Thread: The Zimbabwe Situation

(Published without prejudice)

This is the list of villains & heroes that have been involved in the protracted crisis in Zimbabwe.

May all those who died for a free Zimbabwe rest in peace.

Heroes: June-13-2008

1. Dadirai Chipiro - wife of MDC head Mhondoro - brutally murdered by having her feet and one hand cut off, then thrown into a hut and burned to death.

2. Mr. Chipiro - although aware that his life is threatened, he said he's not leaving Mhondoro: "They want to kill me. But I have no alternative. My presence here as a leader is very important. If I leave, everyone else will leave. I intend to fight the battle, from here."

3. Reverend Takura Bango - savagely beaten in Makoni South.

4. The wife and 6 year old son of the MDC councillor Harare South - both died after ZPF thugs set fire to their home.

5. MDC activist Chenjerai Kahari - shot dead Bindura South by war vets. His body was left lying in a pool of blood after police refused to take it to the mortuary.

6. Jennie Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu of WOZA - being denied bail and still in detention after 3 weeks.

7. Dumihasani Hapazari - a popular manager at ZESA Chiredzi - abducted and drowned because he nominated the MDC councillor.

8. Botswana government - for summoning the Zim ambassador and complaining about the latest arrests of Tsvangirai and Biti.

9. Tendai Biti - for returning home even though he knew his arrest was inevitable.
10. The 40 prominent African leaders who issued a public call for an end to Zimbabwe's violence.

Villains: June-13-2008

1. Thabo Mbeki, Kenneth Kaunda, Simba Makoni - for not condemning the violence but pressuring Tsvangirai to accept a unity government, with Mugabe at it's head.

2. Major Dangirwa - led soldiers who beat Reverend Bango.

3. Zanu PF MP Bright Matonga - for organising the violence in Mhondoro which most recently claimed the life of Mrs. Chipiro.

4. ZPF Harare South MP Hubert Nyanhongo - blamed for the murderous attack on the wife and son of the MDC Councillor.

5. South African government for again blocking discussion of the Zimbabwe crisis at the UN Security Council.

6. SADC for it's lack of action over the Zim crisis and it's late deployment of observers.



Heroes: June-9-2008

1. Mazhandu - a village headman from the Gokwe area whose home was burnt by war vets and who has been stripped of his position as Headman by the District Administrator, for refusing to join ZPF.

2. Priscilla Sibanda - MDC councillor Ward 15 Matobo - badly beaten by war vets for attending the Matobo Agenda meeting.

3. Precious Ndlovu - Matobo Agenda chairman - assaulted for putting up posters about the meeting.

4. European Union for terminating the consultancy contract of Dr. Paul Chimedza, the former medical superintendent for Harare Hospital, following confirmation of his involvement in political violence in the Masvingo area.


Villains: June-9-2008

1. Joel Biggie Matiza (ZPF MP), Saymore Chimombe, Oscar Kuchenga - all Murehwa - all guilty of torture and beatings in the area, and allegedly of murders.

2. Mlungiselwa Nkomo, Edward Sibanda and Jacob Ngwenya - war vets Gwanda - beat MDC supporters waiting for Tsvangirai - 10 hospitalised.

3. Elliot Manyika - again - ZPF political commissar who invaded Gweru recently with a group of youths and forced people to wear ZPF T shirts.

4. United Nations - for inviting Mugabe to Rome to the food conference, and also for saying nothing when he banned NGO's from distributing food aid and other assistance.

5. Morris Mukwe and Simon Mapfumo - well known ZPF thugs Chipinge - recently abducted 18 MDC activists in early morning raids - all were tortured.

6. David Parirenyatwa MPand Minister for Health, Mavhungire (war vet) Simba Mutarikwa (MP Uzumba) Bright Makonde (Senator for Murehwa) - all involved in the recent violence in Murehwa North. Two MDC supporters died in the attacks and traditional leaders were badly assaulted.


Heroes & Villains 31 May, 2008


Heroes:
1. Shepherd Jani - MDC Senatorial candidate for Murehwa - abducted and murdered.

