… just a few of the adjectives I could use to describe my current state of mind as I choke from the veil of evil that cloaks our beloved Zimbabwe. The hunger is palpable, the catatonic stares of its people should haunt the world, their muted cries go unheard and still nothing is done.

Talk is easy, action it seems is unlikely to materialize.

The churches are desperately trying to stretch their meager resources to bring a little sustenance to the starving masses made homeless by the very government that arrogantly states it has done no wrong.

How dare Mbeki even consider propping up the man who has with monstrous design crafted the impoverishment of those he claims to represent. I wonder if this devil is able to sleep at night with the blood of innocent victims now a sea around him. How does he kiss his own children on their way to school when he has stolen the future from the hundreds of thousands of children denied shelter and nourishment, children his government have declared trash and maggots.

I pray one day this evil man is forced to answer for his crimes and that his children will rightly reject their tainted heritage, the term father is made corrupt when used in connection with the murderer mugabe.

Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Human Rights, Refugees, Thabo Mbeki

Announcement circulated on behalf of ZimVigil. Please contact ZimVigil if you have any questions about the protest.

Exiled Zimbabweans are to stage a demonstration outside the Chinese Embassy on Friday, 29th July, in an attempt to persuade China not to give financial support to prop up the ailing Zimbabwean economy.

Mr Mugabe arrived in China at the weekend for talks with the Chinese leadership and it is reported that he is seeking US$1 billion. He has already requested a similar amount from South Africa and is reported to be also asking other countries, including Namibia, for money.

The demonstration is organised by the Zimbabwe Vigil, which has been protesting outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London every Saturday for nearly 3 years in support of free and fair elections. A group of Zimbabweans from Birmingham, who instigated the protest, are to be present at the demonstration, which will take place from noon to 2 pm.

The Chinese Embassy has already indicated that it will not allow a petition to be handed over. The petition reads:

“CHINA – DO NOT PROP UP MUGABE: We understand that the aim of President Mugabe’s visit to China is to seek an emergency loan to prop up the collapsing Zimbabwe economy. We advise the government of China that we will support any decision by a new democratic government in Zimbabwe to disown such debts to China incurred by the Mugabe regime, including payment for armaments recently supplied.”

A spokesman for the protest said that, in spite of the unhelpful attitude of the Chinese Embassy, an attempt would be made to hand the petition over.

Under President Mugabe’s despotic rule, the Zimbabwean economy has declined catastrophically in the last 5 y
ears, contracting by about 40%. Unemployment is more than 70% and inflation is in 3 figures. The country has largely ground to a halt because of fuel shortages caused by a lack of foreign exchange. At the same time, millions of people are facing starvation because of food shortages. The situation has been further worsened by “Operation Murambatsvina” under which the homes and informal livelihoods of the urban poor have been destroyed in a move which has been condemned in a recent United Nations report.

Venue: Outside the Chinese Embassy, 49 – 51 Portland Place, London W1B 1JL
Date: Friday, 29th July 2005
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm

Contacts:
Wiz Bishop 07973 521 160
Jonathan Chawora 07723 929 167
Makusha Mugabe 07903 127 073
Dennis Benton 07932 193 467

Website: www.zimvigil.co.uk

Zimbabwe, China, Activism, Protest

BBC News reports that Thabo Mbeki indicated today that South Africa might help settle some of Zimbabwe’s debts.

In addition to this, and especially significant in the immediate aftermath of the UN report’s harsh criticism of Operation Murambatsvina,

Mr Mbeki avoided criticising Zimbabwe’s controversial slum clearance programme, which has left some 300,000 people homeless.

In response, we are re-circulating the Sokwanele G8 cartoon previously published in The Zimbabwean.

Africa, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, United Nations, Cartoon

More innocent people have died in Egypt this week as a result of terrorism, and London has experienced further attempts at terrorism. It is so sad, so terrible and so cruel. I was trying to catch up on international news this morning when I came across this story in The Times (UK).

A Zimbabwean, Abisha Moyo, found himself staring directly into the face of one of the suicide bomber’s on Thursday. The man had boarded the tube and tried to detonate a bomb:

“I was on my phone and remember saying, ‘Oh my God, someone’s been shot’,” said Moyo, a business analyst from Zimbabwe. “I turned round and there was a man lying with
his arms outstretched in a Jesus Christ position, lying on top of a medium-sized black and green rucksack, face up. He had his eyes shut and there was a puff of smoke coming from his bag.”

It’s what Abisha did next that amazes and impresses me. Just two weeks earlier London had suffered it’s worst ever terrorist attack and according to friends of mine there, the city has become much more vigilant and there’s a palpable sense of watchfulness on the tube.

“I went up to him and said, ‘Are you all right, mate?’”

The man ignored him and lay there, presumably waiting for the bomb to go off, before he eventually jumped up to make good his mistake.

But I wonder what went through the mind of that suicide bomber who was so set on destroying innocent lives of people he didn’t know when one of his intended victims approached him with nothing but concern for his well-being?

