Tony Blair’s memoir titled ‘A Journey’ stormed into the best-seller lists this week selling hundreds of thousands of copies within minutes of going onto the shelves. Critiques and commentaries of the book have dominated the news media in the UK all week. ‘A Journey’ was published on the eve of the Labour Party’s leadership vote and has raised quite a storm. Tony Blair UK Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007 came in on a wave of euphoria; this was to be a brave new beginning for the UK. Ten years later, Blair left office with the bitter legacy of Iraq and countless other foreign interventions. Two million people took to the streets to demonstrate their opposition to the Iraq war but still Blair and Bush went ahead and invaded anyway. In his memoir Blair claims, once again, that he ‘did what he thought was right’. He makes no apology for the countless dead Iraqis or the human misery that followed the invasion. The US and UK with the help of other western powers mounted the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein was a wicked dictator who deserved to be overthrown. Zimbabweans at home and in the diaspora wondered why Mugabe was being let off the hook since he so clearly qualified as another ‘wicked dictator’.
Perhaps Zimbabweans might one day read a politician’s memoir which exposes the inside story of what went on in the country over the last twenty years of Mugabe’s dictatorial rule. Censorship laws in Zimbabwe being what they are, that’s not very likely. If Owen Maseko’s example is anything to go by this paranoid government will not even allow images of the Gukurukundi atrocities back in the eighties to see the light of day. The news that Owen Maseko is to face trial after the Censorship Board banned his work does not suggest that the Inclusive Government cares any more for artistic and media freedom than the former ruling party. Maseko has revealed that in addition to the original charge of ‘obscenity and ethnic bias’ he now faces the criminal charge of ‘communicating falsehoods in order to incite violence’ – a charge which carries a twenty year prison sentence. SW Radio is itself being jammed presumably with the knowledge of the Inclusive Government. ‘Pirate radio stations’ and sanctions continue to be Zanu PF’s excuse for their failure to implement the GPA that could bring an end to Mugabe’s ‘oppressive and dictatorial rule’
It is just such a rule, Tony Blair claims in his memoir that justifies foreign intervention. “People often used to say to me: If you got rid of gangsters in Sierra Leone; Slobodan Milosevic, the Taliban and Saddam, why can’t you get rid of Mugabe?”
Blair’s answer to the question is that “it just wasn’t practical” in Mugabe’s case because Africa would have opposed any such action strenuously. Whether that was the real reason for the UK’s failure to intervene we will probably never know for sure though there is evidence that New Labour under Tony Blair was initially quite prepared to do business with Robert Mugabe in return for certain trade considerations.
What is clear is that despite the formation of an Inclusive Government, Mugabe has continued virtually unimpeded to go his own way. Speaking at Reward Marefu’s funeral last Sunday, he declared that he will defy the SADC Tribunal or any other International Court’s rulings on the matter of farm ownership. It is hardly surprising that law and order have collapsed in Zimbabwe when the country’s president states publicly that he has no intention of abiding by court rulings. The Police Commissioner’s term of office expired this week and it will be interesting to see who replaces Augustine Chihuri or whether Mugabe will extend the Zanu PF loyalist’s term in office for a third or is it a fourth term.
Ironically the UK also has a coalition government now but as yet we have had no clear indication as to what their attitude will be to Zimbabwe. Mugabe has said he thinks he can do business with a Tory led government but it is unlikely that David Cameron will be any more popular than Tony Blair unless he gives Robert Mugabe uncritical support and public acclaim.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.
Read more ... Email this letter to a friend
In Zimbabwe, as events this week graphically demonstrated, everything changes but nothing changes.
Some time around midnight on Tuesday August 24th 2010 police from Harare Central assisted by members from Highland Police Station, some of them armed with AK 47s and accompanied by police dogs, descended on a squatter camp at Borrowdale Race Track. Sleeping residents were ordered out of their shacks into the cold night air. They were not allowed to collect their few possessions and within minutes 100 shacks were torched by the cops and the people were either taken to the police cells or told to “Go home to their rural areas and build houses there.” It was that instruction to these former victims of Operation Murambatsvina which served to remind Zimbabweans that history was repeating itself.
