China's new export: farmers

from the UK Independent

....The villages, ranging in size from 400 to 2,000 Chinese, have been set up across the continent, from Nigeria to Kenya, from Sudan to Zambia.

Mr Liu started the Baoding villages when he was head of Hebei province's foreign trade bureau in 1998 and was seeking ways to boost the local economy, which had been dampened by the Asian financial crisis. He discovered Africa.

"We found Africa was not affected by the crisis, and we went there, and found that local people were short of food, even though there was lots of land not in use for farming and plenty of animals," he says. "So I decided to switch from exporting goods to exporting agricultural expertise."

It is a winning formula for China, which has more than 20 per cent of the world's population but only 7 per cent of its arable land. "China has too many people and too little land," Mr Liu ponts out. "In Africa, they have plenty of land and too few farmers. Places such as Ivory Coast are short of 400,000 tonnes of food a year, and the local people cannot farm enough to feed the population. Local farming skills are not developed."...

Mr Liu largely skirts these broader geo-political concerns, focusing more on the positive impact of Sino-African relations. He notes that the cultural exchange can even extend to marriage. "Some Chinese men marry African women; they like African girls because they are very slim."

Zim doomed to another bad harvest

from the UKIndependent

...

Zimbabwe's food comes, when it does come, by road: either emergency shipments of maize meal from the UN's World Food Programme or family remittances packed with loving care into the overloaded minibuses, which make up the lifeline to South Africa.

Brian (not his real name), formerly a senior official in Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers' Union, estimates that only 5 per cent of the food production that peaked in the early 1980s, during Robert Mugabe's honeymoon with the white farmers, now remains.

The sophisticated agricultural sector that formed the backbone of the economy has been "stripped for parts", the irrigation systems destroyed, machinery and storehouses dismantled, he adds. Even if power were to change hands today, farming would take "more than five years" to recover.

Agriculture needs "inputs", he says, and it needs that at the right time. But the planning and know-how have been systematically dismantled. "This will be by far the worst harvest," Brian says. This sector was the one that Mr Mugabe, when he was a guerrilla leader, was famously warned by Mozambique's President Samora Machel not to destroy, otherwise "you will face ruin".

He heeded that advice, until it was expedient after 2000 to cash in the commercial farms to shore up his political base. The farms, almost all white-owned, were seized and after much anti-colonial posturing the lion's share of them was handed out to his cronies for them to treat as their playgrounds.

Since then farmland and food have been used as weapons to starve Mr Mugabe's enemies and enrich his allies. The country is in ruins, but the ruling clique is still in power.....

Operation shut them up

I sometimes write on Blogger NewsNet, and posted a couple essays on Zimbabwe in the last few days:

Operation shut them up
...according to the Zimbabwe Times, the chief of the “law and order” section of the police department, with help from the military and the Central Intelligence Organization, is behind the kidnapping and intimidation of political activists and journalists. The operation even has a name: Operation Chimumumu (Shona for a dumb person, i.e. one who is unable to speak).

Jestina Mukoko, an ex newslady who runs the Zimbabwe Peace Commission, was kidnapped on December 4th when a dozen armed men appeared at her residence.Her only “crime” was to document human rights abuses during the elections.

Since then, many voices have been petitioning the government for her release, along with others who have been similarly kidnapped.

Just before Christmas, JudgeYunus Omarjee ordered the police to release Mukoro and 32 other activists and take her and 8 others whose lawyers alleged that they were tortured to be taken to the local hospital for evaluation and treatment.

The government however has refused to obey the court, instead taking Mukoro and 8 others, including a two year old baby, to a maximum security prison...

The high profile arrests might be the tip of the iceberg. One wonders how many ordinary people are intimidated or threatened, without any reports of what has happened.

Zimbawean activist Reverend Hove, who now lives in South Africa, reports that his family’s home has been firebombed, luckily those inside managed to escape without injury. However, the police response to the assault was a clue that this was not an isolated incident:

They called the Police and all the Police asked was, “Is there anyone who does Opposition Politics here?” When told “Yes” they said “That could be why” and left!

Things are so bad that even Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmon Tutu has suggested that the international community use threats of force to oust Mugabe.

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

Mugabe smuggling arms via the DRC

While the world is busy shipping in vital supplies including food and medicine to help the people of Zimbabwe, the UN reports that President Mugabe, who allowed the Harare area water system deteriorate because they “couldn’t afford” supplies, nevertheless managed to buy guns and other military weapons from China, smuggling them in from his friends in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is despite an embargo forbidding shipments of arms to that country.

