March 21, 2007 - April 2, 2007
Tenth petrol bomb attack in Zimbabwe
Posted: Monday, April 2, 2007
Unknown attackers in Zimbabwe threw petrol bombs at a store belonging to a businessman with links to the ruling ZANU-PF party, reports said Monday.
The attack on Gumbas Wholesalers in downtown Harare on Saturday night damaged office equipment worth 150 million Zimbabwe dollars (600,000 US dollars), state radio said.
"I am surprised by such action because Gumbas Wholesale offers reasonable prices and valuable service to people in spite of the political divide," former ZANU-PF MP Christopher Chigumba, the owner of the store, was quoted as telling the official Herald newspaper.
It was the tenth petrol bomb attack in three weeks of mounting political tensions.
Full Article : monstersandcritics.com
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Zimbabwe's Lonely Fight for Justice
Posted: Saturday, March 31, 2007
By Stephen Gowans
March 31, 2007
Ever since veterans of the guerrilla war against apartheid Rhodesia violently seized white-owned farms in Zimbabwe, the country's president, Robert Mugabe, has been demonized by politicians, human rights organizations and the media in the West. His crimes, according to right-wing sources, are numerous: human rights abuses, election rigging, repression of political opponents, corruption, and mismanagement of the economy. Leftist detractors say Mugabe talks left and walks right, and that his anti-imperialist rhetoric is pure demagogy.
I'm going to argue that the basis for Mugabe's demonization is the desire of Western powers to change the economic and land redistribution policies Mugabe's government has pursued; that his lapses from liberal democratic rectitude are, in themselves, of little moment to decision makers in Washington and London; and that the ultimate aim of regime change is to replace Mugabe with someone who can be counted on to reliably look after Western interests, and particularly British investments, in Zimbabwe.
I am also going to argue that the Zanu-PF government's abridgment of formal liberties (including freedom of assembly and freedom to travel outside the country) are warranted restraints, justified by the need to protect the political program of the elected government from hostile outside interference. In making this argument I am challenging a widely held, and often unexamined, view that civil and political liberties are senior to all other liberties, including rights related to economic sovereignty and freedom from oppression and exploitation.
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Zimbabwe: There are No Votes in London
Posted: Friday, March 30, 2007
By Peter Mavunga
The Herald (Harare)
March 30, 2007
IN his article in the Mail on Sunday last week, a member of the British Government, Mr Peter Hain, was unequivocal: "Mugabe must go and go now."
Mr Hain, Northern Ireland secretary, was in fulsome praise of his friend, Mrs Sekai Holland of the MDC. Without saying it in as many words, it was clear he prefers the MDC to govern Zimbabwe.
What cheek!
What gives him the right to choose the leaders of Zimbabwe? Does he not know Zimbabwe is a sovereign State with people capable of choosing their own leaders?
A few years ago, President Mugabe was driven to offer Tony Blair some advice. He suggested that the British Prime Minister should look after Britain while he looked after Zimbabwe.
Wise words, I thought, but words that fell on deaf ears, no doubt. The British government and media alike have in the last two weeks orchestrated a cruel and vicious campaign against the Government of Zimbabwe. Britons have been subjected to a barrage of bitter tirades in newspaper columns, shameful hysteria too.
If you think I exaggerate, then please put Mr Hain's outburst to one side and consider the comments of another member of Her Majesty's government, Mr Ian McCartney, in his capacity as foreign office minister, who told the House of Commons on Monday that President Mugabe's, daughter, Bona, was studying at my old school, the London School of Economics and Political Science.
I reported to you last week that when it comes to Zimbabwe, the Brits enjoy telling lies these days, they will stop at nothing to demonise the President. This was of course another lie, one of many being peddled here.
And when the LSE issued a denial, Foreign Office officials admitted Mr McCartney "had become a bit confused."
Not in my book, these were just lies, lies, damn lies. It was part of the hysteria whipped up not just by the media but by the British Government -- grown men and women so intent on bringing down the properly elected leader of Zimbabwe in their quest for their so-called regime change.
They want President Mugabe out of office and Mr Morgan Tsvangirai in.
Why?
Because they say so. The MDC may have split into two factions but the British are pretending the split never occurred neither do they think it worth finding out the cause of the split. All they want is for President Mugabe to go and as Mr Hain put it, to go now. This meddling in the internal affairs of an independent sovereign state is consistent with the role the British and the Americans have assigned to themselves -- the world policeman.
For instance, they both invaded Iraq illegally. As my friend and author, David Gazi, has argued, Hitler probably had much more tangible reasons for marching into Austria in 1938 than they ever had for invading Iraq.
This illegal act has cost over 600 000 Iraqi lives, a few thousand American, over hundred British and two Zimbabwean lives. The occupation is now a fait accompli and has more or less gained "legality". The world is less critical and American and British interference in Iraqi affairs is now taken for granted.
Enter Condoleezza Rice. When the US secretary of state "warned" President Mugabe that America would hold him responsible for Tsvangirai's safety, this passed almost without comment.
But wait a minute. On what basis did she make this statement? What right has she got? What is the legal basis of making a statement as intrusive into Zimbabwean affairs as this?
When American soldiers committed illegal acts against Iraqi citizens, it was not Bush who was held to account but the soldiers themselves. Indeed Bush would probably argue that he did not order the soldiers to commit these illegal acts. So would President Mugabe who has already denied any involvement in the beating of Tsvangirai.
If Bush can claim such an alibi, so can President Mugabe.
Again Gazi, that erudite son of Zimbabwe, dismisses Rice as a woman who has not shown any desire for meaningful dialogue with Africa. Gazi asks: "What then does she mean when she warns President Mugabe that America will hold him responsible for Tsvangirai's well-being?"
Gazi in a paper intended for British MPs ahead of the Commons debate on Zimbabwe on Monday said conspiracy theories might regard the statement as "sinister indeed".
"What would happen if Mr Tsvangirai was harmed by persons unknown?" he asked. "Would that not be a pretext for foreign intervention in Zimbabwe? In other words, Mr Tsvangirai is in danger now from forces that wish to further destabilise Zimbabwe for their own ends," he argued.
