Mandebvhu Talks “Zimbabwe”…

The men who pulled up in three white pickup trucks were looking for Patson Chipiro, head of the Zimbabwean opposition party in Mhondoro district. His wife, Dadirai, told them he was in Harare but would be back later in the day, and the men departed. An hour later they were back. They grabbed Mrs Chipiro and chopped off one of her hands and both her feet. Then they threw her into her hut, locked the door and threw a petrol bomb through the window. The killing last Friday - one of the most grotesque atrocities committed by Robert Mugabe’s regime since independence in 1980 - was carried out on a wave of worsening brutality before the run-off presidential elections in just over two weeks. It echoed the activities of Foday Sankoh, the rebel leader in the Sierra Leone civil war that ended in 2002, whose trade-mark was to chop off hands and feet.

Mrs Chipiro, 45, a former pre-school teacher, was the second wife of a junior official of the MDC burnt alive last Friday by ZANU PF militiamen. Pamela Pasvani, the 21-year-old pregnant wife of a local councillor in Harare, did not suffer mutilation but died later of her burns; his six-year-old son perished in the flames. Yesterday about 70 local MDC supporters gathered in Mr Chipiro’s small yard in Mhondoro, 90 miles south of Harare, to protect him. Inside the hut where his wife of 29 years died, women sang softly to a subdued drum beat next to the cheap wooden coffin. The thatched roof had been destroyed in the fire so they sat under the open sky. The lid could not be closed because Mrs Chipiro’s outstretched arm had burnt rigid. Her charred hand was found as women swept the hut.

Mr Chipiro, 51, a small, determined man, arrived from Harare on Friday afternoon to find his three brick huts ablaze. “I was trying to put the fire out,” he said. “I thought my wife was hiding in the bushes.” His four-year-old nephew, Admire, heard him calling her. “He ran to me. He said, ‘Auntie has been beaten and they threw her in the fire’.” Bright Matonga, the Deputy Information Minister and the MP for the area, lives just over a mile away. There is also a ZANU PF youth militia camp near by. Mr Matonga routinely blames the violence - in which nearly 70 people have died and 25,000 have been left homeless since the elections on March 29 - on Britain and the United States. He claims that they pay the MDC to put on ZANU party regalia and attack Mr Mugabe’s opponents.

When Mr Chipiro went to the police, they refused to give him an official crime incident report. They fetched the body at about 10pm, he said. A post-mortem examination was carried out at St Michael’s Catholic mission hospital. At first police gave Mr Chipiro a report that left out the causes of death. An officer intervened and produced an authentic report. The report said that seven men assaulted Mrs Chipiro “before dragging her in one of the houses and set all three houses on fire”. It said that the body showed “signs of assault since all hands and legs were broken”. The doctor who carried out the post-mortem described the cause of death as haemorrhaging and severe burns. “These youths are taught cruelty,” Mr Chipiro said. “They get used to murdering. They enjoy murdering. They are doing it for money.” He said that thugs returned for him two nights ago but fled when they saw his supporters. “I am very frightened,” he said. “They want to kill me. But I have no alternative. My presence here as a leader is very important. If I leave, everyone else will leave. I intend to fight the battle, from here.”

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If Morgan Tsvangirai agrees to join President Robert Mugabe in a government of national unity, Zimbabwe’s recent history suggests that he will tread a short route to political oblivion. Uncanny echoes of Mr Tsvangirai’s dilemma can be found in the events of two decades ago. Then Joshua Nkomo, a pillar of Zimbabwe’s struggle against white rule and the leader of the ZAPU party, was a beleaguered opposition politician. Mr Mugabe was obsessed with crushing his opponents, just as he is today. Mr Nkomo, who enjoyed enormous popularity among his minority Ndebele people, making him a significant political threat, faced violence on a scale that makes today’s campaign against the MDC look relatively restrained. Mr Mugabe unleashed a special army unit, the Fifth Brigade, to destroy ZAPU’s support base by terrorising and murdering the Ndebele. At least 8,000 were killed and tens of thousands abducted, tortured or assaulted between 1982 and 1987.