The reason for this deception is that an earlier shipment in April was discovered and diverted after South African Trade Union workers refused to unload the shipment. It eventually was reported to have been offloaded in Angola and flown to Harare.

In this case, the arms were sent to the DRC and flown to Harare......

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

Zimbabwe situation deteriorating

The good news in Zimbabwe: The rains have at last started. It’s a bit late to save the first planting, but at least in the north, December rains will allow people to do a second planting to get a crop.

The bad news? The rains will probably worsen the Cholera epidemic which has killed at least a thousand people, and probably more, since I suspect many rural people will die at home and not be included in the count.

The news keeps getting worse.

South Africa, with the aid of Russia, has blocked any attempt by the UN to alleviate the situation....

But at least Russia has an excuse: They are making mischief against the west. What is South Africa’s excuse? By blocking UN intervention, they are condemning not only Zimbabwe but much of South Africa to more refugees, bringing with them cholera…and there is an election coming up....

Brains behind the abductions

from the ZimbabweTimes

The Zimbabwe Times can reveal that Chief Superintendent Chrispen Makedenge, who has been associated over the years with the arrest of opposition politicians, journalists and human rights activists, is the alleged mastermind behind the wave of the series of abductions.

Makedenge is the officer commanding the Law and Order section of the police, The operatives drawn from police, the Zimbabwe National Army and Central Intelligence Organisation have targeted members of the mainstream Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party as well as civic and human rights activists and journalists.

The operation has strangely been code-named “Chimumumu”, Shona for a dumb person.

Sources within the police force also allege that Makedenge is also in charge of the torture chamber at Harare Central Police Station....

The source said a large budget had been allocated to Operation Chimumumu.

Among the benefits enjoyed by Makedenge’s team were access to a variety of new vehicles that had been placed at their disposal, an unlimited fuel of supply and permanent bookings in various hotels throughout the country.

The source said Makedenge had been allocated a commercial farm in the rich Banket farming area and had benefited immensely from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s farm mechanisation programme....

The team is said to report directly to President Mugabe’s office....

Actiist's family home threatened

from Zimfinalpushblog

ARSONISTS ATTEMPT TO KILL MY FAMILY IN ZIM!!!

On Xmas morning (two days ago), I phoned my wife in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe just to say Merry Xmas. I was phoning from a Public Telephone somewhere in Gauteng, RSA.

She then told me unknown persons had broken down the front door and threw a petrol bomb at about 1 am the previous night.

Everybody who was in the house managed to escape through the kitchen door but the furniture ie sofas, the TV, DVd player etc were all burnt to ahes.

They called the Police and all the Police asked was, "Is there anyone who does Opposition Politics here?" When told "Yes" they said "That could be why" and left!......

That was their welcome to Xmas. I sincerely thank the leadership of the MDC and all friends who arrived to give her comfort etc. during that difficult, traumatic time.

I'm hastily aranging for their relocation to be here in RSA with me!

"I have just seen Jestina Mukuro"

photo tracy stevenson
From Nehanda radio

I have just been to the Harare Magistrates Court where Jestina and others were produced apparently to be charged with organising the training of youth/militia in Botswana to overthrow the government.

She is OK, I held her hand, she has her glasses and proper clothes…the magistrate said it is up to the HIgh Court to decide the matter as it is already before them, however the lawyers present told me the High Court should simply order their release.

We wait to see what happens, but the important thing is that Jestina is indeed alive and seemingly ok, and now the lawyers have access to her and others at Harare Remand Prison.

Jestina before her arrest

Zim police won't release activists

from the Australian

POLICE in Zimbabwe defied a High Court order for the release to hospital of a leading human rights activist and eight other opposition campaigners, taking them off to an undisclosed location yesterday.

...

On Wednesday, Jestina Mukoko and the eight activists were charged in court with recruiting or attempting to recruit people, including a police officer, to plot the overthrow of President Robert Mugabe. It was the first time most of the accused had been seen since they were seized three weeks ago by armed men saying they were police.

In court, judge Yunus Omarjee surprised observers by ordering the release of Ms Mukoko, her co-accused and 23 other detainees on the grounds their detention was illegal. The judge ordered that they be taken to a Harare hospital until their next court appearance, on Monday.

