Links ~ 6 September 2008

MDC to celebrate 9th anniversary (ZimOnline)
Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC party will tomorrow celebrate its ninth anniversary with insiders saying leader Morgan Tsvangirai could use the occasion to tell members that power-sharing talks with the ruling ZANU PF party have virtually collapsed.  The anniversary celebrations under the theme ‘Together to the end – Celebrating the people’s victory’ are scheduled to take place in Gweru, the capital city of the Midlands province. MDC officials speaking on condition they were not named said Tsvangirai will tell thousands of supporters expected to gather for the occasion that the opposition party has lost faith in the talks that have stalled over who between him and President Robert Mugabe should control a government of national unity.

Zimbabwe: No Action on a Threat (New York Times)
President Robert Mugabe has apparently postponed carrying out his threat to unilaterally appoint a cabinet, a step that would effectively end power-sharing talks with the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe Cabinet Threat In Abeyance Pending Zimbabwe Talks Monday (VOA News)
[...]The sources said Mr. Mugabe issued that ultimatum in the belief that the talks would pick up again Thursday, and that Tsvangirai would again be presented with the draft agreement he has declined to sign saying that it does not give him sufficient powers as vice president. Thursday’s negotiations were canceled after Tsvangirai sent word to South African President Thabo Mbeki, mediator in the power-sharing talks under way since late July, that he would not be available to participate. Mr. Mbeki accordingly put off traveling to Harare until Monday.

Plight of refugees on SA border at crisis point (SABC)
Police in Musina say the plight of refugees in the town on the border with Zimbabwe has reached crisis proportions.Hundreds of foreigners seeking asylum status are camped at the refugee reception centre where they are applying for asylum. Last week the municipality dismantled temporary shelters for foreigners set around churches, saying they posed a health hazard. Asylum seekers including women and children now sleep in bushes near the town centre without running water or ablution facilities.

Zim militia become ‘nation builders’ (Mail and Guardian)
The military men arrive in roaring trucks, bearing axes. They also carry bricks, cement and thatching grass. At a homestead near Gokwe in the Midlands province, villagers marvel at one of the many ironies of their struggle to rebuild their lives. The army was accused of leading militia loyal to Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe in a brutal election campaign that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change says left more than a hundred people dead. Now, in the rural Midlands, it is the same army that is building new huts on the charred ruins of dozens of homes and restoring burnt-out granaries and grocery stores. The work is part of the military’s “corporate social responsibility programme” to mark last month’s Defence Force Day celebrations, villagers were told.

Mugabe’s Education Revolution Reversed (IWPR)
President Robert Mugabe’s success in creating an “education revolution”, raising literacy rates in Zimbabwe to 98 per cent by the late 1990s, is fast unravelling. Analysts say the major advances made in education following Zimbabwe’s independence are now being reversed. In ten years’ time, there will be a whole generation of illiterate people, and the literacy rate will drop from one of the world’s highest to just 40 or 50 per cent of the adult population. When Zimbabwe became independent from Britain in 1980, Mugabe promised “Education for All by 2000”. Schools were built everywhere to ensure that every child had a school within walking distance. Every village had a pre-school facility, secondary schools were added on to primary schools, and tertiary education was also expanded, with at least one university in each of the country’s ten administrative provinces.

Crucial weekend for MDC and Tsvangirai (Rhe Zimbabwe Times)
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is set to make an emotional public reunion with his supporters this weekend after repeated efforts to address a public rally were thwarted by the police over the past three months. The MDC president will be anxious to fathom the depth of his recently forged alliance with legislators belonging to Arthur Mutambara’s breakaway faction of the MDC. Tsvangirai is scheduled to present a keynote address when his party celebrates its 9th anniversary at Gweru’s Mkoba stadium on Sunday.

Canada imposes targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe (Reuters)
Canada has imposed targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe to protest against “intimidation and state-sponsored violence” against opposition supporters, Foreign Minister David Emerson said on Friday. The government is banning arms exports, freezing the assets of top Zimbabwean officials and banning Zimbabwean aircraft from flying over or landing in Canada. Trade between the two nations totaled just C$11 million ($10.4 million) in 2006.

4 000 to be evicted from diamond fields (The Zimbabwe Times)
Government authorities are said to be finalizing plans for the relocation of thousands of villagers from the flourishing diamond fields of Manicaland Province where the precious stones were discovered in the eastern regions of Zimbabwe, three years ago. Most of the diamond fields are located in the Chiadzwa and Charasika areas of Marange District, about 60km southwest of Mutare

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