Mandebvhu Talks “Zimbabwe”…

In an interview with Channel Africa, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission (ZEC), Judge George Chiweshe, says the run-off election will now be held on June 27. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the leader since independence in 1980, and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, are due to square off again after neither achieved over 50% of the vote needed for outright victory in the elections at the end of March. Earlier this week the ZEC said the run-off could be delayed until the end of July. Meanwhile the Pan African Parliament (PAP) is ready to send another mission to Zimbabwe to observe the presidential run-off election there. This was announced by PAP President, Gertrude Mongella, at the closing session of the parliament’s sitting at Midrand today. Mongella says the PAP bureau is trying to mobilise funds to send observer missions to seven forthcoming elections in Africa.

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The Chinese cargo ship carrying arms for Zimbabwe was lying south of Port Elizabeth and outside South African territorial waters yesterday, the International Transport Workers Federation said. Federation spokesperson Sam Dawson said the An Yue Jiang appeared to be making its way to China, although it could dock at a Mozambican port. It could take the ship weeks to reach China, he said. The ship sailed from Durban on April 18 within an hour of the high court ordering that its controversial cargo could not be transported across South Africa to Zimbabwe. The An Yue Jiang was carrying six containers of ammunition for AK-47 assault rifles, mortars and grenade-launchers for landlocked Zimbabwe, where violence against opposition supporters has increased since the elections in March.

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Retired South African army generals investigating post- election violence in Zimbabwe have uncovered “shocking levels” of state-sponsored terror, sources close to them say. The continued violence makes any chance of a peaceful runoff election “almost impossible”, they say. When President Thabo Mbeki visited Harare last week, the team’s leader, Lt-Gen Gilbert Lebeko Romano, briefed him on their findings. The violence intensified after it was confirmed that President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF had lost to the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the March 29 poll. Senior members of the investigating team said their findings were “alarming” and that most of the violence was state sponsored, although the opposition had also retaliated. “What we have heard and seen is shocking. We have heard horrific stories of extreme brutality and seen the victims,” said one of the generals. “We have seen people with scars, cuts, gashes, bruises, lacerations and broken limbs, and bodies of those killed. It’s a horrifying picture.” The generals’ report will soon be given to Mbeki, who will decide whether to publish it. Since it lost the elections, Mugabe’s regime has launched a crackdown in a bid to win the expected presidential election runoff. Opposition and human rights activists, trade union leaders, lawyers and journalists have been arrested during the past three weeks.

Yesterday police briefly detained US, British, Dutch, Japanese and Tanzanian diplomats and journalists in Glendale outside Harare while they were visiting scenes of political violence. Human Rights Watch last week accused the army, deployed nationwide, of creating a climate of fear and of committing human rights abuses. The military has denied this. The incident which has shocked the investigators most happened at Chaona village in the Chiweshe area last Monday. A ZANU PF MP is believed to have led an armed gang of 45 in an attack on MDC activists, leaving four dead. Three other victims died later and at least 50 people were seriously injured. “It was a ferocious onslaught on the village. We have never seen anything like that before. The village is still in a state of shock and we now live in fear,” said an eye - witness at the Avenues Clinic in Harare, where some of the victims have been admitted. The team of generals has met government, ZANU PF and opposition officials, civil society leaders and other interest groups. Mbeki is understood to have been “shaken” by what he was told, and it is hoped he will press Mugabe to curb the violence and to ensure that the runoff is held in a secure environment. While Mugabe agreed that violence should end, he complained that the MDC was behind some incidents. Sources say Mbeki is convinced that a runoff cannot take place in the tense climate. His envoy on Zimbabwe, Kingsley Mamabolo, highlighted these concerns even before he travelled to Harare last week. The MDC claims 32 of its activists have so far been killed. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said yesterday that political violence has reached alarming levels.