It is difficult to see how else the West wishes to use Tsvangirai except as some form of martyr. A significant number of top MDC officials, including Professor Welshman Ncube, Gibson Sibanda and more significantly Trudy Stevenson, have left the Tsvangirai camp.
The Western media may have glossed over the reasons for the split but what is known, said Gazi, is that there were complaints that Tsvangirai was dictatorial (this before he even assumed office!). It was also claimed that he had trained a private security force that was harassing senior members of his own party. Trudy Stevenson was allegedly assaulted by young MDC supporters which made the split inevitable, he said.
He went on to say that the MDC is awash with funds, pointing out that the British and American governments had donated generously to a "fighting fund" for opposition groups. If this is not interference, then I do not know what is.
He goes on to say Tsvangirai owns a presidential Mercedes Benz car and lives in relative affluence as do all the top officials of the party. The West does not appear to be overly concerned about the ethical issues involved even though they claim to be keen on transparency and in their fight against corruption, argued Gazi.
But for all their hysteria and their "vast knowledge" of what is best for Zimbabwe, the British have historically been poor at reading the African mind. It is therefore worth asking who they think will win the 2008 elections?
The meddling British by instinct still think the MDC will win as long as the elections are "free and fair". Their unproven contention is that the last election was rigged and that the next one will be rigged as well.
But lets look at the facts more closely. When in February 2000 the draft constitution was rejected to the delight of the MDC and its supporters the British did not think any rigging had taken place. They saw this as a sign that President Mugabe's rule was at an end. Also, the MDC won 57 of the freely contested 120 seats in the election that was held in June of the same year.
There were claims that had the June elections been really free and fair, then Zanu-PF would have lost as it had lost the referendum. But it seems this was all wishful thinking. Why would the rejection of the referendum in February won by the MDC be considered free and fair while the June election won by Zanu-PF be considered to have been the result of vote rigging?
Prof Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's former Minister of Information and Publicity left the party and Government and fought a by-election as an independent. He won against MDC and Zanu-PF candidates. The result showed the complexity of Zimbabwe's politics that has not been grasped by the British.
British failure to understand the African mind generally and in particular the Zimbabwe question dates back to their endorsement of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1952. They did this in the vain hope that this would consolidate British influence in Southern Africa. The Federation project failed.
Again almost 20 years later the British put together the Pearce Commission to test the acceptability of the proposals that, had they been accepted in 1971, would have legitimised through the back door white minority rule underpinned by the 1961 Constitution.
Zimbabweans rejected the proposals.
The Pearce Commission gave birth to the ANC under Bishop Abel Muzorewa. For the British, the Bishop was the preferred future Prime Minister of independent Zimbabwe.
They genuinely believed he would win the 1980 elections. Lord Carrington was quoted as having advised the Bishop not to remove his slippers from State House as he was definitely going to be returned there by popular vote.
They were, no doubt, dreaming then just as they continue to dream on today in their clamor for President Mugabe to go. Blair does not stop telling us that he and his government are working with the MDC to effect change. He thinks, quite erroneously, that he is doing the MDC a favour.
It does not always work like that in post colonial Africa as Tsvangirai appears to be slowly beginning to realise. He begged the British in an interview this week not to act alone in their support for the MDC.
"The British should play a part within the EU and UN framework," he said.
Clearly Tsvangirai is embarrassed about the impact his close association with the British has on his party. But I think he should worry about something else -- the fickle nature of British support.
The British have been using the word "coup" in relation to Zimbabwe as if it were the first principle of democracy. Also their Foreign Office officials have been talking about their readiness to work with Zanu-PF as if democracy and corruption are no longer of concern to them.
Herein lies some food for thought for the MDC. I do not think the British will have any compunction about dropping the MDC, if it suits them, in favour of Zanu-PF members who are on their banned list, regardless of whether they are corrupt or not.
For me, the moral of the story seems to have three stands. Solutions to problems facing Zimbabwe should be found among Zimbabweans and those who forget this do so at their peril.
Zimbabwean politicians who traipse to Western capitals campaign for more hardship to be meted out on the already impoverished Zimbabweans are focusing their campaigns on the wrong constituencies.
There are no votes here.
It is the people of Zimbabwe, not Hain, who can remove their politicians from office. The task of Zimbabwe's politicians is to persuade the majority as to the merits of their case, not British MPs however nice they may be as "friends".
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Lift sanctions on Zimbabwe -SADC
Posted: Friday, March 30, 2007
From Innocent Gore in DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania
In a communiqué released at the end of a one-day extraordinary summit attended by 10 heads of state and government here, Sadc also appealed to the British government to honour its obligations and release funds to compensate former commercial farmers whose land was acquired for resettlement.
The summit "noted and appreciated the briefing by President Robert Mugabe on the current political developments in Zimbabwe".
"The Extraordinary Summit recalled that free, fair and democratic presidential elections were held in 2002 in Zimbabwe. The Extraordinary Summit reaffirmed its solidarity with the Government and people of Zimbabwe.
"The Extraordinary Summit reiterated the appeal to Britain to honour its compensation obligations with regard to land reform made at Lancaster House.
"The Extraordinary Summit appealed for the lifting of all forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe," read the communiqué.
The Sadc heads mandated Sadc executive secretary Mr Tomaz Salamao to undertake a study on the economic situation in Zimbabwe and propose measures on how the regional bloc can assist the country to recover economically.
This is the first time that Sadc has collectively called for the lifting of sanctions on Zimbabwe and come up with a proposal on how the effects of those sanctions on the country can be countered.
The sanctions against Zimbabwe by Britain and her allies follow a bilateral dispute between Harare and London after the country embarked on land reforms in 2000.
The British government of Mrs Margaret Thatcher promised to release funds for land reforms at the Lancaster House constitutional conference that culminated in Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 after a protracted armed struggle.
However, the Labour government of Mr Tony Blair has refused to honour that obligation and has instead mobilised its allies -- the United States and some countries in the European Union -- to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Sadc has previously made it clear that the problems in Zimbabwe are a result of a bilateral dispute with Britain, mainly arising from the land reform programme, but had not pronounced itself explicitly on the need to have the sanctions lifted.
