Zimbabwe - A letter from the diaspora

GOING HOME: The year is 2004 and Caleb Dube, the former detective with the Zimbabwe Republic Police has been in exile in the United Kingdom for two years. A letter arrives from his old friend and colleague, Moses Musindo, alerting Dube to the fact that his former teacher and friend, Father Hugh Malloy, is in great danger. Friendship demands no less and Caleb Dube goes home to his native land. With no help from a partisan police force, Dube and Musindo set out to investigate. In the course of their enquiries deep in the rural areas, the two men meet a host of unforgettable characters, including Sami the AIDS orphan and Sami's friend, Tatenda, the hunter. The two boys are an indispensable part of the investigation and the search leads them to an old adversary of Dube's who holds the key to the mystery of the missing priest.
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Countdown is a political detective story. It is fiction but the background is accurate and verifiable. Set in 2001/2 and the start of the land invasions, the book shows how the politicisation of the police force has led directly to the breakdown of law and order. In this hostile environment, two honest cops attempt to investigate a murder. Click here to find out more or buy online

18th December 2009

Dear Friends.
As the first decade of the twenty first century draws to a close there are few signs that the delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will reach any legally binding agreement on carbon emissions or acceptable climate levels. The confusion and chaos among delegates inside the Conference Hall and outside on the streets gives little hope that anything positive will come out of this exercise. As always, the 'usual suspects' are there in Copenhagen, including Mugabe's friend Hugo Chavez, all shouting about the evils of the capitalist west while taking no responsibility for land degradation or destruction of forests in their own countries. In the last few days of the Conference when world leaders arrive, the jet-setting Robert Mugabe joined the exalted company. Accompanied by a huge delegation of 59 top Zanu PF cronies Mugabe had commandeered a regular Air Zimbabwe plane to carry them all to Copenhagen. Speaking before his official address to the assembled delegates on Friday, Mugabe, predictably used the opportunity to attack the west, accusing them of double standards, "Why are the polluters not pursued by western governments with the same zeal they show in castigating abusers of human rights?" he demanded. "We (in the developing world) who bear the brunt of healing the gasping earth must draw the most from the global purse for remedial action." Zimbabwe's 'gasping earth' is indeed bearing the brunt, not of the west's double standards but of Mugabe's own ruinous policies. For those of us questioning why Robert Mugabe felt the need to attend the UN Conference when his own country stands at the crossroads of a crucial Agreement of its own, his statement made it very clear: he was there for his share of the 'global purse', The sight of the ageing dictator sitting smugly in his place at the Copenhagen Summit provoked one angry US Republican Senator to comment, "This guy's just showing up to collect his cheque." True as that is, Mugabe has more than one reason –apart from the First Lady's shopping, of coursefor being there in Copenhagen. It is just another one of the delaying tactics he has been using ever since the start of the Talks, last week it was the Zanu PF Congress that caused the Talks to be delayed, Mugabe's claim that Zanu PF had lost the last election because of factionalism inside the party revealed yet again his inability to accept that he has lost the support of the electorate. Now we see that Mugabe is supported in his total self-deception by none other than the South African ANC. It seems that former Liberation fighters are blind when it comes to the crimes of their former comrades in arms; apparently the 'glories' of the past excuse all the crimes of the present. With breath-taking disregard of reality, Tokyo Sexwale, the ANC observer at Zanu PF's Congress proclaimed, "Zanu should continue to entrench the democracy you fought for so tirelessly over the years." What democracy, you may ask! Can anyone now doubt that South Africa has turned a blind eye to Mugabe's destruction of democracy in his country? Sexwale's remarks have clearly revealed South Africa's lack of neutrality. They will never tell him the truth, they will never criticise him or his policies because of his so-called 'liberation credentials.' Sexwale added the comment "Your enemies will never criticise you…instead they will destroy you. Only your friends will criticise you in a constructive manner. Zimbabweans should always heed the call whenever South Africa criticises you." Obviously, Sexwale is blissfully unaware that criticism, be it constructive or otherwise, is never welcomed by Robert Mugabe. The story coming from an astonished MDC Cabinet Minister that grown men actually go down on their knees in Mugabe's presence is further evidence of the cult of the personality that has risen to deification levels in Zimbabwe. Was it not a senior member of his party who once described Mugabe as "the second son of God"? The decision to re-elect Mugabe to rule the party for another five years comes as no surprise but what is utterly mystifying is the blind, unquestioning support of the thousands of delegates at the Zanu PF Congress for a man whose policies have brought the country to its knees. Mugabe may dismiss human rights abuses as trivial compared to climate change but the Zanu PF members who carried out his orders to terrorise the population – from Gukuruhundi to the present day – have destroyed the moral fabric of Zimbabwean society in a way that is just as damaging to the spiritual and moral climate of the nation.

