June 26, 2008 - July 12, 2008
UK/USA/MDC: Bandaging the Truth
Posted: Saturday, July 12, 2008
By Nathaniel Manheru
July 12, 2008
May the good Lord please help us! We seem to be living through an evil hour. Take this white woman journalist called Christina Lamb. I happen to have met her once. Quite unattractive and rather indifferent to femininity, she comes across as quite feeble and charitable, totally foreign to any harm to anyone, least of all a country. Until you discover her deadly side beneath this misleading patina of fragility. To the Empire, she is John Simpson's female equivalent in print journalism. Or better still Chris McGreal's female equivalent. She is M-16 affiliated; she gets her cue from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Once the Empire defines the enemy, she builds formidable propaganda against those the British establishment seek to destroy. Alongside the other two, and joined by a youthful intern at the Telegraph, David Blair, she is part of Britain's propaganda frontline. This is a very useful brief to understanding what follows.
The story of one Blessing Mabhena
Writing for the British Sunday Times of June 29, a mere two days after the run-off, Lamb claimed one Blessing Mabhena – an 11-months old baby boy of "an opposition councillor" – was "seized from a bed and flung down with force" by Zanu-PF "thugs", breaking both his legs. "Blessing," continued Lamb, "who may never be able to walk properly, was one of the youngest victims of atrocities against the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change in the run-up to last Friday's sham presidential election." Veracity is given by a moving picture of the toddler crying, presumably from unrelieved pain, both legs heavily bandaged. Another authenticator was the voice of one Jon Stewart, "a director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum" who testifies that this "is a deliberate nationwide strategy to reoccupy space so all space is occupied by the Zanu of Mugabe". A third one came by way of excerpts supposedly leaked from minutes of Joint Operations Command (JOC) revealing a bloody plot to "wipe out" over 2 million opposition supporters in the country! The story was widely circulated, widely read and widely picked by many publications from all corners of the globe. It drew 20 pages of reader reactions, all recording utter outrage at this Nazi-like atrocity. From this horror emerged – spontaneously – a fund set up by well-wishers for the treatment of young Mabhena, himself a deserving target of this telescopic philanthropy Dickens ridiculed in Bleak House.
Clubbing truth, fitting feet
A week later, on July 6, the Sunday Times, a small paragraph appeared in the same publication: hard to see, well hidden in deep pages inside well-paid, refulgent puffery, softly and cryptically confessing the story which had drawn such a wide reaction was in fact a false one. Doctors from both Zimbabwe and London had been on the boy's case and had concluded baby Mabhena had been born "with club feet". Conveniently the error was blamed on an unnamed "freelance journalist", presumably from Zimbabwe. Uneventfully, the matter was closed. Zimbabwe had been maligned, the repair and remedy raising no cost to anyone. Noteworthy, the baby-boy had been given a Ndebele surname, his parents an MDC identity for dual emotional triggers. What could have been better tailored for charges of extreme crime against humanity, ethnic cleansing and undemocratic behaviour?
The great hoax of Ruwa
Just this week, we had another spectacular one. The setting was Ruwa Rehabilitation Centre where individuals claiming to be MDC internally displaced claimed to have been viciously attacked by men "wearing army uniforms". In a case of very useful coincidence, the story was broken to the international Press at 0200hrs on Monday, the same day the G-8 was supposed to deliberate on the case of Zimbabwe. It ran on all the world networks, claiming a refuge centre housing MDC's internally displaced villagers, had been brutally attacked by men in "army uniform". One woman from the group claimed to have had her pant pulled down by one of the "uniformed thugs" whose intentions were anyone's guess. Fifteen of the attacked displaced activists, the reports added, could not be accounted for, and had to be presumed murdered by the same "Zanu-PF thugs".
Truth that never sell
Minister Goche in charge of Social Welfare and part of the negotiations with the MDC factions, rushed to Ruwa to establish the facts. Curiously the story had run without visuals, and curiously too, the usually avid international Press was phlegmatic on this one story. Any coverage would have killed it before its maximum damage. It had to run indefinitely as white copy. Meanwhile, Minister Goche listened to accounts from all the eight "victims", all of whom declared extreme trauma, To the person, they spoke calmly and in very clear Shona language, interlarded by words and phrases from the vocabulary of human rights discourse. None goofed; none stammered. Even a layman did not have to fumble for charges the combined narratives were driving at. Curiously these were supposed to be simple villagers recently displaced by vicious violence in the countryside. Yet they seemed so familiar with international statutes.
Spectacle of worldly villagers
Yet they knew how to relate to a whole Minister of Government who is also a Zanu-PF MP, unnerved and with remarkable calmness in the absence of any international official, in the presence of officials, war veterans and ZRP details. Yes, yet they knew the intricacies of negotiating with embassies to get succour and food, and of course to set terms for their relocation to any other venue other than embassy compound to which they had allegedly run for refuge. They were all armed with cell-phones which never ran out of airtime, which rang all the time, either to deliver voice messages or SMS, both from Harvest House. They knew how to reach the international office of the Red Cross; knew about IOM, Christian Care, etc, etc; knew how to field interviews with the international Press. Above all, they had internationally published manuals or organising political dissent and opposition, these very literate MDC victims from the villages.
Groping for truth
All were heavily bandaged, looking very ill. Until they started giving their stories, in the process getting remarkably animated, forgetting their condition obliged subdued presentations. Until the Minister brought in the Provincial Medical Director to probe what lay beneath the heavy bandages. Lo and behold, nothing serious, save light bruises from a calibrated stampede. Grains of grass deliberately planted to suggest a tussle. Still the minister insisted the lady who claimed violation be examined.
Seeing events were taking a turn for the worse, she quickly indicated she had not been touched, although she felt some pain somewhere on her back. Again the Minister insisted the doctor probes that back. Where exactly is the injury, asked the good doctor? Whereupon the lady's hand kept changing points of pain, leading the good doctor down to terrifying depths and zones. The man of the stethoscope balked, clearly reluctant to follow the lead that seemed to radiate the victim's face, that seemed calculated to gratify other ends.
Part time, mealtime refuges
And the missing persons? Well, all hailed from nearby Epworth. Their history? Well, to the name, these were part-time refugees who felt most insecure at breakfast, lunch and supper! Outside these meal-times, they would be home in Epworth, doing their odd jobs. Good calculation in these hard times. And because they are not tied to the place geographically, they could always be used for other purposes, including the all-important assignment of that fateful Monday. But a lot more emerged, once more reminding me of the hazards of propaganda. One young man who claimed he had escaped attacks in Marondera confessed the group had left Harvest House because of hunger and appalling conditions inside that building. There was no food; there were no ablution services; not even blankets. Need you wonder to hear that the MDC is closing its Century House haven, blaming it all on State raids? And if one gets to know about MDC plans to go the banditry route, would this be surprising? Chinamasa is right: in the intervening weeks we will get to know the Jonasi Savimbi in our midst.
Superfluous election agents
Another – a woman – indicated she had been deployed alongside many others to Hwedza as an election agent, but got left in limbo when Tsvangirai unexpectedly decided he was pulling out of the race. Fearful, they decided to leave for the mountains where they stayed until the MDC sent them $40bn through a contact in the village for transport back to base. Yet another one had a plaster. From where? Well not from Ruwa but from Madziwa where he had been hurt from a scuffle with Zanu-PF youths. Circumstances? Well, he had left his home in Kuwadzana suburb in Shamva for an undisclosed operation. The story ended there for the young man could not be pressed any further. Was this the same operation through which the MDC caused mayhem in Mashonaland Central?
More lies, more liars
I could go on and on recounting many such incidents, not forgetting of course a similar one from Violet Gonda of the British funded anti-Zimbabwe pirate radio, SW Africa, claiming Zanu-PF thugs' latest victim is a 70-year-old man. I could go back to the story of an MDC activist who died from Aids in South Africa, whom Chamisa claimed had died from wounds inflicted by "Zanu-PF thugs"; go back to the legendary story of beheading, ran by Basildon Peta who in South Africa doubles up as a journalist and an MDC public relations officer; indeed could go back to the race Kwinjeh – now a high-ranking MDC official – and her politically calculated claim that the army had buried a headless corpse of a soldier killed in the DRC, just ahead of the MDC launch in 1999. Not of course to forget another recent one published in the British Guardian a mere two days before the run-off. This was an opinion piece attributed to Tsvangirai calling for a multinational invasion of Zimbabwe. Knowing the consequences, Tsvangirai left the Dutch Embassy to reach Government in order to distance himself from the report. Or two other stunts lined up for this Monday involving self-created violence at a factory in Chitungwiza owned by MDC's Madzimure whose "extensive damages following at attack by Zanu-PF youths, Tsvangirai was supposed to tour. Or the false alarm to the international Press that Tsvangirai had just survived an armed attempt on his life, again slotted for Harare, which left many journalists stunned. It has been a very innovative campaign, calculated to move the world, risk the country through black propaganda.
Trojan Horse, hidden fighters
Poor MDC! It is not even in charge of the lies that are supposed to take it to State House! It is not even in charge of statements published in its name or those of its leaders. Some others are and hey, the bastards have overreached. Britain's SAS guys have been in the country, working closely with residual Rhodesian structures – both military and farming – re-launched ahead of the March 29 harmonised elections. Part of this contingent from the British army were stationed at the British Mission, with another section melting into the countryside under the cover of a UK-based, Foreign and Commonwealth Office-funded NGO I shall have occasion to reveal. The machinery woven around this element of the British military, working closely with Rhodesia's residual security and farming structures, carried the burden of the MDC campaign in the run-up to the March harmonised elections. The funding came in variously, including from George Soros, himself symbolising the American part to this Anglo-Saxony assault of Zimbabwe. This was a high-risk covert venture which could only be mounted but once, and in circumstances of a great political hurly-burly, which is what the environment of the harmonised elections provided. This is why the result had to come right in March, no other time, no other election. So much had been done, so little else could be done afterwards. Hence the desperate, concussive attempt by the whole of Europe and America to stampede a false electoral result which would have given victory to the MDC in March. Hence the present attempt to freeze the will of the "Zimbabwean people" on the March 29 result, as if that result was conclusive in the first place. Or as if March 29 amounted to a legal cul-de-sac about which Zimbabwe had to turn to superior bodies and will, outside of its own supreme law and popular vote for resolution. March 29 thus amounts to a disastrous, British-led external covert operation from which Brown is trying to recover by any means. I notice the radical Executive Intelligence Review of LaRouche has the basic outline of the plot.
Lieutenants from Rhodesia
I challenge the media to research into the political and military background of MDC personnel fronted in the March elections, to disprove my postulate on the role of Rhodesia's former uniformed services – direct and paramilitary – and its civil service arms, principally teachers in running MDC's machinery. A good starting point is Buhera, Gutu, Zaka and Chikomba. This is the one great story no one has sought to investigate, write and publish, simply because it goes against the grain. Just who are these MDC MPs which Zimbabweans, hoping to satisfy their stomachs, voted in on March 29? Why is there no curiosity in the media to build profiles of leading MDC personalities, including its MPs-elect? The revelations will be shocking, including the discovery that a prominent lawyer MDC MP-elect was in fact a lieutenant in the Rhodesian army who then got cashiered from the army at Independence to join the courts as an interpreter. Why does a political party that likes to build its legitimacy around alleged State-sponsored violence, recruit from the machinery of Rhodesian violence against blacks? Why from the white settler farmers who occupied our land? What is the intended outcome?
Season of Anglo-Saxony chaos
Which takes me to my next point. When it became apparent the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission could not be stampeded into endorsing the proposed electoral fraud; became apparent that Zanu-PF was raising uncomfortable queries regarding results and the whole voting process, the whole mission slid into utter chaos. And for days, both the Americans and the British would not agree on the best way forward against the sordid fact of a collapsed covert intervention and the bleak prospect of the most damaging revelation that in fact these so-called doyens of ballot democracy had sought to rig it for a preferred outcome. Could Tsvangirai go back for a run-off in a new environment of a more alert Zanu-PF and a simplified contest in which the personality factor would decide, predictably certain to go against leadership qualities-shorn Tsvangirai? Zanu-PF's relentless preparations for a run-off rendered the date academic, forcing the panicky Anglo-Americans to force Tsvangirai back into the ring, prayerfully hoping the momentum built in March would carry him past June 27. Again, the dilemma was a simple one: unable to reject results of an internationally supervised recount, these doyens of constitutionalism could not be seen to be sidestepping the constitutional dictates of Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai had to run, which is why the emissary was no other than McGee, US ambassador to Zimbabwe.
