All critical leaders of the struggle should be in exile

Re: Tsvangirai should be home with the people?


President Tsvangirai

By John Huruva in London
I felt it necessary to respond to Tanonoka Joseph Whande's article on why he felt Tsvangirai should be home with the people. It is important for readers to understand the history of liberation movements in Africa and elsewhere. Zimbabwe is practically a war zone characterised by abductions, murders, rapes, arson attacks and absence of law and order. This is exactly what it was like during the liberation period.

In similar circumstances, Robert Mugabe , Joshua Nkomo, Oliver Thambo, Thabo Mbeki, Sam Nojuma, Nelson Mandela (in prison) etc were all in the REAR and never pulled a trigger against an enemy. It is stupid and daft to sacrifice your leader when he/she is supposed to provide strategic leadership and police initiatives. Look at what happened to Chris Hani in SA. He shown himself up in an exclusive White surburb and by so doing he exposed himself as fodder to the enemy.

Just imagine the environment were Perence Shiri is shot, Manyika is killed in a "road accident", Chinotimba is recovering from another "road accident" who the hell is Tsvangirai to be spared under these conditions? "Robbers" and "Road Accidents" can easily claim his life. There is a big lesson we seem to overlook. A friend of mine reminded me that, "John, do you remember that all liberation movements used violence to achieve their goal?" He went on to say, "it is precisely for that reason that to this day these movements think that every problem has to be resolved by violence." This is very true of the developments in Zimbabwe today. Zanu PF (old ZANU and old ZAPU (the swallowed one ) have found it difficult to evolve into democratic parties and worse still is that they now believe in their own propaganda such as "we are in this mess because of Brown and Bush" and "now that we have arrested cholera --".

Please Mr Whande, instead of saying people are saying a, b and c, we should use our influence and access to media to enlighten each other on what is best for our country. Mr Tsvangirai will never utter the words you are asking him to say. He will always have a diplomatic response to the issue. A dead Tsvangirai is no good to Zimbabwe. Come on guys, lets give Tsvangirai his dues. He is the only Zimbabwean to take on ZANU PF as epitomised by Mugabe. Hats off to all those guys in opposition who are trying to peacifully democratise Zimbabwe. The civil society should be mentioned in the same breath.



John Huruva



The fight for freedom and justice in Zimbabwe is not going to end with Mugabe's departure.

Zim neighbours scoff at Mugabe's claims

17/12/2008 12:50 - (SA)

Pretoria - Zimbabwe's neighbours do not believe allegations that opposition militants are training in Botswana to try to overthrow Robert Mugabe, the leader of the main regional bloc said Wednesday.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe said the bloc, the Southern African Development Community, opened an investigation into the allegations when Mugabe's regime first raised them last month. But Motlanthe, the current SADC chairperson, added: "We never believed that."

SADC also includes Botswana, which dismissed the allegations last month and again when Zimbabwe officials raised them again this week.

The Zimbabwe opposition also has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, calling them part of a plot to create a pretext for declaring a state of emergency that would give Mugabe broad security powers.

Also this week, Zimbabwe state media reported the head of the country's air force was wounded in what "appears to be a buildup of terror attacks targeting high profile persons, government officials, government establishments and public transportation systems".

Mounting economic, humanitarian crisis

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980 and seen as increasingly autocratic, and the opposition have been deadlocked over a power-sharing agreement since September. The political impasse comes amid a mounting economic and humanitarian crisis that has pushed thousands of Zimbabweans to the point of starvation and left nearly 1 000 dead of cholera since August.

Motlanthe, speaking to reporters in Pretoria, would not say why he thought Mugabe's regime was pressing allegations the opposition was plotting violence, but noted there was "mistrust" among Zimbabwe's politicians.

In another measure of that mistrust, Motlanthe said a SADC plan to send Zimbabwe humanitarian aid hinged on the creation of a new, nonpartisan agency being established to distribute food and medicine. Motlanthe said Zimbabwe had a history of allegations of aid being hijacked by politicians and not being distributed fairly.

"It is important for the relief to reach all people of Zimbabwe without being influenced by partisan interests, political interests," Motlanthe said.

SADC has proposed an umbrella aid agency that would include all political parties, international aid agencies, Zimbabwean farmers and others, Motlanthe said.

Much of what Motlanthe said on Wednesday could be read as criticism of Mugabe's leadership, but the South African stopped short of explicit denunciations. South Africa has long argued that confronting Mugabe could backfire.

Motlanthe said even though nations like Britain have called for Mugabe to step down, South Africa would be guided by Zimbabweans. Zimbabwean political leaders agreed in September that Mugabe would remain president and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai would be given the new post of prime minister.

Under pressure

"The issue of whether President Mugabe should go or not has never been raised by the parties," Motlanthe said. "We feel that we should really support and take our cue from what they want."

Motlanthe called for the unity government to be formed quickly, "because only then would we be able to deal with the real problems facing Zimbabwe." He added he believed the coalition could be formed as soon as this week, but sentiment in Zimbabwe is much less optimistic.

Africans have been under pressure to take a firmer stand against Mugabe. Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete, who heads the African Union, on Tuesday dismissed accusations that SADC and the AU were doing too little to resolve Zimbabwe crisis.

"We have managed to push Mugabe and Tsvangirai to sign an agreement in September for power sharing. This is good for Zimbabweans and Africa," Kikwete told reporters during a visit to neighboring Mozambique.

He said Zimbabweans should work very hard to get the agreement implemented quickly.

- AP

Intra-party violence rocks Zanu-PF

December 17th, 2008

By Moses Muchemwa
Bulawayo (ZimEye)-Intra-party violence has rocked Zanu-PF as party members were involved in violent skirmishes during Harare provincial elections.

There were violent clashes between supporters of former Zanu-PF Harare chairman Amos Midzi and Harare South House of Assembly member Hubert Nyanhongo, as power struggle reared its ugly head, on Monday night.

Midzi and his deputy Christopher Chigumba had to scurry for cover from the election venue after an angry mob deflated their vehicle tyres and beat up their supporters.

As violence escalated, some rogue Zanu-PF elements even threw stones at policemen who tried to quell the rampaging Nyanhongo backers. The police officers did not arrest anyone, letting the bloodthirsty Zanu-PF member scot-free.

The polls were first slated for 30 November, but were postponed twice on account of violent clashes between supporters of both Nyanhongo and Midzi.

The typical violent Zanu-PF supporters fought over the composition of the electoral college, which should be made up of members drawn from the districts and the six district co-ordinating committees.

Zanu-PF deputy secretary for the commissariat Richard Ndlovu, later endorsed Nyanhongo as the Harare provincial chairman.

Analysts say the violence that erupted at the Zanu-PF meeting showed that the party was the hand causing havoc throughout the country. Scores of political opponents have been abducted and killed.
(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

(moses muchemwa is a journalist and partner with the ZimEye. He can be contacted at mmuchemwa@zimeye.com)

We are not training an MDC army -- Botswana

Zimbabwe's Army, under-equiped, fears that an MDC army will topple Mugabe with relative ease



Botswana has rejected claims by Zimbabwe it is involved in a plot to oust Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe's justice minister had told state media they have "compelling evidence" Botswana was hosting military training camps for opposition rebels.

He said Botswana was helping recruit youths to destabilise and bring about illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.

But Botswana said it was "nothing more than distorted or concocted evidence, none of which is supported by facts".

A statement from Botswana's ministry of foreign affairs said: "Zimbabwe has signally failed to produce any tangible, much less compelling, facts in support of its allegations."

The ministry said it had already rejected Zimbabwe's claim "in the strongest possible terms" in a response to the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), which says it is investigating the allegations.

Sadc secretary general Tomaz Salamao confirmed earlier his organisation was analysing documents and videos submitted to them by the Zimbabwean authorities. Observers say it is the first time that such openly hostile relations have emerged among any of the 15 Sadc members.

Botswana's President Ian Khama is one of the few African leaders to have publicly criticised Mr Mugabe.

Military inteligence sources told the Tribune that an MDC Army, equiped by western nations, would easily topple the upopular ZANU-PF govternment. In recent years, the ZNA has suffered from lack of funding to insuffiecient manpower.

ZANU-PF sources also claimed that some of the people training in the Bostwana MDC camps included people that had deserted from the Zimbabwe National Army. The Batswana authorities have arrested scores of CIO agents working in their country.

Meanwhile, the UN security council met Monday to discuss the Zimbabwe crisis.

“We continue to witness a failure of the leadership in Zimbabwe to address the political, economic, human rights and humanitarian crisis that is confronting the country and do what is best for the people,” Ban said at a UN Security Council meeting attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

But nothing is expected from the UN as South Africa, backed by Russia and the Chinese have pledged to block any action the UN might try to take.

Perence Shiri shot down by regular soldier on duty

ZIMBABWE - HARARE - Air Marshall Perence Shiri has been shot by a regular duty soldier.


Perence Shiri

His condition is said to be critical and he has reportedly been airlifted to South Africa for an emergency operation after he was shot in the stomach.

Observers question the claims and say government was trying to declare a state of emergency by fabricating evidence.

The State media on Monday repeated claims that MDC was training and arming bandits with the help of Botswana.

MDC secretary general told a news conference in Harare Monday that Zanu-PF had extracted false confessions under duress from MDC activists who have been abdcuted to qualify its claims of MDC banditry.


"Zanu-PF is back again framing a matrix of treason," Biti said."These works of fiction are Zanu-PF's default setting. They want to justify declaring a state of emergency, that the country faces a security threat."


The Mugabe regime has complained about the threat of military invasion and the opposition is saying it is convinced Mugabe was on the verge of suspending the Constitution and ruling by decree.


That means Mugabe will trash the talks and run the country alone, with the Bill of Rights suspended and emergency measures in place.


The street protests by soldiers and now the shooting of a top army general is too much of a coincidence, said one observe


Details remain sketchy, and the actual motive is unclear.
Government has confirmed the incident.

GZF Strongly Condemns Jestina Mukoko's Abduction

Jestina Mukoko


The Global Zimbabwe Forum (GZF) strongly condemns the abduction of Ms. Jestina Mukoko by some suspected CIO operatives outside her home in Norton.

Mukoko a well know former broadcaster is now working as the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project. (ZPP)

Her organisation has been at the forefront in human rights advocacy work against political violence and also documented research around cases of political motivated violence across Zimbabwe.

The GZF demands for the immediate release of Mukoko and also the arrest of all her abductors.

Entire MDC leadership goes into hiding

Zimbabwe Mail

10 December, 2008 04:38:00 Staff Reporter

HARARE - The entire leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) has gone into hiding following well coordinated abductions and
disappearances of its supporters and human rights activists by hired
foreign mercenaries from as far as Angola and the Great Lakes region,
The Zimbabwe Mail can reveal.

An operation code named "operation ngatipedzenavo" (Operation lets
finish them up), was recently launched by Robert Mugabe's hardline party
functionaries to destroy the leadership structures of the opposition.

This latest move now threatens the peace deal signed by Robert Mugabe
and opposition leaders on 15 September this year and it is now feared
that most elected opposition Members of Parliament might fled the
country into exile, leaving the much awaited constitutional amendment in
jeopardy.

The MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai has decided to stay abroad for fear
of his life.

The Zimbabwe Mail can reveal that Zanu PF is now running a secret hit
squad with recruits from Angola and battle hardened war criminals from
the Great lakes region.

"These Mercenaries have been recruited from a number of countries in the
region and they're doing the dirty work for CIO," our intelligence
source revealed.

It is believed that the mercenaries are reporting directly to Emmerson
Munangagwa throught former Rwandan Presidential Guard commander Protais
Mpiranya and Mnangagwa is the Chairman of JOC (Joint Operation Command).

The operation is also receiving direct funding from the Reserve Bank.

Protais Mpiranya, the former head of the presidential guard during the
1994 genocide is on the wanted list of the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda, but he has since settled in Zimbabwe for close to
10 years and he is running Robert Mugabe's close protection unit in the
Presidential Guard together with the Libyan and Pakistan nationals.

Mapiranya is also suspected to have strong business links with
Zimbabwe's second most powerful politician Emmerson Mnangagwa and senior
Zimbabwe army officers.

He used to operate Ze'ntemba rumba Night Club at the Kopje Plaza in
Harare a few years ago.

An MDC official in hiding said, "the foreigners have been identified by
our intelligence unit on many occasions supporting government-backed men".

"We have observed that some of the people leading the abductions are
foreigners because they speak a different language and they do not
understand our local languages", he said.

"Also the tactics they are using are not peculiar with Zimbabweans
because they are cutting out the tongue, removing eyes and genital
parts. We are not sure where they come from, but we know some them speak
in Portuguese, according to our intelligence information. Robert
Mugabe's CIO are brutal, but this new trend is very much worrying, said
the MDC official.

"They are cruel and brutal. Each unit has an interpreter who tells them
what to do and we fear for those who have been abducted so far.

"The mercenaries are operating from CIO offices in Highlands, along
Enterprises road and they have bases in and around Harare and some have
been deployed across the country, but they are mainly concentrated in
Harare.

A Central Intelligence Oroganisation (CIO) mole took us in a drive-by,
and showed our reporter houses in Belvedere and in Malbereighn which are
housing these murderous criminals.

They have also been deployed to Chiyadzwa diamond area in Manicaland
where they have killed so many people in a callous bloody operation.

Suspected state agents have abducted an official from the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, bringing to at least 19 the number of
MDC supporters and civil society activists to have been whisked away
without trace in recent weeks, according to an MDC official.

Gandhi Mudzingwa, a former personal assistant to MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, who was working on the party's transition policy, was seized
by a group of armed men while driving in Harare on Monday, George
Sibotshiwe, a spokesperson for Tsvangirai, said on Tuesday.

The MDC suspects his abductors were members of the feared Central
Intelligence Organisation, which is also suspected of the abduction last
week of prominent activist Jestina Mukoko.

Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), was taken from her
home by a dozen armed men. Her whereabouts are unknown. Two other
members of the ZPP have since also been abducted.

Meanwhile, a group of 15 MDC members who were detained by police a month
ago in Mashonaland West province are also still missing, despite a court
order that they be brought to court or released.

The disappearances are part of a new crackdown by President Robert
Mugabe's regime against the opposition that began after talks between
his Zanu-PF party and the MDC on the formation of a unity government.

Some analysts believe Mugabe may again be trying to "soften up" the
opposition in advance of possible fresh elections. "That's a definite
possibility," said Brian Raftopoulos, director of research and advocacy
for the Solidarity Peace Trust, a South Africa-based NGO that campaigns
for freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe.

"There was always speculation that if the mediation stalled, Mugabe
would hammer structures in the country and call new elections,"
Raftopoulos said.

Mugabe himself last week told a group of supporters to be ready for new
elections.

It is unclear how such a move, which the MDC would likely oppose, would
resolve Mugabe's legitimacy issues. His re-election as president in an
unopposed, violent vote in June was dismissed by the international
community as a sham

Do not join Mugabe - exiles warn MDC - 12 December 2008

JOHANNESBURG – Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean exiles have urged the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) not to give in to pressure and accept a weaker role in government, saying that the looming announcement by ZAPU that it was mulling a break-away from Mugabe's party showed that the octogenarian leader could not be trusted. Two weeks ago, the Elders, comprising former US President, Jimmy Carter, former UN Secretary General, Koffi Annan and Graca Machel, wife to former South African President, Nelson Mandela, called on the MDC to join Mugabe's party and negotiate power later, to solve the country's worsening multi-facetted crisis.

“The obvious inequities in the proper sharing or dividing of power they can be corrected later, not only by immediate changes to the law but over a period of time, until a new constitution has been put in place or over the next 18 months,” said Carter.

Machel said that the MDC would have to work with Zanu (PF) to “open those hands and release it (power), instead of delaying the unity government.”

However, the exiles have condemned the pressure that has been put on the opposition and called for the MDC to pull out of the deal if Mugabe does not hand over some of the contested key ministries, which include that of Home Affairs.

The exiles say that any more compromise by the MDC would render it useless in government, while also worsening the country’s multi-facetted crisis, which began eight years ago.

“Any such move will allow Mugabe to exercise his executive powers and ride roughshod on the opposition, as he did to PF ZAPU after the ill-fated Unity Accord. We do not want anything that will not solve our problems,” said Michael Ndlovu, who lives in Alexandra township.

He said that instead of putting pressure on the MDC, both African leaders and the whole of the international community should, instead, be telling Mugabe that as someone who created the crisis, he should share power with the opposition, and not dictate to it how thing should be done.

“It seems that the international community is scared of Mugabe. Why do they always allow him to do as he pleases?” questioned Thulani Sibanda, a fruit vendor at Park Station bus terminus, “It seems that only (MDC leader Morgan) Tsvangirai is ready to challenge this tyrant and he is the only hope that we have. It seems like the whole world views Mugabe as the sole owner of Zimbabwe and they want to allow him to take it further down,” he added.

Solomon Chikohwero, chairman of the MDC Veteran Activists Association (VAA), said that the MDC should not be pushed into getting into a government that would not allow exiles to return home, for fears of their safety.

“After this government has been put in place, we will be stripped of our asylum papers and forced to return home. We therefore, urge the MDC to go into a deal that will make us feel free to return to Zimbabwe and start a new life there, not something that will leave us living here illegally just because we will not be sure of our safety in Zimbabwe.”

He added that if the international community has failed to get the parties to agree on the unity government, it should alternatively call for fresh elections that will be supervised by international peace keepers.

“This deal is our only hope and we must get the best out of it. We all want to be able to go back to Zimbabwe and begin new lives in a more peaceful, more prosperous environment, where international observers will be willing to invest and the international community will bring humanitarian assistance,” said Norah Tapiwa of the Global Zimbabwe Forum.
Mugabe is scared - ANC

Johannesburg - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will be persuaded to retire, a senior official in in the ANC said on Thursday.

Gwede Mantashe, secretary general of the ANC brushed off suggestions that Mugabe could only be forced out through a military invasion.

"I don't think invading Zimbabwe or sanctions would work," he said.

"What will we do to make Mugabe retire? We will persuade him," Mantashe said, according to Sapa news agency.

Mantashe said that South Africa would prefer to deal with Zimbabwe "on a government-to-government level and on a party-to-party level".

He said the ANC leadership had discussed Mugabe's reasons for wanting to stay in power, saying the 84-year-old was afraid of being arrested and charged with war crimes like former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
Taylor, who was Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, was forced into exile in Nigeria before being extradited to the Hague.

"The Hague has taken a number of African people. Mugabe can't be given any guarantees for his safety in retirement," Sapa quoted Mantashe as saying.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, when he was hailed as a liberation hero.

Now the opposition accuses his party of orchestrating deadly political attacks while the country crumbles.

Several mainly Western countries have called on him to step down. - AFP





Source: TheZimbabwean

Gono Prints money on 100% cotton cloth

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

By Blessing Chapwati


Gedion Gono

Harare(ZimEye)- Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has printed a 500 million dollar note on 100% cotton material as paper runs out.

The new denomination gazetted on Thursday under statutory instrument 174 of 2008 goes into circulation on Friday together with a 200 million note.

“The note shall on the back have an imposition of dairy cows being milked mechanically and a miner drilling underground. The composition shall be 100% cotton, iridescent strip, text Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe embedded on the front of the note. It shall be 74mm by 148mm in purple,” the gazette said.

The new note is set to be the first of its kind amongst world currencies. The development confirms challenges that are being faced by the central bank in securing paper money after a Germany company terminated its supply contract mid this year after 50 years.

RBZ governor Gideon Gono recently introduced new denominations of 10, 50 million and 100 million dollar in paper denominations but have since lost value in less than a fortnight.

Zimbabwe’s central bank is struggling to adequately supply cash to banks enough to service depositors needs.

Some banks were last week netted in a scam, diverting cash meant for depositors to the parallel market before date of circulation.

Four banks had their executive directors and board members blacklisted by the RBZ from the banking and financial sector for the next five years.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been on a free fall since the violent land invasions in 2000. The month on month inflation is now estimated at more than 500 million percent. (ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

A Memo to SADC Heads of States: Act Now or Forever be Silent!

Paul Mutuzu

www.nationalvision.wordpress.com

As you have seen and heard, body bags of cholera victims mostly women and children, continue to pile up at dysfunctional and abandoned hospitals in Zimbabwe while 13 000 people are already infected with the disease, according to the most recent United Nations Report. The crisis also comes at a time when more than half of Zimbabwe's population is facing an imminent threat of hunger and starvation. Where is the Southern Africa Development Community as this preventable horror continues to unfold in Zimbabwe? As SADC heads of states, you have once again profoundly betrayed the people of Zimbabwe as you have done throughout your existence.

What is happening in Zimbabwe is a shame to all Africans, particularly you who wield political power in the neighboring Southern African bloc (SADC). It is a mockery to the African's quest for independence. Looking at the governance crisis that has plagued Zimbabwe for so long, one might argue that when Ian Smith, former Prime Minister of the Rhodesia, declared unilateral independence from Britain in 1965 stating that he would not allow black majority rule in a thousand years, he probably knew what he was talking about.

Smith, a controversial colonialist, probably worked with the assumption that by doing so, it would be disastrous as black people were incapable of ruling themselves. In spite of his racial misgivings, he made sure that the people did not starve, the hospitals never shut down, diseases were under control, social amenities were functioning while jobs were abundantly available. It is also important to remember that this happened at a time when Rhodesia was under international sanctions, for reasons stated above. But again there are indubitable and clear cases of success stories that SADC boasts. Nelson Mandela, Festus Mogae and Khama epitomize statesmanship, grace and class.

While the rest of you were intoxicated with promoting Thabo Mbeki's fantasies of an open-ended quiet diplomacy which was overflowing with implausible remedies, y ou were sufficiently warned on several occasions that such a scheme was unworkable. Even though Mbeki was eventually made to squirm with embarrassment after his ANC party ousted him through a no-confidence vote, his ghost as a coconspirator in nurturing Robert Mugabe's rule lingers on.

Four months ago soon after his ouster, I wrote an article entitled “Indictment of Thabo Mbeki” (www.nationalvision.wordpress.com) arguing that “Mbeki has left office at a time when Zimbabwe is at the crossroads and in a complete mess, a mess he helped to create by his collusion with Mugabe in entrenching the Zimbabwean dictatorship.” While Mbeki's influence in Zimbabwean politics has long fizzled out, Zimbabweans will forever remember him as the chief enabler of the dictatorship across the Limpopo.

Mugabe's slow response (or lack thereof) in dealing with the cholera crisis is two-pronged. The main reason is that his government has been bankrupt for quite some time now given the 231=2 0million percent inflation inter alia, a product of egregious economic mismanagement hence Zimbabwe's health delivery system has been brought to its knees. Secondly it comes as no surprise given his government's disdain for the poor communities in the suburbs which he previously punished for overwhelmingly supporting the opposition party.

You will recall that in 2005 Mugabe caused a humanitarian crisis after he unleashed armed police who went on a rampage called 'Operation Murambatsvina' destroying homes in the suburbs which left about 700 000 people homeless, according to the International Crisis Group and the UN-sanctioned Tibaijuka Report. Ironically, his exclusionary policies have always isolated the poor such that he has created more poverty in Zimbabwe.


You are well aware that Zimbabwe's problems are all centered on a political crisis created by Mugabe. Your failure to denounce and punish Mugabe's actions continue to represent a scandalous travesty of democracy. When the international community particularly US, EU and Commonwealth20(which eventually suspended Zimbabwe for that reason) denounced the 2002 presidential elections in Zimbabwe as “a stolen election” many in SADC endorsed the election as “free and fair”.

The current acting South African President Kgalema Motlanthe is a known ally of Mugabe who as head of the South Africa observer mission, shamelessly validated Zimbabwe's rigged 2002 elections declaring them as 'completely free and fair', just like many (if not all) in SADC. Electoral fraud was repeated during the 2008 elections that were still won by the MDC, according to official results. With your approval, Mugabe refused to go saying "We are not going to give up” because “of a mere X. How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?" The US and the international community dismissed them as 'a sham election'. As SADC you should have enabled Morgan Tsvangirai to become President and disabled Mugabe for stealing the election.

Only three voices have stood with the people of Zimbabwe in their time of need including that of the late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa. The other two are President Khama of B otswana and Prime Minister Odinga of Kenya. The rest of you have profoundly betrayed the people of Zimbabwe

When the genocide of Rwanda was taking place, most African leaders professed ignorance about the existence of the crisis. Now the crisis has been brewing in your backyard with the threat spilling over tour countries. Will you continue to fold your arms or you will join the international chorus to rid Zimbabwe of a dictator whose so-called sovereignty revolution has come to devour its children? In this day and age, true sovereignty should be about conquering poverty, hunger, disease, fear and ignorance.

As I write to you, state-sponsored political violence is again on the increase in Zimbabwe. This also comes at a time when one of the butchers of the people of Zimbabwe, Elliot Manyika, died in a car crash over the weekend. He will be dearly missed (by The Hague). It is every peace-loving Zimbabwean's hope that this man will be tried posthumously without delay because the heinous crimes he committed are all documented. I can guarantee you that most of the children of Zimbabwe are celebrating over the end of such a sad chapter that personified violence, death and destruction!

Barely a week ago, Jestina Mukoko, a high proile human rights monitor and activist was abducted and her whereabouts are still unknown. God forbid, the prospects of finding her alive are dim if what happened to several former abductees is anything to go by. Activists who suffered gruesome murder after abductions include Joshua Bakacheza and Edward Chikomba. Only Mugabe and his men know what happened. There is already an outrage as more than 1000 people have already signed up to a Facebook petition demanding that Robert Mugabe spares the life of this lady wherever his hangmen are holding her. In addition, 12 MDC activists who were abducted last month are still missing and feared dead. None of you spoke in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.

When violent farm seizures sponsored by Mugabe and his men (most notably Elliot Manyika) led to brutal murders of white farmers together with their black farm-workers, no one spoke a word. We now hear that as you begin to import our cholera you finally contemplating putting diplomatic pressure on Mugabe. It is a case o f too little too late but the people of Zimbabwe will appreciate whatever help they get to be unyoked from the grip of the tyrant, your 'comrade'. I have personally written extensively about the need to rise against Mugabe by the people of Zimbabwe, but they need your moral support.

Zimbabwean people are pleading for your help. If you cannot convince Mugabe to agree on a fair power-sharing deal with the MDC then SADC must collectively put an end to his rule as correctly advocated by Botswana. A fortnight ago, Botswana called upon Zimbabwe's neighbours to push for regime change by sealing all borders such that "If no petrol went in (Zimbabwe) for a week, he (Mugabe) can't last”. South Africa alone has the capacity to embargo Zimbabwe effectively enough to bring about the necessary changes in the country. There is no doubt that Zimbabwe is operating as a province of South Africa, its lifeline, in order to sustain itself.

What is really stopping you from taking action against Mugabe? Is it pan-Africanism? Zimbabwe is not a private enterprise for Mugabe and his friends, it belongs to that mother displaced by pover ty in Zimbabwe, crawling under the precarious barbed fence of South Africa in desperate search for food. The country also belongs to the unemployed youths swimming across the crocodile infested Limpopo River into South Africa. To the refugee or asylum seeker humiliated time and again in foreign lands. Zimbabwe also belonged to the hundreds who have died under the hands of a vicious dictator as well as those who died from xenophobic attacks in the streets of South Africa.

As SADC you have set a distasteful precedent for Zimbabwe by allowing losers to form a unity government. You have failed to see beyond Mugabe because behind him are aspiring dictators, capable of becoming more lethal than him. The very men who committed the most heinous crime against the people of Zimbabwe (in Matebeleland during 1980's, in 2002 and 2008 presidential elections) are the ones playing the power game. That is why it is quite chilling to note that you have helped to create a monster that will continue to give our generation headaches, after you are long gone.