For thirty years and more, Robert Mugabe has got away with the murder, rape and torture of his own people. He has repeatedly rigged elections and even now claims to be the peoples' choice despite the evidence of the March 2008 election. Zimbabweans may blame the rest of the world for doing nothing to end Mugabe's regime but the truth is that Zimbabweans themselves, through fear or just plain cowardice have allowed him to get away with it. For those few brave souls who continue to protest against the tyranny of Mugabe's misrule, we can only hope that 2010 will see thousands of other Zimbabweans join their ranks to stand up for democracy, human rights and the restoration of the rule of law. Whether it is Copenhagen or Harare, political agreements mean nothing without the people's willing participation.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

11th December 2009

Dear Friends.
In the same week that the Minister of Finance vigorously condemned the excessive spending by government ministers on foreign travel, comes the news that Robert Mugabe is to attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next week. It's hard to see what meaningful contribution Mugabe can make to a debate on climate change when he and his bunch of crazed war veterans have done more than a little to contribute to it by chopping down trees, slaughtering wild life and destroying the natural environment. While the AU fulminates about the west's miserly contribution to the funds allocated to help poorer nations counteract climate change, they remain silent on Zimbabwe's destruction of the environment. No doubt, Mugabe will manage to blame sanctions for climate change along with all the other ills he and his party have brought down on the heads of Zimbabweans at home and in the world-wide diaspora.

But before he ventures into the Scandinavian winter, Mugabe must first face the 10.000 or so delegates at the Zanu PF Congress. With a complete blackout of news about the 'Talks', on the grounds that "discussing them in public would only weaken their positions" - whatever that means! - journalists in Zimbabwe have filled their columns with speculation about Mugabe's future and the possible splits inside Zanu PF. We are led to believe that the party is desperate to revive its fortunes, financially and politically. Unfortunately, that does not include ditching the Dear Leader. It seems that Zanu PF top people, terrified of losing their ill-gotten gains and of prosecution by the ICC, have firmly endorsed Mugabe as Party Leader for the next five years. By which time the Dear Leader will have reached the grand old age of 91, almost in line for a telegram from HMQ. His real intention of course is to remain in office until death, always assuming he admits that possibility! Only death would automatically exclude him from prosecution for human rights abuses, at least from an earthly court.

On International Human Rights Day, AIDS Free World, an international advocacy group, issued a damning report that indicated quite explicitly that prior to the 2008 elections Zanu PF mounted a systematic campaign of rape against women aligned to the MDC. The report contains sworn afidavits of 70 victims of rape by Zanu PF supporters who actually gave their names to their victims and told them why they were being raped: because they were wives, mothers, daughters or sisters of MDC officials. There were no less than 380 rapes and 241 perpetrators named in this report which further claimed that the campaign was quite deliberate. It was organized by the Joint Operations Command and Mugabe not only knew about it, he was complicit in that he refused to punish those responsible. "The evidence is incontrovertible and unassailable," maintains Stephen Lewis the co-director of AIDS Free World. Will the rest of the world take any notice of this detailed 64 page-long report? Will SADC or the AU, armed with such a damning indictment of one of their own members find the courage to condemn Robert Mugabe and the Zanu PF members responsible for such heinous crimes against humanity? On past experience, it is unlikely, I would say.

For me, there was one small item of good news this week. That was the news that the MDC has expelled and suspended members of their party found to be corrupt. "All the bad apples are going to be crushed," announced Nelson Chamisa. "We don't want a culture of violence, we want a culture of discourse." At last, we have a frank admission of something which many of us have suspected for a very long time: that the MDC is not immune to the all-pervasive moral decline that has dominated Zimbabwean political and social life in recent years. The MDC cannot continue to expect the unquestioning support of ordinary Zimbabweans at home and abroad if they abandon the moral integrity that first attracted us to the party. Many of us profoundly disagreed with their decision to join Zanu PF in a government of national unity but we accepted it because we were told it was the only way forward if the country was not to be plunged into even greater suffering. When I heard fellow Zimbabweans expounding the view that the MDC in government would be no better than Zanu PF, I dismissed it as mere cynicism of the sort one hears all the time about the behaviour of politicians. I heard it again this week when a good friend from home, exiled here in the UK, phoned me. He had been a passionate supporter of the MDC from the beginning but now he is utterly disillusioned. "They're all the same," he said, "once they get into power." You can be sure he won't be going home any time soon no matter how often Morgan Tsvangirai urges Zimbabweans abroad to return and help rebuild the country. "Go home to what?" my friend asked, "When there are no jobs." He has a point.

An editorial in the Zimbabwe Independent this week claimed "Zimbabweans in the diaspora will not return home until there's peace and security," to which I would add justice and equality for all, not excluding Zimbabweans of a lighter shade. When the MDC regains its courage and moral integrity and raises its voice in defence of human rights for ALL Zimbabweans, regardless of their race and colour, then I might begin to believe in them again.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

4th December 2009

Dear Friends.
It's not surprising that dictatorial regimes all over the world resist the idea of a free press. Zimbabwe is no exception. It is to the foreign media that people must look for the truth about what as happening in their country.

