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Financial Gazette (Harare) 14 Feb 2002 Zanu Pf Youths Terrorise Harare Residents Just three weeks before crisis-weary Zimbabweans decide their fate in a crunch presidential election in March, a sense of fear and insecurity caused by months of political violence has gripped the country, casting doubt on whether the presidential ballot will be anything remotely free and fair. "We are living in fear. You wake up every morning fearing you could be the next target of these youths," Kambuzuma resident James Chivende told the Financial Gazette. While the government has again won more concessions from the international community and managed to evade immediate European Union (EU) sanctions, ordinary Zimbabweans like Chivende say they live in fear as pro-government gangs step up their terror campaign across the country. The EU last week appeared to soften its tough approach on Harare, announcing it was no longer imposing sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and his administration because they were not resisting the deployment of election observers from the 15-nation bloc. Besides ensuring that the March ballot is held in the full glare of international observers and the media, the EU also wants Harare to uphold democracy by acting to end mounting political viole-nce and lawlessness. Mugabe is pitted against opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the landmark presidential poll on March 9 and 10. Analysts say Tsvangirai, whose MDC lost by a narrow four-seat margin to the ruling ZANU PF party in the June 2000 parliamentary election, might now easily defeat Mugabe if the March poll is free and fair. Two weeks ago the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group also held back from punishing Harare and deferred a final recommendation on whether to suspend the country or not from the club of former British colonies to the beginning of March, just days before its leaders meet in Australia. The EU's decision not to immediately punish Harare came as human rights groups in Zimbabwe released a damning report showing political violence soaring in January to post a new monthly record of 14 people, most of them opposition supporters, being killed that month. "This is the highest number of deaths recorded in any month since the first politically motivated murder that was recorded in March 2000," the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZHRF) said in its latest report. The ZHRF is an umbrella body of nine of the largest human rights and democracy advocacy non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe. The acting director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Tarcey Zimbiti, said: "The amount of violence is unacceptable. The fear it engenders among voters rules out any prospects that the election will be free and fair." Zimbiti said the EU, the Commonwealth, the Southern Africa Development Community and other groups should deploy observers immediately if the situation is to be rescued. But political analyst Brian Raftopoulos said Harare was likely to continue dragging its feet on facilitating observers to come to witness the presidential ballot. While the whole world prevaricates, ruling party militants are stepping up the harassment of opposition supporters, hunting them down in a bid to cow voters into backing Mugabe in the poll. "You can expect a slight drop in political violence just before the observers come in in order to create an impression that everything is OK," Raftopoulos said. For the moment, Chivende says he now regularly attends all ruling ZANU PF meetings in Kambuzuma to give an impression - especially to the marauding youths - that he belongs to their party. Chivende says besides religiously attending the ZANU PF meetings, he has also bought its membership card as a "passport" for travelling safely to his rural home in Chiweshe, a ZANU PF stronghold in Mashonaland Central province.

Financial Gazette (Harare) 14 Feb 2002 Harare's War Chest Gobbles Up $16.2 Billion Staff Reporter THE government spent more than $16.2 billion - or more than 12 percent of the total revenue for 2001 - on military expenditure last year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Quoting figures from the Zimbabwean Ministry of Finance, the IMF said the Harare authorities spent $16.208 billion last year compared to the $13.3 billion budgeted for by Finance Minister Simba Makoni in the 2001 national budget. This translates to an over-expenditure of $2.9 billion on the military or 22 percent over the budgeted figure. The IMF did not however give reasons for the expenditure overrun on the military and no comment was available from Makoni or the defence ministry this week. But analysts attributed the increased military expenditure to Zimbabwe's involvement in the civil war of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where Harare has 11 000-plus troops or a third of the army backing the government of President Joseph Kabila. The Zimbabwean troops have been in the DRC since August 1998 when they came to the rescue of slain Congolese leader Laurent Kabila. "I suppose the increase is a result of our continued involvement in the DRC war and increases in wages and salaries for soldiers during the year," University of Zimbabwe business lecturer Anthony Hawkins told the Financial Gazette. The IMF figures did not state the proportion of the total military expenditure devoted to salaries, although Makoni had initially budgeted to spend $10.6 billion or about 80 percent of $13.3 billion on wages. "Obviously, this implied more inflation and extra borrowing by the government to meet the additional expenditure," consultant economist John Robertson said. Makoni has admitted in the past that Zimbabwe cannot afford to keep its troops in the DRC at a time the country is facing an economic crisis, which has been dramatised by deepening poverty and unemployment as well as acute shortages of food, foreign currency and fuel. "We remain hopeful that effective implementation of the Lusaka agreements on the DRC will be achieved so as to enable us to significantly diminish our commitment there," Makoni said in his statement on the 2002 national budget. The belligerents in the DRC war signed a peace agreement in the Zambian capital in 2000. Zimbabwe's expenditure on the military has grown by more than 160 percent in the past four years from about $6.2 billion in 1998 to $16.2 billion last year. It is estimated that expenditure on the military amounted to more than $15 billion in 2000.

Business Report ("South Africa's Natonal Financial Daily") 14 Feb 2002 Mugabe sets up grain task forces as Zimbabwe faces food crisis Sapa-DPA Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Thursday announced the establishment of "task forces" in all districts "to ensure grain reached every needy family in the rural areas", in response to a serious food crisis and reports of famine. Agriculture Ministry officials, local government chiefs and members of the Central Intelligence Organization would make up the task forces, state radio said. Relief organizations say 560,000 people are already starving with children dying of malnutrition in the western Matabeleland region. Those distributing grain were reported to be demanding party cards proving membership of Mugabe's ruling ZANU(PF). Zimbabwe is facing the worst food crisis in its modern history. Sylvester Tsikisayi, head of a union representing 200,000 farming families in the communal areas farmed by peasant farmers, said 60 per cent of their maize crop had been destroyed by a four-week dry spell and the remainder would only revive if good rain fell in the next few days. On Thursday, Mugabe told a campaign rally at Mataga, 450 kilometres southeast of Harare, distribution of maize would take priority, with some development work being suspended as a result, according to state radio. "We are going to hold some projects, such as building of roads, dams and so forth and feed our people first," he said. Riot police have repeatedly had to control mobs fighting for limited supplies of maize meal, the staple diet for most of the population. Justin Mutasa, manager of the state-run Grain Marketing Board, this week indicated current imports by road and rail from South Africa should reach 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes a month. National monthly consumption is 150,000 tonnes. A week ago, Mutasa said Zimbabwe might not need any imports if grain secretly hoarded by white commercial farmers was impounded. The largely white Commercial Farmers Union on Thursday accused the government of "careless disregard for national food security" and ignoring warnings of the need to begin imports last September. The country's 5,000 commercial farmers, who are the focus of two years of politically inspired violence, were forced to cut back early plantings due to invasion of their land. In the latest incident, Clive Thomas, a seed maize producer at Mhangura, 150 kilometres north of Harare, was told on Wednesday his farm was being seized with immediate effect because he had burnt 60,000 tons of maize "in order to worsten the food shortage". The CFU said in fact Thomas had been forced to destroy three to four tons of seed left over from last season to comply with stringent crop hygiene regulations. Squatters had prevented planting of the maize. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made accused Thomas of "a clear case of sabotage", adding the incident indicated the need to redistribute white-owned land. In December Made predicted a three million ton bumper maize harvest would start being reaped in February by newly resettled land recipients. - Sapa-DPA

Business Day (Johannesburg) 14 Feb 2002 OPINION Little Time Left to Break Zanu's Chain of Violence Eliphas Mukonoweshuro If regional, global players fail to act against Harare, democracy will be the loser. FOR a long time now, the international community has seen the rule of law being subverted by the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Recently too, Harare has attempted to seek through a subverted legislative process the effects of a state of emergency, such as martial law and rule by decree, without actually declaring it. In effect, what the international community has witnessed has been the gradual installation of a civilmilitary junta. On the eve of the elections, Zimbabwe is actually in the concluding phase of what is virtually a slow-motion coup d'?tat. In this light, the current regional and international debate about whether or not there will be a free and fair presidential poll in the country is simply idle talk and an excuse for inaction. Under the prevailing conditions on the ground in Zimbabwe, there can never be free and fair elections. The Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth, the European Union, the US and the rest of the international community all no longer have any justifiable reason not to take drastic action against Harare. It is just not enough for the Mugabe regime to concede on the issues of poll observers and the global press. The infrastructure of violence must be dismantled. If the international community does not impel Mugabe to abandon and revoke his antidemocratic and authoritarian legislation and if it does not take measures to ensure that Mugabe rolls back the frontiers of violence, then we can all resign to the fact that the presidential poll stands rigged even before the first ballot is cast. In fact in circumstances such as these, normal elections cannot be held, so there will be nothing to rig. What we will witness is a fatal defeat of democracy on a violent electoral field. This is precisely Mugabe's intention and he has prepared elaborately for it. The ruling Zanu (PF)'s own security department concluded in early December last year that, under free and fair electoral conditions, it faced the real prospect of defeat by the opposition Movement for Democratic change (MDC). This realisation impelled the party to put in place a violent survival strategy. Its implementation has resulted in the current wave of violence that has gripped Zimbabwe since the festive season. The strategy is being co-ordinated by a shadowy group called the National Command Centre based at Zanu (PF) headquarters in Harare. This is a civil-military outfit linking together top Zanu (PF) officials, the Central Intelligence Organisation, the army, police, parliamentary forces, the so-called war veterans and key senior public servants. This structure is replicated at the provincial and district level and in each of the 120 parliamentary constituencies, thus establishing a violent chain of command from the remotest villages up to Harare. They operate virtually as freebooters sustaining themselves through extortion and theft. However, what is laughable but tragic is Zanu (PF)'s pretence to adhere to due process, because even when they are militarising the electoral process to ensure it is thoroughly subverted, they are still finetuning the recent amendment to the Electoral Act to plug all loopholes that might interfere with rigging. Last month the government introduced new statutory regulations in addition to the amendment to the act, prohibiting monitors, polling agents and election agents from travelling in vehicles transporting ballot boxes. This is clearly meant to afford government agents the opportunity to break the seals and stuff the ballot boxes on their way to counting centres. It is as simple as that. They have even stopped bothering with the more sophisticated forms of election rigging. There is even a real possibility that Mugabe may, at the last minute, before the poll, use his wide presidential powers to amend the act further so as to require that the winner of the poll be decided by the number of constituencies a candidate wins rather than the total number of popular votes cast. Zanu (PF) has already been discussing this. The strategy is that violence in rural areas will drive away potential opposition supporters from the poll and Mugabe will then win in the majority of constituencies, which are rural. This is why, for the first time in the history of the presidential elections, Mugabe made legislative provisions to ensure voting will, for the first time, be on a constituency basis rather than the whole country being turned into one constituency. The MDC has challenged this in the courts, with the high court ruling in its favour but the supreme court (now packed with government supporters) may still deliver a judgment favourable to Zanu (PF). Other rigging strategies are also in the offing. Mugabe has always banked on the rural vote, although evidence on the ground suggests rural support is dwindling fast. However, operating on this assumption, there are plans to saturate the rural areas with polling stations and ballot boxes, with the hope of reducing distances travelled for rural voters and thereby "net-in" a maximum number of coerced votes to dilute the urban vote seen as predominantly sympathetic to the opposition. The idea is to drastically reduce the number of polling stations and ballot boxes in the urban areas, and create congestion, which will automatically and effectively disenfranchise a substantial percentage of the urban population. As a result of Mugabe's "violence strategy", Zimbabwe's population of internally displaced persons is growing rapidly. There is now a serious internal refugee problem composed of a floating population of displaced farm workers and victims of political violence. Sometimes the two cannot be differentiated. This, together with the looming food shortages, could speed up the exodus of refugees to neighbouring countries. SA has already started preparing for this eventuality. The world must know that Mugabe's strategy is to rig the election and then later negotiate with the global community for recognition. Mukonoweshuro is Professor of Political Studies at the University of Zimbabwe.