The Government has said it will not compensate the former commercial farmers for the land because it does not have the money to do so, but that it will pay for the improvements on the land such as dams and other infrastructure.
On the political situation in the country, the summit mandated President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa to continue to facilitate dialogue between the MDC and the Government and report back to the troika on Defence, Politics and Security on progress.
"The Extraordinary Summit also encouraged enhanced diplomatic contacts which will assist the resolution of the situation in Zimbabwe," read the communique.
The summit was held in the wake of a protracted media onslaught on Zimbabwe by the West, with the international media, particularly the BBC and CNN, speculating that President Mugabe had been "summoned" by Sadc leaders to be "dressed down" or "shown the exit".
But sources who attended the meeting's closed-door session said President Mugabe briefed the leaders on the political situation in the country and the MDC terror campaign that has seen the opposition party petrol-bombing police stations in Harare, Chitungwiza, Gweru and Mutare.
Suspected MDC supporters also petrol-bombed a Bulawayo-bound passenger train and a supermarket in Warren Park.
Speaking to reporters on arrival at Harare International Airport, the President said the summit had also urged the MDC to desist from violence and to recognise him and his Government as he was legitimately re-elected by the people of Zimbabwe in 2002.
He said President Mbeki would talk to the opposition and see whether there is need for dialogue with them, but warned them against engaging in violence.
The summit also got briefings on the political situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lesotho by the leaders of those countries, President Joseph Kabila and Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili respectively.
The leaders resolved to render unconditional support to Mr Kabila's government in its quest to restore law and order, maintaining peace and stability and spearheading national reconstruction.
It reaffirmed the sovereign right of the DRC to have a single national army and urged former Vice President Jean Pierre Bemba to integrate his remaining armed elements into the national army or to be demobilised. They also appealed to other armed groups in the DRC to do the same.
The summit reiterated that the rule of law in the DRC must be observed and respected by all parties in conformity with accepted international conventions. It expressed concern on the loss of lives and urged all parties to respect the sanctity of human life and the principles of human rights.
The summit also expressed support to the ongoing efforts for the economic reconstruction of the DRC.
On Lesotho, the summit agreed to send a Sadc delegation at ministerial level to assess the situation as requested by the opposition political parties who want the regional bloc to help in dealing with post-election tensions.
The other leaders who attended the summit were host President Jakaya Kikwete, President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia, Prime Minister Themba Dlamini of Swaziland and President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia. Botswana was represented by its Vice President, Mr Ian Khama, while Angola was represented by its Minister of External Affairs, Mr Joao Bernardo Miranda. Madagascar and Mauritius were represented by their ambassadors.
President Mugabe returned home last night and was met at Harare International Airport by Vice President Joice Mujuru, the Minister of State Security, Land Reform and Resettlement, Cde Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of Information and Publicity, Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, service chiefs and senior Government officials.
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Zimbabwe: Africa Summit Calls for End to Sanctions
Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2007
Zimbabwe Watch
March 29, 2007
African leaders agreed that President Thabo Mbeki should facilitate dialogue between the government and opposition political parties in Zimbabwe amid calls from Western leaders for strong actions to be taken against President Mugabe and the government of Zimbabwe.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) also called for western sanctions on Zimbabwe to be lifted and appealed to Britain to honour its commitments to assist with financing land reforms in Zimbabwe.
This may seem to be a slap in the face of Western leaders' calls for tough words and actions from African leaders against Robert Mugabe.
It is quite obvious that African leaders are not dependant on western sources for news and reports on what is taking place in Zimbabwe.
"Of course the appeal to parties is to be cooperative and give this initiative a chance, also for the parties to exercise restraint and avoid anything that's going to inflame the situation," Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete told reporters at a news conference.
"The extraordinary summit mandated his Excellency President Thabo Mbeki to continue to facilitate dialogue between opposition and government and report back ... on progress," a statement at the end of the two-day summit said.
"The extraordinary summit reiterated its appeal to Britain to honour its compensation obligations with regard to land reforms," the summit statement said.
Also Read:
Africa summit calls for Zimbabwe dialogue
Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com
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Zimbabwe: US and Europe's Disinformation Campaign
Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2007
The hypocrisy of these Western leaders, all of whom have the blood of hundreds of thousands on their hands, makes hollow their outrage over Zimbabwe. Having already demonstrated the disregard they have for the lives of ordinary people, they cannot now be the moral authority for anyone.
Even if African nations wanted to make statements opposing President Mugabe's governing, the US, UK and Australia are making it difficult for them to do so with their constant demands and interferences. The leaders in these Western countries are demanding that leaders of African nations react harshly to President Robert Mugabe, as if the African leaders cannot see the tactics they are using in their attempts to remotely control them. Which African leader really wants to appear as US and Europe's lacquey?
Continue to: 'Zimbabwe: US and Europe's Disinformation Campaign'
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Police nab 35 MDC activists, confiscate arms, explosives
Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2007
Herald Reporter
March 29, 2007
POLICE yesterday arrested 35 MDC activists and seized explosives and arms after the recent spate of terror bombings, hours after the ninth bombing, this time of two petrol tankers in Mutare yesterday morning.
The top two suspects were Ian Makone, the special advisor to faction leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, and last year's failed MDC candidate for Chikomba constituency, Piniel Denga, who was arrested after large quantities of explosives and detonators were reportedly found at his city flat.
Others were rounded up on Tuesday night in connection with the Monday night bombing of the Zanu-PF Mbare district office while a further group was picked up in a major raid on the faction's Harvest House headquarters in central Harare yesterday.
Among those arrested are some suspected operatives of the faction's self-named Democratic Resistance Committees, underground cells believed to be behind violence and bombing campaigns to create panic and render Zimbabwe ungovernable.
Suspects were still being screened last night.
In their raids on the homes of Makone and Denga, police reported that they recovered explosives, detonators, tins of paint, two revolvers, ammunition, loud hailers and communication radios and T-shirts inscribed with the opposition party's slogans.
