South Africa shields Mugabe at UN

from the UKTimes

James Bone in New York and Catherine Philp in Harare

South Africa led efforts to block the dispatch of a UN envoy to Zimbabwe yesterday as the UN Security Council met on the election stand-off for the first time.

Diplomats said that South African opposition to a UN mission meant that the next step would probably be a public meeting of the 15-nation Security Council on Zimbabwe under Britain’s presidency in May.... South Africa, China, Russia, Libya and Vietnam spoke up against any further Security Council action at this stage, diplomats said, with Burkina Faso saying that Africa should take the lead....

chinese gun unners

Strategypage reports on that chinese arms shipment



Poly Technologies was founded 25 years ago, by the Chinese military, to provide some competition for Norinco, the major arms builder in the country. Poly is very well connected in the government and military. Former generals and officers run the company. It is feared that Poly will next try to fly the ammo shipment into Zimbabwe. Poly Technologies has a reputation for getting the goods delivered, no matter what.

Arms ship to land in Angola

from the BBC

Angola's government has authorised a Chinese ship carrying arms destined for Zimbabwe to dock, although it says it will not be allowed to unload weapons.

In a statement, the government said the vessel would only be allowed to deliver goods intended for Angola....

The US had urged China to recall the An Yue Jiang, while the UK called for an international arms embargo on Zimbabwe.

Zambia's president urged African countries not to let the arms in.

But Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper condemned the country's neighbours as "myopic stooges" for refusing to let the cargo dock.

"Zimbabwe is... under attack from the former coloniser and its allies. As such, Zimbabwe probably needs to arm itself more than any other country in Africa today," the paper said....

President Tsangirai

From AlJezeerah:

Mugabe party fails in recount.

"The news we're getting is that the election result of March 29 has been confirmed. What we hear is that nothing has changed in all the constituencies," Nelson Chamisa, the MDC spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

Earlier, the Reuters news agency reported that after 14 constituencies had been recounted it was impossible for Zanu-PF to regain its majority.

Opposition unites against Mugabe

from alJezeerah:

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said on Monday: "It's our pleasure to announce that our two formations in parliament have agreed to work together."....

The two MDC factions together control 109 seats against 97 seats in favour of Zanu-PF, according to results from the March 29 elections.

Tsvangirai also proclaimed himself the winner of the presidential election held on the same day.

He said that Mugabe should concede the presidency.

Results from the presidential vote have still not been released by the authorities.

Opposition being attacked

from the nytimes:

Published: April 28, 2008

JOHANNESBURG — Evidence of widespread retribution against people who supported Zimbabwe’s opposition party in last month’s election has begun to stream out despite the government’s efforts to restrict press access to the worst of the violence....

this growing body of evidence — in the form of witness accounts, photographs and other documentation, some compiled by an American diplomatic field team — has raised serious questions about whether a free and fair vote is possible if, as expected, a runoff is scheduled.....

The questions have grown to the point that the United Nations’ top human rights official, Louise Arbour, publicly expressed worry on Sunday that violence could subvert any effort to resolve Zimbabwe’s political crisis....

babys in Mugabe's jails

From the UKTimes:

Twenty-four babies and 40 children under the age of six were among the 250 people rounded up in a raid on Friday, according to Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Yesterday they were crammed into cells in Southerton police station in central Harare.

...

The families were rounded up from MDC headquarters, where they had sought refuge from violence in the countryside.

Related Links

• Mugabe’s link to arms firm revealed

Thought to be directed by top military officers, Operation Where Did You Put Your Cross? has prompted thousands to flee. They are trying to escape the so-called war veterans, who are attacking people and burning down hundreds of houses for voting “incorrectly” in last month’s elections....

Zuma says Mugabe liberator turned oppressor

from Zimdaily

Shocking accounts of torture

SWRadioAfrica via All Africa:

....

Children and the elderly are not escaping the brutality. A girl of 7 and a boy 10 years of age were seen and treated by physicians from the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights this week. The organisation reported a cumulative total of 323 cases of organised violence and torture in April alone. 81 of the cases they treated were within a 3-day period.

There are numerous, confirmed reports from around the country, of brutal attacks. In Chiweshe villagers were forced to plunge their voting hands into boiling water while being told 'this is the hand that betrayed the nation'. Driefontein Hospital in Chirumhanzu, Mindlands province has been closed down after a group of 300 Zanu PF youth militia besieged it. The hospital authorities were accused of treating MDC members and the medical staff were beaten up. It is alleged that the youths then attacked the patients.....

215 MDC supporters still in detention

Hundreds of MDC supporters and officials that were arrested by police at the party headquarters in Harare on Friday are still in detention. The offices at Harvest House were raided as part of a campaign by police to confiscate documents and information relating to the elections held last month. MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said property was destroyed in the building and police confiscated all computers and equipment used by the MDC at their election command centre....