Enter the Selous Scouts
Once it became clear the MDC could not carry the day, the strategy changed to discrediting both the process and outcome. The instruments were obvious: Selous Scout tactics of highly photogenic brutality to move the world; sponsoring the election observation process for pre-ordained condemnatory verdicts; heightening attacks on the Mbeki mediation effort to put the matter beyond Sadc and Africa, to the UN Security Council where they read a greater preparedness to push through more drastic measures against the Zanu-PF Government, including military invasion. It is a fact that Sadc, the AU and PAP observer missions were funded by American and British money, among other Western sponsors. It is also a fact that country observer missions were wholly sponsored by American funds, including the vocal Botswana team which largely comprised personnel from hostile, American-sponsored NGOs. The few countries which, and few persons who did not receive America's dirty money, are the ones who stood against this choreographed negative judgment for which Britain and America had invested so heavily.
Photogenic violence
But these missions needed valid reasons to justify the negative verdict, which is where the calibrated, photogenic violence so covertly managed by British SAS elements working with Rhodesia's residual Selous Scout structures, came in. The spontaneous inter-party clashes which are inevitable in any election, provided a useful backdrop to this operation which continues to this day, albeit with reduced ardour. The pictures Gordon Brown used to sway G-8 leaders came from this operation whose communication side is being manned by British intelligence elements infiltrated into the country. Again the Executive Intelligence Review carries glimpses of this grim operation whose pattern will get clearer not too long hence. Presently, the British and the Americans are torn between a proxy war against Zimbabwe, drawn out insurgency by the MDC, or an outright British-led frontal assault on Zimbabwe. A client state through which to aggress Zimbabwe is proving harder to get, with public opinion in Zimbabwe's neighbourhood clearly ranged against such a bloody proposition. Insurgency is being driven by Rhodesians, led by Roy Bennett. The fear is a drawn out conflict, as well as the daunting fact of an uncertain rear. Reports from two think-tanks based in South Africa and Kenya are the very first attempts at making this dimension of MDC banditry known publicly. The last option is fraught, made worse by the propaganda reverses at the G-8 Summit where Africa was alienated. Made worst by the uphill battle at the Security Council. Un-helped by the resumption of talks in South Africa. Made decidedly unattractive by the British army's failing commitments elsewhere, commitments so poorly performed, leading to a plummeting of morale in its armed force. How do you go to war with a Force where half the strength is agitating to leave it, citing greater exposure, poor command, unholy wars? And of course Britain knows we have been preparing for this eventuality for quite a while, which is why it will be so suicidal. Except that is Brown's other name, is it not? He pins his vain hopes on lies or war. Neither will wash. Icho!
nathaniel.manheru@zimpapers.co.zw
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Zimbabwe: Govt raps G8 sanctions call
Posted: Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Herald Reporter
July 09, 2008
The Herald
The Group of Eight yesterday ignored African and Russian calls not to impose more sanctions on Zimbabwe and said they would put in place "financial measures" against the country in a move that has been described by Government as smacking of "international racism".
The G8 resolution made in Japan yesterday claimed Zimbabwe's Government was "illegitimate" despite the fact that President Mugabe polled over two million votes in the June 27 presidential run-off election against MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai's less than 250 000 votes.
Though they avoided the word sanctions in their statement on Zimbabwe, they referred to "financial measures", and vowed to press the United Nations to take action against the country. "We will take further steps, inter alia introducing financial and other measures against those individuals responsible for the violence," they said. They added that they wanted Government to "work with the opposition", albeit on the basis of the March 29 harmonised elections that did not produce a winner in the presidential race.
The G8 resolution also seeks to subvert South African President Thabo Mbeki's mediation between Zimbabwe's main political parties by imposing another mediator – who they called a special UN envoy – in the inter-party talks. The Minister of Information and Publicity, Cde Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, yesterday slammed the decision as an attempt to override the will of the people who voted on June 27, as well as that of African heads of state who endorsed President Mbeki's mediation at last week's African Union Summit held in Egypt.
"The G8 has refused to listen to Africa. A number of African countries have tried to talk to them and make them understand the African Union's position on Zimbabwe but they have disregarded it all. "African leaders who were invited to the G8 Summit, such as President (Abdoulaye) Wade of Senegal and President (Jakaya) Kikwete of Tanzania, said they could not support sanctions but they (the G8) have gone ahead and passed a resolution calling for sanctions at the UN.
"For them to say that Zimbabwe's Government and President Mugabe's election are not legitimate is an attempt to impose a government on the people of Zimbabwe against their will. Our Constitution required that we hold a run-off and we did that accordingly. Morgan Tsvangirai probably did not understand what a run-off was and instead ran off to the Dutch Embassy. "But the people went out and voted, including for Tsvangirai, and President Mugabe won and has been sworn in as the Head of State," he said. "As such," Cde Ndlovu said, "the G8 resolution is ultimately of no consequence.
Nowhere in international law is there provision for a group of countries to sit down as a private club and decide the legitimacy of governments in sovereign states. This is international racism." On the matter of President Mbeki's mediation, Cde Ndlovu said Zimbabwe would proceed with the South African leader's facilitation as resolved by the AU and Sadc. "This issue is a non-starter.
Why do they want to impose another mediator? President Mbeki has proved his mettle as an African statesman par excellence and so we will follow the AU and Sadc position on this." At the AU Summit in Egypt, African heads of state resolved that President Mbeki should continue with his mediation efforts without unnecessary meddling from outsiders.
Seven leaders from the continent invited to the G8 Summit had earlier tried to impress on the United States, Britain and their allies that sanctions would not help Zimbabwe in any way. President Wade of Senegal yesterday held meetings with some G8 leaders in attempt to make them understand Africa's position. He told AFP yesterday that he had asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in separate meetings for the G8 leaders at least to delay sanctions if they insist on imposing them to allow for dialogue among Zimbabwean political parties.
Earlier, Presidents Mbeki and Kikwete had also done the same thing but their calls were ignored. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said elements of the US draft were "quite excessive" and clearly "in conflict with the notion of sovereignty" of a UN member state. He was quoted by AFP questioning whether Zimbabwe's case amounted to a threat to international peace and security.
The other African countries represented at the G8 Summit were Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria, who said sanctions "may lead to internal conflict in Zimbabwe". The US and its allies pushed through the resolution as a means of putting pressure on the UN Security Council to also slap sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The US introduced a draft resolution calling for sanctions before the Security Council that would then legitimise the economic embargo America already has in place against the country. The Security Council is expected to debate the draft this week. In South Africa, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband received a cool response from his South African counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to his calls for sanctions against Zimbabwe as the pair held talks yesterday.
Dlamini-Zuma said at a joint Press conference that Pretoria saw talks between Zimbabwe's ruling party and the opposition as the best way to resolve the country's problems. She expressed little enthusiasm for sanctions. "Our leaders are currently meeting in Japan at the G8 meeting and they have expressed reservations on sanctions and so we will take if from there," she said. "South Africa has always maintained that an inclusive government that will reflect the diversity and the will of the people" was the best way to tackle the country's problems, she added. The G8 is comprised of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US.
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Zimbabwe: MDC-T violence claims dismissed
Posted: Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Crime Reporter
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The Herald
The MDC-T yesterday falsely claimed that its so called displaced supporters being housed at the Ruwa Rehabilitation Centre were attacked by soldiers in a desperate bid to portray an image of increasing political violence in the post presidential run-off period.
But Government has dismissed the allegations saying the move was calculated to put Zimbabwe on the spotlight at the G8 Summit underway in Japan.
The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Cde Nicholas Goche said the incident was stage-managed by the alleged eight victims. The BBC reported yesterday morning that some MDC-T activists who are being housed at the centre after they were displaced from their homes in violence leading to the presidential run-off election were allegedly assaulted by the uniformed forces.
"This incident was stage-managed and meant to coincide with the G8 Summit taking place in Japan to ensure that Zimbabwe is put on the agenda." It is also meant to say that political violence is increasing in Zimbabwe and people continue to be beaten so that they say there is continued violence in Zimbabwe but the situation is not consistent with what is on the ground," Cde Goche said.
He said it was also meant to push the British agenda to effect a regime change in Zimbabwe by putting the country on the centre stage at the United Nations Security Council. "It was also meant to create a situation where the UN says action has to be taken. This is just a stage-managed incident to put Zimbabwe in the spotlight," he said.
The international Press had already put on their diaries the alleged attacks on Sunday even before they happened. As part of the strategy, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday went to Chitungwiza to visit a factory belonging to MP Willas Madzimure which was said to have been petrol bombed with the international and local opposition Press in tow. But when he found no people at the factory Tsvangirai left in a huff and in the evening had the Western media rushing to his Strathaven house following claims that he was about to be assassinated. Again the media left Strathaven empty-handed. Cde Goche said the Ruwa incident was meant to tarnish the image of the country. He said from interviews with the alleged victims, it appeared that the stampede that occurred at the centre was started by some of the alleged victims.
"From interviews it would appear that they were not injured from this morning's event but were already injured. It would also appear that they are not necessarily displaced people but brought by the MDC-T to be polling agents and turned them into displaced people when they decided not to take part in the elections," he said.
Cde Goche, who visited the centre yesterday afternoon together with the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, said the matter would be fully investigated. The two are the Zanu-PF negotiators in the inter-party talks with the MDC factions. Cde Goche said they would discuss the matter with their MDC-T counterparts. He also said as soon as investigations were complete, the so-called displaced people would be taken back to their homes. Mashonaland East provincial medical director Dr Simukai Zizhou said the alleged victims confirmed there was a stampede but all had received medical attention. He said all of them did not sustain injuries from the stampede but had injuries already. Police Officer Commanding Harare Province Senior Assistant Commissioner Fortune Zengeni said preliminary investigations had revealed that the stampede was caused by the alleged victims.
Snr Asst Comm Zengeni said police had reacted swiftly and the allegations by the alleged victims had turned out to be a hoax. He, however, said police would get to the bottom of the matter. Meanwhile, the principal of the centre Mr Sneddon Soko said the incident was unfortunate but the centre had adequate security. He said the incident had affected students and the so-called people should be moved out as soon as possible.
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Robert Mugabe: Victim or Villain?
Posted: Friday, July 4, 2008
By Amengeo Amengeo
July 04, 2008
The African Executive
When sharks smell blood, they go into a feeding frenzy and attack relentlessly. There is feeding frenzy about Zimbabwe that preceded the June 27 run-off elections.
Thwarted in their bid to install their man Morgan Tsvangirai in power, the forces of Western neo-colonialism continue to ratchet up media pressure. Some African leaders seem to have bought into this propaganda campaign.
Stories in the Western Press about "Government-sanctioned violence" in Zimbabwe focus on lurid details quoting one-sided and opinionated anonymous sources without much verifiable data.
Remember the gory reports about Saddam's troops in Kuwait during the first Gulf War bayoneting babies in their incubators? Many of these stories later turned out to be fabrications. The same type of campaign is operating in Zimbabwe now.
Could the violence have been orchestrated by external forces attempting to force a crisis of chaos, thereby justifying intervention? Mugabe's suspension of aid agencies' involvement was a matter of national survival. The outspoken comments of the US ambassador went beyond his purview as a resident diplomat and entered the restricted area of direct interference in a sovereign country's internal affairs.
The struggle for control of Zimbabwe has never been about democracy. We need to be absolutely clear about that. The struggle for control of Zimbabwe is about, and has always been about whether Africans will rule themselves or be subordinated to the dictates and whims of Western powers.
When one considers there are at least half a dozen African leaders who actually brutalise their people and have ruled their respective countries without any pretensions about democracy for longer than Mugabe, the question must be asked: why, then Mugabe?
There is a trend across Africa among certain sectors, to dismiss and devalue the ideology and values of the liberation struggle, values which encompassed the quest for freedom from foreign rule (which was a thousand times worse than anything any African dictator could dream up today. King Leopold of Belgium, for example, butchered 10 million Congolese during the scramble for Africa at the turn of the last century), the search for an African identity and ultimately, continental unification.
The implication of that struggle has never been lost on Western strategic planners – for a unified Africa, in control of vast human and natural resources, land space three times the size of the United States of America, could evolve into a military and economic giant as has China in recent years.
The implications of this vision, with the psychological consequences for Africans the world over living on the margins of societies they inhabit on sufferance in Europe and America, are world-changing. Thus, buds that sprout must be torn up like weeds before their roots can anchor and spread. Zimbabwe is such a bud.
Whatever his shortcomings, Mugabe has consistently and unequivocally stood for African independence and has demonstrated his pan-African convictions by intervening on behalf of the government of the late Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo when it was attacked by forces backed by Western economic interests.
Mugabe's stance vis-à-vis the West has its justification based on sound historical reasons. When the European nations scrambled for Africa's resources at the turn of the last century, Cecil Rhodes, the quintessential British imperialist (who presumptuously stamped his name on an African country) sent in his mercenaries and freebooters, butchered the Ndebele and Shona, the original owners of the land.
The Africans resisted fiercely inspired by Nehanda, a divine woman (later hung by the whites for daring to inspire and resist) but were decimated by the maxim machine gun, a new weapon against which they had no defence. African lands were then apportioned to the invaders and Africans were dispossessed of and driven off their lands.