Addressing a Press conference at Harare Central Police Station last night, police chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said Denga, who was the MDC candidate in the Chikomba by-election last year, was picked up at his flat in Harare's Avenues area.
Police recovered 53 explosives, 24 detonators, 88 tins of paint and T-shirts inscribed with MDC slogans at the flat, he reported.
The explosives were identical to those recovered at the scene of the bombing of a train in Mufakose last weekend and were similar to those used by the Zimbabwe National Army in demining operations and which had been supplied by Americans.
Makone – held on suspicion of being the mastermind of the violence that the opposition has been unleashing since March 12 – was picked up together with his wife Theresa.
Police recovered an Astra revolver and two rounds of ammunition at his home in Domboshava.
The revolver, Asst Comm Bvudzijena said, does not have a current licence.
Police also recovered a box of red whistles, 20 small loud hailers and 36 large hailers, five batteries for communication radios as well as documents linking the MDC to the so-called Democratic Resistance Committees, he said.
Police also raided the MDC faction headquarters at Harvest House along Nelson Mandela Avenue following a tip-off from intelligence and arrested 10 suspects suspected of being linked to the opposition's underground cell groups – the DRCs.
"One of the suspects has an injury on his stomach consistent with a burn and we suspect this was caused during the process of throwing a petrol bomb.
"We believe – and intelligence has it – that most of the so-called DRCs who were throwing petrol bombs were being housed at Harvest House and hence the raid this morning," Asst Comm Vudzijena said.
Several other activists rounded up when police raided the opposition's offices were being screened.
Police briefly closed a two-block section along Nelson Mandela Avenue between Angwa Street and Sam Nujoma Street to search the opposition offices in the area. Police dismissed claims that they had arrested Mr Tsvangirai during the Harvest House raid.
"We are not witch-hunting and the rumour that Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested during the Harvest House raid is misplaced and mischievous," Asst Comm Bvudzijena said.
Western media and online news agencies were yesterday awash with reports that Mr Tsvangirai had been picked up.
In the latest terror bombing, two petrol tankers were bombed along Sanhanga Road in Mutare.
However, police quickly responded and put out the fire before it spread.
There have been five terror bombings in Harare, two in Mutare and one each in Gweru and Bulawayo, which security authorities believe are meant to induce fear and insecurity in the Zimbabwean population.
Since March 12, this terror campaign – believed to be mounted by the MDC through its so-called DRCs – has mainly targeted Government officials, security forces and Zanu-PF officials.
But with bombings of a train and now the petrol tankers, they are now showing determination to spread the terror to the general public.
Asst Comm Bvudzijena said police would continue to arrest those who have committed these terror crimes irrespective of their political or social stature.
He also said the terror activities the country has witnessed are how civil wars are started.
"We do not want Zimbabwe to descend into anarchy. We appeal to anyone with information to come forth and assist us," he said.
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Zimbabwe's Ambassador Takes Issue with Arrogant Editorial
Posted: Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Zimbabwe's Canadian Ambassador Takes Issue with Embassy's Arrogant Editorial
Your editorial is unfortunate since it borders on inaccuracies and arrogance (Re: "Failure on the Horizon" March 21). The mere fact that the article was written as an editorial was a trick to avoid writing a comprehensive story that could have brought out compelling facts about the abundantly proven violent nature of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. In an editorial you can offer your opinion as you wish, which still does not make it fair journalism because, as your editorial shows, you only heard and considered one side of the story.
Embassy does not seem to have considered that even by video footage from the British Broadcasting Corporation, the gathering in Zimbabwe had some participants waving banners reading "Vote MDC" and placards with conspicuous MDC symbols underneath church messages. What had a church meeting to do with voting MDC? Embassy is quiet on the fact that these MDC supporters masquerading as church-goers were breaking a section of a law passed by the Zimbabwean parliament, the Public Order and Safety Act, that had been invoked to temporarily ban political gatherings after the MDC thugs had caused violence the previous week resulting in the serious injury of four police officers.
The editorial suggests that the government beats people for no apparent reason. You seem to have an urge to relate our situation and behaviour to some confirmed aggressionists known to the whole world and some of whom you point to in the editorial, who are experts in unilaterally invading and "reconstructing" weak and small nations. Zimbabwe respects the human rights and dignity of its people, hence our sacrifice to fight for decades and defeat the colonisers who did not have any respect for a black person.
You also suggest that our legitimately elected government rigs elections, yet the African Union and the South African Development Community observers have consistently certified our elections as free and fair. Your contempt of the findings of these African bodies serves as further evidence of your general contempt of anything undertaken by a black person. Also, the MDC chairman of Morgan Tsvangirai's faction, Isaac Matongo, recently told his party supporters that the MDC was beaten in the elections not because of rigging, but because it did not go into the rural areas to campaign where the majority of the voters are.
Embassy displays shocking arrogance when it suggests that being confined to maize fields and villages is a curse. Obviously, this is a thinly veiled attack on the poor, toiling and uneducated Zimbabweans who happen to support the current government, and are victims of colonialism and the Western countries-driven and neo-liberal based structural adjustment programme.
Rightly said, the fact that many Zimbabweans and the government understand democratic principles is the very reason intervention by confirmed aggressionists is failing. Zimbabweans will continue rejecting undue meddling in their internal matters and rejecting a foreign-sponsored MDC. You correctly outline the intentions that your paper and many other rogue elements in the West wish to pursue: The illegal regime change policy. It is not theory that you are outlining about the regime change policy, but a persistently failing designed policy intended to mobilize people against its own government. As you know quite well, the attempt to cause massive suffering that turns people against their government is the philosophy driving the illegal economic sanctions that were imposed on Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a product of our blood, sweat and tears and we shall not sell-out or allow any foreign interests or rogue elements in Zimbabwe to dissuade us from establishing a democratic Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans. Contrary to your headline, we say, "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again."
FLORENCE ZANO CHIDEYA
Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Canada
Reprinted from:
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display=letters&letters_date=1175054400
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South Africa lays Zimbabwe crisis at MDC door
Posted: Wednesday, March 28, 2007
By Donwald Pressly
www.news24.com
Cape Town - The serious conflict in Zimbabwe has arisen because of the perception by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that recent elections in Zimbabwe were not free and fair, said a South African government spokesperson, Themba Maseko, on Tuesday.