2. Taurai Matanda - shot dead by soldiers at Murambinda growth point, Manicaland.

3. 78 year old grandmother, 13 year old brother, plus mother and other relatives of MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa. Savagely beaten for 2 hours by armed soldiers in Gutu.

4. Mabel Penisara - wife of election campaign manager for MDC MP Ian Kay. Abducted and tortured, left for dead by a roadside.


Villains:

1. Mashava - ZPF Murehwa district Vice chariperson - threatened to kill children of MDC officials.

2. Colonel Chineta - alleged to have been involved in the murder of Jani.

3. Matemachani - war vet - known for his violence, he is now attacking people in Triangle again.

4. Sidney Somai - CIO Marondera - jumped out of vehicle and attacked MDC district chairman Potifa Bakaaiman with a rifle butt and then abducted him.

5. Colonel Morgan Mzilikazi - led attack on Murambinda growth point, to 'flush out' MDC supporters - leaving one dead, 31 hospitalised.

6. Major General Engelbert Rugejo - responsible for the attack on Nelson Chamisa's family.

7. Ignatius Chombo - local government minister who has illegally appointed commissions to run towns, ignoring the council elections, predominantly won by the MDC.

8. Grace Mugabe - for saying that Mugabe will never step down for Tsvangirai, even if he loses the election.

Heroes & Villains 23rd May, 2008

Heroes:

1. Tonderai Ndira - arrested 35 times for his MDC activism, abducted 14 May. Found murdered 21 May with his tongue and lips missing.

2. Gibson Nyandoro - war vet who regretted his violent path and raised his arm and unclenched his fist to make the open-palmed salute at an MDC rally 8 weeks ago. Found dead near army barracks where he had been tortured.

3. Rosemary Maramba and her unborn baby - beaten to death in Nhakiwa village, Mutawatawa, Mash Central, for supporting MDC.

4. Action Nyadedzi and village head Chitsungo - MDC activists Mutawatawa. Found dead.

5. Godfrey Kauzani and Cain Nyeve of Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe - missing after the attack in which Beta Chokururama was murdered by state agents. Both found dead in Goromonzi.

6. Chokuse Mupango, the MDC chairman for ward 26 in Mutiusinazita, Manicaland province - beaten to death for being the election strategist for the MDC MP elect who defeated Joseph Chinotimba.

Villains:

1. ZPF Grace Mvududu - who stood as councillor in Gombakomba and lost to MDC - organised savage attack on her own MDC relatives.

2. President Thabo Mbeki - for his support of Mugabe and denial of Zimbabwe's crisis, which is leading to so many murders in Zimbabwe and now in South Africa in the xenophobic attacks.

3. Security Minister Didymus Mutasa - for refusing to respond to questions about Tonderai Ndira's disappearance.

4. Nolbert Kunonga, former Bishop of Harare - for organising police to take control of all Anglican churches Harare, to block parishoners from worshipping.

5. Retired Major Cairo Mhandu, MP elect Mazowe North and Raradza, who was not elected Muzarabani South - responsible for massacre at Chaona, Mazowe North 5th May. 6 confirmed dead, murdered in front of their children, wives and parents who were savagely beaten. Their crime - at polling station Chaona, 80 votes MDC 15 votes ZPF.

6. Joseph Chinotimba - for overseeing the murder of MDC Chokuse Mupango, savagely beaten by a militia group he was put in a wheelbarrow and taken to Chinotimba, but died before he could be questioned. Chinotimba's response was to scream that he was a pig, who had died before he could start on him.

