When a crockodile eats the sun

book review

.. In When a Crocodile Eats the Sun-- a reference to solar eclipses, the most apocalyptic of African omens -- Peter Godwin, an acclaimed Zimbabwean journalist now living in Manhattan, masterfully weaves the political and the highly personal. An eyewitness account of that cataclysmic time, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is also a tribute to Godwin's aging parents and a searing exploration of the author's own soul.,,,

the frantic author risks slipping into Zimbabwe on frequent magazine assignments despite his exile status. He finds himself on the front line as Mugabe's murderous, pillaging mobs invade farms and smash agricultural infrastructure. An interview with an opposition candidate evolves into a nightlong ordeal fending off goons. Incognito at a political rally, Peter watches farm workers get selected for "re-education" while sullen armed teenagers prowl the remaining crowd, prodding people to raise fists higher, to cheer louder.

.... Peter, entertaining his parents with an outing to gawk at McMansions being built by political favorites, takes a wrong turn and finds himself on the prohibited dead end street leading to Robert Mugabe's new palace:

"As we round the bend . . . we see that the soldiers have been reinforced by a dozen more. These new ones carry machine guns, and the brass bullets in their bandoliers shimmer with menace as they catch the sun. At least ten weapons are now pointed directly at us....

Butcher of Addis Ababa living in Zim

....Thousands of Ethiopians gathered in the capital on Sunday to remember victims of a brutal Marxist junta, weeping at the sight of flower-covered coffins with remains from mass graves across the country.

The service marked the anniversary of the downfall of the junta's leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam — known as "the butcher of Addis Ababa" — who is living in exile in Zimbabwe.

Some experts say 150,000 university students, intellectuals and politicians were killed in a nationwide purge by Mengistu's Marxist regime, the Dergue, though no one knows for sure....

Zim eyes takeover of all foreign firms

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- President Robert Mugabe plans to seize majority stakes in all of Zimbabwe's foreign-owned businesses in what economists warn could be a repeat of the regime's disastrous land-reform policy.
Under legislation approved by the Cabinet two weeks ago, all companies will be required to give up at least 51 percent of their shares for allocation to economically disadvantaged, "indigenous" Zimbabweans.
There are signs that the government intends to use the laws to attack the commercial interests of countries such as Britain, the former colonial ruler, which Mr. Mugabe accuses of plotting to remove him from power. However, companies linked with friendly regimes, such as China and Malaysia, will be protected....

"The president made it clear, when Cabinet approved the bill ... that the time had come to empower our people," the official said. "He said the indigenization exercise must be undertaken in the same fashion as the land-reform program.'
The minister added that Mr. Mugabe had vowed that "imperialist companies" would be targeted because they had been operating with what the president described as a "sinister, regime-change agenda." ...

Over the weekend, riot police raided the headquarters of Mr. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change and arrested close to 200 supporters, party spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the Associated Press.
As with the land-reform program, many in business suspect that the real beneficiaries of the asset grab will be Mr. Mugabe's cronies and officials of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party, who will take control of the companies under the guise of business consortiums.
"Mugabe operates on patronage, and to try to bolster his position, he will hand over these companies to people who support him. He's been threatening it for a long time," said an executive with a major British firm....

Zim police raid opposition headquarters

...JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - Riot police in Zimbabwe raided the headquarters of the main opposition party Saturday and arrested dozens of supporters, a spokesman said.

Nelson Chamisa said close to 200 supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change were seized in the raid on the party's headquarters in central Harare.

Three truckloads of riot police arrived at the headquarters around midday. The police broke up a "routine meeting" called by the MDC to discuss party issues ahead of next year's presidential and parliamentary polls, Chamisa said in a telephone interview....

Waiting for Mbeki

"/.....If Zimbabwe is to brake its headlong descent into tyranny, famine and some of the world’s lowest life-expectancy figures, the leaders of neighboring African countries will have to bring strong political and economic pressure on Mr. Mugabe, and they will have to move quickly. So far they have done the opposite. In the midst of Mr. Mugabe’s reign of terror, his fellow African leaders appallingly selected the continent’s prime example of economic free fall as the chair of the United Nations’ Commission on Sustainable Development.

The leader with the most potential leverage is Thabo Mbeki... So far, Mr. Mbeki hasn’t done much more than write a few letters.....

If the human tragedy of Zimbabwe cannot move Mr. Mbeki, he might at least consider his own country’s narrow self-interest. Potential investors in South Africa can only be put off by the growing tide of misery and upheaval just over the border. "

Swedish AIDS/HIV aid

"....
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency on Thursday announced it will provide the Zimbabwean government with $7.6 million to fund HIV/AIDS projects in the country, Xinhua News Agency reports.

