Keep your zanupf propaganda off the BBC website
June 16th, 2005
A friend sent me these Zimbabwean comments she found on the BBC website today. I was outraged when I read the following insert:
I am a policeman in Bulawayo, and I tell you that these slums are filled with criminals and opponents of the elected government. Once again the western media makes up lies about the Mugabe government when it is a clean-up mission to make the city beautiful and prosperous for the law-abidin
g. Out of our business please! Anonymous, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Ordinarily, I would just ignore this and I certainly would not bother to make an effort to attract other people’s attention to it, but this particular statement is classic and cannot go unmentioned because, in just a few lines, this ‘anonymous’ policeman highlights exactly what is going on in Zimbabwe!
Firstly, he refers to peoples homes as ‘these slums’. Everyone in Zimbabwe knows that the areas that the police have raided, demolished and burnt are not slums! Millions of people were made homeless a few years ago when the farms were invaded and the farm workers and their families who had lived on the land for generations were told to leave (there again, their homes were burnt down and they fled with what they could carry). The farm workers had nowhere to go! Many headed for the cities in search of work. The ‘government’ rented plots of land out. Other areas that have been demolished are market places where the government had erected stalls. These are not slums!
His next comment refers to ‘criminals and opponents of the elected government’. WOW!!! Isn’t it amazing how ‘opponents’ are viewed by this law enforcement officer. An opponent in Zimbabwe is not someone who has a different opinion. An opponent is an enemy! Also, please take note how he feels it necessary to refer to his government as ‘the elected government’.
And then he blames the western media. Well, whats new! In his eyes, the western media ‘makes up lies about the government’. Photographs and video footage do not tell lies!
- The fact that the government is responsible for destroying thousands of lives is not mentioned.
- The fact that they have killed three children in this ‘clean up’ operation is not mentioned!
- The fact that thousands are facing starvation, and their ‘clean up’ has had devastating consequences is not mentioned.
‘A clean up mission to make the city beautiful and prosperous for the law-abiding’. What he is saying here is that they are simply getting rid of the opposition, to make the city beautiful for the ‘elected government’ and their hangers on! ‘Operation Drive out Trash!’ – that’s what this ‘government’ has called this campaign.
What a joke this man is! What a sad, pathetic person. I am sure he is living the high life, purchasing stolen items on ‘auctions’ as are the other ‘policemen’ of Zimbabwe. I am sure he wants the rest of the world ‘out of his business’ because being in the business of stealing, demolishing homes and murdering people is not one that you would like to be made public.
I ask you Mr anonymous policemen, if you are an honest, law abiding, law enforcement officer acting in the interest of the citizen’s who pay your wages, why are you afraid to show your identity?
Despite the fact that I am law-abiding, I have to hide mine because of people like you. Why is that?