The Nation (Nairobi) 14 Feb 2002 Mugabe Assassination Plot Claim By TV Station An alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been revealed by an Australian television programme. It screened footage which claimed to show opposition leader Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai discussing the murder plot and how he would get around the constitution with the help of key military figures to seek power after Mr Mugabe's elimination. The footage, obtained by a reporter for SBS's Dateline, Mr Mark Davis, was said to have been filmed last December 4 in Montreal, Canada. Mr Tsvangirai later told The Associated Press news agency that the tape was "contrived". He refused to comment further, but opposition spokesman Mr Learnmore Jongwe said Mr Tsvangirai "has no plan, desire or motive to eliminate President Mugabe. The MDC president believes in a peaceful and constitutional transfer of power through the ballot box." Mr Tsvangirai poses the greatest challenge to Mr Mugabe's 22-year rule since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. Mr Mugabe has become increasingly unpopular amid the collapse of his country's economy and political violence against opposition supporters. In the programme - screened only 24 days before a presidential election is due to take place in Zimbabwe - Mr Tsvangirai was asked whether there had been discussion among opponents of the government to kill Mr Mugabe. He laughed and replied: "Why should we? He is a 70, 78-year-old man, crazy as he is. But we have no reason whatsoever to make any harm to him. That is why we are commited to an election process. If we are committed to any illegal means then we should be out of this country planning these things." The opposition said later that the story was part of an ongoing government smear campaign against the party, a campaign intended to distract people from the important issues of joblessness, AIDS and food shortages. "The people of Zimbabwe are now tired of these baseless stories," Mr Jongwe said in a statement. The government did not comment on the television report. Under security laws passed last month acts of "insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism" carry a penalty of life imprisonment. Zimbabwe has been racked by political violence over the past two years that human rights workers, opposition officials and international observers blame mainly on ruling party thugs' efforts to intimidate opposition supporters in advance of the election. Mr Tsvangirai himself has been the target of several violent attacks blamed on ruling party henchmen. After leading a series of strikes in 1998, Mr Tsvangirai, then a labour leader, was beaten unconscious in his Harare office by seven people accused of being ruling party supporters. He suffered severe head injuries and said the men tried to push him out a tenth floor window. No one was arrested for the attack. Opposition party officials also accused ruling party supporters of firing several bullets at Mr Tsvangirai's convoy as he campaigned for a parliamentary candidate last July. At a time when the government has repeatedly denied entry to foreign journalists, the Australian television journalists were allowed into the country last month. Mr Mugabe also granted the station his first interview with foreign journalists in several years. In the interview, he repeatedly called the opposition "terrorists" and railed at Western governments' criticism that his regime was using violence and intimidation to cling to power. "(Britain) can go hang. The rest of the world can go hang. Go hang," he said. "Once we know we are right, that's it. Their biases, racism, we will not recognise at all . . . There has got to be some authority here, whether Britain likes it or not. Whether America likes it or not." The television station, in consultation with its lawyers, said it had spent the past few months ascertaining the validity of the tape of the alleged murder discussions. The Canadian firm said to have been hired to kill Mr Mugabe has written a letter admitting it was contracted to the murder for a fee of US $500,000 (about Sh39 million). With the revelation now public, the firm indicated it had informed the Zimbabwe authorities of the role it was supposed to play. The TV report followed a trail of money from London to the opposition MDC party that was supposed to cover for the assassination. The film was made from the ceiling at an angle that makes it possible to identify some of the people in the Montreal meeting. Mr Tsvangirai is seated to the right, opposite a white man identified as a former Rhodesian and now British citizen. An unidentified man is seated at the head of the table. Behind the scope of the camera are three men working for the political advisory firm. The Montreal meeting was a follow-up to one held in November at the Royal Automobile Club in London, which established how Mr Mugabe was to be eliminated. The Montreal meeting was held to work out how a new government would assume office after Mr Mugabe was killed. The unidentified white man states that the MDC "commits to let's call it, the coup d'etat or the elimination of the president." A representative of the firm comments: "OK. Mr Mugabe is eliminated. Now what? Are you in a position to ensure smooth transition of power? Mr Tsvangirai: Yes, I have no doubt about it. Later, the MDC leader is seen to comment: "This meeting was supposed to be talking about, OK, we have moved so far we can now definitely say that Mugabe is going to be eliminated. But what is the transitional arrangement?" The discussion of a smooth transition turns to the role of the military. Mr Tsvangirai appears uncomfortable mentioning how the military will support him but after a short consultation with some other unseen party, he returns to the meeting and the discussion continues of the role a section of the military will play. Names of members of the military involved in the plot were not included in the report on legal advice and because they had not been consulted by the programme makers for comment. The white man then says: "If Mugabe is eliminated today, would we get the army saying 'Oh, there is chaos, the president has been eliminated, let's take over.' That is what we want to avoid . . ." The firm's representative: "We had a very straightforward agreement at the London meetings and subsequent discussion, wherein we have been given to understand that XXX (military figure) is prepared to co-operate." He continues: "A meeting took place last week on the basis that he would not in any way disrupt the process inside Zimbabwe. That is testament to an agreement as far as MDC is concerned - that there would be a power sharing. The question is raised by Mr. Tsvangirai and that is there's a constitution in the way. Now, how do we arrange or get away or get around that issue? Rhodesian: "If there is a desire on behalf of XXX to cooperate, there is certainty one on behalf of the MDC. That's why we are here. Mr Tsvangirai: "There is no problem. We have no problem whatsoever." The report continues that the plan by Mr Tsvangirai is to seek power with key elements of the military, override parliament, suspend elections and then reschedule them when time and circumstances suit him. Someone in the room asks,"Who's is going to call the suspension and the emergency? Mr Tsvangirai: "No, they don't have to do. All they need to do is to tell the acting vice president, 'Look we have a crisis.' We cannot proceed immediately after the head of state has been eliminated. That is the fundamental issue. That plus the two forces, the MDC on the one hand and the army on the other can work together to ensure a smooth transition towards democracy through an election process, even if it means delaying the elections." The motivation for killing Mr Mugabe is presented as being that the opposition does not believe it will win the election scheduled for March 9-10. Mr Tsvangirai: "Let there be an understanding because we have their support, but we will lose the election because of all sorts of reasons. The firm: "What support do you have from the white community?" Mr Tsvangirai: "There is a power base here. But politically there is no political one." The firm: "Financially?" Mr Tsvangirai: "Economically yes." Financial supporters of MDC mentioned in the report include the Norwegians and the Rowntree Foundation in the United Kingdom. However, the report makes its explicit that these organisations have not been shown to be aware of how their money is used. The report argued that European and mainly Western nations have sought to get rid of Mr Mugabe and to solidify their stance in Africa. They feared that a victory by Mr Mugabe would be replicated all over Africa. Mr Mugabe argued that the land invasions were necessitated by the British government's refusal to stick to its agreement with Zimbabwe. Apparently, the previous Conservative British government of Mr John Major had been in negotiation with Zimbabwe for seven years but after Mr Tony Blair came to power, the British stance changed and it told Mr Mugabe not to talk to them about colonial responsibility.