The Swedish Cooperative Center will receive $1 million for the Food Security and HIV/AIDS Affected Households project, which supports farming for households affected by HIV/AIDS, in Zimbabwe's Kwekwe and Gweru districts. The program will be implemented jointly with the Midlands AIDS Service Organization, according to Xinhua News Agency. The remaining $6.6 million will be used for the Expanded Support Program, a collaborative effort between Zimbabwe's National AIDS Council and the United Nations aimed at expanding access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services. ...

Africans need to invest in agriculture including GM crops

A Nairobi-based plant pathologist, Florence Wambugu advised students to be more flexible and not just settle at having degrees....

Plant technologies will keep millions of Africans fed and healthy. The use of GM will not only release the talent of 70 per cent of the population locked up in inefficient agricultural quests but will also lead to higher food production, lower food prices and weaning from food aid dependency. Recognizing this fact, Heads of State at the African Union Summit held in Addis Ababa early this year, endorsed a 20-year bio-technology action plan calling for cooperation among States in specific regions to bolster biotechnology research and address bio-safety concerns. It is hope that this action is not mere rhetoric.

US farmers who produce two-thirds of the world’s biotech crops save an estimated $216 million annually on weed control costs and make $19 million less in herbicide applications every year. Using non –till methods made possible by herbicide resistant soybeans, farmers prevent 247 million tons of topsoil from being eroded.,,,

The President of AfricaBio, Prof Diran Makinde, who is also working with New Partnership for African Development however feels that "the reason no GM crops are being grown in Africa is because various countries are still in the process of formulating regulatory procedures to legalize the production of GM crops."

The EU, which has been involved in protracted battles with the US over GM foods is slowly softening its stand, according to the International Agro Biotechnology Research Specialist, Willy de Greef. He says that the EU is no longer opposed to the development of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Six EU countries are currently planting GM crops, with several more hoping to start soon. Spain is leading the way with 60,000 hectares already planted. France, Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany and Slovakia, have also increased their acreages fivefold in 2006, from 1,500 hectares in 2005 to 8,500 hectares in 2006.

Africa should approach and embrace GM technology from an informed perspective.//

Summary: African governments by listening to conservative Europeans are prevented from using the latest technology, which could benefit millions. US farmers are already using it.

One issue in my area is that Belgian onions, which are grown in areas with fewer pests (due to winter killing insects) and harvested by machine can under price local onions.

However, there are problems with the crops. The best way is to allow local entrepeneurs start small farms of the crops, the way we do here with the help of the government, for our rice and vegetables, to start new hybrids and crop raising methods.

Zim soldiers face starvation?

By Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 05/23/2007 05:33:23
ZIMBABWEAN soldiers could starve if the government does not intervene with a financial rescue plan before the end of June, MPs were told on Tuesday.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence Trust Maphosa told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs that they were allocated Zim$32 billion to spend on rations for the whole year, but it has been exhausted.

,,,,For rations, we were allocated $32 billion and so far we have used 92
percent of that," Maphosa said. "What that means is that we have been left with just eight percent to take us for the rest of the year....

Currently the armed forces of Zimbabwe are completely integrated and are composed of an army (ZNA) and an air force (AFZ). The ZNA currently has an active duty strength of 30,000. The air force has about 5,000 men assigned.

Thousands of soldiers have quit in recent months over poor pay, with many enlisting as security guards in neighbouring South Africa.

Operation cleanup is a crime against humanity

Three years ago, under the guise of slum clearance, President Mugabe’s thugs went into the suburbs of Harare and other cities in Zimbabwe and destroyed an estimated 70 000 houses, shops and shacks (aka “illegal businesses”) and made 700 000 people homeless.

According to SW RADIO AFRICA:

The government said it would build 90 000 houses but Amnesty International reported last year that just over 3 000 houses had been built. Amnesty said most of the new houses had no doors, floors, windows and roofs.
Arnold Tsunga, Executive Director of ZLHR, said in the statement: “The use of organized violence and torture by the State against its own people with impunity has gone on for far too long in Zimbabwe. There is no justification for the world to powerlessly watch while ordinary men, women and children are tormented by their own government. It is time to refer this case to the ICC.”
Some critics are wary that some countries like South Africa and China may block this motion, as they have done before in the UN Security Council. But Jean du Plessis said COHRE hoped that the new information in the report provides sufficient evidence that should compel governments in the 15 member Council to realize the gravity of the situation and act.

Now international lawyers say that this was a crime against humanity.