When Mugabe took back the lands from the whites in 2000, he was acting legitimately and righting a century-old wrong. Talk about the "rule of law" and that he should have followed legal protocol is absolute nonsense – for when Rhodes' thieves and mercenaries invaded, they exercised no legalities, but simply killed and stole the land just as their contemporaries had done with the indigenous people of America and Australia.
As the so-called Rhodesians, faced defeat by Mugabe's guerrilla armies, Britain, which had previously refused to intervene on behalf of the Africans against their "kith and kin", scrambled to arrange a peace deal before suffering a humiliating defeat. The warring parties were invited to Lancaster House in London where the British bugged the hotel rooms of the Africans and thus checkmated their best moves. The British promised to fund the land reform, which was the casus belli for the war, but typically had no intentions of so doing. In 2000, faced with a rising demand for land reform, Mugabe acted.
This was unforgiveable.
As Cuba remains unforgiveable for manifesting independence, so does Zimbabwe remain unforgivable for exercising her right to reclaim land that rightfully belongs to Africans. Behind all the high-flown talk about "property rights" and the "rule of law" lies white racism, a sense of white entitlement, and that Africans have no right to redress the wrongs perpetrated against them so brutally and for so long.
The West, especially Britain, the US, Australia and other Europeans have no right to lecture Africans about rights and the "rule of law" given the history of their depredations – slavery, theft of lands, extermination of the Tasmanians by the Australians and genocide by the Germans against the Herero.
As African heads of state and government resolved at the recently held African Union summit in Egypt, Zimbabwe's problems are African problems and must be solved by Africans. Tsvangirai's running to Western capitals like a petulant schoolchild complaining about Mugabe is giving the West an excuse to intervene in Zimbabwe's affairs or perhaps he is truly their puppet and has to report to his masters. It is very curious that the West announced his victory ahead of even exit polls.
Frustrated by the failure of their man to win an outright victory, the West has ratcheted up the pressure in the hopes of precipitating a crisis which would allow them to intervene more directly. Mugabe's pre-emptive move against the aid agencies [which have the perfect cover for espionage] has taken critical pieces off the board. Africans need to understand that is a test of their sovereignty and independence. If Mugabe's independent voice can be stilled by Western intervention, propaganda and the collusion of local puppets, then Africa's independence becomes meaningless.
Africa can solve its own problems and it needs to assertively tell the West this. Mbeki's quiet diplomacy is an attempt to find African solutions and avoid violence and chaos, for the people of Zimbabwe refused to ride off into the sunset and give the country to a man who cavorts about Western capitals calling for sanctions and intervention against his own country and seems to speak from a script that echoes the detractors of the Government.
Zimbabwe's problems are not intractable and they can be solved by Africans working together, but the region's leaders need to speak with one voice as they did at the just-ended AU Summit, and unequivocally told the West to leave Africa alone to resolve the Zimbabwean situation, whether by a unity government or some cession of power.
Unfortunately, Tsvangirai continues to compromise his credibility by appearing as the West's man. We need not to be befuddled by talk of "democracy" which the West insists on when it meets their interests.
Zimbabwe, we must never, never forget, is really about one defiant black man taking back what was stolen from his people as was his right to do. Africans have no reason to be ashamed of this.
Amengeo Amengeo is a specialist in Spanish, Latin American, Caribbean as well as African history. He has also been a journalist, civil servant and graphic artist.
Reproduced from: The African Executive
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Zimbabwe: British MPs defy Brown
Posted: Friday, July 4, 2008
Herald Reporter
July 04, 2008
The Herald
SIX British Conservative Party Members of Parliament and one Liberal Democrat, with investments worth over £1 million in Zimbabwe, have joined hands to oppose further sanctions on the country as suggested by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Following President Mugabe's landslide victory last Friday, Brown said his government was working on a new sanctions regime to suffocate the Zanu-PF Government and give birth to an MDC-T government.
The seven have significant stakes in mining, manufacturing and retail companies either operating in Zimbabwe or trading directly or indirectly with local businesses.
Conservative shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve holds shares worth £240 000 in mining giants Anglo American and Rio Tinto, commercial bank Standard Chartered and oil company Shell.
Anglo American is presently being attacked by the British government for announcing its intention to invest US$400 million in Unki Platinum Mine in Shurugwi.
Grieve has reportedly refused to bow to pressure to take his investments out of Zimbabwe and is said to be opposed to Brown's plans to make it harder for British firms to operate in the country.
Another senior member of the party, Jonathan Djano-gly, is understood to have vast investments in Barclays, Shell, BP and Tesco.
Earlier this week, Tesco -- one of the world's largest retail chains -- announced that it would no longer buy farm produce, including peas and beans, from Zimbabwe after succumbing to pressure from Brown's office to sabotage the Land Reform Programme by not purchasing food from the country.
Djanogly, who is the shadow business secretary in the Conservative Party, has argued that it would not be right for the UK to ban British companies from operating in Zimbabwe and that shareholders should be given room to make representations to government on the issue.
Conservative Party shadow roads secretary Robert Goodwill is also a Barclays Bank shareholder while his colleague, Anthony Steen, has stakes in Unilever and Shell.
Goodwill said it was "better to bring pressure to bear as a shareholder but it was not a very good time to sell his shares" in Barclays.
Other British MPs with investments in Zimbabwe are Sir John Stanley, who has shares in Shell, and Tim Boswell, who is said to have stakes in Barclays Bank and Tesco.
The Liberal Democrat with investments in companies linked with or actively operating in Zimbabwe is Sir Robert Smith. His interests are in Rio Tinto and Shell.
Soon after the June 27 presidential election run-off, Smith said while he supported the UK's illegal regime change agenda through making ordinary Zimbabweans suffer, he was hesitant about implementing a blanket sanctions regime on the country.
"If we really believe that total economic isolation and suffering of the people of Zimbabwe will bring down the regime, then that is something we should consider, but it should be done in a proper politically debated way to make sure any consequences are fully thought through."
Conservative Party leader David Cameron has refused to commit himself on the sanctions issue and instead urged his followers to "examine their own responsibilities".
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Zimbabwe election valid - Says President Jammeh
Posted: Thursday, July 3, 2008
by Pa Malick Faye
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Daily Observer Gambia
President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, has given the June 27 Presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe a clean bill of health, saying "Zimbabwe's election is valid". The president, in addition, branded the leader of the main opposition MDC, Morgan Tchangarai, as a "blue-eyed boy" and "puppet" of the West, emphasising that Zimbabwe will never be colonised again.