Mugabe's party fails to win back parliement in recount

From the LATimes



....The Zimbabwe Election Commission announced the results of 18 of 23 parliamentary seats whose vote tallies are being recounted, nearly a month after bitterly disputed elections appeared to give the opposition the edge over the 84-year-old president. The ruling ZANU-PF party needed to take back nine seats to regain control of parliament, but none of the 18 results were overturned....

Zimbabwe forces arrest hundreds

from the UK Telegraph

Zimbabwean security forces have staged a series of violent raids on critics of President Robert Mugabe, arresting hundreds of opposition activists, election monitors and even hospital patients....

In the capital, Harare, heavily armed riot police smashed their way through groups of injured opposition supporters, including women and children, who had fled from the violence being meted out in rural areas by thugs deployed by the ruling Zanu-PF party.

The group was gathered outside the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which the police then stormed, arresting an estimated 300 people.

In the first raid on the offices since the disputed March 29 elections, police also confiscated computers and all the party's election materials including data it used to predict results.

Many MDC supporters in Zanu-PF strongholds have had their homes razed in arson attacks, while hundreds have been treated for serious injuries, particularly in the east of the country.... A warrant shown during the raid said that the authorities were looking for subversive material which could be used to overthrow the government.

He also said they had confiscated lists of names and addresses of thousands of people who had been hired by the network as observers for the election.

There were reports from central Zimbabwe that the rural Driefontein hospital run by the Roman Catholic Church was closed down on Wednesday after men calling themselves war veterans kidnapped patients and beat up medical staff....

(driefontein is east of Gweru and in Central Zim)

Arming the opposition?Reality check

my argument against previous WSJ editorial, posted at BNN:

Summary: The mashona are passive by culture, and those best at fighting have already left to find jobs. The real danger is if rage causes an uprising, like Ruwanda. (even a small snake has a tooth).

...So arming the remaining few opposition supporters who are well educated, have no experience shooting guns, have no military experience, and whose culture emphasizes passivity to rebel against a government with a trained military is nonsense. There is no hunting culture, so there is no familiarity with guns, and those most likely to fight back have fled the country.

The WSJ article is correct in one point: Mugabe’s military and paramilitary would probably melt away if faced with a real threat that others would fight back. Some are bullies, not willing to fight a real opponent, and many others, especially professional military and police, don’t support Mugabe but only are trying to hold a job.

But there is a way to “arm” the opposition: You recruit and train youth from the Zimbabwe diaspora to form a liberation army, and then support them to invade and take over the country.

That’s how Mugabe got into power in the first place.

But who would do the training and arming? South Africa, whose president Mbeki has essentially vetoed all peaceful pressure to get Mugabe to resign?

Arm Zimbabwe opposition

from the WSJ

In short, Mr. Mugabe's opponents need weapons soon. This is not to effect regime change, but for simple self-defense.

Critics of American support for dissidents abroad often cite how such backing, once it becomes public, could endanger the dissidents' cause and credibility. This critique might make sense in the Middle East, but it does not carry much water in Africa.

There, as a well-publicized Pew poll last year found, widespread majorities count the U.S. as their nation's "most dependable ally," and fault the U.S. for not doing more to stop the genocide in Darfur.

Thanks to regime-induced famine, Zimbabwe has had one of the world's lowest life expectancies, and a death rate higher than Darfur's for well over a year. The mere existence of Mr. Mugabe's rule is a continuing crime against humanity. Lest that not serve as a wake-up call to the world, last week the MDC's secretary general, Tendai Biti, bluntly announced: "There is a war in Zimbabwe being waged by Mugabe's regime against the people."

America has chosen a side in this war. Perhaps it's time we help it fight back.

Mr. Kirchick, an assistant editor at The New Republic, reported from Zimbabwe in 2006.

Mugabe rival a "clear victor"

from the BBC:

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was the "clear victor" of last month's poll, a top US envoy says....

Earlier, the leaders of the Anglican church called for international action to prevent violence in Zimbabwe reaching "horrific levels".

Meanwhile, a Chinese foreign ministry official said a ship carrying weapons to Zimbabwe might return to China.

'Accept result'

Independent Zimbabwean monitors say Mr Tsvangirai gained 49% of the vote - just short of the threshold for outright victory - but more than President Mugabe.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says its leader gained 50.3% and so should be declared the winner....

---------------

and the BBC on recount:

The results of the first recounts in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections are in, with the ruling and opposition parties retaining one seat each.

The ruling Zanu-PF party held its seat in Goromonzi West, while the opposition MDC held on to Zaka West, the Zimbabwe Election Commission said.

The MDC says the recounts are an attempt to rig the election and overturn its parliamentary majority....

China and Africa

an excerpt from the council of foreign relations site about China's quest for African oil:


Trade and economic activity. Sino-African trade grew by 700 percent during the 1990s, and the 2000 China-Africa Forum in Beijing set off a new era of trade cooperation and investment that is producing notable results. From 2002 to 2003, trade between China and Africa doubled to $18.5 billion, and then nearly doubled again in the first ten months of 2005, jumping 39 percent to $32.17 billion. Most of the growth was due to increased Chinese imports of oil from Sudan and other African nations. China's foreign direct investment in Africa represented $900 million of the continent's $15 billion total in 2004. China is now the continent's third most-important trading partner, behind the United States and France, and ahead of Britain.