Heroes & Villains - 16 May, 2008

Heroes:

1. Sabhuku Elias Madzivanzira and his wife - the 70 year old village head in Ward 8 Shamva was axed to death by youth militia. His wife was seriously injured.
2. Nelson Emmanual - Harare South - beaten to death at Hopley farm.
3. The 79 year old father and 76 year old mother of Elliott Pfebve - currently being held at a torture camp. Condition unknown.
4. 22 year old Memory - savagely beaten and hospitalised, but still vowing to vote for peaceful change.
5. Tonderayi Ndira - abducted in Mabvuku by 9 men from Goromonzi police, in a white Toyota single cab pickup Reg. 772-224T. Still missing he has been arrested a total of 35 times.
6. Beta Chokururama, Murehwa - shot and stabbed to death on his way to say goodbye to his mother. He was fleeing the country to seek refuge in SA after an earlier, brutal beating.



Villains:
1. Zimbabwe prisons chief Paradzai Zimondi - he is funding and feeding Zanu PF militias terrorising and murdering opposition supporters in Mashonaland East province.
2. Deputy youth minister & Mt. Darwin MP Xavier Kasukuwere - chief architect of the violence in Mash Central and Mash East.
3. Ward councillor Zira - leads a gang of ZPF thugs terrorising people in Marondera North. Recently 2 people died in an attack at Kadenga growth point.
4. Major Moyo Zim national army - leads a ZPF militia in Gokwe. Two deaths reported in the area.
5. War vets Gwava and Samson Svundu - chased 14 youths at Chiredzana dip tank (ward 13). Caught and severley beat 3 of the young boys, one who had to be hospitalised.
6. Village headman Antony Jongwe and ZPF district chairperson Viola Muchenje implicated in very violent attacks on ZESN observers Mt. Darwin.
7. War vets Muroyiwa and Joshua, based at Bata farm - named as the killers of village head Madzivanzira.
8. MP for Mudzi North Newten Kachepa - instigator of violence in the area. A ZESN observer was severely tortured.
9. Murehwa violence - The MP for Uzumba/Pfungwe, Simba Mudarikwa, instigating violence, arranging vehicles & ferrying youths to villages to attack opposition supporters. War vets Kashesha, Dandara, Mavungire (wearing army fatigues), Kandemire and Katsvairo 3. Mukoma 'Brother B' is force marching people in Murehwa to meetings and ordering people to provide 20 names each of opposition supporters.
Heroes and Villains 9 May, 2008

Heroes:

1. Samson - 3 years old - hit in the face with a rock by ZPF militia on Golden Star farm, Shamva.

2. Unknown 14-month old - admitted to a Harare hospital on Thursday. Beaten unconscious on her mother's back in an attack by ZPF youths and "war vets".

4. South African Transport & Allied Workers Union - for continuing to monitor the movements of the Chinese arms ship and alerting the world to the fact that it is heading to Congo Brazzaville.

5. Durban based inspectorate of the Int Transport Workers Federation - for flying to Brazzaville to make sure the Zim weapons cargo is not unloaded.

6. Tairos - a tractor driver - dragged to a police station, ordered to point out police symapthetic to MDC. Unable to do so he was beaten to death in the police station by ZPF militia.
Villains:
1. Christopher Mashoko, Oswel Kasakura, Dovshal Mutekede, Raphael Chimunhu, Aleck Mbofana and Aleck Chiumbi - all named as being involved in violence.
2. ZPF activist Mhindo - trained youths involved in the violent assaults at Driefontein Mission near Mvuma.
3. 18 security officials including Happyton Bonyongwe, Head of the Department of State Security in the President's Office; Augustine Chihuri, Commissioner General of Police; Paradzayi Zimondi, Prisons Commissioner; Constantine Chigwenga, Head of Defence Forces; Didymus Mutasa, Minister of State Security; Kembo Mohadi, Minister of Home Affairs; Assistant Commissioner Musarashana Godwin Mabunda; and Superintendent, Law and Order Section, Harare, J Chani. Named in a report submitted to South African's Prosecuting Authority for involvement in the torture of MDC officials, including Tsvangirai, in March last year.
4. Cairo Mhandu - recently elected MP & retired solider - led attacks on 4 villages in Chiweshe. 11 dead, 20 seriously injured.
5. Kicker Ncube - leader of a group of war vets responsible for beatings and evictions on a farm in Figtree. He works for MP Obert Mpofu.
6. GMB manager in the Lowveld, the newely appointed Army Colonel Masimbi - for using food as a political weapon and violently 're-educating' people.
7. ZPF MP for Uzumba, Simba Mudarikwa - financing and directing the violence in his area, as well as using his trucks to transport the violent youths.
8. War vets Kandomire & Makoto - for leading the gangs responsible for the beatings and burning of houses in Uzumba. ZPF Senator Kabayanjire also involved.