The reason behind “Operation Cleanup” was probably to get back at those who voted against Mugabe in the previous election. Rural areas had been intimidated to vote for him because it was understood that if your village voted against Mugabe, the NGO food aid (which was only distributed with government approval) would be sent elsewhere. And, of course, in some areas Mugabe remained popular.

However it was the suburbs, whose financial independence allowed defiance, that were the problem. And to make it worse, many of these illegal black market shops sold used merchandise and undermined the shops selling cheap poorly made goods from China, a country that is busy propping up Mugabe, with hopes that they will get future stakes in the lucrative mining industry in the future.

For me, it was sort of personal, since two buildings destroyed belonged to friends of mine: an HIV Clinic in a Harare suburb, run by Sister Patricia and Sister Maggie’s convent in a small midland town.

At least these sisters were not made homeless. Sister Patricia managed to restart the clinic, but many of the patients were dispersed and fled to family homes in rural areas, where they no longer can get HIV treatment. And Sister Maggie and the other sisters moved to their rural convent, where, of course, they no longer can run women’s clubs or teach in their city.

But without the ability of western reporters to visit and report freely, the fate of the displaced is mainly unreported.

Yes, we are surviving, writes another friend, but we are like a hyena with three legs… (refering to the proverb).

So people survive on the crops from their small farms, with the help of extended family members, money sent from the large number of economic refugees who fled to South Africa and other countries, and of course with the help of the NGO’s.

The ones hurt the most are those relying on salary, such as teachers and doctors. With inflation approaching 4000%, their salary is useless, and without foreign exchange, medicines often unavailable.

But look at the good news: Mr. Mugabe is spending a couple million dollars to build a museum/shrine in his own honor in his hometown.

Bid for freedom, risking death

It was a spectacular bid for freedom - five soldiers of the Zimbabwe army's mounted unit, galloping to the South African border, abandoning horses, arms and uniforms, and crossing the border in search of a new life and freedom from repression and poverty.

But it was a bid that ended in failure - and the families of the five young men believe it may have also ended in death. Death by torture, at the hands of Mugabe's secret police.

The soldiers made their dash for freedom in Febuary but were picked up almost immediately by the South African authorities and returned to the Zimbabwe security forces, who incarcerated them in Harare's infamous Chikurubi high-security prison....

The suspicion is that they were eventually tortured to death...

An article about Mugabe's torture camps is HERE...

... He pointed a shaky finger. "That building there, we call it Baghdad. That's where we learn how to torture people."

Both of us were frightened - him because he was an inmate of one of Mugabe's youth terror camps. Me because I was in the Mushagashe Youth Training Centre illicitly, posing, thanks to a Zanu PF friend, as a member of an inspection committee....(article goes on to describe torture).

Another article describing Zimbabwe's prisons is here...

Row over Malawi export of maize to Zim

Opposition leaders in Malawi Sunday accused the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika of breaking international trade rules by paying for maize it is exporting to Zimbabwe. But government has since described the allegations as "baseless and lacking on facts".

"(The) Government has take US$300 million from the Reserve Bank of Malawi to pay the National Food Reserve Authority for the maize it is exporting to Zimbabwe," said opposition Malawi Democratic Party (MDP) president Kamlepo Kalua while addressing a public rally alongside former president Bakili Muluzi....

"The deal was a normal international trade deal signed between Malawi and Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean Central Bank will pay Malawi some US$120 million for the maize," he said.

Kutsaira said in fact the Zimbabwe Central Bank has already made an initial US$6 million payment for "logistics". "As you know, Malawi recorded a surplus in maize (yields) this year and some of the maize has to be sold out to some countries in the region that recorded deficits, such as Zimbabwe," he said. "If we do not sell our maize surplus it will be destroyed and prices on the market will be depressed."

Malawi is currently discussing with the governments of the kingdom of Swaziland and Lesotho- which also had food deficits- for further maize exports, he added. Malawi needs about 2 million metric tonnes of the staple food, maize, to feed its population of 12 million people. But, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the southern African country recorded a surplus of about 1 million metric tonnes.

Opposition repression escalates"

"...

Over the past year, the government has reacted to peaceful protests against its policies on social, economic, and human rights conditions in the country by intensifying its efforts to intimidate, silence and punish those who expose abuses and exercise their basic rights.

Since the beginning of the year, the police have arbitrarily arrested hundreds of civil society activists and opposition members and supporters during routine meetings or peaceful protests, often with excessive force, and in some cases subjected those in custody to severe beatings that amounted to torture, and other mistreatment. The government has taken no clear action to halt the rising incidence of torture and ill-treatment of activists while in the custody of police or the intelligence services.