In the meantime, as the agony of the people of Zimbabwe intensifies who among you has a conscience? Now20is the time to raise your moral threshold in light of the humanitarian crisis and the searing political turmoil. If you are serious about seeing the people of Zimbabwe experiencing change, we must see that change in you first. While it is a Herculean undertaking to convince Mugabe to step down, power-sharing is not an option. It is time to act!

www.nationalvision.wordpress.com
Email nvinstitute@aol.com

Notorious political gangster Elliot Manyika killed in car crash

08 December 2008

By Staff Reporter

Notorious political gangster and ZANU PF political commissar Elliot Manyika died in a horrific car accident on Saturday morning while on his way to a meeting in Gwanda.

He was due to preside over elections for a new executive in Matabeleland South province. Manyika’s official Mercedes-Benz vehicle burst a tyre on the Zvishavane-Mbalabala road, resulting in the driver losing control.

The car over-turned and uprooted some trees. He was trapped for a time in the vehicle, together with the driver, before they were both whisked to Bulawayo’s Mater Dei hospital by a doctor who happened to be passing by.

Manyika later died from his injuries, but his driver is expected to make a full recovery. The 53 year old Manyika was currently serving as a Minister without Portfolio having previously served as minister of Youth Development, Gender and Employment creation.

As Youth Minister he ran the controversial Border Gezi training camps that churned out violent party militia used to kill, maim and harass opposition activists. Opposition activists will not be mourning his death given he would personally supervise abductions and beatings using his own twin cab 4x4 truck.

At the height of post election violence this year he was reported to have shot and killed a policeman in Bindura but the matter was quietly dealt with. During demonstrations by human rights group ROHR Zimbabwe last month Manyika drove to Mbare and Machipisa to personally collect thugs to beat up the protesters.

Coincidentally Manyika’s predecessor as ZANU PF national political commissar Border Gezi also died in a car accident while traveling to a party restructuring meeting in Masvingo province. Gezi had an equally atrocious human rights record. After Gezi died Manyika is said to have got the late Minister’s wife pregnant, an issue that did not go down well with party leader Mugabe.

Manyika was born on July 30 1955 at Rosa Clinic in Chiweshe, Mashonaland Central. He served as Zimbabwe’s High Commissioner to Malawi before returning home in 2000 to become Mashonaland Central Governor and Resident Minister.

Mugabe must go Now says Odinga

Raila Odinga


Power-sharing in Zimbabwe is dead and it is time for African governments to oust President Robert Mugabe, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said.After talks with Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Nairobi, Mr Odinga said that Mr Mugabe had no interest in sharing power.

"It's time for African governments to take decisive action to push him out of power," said Mr Odinga.

Zimbabwe is in political deadlock over a unity coalition government deal.

State media meanwhile reported the arrest of 10 soldiers who allegedly ran amok in the capital Harare on Monday because a bank had no money to pay their wages.

Six other soldiers accused of looting last week had also been held.

"Power-sharing is dead in Zimbabwe and will not work with a dictator who does not really believe in power-sharing," Mr Odinga told the BBC.

Mr Zuma declared a new alliance between his party and the Kenyan leader, designed to elevate the Zimbabwe issue, she says.

Mr Odinga said that if Mr Mugabe were isolated, he would have no choice but to quit.

Mr Tsvangirai has been on a whirlwind tour of several African countries appealing for help.

The political turmoil is aggravated by the current health crisis in Zimbabwe.

A cholera outbreak has claimed at least 565 lives in Zimbabwe.

At least 12,545 cases have been recorded since August.

The country's authorities, who last week said there was no crisis, have now declared the outbreak a national emergency. BBC/STAFF REPORTER

Statement on the Abduction of Ms Jestina Mukoko, the Director of Zimbabwe Peace Project,

4 December 2008, 2pm


Civil society in Zimbabwe joins Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) in registering its shock and grave concern over the abduction of Ms Jestina Mukoko, the Director of Zimbabwe Peace Project. It is reported that Jestina Mukoko was kidnapped at gunpoint by 15 armed men driving unmarked cars at about 5am on the 3rd of December. One of the vehicles used in the get away was a silver Mazda 323 Familia. Her whereabouts are still unknown.

The Zimbabwe Peace Project is a frontline defender of human rights engaged in monitoring and documenting human rights abuses. This kidnapping is a blunt mockery of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by Zimbabwean political parties on the 15th of September and shows the extent of the breakdown of the rule of law and insincerity of state authorities in Zimbabwe. This confirms the concern that civil society in Zimbabwe has about the ability of the security services to act in the public interest and in an impartial manner.

We therefore demand the following from the current establishment running the affairs of the state and the guarantors of the 15 September Global Political Agreement: SADC Chairperson His Excellency President Kgalema Motlante and AU Chairperson, His Excellency President Jakaya Kikwete:

1. the immediate and unconditional release of Ms Jestina Mukoko by the state authorities in Zimbabwe
2. the immediate release of human rights defenders who have found themselves under the same predicament
3. an immediate cessation of systematic purges and human rights violations by the current establishment and its security agents on human rights defenders
4. that Zimbabwe observes its duty to respect and protect internationally guaranteed human rights
5. drastic action to ensure that no human rights abuses committed by state authorities and party militias receive any pardons in the future as the trends of violence seems to be escalating
Please find attached a list of organizations which endorsed the statement.

Endorsed by the undersigned

Zimbabwe Peace Project
Human Rights NGO Forum
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
National Constitutional Assembly
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
Women in Politics Support Unit
National Association for the Care of the Handicapped
Bulawayo Agenda
Padare
Combined Harare Residents Association
Zimbabwe Urban Residents Association
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development
Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe
Federation of African Women Media in Zimbabwe
Transparency International Zimbabwe
Nhimbe Trust
Media Institute of Southern Africa
Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust
Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre
Savannah Trust
Bulawayo Agenda
Artists for Democracy Zimbabwe Trust
Zimbabwe National Students Union
Women of Zimbabwe Arise
Women’s Coalition
Ecumenical Support Services
Zimbabwe Farmers Union Dev Trust
NOVASC
Build a Better Youth Zimbabwe
Media Monitoring Project in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Students Christian Movement
Media Monitoring Project in Zimbabwe
Build a Better Youth Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe National Students Union
Students Solidarity Trust
YIDEZ
International Socialist Organization
Youth Forum
Youth Agenda Trust
Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Zimbabwe Doctors’ for Human Rights
Legal Resources Foundation
Zimbabwe Liberators Platform
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace
Counseling Services Unit
Zimbabwe Association of Editors
Community Radio Harare
P.I.R.F Hwange
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists
Zimbabwe Press Clubs Association
Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe
Jesuit Communications
P.I.R.F Bikita
Gweru Press Club

Tsvangirai's speech on receiving democracy award

Tuesday 02 December 2008


President Tsvangirai


MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday 28 November won a pro-democracy award at Moroccan political-economic forum in the Mediterranean, known as MEDays.

"The 2008 MEDays prize for political dialogue has been awarded to the head of Zimbabwe's opposition for his efforts to promote democracy in his country," said the vice-president of the Moroccan think-tank that organised the forum.

Bellow is President Morgan Tsvangirai's acceptance speech upon receiving the award:

I am humbled by the honour you have bestowed on me through this award. I want to dedicate this award to the people of Zimbabwe and therefore wish to say that I am receiving this award on their behalf.

As I speak, our country is consumed by a man-made humanitarian crisis with a recent outbreak of cholera so far having claimed more than five hundred lives. The food situation is our country is deplorable; more than 5.5 million people in our country will need food aid, which is more than half the people still residing in the country.

The international community has tried to help through the World Food Programme but have not been able to access all the people – particularly those that are in the rural areas – due to political interference by Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF.

Mr Chairman may I use this platform to appeal to the rest of the world to move with speed to assist us address the humanitarian situation in the country as it has reached catastrophic levels.

Following our victory at the polls on the 29th of March 2008, and the aborted runoff of June 27th 2008, the African Union at a summit in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, made a resolution calling for Robert Mugabe and me to form a unity government. We have been engaged in these negotiations since then and signed a global political agreement on the 15th of September 2008.

However, owing to the lack of sincerity on the part of ZANU PF we are still in negotiations to conclude four key issues:

1 Amendment number 19 to our constitution which is designed to bring the global agreement into legal effect.

2. The issue of provincial governors.

3. Senior appointments in government.

4. Portfolio allocation.

We in the party the MDC will do everything in our power to ensure that this agreement is implemented consistent with the wishes of the people as expressed on March 29th 2008. We have been on this path of peaceful democratic resistance for the past ten years; a path we do not intend to abandon.

Our vision as a party is to set a precedent on our continent: a precedent of fighting dictatorships through democratic means. This I believe will make Africa a better place and indeed set it on a path of development.

Mr Chairman, I want to thank you and your organisation for recognising us, the people of Zimbabwe, through this prestigious award.

I thank you. – ZimOnline

Zimbabweans must do something NOW!

26 November 2008

By Promise Mkwananzi



The time has come for Zimbabweans to take matters into their own hands and save themselves, their children and future generations. It would be a pity if Zimbabweans cannot defend their children from ZANU PF criminals. This would mean that if someone got into their houses and raped their daughters or maimed their sons, they would just stand idly and cowardly and watch while their children perish.

Today the people and their children are under attack from their erstwhile liberators. I shudder to think if the current generation will just watch while everybody and everything perishes. This will be the greatest sin before God. The international community will only be able to support and respond to our own initiatives.

There will be no peacekeeping force in Zimbabwe because the so called statesman/international community don’t realise that there is a silent war going on. Silent war is worse than real war, because people perish without anybody noticing.

It is like a spouse that keeps quite when their partner is abusing them. Such a scenario sometimes leads to gruesome deaths which could have been avoided or mitigated. I would like to charge here that Zimbabweans must now spring up to action and save themselves.

I chose to write this on a Tuesday because of a special reason. The NCA has called for civil protests to force ZANU PF to act responsibly-I would argue that the situation in Zimbabwe now warrants any action that is necessary to prevent further madness from Mugabe, Mnangagwa and their fellow criminals.

The so called talks about nothing must be given an impetus on the ground by people of Zimbabwe who should demand that their voices of 29th of March be heard. Otherwise, the talks must now be abandoned and people must begin to think in other terms. You cannot solve a problem democratically when you are dealing with a callous tyrant. You just cannot cure syphilis with cafinols; you simply need the right medicine. This is the situation which confronts us today in Zimbabwe.

If nothing is done at the earliest possible moment, millions of people will perish while a few gluttons wine and dine. Zimbabwe is our country, we are the Zimbabweans and we should now more than any other time show that we are proudly Zimbabweans by showing that we are able to defend ourselves and our country from a Malawian who happened to be born in Zimbabwe and became a marauding despot.

We are running out of time, we are running out of options: We need to act and act quickly. The consequences of cowardice have become greater than those of courage. The latter is now the only option and we should take it before it also runs out.

Zimbabwe must be free!

Promise Mkwananzi is the former President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU).

Zimbabwean soldiers clash with the police

02 December 2008

By Sebastien Berger and Peta Thornycroft in Harare

Police shot at rioting soldiers on the streets of Harare on Monday as unpaid uniformed personnel sided with the country’s impoverished people for the first time in protest against Zimbabwe’s collapsing economy. Tensions boiled over when around 50 troops were denied money from banks, after queuing all day.



The soldiers, from Cranborne Barracks and wearing camouflage dress, staged an impromptu protest, shouting at the banks, and were joined by hundreds of civilians at the corner of Robert Mugabe and Fourth Streets, in the heart of the capital.

When heavily armed riot police, in full combat dress, arrived to break up the demonstration, violence broke out — and the soldiers fought back. “The pot is now boiling,” said an eyewitness. ”We have never seen anything like this before, soldiers and ordinary people standing side by side and fighting the police.”

As a wounded soldier was being loaded in a police lorry, two generals from defence headquarters, near Robert Mugabe’s official residence, arrived, and their presence appeared to intimidate the rioters, who began to disperse.

But the clash — which came after several soldiers were arrested last week following an attack on money changers — is a graphic illustration of the risk the dysfunctional economy poses to the regime. If Mr Mugabe is unable to maintain loyalty even within his own armed services, his position will come under serious threat.

As the country’s economic crisis spiralled out of control, a government decision to cut the water supply to large swathes of Harare threatened to spread the cholera epidemic.

The official newspaper claimed that the water was cut off because of a shortage of an essential chemical used during the purification process, but the move raised concerns that it would spread the deadly epidemic that has seen more than 11,000 cases nationwide. As the water was shut off, families were forced into the streets, carrying containers and searching for water from wells or cisterns.

The worsening situation has seen Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF make key concessions in its negotiations over a constitutional amendment with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

According to a copy of the text agreed by negotiators and seen by the Telegraph, it contains a definition of the phrase “in consultation”, which appears several times in the power-sharing agreement between the parties, that will give the Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai a veto over key government decisions, including the appointment of senior personnel, among them the country’s service chiefs.

“These provisions and the definitions attached to them make a dramatic reduction in Mugabe’s power,” said David Coltart, a lawyer and senator for the MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara. “It’s a huge change. It gives Morgan substantial power and certainly sufficient power to go ahead with this agreement.

“What’s driving all of this now is just complete economic collapse and the growing humanitarian crisis which Zanu realise they have no answer to. There’s an air of desperation now.”

Statement on the Current Political Situation in Zimbabwe to the Southern Africa Trade Union Coordination Council (SATUCC) Leaders gathered for the Co

By Zimbabweans Living in Botswana


Summary: Post Election Violence 29 March 2008


Post 29 March 2008 Zimbabwe has seen unprecedented violence since Gukuruhundi in the early 1980’s. The violence was country wide, and involved both urban and rural communities. It was systematic, as repeated in narrative after narrative, “I was taken because my name was on a list, and I was beaten because of my involvement or my relative’s involvement with the MDC T”. It was organised and supported by the Zimbabwe National Army as evidenced by the number of ZNA perpetrators, and executed by ZANU PF youth, supporters and war veterans. Victims were not protected by the police, in more than 80% of cases the police initially refused to take statements from the victims. 90% of all deaths and people seeking medical assistance are active members of the MDC T, and form part of the organising structures of the party. Most of the victims were not only assaulted, but displaced and had property destroyed and looted. There are records of 880 homesteads being burned to the ground.

192 people have been verified as being murdered, often after abduction, and the bodies dumped in other areas, only being found after several weeks. There are credible witness reports of 18 bodies being found in one dam in Mashonaland East, and several bodies in other dams in the province and other provinces. 2 victims give reports at attempted disposal in dams, after severe assaults, when the assailants presumed them dead.

There are dozens of missing activists; some disappeared since May 2008, with police refusing to take reports of their disappearance. In the most recent abduction of 15 key MDC party members and one 2 year old child in Mashonaland West, despite three High Court orders, they remain unaccounted for, and there is increasing concern that they have been murdered. During the arrest, police siezed property, computers etc, from the home of MDC’s national official Concilia Chinanzvavana. They are alleged to be among 12 MDC activists who are said to have received military training in Botswana, the allegations have since proved to be false.

Over 6000 people, including 10% under the age of 12, and 15% over the age of 60 have sought medical treatment countrywide. Of particular note is that 176 people were injured in the period 27 June to the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the 20 July 2008, and that since then 123 people have been targeted and assaulted. Previously injured people are giving credible reports that their names are still on targeted lists, and that in the next round of violence they will be killed.
Of particular note is that over 100 victims who were injured before the 27 June presidential election were delayed in seeking treatment for up to three months, and several of these had serious injuries including fractures.

15th September Agreement

We the Zimbabwean citizens living in Botswana are greatly concerned by the continued non-implementation of the 15th September agreement reached by between Zanu (PF) and the MDC. The non-implementation the above agreement that could have ushered a New government which could have brought an end to the current political paralysis affecting service delivery such as health, education, and food has remained our major concern.

We are reliably informed that Robert Mugabe and his civilian military junta are not committed to a genuine power sharing agreement as expressed by his unilateral grabing of key ministry such Home Affairs, Defence, Intelligents, Information and Publicity. For many years, Mugabe has been at the fore front of abusing these particular Ministries to suppress the will of the Zimbabwe People through vote rigging, arbitrary arrests, misinformation, torture and rape. This systematic abuse of power has seen many Zimbabwean going into exile to neighbouring countries such as South Africa; Botswana, Zambia etc. to seek political and economic asylum. Currently an estimated one million economically displaced people are living and working in Botswana running away from unprecedented unemployment levels in Zimbabwe resulting from the economic meltdown.

Current Health Crisis

The health system in Zimbabwe has been under severe strain for the past few years, but in recent weeks has collapsed completely. The main referral hospitals country-wide are closed or barely functioning, with skeleton staff and no drugs. The main government maternity hospital in Harare closed three weeks ago, leaving no method of delivery for all women requiring assisted or operative delivery. There has been a 3 fold increase in brain damage of children in the past three years, indicating the tragedy of the failing health system.

Anti-retroviral and anti-TB drugs are only intermittently available, posing a serious health threat to the region.

However, the greatest health threat is the lack of delivery of regular clean water to the cities and high density suburbs, resulting in unsafe sanitation, and shallow unprotected wells providing limited water to the communities. Diarrhoeal disease has increased significantly, and now cholera is established country wide. 8887 cases have been documented and 366 deaths, giving a death rate of 4%. Cholera death rates in well controlled epidemics should not exceed 1%. The death rates in some areas have reached as high as 20%.
Cholera is now being reported in the Harare Central Prison, with 7 known deaths. The prisoners are not yet being taken for treatment, so the death rate in these institutions may be catastrophic, as the health of the prisoners is already compromised due to severe malnutrition. Some penal institutions have been releasing prisoners due to an inability to provide food, and there are credible reports of up to 20 nutrition related deaths per day.

Appeal To Trade Union Leaders

We, Zimbabweans living and working in Botswana, appeal to SATUCC and its affiliate trade unions to unreservedly condemn the Mugabe regime and its military junta for its intransigence, which threatens to derail the ongoing dialogue process.

We urgently appeal to SATUCC to urge the parties to the agreement to urgently enact constoitution amendment No 19 and the resolution of all other outstanding issues in order to achieve equitable and sustainable all inclusive power sharing.

We further appeal to SATUCC and its affliate Unions to condemn the continued acts of violence and abductions that are being pertrated against innocent civillians in pursuit of parochial goals.
We further more appeal to SATUCC and its affiliates to use their influence and demand unfettered access in both the distribution of aid and assessment of the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe. In this regard we view that the action of the regime in Harare of barring the team of elders who were genuinely concerned about the suffering of the generality of Zimbabweans be equally unreservedly condemned.

The shameful action of the Mugabe regime is a clear contempt of the wisdom of such eminent African leaders such as Mr. Mandela, the former President of South Africa who is a founder of the Elders group.

We, Zimbabweans working in Botswana, have always viewed SATUCC and its affiliate unions as the voice of the voiceless in the SADC region and as such it is our strong belief that the leaders will use their collective power and wisdom to highlight the suffering of the Zimbabwean masses and urge their respective governments to condemn the Mugabe regime for having ruined a once prosperous economy.

MDC not part of inclusive government until outstanding issues are resolved

Opinion
November 21, 2008 | By Nelson Chamisa | © zimbabwemetro.com ⋅


The MDC would like to dismiss distortions and fabrications being peddled by the state media in reference to the MDC’s position regarding the formation of an inclusive government.

On Friday 15 November 2008, the MDC’s supreme decision making body, the National Council met in Harare and unanimously resolved to reject the SADC Troika’s resolution and ruling.

However, the state media especially The Herald and ZBC are channeling falsehoods claiming that the MDC had resolved to join Zanu PF in the inclusive government regardless of the defects and deficiencies in the agreement as currently obtaining.

This statement by the state media is totally misleading and the MDC is concerned that the state media is in violation of the global political agreement signed on 15 September 2008, which states that the public media should provide balanced and fair coverage to all political parties.

The misrepresentation of facts by the state media is very mischievous as the people of Zimbabwe would like to know the truth concerning the issue on the formation of an inclusive government.

On Friday the National Council met and rejected SADC Troika’s resolution of 28 October 2008 seeking to erroneously reduce the sticking points to only the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The council also resolved that in the event of an illegimate government being formed by Zanu PF, the MDC would not be part to the same and will peacefully, constitutionally and democratically mobilize
and campaign against the illegitimate government.

For the avoidance of doubt the National Council resolutions clearly stated that the MDC shall participate in a new government only if the following issues are resolved;

1. The equitability and fairness in the allocation and distribution of all ministerial portfolios
2. The equitable allocation of Provincial Governors
3. The legal passage of Constitutional Amendment No.19
4. The constitution and composition of the National Security Council
5. Correction of mischievous omission in the agreement signed on the
15th of September 2008
6. The appointment of senior government officials such as Permanent
Secretaries and Ambassadors

MDC Information and Publicity Department.

A Bleak future for Zimbabwe

Opinion
November 24, 2008 | By Douglas Mwonzora | © zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ Email This Email This | ⋅ Post a comment

Mugabe’s eighteen tactics of destructions

To the average Zimbabwean, 29th of March did not present an opportunity of retribution or counter plunder but rather a perfect opportunity to do away a with tyrannical, incompetent, inefficient, corrupt and pestilential regime. It presented a hope to bring about a sensitive administration that would redress and cure all the man made damage to our political economy. That is why the aftermath of March 29 saw absolutely no acts of retribution or ill treatment of the defeated by the victors. The light heartedness and love with which Zanu (PF) members were treated bear testimony to this assertion.

The 29th of March therefore presented this nation with an incredible, rare but golden opportunity for national healing and reconciliation.

Regrettably however as imperial evidence shows, Robert Mugabe, a bitter, old and failed statesman has literally turned March 29 into a national tragedy. His manipulation of the Zimbabwe Election Commission in its publication of the Presidential results are a matter of common knowledge. His incitement of the security forces, youth militia and outright criminals to turn against the people like a monolithic vampire are a matter of historical record.

Having safely pocketed the presidential “booty”, Mugabe then sought a “negotiated settlement” to the Zimbabwean crisis. Suddenly he became “a magnanimous victor reaching out to his enemies” for a government of national unity.

The aim of this article is to show and hopefully prove that inspite of all the public posturing Robert Mugabe is on the war path with the people of Zimbabwe and any right thinking outsiders who dare oppose him. It is further to explore and analyze the Eighteen tactics that are being employed in this evil endeavour.

B. A BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF MUGABE’S TREATMENT OF
OPPOSITION
Historically Robert Mugabe is an isolationist. In his youth, in Zvimba after altercations with his peers during cattle herding, which altercations were usually started by him, he would take his mothers herd (rumoured to be only 9) isolate them from the rest, drive them away and herd them on his own. During the liberation struggle he became more violent and brutal to his opposition. It is a matter of public record that he peddled lies about Ndabaningi Sithole who was in prison, leading to the his disposition as Zanu leader. In Mozambique all those who opposed him werr “jailed” in the Mozambiquean jungle for the entire duration of the war. Theses include the late Henry Hamadziripi and Rugare Gumbo who ironically is now Minister for Agriculture. Their crime has never been disclosed. One top official was tied to a tree in a national park beset by lions in Mozambique and left at the mercy of these preditors for a period of 3 days for opposing Mugabe.

One of Mugabe’s victims after independence was Bishop Muzorewa who was detained without trial on trumped up charges. He was never brought to trial.
Importantly faced with a potent fore PF Zapu, Mugabe resorted to peddling false hoods about its intention to resort to banditry. The people in Matebeleland were subjected to illegal detentions, torture harassment and murder. The trials and tribulations of Late Joshua Nkomo, Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa are all matters of historical record.

The historical data clearly shows that Mugabe’s treatment of his opponents is pathological. In his mind his opponents have to be obliterated and bloated from the face of the earth or forever be condemned to political death. In spite of his hollow platitudes of unity and peace Mugabe is now more dangerous to the people of Zimbabwe than ever before.

C. MUGABES 18 TACTICS

1.DIVIDING THE OPPOSITION: BUYING OVER MDC – M

Mugabe has sought to drive a wedge between the two MDC formations. He has done so by selectively vilifying the MDC –T and portraying it as less rational than the MDC – M. He has sought to go to bed with tactless Mutambara in a bid to show that he can accommodate opposition. In Parliament he sought to support and sponsor MDC – M candidate for the position of Speaker of the House of Assembly. Indeed in most public appearances Professor Mutambara has began more and more to sound and behave like Mugabe’s alter ego. The main purpose of this fake unity was to use Mutambara to provide “a balancing act” during power sharing negotiations and tilt the negotiations in Mugabes favour. Regrettably for Mugabe and Mutambara, this tactic does not appear to have much potency as Zimbabweans have now seen through it.

2.CONTINUOUS HARASSMENT OF THE OPPOSITION

Most leaders have been brutalized by security forces in a bid to break their revolutionary spirit and resolve. Most of these are on trial on trumped criminal charges army personnel and state security agents have been into the rural areas to specifically harass the MDC-T leadership. The Police have been instructed to turn a blind eye on the criminal acts perpetrated on the MDC-T leadership by Zanu (PF) thugs and at the same time deal ruthlessly with the MDC-T leadership who wish to retaliate. At the local level therefore the Zanu (PF) leadership enjoys criminal immunity for harassing the MDC- T leadership.

3.TRICKERY BORDERING ON CRIMINALITY

It is now a matter of common record that the Global Political Agreement that was reached on the 11th of September 2005. The text agreed and initialed by the three principals on 11th September 2008 is substantially different from the bound text presented for official signature on 15th September 2008. That variation in the agreement was meant to trick the opposition and well meaning SADC leadership into signing the wrong agreement. The alteration of the agreement to suit him (Mugabe) was done in the hope that the world would not read the fine print. This tactic, which is trickery bordering on criminality will be used at every opportunity by Mugabe and his government to achieve their sordid objectives.

4.PROLONGING THE OBVIOUS

An analysis of Mugabe’s behaviour during the power sharing talks clearly shows that Mugabe is bidding for time. One of the clauses in the agreement is that should one party pull out of the Global Political Agreement then there should be a general election. Mugabe and Zanu (PF) know that they would not win this election if it is conducted in a free and fair environment. In fact the surest way of getting Mugabe out of power is through a free and fair election in Zimbabwe. But Mugabe wants to prolong that eventuality. With the economy out of control Mugabe’s unpopularity is also going out of control. This tactic of bidding for time is simply prolonging the obvious.

5.FRUSTRATING AND CIRCUMVENTING THE G.P.A

Despite tempering with the document Mugabe still believes that the GPA was a bad deal for him. To circumvent its clear spirit Mugabe has gone ahead and made unilateral appointments of the Provincial Governors in all the country’s ten provinces. He has also made unilateral appointments to the Senate. Although the G.P,A calls for a return to the rule of law, respect human rights and an end to violence Mugabe has not respected any of these. All this is meant to scuttle the G.P.A.

6.BULLYING STRESSED SADC MEMBERS

Some members of SADC like, DRC, Angola, Lesotho and Mozambique are militarily depended in Zimbabwe one way or the other. These members dare not criticize or chastise Mugabe because they badly need his generous military hand. He has exploited these into supporting his evil endeavours. These dependent and potentially dependent countries have never spoken against Mugabe’s policies. Mugabe has converted this into “regional support”. The dependency of these countries on Mugabe inevitably compromises their potency and suitability in dealing with the Zimbabwean crises.

7.DECIMATION OF THE MDC- T MEMBRSHIP

The murders that were perpetrated by the Zanu (PF) members of the MDC- T membership was meant to decimate the latter. Right now most MDC – T leadership and the legislators are on the Zanu (PF) state security, police and army hit lists. The intimidation, harassment and torture of MDC – T people was also meant to decimate MDC- T membership. Surprisingly this tactic has not yielded the desired results because the MDC – T membership is swelling by the day.

8.DISTROYING MDC- T STRUCTURES

In most rural areas MDC – T was a well structured party with, provincial executive committees, District Executive Committees, Ward Executives Committees and Village Executive Committees. It had cells in the villages. All these structures have been targeted by the police, C.I.O and the army for harassment. The aim is to destroy these structures and therefore compromise the MDC-T’s organizational ability.

9.STRESSING MDC-T LEGISLATORS AND COUNCILLORS

A big number of MDC-T legislators are unemployed. After March 29 they were denied a salary from Parliament for a period in excess of six months. Most of them ran into debt. They were also denied traditional parliamentary vehicles. Although on paper they are entitled to weekly fuel supplies this fuel has not been forthcoming in the past weeks. This is meant to economically squeeze the MDC- T legislator and make them less effective in their respective constituencies. The legislators have also been denied the fertilizer, seed and food allocation for their constituencies. Again the aim is to bring feelings of revulsion and drive a wedge between the population and the elected MDC-T officials.

10.SHARPENING AND INTENSIFYING ANTI-MDC PROPAGANDA

Mugabe has maintained a tight grip and has retained monopoly on the state electronic and print media. This media has spear headed a relentless attack on the MDC leadership especially on Morgan Tsvangirayi. The reporting has been embarrassingly one sided hysterical and rhetorical. In the sate media, Morgan Tsvangirayi and MDC –T are portrayed as dull irrational and unpatriotic. Their genuine positions are never published. Just like the Pravda in communist Russia The Herald is being used by this regime as the medium of launching vitriolic attacks on the opposition.

11.MAINTENANCE OF A DE FACTO STATE OF EMERGENCY

Zimbabwe is in a de facto state of emergency. Most MDC supporters are detained without charge or trial. Their basic human rights including equal treatment before the law, freedom of expression, opinion, association and assembly are abrogated everyday by the state, C.I.O, the army and the police. This suspension of human rights by the government is meant to stifle democratic discourse in our country and tilt political power in favour of Zanu (PF) and Mugabe.

12.SILENT LAND GRABBING

The SADCC Tribunal recently issued an order to the Zimbabwean government to stop any further farm acquisitions. However the government has continued issuing offer letters in respect to ungazetted land. The land targeted is that which belongs to known MDC activists and sympathizers. All farms that employ MDC supporters as labourers are also targeted for illegal acquisition. This land is then parceled out to the army, police and C.I.O officials.

13.IRRATIONALISATION OF PARLIAMENT

Zanu (PF) has instructed its Parliamentarians to be extremely irrational in Parliament. They have refused to debate the important motion on political violence. In fact they planned and threatened to disrupt parliamentary business should this motion be debated. They are disruptive and disrespectiful of the Speaker of Parliament. They trash such important motions like the motion on the food crisis. This irrationalisation of Parliament is a deliberate ploy to make sure that nothing of substance comes out of Parliament. This Parliamentary failure is then going to be
attributed to MDC-T which has a majority in Parliament.

14.THE ILLUSION OF BANDITRY

Mugabe is plotting a violent crack down on the MDC and its supporters. In order to do this he needs to invent a reason. As the Nigerian saying goes “when a hyena wants to devour its young ones, it starts by accusing them of smelling like goats”. In the run up to the June 2008 madness Mugabe accused the MDC – T supporters of provoking Zanu (PF) supporters. The result was a massive crackdown on innocent MDC members. This is not new and has been used against P.F Zapu, the UANC and Zanu (Ndonga). Recently the state militia has started peddling lies that MDC is training a militia in Botswana. Everybody knows that this is a lie. The main aim however is to justify a crackdown on the MDC-T supporters and officials. This violent crackdown is clearly looming and may reach genocidal proportions if not checked or nipped in the bud.

15. MAINTENANCE OF A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT

Mugabe has retained a government headed by a cabinet that he dissolved in February 2008. All the Ministers including those that lost the election and were not even brought back via the backdoor exercise their cabinet functions. For Mugabe therefore it is business as usual. The scuttling of the talks is therefore meant to prolong the life of that cabinet.

16.MILITARISATION OF KEY CIVILIAN INSTITUTIONS

In Zimbabwe the army is everywhere. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is headed by army personnel. The brigadiers and colonels are heading the food distribution and procurement institutions like the Grain Marketing Board. The institutions that deal with the procurement of farm implements and inputs like seed and fertilizer are headed by the army. The critical reason for this militarization is to ensure that the elected officials do not play a part in the distribution and procurement of food and inputs. It is also meant to intimidate the villagers. Importantly it brings about opaqueness and unaccountability in these institutions.

17. ELEVATION OF THE POLITIBURO TO THE ALPHA & OMEGA OF
ZIMBABWEAN POLITICS

The politiburo is Zanu (PF)’s supreme decision making organ which itself
is headed by Mugabe. This organ has been elevated to the highest
decision making organ in the country. After the signing of the M.O.U the
politiburo issued a statement to the effect that it would not allow
Mugabe’s powers to be reduced similar statement were issued on the
spirit of the G.P.A. The Politiburo is now being used by Mugabe as a
means to backtrack on earlier positions during negotiations. Instead of
negotiating with Mugabe one might as well negotiate with politiburo.

18. THE MONOPOLY AND PLUNDER OF DIAMONDS

The diamond fields in Marange, Manicaland have literally been turned
into death fields. The only companies allowed to Mine there are those
directed by Mugabe’s cronnies. These have deployed militia to make
sure that local villagers do not have access to the diamonds. However
top army and police officials are busy illegally mining diamonds in
Marange. The booty from these diamond fields is being used to prop
up Mugabe’s regime. It will also be used to sponsor terrorism against
the people and subdue the people.

C. CONCLUSION

A leopard, like Mugabe cannot change its spots. Despite his hollow words and platitudes Mugabe and his henchmen do not have serious intentions of political reform in Zimbabwe. They are on a warpath with the people. If the international community does not intervene with responsible haste then Zimbabwe will slide into mayhem and anarchy. It will in the fullness of time even slide into debilitating civil war. The solution lies with all right thinking members of the international community to avert this disaster.

Editor’s Note: Douglas Mwonzora a lawyer is the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Member of Parliament for Nyanga North.

Mugabe must be re-sworn-Motlanthe

http://www.zimbabwemetro.com



Local News
November 24, 2008 | By Gerald Harper |
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe has said President Robert Mugabe
must re-sworn at the same day when Prime Minister Designate Morgan
Tsvangirai is sworn - in his boldest statement to date that indicates that
South Africa does not recognize Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe.

He told a press briefing after holding talks with his Botswana counterpart
Ian Khama, "We agreed that with regards to Zimbabwe the next step really is
to ensure that we unblock the impasse for them to take amendment 19 through
the senate and the assembly, so that Mr Tsvangirai could be sworn in as
prime minister and Mutambara as the vice prime minister and Mugabe as the
president, so that once the three of them have been sworn in they can then
form an inclusive government."

President Ian Khama meets the Elders group
Botswana President Ian Khama met with members of the Elders group in
Johannesburg after they were refused entry into Zimbabwe on Saturday.

Former US President Jimmy Carter and ex-UN secretary general Kofi Annan were
to embark on a humanitarian mission to the strife-torn country, but were
denied visas by Mugabe's government.

Carter, Annan and Grace Machel, wife of former South African predisent
Nelson Mandela experienced first-hand accounts of the harrowing conditions
in Zimbabwe from refugees at the Central Methodist Church in downtown
Johannesburg. They are on a mission to assess the needs of ordinary
Zimbabweans and free up the flow of aid to the cholera-ravaged country.

The Elders Group have already held talks with the leader of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also in Johannesburg .
The MDC is at loggerheads with the ZANU-PF party, led by Mugabe, over the
allocation of Cabinet Ministers and other positions in a proposed unity
government.

The Elders Group will hold talks with President Motlanthe in Johannesburg on
Monday about the situation in Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean Government has been reported as saying that they
have not refused Annan and his group entry but that the Elders Group had not
proper arrangements for their visit.

Cholera sweeps through Zimbabwe as Robert Mugabe's regime tries to hide the crisis

http://www.timesonline.co.uk

November 23, 2008

(Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)

A woman suspected of cholera is brought in a pushcart to a clinic in Harare
Jan Raath in Budiriro township in Harare



There is sewage flowing in the streets, endless mounds of rubbish, a broken water supply – and a cholera epidemic that has Zimbabwe’s Health Minister admitting that he is scared.

This is the grim picture that a team of international statesmen would have seen in this suburb of the capital, had they not been barred from Zimbabwe. It is a picture common all over the country, with the World Health Organisation saying that by late last week about 300 people had died from cholera and 6,000 had been infected. Médecins Sans Frontières, the international health charity, estimates that 1.4 million people are at risk.

According to a senior member of another international medical charity the numbers may be far higher. “The 300 deaths all occurred in hospitals,” the official said. “The number of deaths in the community must be up to 400 per cent higher.”

In six weeks the epidemic has spread to nine out of ten provinces, according to David Parirenyatwa, the Health Minister. “I am scared,” he said. “We cannot control cholera as long as there is no water.”

The situation had been made significantly worse by the heavy rains that had just started, he said. Cholera was being washed into the shallow back-yard wells that were the main source of drinking water.

In the border town of Beitbridge, 50 people have died in the tiny hospital. “The spatial distribution of outbreaks will most likely continue to expand as well as the number of people infected,” the UN predicted.

This weekend Jimmy Carter, the former US President, Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, and Graca Machel, the human rights advocate and wife of Nelson Mandela, pulled out of a visit to Zimbabwe after they were denied visas. The planned trip to Harare was described by the Mugabe Government as “a partisan mission by a group of people with partisan interests”.

“It seems obvious to me that the leaders of the Government are immune to reaching out for help for their own people,” Mr Carter said.

Opposition figures had hoped that such a high-profile visit would have focused international attention on the country’s plight. Zimbabwe’s refusal to let them in showed that the Mugabe regime had something to hide, an editorial in the independent weekly Standard newspaper said.

“The extent to which Zimbabwe’s leaders are prepared to sacrifice lives in order to safeguard their hold on power is unparalleled,” it added. The Government appears to be making attempts to mask the crisis. A polyclinic in Budiriro was surrounded by plastic sheets yesterday and youths in Zanu (PF) T-shirts kept journalists out.

The conditions in Budiriro are echoed in nearly all Zimbabwe’s urban townships, according to a senior health worker. “The country’s entire urban population living in unsanitary conditions is at risk,” he said.

The Health Minister appears to be out of step with the rest of the Government. Two weeks ago Gideon Gono, the Governor of the Central Bank, dismissed demands by health specialists for the cholera epidemic to be declared a national emergency. He told Cabinet ministers that the Government had enough resources to cope.

However, three weeks ago when the disease broke out in Harare, the Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospital turned into a big infection centre. Scores of patients lay on the floors of wards awash in faeces and vomit until aid agencies virtually forced their way in with medication, drips, buckets and mops, disinfectant, water decon-taminants and extra nurses.

Nearly all the drilling of boreholes for communal water pumps and provision of water tanks in the townships is by aid agencies. “The Government has no resources,” the aid agency official said. Committees made up of officials from the Health Ministry, the World Health Organisation and medical charities have been formed to fight against the epidemic. “But no one from the Health Ministry or Zinwa [the Zimbabwe National Water Authority] bothers to turn up,” the official said.

Mr Gono has promised the water authority several million US dollars to equip itself for a big overhaul of water supplies but so far the only sign of it is 28 pickup vehicles. Four of those had to be taken from senior managers who had taken them for their personal use.

Douglas Gwatidzo, chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, said that the epidemic would have been brought under control long ago if the finance had been provided. The Standard quoted an anonymous senior official in the water authority as saying: “We were never given any money, we just read about it in the newspapers.”

The Government has even turned the epidemic to its advantage, banning a rally planned in Harare by the Movement for Democratic Change “because of the cholera situation”.

Sick and tired

— Zimbabwe’s hospital system has virtually shut down after walkouts by staff over wages, working conditions and a lack of supplies

— Life expectancy has dropped from 60 years for both sexes to 37 years for men and 34 for women in the past decade

— In April the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said that the country’s health system was “crippled by dilapidated infrastructure, drug shortages, equipment breakdowns, brain drain and costs of healthcare skyrocketing beyond the reach of the majority of Zimbabweans”

— Last week Zimbabwe’s only medical school closed. It said that it could not function under the prevailing conditions

— Harare's two main state hospitals have shut down maternity services

Sources: agencies, ZADHR, amnesty.org

Police attacking doctors,nurses,nurse aids who were demonstrating at Harare Hospital

Zimbabwe doctors blame govt for cholera epidemic

Yahoo News

By CELEAN JACOBSON, Associated Press Writer Celean Jacobson, Associated
Press Writer - 2 hrs 3 mins ago
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A group of doctors said Wednesday that
President Robert Mugabe's government is to blame for a cholera epidemic
sweeping Zimbabwe and that the disease's spread there is being dramatically
underreported.

About 160 people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe in recent weeks,
independent aid organizations say. The lack of clean water and poorly
maintained sewage systems have allowed the waterborne intestinal disease to
thrive.

And as the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe deepens, most hospitals
have been forced to close their doors as they can no longer afford drugs,
equipment or to pay their staff.

"This cholera epidemic is manmade," Dr. Douglas Gwatidza, head of the
Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights, said in a telephone call
with reporters.

He said government programs to monitor disease outbreaks were in "disarray."
Those few health facilities still open were trying to stop the spread of
cholera but often at the expense of patients with other diseases.

Gwatidza also said dysentery was becoming increasingly prevalent in a
country already suffering from one of the world's worst AIDS epidemics.

Comment from Zimbabwean authorities was not immediately available Wednesday.

On Tuesday, riot police prevented health workers in the capital, Harare,
from protesting against Zimbabwe's collapsing health care system.

Dr. Primrose Matambanadzo said the government needed to issue an urgent
appeal for assistance.

"There is a state of crisis," she said. "We need things functioning at
hospitals now."

Aid groups fear the outbreaks will worsen as the rainy season progresses and
Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, has warned that 1.4
million people are at risk.

The international aid group World Vision said Wednesday that 44 people had
died in the Zimbabwean border town of Beitbridge, including one of their
staff members.

Beitbridge is one of the regions busiest border crossings and there are
concerns that it is already spreading to other countries. South African
authorities have responded to the crisis with extra medical personnel and
facilities being set up along the border.

Local health officials in Musina on the South African side of the border
said two Zimbabweans died of cholera after crossing into the country while
64 patients were treated last weekend, the Star newspaper reported
Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the South African Press Association reported that a South African
truck driver who traveled from Zimbabwe has been admitted to a Durban
hospital, showing symptoms of cholera.

Zimbabwe once had among the best health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
But the country's economic meltdown has led to chronic shortages of food and
gasoline, and daily outages of power and water.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, blames Western
sanctions for his country's extreme financial woes. But critics point to
corruption and mismanagement under his increasingly autocratic leadership.

Hopes were raised when Mugabe signed a power-sharing arrangement with the
opposition in September, but little progress has been made toward setting up
a unity government.

Nurses strike as situation turns bad to worse

Mugabe deploys CIO to Botswana

By Mxolisi Ncube

JOHANNESBURG – President Robert Mugabe’s government has allegedly deployed teams of Central Intelligence Organisation agents to Botswana to investigate allegations that Zimbabwe’s western neighbour is training military bandits on behalf of the MDC.

Mugabe’s government recently accused Botswana of training militiamen on behalf of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led party, which defeated Zanu-PF in elections held in March. Mugabe maintains that the MDC is a front for Western countries, the United Kingdom in particular, which are determined to “re-colonise” Zimbabwe after almost 30 years of independence.

If that happened Zimbabwe would have the dubious distinction of being the first country ever to be recolonised by its former colonial power, a prospect that many find too far-fetched to be taken seriously.

The government alleges that the bandits are under-going training in readiness to destabilize Zimbabwe, which is currently grappling with a serious political crisis and an economic meltdown that many observers blame on some of government’s obvious ill-conceived policies. Mugabe blame’s his nation’s problems on so called sanctions imposed by western nations as part of the so-called strategy to recolonise Zimbabwe. He accuses Botswana, a relentless critic of the Mugabe government, of aiding and abetting the MDC in a bid to foment disaffection with his government.

Botswana has dismissed the allegations out of hand as unfounded, and challenged the Zimbabwean government to provide proof of the alleged military training, which Mugabe’s government claims started in 2002.

Intelligence sources revealed to The Zimbabwe Times on Tuesday that the CIO had secretly deployed the first batch of intelligence operatives across the border into Botswana on Monday this week. They would remain on assignment on Botswana soil for at least three months. The officers would compile and submit reports for Mugabe’s “consideration and possible action”.

“About 50 senior officers were deployed in Botswana on Monday for a three month period,” said a senior CIO source based at Magnet House, the agency’s provincial headquarters in the second biggest city of Bulawayo. “They are expected to provide weekly report-backs to headquarters, before compiling a joint final report that will be handed over to the President upon completion of their mission.”

The officers, who are to operate in 10 separate teams that will comb different locations in Botswana, were reportedly drawn from various provinces in the country, with Harare and Bulawayo providing the bulk.

According to the intelligence sources, the operation, whose finer details remain a closely guarded secret was launched as a result of recommendations made by the Joint Operations Command (JOC) after a meeting held in Harare two weeks ago.

Our sources say the JOC still suspected that Botswana might be training the alleged MDC militia, because of that country’s continued “demonisation” of the Mugabe government.

The government also believes that when Tsvangirai briefly stayed in Botswana before the presidential run-off election in June, he had negotiated a “Plan B” with that country’s leader, Ian Khama, in the case that the MDC leader lost the election or that the Zimbabwean military denied him the opportunity to take over from Mugabe, if he won the election.

“The JOC still suspects that there is military training taking place in that country,” said one source. “There have been such deployments in that country and South Africa before, but all those have not managed to find any tangible evidence.”

The government also believes that some retired Zimbabwean army and police personnel might be involved in conducting the training, and some teams have been sent to keep tabulations on well-known former security officers, especially those that occupied senior positions.”

However, the sources could not say what exactly would happen in the case that the allegations were found to be true.

A Botswana immigration official who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity revealed that Botswana officials were aware that Zimbabwe had previously deployed its intelligence missions in that country.

“We first heard that in June this year and we were wondering why they would do that,” said the official. “At some stage, we thought that they were coming after some opposition activists and military deserters they thought had fled into this country. I had not heard about the new deployments.”

A political analyst in Harare described the allegations made against the MDC specifically by former Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa as “a desperate ploy by the 84-year-old Mugabe to intimidate the MDC”, after negotiations for a unity government seemingly fell apart during the past few weeks.

“Mugabe just wants to use these allegations to continue his terror tactics against the MDC for its refusal to accept a weaker role in the all-inclusive government,” said the analyst. “What is likely to follow now is a wave of terror campaigns against the opposition with cooked up charges by this dictator.

“We do not need actions that might end up sparking diplomatic rifts or igniting regional wars and Mugabe must know better than this. We have thousands of our people in Botswana, who are going to be affected adversely by such actions.”

No comment could be obtained from either the Zimbabwean or the Botswana governments. The MDC has previously denied the allegations levelled against it by the government.

When a government becomes desperate....!