The plain speaking Gambian leader made these remarks in an interview with newsmen at the airport, upon his arrival from the 11th AU summit in the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, which lasted for two days.
According to Dr Jammeh, the summit was not diversion on the Zimbabwe issue but rather showed African leaders working for the continent's interest and those who are for West. He added: "The pronouncements of major Western media before the summit was what those representing Western interests came with, but they have regretted it".
The Gambian leader made comparison to an election recently held in an Eastern African country, which was described as not free and fair by all institutions involved in the process, yet the West decided to be mute about it. The aftermath of that election was marred by violence during which many were killed, thousands displaced and the end result was a unity government.
To him, Africans accept Mugabe's re-election, because it was lawful as the country's laws do not ban elections if a party decides to boycott.
Hypocrisy
Dr Jammeh again made reference to an event in a country in the Horn of Africa, where opposition protesters were shot and killed with impunity. He added that the government went to the extent of refusing to release the dead bodies unless the relatives paid for the bullets, but yet still the West made no noise, because that government was serving their interests.
"Why Zimbabwe?" he asked. "Because the whites are involved," he said, answering his rhetorical question. He observed that the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe was not Mugabe's making, but the West's just because they want to effect a change of government, which will be ruled by their puppet.
Dr Jammeh wondered why the West during the first round of the election decreed the process foul only to endorse it when the MDC emerged as the winner.
He agreed with President Museveni of Uganda that elections cannot be free and fair, when the opposition is backed by external forces to destabilize a country by launching attacks on ruling party supporters and use NGOs to induce the electorate.
Inclusive Government
To Dr Jammeh, President Mugabe can accommodate "nationalists" and "patriots" who have divergent views with him but have the country's interest at heart. But the decision for that mechanism to be in place lies with the government and people of Zimbabwe.
Prosecuting Mugabe
The Gambian leader called the Western ploy to prosecute President Mugabe on the pretext of misrule as "free, fair and fine". But questioned why they are not calling for the prosecution of the then white minority government in Zimbabwe and South Africa, where they carried out mass killings of Blacks, which was stopped by Mugabe and his fellow nationalists.
He added that today, the perpetrators of those crimes are living freely and no one is calling for their prosecution.
"We Africans should learn a lesson from this. They (the West) think they can dictate to us (Africans) and this is not acceptable. Africans should stand for Zimbabwe. After all what did the West did for Africa?" he rhetorically asked.
The Theme
Commenting on the theme of the summit, which was "Meeting the Millennium Development Goals in Water and Sanitation," Dr Jammeh said sanitation is the problem in Africa and not water. "Leaders have realised that collective approach at continental level will enable the continent to meet the MDGs in 2015," he added.
Reproduced from: The Daily Observer (Gambia)
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Zimbabwe: MDC parties ready for talks
Posted: Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Herald Reporter
July 02, 2008
The Herald
THE two MDC parties yesterday said they were ready to engage Zanu-PF in dialogue, as that was the only way the country could overcome its current challenges.
In separate interviews, the two formations said there was urgent need to engage all political stakeholders in the discussions that should bring a lasting political settlement to the country.
This follows President Mugabe's call for dialogue among all political players in the country.
Speaking after being sworn in as Head of State on Sunday, President Mugabe said: "Indeed, it is my hope that sooner rather than later, we shall, as diverse political parties, hold consultations towards such serious dialogue as will minimise our differences and enhance the area of unity and co-operation."
Secretary-general for the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC faction Welshman Ncube said there was need for an urgent meeting between political parties in the country.
"Obviously, the next step is to convene an urgent meeting among political players. It has to be as inclusive as possible.
"We have always been ready for dialogue. We have been calling for dialogue, for a political settlement," he said.
He said dialogue should not be done through the media to avoid distortions, unless the contents for publication are agreed to.
"There is need for parties to stop talking through the media and maybe start by agreeing on what needs to be talked about, to draw out an agenda."
Ncube said apart from political parties, all other stakeholders with a role to play should be included in the dialogue.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesperson for MDC-T, concurred with Ncube on the need for an urgent negotiated settlement.
"Our hope is to pursue dialogue to ensure that we have a negotiated settlement and understanding," he said.
He said MDC-T was in favour of dialogue for national healing.
Chamisa said all peace-loving Zimbabweans wanted dialogue aimed at ending the current economic, political and social challenges besetting the country.
He said the talks should be open and genuine.
"We are warm to a negotiated settlement and we believe that talking should be about genuine dialogue, not swallowing of one another," Chamisa said.
On Monday, traditional leaders welcomed dialogue between Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations, saying this was the only way the current problems could be resolved.
Chief Fortune Charumbira, the president of the Chiefs' Council, said the traditional leaders were "very excited by President Mugabe's statement on dialogue" and challenged opposition parties to seriously consider talks.
"As traditional leaders, we support that and we hope the opposition would be forthcoming to the call made by the President to hold talks and work together as one family," Chief Charumbira said.
Zanu Ndonga also welcomed dialogue, saying it was in the best interests of the country but pointed out that it should not be confined only to Zanu-PF and the MDC formations.
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Illegal regime change takes Internet by storm
Posted: Tuesday, July 1, 2008
By Dambudzo Mapuranga
July 01, 2008
The Herald
THE British Government appoints the BBC's entire top management. In fact, one can safely say BBC is a mouthpiece of the British Government. This being said, how then can BBC be expected to report objectively concerning the Government of Zimbabwe seeing that Zanu-PF has been labelled enemy number one by the residents of Number 10 Downing Street.
"We cannot independently verify the contents of this story as BBC is banned from reporting in Zimbabwe".
This is the disclaimer that you will find under many of the stories on Zimbabwe on the BBC's website, TV and radio broadcasts.
The disclaimer is posted solely for the purpose of protecting BBC from being sued by the Government of Zimbabwe over its blatant false news stories.
Several questions arise when one closely examines the disclaimer and chief among them is, if the BBC has failed to verify a story why then would they report it and also post it on its website as a news article?
The only answer that there is to the actions of the BBC is that as long as any story paints a heinous picture of Zanu-PF, President Mugabe and Zimbabwe it will find itself attaining high priority on the BBC website, TV and radio. I am confident that if I were to open a fictitious story chronicling how Zanu-PF supporters have done all sorts of evil deeds on my being and on my property and even include several pictures of road accident victims it will make it on to BBC.
The game of creating news stories is not anything new; in fact the Americans perfected it a long time ago.