The arrest and severe beating of over 50 opposition leaders and civil society activists by police and state security officers on March 11 marked a new low in Zimbabwe's seven-year political crisis. It ignited a new government campaign of violence and repression against members of the opposition and civil society - and increasingly ordinary citizens - in the capital Harare and elsewhere throughout the country. Police used disproportionate and lethal force against unarmed activists resulting in the death of at least one activist, Gift Tandare, and serious injuries to several others.'''....

President Mugabe's statements endorsing abusive law enforcement measures can but contribute to entrenching the culture of impunity that already exists in Zimbabwe...."

Mugabe builds himself a shrine

".. Mr. Mugabe's policies, such as the seizure of white-owned farms, are blamed for an economic crisis in which inflation leaped to more than 3,700 percent in April. Unemployment is running at about 80 percent and there are severe shortages of staple foods such as corn and wheat.
Construction of the grand edifice, which will cover an area the size of a soccer field and has been dubbed the "Mugabe shrine," is being supervised by the local government minister, Ignatius Chombo.
Materials are understood to have been obtained from countries with regimes friendly to Zimbabwe, such as Malaysia, which supplied the timber for Mr. Mugabe's lavish Chinese-built residence in Zvimba.
Once complete, the museum will house Mr. Mugabe's prison letters, photographs from the war in the 1960s and '70s against the minority-white government of Ian Smith, his old clothes and copies of his famously fiery, and often intemperate, speeches.
The museum will also display some of the many gifts the president has received during his 27 years in office from those who have enjoyed his patronage -- most of them members of his ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF. Pride of place is expected to be taken by a 16-foot-long stuffed Nile crocodile -- a recent birthday gift from Mr. Mugabe's loyal ministers and officials.
Presenting the 50-year-old male crocodile to the president in February, Webster Shamu, minister for policy implementation, said it "symbolized maturity, distilled and accumulated wisdom and majestic authority -- attributes that have been characteristic of the president's leadership during the protracted anti-colonialist struggle and even in the current struggle against imperialist and neo-colonialist forces."
It was during the presentation that Mr. Mugabe revealed he had been discussing plans to build a "shrine" in Zvimba and that the crocodile could be placed in it. Mr. Chombo confirmed being involved in the project, though he declined to discuss the costs.
"The idea has been discussed and we are moving on to the planning stage," he said. "It would be a shrine for the local community and one that would be used to depict the president's life history and legacy, as well as aspects of the liberation struggle."
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change accused the president of self-aggrandizement. "This is no time for self-glorification for individuals, and it shows how skewed are this government's priorities," said party spokesman Nelson Chamisa. "People are struggling to survive, and this will be an island of opulence in a sea of poverty. It's going to be a white elephant, and it is a waste of state resources."
Mr. Mugabe's extravagance is well-known. Besides his five official residences, he owns a number of private houses including the most recent addition, a palatial three-story, 25-bedroom, $15.8 million residence in the exclusive Harare suburb of Borrowdale.

Zimbabwe situation on global voices

check long post with lots of linksz

Huge rise in Zim inflation

Zimbabwe's rate of inflation surged to 3,731.9%, driven by higher energy and food costs, and amplified by a drop in its currency, official figures show.

April's inflation rate jumped up from the 2,200% recorded last month, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) said.

The announcement came after Zimbabwe's government created a commission charged with finding a way to curb the country's spiralling cost of living.

There is high unemployment, and fuel and food shortages across the nation....

Targeting lawyers

"...
Washington - The government of Zimbabwe has intensified its crackdown on lawyers through a wave of criminal prosecutions, beatings and arrests. The latest target of the government's crackdown was criminal lawyer Jonathan Samkange, who police arrested Monday night on charges of violating a section of the Immigration Act. However, police dropped all charges against Samkange Tuesday evening, without explanation, and returned the Z$5 million he had been charged as bail. ....

Earlier, police spokesman Superintendent Andrew Phiri had told Studio 7 that they were investigating allegations that Samkange had flown an unidentified witness into Zimbabwe to testify in Mann's hearing, under false pretext that he was a personal friend. The president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe Beatrice Mtetwa, said Samkange disputed the allegations, saying the unidentified witness, who had allegedly been tortured by authorities in Equatorial Guinea some time back, had come to assess the situation before agreeing to be a witness in Mann’s hearing..

Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, on Tuesday, Mutare police briefly detained about 10 lawyers protesting the continued harassment and arrests of fellow legal practitioners by the police. The lawyers had been marching to the provincial governor's office to hand him a petition when they were detained. Political analyst and human rights activists have warned that these intimidations may escalate as Harare draws closer to the the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2008.