"I think it is now public record that there were elections in Zimbabwe... at the end of those elections, the MDC were of the view that those elections were not free and fair.
"Based on the view of the MDC, we then had a situation in Zimbabwe where there was serious conflict arising out of the premise taken by the MDC that the elections were not free and fair."
It, however, was the position of the South African government that the recent elections had been free and fair, he noted.
The answer was in reply to a question from a journalist - at a media briefing after Tuesday's cabinet meeting in Cape Town - as to what the government's analysis of the key problem was in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Full Article : news24.com
S. African official defends policy towards Zimbabwe
South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad on Tuesday said his country adopts constructive diplomacy, not quiet diplomacy as described by critics, towards the Zimbabwean situation.
During a media briefing at Parliament in Cape Town, he also rejected suggestions that economic sanctions should be imposed as a means to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported.
Full Article : english.people.com.cn
Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com
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Chiluba backs President Mugabe
Posted: Friday, March 23, 2007
FORMER Zambian president Frederick Chiluba yesterday backed President Robert Mugabe over the situation in Zimbabwe.
Addressing journalists before departure for South Africa for medical review and treatment, Mr Chiluba said independence was about land.
"Why are these disturbances in Zimbabwe? I am not an expert. When I was in London, I was trapped by a lady called Clare Short. She asked me to comment on Zimbabwe.
She wanted me to condemn. "But independence is about land. If all of you were squatters, independence will be meaningless."
He said there was an agreement over the Zimbabwean land issue. "President Mugabe has been patiently waiting and they have refused. So he has to take the bull by its horns," Mr Chiluba said.
"Among us we have stooges, they are using the land issue to ostracise (President) Mugabe.
"He has made Zimbabweans to see the meaning of independence," he said. He condemned any opposition party in Zimbabwe that might be supporting the interests of the West.
"Cursed be the day their leader and the party were born," Mr Chiluba said.
Asked about the recent reports of brutality in Zimbabwe, Mr Chiluba responded: "CNN have a tendency to distort."
"They said I was dead because they wanted me dead so how can I believe them?" He added that he was much better.
"I am getting much better by the day and thank God for that. I am looking very much better as you can see yourself," he said.
Mr Chiluba left for South Africa aboard a South African Airways plane. His wife Regina, spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba, his personal physician Dr Justin Kangwa and three security personnel accompanied him.
— The Post.
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White Liberals Cannot See Truth in Africa
Posted: Friday, March 23, 2007
By Ayinde
rastafaritimes@yahoo.com
March 23, 2007
MOST White liberals and their media (including websites) are useless when it comes to evaluating issues from a Black point of view. They are not only useless when African nations and leaders have to be defended against the aggression of the US and Europe, but some go a step further and are more dangerous by how they spread the racist lies of the West. I guess they only view racism as when someone stands in a crowded place and shouts the "N" word.
I did not expect them to be able to evaluate issues from an African point of view, especially as most of them could not even get it right on Venezuela during the coup attempt in 2002.
For all the distrust they have of their governments, they are more than ready to believe those same governments when they attack African leaders and nations.
A prime example, Haiti. Most of the antiwar and anti-Bush media were quiet on that issue. They did not see the US, France and Canada having a major role in illegally forcing the first democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide out of office and into exile. (Read: The Ouster of Democracy by Gary Younge, March 2004)
White liberals who just did not get it can read articles on the Haitian Coup at africaspeaks.com. Some Whites understood the issues in part, but they were not so moved as to sustain a campaign for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the legitimate, democratically elected president of Haiti, who commands the support of the majority of Haitians along with wide support from Black Africans abroad.
Next on the list is Zimbabwe.
The US and Britain have been involved in an effort to oust the democratically elected leader of Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, ever since he turned away from the intangible and unjust IMF and World Bank policies and started reclaiming illegally obtained land from White settlers for redistribution to Black Zimbaweans. They were not against Mugabe for reports of human rights abuses, as in the past, when such reports surfaced, they were still praising Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe as a model country in Africa. For more information, although long, this article is worth reading: Zimbabwe Under Siege by Gregory Elich. There is a comprehensive list of additional articles for further reading on raceandhistory.com.
Next on the list is Somalia.
The US and Ethiopia illegally invaded Somalia and ousted the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) which had popular support. The ICU brought a measure of stability to Somalia for the first time in sixteen years.
In the article "A New War in Africa" Gwynne Dyer explains:
"This is a war founded on a misconception and driven by paranoid fantasies.
The misconception was the US government's belief that the Islamic Courts, local religious authorities backed by merchants in Mogadishu who wanted someone to curb the warlords, punish thieves, and enforce contracts, were just a cover for al-Qaeda.
So the US instead backed the warlords who were making Somalis' lives a misery.
American support is the kiss of death in Somalia, so the warlords were finally dislodged in Mogadishu last June by an uprising led by the UIC and supported by most of the population."
Visit africaspeaks.com for more on the crisis in Somalia.
Although some Whites do take the time to examine issues from an African point of view, they are too few and far between. If you doubt me, simply check your favorite antiwar, anti-Bush, anti-imperialism websites and you will see the absence of pro-African commentaries on any or all of these issues. (Even the considerably rated Comedy Central's "Today Show" hosted by John Stewart lacks substance in dealing with African issues.)
To informed Africans, most of these so-called liberal Whites are not liberal at all. White Supremacy still comes first to them and has to be first addressed before they can see the truth from a Black perspective.
We understand the circumstances that keep many from researching issues properly and not easily breaking away from colonial institutions and neocolonial policies. Many are struggling with bread and butter issues on a daily basis and do not yet appreciate why they MUST make time for informing themselves.
Understanding the issues is also about addressing poverty. Those with the means and especially those involved in the media have no excuse for misleading many.