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President Thabo Mbeki’s role as a mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis took another knock yesterday after disclosures that he ignored the advice of two judges he commissioned to observe that country’s 2002 general elections. Mbeki commissioned judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke to observe the controversial Zimbabwean election in 2002 - which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) still claims was rigged. On their return the judges wrote a scathing report on the conduct of the election and submitted it to Mbeki. This was despite the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the government and the Southern African Development Community giving a thumbs up, saying the election result “represented the will of the Zimbabwean people”.

Their report detailed the constitutional changes made by President Robert Mugabe before the presidential election to give him sweeping powers to amend electoral laws. It also said the failure of that country’s legal system to permit a valid challenge to the results undermined these efforts. The shortcomings in the 2002 election that returned Mugabe to power included a failure to properly constitute the Electoral Supervisory Commission; a change in the Electoral Act to give Mugabe, rather than parliament, the authority to alter electoral law; and the change of wording in the Electoral Act to stymie challenges to election findings. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai attempted to nullify the changes that Mugabe had made to section 158 of the Electoral Act but the challenge was thrown out by Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court a month after the election.

Matthew Walton, a lawyer acting for the MDC in SA, approached the local courts demanding the report’s release. But the MDC later said it had stopped the court action, out of respect for the South African government’s right to keep certain matters private. Neither Moseneke, now SA’s deputy chief justice, nor Khampepe could be reached for comment. Walton said he had written to Mbeki to request the report, but the president’s legal adviser had replied that it was never intended for publication and could not be released as it dealt with relations between heads of state - exempting it from SA’s Promotion of Access to Information Act. Adv Jeremy Gauntlett, who represented the MDC in its challenge of the 2002 presidential election, said of the report: “There is a second secret Khampepe report. It concerns a matter of no less importance: has Mugabe in fact ruled Zimbabwe for the past six years in a documented breach of the law and his electorate’s will?”

In an article written exclusively for Business Day and published elsewhere in the paper, Gauntlett said the tricks used in the 2002 report are likely to be used again in the presidential runoff necessitated by the lack of a clear winner in the March 29 elections. The details of the report submitted to Mbeki six years ago make it almost impossible he is unaware of the deceptions and illegalities perpetrated by Mugabe to cling to power. His unwillingness to blow the whistle on Mugabe - which dates back beyond the 2002 poll - is the reason Tsvangirai last month asked Mbeki to step down as the lead negotiator for the Southern African Development Community’s mediation efforts on Zimbabwe. But while Tsvangirai has a difficult relationship with Mbeki, behind the scenes meetings between the MDC and Mbeki are continuing. Business Day understands that Mbeki, who visited Mugabe last week to resuscitate his mediation efforts, has been engaging the MDC in behind the scenes talks intended to break the political impasse in Zimbabwe.

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ZNU 120 released. In today’s programme I have a look at Mbeki’s admitting that he is a Robert Mugabe/ZANU PF supporter, and a look at the future for Zimbabwe… The programme is available to play using the multiplayers in the right hand sidebar of The Bearded Man blog, here or even downloaded from here.

As usual, the historical programme are available to play on demand from my Odeo page…

My thanks for the continued support of my audio endeavours…

Take care.

‘debvhu

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Hunger is giving a brutal edge to the alleged work of militias implementing Operation Mavhoterapapi (Who did you vote for?), a campaign launched by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF government in the wake of the ruling party’s loss of its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980. The post-election crackdown, allegedly orchestrated by police, soldiers and veterans of the liberation war, has led to widespread reports of torture, the razing of houses and killing of livestock, perpetrated mainly against people in rural areas suspected of voting for the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change.

Sergeant Mungofa (not his real name), 44, was previously stationed at the army headquarters in the capital, Harare, but within days of the 29 March poll was sent to rural Matabeleland South Province, where he leads a team of militias. Mungofa’s eight-member team is alleged to have set alight the homes and food stocks of perceived MDC supporters, leaving a trail of destruction that has forced entire families to seek refuge in the bush or to flee to larger towns and cities. “From the orders and briefings that I received from my superior in the province, a lieutenant-colonel, the war is just beginning. MDC supporters have to be flushed out before the run-off presidential election,” he told IRIN.