Experts say Chinese companies see Africa as both an excellent market for their low-cost consumer goods, and a burgeoning economic opportunity as more countries privatize their industries and open their economies to foreign investment. Some textile manufacturers, for example, are reportedly investing in African factories as a way to get around U.S. and European quotas on Chinese textiles. "China is very pragmatic about this," Kang says. "It's cutting deals with governments all over the world."
How is China building its relationship with Africa?


With integrated packages of aid that lead to business opportunities and market share for Chinese companies. "One of the interesting things about doing business with China these days is that it's a full-on supplier," Economy says. "They will come in and provide everything that surrounds the development of the country." In Angola, which currently exports 25 percent of its oil production to China, Beijing has secured a major stake in future oil production with a $2 billion package of loans and aid that includes funds for Chinese companies to build railroads, schools, roads, hospitals, bridges, and offices; lay a fiber-optic network; and train Angolan telecommunications workers. Economy says China is following a very traditional path established by Europe, Japan, and the United States: offering poor countries comprehensive and exploitative trade deals combined with aid. For example, Japan after World War II paid $5 billion in war reparations to South Korea, Taiwan, and China in the form of export credits for Japanese goods and loans to be used for Japanese construction and other services, Kang says.

those Chinese soldiers in Zim

From StrategyPage:

(the first part of the article is about the Chinese arms shipment and that Chinese soldiers have been seen in Mutare)...

"...

Beijing has a substantial investment in Zimbabe, including a $1.3 billion contract to open coal mines and three thermal power stations in the Zambezi valley (as well as unpaid debts dating back to the Congo Civil War that started in 1998).



This is not the first time Mugabe has looked east for security assistance. In 1981, he imported 106 North Korean police instructors, who trained a brigade of troops on how to most effectively terrorize Matabeleland. There, the Ndebele minority (18 percent of the population) were hostile to Mugabe, who was a Shona. The Shona and Ndebele had not gotten along, even as they fought for Zimbabwean independence. So Mugabe sent his North Korean trained 5th Brigade to Matabeleland, where thousands of Ndebele died, and everyone else was terrified into submission. The North Koreans took their money and went home.



If China fails to maintain influence over the election results, their political and economic foothold is in danger of evaporating. - Adam Geibel

china may recall weapons ship

from the BBC

The ship carrying weapons to Zimbabwe may return to China after being prevented from unloading in South Africa, a Chinese official has said....

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the weapons were ordered last year and were "perfectly normal".

But she said the ship's owners were considering bringing the ship back.

Ms Jiang said this was because it was proving impossible for Zimbabwe to receive the arms but this has not been confirmed by the Chinese shipping company.

The Chinese vessel was said to be bound for Angola but the US is reported to be pressuring port authorities there and in Namibia not to allow them to dock.

Summary: US State Dpt pressuring other African governments not to accept the ship, Zambia's president asking other countries to refuse to unload the ship, and the Unions that work in ship unloading in various African countries saying they will refuse to unload it...

Churches fear Zim genocide

from the BBC:

Church leaders in Zimbabwe have called for international action to prevent post-election violence developing into genocidal proportions.

African countries and the UN should intervene to deal with a "deteriorating" situation, they said....

In a joint statement, leaders of the main religious denominations warned against leaving the post-election deadlock unresolved.

Mr Tsvangirai also renewed his criticism of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been acting as a mediator over Zimbabwe.

"We call on President Mbeki to be bold and take this historic opportunity to side with the people of Zimbabwe and not with any political party," he said.

The leader of the governing African National Congress in South Africa - Jacob Zuma - has further distanced himself from Mr Mbeki, criticising the delays in publishing the election results.

"It's not acceptable. It's not helping the Zimbabwean people who have gone out to... elect the kind of party and presidential candidate they want, exercising their constitutional right," he told Reuters news agency.

Post-election violence has displaced 3,000 people, injured 500 and left 10 dead, according to MDC secretary general Tendai Biti.

Human rights groups say they have found camps where people are being tortured for having voted "the wrong way".

Disarming Zimbabwe

From StrategyPage

Zimbabwe is the most repressive, corrupt and inefficient government in Africa, but is not under any arms embargo. So the shipment of arms recently arrived at a South African port, and the government said it would be allowed to move by truck to land-locked Zimbabwe. There, the ammo was likely to be used to overturn the results of the recent national elections, which voted out the current government. However, the port workers in South Africa refused to unload the ammo shipment, and South African police refused to fill in for the dock workers. A judge ruled that the ammo could not be moved through South Africa to Zimbabwe. So the Chinese ship went on its way, with the cargo containers of ammo still on board.