Five years ago, on May 19th, 2005, the then Chairperson of the Harare City Council announced the launching of an Operation designed to clean up the urban areas of the city on the grounds that they had been overrun by criminals and illegal squatters. Her announcement marked the beginning of a nation-wide exercise designated Operation Murambatsvina – ‘Clean out the filth’ - which would be carried out in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Republic Police. On that day, May 19th, the state-controlled Herald in its editorial urged “All urbanites to go back to their rural homes and earn an honest living from the soil our government has repossessed under the land reform programme.”
Three weeks later, on June 10th, when the Operation was in full swing and thousands of people had already been made homeless and jobless, Robert Mugabe opened parliament with all the pomp and ceremony reminiscent of the former colonial regime. In his speech Mugabe referred to Murambatsvina as, “A vigorous clean-up campaign to restore order in urban areas where small businesses operated outside the regulatory framework and in undesignated and crime-ridden areas that could not be countenanced much longer.” Interestingly enough, the MDC boycotted the 2005 Opening of Parliament on the grounds that Robert Mugabe was not the legitimate president of Zimbabwe. Now that same MDC is part of the government but as Senator Mishek Marave bravely commented this week, it makes no difference to the ZRP. Senator Marave was one of a group of MDC MPs in Masvingo arrested on police allegations of public violence. The Senator’s words deserve quoting: “Since we joined the Inclusive Government, not a single day has gone by without the police harassing, intimidating and persecuting MDC officials and supporters…The same police force treat us with contempt, disrespect and scorn while showing favouritism and granting special privileges to Zanu PF and its supporters.., they (Zanu PF) have a free pass to do as they please and are never held accountable…they are simply untouchable.” The truth of the Senator’s words was borne out this week in Robert Mugabe’s refusal to confer ‘Hero’ status on the late Gibson Sibanda, one of the founders of the opposition party and a gallant trade unionist who died on Tuesday. While Mugabe’s sister Sabina was declared a national hero within twenty-four hours of her death, Gibson Sibanda was denied that ‘honour’. The fact is that only Zanu PF supporters will be granted that accolade. However bloody their history, only those who have remained loyal to Robert Mugabe deserve the glory of being laid to rest in Heroes Acre alongside men like Doctor Death, Chengerai Hunzvi, one of whose torture chambers was just metres away from my house in Murehwa, or the founder of the notorious Green Bombers, Border Gezi, and so many others whose blind allegiance to the former ruling party is their only qualification to that dubious honour. The fact that Zimbabwe has still not signed up the UN Convention Against Torture is a very clear signal that for Mugabe and his followers, human rights are simply not an issue. Their over-riding concern is getting rid of Sanctions which they claim are causing untold suffering for the masses of Zimbabwean people. In an extraordinarily bad-tempered exchange between the Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Mumbengegwi and the German Ambassador this week, the latter reminded Mumbengegwi that the very countries being lambasted by Zanu PF for EU sanctions were themselves donors of massive aid to the impoverished country. With the arrogance that characterises Zanu PF the German Ambassador was told in no uncertain terms that Zimbabwe – as a sovereign nation - didn’t need foreign aid. “We are the victims of sanctions” Mumbengegwi ranted. Tell that to the 100 families burnt out of their shelters by the police in Harare or the 40 families evicted this week from the Chiadzwa diamond fields and dumped in empty tobacco barns on
Read more ... Email this letter to a friend
Friday August 13. 2010
It was a honey-tongued Robert Mugabe who addressed the crowds gathered at Heroes Acre in Harare to commemorate Heroes Day. Gone were the threats and promises of blood and violence against his perceived enemies; instead, all was sweetness and light.
