towards efforts to resolve the country’s eight-year-old crisis. The resolution also supported the proposal for a government of national unity.

Hopes of an accord between the two main political gladiators came in a week which saw prices spinning out of control, demonstrating for the first time the colossal nature of the problem facing the government and the urgency required to resolve it.

Prices of goods soared last week and for the first time since the political crisis, basic commodities were being quoted in the US dollar or the rand in what analysts said was an emphatic loss of confidence in both the government and the local currency.

Diplomats who spoke to The Standard saw this turn for the worse as one factor that could force the two parties to sit down and hammer out an acceptable means of running the country during the transitional period.

“One of the conditions is that Mugabe and Tsvangirai meet face to face,” said one of the African diplomats. “Unlike Mbeki’s mediation, there will be a memorandum of understanding and a framework within which the talks will take place. The government is looking for a way out (of the crisis).”

Attempts to deal with the crisis came as more than 200 internally displaced Zimbabweans sought refuge at the US embassy in Harare, with the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee stressing that his country was and would continue to be “a friend of the suffering people of Zimbabwe. . .”

McGee was speaking in Harare on Friday during celebrations to mark the 232nd anniversary of the Independence of the United States. He said Zimbabweans deserved better.

Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have expressed their willingness to open dialogue, but have each set conditions for participation in the talks. Tsvangirai says Mugabe should stop the violence against MDC supporters and “deZanuise” state institutions.

Tsvangirai last Wednesday said “the MDC remains committed to negotiations” based on results of the March 29 elections, not the run-off. He set conditions for dialogue.

“Our commitment to a negotiated settlement is not about power-sharing or power deals but about democracy, freedom and justice,” said Tsvangirai.

“Significantly, the conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe today are not conducive to negotiations. If dialogue is to be initiated, it is essential that ZANU PF stops the violence, halts the persecution of MDC leaders and supporters, releases all political prisoners, disbands the militia bases and torture camps and that the security services halt their partisan operations.”

He said he “will never compromise to betray these ideals”.

“We cannot just go into those discussions or negotiations for the sake of it… The principle is a transition,” Tsvangirai said. “But it must be a transition that is going to soft-land this crisis leading to elections… it should provide for a period in which a new constitution is hammered out, the deZanuisation of all these (state) institutions has to take place.

“For us it’s very simple, either they engage in negotiations or there is no engagement. They have elected themselves, they have inaugurated themselves, they can as well run the country. But we are saying we wish them good luck if they have to pursue that kind of self -destructive delusion.”

In a measure indicative of the treacherous terrain the talks will need to negotiate Mugabe told a rally in Chitungwiza 12 days ago before the 27 June poll: “A ZANU PF victory does not mean we would push opposition parties into oblivion. The MDC won a considerable number of seats in Parliament, there is a role they would play in Parliament… Victory for us does not mean the death of MDC or any other party that wants to participate in our electoral process… We want our brothers in the MDC to come to us to discuss our problems…”

But speaking on his arrival from Egypt on Friday, Mugabe appeared to set conditions for talks saying the MDC should accept him as Head of State and that they should get the West to remove targeted sanctions.

(Source)