The official tally in the presidential election, only published last week after a delay of more than a month, put MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who garnered 47.9 percent of the vote, ahead of incumbent Robert Mugabe, who took 43.2 percent. A minimum of 50 percent plus one vote was needed to avoid a second round of voting for the presidency. The youth were particularly easy to seduce, especially in times of want, according to David Chimhini, president of the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust. It was easy to woo the young militias by promising them material things and giving them “a sense of usefulness”. “Zanu PF is dangling short-term gains to the youths, who fall prey because of the current poverty. Systematic propaganda is being employed, and when they are given guns and military uniforms, that gives them a new image, albeit a bad one,” Chimhini told IRIN.

Sergeant Mungofa alleged that his team and others like it had not been supplied with sufficient food rations or money, and this had driven them to looting. “Maiming people or killing them for supporting the MDC are two evils that we are fully aware of, but because of the hunger that we are suffering, the torment against those villagers is going even further. We are being forced to raid the people for food and other material belongings that we can lay our hands on in order to keep going,” he claimed. Instead of just burning down granaries or torching livestock, he alleged that the militias were now resorting to slaughtering cattle to feed themselves and selling the remains for cash. Any reserves of grain stored by subsistence farmers after the meagre harvest were also taken, he alleged.

“People would be better advised to remove their belongings to secure places because, the way I see it, even wardrobes, blankets and pots will be seized in the coming few weeks,” Mungofa said. The military has denied any involvement in the violence. “The Zimbabwe National Army wishes to raise concerns over articles being published in the print and the electronic media on allegations relating to the alleged political violence, assaults, harassment and robberies perpetrated by men in army uniforms. The army categorically distances itself and any of its members from such activities,” army spokesman Alphios Makotore said. According to an army captain based in the Dema district of Mashonaland East Province, about 70km south of Harare, who chose to remain anonymous, there was division among the ranks, with the lower ranks opposing the violence.

He alleged that support for the campaign came from higher up, mainly from veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war, “because they have been given big farms, have the latest cars, enjoy fat salaries and allowances, and know that political change will take all those things away”, the captain claimed. “This is bad. People should not be killed for supporting a political party that is recognised by the law. The unfortunate thing is that, being in a military establishment, you just have to follow orders.” He also claimed that in a number of cases, victims were simply labelled as MDC supporters if they owned something a soldier wanted.

According to Thokozani Khupe, deputy president of the opposition, “20 MDC supporters have been killed by Zanu PF militias, while over 5,000 families have been displaced, with over 1,000 homes burnt or destroyed” and more than 2,000 opposition activists hospitalised across the country. Japhet Moyo, Deputy Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said it was “shocking that some people are submitting themselves to Zanu PF to be used as tools of violence”, and that in addition to being forced to carry out orders, militias and war veterans had been brainwashed. “If cabinet ministers can be made to believe that all our evils are authored by Britain, and the MDC is a puppet party of the whites, what more can you expect from the war veterans and militias, who underwent intense indoctrination at youth training centres?” he said. Since 2000, when the government launched a controversial land-reform programme that saw over 4,000 white-owned farm redistributed among landless blacks, the government has run national youth centres throughout the country, purportedly to train young people in patriotism.

But the graduates, popularly known as ‘Green Bombers’, have allegedly instead been used to terrorise opposition supporters. John (who declined further identification), from Mount Darwin, a town in Mashonaland Central Province, about 300km northeast of Harare, is a Green Bomber. He said he and around 20 other militias was given brief lessons in weapons-handling at a “re-orientation course” in mid-April, after swearing allegiance to Mugabe and Zanu PF. He was subsequently given an army uniform, an AK-47 assault rifle and Z$5billion (US$45). “Since graduating from the training camp, I had not been employed, and which government in the whole world can just give you Z$5 billion, with promises of more. In fact, I had never handled so much money at any one time in my entire life and I managed to buy new clothes for myself,” John said. Among those that John and his team have allegedly targeted are his 76-year-old uncle, cousins and the neighbours he grew up with. He claimed that “Even during the war [of liberation], freedom fighters were made to swear that they could kill even their own parents if they turned out to be sell-outs.”