Thanks to a (relatively) free press in the UK I was able to pick up three items of news about Zimbabwe this week which dealt in detail with stories that reveal the current malaise that is besetting the country. Greed is the underlying theme behind all three stories.
The first story came from The Zimbabwean and it was there that I read the list of multiple farm ownership by Zanu PF top officials. I remembered the original criteria that Robert Mugabe himself laid down for land ownership. One man one farm, he said and that sounded eminently fair and reasonable; no absentee landlords was the next condition of ownership and, again, no fair-minded person could argue with that. Mugabe also said that any commercial farm that abounded on communal land could expect to be expropriated and that too made a certain kind of sense. Those criteria did not hold for very long as the political realities changed. After Zanu PF lost the Constitutional Referendum in February 2000, it became clear that the land question was no more than a political tool designed to placate the increasingly disenchanted rural people and the 'big men' in government. The list of multiple farm owners published in last week's Zimbabwean clearly demonstrates the total abandonment of the 'One man One farm policy'. This is nothing more than sheer greed, theft on a grand scale; one highly placed minister owning 11 farms or the Chair of the Senate with 6 farms – and taking more. The list includes Mugabe family members who have 9 farms between them, the Minister of Justice and his wife and sister who jointly own 9 farms. There are senior police officers, MP's, District Governors and top military officers on the list. This is the 'righting of colonial injustices' that Mugabe uses at every international forum as his justification for 'land reform'. In reality it is nothing more than political patronage to assuage the greed and ensure the continued support of his cronies. Conscience it seems is not a concept they are familiar with.

My next story came from the medium of television and concerned one Simon Mann. The BBC featured the white mercenary in a documentary entitled 'Simon Mann's African Coup' which once again demonstrated the overpowering motive of greed, not for land this time but for oil, black gold. In exchange for 'dishing the dirt' on his co-conspirators, Mann has just been released from the notorious Black Beach prison in Equatorial Guinea, the west African country ruled by Teodoro Obiang, an even longer serving dictator than Mugabe. Obiang's human rights record is rated by Human Right Watch as 'one of the most abusive and corrupt in the world'. Zimbabweans will remember the day Mann and his mercenary crew landed in Harare to be met by 'Mugabe's Gestapo' as Mann described his arrest and imprisonment in Zimbabwe. The BBC documentary showed very clearly that the attempted coup was common knowledge: the Americans, the British, Spain, the former colonial power, they all knew. The South Africans had followed every step of the coup attempt from the moment the plane left South Africa. Zimbabwe was tipped off by the South Africans and the military were waiting for the mercenaries when they landed. The inevitable result was imprisonment in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison; from one hell to another as Mann was released by Mugabe into Obiang's 'tender' care. The story made fascinating viewing and Mann spoke openly, making no attempt to conceal the fact that his motive in supporting a coup in Equatorial Guinea had nothing to do with restoring democracy. 'It was money' he said looking straight into the camera. Control of the country's massive oil reserves, the third biggest in Africa would have made him and his fellow mercenaries immensely rich. And the west looked the other way, the US wanted to be free of its reliance on Islamic sourced oil and they welcomed Obiang as an honoured guest as he deposited his millions in American banks. As the former US Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea said, "Both countries are severely repressive but if Harare had oil the doors to the US would be open to the Mugabes as well." .

But, and this brings me to my third story fom the British media (The UK Sunday Times) this week. Zimbabwe may not have oil but it does have diamonds! Another story to illustrate how greed stifles conscience as the top echelons of Zanu PF through its military takes control of the Marange diamond fields. The precious stones were previously mined by local prospectors and sold on the black market. Once it became apparent that they were sitting on a fortune, 200 locals were slaughtered and the military moved in and took control. The Sunday Times article exposes the complicity of top Zanu PF officials, including Obert Mpofu the Mines Minister who selected the companies that would take over the running of the diamond fields. "Heavy mining machinery has arrived, capable of extracting thousands of carats of diamonds an hour" reports the Sunday Times. "It will be much more money than they have ever had. We could be talking about $25 - $100 million an hour" Incredibly, Zanu PF's partners in government appear to have colluded in this arrangement, though the MDC had no say in the choice of companies chosen to exploit this wealth.

Greed has won the day again - but money equals power and the former ruling party is bankrupt and rapidly running out of popular support. With this new source of wealth, Zanu PF and their military partners will hope to hold on to power indefinitely. The greatest danger for democracy in Zimbabwe is that the military, headed by General Constantine Chiwenga and backed by this enormous wealth, may seize power and take over the country in a full military dictatorship.

Once again the world looks the other way. Diamonds may be forever as the song says but they not do not fuel the world.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH