Sorry, Morgidza, your post is full of holes.

William Wilberforce was not a ‘Conservative’ member of the British Parliament, or Tory as it was then, neither was he a member of the other party, the Whigs, he was in fact an Independent, which would have been the nearest thing to the Labour party if it had then existed. He was in fact a liberal reformer, and you are right, he was chosen to spearhead the abolition of slavery, which was achieved in 1807, although slaves were not actually freed until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.
But that was only in the British Empire, slavery continued in one form or another well after that. Incidently, I hope you realize that the appalling trade and shipping of native Africans to the Americas etc. would not have been remotely possible if certain tribes hadn’t colluded with the whites to round up and produce the slaves to trade with in the first place. They were an essential part of the chain from jungle to plantation, or other working destination. And although that fact doe not in any way justify the whites’ actions, it does go to show that blame is always a delicate matter in life.

This brings me neatly to my next point. You are either naive, or deluded if you think that any British Government would want to actively promote Zimbabwe’s downfall. it is obvious that Mbeki has proved a weakling and a disaster
in his dealings with Mugabe. Mbeki might have thought that Zimbabwe could face up to its own problems, fair enough, but when it was patently obvious in recent years that the land reforms and the economy were in trouble he could have taken an important initiative to force reform. Instead he has done nothing. If Mbeki had acted, perhaps such speaches as you mention by Tony Blair would not have been neccessary. Get real Morgidza! Wake up! Don’t be deluded by propaganda and lies. See the facts.

here it goes from an intellectual mind deep from Uganda!

Why is Britain provoking Africa over Zimbabwe?

By Sam Akaki in KAMPALA, Uganda

ONLY with the Conservative Party in power in the UK can that country hope to salvage its rapidly deteriorating relationship with Zimbabwe and Africa.

Under the New Labour government, Zimbabwe has needlessly become to the British, what Cuba has been to the United States for the last 50 years.

Just as the US has maintained an economic blockade against, and repeatedly violated Cuba’s territorial independence, the Labour government has misused its influence in the UN, European Union, G8, Commonwealth, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to ensure Zimbabwe’s economic collapse.

From making disparaging remarks in Parliament and the international fora to organising self-demeaning TV gestures by the Labour-voting Ugandan-born Archbishop of York John Sentamu; from boycotting two EU Africa summits to illegally ferrying BBC reporters and Labour MPs into Zimbabwe, and organising a “citizen’s arrest” against President Robert Mugabe — since coming to power in 1977, the Labour government has single-mindedly pursued an aggressive Africa policy aimed at running down President Mugabe, ignoring African views and the dire humanitarian consequences.

The deaths of thousands of Zimbabwean children due to starvation and preventable diseases as a result of the blockade are blamed on President Mugabe.

The BBC, which is funded by the Foreign Office under a Royal Charter but now banned from Zimbabwe, recently boasted: “The BBC’s John Simpson confirmed the news while under cover in Zimbabwe.”

If this is not a deliberate violation of Zimbabwe’s independence, the UN and AU Charters, what else can it be?

The Labour government is cynically using the current political dispute in Zimbabwe to create a crisis in South Africa by promoting the view that, unlike the state president Thabo Mbeki, the ANC president Jacob Zuma wants tough actions on Zimbabwe.

Nonsense . . . African leaders are infuriated.

In April, at the special session of United Nations Security Council, they pointedly rejected British attempts to flag Zimbabwe as a threat to international security — a move which would have necessitated the deployment of foreign troops in country.

The Labour government’s obsession with President Mugabe goes back many years. Speaking at the 2001 Labour Party conference, the then prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, said: “Partnership for Africa, between the developed and developing world based around the New African Initiative, is there to be done.”

And he concluded: “But it’s a deal: on the African side: true democracy, no more excuses for dictatorship, abuses of human rights; no tolerance of bad governance, from the endemic corruption of some states, to the activities of Mr Mugabe’s henchmen in Zimbabwe.”

The Labour government demonises any other African leader who does not share their view on Zimbabwe, especially President Thabo Mbeki, who has allegedly failed to bring President Mugabe down by cutting off essential supplies.

Mr Mbeki was so infuriated that he exploded during the 4th April Conference of Progressive Centre left parties in Watford, UK, and told reporters: “Zimbabwe is not a province or a former colony of South Africa.”

Any wonder that Africa is rebelling against its former colonial master, the UK, refusing to send troops to Somalia, saying they need no white faces in Darfur as peacekeepers and turning to China, a country with nothing in common with Africa except trade.

In December 2007, African leaders spoke with one voice and said they would not attend the European Union-Africa summit, held in Lisbon, Portugal, if President Mugabe was not invited, as demanded by the Labour government.

And, speaking to reporters during the

China-Africa summit, which took place in Beijing in November 2006, the then Botswana president, Festus Mogae, said: “I find

that the Chinese treat us as equals. The West treats us as former subjects. Which is a reality. I prefer the attitude of the Chinese to that of the West.”

Isn’t it now plainly clear that the British relationship with Zimbabwe in particular and Africa in general will not improve until the Conservative Party takes over in the United Kingdom?

After all, it was Conservative MP William Wilberforce, who spearheaded the fight against slavery in the UK. — The Monitor.

Frankly, I think you should let them gab on. Much like you would a lunatic in an asylum!

“Voters should understand Zanu-PF’s message for the run-off,”

Message what message? Beatings, violence, and ‘watch out for the imperialists’ – not one single solution EVER offered for the economy or the future. The have no solutions.

“it is about guaranteeing the future of our children”

By beating their mothers and fathers? By targetting the teachers and beating them and chasing them out of an area? By burning maize so the kids go hungry? etc etc

“retaining skills within the country for socioeconomic development”

This is why I seriously think we have a clown in our midst. Is he even aware how many of the skills have been LOST to the country under Zanu PF. Surely, SURELY, he cannot be this stupid.

“capacitating industry and agriculture,”

And that will be why there are massive food shortages in the country and will be why businesses are closing down all the time and so many people are losing their jobs and there is over 80% unemployment in the country. Great job Bob! Now shove off and give someone competent a chance.

“in short addressing the bread and butter issues by ensuring that a solid economic base is laid out”

A solid economic base based on a current inflation rate of 1,700,000%… yes…… you are either a joker or you are genuinly, and I mean this with all sincerity, GENUINELY, one of the most stupid people I have ever heard in my life.

OK everyone, shall we end this with three cheers for Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF for their genious management of a country and its people. Such a success story.

I mean, why are we not all tripping over ourselves to get in the line to vote for them? Well, one of two reasons: it will either be because our legs have been broken by one of his thugs; or it ‘ll be because we think he is a complete failure.

“Morgan Tsvangirai is an ambitious frog … as long as Morgan will be used by the British he will be a frog.”

Says, MDC-T is good at dramatizing events. I think the link above which clearly shows who won and who lost shows the real reasons and truth why all this militia violence is being perpetrated. This is the classical ploy of the losing demagogues throughout history, blame a group (with the Nazis it was the jews), and then go after them in the hope that propaganda and intimidation will do the rest. Sorry to disappoint you Tsvangwa, your game is up. Zimbabwe will be a new, young and dynamic country where young people will have a sustainable future in freedom, with good jobs and propects for them and their families. All the old and useless shadows of the past will be swept away. In short, it will be a country to be proud of. Even people like you must see that isn’t possible under Mugabe.

God have mercy on their souls……….

I think we have spent enough time on this idiot. Could you out of respect of other bloggers here who actually care about our country and have reasonable and useful suggestions to make please not publish this fools’s post anymore. Biipi yangu yakwidzwa neunhu hwe this guy. Many people me included who have lost loved ones at the hands of ZANU PF feel violated by this guy. What does he need on Sokwanele if all is going well and Mugabe is a great guy. He could start his own hazvisati zvakwana as he obviously believe Zimbabwean people can continue under Mugabe, with an economy on its knees and where people’s life is so cheap and unvaluable and where choosing to support the MDC earns you a death sentence. As Zimbabweans we get enough of this rubbish from the Herald and ZBC. This site i hope is one where Zimbabweans and friends the world over who have constructive ideas to bring our country out of this nightmare can share this. Please dont allow these idiots another avenue to traumatise us.

Thank you.

If you think we are lying to this blog’s audience, we are more than happy to take a screenshot of your comment, as viewed from our admin side, displaying your IP address.

We thought it was worth publishing your comment regardless of the fact it was a clear lie, as an illustration of pathetic dirty-trick tactics in the face of truth.

The capitalist support which propped up the likes of Biti, Chamisa and Bennett, smothered the lives out of innocent Zimbabweans whose crime was to seek jobs away from home.

Jobs that would bring food to the table. How many times have we heard that these people seek asylum as MDC-T? And still return to Zimbabwe? Clandestinely? While they are taking advantage of the lies peddled by the MDC-T about violence and destruction, they expose themselves to exploitation and attack by those that fail to understand while there has not been a revolution against Mugabe for a long time.

The false support opposition politicians get from capitalists gives them the false belief that they are powerful and can shape their destiny, without those that started the struggle for emancipation.

Morgan probably dreams of a day when “justice” will prevail for him when President Mugabe is hauled before the White House and Whitehall sitting in judgment by proxy at the ICC.

We are surely living in dangerous times where money and lies provide the accomplishments that would be unobtainable or extremely difficult if the truths were told. Tadious Chisango gave enough evidence in his seven-page treatise in which he explained how sanctions hurt Zimbabweans in general and how the MDC-T aided and abetted their imposition.

Many luminary academics who sit in high “white” offices in Harare, Chiredzi, Bulawayo and Gweru do not even know that this and other valid and informative articles exist and yet shout loudest that ‘‘Mugabe must go’’.

There is a dearth of knowledge about MDC-T’s illicit activities in this vale of tears. People have no access to the Internet. They can’t be blamed. Those that use the Internet as a means to vent their frustrations irrationally and unfairly by blaming President Mugabe and Zanu-PF for ills wrought by the West.

Only fools can oppose President Mugabe’s steadfast protection of our land.

Today, Morgan calls President Mugabe names and his supporters think it’s an honourable thing to do.

The British Queen is of the same generation as President Mugabe but she is revered by the British, including their lackeys like Tsvangirai.

MDC-T supporters call President Mugabe all sorts of derogatory names like ‘‘despot”, “tyrant’’, and so on.

Land is at the core of our struggle.

President Mugabe is a hero of not only African, but developing world politics no matter how much Tsvangirai attempts to smear him and wish him dead.

It’s time the world arrests mbeki’s numbness to the plight of innocent Zimbabweans, to show Mbeki he has done more damage to Zimababweans than Mugabe himself. The two are political twins and the world has to acknowledge and do something about it.

How one woman’s extraordinary bravery is a haunting rebuke to a world that is ignoring Mugabe’s genocide
print friendly version  

author/source:Daily Mail (UK)

published:Thu 15-May-2008

posted on this site:Thu 15-May-2008

Article Type : News

Where her buttocks should have been was just a mess of raw flesh
 

By Peter Oborne in Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe’s paid assassins came hunting for 22-year-old Memory, a married mother-of-two. They burst into her home, seized her and her children, and took them to their temporary headquarters in the local village school. Four men held down her arms and legs, while a fifth gripped her head, placing his hands over her mouth to prevent her screams being heard. Two others, wielding heavy wooden poles, then took turns to thrash her on the buttocks in a beating that lasted half an hour. I saw Memory in her hospital bed after she had been brought in from the bush more dead than alive a week ago last Monday, several days after her beating. She was lying on her front: it was obvious why. Where her buttocks should have been was just a mess of raw flesh.

I watched as a blue-suited nurse removed one of the bandages. Memory whimpered and moaned with pain. With me was a hardened welfare worker who had witnessed many terrible things. She broke down in sobs. I must tell you that tears poured down my cheeks, too. Memory was in far too much pain and shock to answer any questions. I pressed her hand gently and left her. The following day, I returned to the hospital and saw Memory’s beautiful face and, since her pain was beginning to subside, heard her sweet, low voice for the first time. She told me how on arrival at the school (which she had attended as a child), she had been ordered to sit in the playground with a group of supporters of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – the opposition party led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

On the dot of 8am, the beatings started. Groups of eight people at a time were ordered out for treatment at the hands of a band of around 200 members of Robert Mugabe’s militia, each wearing Zanu PF T-shirts and green, red and yellow bandanas signifying the national flag. Many of them were high on drink or drugs. She watched as four of her close friends were beaten and kicked to death. A fifth friend later died, and others remain unaccounted for. The militiamen chanted songs and spat insults at Morgan Tsvangirai as they did their work. They told Memory, whose farmer husband was away: “You and your husband are MDC members so we must beat you.’ They said that she belonged ‘to a party of animals”. Memory told me how she could hear her children screaming “Mamma, Mamma, Mamma!” during her beating. They were held back by female members of Zanu PF.

Later, Memory was ordered to sit for two hours on her wounds. Mugabe’s thugs told her she would be thrashed again if she moved a muscle. “We spent the day without eating or water in the hot sun,” she told me. “If we asked for water, they said: ‘Get your water from Tsvangirai’.” Believe it or not, just by being alive, Memory is one of the lucky ones. She is just one of tens of thousands of victims of the campaign of violence launched by Robert Mugabe after he comprehensively lost the presidential elections on March 29. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has agreed to contest a new runoff against Mugabe, even though he knows he won outright in the first round and accuses Zanu PF of blatant vote-rigging. A stand-off over the MDC’s demand for international observers and media to be given full access to ensure the vote is free and fair has brought matters to a standstill.

The decision last night to delay the poll until the end of July raised the terrifying spectre of Mugabe’s Green Bomber youth militia carrying on their reign of terror for ten more weeks. An MDC spokesman said last night the law change was “illegal and unfair”. Shamefully, as a result of the standoff, the world’s attention has shifted away. Now, with the focus no longer on him, Mugabe is free to continue this unprecedented campaign of electoral cleansing. For the past week, having slipped into Zimbabwe as a businessman, I have seen the relentless increase in intimidation from government forces. I can report that every day it is reaching a new level of intensity, sweeping like a killer virus through the country. Even by Mugabe’s standards, the scale and brutality is horrifying. It’s the worst seen since he ordered genocide in the west of Zimbabwe 25 years ago, when some 20,000 people were killed in an attempt to eradicate all political opposition.

The world turned a blind eye then. Tragically, it is doing so again now. And make no mistake: there is nothing spontaneous about these attacks. They have all been carefully and deliberately planned by Mugabe, his loathsome deputy Emerson Mnangagwa and the 15 or so senior military police and intelligence officers in the Joint Operation Command (JOC) which now runs Zimbabwe. Their intention is to intimidate the supporters of the opposition so that they either cannot, or are too afraid, to vote in the run-off elections. Mugabe has made it plain that he will never hand over power after 30 years as ruler – even if he loses the vote again. According to senior security sources, government officials have been told that he intends to win the election by use of intimidation, backed up by ballot-rigging on a massive scale. And if that does not work, the result will simply not be published. Shockingly, the strategy of murder and retribution has the support of Mugabe’s close friend, the despicable President Thabo Mbeki in neighbouring South Africa.

Through illegal methods, including the torture and blackmail of abducted opposition activists, Zanu PF has obtained a list of all the polling agents and leading activists who work on behalf of Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC. Now, village by village, town by town, it is embarking on a savage campaign to eradicate them all. The attacks happen at night or in the early morning. Typically, MDC supporters such as Memory are seized and subjected to terrible tortures. For example, boiling plastic is poured on their backs, their extremities are burnt, or they are nearly drowned in water tubs. The aim is to force victims to betray the identities of those on their own side – thus providing human fodder for more attacks. “We can trust nobody now, not even our friends,” an MDC activist called John told me. “You do not know if they have been turned.”