“For the sake of our children and posterity I want to urge all of you to note that the process of reconciliation is national. It does not seek to ferret out supposed criminals for punishment but rather calls on all of us to avoid the deadly snare of political conflict.”
It was all very noble-sounding, all in keeping with the spirit of national healing and reconciliation. Or was it? Justice surely requires more than a blanket amnesty to enable the victims of violence to come to terms with what has happened to them and to be able to move on with their lives. But, rather than instruct the police to do their job without fear or favour and arrest all perpetrators of violence, regardless of their political persuasion, Mugabe has, in effect, declared an amnesty for his thugs and bully-boys who are still terrorising the rural population. “No one is going to be arrested for politically motivated violence.” he declared. No doubt he felt completely confident in making that statement since he can be absolutely sure that none of his blatantly partisan police force will be ‘ferreting’ out ‘supposed criminals’ even when there is overwhelming evidence of criminal behaviour. It is not the first time Robert Mugabe has used his presidential powers to declare an amnesty for criminals, just in time to ensure he wins another election. Who was it said that no man is above the law?
A day or so after Mugabe made this speech in the presence of the Prime Minister, other top MDC officials and many ordinary MDC supporters in the crowd who have personally experienced politically motivated violence, the War Veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda was on record threatening that he could squash Morgan Tsvangirai ‘like a fly’, “Just because a fly sits on the driver’s seat,” he said, “that doesn’t prove the fly is driving the bus.” Sibanda is in the middle of a ‘tour of terror’ in Masvingo Province intended to put the fear of God into any poor innocent villager who was thinking of expressing a contrary view during the Constitutional Outreach programme. Where else would Sibanda get away with such an overt threat, secure in the knowledge that no policeman would dare charge him with what was clearly criminal intent against no less a personage than the Prime Minister of the country?
Heroes Day is always followed by Defence Forces Day and it is Mugabe’s chance to address ‘his’ army. He is the Commander in Chief and his address this year urged the troops “to jealously guard its independence, sovereignty and natural resources.” By those ‘natural resources’ he was of course referring to the diamonds which the army is allegedly ‘guarding’ not against the hated foreigners Mugabe warned them about but against desperately poor Zimbabweans who have yet to benefit from the fabulous wealth on their land. The first ‘legal’ sale of diamonds took place this week in the presence of the Prime Minister. As always, on delicate occasions, Mugabe was strategically out of the country- this time on a trip to China - leaving Morgan Tsvangirai to officiate at the sale. Only a small portion of Zimbabwe’s huge diamond reserves was up for sale but we are told that buyers from all over the world were there. 71 million dollars was raised from the sale of 900.00 carats of diamonds and, said Morgan Tsvangirai, “We are working out the modalities of how the money is to benefit the people of Zimbabwe.”
Meanwhile the Constitutional Outreach Programme has been deferred because, so we are told, there is no money for fuel to enable the teams to reach the more remote places. The whole process of consulting the people on a new constitution has been utterly chaotic from the start but that was exactly what Zanu PF wanted it to be. Genuine consultation with the people was never on their agenda in the run-up to the next election, whenever that is to be. Despite the evidence on the ground to the contrary, South Africa’s President Zuma will apparently tell the SADC Summit next week that Zimbabwe is on the correct path. Note that Zuma doesn’t stipulate exactly where that path is leading but Zimbabweans have a pretty shrewd idea that it’s more of the same. South Africa, of course backed the diamond sales and a Foreign Ministry official is quoted as saying at a news conference held in Pretoria, “This is a legitimate process and Zimbabwe is beginning to use its natural resources to improve the lives of its people.” Anyone who was hoping for some tough t
Read more ... Email this letter to a friend
Friday August 6th 2010.