Zim rejects neutral venue plan

A lot of folks in Australia were upset that their team was supposed to visit Zim to play, but the team pointed out that if they refused, they would be fined. However, the international body allows teams to pass on scheduled games, so Howard decided to "forbid" their playing there...voila, problem solved.

Except that Zim is mad that Australia will grant money to democracy adovcate groups in that country, and so is refusing to play the Aussies elsewhere.

n Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade statement released on Monday said Australia would significantly boost its support for human rights campaigners and community organizations in Zimbabwe over the next two years, starting with the immediate release of nearly A$6 million ($5 million).

The Australian government has planned to channel A$18 million by 2008 to Zimbabwean civic groups and aid agencies through the Australian Fund for Zimbabwe.

"The Australian foreign minister has announced an $18 million Australian dollar fund for regime change. We have a process here for the change of government through democratic elections and not any other way," Ndlovu said.

"For them to put up that money when we are heading for an election reveals their agenda, but we have a law here against foreign funding for political parties, directly or through NGOs or their embassy."

Unlikely

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had earlier told reporters Zimbabwe was unlikely to allow the match going ahead at a neutral venue.

"For them, I suspect, and at least for the Zimbabwean government, it would be seen to be humiliating to acknowledge that they're not able to play against the top cricket team within their own country.

"My guess is that this won't come about."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the government had taken the initiative to ban the players from touring because it was unfair to leave the decision to sportsmen.

"I'm sorry it has come to this. It really does pain me as a cricket lover. But this is a terrible regime," Howard said.

"This is a weapon available to the government. It is a device, it is a method of sending a very strong signal of disapproval."

A number of senior Australian players said they were relieved the government had taken the decision out of their hands.

Opening batsman Matthew Hayden said he had been thinking about a private boycott if the tour had gone ahead.

"I was seriously considering my position this time, as to whether I would go if the tour went ahead," Hayden told The Australian.

Africans die, world yawns

Most reports that complain about the West's lack of action in Africa are political. Many are NGO's or churches that work with refugees. Others are using it as a club to bash the US and prove "racism". The link is to a politically neutral site, and is the most accurate and cynical explanation of why the West ignores Africa....

"...There are over a dozen wars going on in Africa, and the daily death count far exceeds that of Iraq.
Occasionally, the African violence gets into the news.

Somalia gets mentioned, but only because of a failed UN intervention in the early 1990s.

There are occasional references to the Congo, where millions have perished in recent years.

Sudan gets mentioned from time to time because millions have been driven from their homes, and several hundred thousand killed by a few years of tribal and ethnic violence.

But what of the wars in Chad (civil war), the Central African Republic (civil war), Ivory Coast (civil war), Guinea (rebellion against corrupt government), Senegal (civil war), Ethiopia (civil war), Eritrea (border dispute), Kenya (tribal wars), Nigeria (rebellion against corrupt government), Burundi (civil war), Rwanda (ethnic revenge), Uganda (civil war), Burkina Faso (border dispute), and Niger (border dispute)?

And then there's the Islamic terrorism of northern Africa. Algeria is still dealing with the diehard remnants of a ten year rebellion by Islamic radicals. Lesser forms of that violence are showing up in all the other North African nations, and spreading to those to the south.

Nigeria has had several deadly flare ups of Islamic violence. One rebel group even fancied them selves "African Taliban," had were put down with much bloodshed.

Let us not forget that Africa, even at peace, is not a peaceful place. The murder rate in South Africa is higher than in Iraq. The difference is the dead bodies are all over South Africa, while in Iraq they are concentrated in the central part of the country, and closely watched by hundreds of foreign journalists. ...(italics mine)

Non-Africans don't care about Africa, just as they don't care about foreigners in general. ....

While most of the world supports democracy in general, they are not willing to die to help others achieve it. And the world's attitude towards African attempts at democracy are the unspoken reason why. Developing a functioning democracy takes time, and often gets ugly.

In the 1990s, after half a century of socialism, communism and dictatorship, African countries concluded that the rule of law and democracy was the way to go. But the way was mined and covered with snipers and bandits.

Making democracy works means overcoming a lot of people who are willing to kill you for your beliefs.

Most of the world, and a lot of Americans, don't believe it's worth getting too involved in this process. It takes courage and self-sacrifice to aid others in building democracy. But courage and self-sacrifice are seen by most as spectator sports.

The world sees Americans in Iraq as arrogant fools, for trying to practice what they preach.