A lawyer for the opposition activists, Alec Muchadehama, said all nine had been taken to Chikurubi maximum-security prison on the outskirts of Harare. However, it was impossible to verify this.

aid workers struggle to stop cholera

from IWPR


Budiriro, a vast, squalid wasteland of shacks and refuse, is home to hundreds of thousands. The shanties resemble a collage of scrap lumber, rusted metal and chicken wire....
The city slum presents a picture of total neglect – stinking pools of stagnant water, overflowing drains and rotting garbage out in the open.

With the onset of the rainy season, there has been a sharp increase in the incidence of the water-borne disease in Budiriro.

“It’s raining cholera, literally,” Mushonga tells IWPR.

Aid agencies warn that in spite of their efforts to try to halt its spread, the cholera outbreak could get worse, as rainwater washes human excrement into the open drains....

The response has been immediate, with international financiers and western governments providing clean drinking water, purifying tablets and medicines.

But donors have voiced outrage at statements by Mugabe that the epidemic has now been brought under control, even as UNICEF reported that the disease has spread to two-thirds of the country and has begun spilling over into neighbouring Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique, mainly because of heavy rain.

While UNICEF is trucking in fresh water supplies to the country, this is still not enough to meet the demand.

In areas where the supply runs out, people are forced to buy water from neighbouring suburbs. The trade in water is rife with profiteering – the cost is ten times higher than what the residents with piped water pay to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, ZINWA.

In a place where many people live on less than 50 US cents a day, most simply cannot buy it and are forced to scoop it out of filthy drains.

Though the government claims that it is addressing sanitation problems, the reality on the ground is different.

Zim authorities ignore activist ruling

from RadioNetherlands

The authorities in Zimbabwe appear not to have heeded a high court ruling on the fate of a group of activists, including the prominent human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko.

The group spent three weeks in custody on suspicion of plotting a coup but on Wednesday the court in Harare ruled that the activists should be admitted to hospital, a possible indication that they were tortured during their detention.

A lawyer says the police have now taken Ms Mukoko to an undisclosed location. The fate of the other eight activists is also unclear.

Diaspora Dollars

from the BBC:

....I was at this shopping centre a few hours ago and it was packed, everything there is sold in foreign currency and you have to be prepared to stand in a queue for more than an hour - it's so full of people doing their Christmas shopping....
While Zimbabwean dollars are still in chronic short supply, there seem to be more US dollars about for the festive season.

The queues at money transfer agencies are really quite long, so I think there's a lot of foreign currency coming in from people with relatives in the diaspora for the holiday period - and that's the reason for the queues in supermarkets. ...

I think many people have decided to be defiant and enjoy the day despite all the many difficulties here - and many Zimbabweans are strong Christians. ...

Tutu says South Africa's Legacy "betrayed" over Zimbabwe

AfricaNews via Monsters&Critics:


London - Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Wednesday that South Africa had 'betrayed its own legacy' by failing to remove Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from power.

In a BBC interview broadcast Wednesday, the archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner accused South Africa of losing the moral high ground by failing to stand up to Mugabe.

'We should have been the ones who for a very long time occupied the moral high ground. I'm afraid we have betrayed our legacy.'

Tutu said he was saddened that his own country appeared not to be on the side of suffering Zimbabweans.

'I want to say first of all that I have been very deeply disappointed, saddened by the position that South Africa has taken at the United Nations Security Council in being an obstacle to the Security Council dealing with that matter.

'And I have to say that I am deeply, deeply distressed that we should be found not on the side of the ones who are suffering. I certainly am ashamed of what they've done in the United Nations.

'For the world to say 'no, we are waiting for South Africa's membership of the Security Council to lapse and then we can take action.' How much more suffering is going to make us say 'No we have given Mr Mugabe enough time?''

What next for Zim?

from Reuters Africa

(nope, no bias here, folks, just move on)

Here are possible scenarios in Zimbabwe's political crisis.

WHAT IS MUGABE LIKELY TO DO? Mugabe says he has invited Tsvangirai to be sworn-in as prime minister and is expected to name his 15 ministers allocated under a stalled September power-sharing deal. By pressuring a reluctant Tsvangirai to join a government, Mugabe may be trying to portray his old foe as a spoiler.

never mind that the post will have no power, since Mugabe controls the military, money, and police...

WHAT CAN WEST DO IF DEADLOCK CONTINUES?