A classic example is seen from the American movie "Wag the Dog" starring Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman. The concept of the movie being that after news broke out that on the run up to the first Gulf War the Kuwaiti Lobby in Washington, DC commissioned the production of false news stories that showed Iraqi army tanks and soldiers advancing towards a supposed Iraqi/Kuwaiti border. It turns out that the entire footage was shot in the Nevada Desert with the help of the Bush administration.
The deception did not end there. These unscrupulous people went on to produce false testimony before the US Congress (the equivalent of our parliament). The daughter of the then Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States was coached into testifying and lie before the US Congress on how her entire village was razed and how she escaped being killed by pretending to be dead and covering herself with the intestines of her dead mother.
The partiality of western media houses is well known, as most of them are nothing more than public relations offices of their countries' foreign affairs ministries.
The negative reporting of the BBC and CNN on Zimbabwe is a mockery of the same institutions their governments claim to be propagating across the globe.
Rumours make juicy stories and are very difficult to take back. The type of irresponsible journalism being witnessed on the Internet has turned BBC and CNN into some of the biggest rumour mills.
Only myopic people and racists would find such rag tag stories to be of value.
Here are two stories that highlight gross irresponsibility on the part of the BBC and CNN. Some of them leave the reader wondering whether the editors of these media houses even bother showing up for work.
Zimbabwe campaign: Secret document
The article claims that undercover BBC news correspondent Ian Pannell obtained evidence of plans by Zimbabwe's ruling party to harass and drive out opposition supporters.
I for one would like to have whatever medication Zanu-PF legal affairs secretary Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa is drinking, because according to the secret document, Cde Mnangagwa is doing the work of ten very strong men.
One day he is reported to be in South Africa consulting with the ANC, the next day he is hailed as the man running the so called military junta that is now "ruling" Zimbabwe, and now he is heading the Zanu-PF presidential election campaign.
That being said an analysis of the secret document shows that it is a total take. Zanu-PF takes great pride in its work and anyone who is familiar with Zanu-PF's operations would know that any correspondence or party documents would have the Zanu-PF letterhead. The so called Zanu-PF secret document contains no logo or letterhead to show its origin.
Given that the cunning legal brains of Cde Mnangagwa are said to be heading the Action Plan documented in this disgraceful and shoddily down piece of work one wonders whether there is another Mnangagwa with half a brain who would come up with such a poor strategy.
One can only conclude that this secret document came from some opposition dim-wit with nothing better to do. The poor English used in the document leaves the mouth with a sour taste. The poor fellow then adds the names of several prominent Zanu-PF figures and accredits them to be from the Zanu-PF Midlands Province.
With the exception of Cde Mnangagwa, the rest of the party functionaries are not from the Zanu-PF Midlands Province. Senator Edna Madzongwe is from Mashonaland West Province.
Both Senator Joshua Malinga and Cde Jabulani Sibanda are from the Bulawayo Province, while Cde Joseph Chinotimba is from Manicaland Province.
The BBC failed to realise this and further more it is common knowledge that Politburo members such as Cdes Madzongwe and Mnangagwa head teams in their respective provinces and are not thrown all over the country in a haphazard manner.
Death of a Zimbabwe Activist
In an ironic twist of events Tonderai Ndira became a hero in death and yet he lived the life of a thug.
Despite all her hatred for Zanu-PF, Trudy Stevenson can attest that she did not moan the death of a former MDC-T activist who was responsible for her assault in Mabvuku in 2005, an assault that resulted in head injuries and a fractured arm.
The two police officers based at ZRP Marimba who were unfortunate to be at the station when it was petrol-bombed by Ndira and his accomplices surely did not shed a tear for the man responsible for their skin burns.
None of these heinous acts were featured in the glowing obituary that BBC News posted on Tonderai Ndira. Instead the news article glorified a violent man who died a violent death. The elderly are correct when they say those who live by the gun die by the gun.
"I knew him personally, he was a youth activist who went around the country holding workshops and teaching people their rights."
That is what one unnamed ZimRights official is quoted to have said. Too bad we cannot contact the so-called official and ask him for the names of the three towns where Ndira held human rights workshops.
Ndira's farewell should have been a true reflection of what he was. It should have said "the death of an MDC-T foot soldier".
The story then tells of how ten men came in a pick up truck to Ndira's house in Mabvuku armed with AK-47 rifles around seven in the morning and boldly asked Ndira's wife to inform him that they had come to collect him. The men then abducted Ndira in his underwear in front of his children.
Of all the incredible things you have ever heard this is right up there with "the dog ate my homework" story.
Anyone who has been to Mabvuku or any other high-density suburb knows that there is no way anyone can be abducted at seven in the morning.
Are we meant to believe that somehow there were no people going about their business to witness ten armed men in an open pick-up truck kidnapping Tonderai Ndira?
With the way the MDC-T loves to cry for attention should this not have been on BBC and CNN within thirty minutes of Ndira's abduction?
Observe how the BBC and CNN seem to be able to report of MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai's arrests within minutes of them happening.
How then did Ndira's abduction go unreported for days only to have the news of his death reported to coincide with Tsvangirai's return from self-imposed exile?
As if that was not enough, Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's self-proclaimed saviour "cried" at Ndira's funeral, to invoke emotions of the Holy Book's shortest, "Jesus wept" before raising Lazarus from the dead.
BBC now offers to answer readers' questions about Zimbabwe through their undercover correspondent Ian Pannell. One can only guess what lies this hack of a journalist will be peddling to those who intend to ask him about the political situation in Zimbabwe.
I sent Ian Pannell several questions which I believe to be very pertinent to the Zimbabwean situation, but he is yet to respond to. My questions were:
1) Why has the BBC and CNN not reported on MDC-T perpetrated violence against Zanu-PF supporters?
2) Why has the BBC failed to reveal where it got the copy of the alleged Secret Zanu-PF campaign document?
3) Why has the BBC never written about the effects of the illegal sanctions on ordinary Zimbabweans?
4) Why is there no reference to the US' Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 on its website?
5) Why does the BBC only quote right wing Rhodesians and MDC-T as the people representing "Zimbabweans"?
In conclusion, the long and short answer is that the Zimbabwe situation has largely been played up by the Western media and it is clear that it is an extension of their foreign relations policy on Africa.
This stark reality puts our private media poles apart with the Western media that they mimic, since our private media believes that "following the flag" is retrogressive.