I wonder what he would think if he knew that that man came from a country caught in the throes of state-sanctioned terror, a country which the rest of world has watched slowly disintegrate and done nothing substantive to stop? Where an estimated 2.5 million people have been affected by Operation Murambatsvina, a gross violation of human rights?

Would the bomber still have thought that killing this man, among others, was justifiable?

I am so proud that this Zimbabwean’s first instinct, despite his Zimbabwean and recent London experiences, was of compassion and concern for a fellow human being. That’s a good example for us all Abisha. Well done!

Barely 24 hours after the police had forcibly removed the homeless victims of Mugabe’s so-called “clean-up” operation from the churches where they had taken refuge in Bulawayo to a holding camp just outside the city boundaries, the police have forcibly moved them on again – this time dumping them almost indiscriminately in rural areas. From the speed with which this latest operation was undertaken it is evident that the police were under orders to clear the holding camp at Helensvale Farm of all its occupants without delay. Little or no consideration was given to the welfare of these destitute people rendered homeless by the Mugabe regime a few weeks ago or to their chances of finding shelter, food, water or other amenities in the famine stricken areas where they were dumped.

This further, again unlawful, forced removal of some of Zimbabwe’s poorest and most vulnerable people, in breach of their fundamental human rights, is believed to be linked to the extremely critical report on the whole “Operation Murambatsvina” issued by the United Nations in New York yesterday.

One of the many victims who had been given sanctuary in the Brethren in Christ Church in Mpopoma township of Bulawayo, phoned the pastor of that church this afternoon to report that he had been transported, against his will and without any consultation, from Helensvale to the rural Tsholotsho. He has no family in the area nor prospect of finding accommodation or employment there. In another bizarre incident it emerged that three former street children from Bulawayo found themselves caught up in the police sweep through the churches on Wednesday night. They were taken to the Helensvale holding camp on Thursday and a day later were transported some 20 kilometres out of Bulawayo before being dumped on the roadside. By Friday evening the three exhausted, hungry and rather bemused street children had walked back into the city.

Of those spoken to by our reporter none had eaten since they were seized from the churches on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

Our reporter also spoke to one of those women who had been involved in organising the provision of food to those previously sheltering in the churches. She expressed a particular
concern about two orphaned babies, one aged 4 months and the other 7 months. While enjoying the shelter and provision of the churches these babies had been fed on baby milk formula and cared for by surrogate mothers, but what would become of them when removed from this support network? Other carers from the churches expressed grave concern about some of the frail elderly among the twice, now three times, displaced victims.

It is understood that a group of between 80 and 100 of those previously sheltering in the churches managed to escape the police sweep on Wednesday night and are still at liberty. Bulawayo pastors are meeting over the weekend to consider how they can move them safely, and with some basic provision of food, to rural areas where they will be safe from further police harassment. The church leaders concerned are also to consider how to re-establish links with their former charges, now widely dispersed across the surrounding rural areas, so as to see what further assistance they can render these hapless victims of the regime’s brutal programme of forced removals.

Mugabe’s “Operation Murambatsvina” (meaning “clear away the trash”) was harshly condemned in the report, published yesterday, of the United Nations special envoy, Ms Anna Tibaijuka, to the UN Secretary-General. In remarkably blunt language the report describes the destruction of urban slums as a “disastrous venture” that has left 700,000 people without homes or jobs, violated international law and created a grave humanitarian crisis. By diplomatic convention a copy of the report was made available to Robert Mugabe two days ago. Which raises the question, apropos the latest human rights outrage, whether having been exposed for the criminal that he is, Mugabe actually thought he could get away with it by sweeping some of the evidence away – that is by sweeping “the trash” from the towns into country.

*The UN report is available for downloading here. This article was circulated to our mailing list earlier today.

Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Human Rights, United Nations, Refugees

Full text provided here with emphasis added in blue. Available on Reuter’s here.

“I have received the report of my special envoy on human settlement issues in Zimbabwe, Mrs. Anna K. Tibaijuka, based on her recent visit to the country. I wish to congratulate her on this exhaustive report, and also to thank the Government of Zimbabwe for the full cooperation she received.

“It is a profoundly distressing report, which confirms that “Operation Murambatsvina” has done a catastrophic injustice to as many as 700,000 of Zimbabwe’s poorest citizens, through indiscriminate actions, carried out with disquieting indifference to human suffering. I call on the Government to stop these forced evictions and demolitions immedia
tely, and to ensure that those who orchestrated this ill-advised policy are held fully accountable for their actions.

“Criticism, while fully justified, is not enough. We have a duty to help those in need. In keeping with the recommendations of my envoy, the United Nations will urgently seek agreement with the Government of Zimbabwe to mobilize immediate humanitarian assistance on the scale that is required to avert further suffering. I urge the international community to respond generously to this call. For its part, the Government must recognize the virtual state of emergency that now exists, allow unhindered access for humanitarian operations, and create conditions for sustainable relief and reconstruction.

“Once the most acute human needs are addressed, the United Nations will play its part, and give whatever help it can, in implementing the report’s other recommendations. Among these is the call for dialogue between the Government of Zimbabwe, domestic constituencies and the international community with a view to working together to address Zimbabwe’s serious social, economic and political problems.

Zimbabwe, United Nations, Kofi Annan, Justice, Human Rights

If this wasn’t so completely inanely typical of the senseless nature of the zanu-pf government, I think I’d die laughing at its stupidity and cheek. Reuter’s reports that today’s edition of The ‘Horrid’ (state controlled newspaper ‘The Herald’) has quoted Boniface Chidyausiku, Zimbabwe’s permanent representative to the United Nations, calling on the west to help the government in reconstruction post-Operation Murambatsvina.

Amazing! The government sends its militia, army and police-thugs on a orgy of destruction, intimidation and violence – wreaking everything in its path, destroying homes and livelihoods and creating a major humanitarian catastrophe – and then expects the west to step up and fix its mess…?

[The west] can raise funding so that Government can provide cheaper housing to needy people. One would call upon Britain and the European Union to stop their campaign to vilify our economy

Why did it not listen when the west condemned it and warned it? Why did it not stop when international and local human rights organisations and churches begged it to?

Did it perhaps escape their attention that what they were doing was causing considerable harm?

I would have thought the sight of the elderly, the sick and tiny children shivering, starving and frightened in the freezing winter nights would have kind of jump-started that realisation for them; but the fact that, on top of that, they somehow didn’t hear the warnings, pleas and protests from thousands of voices has to suggest that this is one mega-stupid government.

But to top it all, their latest position is that the west should pay because, if you think about, it is the WEST’S FAULT that the demolitions happened. Oh yes! Apparently ‘sanctions’ have created the conditions wh
ere people have been forced into hard times and forced to construct illegal homes and move into illegal vending. Hard to understand why, with that insight into the consequences of poverty, they went ahead and destroyed the only home and livelihoods that people desperately trying to survive had?

Were it not for their sanctions, our economy wouldn’t be where it is today … the international community should, therefore, consider themselves equal partners and have a role to play in terms of pulling resources together to build a better Zimbabwe.

However, what they don’t say is that the sanctions are ‘targetted sanctions’ on the leadership and cronies alone – not sanctions on Zimbabwean civilians and businesses. That the economy has gone into the rubbish dump because investors and tourists won’t come to Zimbabwe because they cannot trust a government that completely disregards the rule of law; because our skilled people have left in their droves because they find the government repulsive; and because the government can’t resist politicising industry, mining and agriculture. Our country bears the scars of zanu-pf political manipulation and total incompetence.

This is not ‘the west’s’ fault or responsibilty. zanu-pf is to blame. I hope that the words used in the UN report, possible ‘crimes against humanity’, is making some zanu-pf big-wigs very very scared. Is this why The Horrid has embarked on banal nervous whittering and trembling, I wonder? A bit hard to save face and back track from something so evil, so public, and so irreversable.

The fact that the west did condemn Operation Murambatsvina so forcefully and so immediately means that it has a clear conscience in the wake of the UN report. African leaders, on the other hand, chose a different path, and history will remember that African leaders, again, had to be forced and cajoled against their will into giving consideration to ordinary African people. I hope tonight they are all deeply and profoundly ashamed.

Africa, Zimbabwe, Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, United Nations

I haven’t seen the full report yet but I am daring to hope that at last an organisation that Mugabe will find difficult to ignore has come out and criticised his actions against all of us. Thank you Anna Tibaijuka for your United Nations report.

I was hopeful, but fearful of this report – and I am still holding my breath in case the full version softens the truthful force of the executive summary. We have had betrayal after betrayal after betrayal by Mugabe apologists – like the South African government at election time, or the AU just before the G8 – and the disappointment is unbearable each and every time. I didn’t know if this report would try and pretend that things weren’t too bad in Zimbabwe and step into the murky dark underworld of African patronage and ‘silent diplomacy’.

This gives us hope. If the truth is finally told it will support the real experience of ordinary Zimbabwean people and place us at the centre of our country’s future where we belong instead of Mugabe and his band of cruel and evil thugs.

I want
to hear Mugabe describe this report as a ‘western fabrication’. I want to see if Thabo Mbeki can find a way to claim that this report exists only because ‘white people’ are being affected. I want to hear how the AU is going to back track from its position that it won’t criticise Mugabe.

Mugabe got his copy of the report on Wednesday. How could he, knowing the critical nature of the document, go ahead and allow night time raids on that very same evening? Raids against frightened children and their desperately poor families sheltering in churches, frogmarching them against their will into overcrowded ‘holding camps’? Why do this under the cover of darkness? Why would the police then forbid church leaders from having access to the people they’ve been helping by barring them from the holding camps? What are they trying to hide in there?

I can’t help think of history and how dictators have tried to cover their tracks and conceal evidence when things started getting a bit hot. I don’t know what’s happening to the people in the holding camps? Why is it so important that people are locked away, out of the sight of good people and honest witnesses? What’s happening?

I hope this report means that the world is watching. Please watch very carefully. I hope that nations are ready to protect us from any danger that might occur when the Zanu-PF monster goes into a death throes.

Africa, Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Human Rights, United Nations, Refugees