Heroes & Villains - Friday 02 May
Heroes:
1. MDC Councillor Rusere for Sadza, Wedza - died from injuries sustained in the rural violence. She had fled to MDC offices Harare but was one of those arrested in the raid on the offices and detained. Police ignored the court order to provide access to medical treatment.
2. Tabitha Marume, Rusape - Marume was part of a group of MDC activists who went to a torture camp at Manonga School, demanding the release of colleagues who had been abducted by soldiers. She was shot and killed.
3. 10,000 villagers in Makoni West who attend Marume's funeral in defiance of the ZPF violence. They sang songs of defiance, declaring violence will not stop them supporting MDC.

Villains:
1. Jabulani Sibanda - allegedly axed an MDC supporter in the head .
2. Emmerson Mnangagwa - in charge of the Joint Operations Committee (JOC) that oversees the violence campaign.
3. Gideon Gono - economic advisor to JOC. It costs money to beat and murder people.
4. Sithembiso Nyoni, Minister of Small to Medium Scale Enterprises - watched as 3 ZPF men with her seriously assault Zachariah Isaac Ncube at Gababi in Ward 1 in Nkayi North.
5. Former CIO director and cabinet minister Shadreck Chipanga - led war vets in attack on headmaster at Chakumba Primary School Makoni South. Headmaster battling for life with serious injuries.
6. Daniel Romeo Mutsunguma, CIO agent employed at Zim embassy Washington, USA - MDC allege he murdered Tabitha Marume.
7. Thabo Mbeki - as chair of the UN Security Council he blocked UN action over the Zimbabwe crisis - along with help from China , Russia and Vietnam.
Heroes & Villains - Friday 25 April
Heroes:

1. The whistleblower who leaked the consignment details about arms for Zim on Chinese ship.
2. Noseweek for alerting the world to the story.
3. SA dock workers for refusing to unload the arms.
4. SA litigation centre/Int Action Network on Small Arms, for the successful legal case that blocked the arms shipment.
5. Chairman of SADC, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, for asking all regional leaders to bar ship from docking.
6. Avaaz for their banner protest at the UN and their global online petition to stop arms to Zim.
7. The Archbishops of Canterbury & York, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Primate of Southern Africa for calling for a Zim arms embargo.
8. Ex Malawi President Muluzi for condemning the Zimbabwe situation.
9. Delegates to East African Law Society conference Dar es Salaam for referring to Mbeki as 'Thabo 'no crisis' Mbeki.
10.U.S. envoy to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, on a visit to South Africa, for saying Mugabe should do the honourable thing and step down.
11. Democratic Alliance in SA for calling on the South African government to press for Zimbabwe’s expulsion from the AU and the imposition of travel sanctions on Zimbabwean government officials entering South Africa.

Villains:

1. War vet Richard Makoni (Mutoko East) for the murder of Tatenda Chibika who he shot & killed on April 17.
2. War vet gang leader in Mash Central, Mashonga for evicting and threatening Wela villagers with death.
3. Magistrates Olivia Mariga and Gloria Takundwa for remanding 30 MDC human rights activists and journalist Frank Chikowore in custody, saying that releasing them would fuel violence.
4. Soldiers Cloud Mashoko & Oswell Kasakura, war vet Aaron Jack Kadande, ZPF youth vice chair Raphel Chimhandu, ZPF youths Tichafa Chimunhu, Wellington Chimunhu, Dova Mutekede, Nyepanai Mutekede, Marisa Mapika and Ian Makonde for attacking Mutata/Mukango/Matumbura villagers with logs and axes and destroying homes and property.
5. China for sending arms to Zim.
6. China for refusing to accept a petition at it's embassy in Pretoria asking them to respect the human rights of Zimbabweans.
7. ZNA private Madamombe & ZPF miliaman Jawet Kazangarare for the murder of MDC supporter Tapiwa Mbwanda in Hurungwe East.
8. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa for saying no one has died of politically motivated violence at the hands of Zanu-PF.
9. Extreme violence in Murewa instigated by Health Minister David Parirenyatwa, ZPF District Co-ordinating Committee member Mavhungire & newly elected Senator, Bright Makunde (owner of Hot Pot Restaurant and other businesses in Murewa Centre).
10. War Vet Eric Pfumvuti, mastermind of reign of terror in Mutoko. Promoted to police Sen Ass Commissioner. 4 MDC dead in the area.
11. Police officer 'Silver' based Harare Central, is at the centre of terror campaign against MDC. Shot dead an opposition activist in Sunningdale.

MDC/various

It is times like these that I feel deeply ashamed and embarassed to be an African, and ashamed of being the citizen of a country that would like to be seen to be civilised and democratic - a beacon of freedom in Africa.

I feel a deep, deep anger and also sadness about the cold, callous disrepect for life that our "leaders" are displaying in the face of a brutal, murderous assault on the people of Zimbabwe by what they are not afraid to call their friends and comrades.

Where is the outrage about the violence perpetrated by ZANU-PF thugs and even soliders that is sweeping Zimbabwe? Where is the condemnation of brutality, of the suffering? Where is that statement of our Government calling on the violence to stop?

There is none, and there will be none. They don't care, and they probably never will.

Read this - and many, many, many other articles, and if only half of all the reports are tue , we better prepare ourselves for disaster right here in our own nation.

For I ask myself again and again what nation would support a tyrant and dictator that commits such unspeakable acts of brutality against his own people?

What people do not speak out in the face of such naked murder? Have we forgotten the suffering inflicted on some of us? Is this suffering different because it is perpetrated by Africans against Africans, and not by white people against Africans?

This is what keeps us back, my brothers and sisters: This turning away and looking the other way when we know we should be speaking up and putting a stop to Mugabe's and ZANU's terror against its own people; this being indifferent to what is happening, even not caring. This coldness towards the suffering of our fellow brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe.

How and why should we trust the people who rule us do to it any different in the future when these are their friends? Why? There are dark, dark days ahead my brothers and sisters...dark days.

http://www.theshebeen.org/news-polit...es-horror.html

"Inside the hut where his wife of 29 years died, women sang softly to a subdued drum beat next to the cheap wooden coffin. The thatched roof had been destroyed in the fire so they sat under the open sky. The lid could not be closed because Mrs Chipiro’s outstretched arm had burnt rigid. Her charred hand was found as women swept the hut."

Comrade_007,

I agree with your sentiments - in general - but would rather ask: "Is this what certain factions IN SWAPO support!"


I have one really major problem with the stories emating from Zimbabwe at the moment. They are all tainted. Either they come from USA/UK/Australia or similar countries (who we know will be biased), or they come from people who are without a shadow of doubt violently (bad choice of words - let's rather say "rabidly") anti Mugabe.

I have not yet heard one definitive opinion from someone who is, for all accounts and purposes, unbiased and tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. No embroidery of fact; no selective photos, etc.

This is not to say that I am of the opinion that the photos shown are fakes! No, they are real enough. It is just just one would love to see someone with a lot of credibility (and I do not mean Mbeki!) in Africa actually confirm these atrocities.

That fact alone makes it very difficult for people in the region to actually form an independent opinion.