Martin Luther King saw the problem with White liberals and in his letter from the Birmingham jail he wrote:
"...First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
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Zimbabwe: Mugabe Gets the Milosevic Treatment
Posted: Friday, March 23, 2007
By Stephen Gowans
March 23, 2007
Arthur Mutambara, the leader of one faction of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the MDC, and one of the principals in the Save Zimbabwe Campaign that's at the centre of a storm of controversy over the Mugabe government's crackdown on opposition, boasted a year ago that he was "going to remove Robert Mugabe, I promise you, with every tool at my disposal." (1)
Educated at Oxford, the former management consultant with McKinsey & Co. was asked in early 2006 whether "his plans might include a Ukrainian-style mass mobilization of opponents of Mugabe's regime." (2)
"We're going to use every tool we can get to dislodge this regime," he replied. "We're not going to rule out or in anything – the sky's the limit." (3)
Last year Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of an opposing MDC faction, and eight of his colleagues, were thrown out of Zambia after attending a meeting arranged by the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, with representatives of Freedom House, a US ruling class organization that promotes regime change in countries that aren't sufficiently committed to free markets, free trade and free enterprise. (4)
Funded by the billionaire speculator George Soros, USAID, the US State Department and the US Congress's National Endowment for Democracy (whose mission has been summed up as doing overtly what the CIA used to do covertly), Freedom House champions the rights of journalists, union leaders and democracy activists to organize openly to bring down governments whose economic policies are against the profit-making interests of US bankers, investors and corporations.
Headed by Wall St. investment banker Peter Ackerman, who produced a 2002 documentary, Bringing Down a Dictator, a follow-up to A Force More Powerful, which celebrates the ouster of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, Freedom House features a rogues' gallery of US ruling class activists on its board of directors: Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Otto Reich, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Steve Forbes, among others.
The campaign to replace Mugabe with the neo-liberal standard bearers of the MDC is rotten with connections to the overthrow of Milosevic. Dell, the US ambassador, prides himself on being one of the architects of Milosevic's ouster. (5) He held a senior diplomatic post in Kosovo when Milosevic was driven out of office in a US-UK engineered uprising.
Dell's mission, it would seem, is to be as provocative as possible, sparing no effort to tarnish the image of the Mugabe government. In early November 2005, Dell declared that "neither drought nor sanctions are at the root of Zimbabwe's decline," an implausible conclusion given that drought has impaired economic performance in neighboring countries, and that sanctions bar Zimbabwe from access to economic and humanitarian aid, while disrupting trade and investment. "The Zimbabwe government's own gross mismanagement of the economy and its corrupt rule has brought on the crisis," Dell charged. (6)
When not disparaging Mugabe's government, Dell can be counted on to be doling out largesse to the opposition (US$1 million, according to one source, to get the Save Zimbabwe Campaign off the ground earlier this year.) (7)
Responding to Dell's call for the opposition to unite, Mutambara has declared his new unity of purpose with MDC opponent, Tsvangirai. "Our core business," he announced, after violent clashes with the police earlier this month, "is to drive Mugabe out of town. There is no going back. We are working together against Robert Mugabe and his surrogates." (8)
While Mutambara is certainly working with Tsvangirai to drive Mugabe out of town, what he doesn't explain is what he wants to replace Mugabe with. The opposition, and the powerful Western governments that back it, make it seem as if they're offended by Mugabe's qualities as a leader, not his policies, and that their aim is to restore good governance, not to impose their own program on Zimbabwe.
We should be clear about what the MDC is and what its policies are. While the word "democratic" in the opposition's Movement for Democratic Change moniker evokes pleasant feelings, the party's policies are rooted in the neo-liberal ideology of the Western ruling class. That is, the party's policies are hardly democratic.
The MDC favors economic "liberalization", privatization and a return to the glacial-paced willing buyer/willing seller land-redistribution regimen – a status quo ante-friendly policy that would limit the state's ability to redistribute land to only tracts purchased from white farmers who are willing to sell.
Compare that to the Zanu-PF government's direction. Mugabe's government is hardly socialist, but it has implemented social democratic policies that elevate the public interest at least a few notches above the basement level position it occupies under the neo-liberal tyranny favored by the MDC. A Mutambara or Tsvangirai government would jettison policies that demand something from foreign investors in return for doing business in Zimbabwe. Foreign banks, for example, are required to invest 40 percent of their profits in Zimbabwe government bonds. (9) What's more, the MDC leaders would almost certainly end the Mugabe government's policy of favoring foreign investors who partner with local investors to promote indigenous economic development. And Zimbabwe's state-owned enterprises would be sold off to the highest bidder.
Moreover, the land redistribution program would be effectively shelved, delaying indefinitely the achievement of one of the principal goals of Zimbabwe's national liberation struggle – reversing the plunder of the indigenous population's land by white settlers. Mugabe, it is sometimes grudgingly admitted in the Western press, is a hero in rural parts of southern Africa for his role in spearheading land reform, something other south African governments have lacked the courage to pursue vigorously. South African president Thabo Mbeki's reluctance to join in the collective excoriation of Mugabe is often attributed to "respect for Mr. Mugabe as a revolutionary hero (he led the fight that ended white rule in Zimbabwe in 1980, and was a key opponent of apartheid) and because the issue of white ownership of land in South African is also sensitive." (10)
Contrast respect for Mugabe with the thin layer of support the US-backed Save Zimbabwe Campaign has been able to muster. It "does not yet have widespread grassroots support," (11) but it does have the overwhelming backing of the US, the UK, the Western media and US ruling class regime change organizations, like Freedom House. Is it any surprise that Zanu-PF regards the controversy swirling around its crackdown on the opposition's latest provocation as an attempt by an oppressor to return to power by proxy through the MDC?
1. Times Online March 5, 2006.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. The Sunday Mail, February 5, 2006.
5. The Herald, October 21, 2005.
6. The Herald, November 7, 2005.
7. The Herald, March 14, 2007.
8. The Observer, March 18, 2007.
9. The Observer, January 28, 2007.
10. The Globe and Mail, March 22, 2007.
11. Ibid.
Stephen Gowans's Blog
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Zimbabwe: When Others Seek to Overthrow the State
Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2007
When Others Seek to Overthrow the State, What Must Be the State Response?