The ZAPU leadership was rounded up and Mr Nkomo spent almost a year in exile in Britain. To end the bloodshed and restore his own political influence, Mr Nkomo began talks with the ruling ZANU PF party. In December 1987, he signed the “Unity Accord” with Mr Mugabe and hailed the deal as a “new beginning”. In theory, ZAPU and ZANU PF merged to form a new party under a new leadership. There was one problem: the new party was called ZANU PF and its leader was Robert Mugabe. The Unity Accord was a cruel sham. By signing this deal, Mr Nkomo had agreed to abolish ZAPU and serve Mr Mugabe as a meek subordinate, thereby signing his own political death warrant. Mr Nkomo’s only consolation was that he became vice-president, living in a mansion and making money on the side – notably becoming one of Zimbabwe’s largest landowners. But his purely ceremonial functions left him powerless. He died in 1999, a forlorn, pathetic figure, whom Mr Mugabe had outsmarted at every turn.

This is the fate that awaits Mr Tsvangirai. When ZANU PF politicians talk of a coalition government, they have the Unity Accord in mind and are preparing the MDC leader for Mr Nkomo’s inglorious role. For his part, Mr Tsvangirai has insisted that the “mandate” he won in the presidential election’s first round must be respected. If there is a unity government, he must be president. But South Africa may have other ideas. Following the example of Kenya, it may be suggested that Mr Mugabe stays as president with Mr Tsvangirai as prime minister. If Mr Tsvangirai allows himself to be inveigled into becoming Mr Mugabe’s prime minister, he will deserve Mr Nkomo’s fate.

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A United Methodist Church Reverend lost an eye when soldiers and militias near Nyazura in Manicaland province attacked him on Saturday. The 42 year-old Reverand, Takura Bango, is in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Mutare. He is due to go for an operation in the next 48 hours on his right eye. The Reverend is from Chitenderano in Makoni South constituency. MDC MP elect for the area Pishai Muchauraya said soldiers, led by a Major Dangirwa, and militias were responsible for the attack on Reverand Bango. ‘The attack was brutal. They used logs and sticks to beat him up saying he supported the MDC. He lost his right eye in the attack and the beating only stopped after they realised what they had done to him,’ Muchauraya said. The MDC MP added that dozens more were left injured on Saturday as soldiers and militias went on a rampage. The beatings were punishment for attending an MDC meeting on Friday. Muchauraya said Major Dangirwa made it clear the MDC was banned from holding any rallies in the province. In another attack, last week Monday, an outspoken and well known Mt Selinda mission chaplain was abducted, following his powerful sermon on the injustice, corruption, misgovernance and the illegitimacy of the Mugabe regime from 1980 to date. War veterans later invaded the mission and abducted the Reverend, who was later released after intense interrogation.

‘Soldiers have taken over the role of police officers. ZANU PF is fighting an undeclared war against innocent and unarmed victims. We need peacekeepers to bring this madness to an end,’ Muchauraya said. The MDC secretary for International Affairs, Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro, said election monitors and observers were expected to jet into the country on Monday. ‘They are supposed to arrive today (Monday) so we are checking with our officials to find out who has arrived,’ Mukonoweshuro said. The issue of observers has now become a major concern for the MDC after the Southern African Development Community promised to send an enlarged contingent by early June to monitor the elections. Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of South Africa said on Sunday the levels of intimidation showed the importance of deploying large numbers of election monitors. Speaking in Johannesburg after a trip to Zimbabwe the Archbishop said the country was now a police state. ‘The levels of intimidation I witnessed on a visit to Zimbabwe last week underline the crucial importance of deploying large numbers of both international and local election monitors for the June 27 presidential run-off,’ he said.

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ZNU 124 is released this morning. In this programme, I look at the potential that MDC Mutambara has to sway decisions in Parliament, and then a look at the events over the past week including the arrest of Mutambara, the double detention of Tsvangirai and the incident involving British and US diplomats at a roadblock. And I also have a quick look at the returnees from RSA being abandoned in Masvingo.

You are able to hear the programme in the multiplayers in the right hand side bar of The Bearded Man blog, here or even downloaded here.

Thank you for your continued support.

Take care.

‘debvhu

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Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change yesterday put paid to Chikane’s denial of the existence of a letter its leader Morgan Tsvangirai wrote to President Thabo Mbeki last month. The MDC insisted the letter - published by the Sunday Times last week - was genuine. “We can confirm that we sent the letter to President Thabo Mbeki’s office on May 13 2008. However, we can’t disclose any details because this is a diplomatic issue,” said MDC spokesman George Sibotshiwe. Chikane told a press conference on Wednesday that the letter in the possession of the Sunday Times was a fake. He refused to respond to its contents. “I don’t see why we must account for a letter we do not have,” he said. In the letter, Tsvangirai accused Mbeki of conniving with Robert Mugabe and asked him to step down as mediator between the MDC and ZANU PF.

Sibotshiwe said Mbeki’s office knew the MDC had sent the letter although the party would not say “who received it”. He said it had been sent through diplomatic channels. Another copy would be given to the South African high commissioner in Harare. At the press conference Chikane faced embarrassing questions from journalists, who reminded him of his recent false explanations of National Prosecuting Authority boss Vusi Pikoli’s suspension. Chikane retorted: “The letter does not exist as far as I am concerned… I must take the risk to say the world is not innocent. When we were in the liberation movement, I used to understand that the world is not innocent and that there are intelligence projects which get run to produce a particular outcome…The worry I have is that the media allows itself to run on a project. So an intelligence unit would plan an intelligence project.”

Asked specifically whether the letter was the work of an intelligence operation, Chikane said: “I also don’t want to talk about that.” Chikane said he knew the “real story” but was not prepared to speak out. “We want peace for Zimbabwe. It does not matter whether we get attacked and vilified. I know the real story. Unfortunately I can’t tell you, not because I am hiding. “Pressed to tell the “real story”, Chikane said: “I am looking forward (to telling it). I wish they (the Zimbabwean parties) could just settle tomorrow. But even then we would not talk about something that would discredit leaders.” Presidential spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said yesterday: “President Thabo Mbeki will engage directly with the MDC regarding this matter.”

(Source)

ZW News has a link to a pdf of the letter is question. I couldn’t make the download start. Maybe you might have better luck… here.

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The spectre of massive enforced starvation is looming over Zimbabwe as President Robert Mugabe’s regime unleashes a sinister new tactic to help him cling to power in the presidential run-off vote in less than three weeks’ time. The US ambassador in Harare accused government officials yesterday of blackmailing opposition supporters, by denying them food unless they surrendered their national identity card and thus gave up their right to vote. Mr Mugabe is no stranger to using food as a political weapon in a country where many people are locked into a desperate struggle to put the next meal on the table. By suspending all aid groups operating in the country on Thursday he has once again concentrated crucial supplies into the hands of his cronies. But whereas in previous clampdowns, food was only given to those whose names appeared on lists drawn up by the ruling ZANU PF party, now it seems the regime is trying to entice supporters from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to the distributions, so it can then eliminate them from the electoral roll.

“If you have an MDC card, you can receive food but first you have to give the national identity card to the government officials, which means they will hold on to it until after the election,” the US ambassador, James McGee, told reporters on a conference call from the Zimbabwean capital. “The only way you can access food is to give up your right to vote. It is absolutely illegal.” The frightening new ploy has sparked outrage around the world. “This is the first time we have heard about MDC people having their identity cards taken away,” Tiseke Kasambala, the Zimbabwe specialist at Human Rights Watch, said on a visit to London. “It’s a new tactic to disenfranchise them, another brutal attempt to flush out more opposition supporters, and take them out of the voting system.” The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat Mr Mugabe in the first round of elections on 29 March, but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a second ballot. Having already lost control of the parliament, Mr Mugabe – and more importantly the generals who are believed to be running the country like a junta – is frantic to ensure that his 28-year reign continues after Zimbabweans return to the polls on 27 June.

Charles Abani, Oxfam’s director in southern Africa, said he was “deeply concerned” at the suspension of aid groups. “A lot of people are completely reliant on food aid to keep them alive. They have nothing else to eat.” About four million people are dependent on food aid in the country which used to be the region’s breadbasket. Many people blame Mr Mugabe’s agricultural policies for the food shortages and his woeful stewardship for the official inflation rate of 165,000 per cent. Although UN agencies are not directly affected by the ban, they could still see their work stagger to a halt because they rely on other aid groups to distribute their food rations. The UN’s World Food Programme was planning to feed some 300,000 people this month alone. Jasmine Whitbread, head of Save the Children, estimated “that in areas we are working, many families’ food supplies will start to run out next month”. That tallied with the US ambassador’s prediction that there would be enough stocks until the election but “massive, massive starvation” could then ensue.

Mr McGee described the Mugabe government as, “a desperate regime… which will do anything to stay in power”. This week it has become increasingly clear that Mr Mugabe is trying to snuff out any kind of opposition election campaign. Mr Tsvangirai was detained at a roadblock yesterday for the second time in three days. He was held up 25 miles outside Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, Bulawayo, an MDC stronghold. After being taken to a police station, he was told that all opposition rallies in the country had been banned indefinitely. “The regime is increasing the decibels of insanity,” said Tendai Biti, an opposition party chief. The MDC says 65 people have been killed in violence since the March ballot but independent attempts to confirm those figures have also been thwarted.

US and British diplomats trying to investigate the allegations were detained on Thursday, after being ordered from the cars at gunpoint by roadside police - an episode described as “outrageous” by government officials Washington and London. “This shows they’re really upping the stakes,” said Ms Kasambala of Human Rights Watch. “With the NGO suspension and the diplomatic stand-offs and the violence, there’s no way there can be a credible election”. Foreign observers are expected to number a paltry 700, and the Zimbabwean army has already been on the move to seal off areas, particularly in the Mashonaland provinces, raising the prospect of increased intimidation and mass ballot-rigging away from the eyes of outside monitors. Despite the lack of credibility surrounding the forthcoming ballot, neither Britain nor the US have called for this month’s poll to be cancelled. “Anything less than a run-off would just be giving the Mugabe regime a victory they do not deserve,” the US ambassador said.

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Zimbabwe’s generals have mounted a “military coup by stealth”, reducing President Robert Mugabe to a “figurehead”, a senior western diplomat said. The tight circle of “securocrats”, who sit on the Joint Operations Command (JOC) committee, are now believed to be in day-to-day charge of Zimbabwe’s government. They ensured Mr Mugabe did not step down after his defeat in the presidential election’s first round in March and are now masterminding a campaign of terror to suppress the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and guarantee victory for Mr Mugabe in the June 27 run-off. The government indefinitely suspended all work by aid groups and non-governmental organisations, accusing them of breaching their terms of registration. Mr Mugabe is a useful figurehead who still commands the deference of other African leaders, notably President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

But the western diplomat said Mr Mugabe’s power had ebbed away and Zimbabwe was now run by a “junta”. “This is a military coup by stealth,” he said. “There are no tanks on people’s lawns, but the Joint Operations Command runs this country.” The most powerful figures on the JOC are Gen Constantine Chiwenga, the overall military chief; Augustine Chihuri, the national police commissioner, and Gen Paradzai Zimondi, the commander of the prison service. Air Marshal Perence Shiri, the commander of the air force, who masterminded a brutal military campaign against Zimbabwe’s minority Ndebele people in the 1980s, is also part of the circle, although believed to be less influential. All four fought in Mr Mugabe’s guerrilla army during the war against white rule in the 1970s. Each has publicly proclaimed their support for the ruling ZANU PF party. They have also benefited from Mr Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned land, with farms and business concessions falling into their hands, allowing them to amass considerable wealth.

The diplomat said after the first round of the election on March 29, Mr Mugabe, 84, “almost went” when it became clear that Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, had won significantly more votes. But a pivotal meeting of the JOC on March 30 convinced him to stay. “The generals didn’t let him go,” said the diplomat. From that moment, Mr Mugabe was “beholden to his senior generals to hold office”. Another source inside Zimbabwe confirmed: “He (Mugabe) was prepared to concede but the generals, whose positions would become uncertain with his departure, prevented that from happening,” he said. Other observers backed the diplomat’s view that Zimbabwean politics had fundamentally changed. Tiseke Kasambala, a Zimbabwe specialist at Human Rights Watch, said there was an “increasing militarisation of the state”. “The evidence points to an increasing role by the army in state affairs,” she said. “The army is no longer just in barracks, waiting to protect the country. The army is out there, taking a role in the day-to-day government of the country.” Mr Mugabe does not fear his generals will actually overthrow him - they still need him as the regime’s titular leader - or he would not have travelled to Rome for the United Nations food summit this week. However, observers believe Mr Mugabe’s age and his new dependence on the generals means he is no longer the sole arbiter of Zimbabwe’s fate.

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“My understanding is three vehicles, one British and two American, left Harare this morning to visit victims of political violence in Zimbabwe,” said Sky’s foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall.

“A house was surrounded, the roads were blocked and they were held at gunpoint.

“The British broke away first, got into their vehicle and battered another vehicle out of the road to get out of the way.

“The US diplomats got into the second car, went over some spikes in the road, blew their tyres but got away.

“The third vehicle is still there. The house is still surrounded and I think there are still three US diplomats held at gunpoint.”

A US spokesman said he believed more than three diplomats were still being held.

“They are still holding five Americans, two Zimbabwean staff and four Britons, almost five hours after the incident,” Mark Weinburg said.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promised to send staff to get our people out, but they are still being held at the roadblock.”

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At 13.30 local time today, President Morgan Tsvangirai was illegally detained at a roadblock on his way from Lupane to Tsholtsho. Mr Tsvangirai had been addressing supporters in Lupane this morning and was driving to Tsholotsho in a convoy of four vehicles when they were stopped at a roadblock manned by Zimbabwe Republic Police and members of the Central Intelligence Organisation. The convoy was ordered to pull off the road and at the time of writing (15.00) they were still being illegal detained.

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ZANU PF thugs in army uniform ran riot and petrol-bombed MDC offices at Jerera Growth point in Masvingo last night, killing three MDC officials as the regime’s genocide worsens ahead of the Presidential election run-off scheduled for 27 June 2008.

Four MDC activists are missing while two are critically injured and are detained at St Anthony’s Musiso hospital.

The MDC is awaiting the submission of the names of the deceased from our structures on the ground. A truckload of ZANU PF thugs in army uniform besieged the MDC offices at Jerera growth point in Masvingo at midnight yesterday. They first shot the victims before bombing the MDC offices where some victims of political violence in the area had sought refuge.

The charred remains of three bodies have been discovered while four activists are missing. Armed police have now sealed off the offices, which have been razed to the ground.

The attack on MDC offices in Zaka is part of an ongoing ZANU PF violent campaign trail, which has left over 50 MDC activists dead.

Ever since President Morgan Tsvangirai trounced Robert Mugabe in the harmonised polls on 29 March, the regime has gone on a violent retributive agenda against MDC actvists, trade unionists and civic leaders.

The violence has spread nationwide but has mainly targeted Gutu and Zaka in Masvingo, Uzumba, Murehwa, Mutoko and Mudzi in Mashonaland East province, Buhera, Makoni and Mutasa in Manicaland province, Hurungwe, Kadoma, Chegutu and Zvimba North in Mashonaland West province and Shamva, Mazowe, Mount Darwin and Muzarabani in Mashonaland Central province.

It cannot be a free and fair election when our people continue to be killed, brutalised and maimed. Armed militia have brought the spectre of death in both rural and urban homes, forcing the victors in the last election to flee into the mountains. Teachers have not been spared. They have also been killed and brutalised and most have fled their schools.

ZANU PF thugs have barricaded rural roads with impunity while villagers in most rural areas have been forced to attend night vigils where they are threatened with death if they vote for President Tsvangirai. Villagers cannot move from one village to the other without ZANU PF “passes.” As a nation, we have retreated centuries back to the Stone Age politics of violence and coercion. Ten thousand homes have been torched throughout the country. The regime has continued, with neither shame nor compunction, its barbaric onslaught on innocent citizens for expressing their sovereign will on 29 March.

Mugabe is masquerading as a victim when he is a perpetrator of violence. The public media, especially the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and The Herald, have catalysed violence through hate language against the new ruling party, the MDC.

The MDC is appealing to SADC, the African Union and the international community to take a tough stance against the regime in order to allow the people of Zimbabwe to freely express themselves once again on 27 June 2008.

The MDC remains convinced that whatever antics the regime engages in, the people of Zimbabwe have spoken and they will speak again.

We are ready to rerun and rewin. On 27 June, the people of Zimbabwe will vote for a new President who is ready to deliver a new Zimbabwe.

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