BBC 11 Feb 2002 Newspaper attack in Zimbabwe - Violence is increasing as the election approaches Two petrol bombs have been hurled into the offices of Zimbabwe's main independent daily newspaper, The Daily News, in the second city of Bulawayo. Two petrol bombs were also thrown at the offices of a nearby private printing house, Daily Print, which has been handling campaign material for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mugabe has passed a law ensuring greater control of the independent media The incident early on Monday morning comes amid rising political violence in the run-up to presidential elections next month in which President Robert Mugabe faces the toughest challenge of his 22 years in power. A Daily News journalist told Reuters news agency that nobody was injured and very little equipment damaged. "The petrol bombs were thrown through the window into the foyer, and the account we got from night guards is that the bombs were thrown from a moving car," the journalist said. On Thursday, supporters of President Robert Mugabe pasted the president's campaign posters on the front of the Daily News offices. The paper's chief reporter in Bulawayo, Mdududzi Mathuthu, said staff were told to leave the posters in place or the building would be burnt down. The Daily News' printing presses were blown up a year ago in a series of bomb blasts - but it has continued to publish - much to the annoyance of many within Zimbabwe's ruling party. Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo says the government is not seeking a showdown with a European Union delegation which arrived in the country on Sunday to observe next month's presidential election. The head of the EU team, Sweden's UN ambassador Pierre Schori, is expected seeking accreditation despite earlier warnings that he could be barred from observing next month's vote. EU spokesman Stephan Amer said the process would probably take several days.Opposition and human rights groups say the chances of a free and fair election are remote. Monitors His arrival coincided with the cancellation by the police of an election rally by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). A new security law enacted in mid-January has given police sweeping new powers to break up political meetings. The EU has threatened sanctions against Zimbabwe if its monitors are not granted full access to the elections. Zimbabwe announced last week that it would not accept observers from six EU countries, including Sweden. Mr Schori arrived saying he expected to carry out his work despite the objections from President Robert Mugabe's government. "I intend to do my job properly, together with my team here, which is highly professional and will work in an unbiased manner," Mr Schori told the BBC. If Mr Schori or his team are barred access to parts of the country or parts of the campaign, the EU has said it will impose sanctions. Travel ban The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU based in Brussels, says it is monitoring the situation constantly, and EU foreign ministers are ready to decide on sanctions in the next few days. These include a travel ban for President Mugabe and his inner circle, a freeze on any assets they hold in the EU and a stop on longer term development aid. They have also said they will impose those sanctions if they believe that the voting has not been free and fair, or if media coverage of it is restricted. Mr Schori said the EU mission would "link up with other international observation missions well as with national monitors - and they are in the tens of thousands" to make sure there was no intimidation of voters. South African President Thabo Mbeki has said that he feels Zimbabwe's election will be free and fair, in spite of violence in the country.

SAPA-AFP 11 Feb 2002 Harare police ban MDC poll rally HARARE Zimbabwean police yesterday invoked a new security law to ban a rally by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as the first European Union (EU) observers arrived last night for the presidential poll. The police decision followed an attack late on Saturday by ruling party militants in the remote town of Gokwe, about 180km west of Harare, on people organising the rally for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), spokesman Learnmore Jongwe said. The militants of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu (PF) chased away organisers and then burned their car, Jongwe said. A new security law enacted last month gave police sweeping new powers to break up political meetings. So far, 67 MDC rallies had either been cancelled by police or disrupted by ruling party militants since the law took effect, Jongwe said. "Clearly, the police are being used to cancel our rallies," Jongwe said. Early yesterday, police also searched the home of documentary film maker Edwina Spicer, whose son is an opposition activist, looking for "subversive films and material", according to their warrant. Spicer's 17-year-old son, Tawanda, is Harare MDC's deputy youth secretary. He faces charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and assault in a case the MDC has dismissed as government harassment of its members. The European Commission recommended on Friday the imposition of sanctions by Wednesday in protest against Harare's attempts to exclude six EU states from the European observer mission for the election. SA Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said yesterday on SABC television that "it would be unfortunate if the EU decided to bring sanctions at this point in time, instead of working with the rest of us in trying to ensure those elections are free and fair". The head of the EU observer mission, Sweden's United Nations ambassador Pierre Schori, arrived in Harare yesterday, despite warnings he would not be welcome. "I haven't heard of such a thing," Schori said of diplomatic warnings that Zimbabwe's government would bar nationals from Sweden and five other EU countries from observing the election. Mugabe has said he would allow EU countries to observe the March 9-10 presidential election only if they participate as part of a joint delegation headed by African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, and only if Britain was not in the delegation. Newspaper Offices Bombed in Zimbabwe E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Subscribe to The Post The Associated Press Monday, February 11, 2002; 8:34 AM HARARE, Zimbabwe –– Two gasoline bombs were hurled Monday at provincial offices of Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, which the government has accused of supporting the opposition. A gasoline bomb also was thrown at a nearby print shop in Bulawayo, about 230 miles southwest of Harare. The print shop had printed some opposition election campaign material. Neither premises was seriously damaged. The attacks are the latest political violence ahead of presidential elections on March 9-10. President Robert Mugabe, 77, and his increasingly unpopular ruling party are fighting for political survival after nearly 22 years in power. Mdududzi Mathuthu, The Daily News' chief reporter in Bulawayo, said the bombs smashed a plate glass window at the entrance to the paper's offices, burning a carpet in the lobby. No one was inside and there was no damage to the upstairs offices. On Thursday, ruling party militants pasted Mugabe's campaign posters on the street-level windows. While cleaners were removing them, militants warned staff to leave the posters or their office would be burned down, Mathuthu said. Owners at printers Daily Print said the firm had produced campaign material for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Damage to the shop was minimal. No comment was immediately available from police. Opposition activists on Sunday accused ruling party supporters of attacking them to prevent an election rally at Gokwe, 200 miles west of Harare.

Zimbabwe police raid filmmaker's house AFP [ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2002 7:00:55 AM ] ARARE: Zimbabwean police Sunday searched the home of a documentary filmmaker, whose son is an opposition activist, looking for "subversive films and material," according to their warrant. The police seized 10 videotapes, including the Harrison Ford movie "Air Force One," as well as several publicly available reports from the Media Monitoring Project, a local watchdog. Other tapes taken from the home and office of filmmaker Edwina Spicer included recordings of the evening news and a film on the arts in Zimbabwe. The warrant said police were searching for "security forces uniforms, subversive films and material, and arms of war." The search lasted almost two hours. Spicer's 17-year-old son Tawanda is Harare deputy youth secretary for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). He faces charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and assault in a case that the MDC has dismissed as government harassment of its members. Both the opposition and the media have come under increasing pressure in the runup to the March 9-10 presidential election, when Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is struggling for political survival against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Reuters 9 Feb 2002 Zimbabwe facing EU sanctions 09 February, 2002 14:28 GMT Reuters Photo CACERES, Spain (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers have reaffirmed plans to slap sanctions on Zimbabwe if President Robert Mugabe hampers the work of EU election monitors. The first of a 150-strong EU monitoring team left for Zimbabwe on Friday to prepare for the country's March 9-10 presidential election in which Mugabe faces the stiffest challenge of his 22-year rule. "We agreed to check on the situation (in Zimbabwe) day by day," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters after the 15 ministers wound up two days of talks on world problems in the Spanish town of Caceres. "As long as we think observers are going to help to make the election situation freer and fairer we will stick with it (the monitoring mission)," he said. "But if there comes the moment where we believe...observers just legitimise unacceptable actions by Mugabe and it does not lead to any improvement on the ground, then I think they would probably be withdrawn and sanctions imposed." The so-called "smart sanctions" unveiled by the EU last month would freeze the foreign assets of Mugabe's family and inner circle and bar them from travel. The EU would also ban exports of arms and other equipment that could be used for internal repression. Diplomats say the EU is now ready to impose the sanctions as early as Monday if, for example, Zimbabwe tries to block former Swedish government minister Pierre Schori from heading the observer team. Schori is due to arrive in Zimbabwe on Sunday. Sweden is one of six EU countries also including Britain that Zimbabwe wants excluded from the observer team. Mugabe accuses Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial power, of seeking to undermine his rule after disputes rooted in often-violent seizures of white-controlled land since 2000. EU diplomats say sanctions could also be imposed after the elections if they were found not to be free and fair, or if international media were prevented from covering the vote.

Guardian 9 Feb 2002 Mugabe's militia in new wave of terror By Andrew Meldrum in Harare Three Zimbabwean opposition MPs campaigning for next month's elections have been abducted, beaten and tortured for two days by supporters of President Robert Mugabe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says. The three were paraded, injured and bleeding, wearing handcuffs in front of the police station in Nkayi on Thursday while 37 other opposition party officials and supporters were also held, the MDC says. The incident marks an escalation of political violence before the poll. Until now, the ruling ZANU-PF's militia has reserved its attacks for less prominent opponents. The MDC also says at least four party supporters have been beaten to death this week, and a new wave of political terror is sweeping Matabeleland in southern Zimbabwe, a key area of opposition support. The three politicians - Abednico Bhebhe, MP for Nkayi, Peter Nyoni, MP for Victoria Falls, and Joel Gabuza, MP for Binga - led a convoy to distribute leaflets for Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader who is challenging Mr Mugabe in the presidential poll on March 9 and 10. The tyres of their cars were shot at by soldiers and they were attacked by Mr Mugabe's youth militia working with the army, local residents said. Mr Bhebhe was among those seriously injured, the residents said. The MPs and other MDC officials were eventually taken to the Nkayi police station, where they were interrogated and held overnight on Wednesday. Some of the MDC members were taken to the local hospital on Thursday and returned to the police station. "It is frightening," one resident said. "We don't know what is going to happen to them. The army is here, the youth militia is here and they are beating so many people." Police in Nkayi said the MPs were arrested for carrying dangerous weapons such as catapults, knobkerries (walking-sticks with knobs at the end) and stones. A police spokesman denied that the politicians were beaten. In May last year Mr Bhebhe was abducted and beaten unconscious in Nkayi. Although many people witnessed the daylight assault, no-one was arrested. "Abednico is one of our best MPs and he has been planning this return to Nkayi, which is in his constituency, for some time," said David Coltart, the opposition MP for Bulawayo South. "He felt that this car rally, as he called it, would give him safety in numbers to be able to campaign for Morgan Tsvangirai. We are very concerned about him and all those with him." Mr Coltart accused the army and ruling party militia of beginning "a new wave of terror" across rural Matabeleland. This week two MDC supporters were reportedly beaten to death in the Matabeleland towns of Lupane and Tsholotsho. Another MDC MP, David Mpala, was abducted and stabbed two weeks ago. He is still recovering from the attack. The first four members of the Commonwealth team who will oversee the elections received government accreditation on Thursday. Eventually they will lead about 50 observers.

AFP 8 Feb 2002 Zimbabweans flock to SA Thousands of Zimbabweans are crossing the Limpopo River into South Africa ahead of the country's presidential elections, set down for March 9 and 10. South African troops catch about 2,500 people a month after they have slipped across the wide, semi-dry river bed to look for jobs and food and, some say, to escape political violence in Zimbabwe. About a week ago under the cover of darkness, Tsepo Nyathi, a 20-year-old musician from Gwanda in southern Matabeleland, decided to take his chances with the "guma-guma", as locals call extortionist guides who convey "illegals" across the river. "They came up to me and asked if I wanted to cross the river. It would cost me 100 rands. They helped me across a dry part of the river and when they finished, they took all my other money as well," Nyathi told AFP. Asked why he was trying to get into South Africa, he said: "To try and find a job. And to get away from the political situation in the country." A few hours later, under a blistering sun, South African soldiers spotted him hitch-hiking along the N1 highway. They questioned him next to the single-lane tar strip that snakes south to the industrial heartland. When Nyathi could show them no papers, he was arrested. Soldiers took him to the Messina police station, where he was detained with about 60 other illegal aliens who had been rounded up overnight. But Nyathi was undeterred. He vowed to make another attempt as soon as he could. "Definitely, I'll do that," Nyathi told AFP before he was loaded into the back of a police truck to be deported back to Zimbabwe. Sibongile Moyo, 22, another illegal caught by the army, says she was also looking for a job. "There is not enough food to eat and we don't have money to buy any," she told AFP. Food shortages, unemployment and political violence in Zimbabwe, where some 16 people were killed in January, according to the independent Human Rights Forum, are given as the main reasons why many people believe they can find a better life in South Africa. "It's a game of cat and mouse along this fence," said Colonel Tol Snyman, commander of the South African army's Soutpansberg Military Area. Patrolling a border stretching some 250 kilometres, troops catch around 2,500 "undocumented migrants" each month, he added. "We have no idea how many get through," Snyman said. Some estimates put the figure as high as 500 a day. The army has about 250 soldiers deployed to patrol the banks of the Limpopo River, a stretch of thick scrubland fenced off with three rows of razor wire. Since last October, Snyman said, there has been an increase in the number of border jumpers to South Africa, mainly because of food shortages. They are also getting younger, from between 18 and 24 in July last year to between 16 and 18 in January. Many are being caught over and over again, each time paying 100 rand to the guides. "We take them to the nearest crossing (at Beit Bridge) and two days later we arrest the same guys," Snyman said. "They tell our soldiers: 'There is nothing you can do, we have to live'. South Africa is in the process of putting together contingency plans should the stream of illegals became a deluge of refugees in case of a "meltdown" in Zimbabwe. The Pretoria government is already converting Arltonvilla, a disused military base some 10 kilometres northeast of Messina, into a camp that can hold up to 1,000 people if necessary. For the moment, however, soldiers patrol the river fence, which ends 20 kilometreseast of Beit Bridge. "I catch between five to six of these guys every day," said Private Godfrey Mathabatha, who patrols sector 135, west of the border post. He said most people tell the soldiers they are tired and thirsty, with some not having eaten for a week. Border jumpers wrap themselves in a blanket before squirming through the razor-sharp wire fence. "Every day we go on patrol and we just find a lot of blankets," Mathabatha said.

The Herald (Harare) 8 Feb 2002 OPINION Recent SADC Meeting Crucial A Special Correspondent, London When objective historians analyse the sequence of meetings preceding Zimbabwe's March 2002 presidential elections, they will conclude that the pivotal meetings were not held in Brussels, London or New York but at the Mount Soche International Hotel in Blantyre, Malawi. There, the leaders of the 14 Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) countries had gathered in the shadow of the towering Mount Soche to deliberate on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - and the Zimbabwean presidential elections. To deal first with the DRC issue: two leaders outside the Sadc grouping had been invited to attend the meeting. These were President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. In the event only Museveni turned up, Kagame having apparently been urged by Britain's Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, to whom the Rwandan leader is unusually close, not to attend. It was a fatal error by Kagame for Museveni had an unchallenged field day at the absentee's expense, as he spoke of greater numbers dying in the DRC conflict than in Rwanda's much publicised genocide. But the real issue, even though it was not on the formal agenda, was Zimbabwe's forthcoming presidential election. During this discussion, the DRC and Angola as non-Commonwealth members, and Museveni as an invited guest, kept silent. But the remaining 12 members of the Commonwealth weighed in with their support. Tanzania's President Benjamin Mkapa, the vice-chair of the Sadc organ on politics, defence and security, set the tone of the meeting by immediately and forcefully supporting Zimbabwe on the land reform issue and speaking his mind about Britain as the former colonial power. He recounted to the meeting that Britain's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Amos, had personally telephoned him and had tried to persuade him not to support Zimbabwe at the meeting or at the Commonwealth summit scheduled for Australia on the eve of the presidential elections. When she failed, Britain's Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, had then personally called him. Straw's request had been similar and, President Mkapa told the meeting, Straw had also been rebuffed. Other Commonwealth countries attending the meeting should do likewise and support Zimbabwe, he argued. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki then added his voice to the tone that President Mkapa had set. To emphasise his point, President Mbeki later wrote about the Zimbabwean land issue in his weekly online letter to members of his ruling African National Congress (ANC). He sharply criticised the attention that had been concentrated on Zimbabwe at the expense of the Angolan war and the conflict in the DRC, adding that South Africans and Zimbabweans were brothers united by history, common suffering and a search for liberation. "They (Zimbabweans) know . . . we will not abandon them during their greatest hour of need, in much the same way that they did not abandon us at our greatest hour of need," he stressed. Indirectly, President Mbeki was answering his largely foreign-owned and white "liberal" Press that has continuously written about a rift between South Africa and Zimbabwe, with President Mbeki being cast as a British "mole" who opposed Zimbabwe's land reform programme. That same Press has blamed all of South Africa's economic woes on the Zimba-bwean land reform programme and none on the Western countries that fix the prices of Africa's products, including gold. President Mbeki urged all Sadc countries to work together for peace and democracy, adding: "None has a possibility to succeed while another fails. "We will, therefore, continue to do everything we can, steadfastly and systematically, together with all our neighbours, to continue to work towards the victory of the struggle for a democratic, peaceful and prosperous Zimbabwe," he added. Namibia's Prime Minister, Hage Geingob, also threw his country's support behind Zimbabwe and so did Botswana's President Festus Mogae, after a series of questions were answered to his satisfaction. In the wake of the Malawi meeting, the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo flew to Harare. He stressed that he had come to Zimbabwe to keep the process on course as agreed in his capital city, Abuja. He, and other Commonwealth leaders in messages of solidarity, also expressed their support for Zimbabwe. Thereafter the eight-member Common-wealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meeting in London rejected the British-led attempt to have Zimbabwe suspended from the 54-member group for alleged human rights violations. This followed Britain's earlier failure to persuade the European Union (EU) to impose sanctions against Zimbabwe. The Malawi meeting, and subsequent events in London and Brussels, has left Britain and its allies isolated. Along with Britain, the "white" Commonwealth comprises Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which supplies the present secretary-general, Don McKinnon. He could become the first one-term secretary-general of the Commonwealth. While these four Commonwealth members may seek to "buy-off" some Caribbean and Pacific member states, it is now obvious that Britain cannot get the "consensus" it wants when Common-wealth heads of state and government assemble in Australia from March 2 to 5. That leaves the United States of America out on a limb over the sanctions issue and Straw will have had some explaining to do when he meets the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in Washington in early February. The British were already extremely angry at Denmark's decision to take a lead role in supporting a regional peacekeeping academy in Harare which they felt was the role of the British Military Assistance Team (BMAT). Denmark announced last week that it was cutting aid to Eritrea, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe because they maintained "dictators in power". The last three of these countries (Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe) are all members of the Commonwealth and Denmark's decision will only increase solidarity among Africa's 19 Commonwealth members. It may also be the prelude to the Danish Trade Union Movement, non-governmental offices in Harare being asked to close. Incredibly, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has also entered the fray. In January, before Britain knew the outcome of the Malawi meeting, Blair's office announced that he would embark on a visit to African countries. Three weeks later when it was announced that Blair would be leaving on February 6 on his African visit, his office cited security considerations as their reason why details of the countries he would visit could not be made public. The British media was then forced to speculate that the countries he might visit could be Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone. No east, central or southern African country was included in that list. Ostensibly, Blair's African tour is to whip up support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). But in reality, and behind the scenes, Blair will be trying to cajole support for Britain's stand against Zimbabwe. Sierra Leone, where British troops have helped to quell rebels, and the new administration in Ghana, may have their own reasons to welcome Blair. But at the end of the day, Nigeria calls the tune in West Africa and Britain no longer rules the waves as Blair will soon discover. Confronted by such realities, Blair faces the prospect of returning home to London empty-handed to face the wrath of the media, trade unions and Conservatives who are already uncomfortable with his seemingly endless travels. Insofar as Zimbabwe is concerned, he needs a softer landing and it is hard to see where he can obtain that.

SAPA 6 Feb 2002 Zimbabwe Rights Forum cites 'highest number' of deaths, abuses in poll campaign HARARE February 6 Sapa 16 KILLED IN FEBRUARY, WORST TWO YEARS OF VIOLENCE A total of 16 people were killed in political violence in January, the highest number in any month since President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF party began its campaign of violence two years ago, according to the country's leading civil liberties body. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Non-governmental Organisations forum said on Wednesday only three of the dead were Zanu (PF) members. Ten were supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and two were farm guards. "The figure may be higher as it is possible that other deaths went unreported." The organisation, a coalition of local civic bodies, is regarded as the only source of reliable statistics on political violence. In addition to the January total, the forum said the body of an MDC supporter who had been abducted in December, was discovered last month. The forum also cited 36 cases of abduction, 18 disappearances, 69 of destruction of property and 142 of assault and torture. It said that Zimbabwean elections "are almost always accompanied by gross human rights violations and loss of life. "These human rights violations undoubtedly build up a climate of fear and terror among the electorate." The incidence of political violence "is increasing at an alarming rate." It accused the government of most of the brutality, "although spontaneous incidents of political violence do occur between groups of party supporters". "It is of great concern to the Human Rights Forum that carefully orchestrated violence is still prevalent as part of a modus operandi to crush opposition party support." The upsurge in murders followed almost immediately after Mugabe, in December, declared "war" against the MDC and vowed he would "give them a real physical fight." He made the assertions while presenting the ruling party's strategy for presidential elections which are to be held on March 9-10. It also followed the establishment in December of a state-controlled youth militia which has been deployed all over the country. Human rights agencies say members of the "youth national service" are becoming Zanu (PF)'s primary agent of terror. Appeals for protection from police have usually been in vain, the forum said. "MDC members have frequently been arrested in cases where they are in fact the victims of violence who had gone to the police station to make a report." However, in some areas police had begun to "stop displaying bias" and there had been a "commendable" effort to respond to attacks on members of the opposition by making arrests. Attacks on teachers also continued. The forum said government saw teachers as having influence and the ability to give their communities information. Violence had also affected schoolchildren. "At times government ministers and officials have been at the forefront of the onslaught which has not only disrupted schooling but has also displaced numerous teachers." A total of 39 schools had been forced to close in January. The forum was also concerned about illegal roadblocks set up around the country youths, who apparently made the possession of Zanu (PF) cards "passports of safety for travellers." Mugabe is standing for a fourth successive six-year presidential term, but observers say for the first time in his 21-year year rule, he faces the prospect of being ousted, most probably by MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai. http://www.sapa.org.za

The Financial Gazette 31 Jan 2002 Military officers, war veterans to supervise voter education, election - Key poll role for military By Sydney Masamvu Political Editor ZIMBABWE'S governing ZANU PF party has stuffed the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) with military officials and war veterans and tasked them with spearheading voter education and supervising the presidential election in March, it was established this week. The ESC is headed by prominent war veteran, lawyer and retired army Colonel Sobusa Gula-Ndebele. He in turn has appointed Douglas "Think-tank" Nyikayaramba, a retired army brigadier, as his chief elections officer. Nyikayaramba retired from the army late last year. Under the auspicies of the ESC, Nyikayaramba will be tasked with supervising the training of 1 080 election supervisors who in turn will train 22 000 election monitors to cover about 5 400 polling stations which will be established throughout Zimbabwe for the March 9 and 10 ballot. The election supervisors will also perform the role of voter educators. The election supervisors and monitors will be drawn form the ministries of defence, home affairs and education. Government sources say retired and serving military officials, some from the intelligence service, have been called up to head various sections responsible for monitoring and supervising the presidential election, the toughest for President Robert Mugabe since he came to power at independence in 1980. "We have a strong presence of military personnel involved in the conduct, monitoring and supervision of the presidential election," a source within the ESC told the Financial Gazette yesterday. The ESC's members are appointed by Mugabe, who faces opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the March plebiscite. According to the sources privy to ZANU PF's poll plan, most of the officials from the Ministry of Defence will be responsible for voter education campaigns, especially in rural areas, and will be aided by Mugabe's militants who call themselves war veterans. Already retired officers from the army have been responsible for training more than 20 000 youths by ZANU PF under the guise of a national service in the past few months. But the trainees themselves and the sources say the youths are, in fact, undergoing military training. The youths have been accused of waging a reign of terror against opposition members and ordinary Zimbabweans since Christmas last year. Two senior ZANU PF members - State Security Minister Nicholas Goche and Youth Affairs Minister Elliot Manyika - have publicly ordered the youths in the past three weeks to halt their terror, which includes mounting roadblocks and forcing Zimbabweans to buy costly membership cards of the ruling party. While members of the security forces will take charge of the election, the state has banned non-governmental agencies from carrying out voter education campaigns and monitoring the election, as was done in all previous national elections. Parliament has also passed laws banning independent election monitors from the polls and denying voting to millions of Zimbabweans abroad. The ESC, which is supposed to supervise elections, has refused any foreign assistance saying it has the capacity to effectively carry out its work despite acknowledge-ment that it is under-funded and ill-equipped. The sources said other members of the ESC - Joyce Kazembe of the Southern Africa Political Economic Series Trust, Bulawayo lawyer Richard Moyo Majwabu and Chief Bepura, an ardent ZANU PF supporter - were now merely playing a ceremonial role after the military officials had taken charge of the conduct of the poll. Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change is today scheduled to hold an urgent executive meeting to consider the role of the military in the conduct of the presidential election and to plot its response. Nearly a month ago, army chief Vitalis Zvinavashe stunned Zimbabweans when he issued a statement which said the security forces would refuse to support or salute anyone winning the poll if he or she had not participated in Zimbabwe's independence war. This was widely seen as an implicit threat against Tsvangirai, who is seen winning the poll but did not participate in the 1970s war. The European Union and the United States government have warned that they will slap personal sanctions on Mugabe and his officials if the presidential election is not free and fair.

The Financial Gazette 31 Jan 2002 Zimbabwe: ZANU-PF 'distributing', marking 'illegal' ballot papers in rural areas - ZANU PF accused of using illegal ballots By Basildon Peta Special Projects Editor 1/31/02 2:47:57 AM (GMT +2) CRUDE campaign tactics employed by Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF reportedly scaled new heights this week when its members allegedly started distributing unauthorised ballot papers in rural areas and assaulting those who failed to appropriately mark President Robert Mugabe's slot on the ballots. Several people interviewed by this newspaper who saw the ballots said these were not specimens but genuine ballots. Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) chairman Sobusa Gula-Ndebele said the ESC - the state agency which should approve campaign materials - was unaware of such a development but promised to investigate to establish whether "this was indeed happening and whether it will prejudice the holding of a free and fair election". ZANU PF's legal supremo Patrick Chinamasa said the allegations were, at face value, meant to discredit ZANU PF and were coming from what he said were MDC (the opposition Movement for Democratic Change) journalists. He later asked for written questions to consider a detailed response but had not responded up to the time of going to print. Repeated efforts to get comment from Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede, who is in overall charge of elections, also failed. Adozen teachers and villagers from Mashonaland East and Masvingo provinces said ZANU PF officials were distributing ballot papers to every person of voting age in their villages and schools and asking them to fill in the ballots. They would then assault anyone who would either have failed to cast a vote on the ZANU PF slot or would have voted for the opposition. "I know of one guy who was badly assaulted after he filled in avery small X on the ZANU PF slot. Another was beaten up after his X encroached on to Tsvangirai's face," said a teacher from Chikomba, who was interviewed on condition of anonymity. The use of unauthorised ballot papers is reported to be rife in Hwedza, Sadza, Mupatsi and Dorowa areas of Mashonaland East Province and in Zaka in Masvingo. The Financial Gazette also heard this week that ZANU PF members, mostly armed militia, were forcing people to vote along these lines in Gokwe and Nembudziya areas of the Midlands. This newspaper could not independently verify any of these reports. The alleged use of the illegal ballot papers to aid Mugabe's re-election comes in the wake of information that ZANU PF militias are moving door-to-door in some urban areas compiling the identity registration numbers of people without ZANU PF party cards. The Financial Gazette this week interviewed several people from Chitungwiza, Kambuzuma and Budiriro areas who confirmed having had their details recorded after failing to produce party cards. The teachers interviewed on the alleged illegal voting were unable to explain the origins of the ballot papers being used by ZANU PF. They said the militias had told them that these were the exact ballots to be used in the actual presidential election. They said nothing on the ballots indicated that they were only specimens. In fact, they appeared to be genuine ballot papers, they said. The interviewees said they had not been able to get samples or copies of the ballots because the papers were being collected and packed neatly into boxes immediately after the stage-managed voting. Ballot papers for elections are usually printed only after the nominations court has sat and the candidates and the parties contesting the elections are confirmed. Those who saw the ballots being used by ZANU PF said they featured the logos of the ruling party, the MDC, ZANU Ndonga, the Bulawayo-based ZAPU and Shakespear Maya's National Alliance of Good Governance.

The Financial Gazette 24 Jan 2002 Zimbabwe: Report views ZANU-PF 'extortion' in forcing purchase of party cards Millions forced to buy ZANU PF cards By Cyril Zenda Staff Reporter 1/24/02 1:07:01 AM (GMT +2) WENDY Maodzwa, the Financial Gazette's salaries administrator, was with other members of her family on their way to Harare from a funeral in rural Rusape when they decided to stop at Goto growth point to refuel. Suddenly, a gang of youths approached and menacingly demanded that they produce membership cards of the ruling ZANU PF party or else they were in trouble. Their salvation only came from an old man who happened to know some members of the gang from their previous farm invasion escapades. As soon as she arrived in Harare, Maodzwa had to buy the card for her own safety, although she says she does not need it. This was not the end of her problems because, a day after buying the card, the people who sold her the card followed her up to tell her that she had to attend their meetings without fail or else. This is the plight of millions of Zimbabweans as President Robert Mugabe's party , sensing his defeat in the March 9 and 10 presidential election, strikes terror in the hearts of citizens, demanding that they buy costly ZANU PF membership cards. The campaign, which is targeting supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has forced many Zimbabweans to cancel trips to remote rural areas where most of the harassment and torture are taking place. Senior MDC officials have had to tell their sympathisers to acquire the cards for their own safety in the face of mounting violence and police inaction to stamp it down. "This is a clear case of extortion, forcing people to buy cards which they do not need," said David Jamali, programmes coordinator of Zimbabwe's leading human rights watchdog ZimRights. "We strongly condemn this practice and urge members of political parties to desist from doing it. Instead of forcing people to buy their cards, they should sell policies that are acceptable to the people and people will support them," Jamali said. ZANU PF recently boasted that it had raised more than $500 million from the sale of its cards in the past three months. At the current price of $82 per card, this means that about 6.1 million Zimbabweans - about half the country's population - have been forced to buy the cards for their personal security. Despite nationwide complaints from members of the public that they are being harassed by ZANU PF youths and their war veterans over the party's cards, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena this week denied that any such thing was happening. This is despite the fact that virtually on a daily basis, buses plying the Harare-Bindura route are being stopped by these gangsters at illegal roadblocks to demand the party's cards from passengers. "No one is being asked to produce any party cards as far as we know. Police at roadblocks are only checking for things like weapons and dangerous items, apart from the usual traffic requirements," Bvudzijena said. He said that some plainclothes police officers - members of the Criminal Investigations Department - could also be found at roadblocks looking for criminals. But ZANU PF's national commissar Elliot Manyika was last week forced to go public on the issue, ordering party supporters to stop demanding ZANU PF cards from members of the public. Security Minister Nicholas Goche this week also called on ZANU PF supporters to stop demanding party cards, saying culprits arrested by the police would receive no legal assistance from the ruling party. Tawanda Hondora, a member of the human rights group Lawyers for Human Rights, said it was criminal for ZANU PF members to extort money from the public under the guise of party cards. "The demand is unconstitutional and unlawful because it restricts the free movement of people. It is like the demand that people should carry identity cards, which was declared unlawful in a constitutional case of Elliot versus the Commissioner of Police and another in 1997," he said. Hondora said if the victims are able to positively identify those police officers and ZANU PF thugs who are involved in the practice, they would be able to seek redress through the courts. Jamali urged all Zimbabweans who have bought ZANU PF cards under duress or fear to register at any ZimRights office in the country because the human rights body is compiling a list of people from whom money has been extorted in order to prepare action against the ruling party. Jamali said the list could also be used to challenge the presidential election, which experts says is likely to be won by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai but could be rigged in Mugabe's favour. The ZANU PF party cards scam follows raids on companies and factories last year by the same mobs under the guise that they were resolving labour disputes. Several firms were forced to close down by the raids while some senior company executives were assaulted willy-nilly. Earlier in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary elections, the same youths invaded hundreds of commercial farms across the nation, where they are still camped, in the name of land hunger. At least nine farmers and nearly 40 MDC supporters were killed in the accompanying violence, which sealed off farms and the vast rural areas from the opposition.

Harare The Herald 22 Jan 2002 Combating terrorism, crime By Phillip Magwaza - A new dispensation in combating crime, terrorism and civil unrest were the catalysts for the passing of the Public Order and Security Bill by Zimbabwe's parliament. As a result of this Bill, there has been indignation expressed by the West that Zimbabwe has been excessive in passing laws which infringe upon human rights and good governance. The British have been at the forefront in demonising and vilifying Zimbabwe in all its laws but never have they taken a moment to reflect on their own shortcomings. It should be realised that the enactment of the Public Order and Security Bill is as a result of the intensification of violent actions and activities by the opposition MDC. Government no longer had the ability to deal effectively with what could have eventually led to anarchy, had the archaic bill still been in force. Its replacement with the Public Order Bill on Thursday was victory for the fight against terrorism and sounded a death knell to those perpetrators of violence. A cursory look at the two laws will reveal that the Law and Order Maintenance Act (Loma) had long outlived its usefulness and did not address the real issues in maintaining law and order. Faced with similar circumstances, Britain, immediately after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, passed something similar, the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill. This is a Bill, which is more repressive and draconian than the Public and Security Order Bill, which Zimbabwe passed. The new Bill was aptly described by Professor Jonathan Moyo as legislation, which "throws out through the window all British pretences of human rights and individual freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism". It is only those with terrorist tendencies who have cried foul and the British have a notion that certain actions can only be termed terrorism when directed against them and their friends the Israelis and Americans. Zimbabwe, unlike America, did not invoke presidential powers when faced with acts of terrorism. After the September 11 bombing President George Bush invoked presidential powers and issued executive orders setting up a tribunal outside the judicial system. The Public Order Bill entrenches those sections of Loma, which made it easy for transgressors to escape the claws of the law. It has also become fashionable for misguided members of the opposition to ridicule President Mugabe and make offensive remarks and by so doing, denigrate the high office of the President. The brutal acts of terrorism, sabotage, espionage and banditry and the three saboteurs Kevin Woods, Michael Smith and Phillip Conjwayo are clear examples of how the security of a country can be breached. The overriding factor was that despite protestations from sections of the MDC and their British brothers, Government conceded to change the section where one who is arrested can be detained for seven days before he is brought before a magistrate. Zanu-PF took cognisance of the fact that the Public Order Bill was sensitive to the needs of safeguarding the fundamental freedoms of assembly, association and expression as laid down in Chapter 111 of the Constitution. It is also against this background that allegations have been levelled at the MDC for facilitating the training of their members in Uganda. These are some of the actions that the Public Order Bill has to address and protect society against such elements. Actions barring police officers from conducting searches because of the need for search warrants also hampered their operations as it has emerged that by the time awarrant is secured the offending objects would have been removed. The Public Order Bill gives the police the power to stop and search any suspects. The issue of identity cards will also help curb crime and identify criminals who, in the past, took advantage of the laxity of the law in that people were not required by law to carry identity cards. Recent incidents like the one which resulted in the beheading of a Beitbridge woman by a low-flying plane are an indication that breaches of peace, smuggling and acts of terrorism can be achieved using planes. The new law gives the police power to impound and seize vehicles, aircraft and vessels suspected of having been used in criminal acts. With regards to the notice period required before a meeting could be held, the initial seven-day notice period was amended to four days. Zimbabwe has come under the international glare, being accused for pushing through a Bill that safeguards its territorial integrity and yet other nations like the British have unwritten constitutions which are used to suit their needs in discriminating against foreigners and suppressing marches in places like Belfast. In the words of the Minister of Home Affairs, Cde John Nkomo, the Bill is a piece of legislation similar to those enacted by most countries after the September 11 attacks. Zimbabwe as a country is in a dilemma. When it fails to protect its citizens, it comes under heavy attack, and when laws are enacted to protect the same, it is also criticised.

Harare The Herald 18 Jan 2002 ZANU-PF reportedly orders party youths to stop poll campaign violence 'No to violence' Herald Reporters-ZIS. - ZANU-PF has ordered its youths to immediately stop door to door campaigns and asking people to produce party membership cards. Addressing more than 1 000 Zanu-PF youths in Bindura yesterday, the party's national political commissar, Cde Elliot Manyika, urged them to refrain from violence during the campaign period for the forthcoming presidential election. "You do not win the people's support by beating them up or demanding membership cards. "We do not want to tarnish the image of the party. Your important role is to carry out voter education in your constituencies," he said. He warned that using force would see people buying membership cards as a measure to protect themselves. Cde Manyika, who is the MP for Bindura, also urged the youths to be disciplined and vigilant so that the enemy finds it difficult to infiltrate them. The meeting was held as a result of violent demonstrations by Zanu-PF youths against some magistrates at the Bindura courts this week. The youths accused the magistrates of handing down judgments against the ruling party and the Government. Residents of both Chipadze and Chiwaridzo high-density suburbs last week complained that they were being harassed by party youths if they failed to produce membership cards. In Highfield, Harare, an MDC supporter was arrested on Wednesday evening after assaulting a fellow night club patron who was wearing a Zanu-PF T-shirt and cap. Shadreck Chandiwana (38) is scheduled to appear in court soon. Police said the assault victim, Ms Haruwandi Baya, was drinking beer in Manjoro Bar at Machipisa Shopping Centre, when Chandiwana approached her. She was wearing a T-shirt inscribed "Third Chimurenga" and a cap bearing President Mugabe's portrait. Police spokesman, Inspector Tarwireyi Tirivavi, said Chandiwana took Ms Baya's cap and started assaulting her accusing her of supporting the ruling party. "The assault did not go down well with members of the public in the bar and they teamed up against Shadreck threatening to beat him up," said Insp Tirivavi. He then fled from the bar and took refuge at Machipisa Police Station where he was immediately arrested for the assault on Ms Baya. Meanwhile, police yesterday said politically motivated violence had started to wane throughout the country although Kwekwe remained a flash point. In Redcliff on Tuesday, an unknown group of people stoned and damaged 18 window panes at a house belonging to the secretary of the Redcliff Real Residents Association, Ms Lulu Mathe. Police attended the scene but no arrests have been effected. Also in Kwekwe, another group stoned a house belonging to Mr Abraham Hungwe damaging 33 windowpanes and a door. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, two Redcliff houses owned by Messrs David Nyoni and Alfred Hunda were stoned in separate attacks. Windowpanes were broken and no arrests have been made. In Rusape, about 40 youths suspected to be Zanu-PF activists boarded a Mutare-bound train and assaulted nine passengers using sjamboks before jumping off. The nine sustained moderate injuries, according to the police, who said investigations were underway to account for the assailants. The victims only managed to report the attack on arrival in Mutare. In Bikita, a group of suspected Zanu-PF youths assaulted Mr Titus Chapanya at Mudziche Business Centre on Monday. The group also damaged 16 windowpanes. Further damage was prevented when a local war veteran intervened. Police are yet to make arrests. Insp Tirivavi said it was noteworthy that no petrol bombings had been reported in the past two days following a police warning on the seriousness of the crime. In Marondera, suspected MDC supporters destroyed property worth thousands of dollars this week when they petrol-bombed a house belonging to the Zanu-PF Mashonaland East provincial secretary for security, Cde Fidelicy Rinomhota. Four petrol bombs were hurled at the house at around 12 midnight and two of them exploded in the bedroom where Cde Rinomhota was sleeping and gutted the room. He, however, escaped unhurt. The other two petrol bombs, which landed in another room where some children were sleeping did not explode. Cde Rinomhota's wife, Lizzy, said they were saved by the quick response of the Marondera Fire Brigade. "We could have lost all the property as the raging flames made it impossible to get near the house. They (firemen) managed to put down the fire but it was not before everything in the bedroom was reduced to ashes," she said. Property lost included clothes, two wardrobes, a radio, a bed and some personal documents. Mrs Rinomhota said she did not see the assailants but a security guard at a nearby property said he saw four men hurling some objects at the house. Meanwhile, four MDC supporters yesterday appeared before a Harare magistrates' court for allegedly attacking and injuring several residents in Kuwadzana. Knowledge Nyandoro (21), Tichaona Rusike (26), Moses Machembere (26) and Peter Chivasa who denied the charges appeared before magistrate Mr Wilbert Mandinde who remanded them to February 12 on $2 000 bail. The four were ordered to report twice a week at Kuwadzana Police. The State is alleging that on January 11 this year, in Kuwadzana 5, the four alleged MDC supporters teamed up with 15 other members of the party and proceeded to Mr Pias Madembo's house in the same area. They violently made their way into his house and allegedly pulled him out. Representing the State, Ms Aisha Tsimbe told the court that the group of the suspected MDC supporters allegedly dragged him to a road and demanded to be shown the house of the Zanu-PF secretary for Kuwadzana district. However, someone alerted other residents and the four were positively identified and apprehended by members of the public.

Sunday Times (South Africa) 13 Jan 2002 Cry, my beloved country Accused by the state of demonising Zimbabwe in his articles, Sunday Times journalist DINGILIZWE NTULI has been forced to leave the land of his birth ON WEDNESDAY December 19, I sat down to watch the evening news bulletin, now popularly known as "Moyo at 8" because of the nightly appearance of Zimbabwe's Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo. I felt an eerie sensation creep up my spine upon seeing the Sunday Times masthead on the headlines. The cameras zoomed in on my article of December 16, in which I quoted Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo confirming the presence of troops in Matabeleland. The article had also stated that the troops were beating villagers. My anxiety turned to fear when Moyo, almost frothing at the mouth, attacked me and the Sunday Times for publishing the report. He did not dispute its content but accused the paper of attempting to spread "alarm and despondency" and destabilising the southern African region. What seemed to have irked Moyo the most was my report that the presence of the troops had sparked fears of a repeat of the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s, when President Robert Mugabe's notorious Fifth Brigade killed more than 20 000 people. The following week, independent newspapers who followed up on the story were told by villagers in the Lupane, Nkayi and St Lukes districts of Matabeleland North that army units were harassing them. The villagers said the soldiers had warned them they would relive the massacres if they voted for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential election. MPs in the affected areas also complained to Defence Minister Sidney Sekeramayi in Parliament about the troops' conduct. But in his television appearance, an angry Moyo did not deal with the facts but instead accused me and the Sunday Times of provoking ethnic tensions by attempting to equate the troops' mission in Matabeleland to the Fifth Brigade. Moyo - who has lived in South Africa and certainly knows that the Sunday Times is owned and edited by black South Africans - described me as a naive young reporter being used by ex-Rhodesian editors to demonise my country. He warned that the government would speed up legislation to check operations of the British and "apartheid" press in Zimbabwe. The same bulletin showed Sekeramayi telling Parliament that the article was malicious, alarmist, exaggerated and a false representation of facts. Sekeramayi said troops on the ground were there to ensure that peace and tranquillity prevailed. He warned that the army would not stand by and watch while journalists "made up" stories that compromised state security. The legislation Moyo was referring to was his Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill, expected to be rammed through Parliament this week. It bans foreigners from working as journalists in Zimbabwe and compels local journalists and newspapers to apply for "licences" through a committee headed by Moyo himself. Those who write critically of Mugabe and his government risk a two-year jail term. Clearly, Mugabe's government has a lot to hide and wants its misdeeds to take place under the cover of darkness. Having been one of the unfortunate foreign correspondents branded "terrorists" and "opposition functionaries" by Moyo, I took his and Sekeramayi's threats seriously. Journalists from the local independent media had been arrested on flimsy charges and I was scared of becoming the first "alarm and despondency" victim of this millennium, after Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were tortured for writing about an alleged foiled coup plot in 1999. Moyo had previously summoned me to his office to warn me about some of my stories. He said it baffled him why I, formerly a journalist on the state-run Herald, had joined a "white-run paper with Rhodesian links". Flanked by a stern-faced Munyaradzi Hwengwere, then principal press secretary, and a personal assistant who was jotting down every word, Moyo also threatened to ban the Sunday Times in Zimbabwe, saying it "denigrated" Mugabe and the country's leaders. The other two joined in the attack. I chose to listen and refused to be drawn into an argument with them, as any conversation with Moyo invariably lands up in his weekly column in the state newspapers. When I had to respond, I gave short, non-committal answers. So after Moyo's bluster on national television that Wednesday night, I consulted the Sunday Times editors about bringing forward my visit to Johannesburg for a scheduled training programme. I left Zimbabwe on December 20 - but before I had even arrived in Johannesburg, Moyo had summoned all foreign correspondents to tell them to wind up their operations. The following week, a group calling itself the Zanu-PF Supporters Network took out full-page advertisements in the private and state-controlled media calling for immediate action to be taken against me as I had taken sides with Rhodesians to demonise the country. This week, the demise of what was once a promising democracy gathered momentum as the security chiefs effectively threatened to stage a coup if Zanu-PF lost the March election. Things are bound to get worse in months to come. Despite these restrictions and brutality, people are voicing their anger at the misery Mugabe has brought on the country. Skilled workers are leaving for South Africa, Europe and North America. Unskilled workers are fleeing to take up menial jobs in SA. Inflation is at 103%, the local currency is 1:250 to the US dollar, unemployment is at 80% and interest rates are above 65%. Social services are in a mess and the country is facing food shortages. Such indicators would point to the downfall of any leader. But not Mugabe. He has put in place mechanisms to retain power, including the legal rigging of the elections. While the world looks forward to Mugabe's exit in March, realistic Zimbabweans are already preparing for another six brutal years with him - barring divine intervention. For now, one can only cry for a country that once had so much hope. Mugabe's gagging bills Draconian bill one Outlaws the publishing of "false statements prejudicial to the state or that incite public disorder, violence, affect defence and economic interests of the country or undermine confidence in security forces". Bars public gatherings "to conduct riots, disorder or intolerance". Draconian bill two Government sanction is required by foreign news services to establish offices in the country. Media organisations will require licences and only locals will be able to work as journalists. Journalists may be charged and imprisoned for "spreading malicious rumours or publishing information likely to cause alarm and despondency". Draconian bill three Bans independent election monitors. Potential voters must provide proof of residence and have a bank account. Bars those who have been out of the country for 12 months from voting. Draconian bill four Government gets the power to ban trade unions that take part in "illegal" strikes. www.sundaytimes.co.za

Genocide Watch for Zimbabwe: January 11, 2002 Genocide Watch calls on governments to protest not only President Mugabe’s new restrictions on civil liberties, but also to demand, in the strongest terms, that ZANU-PF dismantle and disarm its Youth Brigade militias. President Mugabe must be put on notice that if genocidal massacres are committed by these militias or by elements of the Zimbabwe armed forces, he will be held personally responsible. (A Genocide Watch is declared when early warning signs indicate the danger of mass killing or genocide.)

Harare The Herald10 Jan 2002 MDC questions govt on roadblocks set up by ZANU-PF youth gangs 'Only police can mount road blocks' Ziana - It is not government policy that any one can mount road blocks, Home Affairs Minister Cde John Nkomo told parliament yesterday. "The only institution, which is authorised to mount road blocks is the Zimbabwe Republic Police," he said. "If there are any others, they are breaking the law." Cde Nkomo said this in a response to Kwekwe Member of Parliament Blessing Chebundo (MDC) who wanted to know why members of the youth brigade were mounting road blocks asking for Zanu-PF cards on some of the country's roads. Cde Nkomo said the police would always thrive to make peace with opposing sides and that explained why in some instances they were seen escorting youth brigades. Ferrying people for purposes of violence, he said, was an offence and any one found doing so would be prosecuted. In a related question, Bulawayo South MP Mr David Coltart (MDC) asked the Attorney General Mr Andrew Chigovera why the police had not arrested perpetrators of violence who bombed the Daily News offices twice and also killed close to 90 members of the MDC since the June 2000 parliamentary elections. "It is not Government policy to make any selective prosecution," Mr Chigovera said. "He (Coltart) is aware and knows the process of prosecution." Earlier on Home Affairs Deputy Minister Cde Rugare Gumbo (Zanu-PF) refuted allegations that youth brigades that had completed training at the Border Gezi Training Centre in Mount Darwin would be co-opted into the police force. St Mary's MP Job Sikhala (MDC) momentarily raised anxiety in the House when he boldly asked Acting President Simon Muzenda (Zanu-PF): "What is the presidium doing, of a state engulfed in violence." But Cde Nkomo quickly chipped in and said: "As Acting President he is not expected to respond," he said. "The question of the presidium has nothing to do with this House." MDC MPs shouted: "Iwe siya mudhara azvipindurire ega." (Leave the old man to answer the question on his own). - Ziana.

Independent (UK) 9 Jan 2002 Mugabe militias seal town for 'recruiting drive' By Basildon Peta in Harare Hundreds of President Robert Mugabe's youth militias sealed off three towns in Zimbabwe yesterday as political violence grew ahead of the presidential election in March. The situation in Bindura town, 50 miles north-east of Harare, was tense early yesterday afternoon. Residents said the youths, who recently graduated from a government national youth service training programme, descended on Sunday night and mounted roadblocks sealing off the town. In the Matepatepa farming zone near Bindura, about 40 white farmers were reportedly prevented from leaving the area by militias enforcing illegal roadblocks. Residents in Bindura said that the youths had moved from door to door in the town ordering people to produce new membership cards of the ruling Zanu-PF party, worth one pound each. If they failed to do so, they were beaten. According to the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, hundreds of Bindura residents have since fled to Harare. The newspaper interviewed some of the townspeople, who vowed not to return because they feared for their lives. One of them, Shadreck Mabaudi, showed wounds sustained when he was stopped at an illegal roadblock and assaulted for failing to produce a Zanu-PF membership card. Tapera Macheka, the chairman of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Mashonaland Central province, pointed out three badly damaged houses belonging to the opposition party's officials in Bindura. Six opposition supporters have died in the past two weeks in election-related violence. Some youths could be seen riding around Bindura town in government number-plated trucks, wearing green military uniforms marked "Third Chimurenga", a term used by the ruling party to describe its crusade of seizing white land for redistribution to blacks. Reports said the situation was even worse in the other two towns, Chinhoyi and Karoi in Mashonaland West province, where residents were also prevented from leaving. The opposition spokesman Learnmore Jongwe said youths had sealed those towns and demanded that residents either produce or buy Zanu-PF cards immediately. Residents were only allowed topass through roadblocks mounted around the towns if they had a ruling party card. In Harare's Mbare suburb, six Zanu-PF and MDC supporters were arrested yesterday after violent political clashes. A police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, accused MDC supporters of starting the violence after attacking ruling party supporters. Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, who has openly stated that he supports the ruling party, said he had ordered his officers to have zero tolerance of any activities that would lead to political violence."Political activism by some parties has been criminal in nature resulting in loss of life, injury and damage to property ... this type of activism should cease forthwith," hesaid. Elliot Manyika, the Zanu-PF commissariat secretary and Youth Affairs Minister, denied suggestions yesterday that the beneficiaries of the youth programme were receiving military training. Speaking at the handover of certificates to 974 graduates of the training programme, Mr Manyika said the youths were being taught in self-help projects. However, the youths have been seen openly harassing residents in towns. Some of the youths have confirmed receiving military training in media interviews. They say they were promised integration into the police force and the army once President Mugabe is re-elected in the March ballot. Mr Mugabe has pulled out all the stops to ensure his re-election by barring foreign electoral monitors, naming government sympathisers as judges, cracking down on the independent media and intimidating the opposition.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare) 6 Jan 2002 Genocide Victims Want Mugabe Punished. Thabo Kunene Victims and survivors of the 1980s Matabeleland genocide have renewed their call for the arrest and prosecution of President Robert Mugabe and his security and defence ministers for crimes against humanity. The genocide victims who have been struggling to get compensation from the government, say once Mugabe leaves office or loses the March presidential election, he should be arrested and handed over to the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands. They want the beleaguered Zimbabwean leader to suffer the same fate as former Yugoslav dictator, Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic, who ruled his country with an iron fist, was handed over to the UN war crimes tribunal last year by the new rulers in Belgrade. The Standard last week spoke to Themba Mhlanga, the secretary of a Johannesburg-based group known as Survivors and Victims of Matabeleland Genocide. Mhlanga, who is also based in Johannesburg, was in Bulawayo for the Christmas and New Year holidays. "Our plans to file a lawsuit against Mugabe have reached an advanced stage and we have found a lot of support among human rights lawyers and individuals in South Africa," Mhlanga said. He said his group had also been in touch with the United Nations Human Rights Commission and international human rights lawyers who have all promised to assist the Matabeleland victims. Mhlanga who lost several relatives during the slaughter campaign in the 1980s, said Mugabe, who also held the defence portfolio during the genocide era, authorised the massacres of the Ndebele people who backed Joshua Nkomo's defunct Zapu party. "We are not going to let Mugabe and his commanders go free after he leaves office. He has to account for what he did in Matabeleland," added Mhlanga. He said the victims were suing the president as a group and not as individuals. Some of of the members of the group have been threatened by suspected Zimbabwean security operatives in Johannesburg. Mhlanga said his group now had 7 000 members, most of whom are based in South Africa. Two years ago, President Mugabe promised to compensate the survivors of the genocide but up to now nothing has materialised. Bishop Pius Ncube of the Roman Catholic Church in Bulawayo later criticised the president for playing with the emotions of the people of Matabeleland. The bishop was threatened with death by suspected state agents for demanding fair treatment of his tribesmen in Matabeleland. The slaughtrer of about 20 000 minority Ndebele inhabitants of Matabeleland and Midlands provinces took place between 1983 and 1987. Hundreds of other villagers and Zapu activists went missing during the slaughter campaign and many are presumed dead. Scores of others died of torture in detention and the culprits have never been brought to justice. The man who led the notorious army unit, the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, Perrence Shiri, was later promoted to Air Marshall by President Mugabe. His promotion angered the genocide victims and families of thousands who died during the brigade's occupation of the provinces. The late Nkomo himself, who was declared a national hero by Zanu PF, survived an assassination attempt by Mugabe's security agents and had to flee to Britain where Zimbabweans living in London paid for his accomodation after he had been told to vacate a flat owned by the late Tiny Rowland.

Daily News (Harare) 4 Jan 2002 Youth brigade assaults Ruwa, Mabvuku residents Staff ReporterZanu PF militia on Wednesday and yesterday beat up people at Ruwa growth point and in Mabvuku as they stepped up their party’s terror campaign ahead of the March presidential election. More than 100 militia, products of the Border Gezi youth training centre in Mt Darwin, are based at the Ruwa rehabilitation centre. The situation in Ruwa was tense late yesterday afternoon following reports of an imminent attack by the youths on residents in their houses. Among those beaten in Ruwa on Wednesday were a 10-year-old boy and an off-duty policeman in civilian clothes. At about 10pm on Wednesday, the militia surrounded Mavambo beerhall and severely beat up patrons. Lazarus Ndlovu was reportedly stabbed in the stomach, struck on the forehead with an iron bar and had both arms broken. He was admitted to Parirenyatwa Hospital. Nurses last night said he was in a serious condition. This was the second attack on patrons that day. The militia are reportedly operating under the direct orders of a Ruwa councillor but this could not be immediately confirmed. John Moffat Kichini, 39, who runs a vehicle repair workshop next to the rehabilitation centre, fled on Wednesday when the militia descended on Ruwa searching for him because of his support for the MDC. Residents from nearby houses and passers-by attracted by the noise were rounded up and ordered to lie down and chant Zanu PF slogans, before being beaten as well. They were accused of wanting to remove President Mugabe from power. Kichini said yesterday: “They said they wanted to chop off my head and display it at the shopping centre so people can see that they can kill.” Charles Nzombe, the MDC chairman for the Seke constituency, under which Ruwa falls, said: “They have declared that they are going on a door-to-door campaign any time soon to beat up people. They said they will beat up everyone, even those with Zanu PF cards, because their superiors have told them that Ruwa is an MDC stronghold.” In Mabvuku, the Zanu PF militia attacked drinkers in the Mombeyarara Tavern at the Manresa shopping centre and ordered them to chant Zanu PF slogans. They said they would continue their reign of terror until people voted for Zanu PF in both the presidential and mayoral elections.

Daily News (Harare) 4 Jan 2002 War vets turn schools into training barracksFrom Chris Gande in Gokwe SEVERAL schools in Gokwe have been turned into barracks where scores of youths are being given military training by war veterans. The war veterans are using sticks as guns in the military drills. The recruits, some said to have been forced to join the militias, undergo 10-day training sessions. Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general, recently said Gokwe was the most violent district after Mashonaland Central. This reporter witnessed a Zanu PF truck ferrying food to one of the barracks last week. Hundreds of youths from all over the country have been trained in the youth brigade at the Border Gezi national service training school in Mount Darwin. The youths are ostensibly recruited for national service but, in their now familiar green uniform, have been reported to have unleashed a wave of terror in parts of the country against MDC members.The Gokwe training appears to have a similar objective. “Every morning we toyi-toyed for about 30 kilometres. We were taught other military skills such as how to handle guns,” said a youth who underwent drills at one of the training camps. He said they had been told that they would soon be sent to Masvingo where they would be attested into the army. The army has been accused of recruiting only people from the rural areas, not urban dwellers who are perceived to be MDC supporters. Zanu PF is apparently unpopular in urban areas. Already some of the products of the training centres have been sent out into parts of Gokwe where they are harassing villagers suspected to have MDC sympathies. The youths are forcing people to join them in toyi-toying sessions where Zanu PF slogans are chanted. There are also rampant reports of people being beaten up by the youths.

Genocide Watch for Zimbabwe: January 11, 2002 Genocide Watch calls on governments to protest not only President Mugabe’s new restrictions on civil liberties, but also to demand, in the strongest terms, that ZANU-PF dismantle and disarm its Youth Brigade militias. President Mugabe must be put on notice that if genocidal massacres are committed by these militias or by elements of the Zimbabwe armed forces, he will be held personally responsible. (A Genocide Watch is declared when early warning signs indicate the danger of mass killing or genocide.)