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29 March 2008

7 pm.

Polls close throughout the country with few reported incidents.

Reconciliation of ballot papers and counting process takes place with few reported incidents.

10 pm.

Results begin to be sent to MDC Command Center by MDC polling agents.

Throughout the night, after counting is completed, V11 tally forms are posted outside all (+/- 9200) polling station as required by law. MDC heard of few incidents. Some rural counting was stopped until morning because of lack of electricity. This is a consensual agreement of all parties in these polling stations.

29-30-31 March

Counting is completed at all polling stations. The Representatives of all Parties agree and sign off on the results for each Polling Station on a form called a V11, copies of which are posted outside the Polling Station for public viewing as required by law.

(MDC polling agents report the results by SMS and phone to MDC election command center after the count is completed. 85% of polling agents report V11 results by 31 March.)

The V11 forms are then transported by ZEC to the ward level Command Centres where they are summarized into V23 forms. The Results of these Council Elections are announced and a copy posted outside. Ballot boxes remain at the Polling Stations and are only moved to the Constituency Command Centres at a later stage.

These V23 forms then travel with Police/ZEC vehicles to the 210 Constituency Command Centres for tallying of House of Assembly seats. This process is largely completed by ZEC officials by 31 March. Results for each of the 207 House of Assembly seats are announced by Constituency Election Officers and again the results are posted outside for public viewing.

MDC hears of no cases where Constituency Election Officers deviated from this procedure.

These V23 forms travel to the Senatorial Command Centers for compilation of Senate results. Senate election results are tallied and winners announced. This is mostly completed by 31 March.

The V23 forms then traveled to Provincial Command Centres where all the results for each Province are tallied to get Provincial Results. No results are announced at this stage of the process. The V23 forms for each Province are then moved for submission to the National Counting Center in Harare.

1 April

Chief Election Agents (or candidates) for President assemble at the Sheraton Command Center to begin the final verification process which started at 2.30 p.m.

By 3.30 p.m. verification is completed of Presidential results of both Harare and Bulawayo provinces with minor amendments. Chief Election Officers of the MDC and the Independent parties, (ZANU PF was not present), sign off on the figures for these provinces.

Verification process begins for Mashonaland Central. MDC’s chief electoral agent notices some high figures in some constituencies and requests to verify the V11 forms tally with ZEC numbers.

MDC Chief Election Agent is told by ZEC that the V11s are still in the province.

ZEC says, “Once the V11s are assembled we will continue with the process.” ZEC notes to the chief election agents, “there will be some logistical problems” in getting the V11s.

MDC offers to loan ZEC some fuel to assist with these problems in retrieving the V11s from provincial centers. This offer is not accepted.

1-8 April

MDC hears nothing from ZEC at all.

8 April

MDC learns that ZEC Counting Center at the Sheraton has been dismantled.

Chief Election Agent meets ZEC official, where he is having breakfast, who reports that it had to be closed because of ZEC’s financial constraints but that “the verification team is ‘somewhere.’

MDC was not informed that the Counting Command Center was now closed.

MDC eventually hears “from the grapevine” that the verification center has moved to Room 1611 of the Sheraton.

MDC is told, however, that armed people surround the room and that they “wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near”. (MDC never confirmed that police were armed.)

9 April

MDC verification team decides to move out of Sheraton Hotel because of budget constraints.

9-29 April

MDC hears nothing from ZEC except for Pamire who called approximately twice in the week on behalf of Chief Election Officer Sekeramayi to say “they are still working on the V11’s”.

29 April

Chief Election Agents and/or candidates are invited to verification exercise at 2:30 pm on 1 May at the Sheraton Conference Center.

MDC expresses reservations about delay in calling them to the verification center.

Both MDC and Simba Makoni demand to know what they had done with their votes for all these weeks. This was well articulated by Makoni.

MDC Chief Election Agent states, “We need to agree on the methodology of the whole exercise. We should all understand what verification is so we are all clear right from the beginning.”