The United States has said it will no longer support a government that includes Mugabe and Britain has said Mugabe will have to step down if any power-sharing government is to succeed. Washington had been poised to help rescue Zimbabwe's collapsing economy as soon as the deal was implemented, including possible relief on $1.2 billion in debt to international institutions and the easing of sanctions. But Mugabe remains defiant and the West has little leverage over Zimbabwe. ...

not as long as China funds Mugabe and his military

Western foes can continue to withhold desperately needed aid critical to ending an economic and humanitarian catastrophe worsened by a cholera epidemic.

Not really. If you bothered to look, the west is continuing to send aid money. This allows Mugabe to spend money on arms, bribes to other countries, and of course parties for him and his friend.

Western countries will likely apply more targeted sanctions against those propping up Mugabe, but such measures have failed to weaken the 84-year-old leader in power since independence from Britain in 1980.

Because Mbeki and other African leaders are propping up Mugabe's government, and of course China is also helping by blocking stricter sanctions by opposing UN action.

WHAT CAN REGIONAL COUNTRIES DO?

The 15-countries in regional bloc SADC are better placed to apply pressure on Mugabe but critics say they lack the resolve to take strong action.

Am I the only one who thinks this isn't because they respect Mugabe, but because they are being bribed?

South Africa, the continent's biggest economy, has the most influence. It is Zimbabwe's main economic partner. Most of Zimbabwe's fuel comes through South Africa. South Africa is also a key source of electricity. Botswana and Zambia have taken a tough line against Mugabe. But other SADC countries are still awed by Mugabe's history as a liberation fighter and he has capitalised on this.

Mugabe says they lack the courage to use military force against his government.

They are probably right. That's the problem with international law: it allows the evil bullies to get away with genocide...

WHAT IF MUGABE FORMS A GOVERNMENT WITHOUT THE OPPOSITION?

The power-sharing deal would almost collapse and Mugabe is seen calling for fresh elections as it would be difficult to run a government without a parliamentary majority. Analysts say Mugabe would form a government without the MDC to force the opposition to pull out and blame it for the collapse of the deal.

and A**h***s like this writer will write stories framed so as to repeat Mugabe's deceitful version of the story...just ignore those missing activists, the rural people frightened by militias, and the starving afraid to say anything for fear they won't be given food...

Tsvangirai's MDC has said it would quit the talks if what it said were abductions and attacks on its members continued.....

WHAT HAPPENS IF A DEAL IS STRUCK SOON?

If Mugabe and Tsvangirai agree on a unity government regional countries are expected to mobilise an economic rescue package.

translation: If Tsvangirai insists on getting any real power, he will be kept out of the government and blamed for the continuing sanctions.. If he accepts a puppet position without power, Mugabe will have "won" and will get credit for his stonewalling of the opposition as if this were a good thing.

China blasts media reporting of arms scandal

from Reuters Africa:

BEIJING, Dec 23 (Reuters) - China on Tuesday denounced unspecified western media for misinterpreting a U.N. report that implicated China in a Zimbabwe-Congo arms scandal.

The report by a U.N. group of experts on arms trade restrictions on the Democratic Republic of the Congo said that country re-exported more than 50 tons of ammunition to Zimbabwe earlier this year.

The group also said that arms it believed originated in China had been flown into Congo, where factional violence has raged in the East for years, from Sudan.

"Some western media distorted related contents in the report of an U.N. experts group and framed China for selling weapons to Zimbabwe through Congo," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on the ministry website....

Mugabe feasts while Zim starves

from Time Magazine

Photo Desmond Kwande / AFP / Getty

Zimbabwe's farms are ruined, its economy has evaporated, and its people have begun to starve and die of cholera. What better time to call a feast? According to reports in Zimbabwe's domestic press on Thursday, President Robert Mugabe and delegates to the annual conference of his ruling Zanu-PF Party will chomp their way through 124 cattle, 81 goats and 18 pigs over the course of their deliberations in the central town of Bindura...

The government response to the expanding crisis is increasingly bizarre. Mugabe has denied that the cholera epidemic exists. (A spokesman later claimed he was being sarcastic.) And some of his ministers and spokesmen have blamed a Western conspiracy — which they claim is running militia training camps in neighboring Botswana with the eventual aim of recolonizing Zimbabwe — for the assassination attempt on Shiri. Even the cholera outbreak forms part of this dark conspiracy: Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu described the disease as part of a "serious biological chemical war ...