Analysis by Ghifari al Mukhtar
March 21, 2007
Funny the way the recent case of supposed human rights abuses in Zimbabwe attracts great interest in the Western media, while other similar cases hardly or do not get noticed in this same media. Relations between the UK/US soured when Zimbabwe sent troops, together with Namibia and Angola, to defend the Democratic Republique of Congo against a second invasion by Rwanda and Uganda, friends of the US and the UK. (Zimbabwe Under Siege by Dr. Simbi Mubako)
When the Mugabe government intercepted arms and a plane load of terrorists (How New Africa Made Fools of the White Mischief-makers, August 2004) sponsored by Britain and the US (Pentagon link to Guinea Coup Plot, September 2004) on their way to violently kill Africans in an attempt to overthrow another oil rich African government, where was the media's reporting in favor of Mugabe's intervention of what would have been more UK/US human rights abuses? Now the US & UK are strangling Zimbabwe and its people. Who, therefore, is cruel?
Hold strong and firm; for if Mugabe and Zimbabwe were to give room then we are finished as a continent, as a people and as all those seeking to repulse recolonization throughout the world.
There are paradoxes that seem divine rather than a willful strategy on the one hand. How they, the resisters, are surrounded with stooges, "NGO's", coward states, church and evangelical groups and if suppressed populations, if not deliberate in their opposition, they are enormously ignorant, and in the Black and Brown case, hating themselves for the color they are.
If Africa lets Mugabe slip, then shall we say: good bye Africa! Like him or not, the scene in Zimbabwe is either it's Africa or it's Europe, yet we must also watch out for their marauding cousins', the "US & Israel", with their chisel and hammer diplomacy.
It is the stereotype media performance we fail to wise up to. Mugabe is as ironic as Venezuela's Chavez, as Iran's Ahmadinejad, as Kim of Korea, Hizbollah in Lebanon and the Hamas of Palestine. Just pull out your maps and look at the geography, their resources (fullness), their original colors.
Indeed, they are so strategic it's as if God placed this resistance (leadership) per region, as the check and balance from the violent dominance of an "outsider". A marauder bearing disguised gifts, often resulting in misery, slavery and racist evangelical democracy as the only medicine for our perceived ills. Ills, if at all there are, were created and perpetuated by the marauders' themselves in their laboratories within Wall Street, the Vatican, Chatham House and NATO.
The debase, vicious, glutinous White West, that exchanges weapons for war, disunity, chaos and poverty, offer in their hollow speeches peace, development, democracy and aid that bind us to nowhere but to perpetual troubles.
We need no more of your expired consultants, no more of the devil's advice, no Bono aid and to hell with the media.
This hypocrisy stinks. Mugabe was never commended for his sole prevention of what would have been mass-murder, hatched and orchestrated solely in the West. Instead he is falsely accused of killing -- allegations typical of the White West toward noncompliant state leaders.
On the question of public disorder and violence with a virtual attempt to overthrow legitimate governments - this was okayed in Georgia, in Tiananmen Square and Tibet in China; Caracas, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
The facts are there, the West has a track record of human rights abuses that is undisputable, particularly the critics of Robert Mugabe. Not forgetting history, just look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and the U.S. prison and justice system. Lets not compare, lest Mugabe will come out looking immaculately pious. In fact he isn't, he is a warrior that wrestled his nation from the jaws of colonialism's most barbaric and manipulative empires.
Mugabe must be firm and should treat those seeking western-type regime changes as no less than criminals, charged with terrorism, anarchy and sedition.
In Britain and the US, peaceful demonstrators are being arrested, charged, manhandled, and intimidated through government spying for staging demonstrations against a corrupt president and his lying poodle to stop WAR.
Is Mugabe waginig war? Certainly not. He is defending his country, leading Africa's defence.
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African Nations Need New Approach to Zimbabwe
Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2007
By Ayinde
rastafaritimes@yahoo.com
March 21, 2007
African nations have been silent too long while Zimbabwe slides into economic ruin.
In this hour of contrived turmoil in Zimbabwe it is time for decisive words and actions.
African nations need to tell Tony Blair, the rest of Europe and the U.S. that they would not be dictated to. Tony Blair is leaving office soon and would like to force the democratically elected President of Zimbabwe out of office before he himself leaves office.
African nations need to send an unambiguous message to the 'West' that they are not buying the European and White settlers propaganda and that they want all sanctions lifted on Zimbabwe. These sanctions have mostly affected the ordinary people in Zimbabwe (See: The MDC Must Renounce the Sanctions by Tadios Chisango).
They should boldly declare that African nations are not colonies of the U.S. and Britain, and would not be pressured to stand against the democratically elected President of Zimbabwe who commands the majority support in Zimbabwe.
African nations should also call on the opposition in Zimbabwe to renounce violence and to desist from using violence in Zimbabwe. If they are resorting to breaking the laws and using violence then the government and the police are right to use brute force to stop such activities.
Let us see how many African leaders have the courage to stand for freedom instead of making backdoor deals with Tony Blair and the U.S. for aid in exchange for their conscience.
Africans globally are watching... It is your move now.
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MDC's civil disobedience tactics cheap publicity stunt
Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2007
By Obi Egbuna
March 21, 2007
ZIMBABWE
While the latest demonstrations in Zimbabwe led by MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai have achieved absolutely nothing, on the other hand they exposed a lot.
The obvious thing is that the MDC was responding to pressure from Britain and the United States to destabilise Zimbabwe because their masters have invested a lot of time and money in the opposition over the past eight years only to realise that they have failed to unseat the Government.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's legacy in relation to the African continent will mainly be defined by whether or not he was able to force an illegal racist regime change in Zimbabwe, and his sidekick, United States President George W. Bush, is looking for any victory on foreign policy to shift focus away from the Iraq debacle.
President Mugabe's two-word response – "Go hang" – to Western critics of his Government demonstrates to Africans worldwide that we at least have one head of state in Africa that does not toss and turn in bed all night worrying about validation by the imperialist powers.
US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell has three main issues on his plate before Bush makes his exit from office.
Firstly, he must do everything to make sure Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara reunite the MDC at all costs. Secondly, he will be corresponding with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to exaggerate political violence in Zimbabwe and blame it all on Zanu-PF.