The U.S. is divided on this point. Do we fight for what is right, or be practical? No matter who rules Iraq, they will want to sell their oil. Terrorists will always be around, and will potentially have access to more powerful weapons. So what? Let the police take care of that.

Building democracy and fighting the forces that oppose it is something you talk about, not something you send your soldiers to get mixed up in.

That's what everyone does with Africa. Seems to work, for everyone but the Africans.

For that reason, the world is hoping that the American effort in Iraq fails.

Because if America succeeds in Iraq, ignoring Africa gets a lot harder.

Aussies pull out of Zim tour (cricket)

Mr Howard cited Zimbabwe's human rights record and economic turmoil to explain his decision.

"The living standards in the country are probably the lowest of any in the world, you have an absolutely unbelievable rate of inflation.

"Whilst it pains me both as a cricket lover and as somebody who genuinely believes these things should be left to sporting organisations... it leaves me with no alternative."

Cricket Australia had been reluctant to cancel its September tour to Zimbabwe because that would have made it liable to pay a minimum $2m fine levied by the sport's international governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC).

However, an ICC statement released before the Australian government forced the cancellation of the tour indicates Cricket Australia would not be fined....

The Nigerians vs Wolfowitz

David Corn points out that a WAPO editorial vs Wolfowitz was written by a man who takes money from Nigeria as a lobbyist.

Nigeria is notorious for the huge amounts of money that those in charge steal...and one reason the 'insurgents" there keep kidnapping Pinoys is that the poor people in the Delta get no economic bounce from their oil money.

Mugabe may have descended Zim into poverty, but these guys steal money to stop that country from becoming rich...

Diaspora asks for Zuma's Mediation

Zimbabwean Civic Society Organisations have cast their support behind the sacked South African vice president Jacob Zuma, to take over in mediation efforts between rival parties in Zimbabwe...

The ruling ZANU PF has also called the MDC to accept Mugabe's legitimacy as a condition for talks which the opposition would not risk doing as that would give Mugabe all the leverage to say the MDC's claims of flawed elections were unrealistic which might see sanctions given to Mugabe and his close associates being lifted.



The call by civic society comes over a month after the Zimbabwe Action Movement called for either Zuma or Vavi to mediate the ZANU PF/MDC talks as Mbeki has proved to be a dishonest broker who favours the Zimbabwe's lifetime president.



The Zimbabwe Political Victims Association (ZIPOVA),General Secretary, Oliver Kubikwa said, his organization backed the African National Congress's deputy president, Jacob Zuma as he has proved to be a man who fight for the cause of the poor.



What Zimbabwe needs now is not a mediator with an intention of business interests or gaining a regional political mileage but someone who can pull over three quarters of Zimbabweans (about 80%) from below the poverty datum line and that can be done by Zuma as he advocates for the cause of the poor even in South Africa, added Kubikwa....

Zim's starving border jumpers

"...onica shortly after dawn, as she emerged from the bush about 6km (3.7 miles) inside South Africa.

She was on foot with four other women - their faces showing the strain.

Monica told us they had been travelling for four days with traffickers who abandoned them when their money ran out.

"They called us baboons," she said. "They told us if you have no money we will leave you here and call the police to come and arrest you.

"We have nowhere to go right now. We have no money and the police are all over. We don't know what to do."....

Living in Mugabe's Zimbabwe

"...

I am buying bread at 6,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($0.34 at current black market exchange rate) for a loaf and two litres of cooking oil for 120,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($6.70).

I was only taking 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($28) home a month. But even that is no more. As of yesterday, I was laid off from my clerical job.

And now, because this is Zimbabwe, I know that I am not going to get another job.

I live in a rented flat with my wife and family and so I am still thinking of what I can do to carry on living and paying the rent. Maybe I will sell some of my furniture.

The whole Zimbabwe situation is not pleasing at the moment. Not at all. Everything costs so much, most have so little and everywhere there are secret police. We are not free anymore.

I was born in Mutare [eastern city on border with neighbouring Mozambique] but moved to Harare a few years back to find work after my parents passed away.

I remember how beautiful our country was in the 80s.

Finding gold

My gran used to give me 50 Zimbabwean cents to go buy bread, butter and milk - all that for so little! It was easy to live well.

Mugabe is already a hero and he always will be

And when we were at junior school, five cents in your pocket could get you sweets to last the whole week. I tell you, finding a five cent piece on the pavement was like finding gold!

Now if you see a 1,000 Zimbabwean dollar note on the floor, you just keep walking. You don't stop. It is nothing - no-one will even pick it up.

Back then, after independence, we all loved President Mugabe. But now we don't. The only ones that do are those who benefit from his rule.