Diamonds hit the headlines in the UK yesterday, not Zimbabwe’s diamonds but Liberia’s as the trial of Charles Taylor continued at the International Court in the Hague. In the celebrity culture which dominates news gathering these days it was not the horror of bloody civil wars in Africa that the media was concerned with but the appearance of the super-model Naomi Campbell. She was, as she made clear in her evidence, a very reluctant witness, subpoenaed by the prosecution to give evidence in the case against Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Dozens of mutilated victims had already given evidence against Taylor but for some reason the prosecution decided to call Naomi Campbell to strengthen their case that Taylor had financed the wars in Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone using blood diamonds. Almost unnoticed, Charles Taylor himself was sitting quietly at the back of the courtroom but all the cameras were directed at Ms Cambell as she told her story.p>
Back in 1997 Ms Campbell had attended a fund-raising party for a Children’s Charity hosted by Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Various celebrities were there including Campbell’s friend Mia Farrow and President Charles Taylor. After she had retired for the night Campbell claims that there was a knock on her door and two men she had never seen before handed her a little pouch of what she described as ‘dirty little stones.’ In her evidence Ms Campbell said she didn’t know what they were, she had never seen diamonds like that before; she was more accustomed to seeing them all shining in presentation boxes. It was ‘a gift’ said the two men at the door. She was accustomed to receiving gifts from unknown admirers she told the Prosecutor. The next morning over breakfast, Campell told Mia Farrow and her agent Carol White about her nocturnal visitors and all three women agreed that it must have been something to do with Charles Taylor though earlier Campbell had told the court that she’d never heard of Charles Taylor or Liberia before all this began! Farrow and White will give their evidence next week and there is speculation that it may differ markedly from Campbell’s. In fact the story gathered more steam today, Friday, when it was revealed that the diamonds should have been handed over to the South African police all those years ago instead of to the administrator of the Children’s Charity. The plot thickens as they say! The diamond saga is by no means over.
Thousands of miles away, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe also had diamonds on his mind. Unbelievably, he chose the funeral of his sister Sabina at Heroes Acre to lash out at diamond ‘profiteers’, seemingly untroubled by – or unaware of - the fact that his own wife is alleged to be a shareholder in Mbada Diamonds and even, it is further alleged, to own a diamond cutting business in Hong Kong. Mugabe was reported to have been very close to Sabina and it was hard, at first, not to feel a twinge of pity for the 86 year old at the loss of this close relative; another reminder of his own mortality, that can’t be easy for him I thought. That was until he started his usual hymn of hate against his perceived enemies: the west and the USA. Despite the fact that the diplomatic representatives of those countries were all present at Heroes Acre, as a mark of respect for Mugabe in his loss, Mugabe launched into an abusive tirade against their countries for the sanctions they continue to impose on Zimbabwe’s top Zanu PF politicians and military. Telling the west and the USA, not once but three times, to “Go to hell!” the diplomats not unnaturally left Heroes Acre only to be roundly condemned .by Foreign Minister Mumbengegwi for the disrespect they had shown to Zimbabwe’s president!
It’s not the first time that Mugabe has insulted the very same countries who are pouring aid into Zimbabwe, feeding children, providing health care and paying salaries. The truth is that if Mugabe reigned in his own ministers and top military and stopped them ‘profiteering’ as he calls it from the diamond wealth and all the other natural resources he has allowed them to exploit to keep him in power, Zimbabwe would not need foreign aid.
The Kimberley Process Monitor, none other than Abbey Chikane, the same man who reportedly shopped Farai Maguwu to the police and led to Maguwu’s arrest, will be back in the country this coming weekend to set his seal of approval on the sale of the Chiadzwa diamonds. No doubt, Chikane will give Zimbabwe’s diamonds a clean bill of health but it is more than possible after the publicity of Naomi Campbell’s appearance in court on Thursday that the world might not be so keen to buy the ‘dirty little ston
Read more ... Email this letter to a friend
The sight of Robert Mugabe wearing full Mapostori gear and carrying the wooden staff of office must have puzzled quite a few people this week. Had the Dear Leader deserted Rome and converted to the Mapostori creed? It seemed unlikely but then anything is possible when there’s an election in the offing in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe was attending the annual gathering of Mapostori faithful held in the Eastern Districts. It was intriguing to note that the audience of shaven headed faithful were all smiling broadly at the sight of Mugabe and his security guards in their unusual garb. Was it intended as some kind of joke on Mugabe’s part?