Unless that is forthcoming from someone Africa trusts and believes in, all criticism will always be made off as pure and simple "witch-hunting"

Senator Obama joins the zim fray with this statement:

"I remain deeply concerned about the crisis in Zimbabwe, where the government of Robert Mugabe last week banned the operations of humanitarian agencies working across the country. The regime's latest attempt to hold on to power at any cost has already accelerated the suffering of millions of Zimbabwe's citizens. Food and other assistance from international agencies including UNICEF, CARE, and Oxfam are critical to the survival of millions of Zimbabweans who cannot afford basic foodstuffs due to skyrocketing inflation and the government's disastrous economic mismanagement.

The United Nations estimates that two million people now face starvation in a country that was once a breadbasket serving all of southern Africa. In this man-made humanitarian crisis, the most vulnerable citizens-children and AIDS patients-have been hit the hardest.

Robert Mugabe's government has frequently used food as a political weapon and required citizens to prove their membership in his ZANU-PF party in order to receive aid. The government is at it once again, denying food donated to Zimbabwe's citizens by the international community, including the United States, to punish the Zimbabwean people for voting peacefully for change.

This egregious abuse is part of a broader campaign of intimidation and repression designed to manipulate the results of the June 27 presidential run-off elections. Members of the opposition, civil society activists, independent journalists and foreign diplomats have all been targets of harassment and brutality in recent weeks.

This week's arrest and detention of senior MDC leaders is the most recent example of the government's determination to hang on to power at any cost.
Governing means acting in the best interests of a nation and its people. Robert Mugabe has abandoned this fundamental responsibility, and continues to jeopardize the future of Zimbabwe's children while undermining the economic progress that has been achieved in southern Africa.

I am pleased that African leaders, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, former heads of states, business leaders and some of the continent's best and brightest artists and activists have called for an end to the violence and the ban on humanitarian aid operations. Urgent action is required to prevent a further deterioration of this tragic situation.

The United Nations, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community cannot afford to be spectators to this tragedy. Along with the United States and Africa's other partners, they must speak out against repression in Zimbabwe. They should also swiftly deploy observers for the June 27th run-off and demand that the Government of Zimbabwe immediately lift the ban on NGO operations before millions more suffer as victims of this crisis.

Source: Senator Barack Obama

Mugabe's achilles heel is his wallet - We must cut off Zimbabwe's access to foreign currency to force a free and fair election

In less than two weeks the fate of the people of Zimbabwe will be determined by the result of a run-off presidential election. If Robert Mugabe is allowed to steal that election the tragedy will be complete. The scale of the catastrophe that Mugabe has precipitated in his country is almost unimaginable. In just ten years, life expectancy has plummeted from 61 years to less than 36 - the lowest in the world. The economy has disintegrated - inflation by the official measure stood at 164,900 per cent in April, unemployment is more than 80 per cent; the shops are empty, the health service has collapsed, the school system no longer functions and millions of Zimbabweans have fled.

Amid the chaos and misery for ordinary Zimbabweans there exists a grotesque contrast. It is to be found in the ostentatious houses, newly built in the suburbs of Harare by Mugabe's party cronies and the military top brass; in the expensive cars that chauffeur the Zanu (PF) elite around the capital and the luxury foods available to those with access to foreign currency. But this grotesque contrast is most sinisterly apparent in the foreign currency miraculously found to arm and equip the forces that brutalise Mugabe's opponents, while public services and infrastructure crumble.

In view of the extreme circumstances facing Zimbabwe, I urged Gordon Brown two weeks ago to warn Mugabe that unless his Government met the basic minimum standards for a free and fair election on June 27 we would work with our allies in the region and the wider world to do the thing that his regime fears: cut off access to the foreign currency that keeps them in power. This step could be taken straight away by Britain using the powers of the Exchange Control Act 1947.

Since everything hinges on what happens in the coming days, a sharp and aggressive strategy with immediate consequences is justified and this is the only tool with sufficient force to secure the guarantees that we need now to ensure there is a fair election. We propose that its application should be reviewed weekly and be lifted immediately should the regime meet basic requirements for fair elections.

Blocking Zimbabwe's access to foreign currency would be a serious step and I do not propose it lightly. I know that many ordinary Zimbabweans rely on remittances from friends and relatives abroad. But access to foreign currency is what sustains Mugabe's brutal rule; blocking it is the only step that will have an impact on his regime because it would threaten its ability to function.