He states: “All must agree that the counting center is like a polling station and processes that take place in a polling station have to apply to the verification exercise.”

After agreement on methodology, MDC request the national vote total according to ZEC.

ZEC complies.

MDC then asks for the national total broken into each province and then each constituency.

ZEC complies.

But then ZEC asks MDC and the other candidates to provide ZEC with their own vote totals.

MDC rejects this request, telling ZEC that ZEC is the official authority running the election.

MDC notes that its figures are not necessary to provide because it is ZEC’s numbers that must stand in the court of law, not MDCs which were gathered from V11 forms posted on polling stations.

Makoni and ZANU PF provide all their count figures to ZEC.

MDC gives only its own National Total and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Total. ZEC then punches these figures into their computer and they themselves come up with the percentage figure of 50.3%.

ZEC asks MDC for its Provincial and other candidate’s breakdowns. MDC says it is not its business to provide ZEC numbers for its competitors. Chief Election Agents says “I have come to tell you, I am telling you now, MDC won this election.”

MDC sees no need for ZEC to produce every V11 tally sheet for the entire country. It requests ZEC to provide V11s only in places where it believes that turnout spikes indicate MDC may have been cheated.

ZEC continued to tell MDC, “Give us your numbers.”

Finally ZEC says, “We don’t seem to be making any progress.”

ZEC then asks MDC to bring its figures “tomorrow or they will be excluded from the process.”

MDC tells ZEC that its secretariat had not included the number breakdowns in their briefing packs that day and would return with them. Verification then adjourns and arguments postponed until the following morning.

2 May

ZEC again calls upon MDC to present its detailed figures as ZANU and Makoni had done. The fourth candidate had no figures at all so MDC said, “We will help you.”

MDC agrees to provide ZEC the provincial breakdowns.

ZEC then says, “We have a big problem with figures, what’s the way forward?”

MDC requests the V11s to verify the numbers provided by ZEC, especially in Mashonaland West Province.

MDC agents says, “We need to agree on the number of wards and polling stations in that province” in order to ensure it receives the full compilation of V11 forms.

The process of verification then starts soon after 10.00 am.

First V11 form: No problems.

Second V11 form: No problems.

Third V11 form: Problems. Form has no MDC signature. ZEC explains this could be for two reasons, either the polling agent wasn’t there or he refused to sign. MDC says, “Okay. We will investigate but give them the benefit of the doubt.” MDC notes down this anomaly.

Fourth V11 form: No problems.

Fifth V11 Form: Problems. “Form” is actually handwritten piece of paper, not an official form, but the MDC polling agent had signed it. MDC tells ZEC it needs to identify and query the polling agent for this polling station.

Sixth V11 form: No problems.

Seven V11 form: No problems.

After reviewing only seven V11’s, the verification process is then abruptly stopped at 11.20 by the Chief Election Officer Sekeremayi who states, “We can no longer continue this process. If we continue this process it will take four weeks.”

MDC election agent responds, “You have had our votes for four weeks; we are prepared to wait four more weeks. We want a credible and transparent verification process.”

The meeting is adjourned until 2:00 pm.

When Chief Election Agents return it is a markedly hostile environment. Chief Election Officer Sekeremayi simply reads a statement saying he will announce result. He states, “If parties are dissatisfied with the results, they can go to court.” He then proceeds to formally announce the result, despite voluminous protestations, (including protests from Makoni himself).

MDC responds to the announcement telling Sekeramayi it will reject the result because the legally-mandated verification process has not taken place. Accordingly, MDC does not sign the results verification form as required by law, and as mandated at the SADC Extraordinary Summit in Lusaka. SADC rep Kingsley Mamabolo and Salamao are also present when the verification was precipitously stopped. (The SADC Reps indicate that they are only here to observe and therefore cannot do or say anything.)

(Source: via email)

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President Thabo Mbeki flies into Zimbabwe today to hold talks with political leaders amid the deepening political crisis in that country, just as the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leadership conceded that the party will not support a presidential run-off election. Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said yesterday: “Mbeki will meet with the country’s political leadership in the context of his Southern African Development Community (SADC)-mandated facilitation process. “In Zimbabwe, he is going to meet the political leadership of that country… all the political leaders in that country,” he said. South African officials are not disclosing the agenda of Mbeki’s meetings today but clearly he will be looking for answers from President Robert Mugabe to the many questions being raised about growing political violence in the country and when he intends to hold the run-off election, amid speculation that it could take months. Mbeki was likely to resist growing pressure to persuade Mugabe to accept UN monitors for the expected run-off, officials said.

Last night MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said that the party would not support a run-off on the basis that its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had already won. Speaking after an Institute for Justice and Reconciliation seminar in Cape Town last night, Biti said the MDC would not condone a run-off because it would give the reigning regime an opportunity to terrorise voters into siding with the ruling ZANU PF. “We’ve already won the election, why should we support a run-off?” asked Biti, who was the keynote speaker at a seminar entitled “Zimbabwe: Where to now?” However, Tsvangirai, who is living in Johannesburg, has said he would only announce his decision on the run-off once the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced the election date.

Biti said last night that Mugabe had resorted to a run-off as a last resort because he knew he had lost at the ballot box. “You cannot rule a country if you do not control parliament,” he said, referring to the MDC’s parliamentary victory, in which it scored 99 seats over ZANU PF’s 97. Reluctant to single out any one country, he also slammed the international community for inaction in not stepping into the Zimbabwe election crisis in a significant way. “The international community has a role of midwife to play in the birth of a new Zimbabwe, but they have not done enough to realise what Zimbabweans are fighting for,” Biti said. “It is not at their discretion (to step in); it is their duty… Maybe they will pay attention when rivers of dead people flow through Zimbabwe as in Rwanda.”

Meanwhile, human rights groups, opposition politicians and regional observers have reported an upsurge in political violence in Zimbabwe since the March 29 elections. The MDC says more than 30 of its supporters have died in the violence. Farmers’ groups also said armed youth militias had pushed 40000 workers off farms in a campaign targeting supporters of the opposition. In a further sign of a government crackdown, police yesterday arrested the leaders of the country’s main trade union over speeches they made during a workers’ day rally last week, their lawyer said. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibebe, who are critical of Mugabe, were taken into custody after surrendering to police, who were reportedly looking for them, their lawyer Andrew Makoni, told Reuters. Police have also reportedly arrested Davison Maruziva, the editor of the Standard, a privately owned weekly, as well as prominent human rights lawyer Harrison Nkomo.

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The terrible wounds which Robert Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade inflicted on Matabeleland in the early 1980s still show. The countryside is under-populated, there is even less employment in the towns than there is in the rest of Zimbabwe, and people are scared to talk. Not all of them, though. We slipped into Matabeleland with the help of local people, and gathered evidence of some of the massacres carried out there between 1982 and 1986. It began as an attempt by Robert Mugabe, who was then prime minister of Zimbabwe, to deal with about 500 dissidents. These were followers of his rival, Joshua Nkomo, and mostly belonged to Nkomo’s militia, Zipra. Mr Mugabe ordered the Fifth Brigade, which had been trained by the North Korean army and had a number of North Korean officers serving with it, to root them out.

It soon turned into something much worse. The Fifth Brigade, like Mr Mugabe’s government and administration, was mostly Shona-speaking; Matabeleland is populated mostly by Ndebeles, the descendants of Zulus who came to the area in the 1830s. Nowadays, many in Matabeleland describe the campaign of murder as genocide. To find out how many people died, we went to the quiet precincts of the Catholic cathedral in Bulawayo to meet Joseph Buchena Nkatazo. He co-ordinated an investigation carried out some years ago by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. Mr Nkatazo told us that in the areas where they had been able to investigate, they had found evidence of more than 20,000 deaths. He was sure there must have been many more elsewhere.

We drove south of Bulawayo to a place marked on the maps as Antelope - “Balakwe” in Ndebele. In the past, there was a lot of gold mining there. The Fifth Brigade set up a concentration camp in Antelope, where they systematically killed their prisoners. An eyewitness whom we interviewed had been a young girl of 11 when she was taken to the camp. She saw people being shot, beaten and burned to death. “When I remember now, my heart is so painful,” she told me. The bodies of the dead were thrown down the nearby mine shafts. We interviewed a man in late middle-age who had been one of the Fifth Brigade executioners. He confessed to his part in the killings, and said he had also helped dispose of the bodies. “We were taking them [to the mine-shafts] every day in the morning and evening,” he said.

My colleagues and I drove to the Antelope mine. Our aim was to film the human remains at the foot of the mine shaft. It was difficult to get close: a militia group loyal to Robert Mugabe is camped all round the mine. Still, we managed to get there, and our cameraman lowered his camera down the shaft. But the mine was empty. It turned out that the bones had all been cleared away about three years ago, to hide any evidence of the massacre. An old man who lived nearby watched some soldiers dig two mass graves, and throw the bones into them. He led me to the graves: just mounds of earth and stones. One day the remains will be properly exhumed. But not while Robert Mugabe is still in power.

Did he give the orders for the massacres at Antelope and elsewhere? The former Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Henri Karlen, is certain he did. Monsignor Karlen, who is Swiss by origin, confronted Mr Mugabe (who is himself a practising Catholic) and told him the murders must stop. Nowadays Henri Karlen lives in a quiet compound in Bulawayo. “Who brought the North Koreans in to train the soldiers for killing?” he said. “And the soldiers told me Mugabe had sent them to kill. So I believe it.”

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Voting for Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition MDC in the presidential run-off election expected in three weeks’ time, is tantamount to plunging the country into a civil war, a high ranking police officer has warned.

The warning was issued by Senior Assistant Commissioner Mabunda during a meeting with police officers here on Tuesday, stunned police sources told zimbabwejournalists.com. Mabunda is a top lieutenant and confidante to Augustine Chihuri, the police chief who in the past has issued threats that he will not salute Tsvangirai or anyone without proper liberation war credentials. Mabunda is on a countrywide tour - meeting officers of all ranks and warning them of the dangers of voting for Tsvangirai in the expected run-off election.

He vowed during the meeting with the police officers here drawn from all the province’s eight districts that President Robert Mugabe will never be ousted by Tsvangirai.

Should that happen, Mabunda reportedly said a civil war will immediately break out. Most junior officers within the army and the police force are believed to have deserted Mugabe in the ballot box and the warnings by Mabunda are meant to scare them into doing the ruling party’s bidding, especially now as thousands are being left homeless in a brutal campaign in the rural communities that supported the opposition in the March 29 elections.

The meeting was held at the police Main Camp on the edge of the city’s central business district. Officers who attended the meeting said the atmosphere in the meeting was tense. “We were told in no uncertain terms that voting for Tsvangirai is just like voting for war,” said one officer, a constable based at Mutare Central police station. The ruling party got fewer votes than the opposition at polling stations in the March 29 election and some of those booths recording high votes for the MDC are said to have been within police camps.

“Mabunda told us that anyone who will dare continue supporting or sympathizing with the MDC will be in serious problems,” said another officer. The warning by the top police officer coincides with reports of escalating violence targeted at MDC supporters in both the urban and rural areas. The violence is widely blamed on state security agents, war veterans and ZANU PF militants. Thousands of opposition supporters have been displaced while about 200 have been badly assaulted.

Last Saturday the MDC provincial youth leader for Manicaland, Knowledge Nyamhoka, was abducted by yet unknown people at midnight from his Sakubva home and taken to a secluded area where he was badly beaten and left for dead. The MDC says Nyamhoka was abducted by security agents. He was rescued by passersby who found him lying unconscious who took him to a private hospital, the Seventh Avenue Surgical Unit, where he is recuperating.

Two other youth activists from Nyanga were also rushed to the same hospital after meeting the same fate as their leader. The MDC chairman in Manicaland, Patrick Chitaka, said the situation within most opposition strongholds was fast degenerating and urgent measures should be put in place to avert genocide from occurring in Zimbabwe.

(Source)

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