These white-robed Mapostori were a very familiar sight in the rural areas of Mashonaland East where I lived and I had had quite a bit to do with them. Which of their rather peculiar beliefs had attracted Robert Mugabe, I wondered. They are polygamists with men having as many as five wives and numerous children by each of their wives. That’s where the biggest problem arises because the Mapostori faith will have nothing to do with western medicine and vaccinations are absolutely prohibited. So when there’s a measles outbreak, the children are taken away and hidden in remote rural villages, as far away as possible from the vaccination teams. Their other practice is that girl children are denied education. Mapostori women are therefore uneducated, suited only to be brides - and often very young brides - to the polygamous men. Travel out to Lake Chivero on a Sunday morning and you will see hordes of docile Mapostori women being preached at by shaven headed ‘prophets’.
What could the highly educated Robert Mugabe possibly find attractive in such backward thinking? His address to the gathering was clearly designed to appeal to his audience; he defended polygamy saying that nowhere in the bible was it condemned, though I can’t imagine the Roman Catholic church approves of that! Finally, Mugabe launched into his favourite ‘hate topic’ a vehement attack on gays and lesbians and that chimed in very well with Mapostori thinking. Then it all became clear; this was no damascene conversion, it was nothing more than a vote garnering exercise – and it worked! Three days later the largest of the Mapostori sects was told by the elders that they must now all buy Zanu PF cards or risk being thrown out of their ‘church’. One wonders how many ‘conversions’ we shall see in the weeks and months ahead as Zanu PF moves further into election mode. In a country where churches of one kind or another are more prolific than mosquitoes in the rainy season, Mugabe will have his work cut out getting round to all of them!
There was not much else to smile about in the news from Zimbabwe this week. By week’s end the already compromised judiciary had proved yet again that they are totally compliant to the wishes of Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF. No less a person than the Chief Justice, Godfrey Chidyausiku postponed judgement in the Roy Bennett case on the grounds that the documents in the case were so bulky that it would take him ‘a very long time’ to study them all! Judgement was therefore postponed indefinitely and Roy Bennett remains exactly where Mugabe wants him: out of government because, thanks to Chidyasiku’s ruling, the MDC nominated Deputy Minister of Agriculture is still facing criminal charges and Mugabe says he will not swear in a man with a criminal charge hanging over him. So now it all becomes clear; once again we see how personal animosity to Roy Bennett explains Mugabe’s attitude – and the Chief Justice’s indefinite postponement of judgement. Meanwhile on Bennett’s former and once prosperous farm it is reported that war vets are virtually in command of the farm school demanding that they be allowed to address the pupils and ‘educate’ them in the history of the struggle. Teachers too are at the mercy of the war vets with anyone deemed to be sympathetic to the MDC subject to harassment and intimidation.
And in another highly contentious case, Farai Maguwu, the Global Watch activist, having been released from prison has now been presented with a fresh charge of ‘being in possession of a stolen vehicle’. If that charge doesn’t stick, say the police, then they will charge him with not having the relevant documentation for such a vehicle. Such is the state of the rule of law in Zimbabwe that justice is sacrificed for petty revenge and spite.
While it’s just possible to excuse the behaviour of war vets and thugs as typical of brain-washed, ignorant people, the same excuse cannot be used for these judges who are highly qualified and educated men. Yet these same judges have brought the rule of law in the country into utter disrepute. A report titled A Place In The Sun, issued t
Read more ... Email this letter to a friend