Since I raised this matter with the Prime Minister, the political situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated even farther. Aid agencies have been banned from distributing desperately needed food, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, has been detained five times and prohibited from holding rallies; more than 60 opposition supporters have been killed, and thousands have been beaten, intimidated and driven from their homes. Mugabe at the weekend said that he was willing “to go to war” if he lost. The Joint Operations Command, made up of the heads of the military and state security organisations, is already directing a violent campaign to “decompose” the Movement for Democratic Change.

Mr Brown said that he was willing to consider any measure that might secure a free and fair election, but I fear that in the end we will settle for nothing more than the usual hand-wringing and ritual condemnation.

The British Government has faced a difficult dilemma in tackling the Zimbabwe crisis. The Foreign Office has been understandably fearful that robust action against Mugabe's regime would play into his hands by discomforting our allies in southern Africa and by allowing him to characterise the MDC Opposition as stooges of Zimbabwe's “colonial oppressors”.

The Government's reticence may have been understandable while hope remained that Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa, would act decisively, but that hope faded long ago. In any event, anyone who has recently read the pages of the Zimbabwe Herald recently, or heard the broadcasts of the state radio or television channels, will know that the virulence of Mugabe's anti-British/anti-MDC rhetoric is already so extreme that he could not increase the level of vitriol even if he wished to.

Critics of the measures I have proposed argue that blocking foreign currency from entering the country would precipitate greater suffering. I do not underestimate the severe consequences.

The alternative, however, is to do nothing. That may spare us our moral qualms but it would not spare us the responsibility for the far greater disaster that will engulf Zimbabwe if Robert Mugabe is allowed to steal the election. The consequences for Zimbabwe's people of that outcome would be catastrophic beyond any imagining.

Nick Clegg is leader of the (UK) Liberal Democrats

Zimbabwe's pro-Mugabe war vets draw hard line. In a rare interview, militia leader threatens to take over more white-owned farms and businesses.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa; and BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE - – The man behind Zimbabwe's most feared militia, the War Veterans, has all the credentials of a dedicated fighter except one: He's never fought in combat.

Graduating from boot camp in Angola just after Zimbabwe's "war of liberation" against white-minority rule ended in 1980, Jabulani Sibanda soldiered on as an organizer for President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, the ZANU-PF.

It was Mr. Sibanda who led so-called war veterans to take white-owned farms by force, starting in 2000. Today, Sibanda – one of the hardest hard-liners in the ruling ZANU-PF – is blamed for orchestrating attacks on opposition supporters in the lead-up to a runoff election on June 27.

"We are definitely winning," says a confident Sibanda, in an exclusive interview in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Despite South African-sponsored talks held last week, Sibanda says there is no possibility of a power-sharing deal between Mr. Mugabe's party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

"There is no room for compromise," he says. "Where do people get this term 'government of national unity?' As far as I see it, people who are opposing each other will never work together."

Echoing comments by Mugabe Sunday, he adds that, if Zimbabwe's president hands over power, it will be to another member of the ZANU-PF. "If President Mugabe decides to retire, we, as war veterans, we will respect who the party chooses because we are an organized party, unlike MDC. We are democratic. People will choose a person with dignity."

While there are questions about Sibanda's legitimacy as a "war veteran," few question that he and his militia are one of the main obstacles to a peaceful election, or a Kenyan-style power-sharing agreement.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 elections, but by an insufficient margin to avoid a runoff. Hard-liners like Sibanda and Zimbabwe's military chiefs admit that Mr. Tsvangirai garnered more votes, but say they will never allow a transfer of power to Tsvangirai.

Given their past violence, it's hard to see these as empty threats. But some analysts say that the hard-liners will lose their resolve if Mugabe leaves.