Today, everyone in this tragic country lives in a state of permanent fear and suspicion. They believe that their phone lines are tapped, and that they are being watched by police informers and betrayed by their own friends. Above all, they live in terror of the early morning knock on the door. Mugabe’s thugs are nothing if not imaginative in their methods. One MDC organiser, Moses Bashitiyawo, was beaten by Zanu PF activists and then forced to climb a tree with a rope round his neck before being told to jump to the ground, hanging himself. Others are driven down mineshafts – as happened in the genocide of the 1980s. I experienced a small element in this campaign of terror in the rural areas when, shortly after my arrival in Zimbabwe, I hired a guide to take me to his home village some 50 miles from Victoria Falls. The village head man told me there had been two Zanu PF meetings there during the past 24 hours in which suspected MDC supporters had been driven away.

He also revealed that those who survive Mugabe’s murderous purges are then subjected to food deprivation. The village elder produced a ration card entitling each Zimbabwe family to 10kg of Mealie Meal (a kind of maize that is the national staple diet in a country plagued by food shortages) from a local relief organisation every month. The months of February and March had been ticked off, showing that the food had been handed over. But there were no ticks for April and May, revealing how hand-outs were stopped as a way of punishing Mugabe’s political opponents. The elder told me his children were away in the forest looking for wild fruits. “We are so hungry,” he said. “People are dying.” My guide took me to see his mother – a frightened woman who told me: “We don’t sleep any more at night for fear of being caught in our beds.”

The worst atrocities are concentrated in Mugabe’s Mashona heartlands in the east of the country, where he is wreaking horrific revenge on the voters who opposed him during the March presidential election. Here, the stories of burnt villages, casual massacres and roving statesponsored militia bands are all too reminiscent of the ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Western Sudan. Indeed, Mugabe’s government is even using the language of ethnic cleansing. Augustine Chihuri, the country’s hated police chief, says: “We must clean the country of the crawling maggots bent on destroying the economy.” Grotesque language such as this is widespread. The violence, originally confined to rural areas, has been spreading into towns. Details are beginning to emerge of a police operation to close down Anglican churches in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. On Sunday, churchgoers were met by riot police barring the doors.

At Christchurch, in Harare’s northern suburb of Borrowdale, parishioners found the church doors locked and groups of police waiting outside. Laymen who attempted to protest were beaten up, while the brave churchwarden was arrested. Riot police also arrived at St Francis Church in the Waterfalls district, where Communion had already started. Police charged to the altar and seized women worshippers, pulling them from the Communion rail and beating them senseless. The reason? Mugabe’s henchmen accuse the Anglican church of being in league with the MDC opposition. It is all part of a cynical attempt to break the spirit of the Zimbabwean people. In some cases, inevitably, the campaign of terror is working. And I am ashamed to say the world’s seeming indifference since its attention turned away from Zimbabwe is leaving Mugabe emboldened.

In one hospital, I spoke at length to a 35-year-old farmer called Felix. He described how he and his wife had spent a week on the run from Zanu PF thugs after they invaded his village. They managed to walk 70 kilometres to Harare, where they found refuge. Friends have since told him that his home has been burnt down and his 15 cattle slaughtered. Worst of all, his mother and his children have disappeared. Despairingly, he says: “It would have been much better if they had killed me. My mother was always telling me to stop working for the MDC. She was always telling me I was putting our lives at risk. But I refused to comply with her.” Now, in a state of collapse, he is consumed with bitter regrets about joining the MDC. A party activist, who was accompanying me, tried to comfort the farmer, telling him: “You did the right thing. There are a lot of brave people like you, and we’re going to succeed. We are in a war where we are not allowed to fight and have guns. But we will win – because we have God on our side.”

Again and again, during my visit to this country, I met ordinary Zimbabweans who shared this optimism, despite all the horror they are suffering. As I stood up to leave the bedside of Memory, I asked if, despite all she had been through, she would still vote for Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential run-off. Her face lit up with a wonderful, radiant, artless smile. “Oh, yes!” she said. “I would. I will vote with confidence.” While this amazing spirit of courage and optimism remains, there is still hope this wonderful country could soon rid itself of its appalling despot Robert Mugabe – if only the world would stop averting its eyes and finally take the moral responsibility to help end this tragedy