Mugabe getting weapons

via SWRadioAFrica:



While the whole of the Southern African region earlier this year united in blocking an arms shipment from reaching the murderous regime of Robert Mugabe, a United Nations investigation has revealed that Chinese weapons are getting to Harare, via the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report says at least two SADC countries are allowing shipments from China to land for onward passage to Zimbabwe.
The UN says it has credible information that between August 20 and 22 this year, a Boeing aircraft transported 53 tons of ammunition destined for the Zimbabwe defence forces, from the DRC to Zimbabwe....

An attempt by China to transport arms to the country in April was blocked by a South African labour union that instructed its members to refuse to unload a shipment that arrived in Durban, South Africa. Attempts to dock at ports in neighboring countries were also unsuccessful.

But this UN report says new shipments of AK-47 rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades appear to have been routed through countries that are friendly to the regime in Harare. It says the weaponry was carried by a Boeing 707 with the registration number 9Q-CRM. The aircraft is operated by Congolese company EWA, whose owner is closely associated with DRC President Josef Kabila and Mugabe’s right hand man Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Liberty Mpakati, an intelligence analyst, said; ‘The information contained in the UN report is just the tip of an iceberg

MUGAABE INSISTS ZIMBABWE IS MINE

FROM THE BBC

President Robert Mugabe has said that "Zimbabwe is mine" and rejected calls from some African leaders to step down.

"I will never, never, never surrender," he told delegates of his ruling Zanu-PF party at its annual conference.

Mr Mugabe also said he had sent a letter to the country's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, inviting him to be sworn in as prime minister.

Earlier, Mr Tsvangirai said he would pull out of power-sharing talks unless abductions of his supporters stopped.

He said more than 40 members of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were missing and accused the Zanu-PF of orchestrating a campaign of terror.

South Africa blocks UN motion on Zim

from SWRadioAfrica:

Despite thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing the cholera infested country to neighbouring countries and the crippling economic and human rights crisis, South Africa has done it again and blocked a motion to allow the United Nations to get a consensus on how to deal with the Zimbabwean crisis.

A closed-door session on the country by the UN Security Council on Monday ended with South Africa and Russia going against a motion to censure Robert Mugabe...

...

Alex Magaisa said a resolution would have shown an acknowledgement by the UN that there is a fundamental problem that needed to be dealt with in Zimbabwe.

Gee, d'ya think?

Rains worse cholera risk

AP via the IHT:

GENEVA: The onset of seasonal rains in Zimbabwe has increased fears that the cholera epidemic could turn into a catastrophe with tens of thousands more sickened and further spread into neighboring countries, the Red Cross federation said Tuesday.

"We've already got a very serious situation and rain will only make it much, much worse," said Matthew Cochrane, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The rainfall, which usually brings floods to the southern African country, has started in the northern provinces, he said.

Aid agencies have been warning the rains could spread cholera further in a population already weakened by disease and hunger...

on the other hand, my friend wrote me she was worried because the rains were late, and people were starving...so it is good news that the rains have finally arrived.
Rain, by spreading sewage, makes cholera more widespread into the water supply.

check Mugabe's power

A letter I wrote to the Christian Science Monitor has been published.



Regarding the Dec. 12 article, "Zimbabwe cholera outbreak threatens regional stability": This article is mostly accurate, but at the end it says that President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister-elect Morgan Tsvangirai are "bickering" about cabinet posts, implying mutual blame for the lack of a coalition government.

Actually, it is Mugabe who stands in the way by insisting he get all the real posts and giving Tsvangirai only token cabinet posts. A similar "compromise" with Joshua Nkomo 20 years ago led not to cooperation but to the demise of the opposition.

Tsvangirai is right not to let Mugabe keep the police and military. Doing so would allow Mugabe to terrorize people at will while telling the world Zimbabwe's government is "elected" and so it should be respected.

Jestina Mukoko was collecting evidence of Mugabe's crimes

from the Zimbabwe Mail

BULWAYO - A prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist abducted 12 days ago was working on case files to be used as possible prosecution evidence against members of President Robert Mugabe's regime.

Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), is the most prominent among 20 political and civil society activists who have disappeared in the past six weeks.

According to fellow campaigners, Mukoko had established a network of hundreds of monitors - mostly church people, teachers and ordinary township dwellers - who had provided handwritten testimonies of the campaigns of brutality carried out by Mugabe's government...

A human rights lawyer revealed that just before Mukoko's abduction the ZPP had shifted from cataloguing violence in townships to the organised abuse of food aid, where people were forced to support Mugabe in return for maize deliveries. 'That upcoming report was going to be extremely embarrassing for the ruling party,' said the lawyer.....