I don't mind if Zanu-PF stays as the ruling party, I really don't. I just want there to be change at the top.

Counting the cost of Uganda's war

Interesting multimedia article about that poor country

There is still time for Mugabe...but not much

By Morgan Tsvangirai

ON March 11, 2007 I was arrested while attempting to attend a prayer vigil in Harare, and taken to a police station where officers, whose job it is to protect the public, beat me so badly I suffered injuries to my skull and had to be hospitalised for almost a week.

My crime: trying to pray for change in Zimbabwe.

The world's outcry over the past two months at the brutality exhibited by the regime of President Robert Mugabe has been heartening to the Zimbabwe people. Make no mistake, this condemnation, both in Africa and abroad, has had a huge and positive effect on the morale of those fighting for freedom.

True, there have been worse leaders in the world. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Joseph Stalin killed more than 30 million people. Idi Amin, murdered around 300 000 Ugandans, while one-in-10 Cambodians perished under the rule of Pol Pot. Stalin, Amin and Pol Pot lived out their lives in relative comfort, and died of natural causes.

Nevertheless the world has changed. General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, propped up so shamelessly by Washington and Europe during the Cold War, ended up on trial, stripped of the immunity he had forced the Argentine government to give him in exchange for a transfer to democracy.

On my own continent, the former leadership of Rwanda and Sierra Leone are in the dock, while one-time president of Liberia, Charles Taylor is under arrest at the Hague for crimes against humanity.

These are dangerous times for dictators.

I have little doubt that one reason Robert Mugabe is so determined to stay in office until he dies (he's already 83 years old) is a fear of prosecution.

In the early '80s, he sent his army into our southern province of Matabeleland where they slaughtered thousands of people loyal to his rival, the late Dr Joshua Nkomo. That one act would be enough to see him tried for war crimes, let alone the wide scale murder and torture committed by his government since our party, the Movement for Democratic Change or MDC, first challenged his authority in 1999.

Mugabe was not alone. Air Marshall Perence Shiri amongst others, led the Matabele genocide; speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa oversaw it as minister; various heads of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation or CIO, including the incumbent Didymus Mutasa.

These individuals could be held responsible for permitting acts of torture and abuse, not to mention the wholesale displacement of an estimated 1.5 million people when their homes were bulldozed in 2005 during operation Murambatsvina (clear the trash).

And that's the Catch-22! If we say we'll bring these people to justice, they will cling ever-more firmly to power. Yet, if we offer them unconditional pardon, we sell out the hopes of their victims: millions of people who have a right to justice.
...


The change I talk about will come, regardless of whether Mugabe agrees to it or not. As surely as dictatorship fell in Chile, Cambodia, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the former Soviet Union, it will collapse in Zimbabwe. But the longer Mr Mugabe and his allies stall that change, the greater will be the wrath of our people.

There is still time for Mr Mugabe to make a dignified exit, but not much. Beatings, torture, killings, rigged elections and control of the media may secure his position in the short term, but nothing will change the outcome.

Let's pray that Africa and the world can persuade him of that before it is too late.

Zim to chair post on sustainable development

Zimbabwe is poised to become chair of the United Nation’s Commission on Sustainable Development, while Belarus is set to win a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, in two decisions likely to attract fresh ­criticism of the world body.

A UN diplomat on Wednesday said that Francis Nhema, Zimbabwe’s environment minister, looked almost certain to get the CSD position after being nominated as Africa’s candidate in April.

Zimbabwe government policies are seen as having triggered its most severe economic crisis since independence, with annual inflation at 2,200 per cent.

Qatar holds the chair of the session due to end next week. By tradition the position rotates regionally, with Africa next in line.

The Commission, created in 1993, is the UN’s main forum for discussing the relationship between development and the environment and is expected to issue recommendations on climate change next week.

Meanwhile, a coalition of 40 human rights groups called on the UN to reject Belarus’s candidacy for the Human Rights Council, which last year replaced the discredited Human Rights Commission but has itself faced mounting criticism.

“Belarus’s record on human rights makes [it] a supremely unfit candidate for the . . . Council,” said Human Rights Watch, a New York based pressure group, in a statement issued on behalf of three dozen rights groups. The Belarusan government “severely restricts the activities of human rights groups, and has systematically moved to close them and opposition parties. Peaceful protesters are violently dispersed and arrested, and opposition leaders are jailed,” it said.

Mugabe the Martyr

"...the May issue of the New African magazine, .. amounts to nothing less than a full, unadulterated sponsorship of Robert Mugabe’s failed regime in Zimbabwe.....