Lastly, he will be working with the International Crisis Group to articulate why the Bush administration is justified in increasing sanctions on Zimbabwe. But Zimbabweans will not be fooled by Tsvangirai and MDC's so-called Save Zimbabwe Campaign and are too busy with their bread and butter issues.
Thanks to his willingness to be the scapegoat Bush and Blair need to have on the ground in order to convince the entire world that by imposing sanctions they are responding to the wishes of the people.
Tsvangirai and the MDC are too brainwashed to understand that using civil disobedience tactics when you are financed by the two most violent warmongers on the planet is at best a cheap publicity stunt.
How dare a neocolonialist operation like the MDC try to use positive action as a strategy only a few days after the 50th anniversary celebration of Ghana's independence! This is an attempt by Tsvangirai to politically reinvent himself before Bush and Blair leave office.
If he and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions' Wellington Chibebe fail at provoking confrontations with the police, even the Voice of America and BBC might ignore them. Besides, Trudy Stevenson, an MDC Member of Parliament, was severely beaten up by her own membership last year and also another MDC MP David Coltart publicly exposed that youth members in the MDC were planning to kill their director of security Peter Guhu a couple of years ago.
This led to the spokesmen of both factions – Nelson Chamisa (for Tsvangirai) and Gabriel Chaibva (for Mutambara) – openly debating which faction was more violent. This means African organisations in the Diaspora should really do their homework and resist the temptation of grabbing a few headlines which they are guaranteed to receive if they blame President Mugabe and Zanu-PF for all political violence in Zimbabwe.
Before his resignation from the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People as their president and CEO a few weeks ago, Bruce Gordon sent President Mugabe a letter expressing their concern over alleged police brutality against demonstrators, and, more recently, the executive director of Trans Africa Forum Nicole Lee emphasised the responsibility that Zimbabwe's Government had to protect the basic human rights of its citizens.
These remarks have serious political implications.
For starters, if they only issue public statements when the MDC and other opposition groups in their opinion are on the receiving end of violence in Zimbabwe, it means they are aligned with them politically or are strongly considering moving in that direction; and, most importantly, they have learned nothing from those who callously validated Mangosuthu Buthelezi in South Africa and Jonas Savimbi in Angola many years ago.
The propaganda war being waged by the US and its European Union cohorts against Zimbabwe has forced Africans to arrive at one conclusion: Any organisation in our community which hasn't spoken out about the sanctions against Zimbabwe can keep their opinions to themselves. The concept of criticism is a dialectical exercise and some of us have become so intoxicated by our own critiques that we abandon the responsibility to defend a government and people who expect and deserve our solidarity as opposed to excuses to justify abandonment.
The MDC is not a balloon but is definitely full of hot air and Tsvangirai has taken false promises to new unprecedented heights. Last year he promised his British and US sponsors a cold winter of discontent.
When that failed, he then went to the United Kingdom and held a Press conference with Labour MP Kate Hoey urging United Nations intervention in Zimbabwe, only to see former Secretary-General Kofi Annan endorse President Mugabe's recommendation for former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa to mediate between Britain and Zimbabwe.
The opposition paper called the Zimbabwean leaked a story last year that Tsvangirai was scheduled to be meeting with Botswana's President Festus Mogae which was to give the appearance he represented legitimate opposition in Zimbabwe, only to see Mogae open the Harare Agricultural Show last August and sign a new agreement of co-operation between the two governments reaffirm his support for the land reclamation programme in Zimbabwe and praise Zimbabwe for being its second biggest trade partner next to South Africa.
At the beginning of the year, the Financial Gazette had an article entitled "Tsvangirai talks tough" in a rare occasion an opposition paper indirectly suggested he had more bark than bite.
Tsvangirai and the MDC also seek to exploit the religious and spiritual tradition of his people to revive his dying support. Why else would these demonstrations attempt to incorporate a prayer?
Why has Tsvangirai never rescheduled the meeting with the church leaders in Zimbabwe that were cancelled due to his father's death, where the topic of discussion was supposed to be an appeal for him to stop calling for the West to intensify the sanctions against his own people?
Even though Tsvangirai's speeches and political thoughts lack substance and any real vision, his strength is in disguising himself.
During his time in the ZCTU, he tried to convince forces outside Zimbabwe like the AFL-CIO, Congress of Black Trade Unionists and the US Deputy Assistant of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Jeffrey Krila that President Mugabe and Zanu-PF were out of touch with the working class and only he was in touch with their aspirations.
With the help of imperialist Press he is presently doing his absolute best to reappear as the Dalai Lama in Tibet, which is almost as amusing as when Savimbi wore fatigues to give the public appearance Unita was a guerilla movement and not a CIA-trained and financed group of mercenaries and assassins. The African community in the Diaspora has to make a distinction between examples of military repression and violence and vigilant efforts to defend sovereignty.
The coups and assassinations that imperialist forces have orchestrated in every corner of the planet speak volumes because actions do speak louder than words. Last year marked the 40th anniversary of the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah's government in Ghana and 2008 will mark the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Maurice Bishop in Grenada.
The premature statements some of our organisations have been writing about Zimbabwe make you wonder: After all of these years, what have we truly learned? Under the guise of civil disobedience, Tsvangirai is seeking total anarchy and confusion. After the outcome of parliamentary elections in 2005, the MDC called for power outages countrywide as a way to show dissatisfaction with the results.
The publicity that Tsvangirai and the MDC receive is contingent on how much chaos their demonstrations can stir up. This is what the Blair and Bush administrations expect and demand of them.
The MDC will learn the hard way that in Zimbabwe, the people don't accept civilian neocolonialism and an alternative to military neocolonialism. While he is not shooting people in cold blood like his political twin Savimbi, the blood of every Zimbabwean who dies or starves courtesy of sanctions is on their hands.
President Mugabe is known and respected worldwide for his defiance and strategic brilliance, therefore if he and Zanu-PF arrive at the conclusion that the MDC is threatening the national security of Zimbabwe, anything short of giving them unconditional support is compromising the future of the nation.
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