"I don't think there is very much behind these people, they are doing what they are expected to do by the regime, which is making the regime feared," says Marian Tupy, an Africa expert at the Cato Institute in Washington. "When you do happen to see a change in regime, these people will disappear into the bush," because Mugabe won't be able to protect them anymore.

"These people know the enormity of their crimes, both in terms of violence and in the corruption over the past decades," says Mr. Tupy. Even if Tsvangirai prefers a more conciliatory approach toward former ZANU-PF criminals, he expects that other countries will launch the sort of judicial process that brought former Liberian President Charles Taylor to face charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The international community has been quiet thus far. At the United Nations Security Council last week, South Africa and Russia blocked discussion of the political crisis in Zimbabwe, and the Southern African Development Community has thus far refused to sanction Zimbabwe over its continued harassment and arrest of top opposition leaders. But in an open letter to President Mugabe, 40 African leaders, including former UN chief Kofi Annan, and former rulers such as Nigeria's Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar, urged Zimbabwe to end the violence and to create the conditions for a free and fair election.

The response in Zimbabwe? In the past week, Tsvangirai has been arrested five times, and MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti was arrested last week and charged with treason, a crime that carries the death penalty.

Opposition party leaders say that government agents and pro-Mugabe militias have killed some 60 of their supporters since the March 29 elections, and injured hundreds more. In a recent report, Human Rights Watch in London documented some of the estimated 2,000 cases of beatings, including a horrific case in the town of Chiweshe, in which ZANU-PF officials and war veterans beat six men to death, and tortured 70 men and women, because of their apparent support for MDC in the March elections.

Prosper Mutema, an MDC activist from Mtoko in Mashonaland East Province says that he was captured by the so-called war veterans at midnight on June 3 and taken to Rukowo base in Mushamba village.

"They beat me all night with sticks and sjamboks (rhino-hide whips) until I passed out. When I regained consciousness the following day, I was made to sign a document denouncing MDC and I was also forced to hand over party regalia," he said; "all this was done in front of the whole village."

Over the weekend, President Mugabe announced charges of treason against top MDC leaders, including Tsvangirai, and hinted that he would watch for "sellouts" within his own ranks.

"We are the custodians of Zimbabwe's legacy," Mugabe was quoted by the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper. "We will pass this on to those we know are fully aware of the party's ideology, those who value the country's legacy."

Sibanda, for his part, shrugs off charges of human rights violations, saying, "MDC started the violence, not us. Our people only act in self-defense." And he defends the use of force, both in taking away land from the 300 white farmers remaining in Zimbabwe, and also in taking away companies owned by whites. "We now want to assume control of companies," he says. "We want to empower our blacks. We have a lot of smart, educated people, who can be captains of industry. That's the first step to recovery – black economic empowerment." The current economic crisis, with an estimated 400,000 percent inflation rate, he says, "is just a passing phase."

To some former ZANU-PF members, Sibanda's words are mere bluster. Dumiso Dabengwa, a former intelligence chief under Mugabe, says that the "so-called war veterans," can be easily controlled. "There is no genuine war veteran that is going to totally support Mugabe," he says. The true war veterans have families and have suffered the same economic distress that most Zimbabweans have suffered, he says. "They are not the type to run around and harass people in the name of politics."

• The Christian Science Monitor. Two reporters, in Bulawayo and Harare, contributed to this report. Their names are being withheld for security reasons.

Just a repost!


Well that makes perfect sense, why didn't we think of that?
Mugabe is only protecting his countries legacy and his own ideology. That is why he is holding onto power until he can find someone just like himself.

Hitler and Stalin and a host of other dictators shared that same cold ideology with an iron fist. So perhaps the rest of the world should share with him our Ideology and show Mugabe the error of his ways permanently!


by Barry Artiste

Well, sirree!! If'n he wants to play cards, why not Poker and preferably with 2 Aces and Eights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW. It's called the "dead man's hand" from the legend of it having been the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his murder.

Poli, wherever you at the moment....


It's a beautiful article and a good analysis.


PS. You stole nobody's thunder. A good article is a good article irrespective of who writes/posts it