In addition to the interview (with Mugabe), page after page of a ‘sponsored supplement’ (sponsored, of course, by Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Information and Publicity) paints the country’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as a violent instigator who essentially earned the beating that he received in March at the hands of Mugabe’s police force by being a puppet of the West.

Other articles take great pains to show that Mugabe actually enjoys wide-ranging support among the people of Zimbabwe. It also blames the country’s 2,200% inflation rate and 80% unemployment rate entirely on the ruthless sanctions put into place by the United Kingdom and the United States. The supplement ends with a laughable quote made by Mugabe during his address last month at a gathering that marked the twenty-seventh year of Zimbabwe’s independence where he congratulates his citizens for refusing to be “re-colonized” and, in typical Mugabe fashion, continues on to rail against the British government.There is no mention of the massive food shortages...

UK tries to stop Zim from chairing UN committee

Britain is engaged in a last-ditch effort to prevent Zimbabwe, whose development has been reversed by the policies of Robert Mugabe, from taking over as chairman of the UN Sustainable Development Commission.

Zimbabwe's environment minister, Francis Nhema, is set to be elected commission chairman next week after the African group of countries at the UN agreed to nominate him...
"Zimbabwe is not exactly a paragon of development," said one diplomat. Under President Mugabe, Zimbabwe, once the bread-basket of Africa, can no longer feed itself. Annual inflation is running at 2,200 per cent, millions have been made poor and tens of thousands have died from malnutrition and lack of medical care.

The UN diplomats recognised that it was unlikely the African group would have a change of heart at this stage. Zimbabwe's nomination as chairman was agreed last month under a geographical rotation system. The outgoing chairman is from Qatar.

The commission has a broad mandate, including climate change, and sees itself as an "authoritative source of expertise" on sustainable development...

Zim hits back at critics on net

While more and more governments across Africa have embraced the internet for information dissemination, the Zimbabwe government has been lagging behind with only a sprinkling of departments running websites.

The government's first bold effort at fighting back at its critics has been the opening of a website for the Home Affairs department (click here ) which is responsible for the police.

A detailed 57-page document recently presented by the Zimbabwe government to Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state in Tanzania has been posted on the website - revealing for the first time how Mugabe framed his government's defence to accusations of police brutality.

The document, titled Opposition forces in Zimbabwe: A trail of violence, features images of violence blamed on the opposition leaders, human rights groups and students and "separately or jointly strategising for regime change in Zimbabwe".

The Zimbabwe government accused several groups of engaging in acts of violence, singling out the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the National Constitutional Assembly, the Women of Zimbabwe Arise, Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the Christian Alliance and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

"When all these opposition forces realised that their concerted effort and agenda for regime change was not bearing desired results (and) with advice from their sponsors and supporters in the West, they came up with the Broad Alliance whose agenda is still the same -- to mobilise people for regime change in Zimbabwe.

South Africa sees huge increase in refugees

By Tichaona Sibanda
1 May 2007

There are reports South African authorities are being overwhelmed by the mass new arrivals of Zimbabwean refugees fleeing the current crackdown by Robert Mugabe’s security forces.

According to Solomon Chikohwero, vice chairman of Zimbabwe’s civic society organisations in Johannesburg, the latest victims of the turbulent situation back home have stretched the resources offered by the South African government.

‘In the last two month alone, over 50 000 people are reported to have crossed over from Zimbabwe to South Africa. The system of dealing with refugees here was not meant for such high numbers. Just last year, Home Affairs officials used to deal with about 20 to 30 cases of new arrivals each week but now they are dealing with over 2000 people every week,’ Chikohwero said.

Most of those who fled the country in the last six weeks have urgently been seeking medical treatment after being refused care in Zimbabwe following violent attacks on opposition activists.

The reports from Zimbabwe pundit and others

Zimpundit has a long article on local sources of information and what is going on there on the "Global voices" website.

Sorry for the short blogging on this site: my laptop is broken and I have to use an old desktop that is hard to use.

Price of maize increases in Zim

The cost of maize, a basic food staple, in Zimbabwe will rise seven-fold, the country's government has announced.

The price of a 10-kilogram bag of the grain will now cost more than 41,000 Zimbabwe dollars (16 cents), from just over 6,000, a minister said.

The huge rise in the price of maize comes after inflation in Zimbabwe reached 2,200% in March....Agricultural Minister Rugare Gumbo said the big price rise reflected pay rises for farmers to support maize production.

Health news

Zimbabwe's clinics are shutting down for lack of money, but the WHO just gave them an award for being able to monitor if the vaccines went bad from getting too hot.