The Internet, where lies, half truths and misinformation are peddled as news has internationalised the issue with pseudo experts and arm chair critics who have an axe to grind against Zanu-PF, President Mugabe and his Government always being available with "opinions and analyses" of every news item reported by the BBC and CNN and a whole host of other foreign networks.
However, the shameful thing is that the lies always come through, and the embedded journalism shows itself.
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Hour of reckoning for AU
Posted: Monday, June 30, 2008
By Stephen Mpofu
June 30, 2008
THERE are few men in this world, if any at all, divorced by their wives on account of cruelty who are to see their former spouses leading a happy and successful life by themselves.
Brave and courageous gentlemen who say prayers for the women to grow even more prosperous and render all possible assistance in that regard, as atonement for their own failures in the collapsed relationship.
However, history is replete with accounts of cruel divorcees who have stalked their ex-wives, abused them, even committed murder or driven by jealous especially on discovering that the former wife has stuck up a relationship, however, innocuous with other men of goodwill.
If they had their way, these men would even dictate the style and colour of the clothing their ex-spouses should wear.
They would also tell the kind of perfume they should wear – only the type that muffles body odour, not the sort that lives on aromatic trail causing other men to sniff the air after the woman had passed by.
Africa's former European colonial powers, supported by such former colonies in Australia and in the USA, behave like divorced men cited above towards independent African states. In a bizarre political manoeuvre, they even attempted recently to have a Zimbabwean leader of their choice installed as president of this country.
Zimbabwe's case has exposed these divorces monumental, satanic machinations. And, tragically enough, their evil designs against this country and other black states are abated, rather than abetted, by some African leaders who either seek to curry favour for money – with some of them already constipated with obscene foreign funding – or for protection in their tenuous leadership position.
These men with inverted political visions boast no freedom struggle track record of their own or had one but have now forgotten themselves. Instead, they tramp surreptitiously and cling tenaciously to the coattails of the dark shadows of their imperialist handlers. These African leaders, found in Southern Africa, East Africa and even West Africa are a potential threat to both regional and African unity.
The nefarious political conduct, if not checked, might reduce "African unity" to a merely theoretical concept forming a basis for study by university students.
In light of the presence of such men on the African political arena, this pen bemoans a glorious past populated on some African soil by political heavyweights who put their hearts and feet firmly on the ground for the independence and sovereignty of both their own peoples and those in sister states still under subjugation by imperial powers that now return to Africa slyly to their erstwhile "spouses".
But, regrettably the vacant space left behind by those illustrious sons of the soil is now trodden by political midgets – lightweights who dangle on strings held between two hands in the minds of their foreign masters who make the puppets swing or dance according to the master's voice. In African tradition, parents provide cooking and other utensils to young children playing house as a way of socialising them about running their own home when they grow up.
Then they keep a keen eye on these kids to make sure they do not mess themselves up or the place badly, and will withdraw the more important items if the kids appear about to damage them.
Similarly, the former imperial rulers of Africa seem to regard blacks governing their countries as "kids" merely playing house. And their paternalistic and racist attitudes towards independent African states – witness what is going on around Zimbabwe – strongly suggests that at independence colonial powers tied a long rope round the necks of black leaders with a view of pulling the leash once in their estimation the former rulers believe the "children" playing house are "messing" themselves and threatening the "utensils" – their countries.
When people decide to destroy a strong building structure, they either dynamite it and sink it into the ground in a heap of rubble, or knock it down brick by brick. Africa is a vast structure that is impossible to erase using the first method cited above, so the second option becomes a feasible alternative for contemporary western imperialism to use in order to destroy African unity.
Zimbabwe is a full brick of both the Southern African Development Community and the African Union. Those forces ganging up against Zimbabwe right now are threatening the solidarity of the Sadc edifices as a first step towards dividing and weakening the African continent with some of the enemies eager to turn Africa into a foreign military barrack. Should Zimbabwe be wrenched, huge fissures will appear on that important regional structure through which the enemy will step inside then tear down the shaky walls even with bare hands before leaping over the debris to hammer away at other regional economic and political bodies that together with Sadc form the pillars of the AU. When the supports of an institution are crippled it is anyone's guess what is likely to happen to the body.
Therefore, if Zimbabwe falls at the hands of those now baying for its political leaver, who have already savaged its other vital economic organ, a freeway will have been blazed open for the enemy to race after any other country in this region governed by a revolutionary party that, like Zimbabwe's, was, and is no doubt still quietly, condemned by Western countries as a terrorist organisation.
A false excuse will be created, as in the case of Zimbabwe and the enemy will again be added in its agenda by the same African political novices hoping to lick their fingers one by one for the blood.
The noises from Washington DC condemning Zimbabwe's presidential run-off election as being "illegal" are a simple demonstration of how inconsequential African governments are regarded by imperialist powers. Zimbabwe, like all other independent African states, is not governed by American laws.
And so it does not follow at that what George Bush thinks is "illegal" automatically becomes so in Zimbabwe, which is not America's province.
The same mentality is demonstrated by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who still imagines that Zimbabwe is still Rhodesia, a subject country of the British Crown and a member of the Commonwealth club.
The angry rumblings from the White House and from Whitehall stand as litmus test of the unity and solidarity of African leaders under the umbrella of the AU which holds its summit in Cairo this week. Will the African heads of the state and governments preside at the disintegration of the continental body over the Zimbabwean case as this pen cannot see some store wards of independence and sovereignty kow-towing to imperialists who are determined to divide and weaken African leaders and their countries for an open sesame on the continent's massive, rich, natural resources?
The thesis of this article is that Africa's independence in no ways guarantees the continents unlimited security as the vindictive divorced "husbands" continue to hover overhead, like hungry and angry hawks poised to swoop down on their chosen chicken prey.
The leaders meeting in the Egyptian capital this week should disabuse themselves of complacency in policing their solidarity with one another for their own political protection and the survival of their states because a house divided against itself cannot withstand the wild political winds that constantly and violently lash the AU as they did its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity.
Africa is for Africans and any problems on the continent – and they are many and diverse – should be solved by Africans themselves and not by any hiring their own individual imperialist "consultants" to do so. Thus, the AU should guard its gates to prevent these lost African Trojan horses entering the continent to offload the enemy.
This discourse does not suggest that the AU or any regional body, for that matter, should condone any activity by member countries that are deemed to be violating the rights and freedom of their peoples, far from it. In fact, such contradictions should be averted through close co-ordination of the activities of the regional as well as the continental bodies with appropriate sanctions, designed by Africans themselves, being meted out to delinquent member states.
Today Africa's economic development initiatives are hamstrung by political upheavals in several countries and these are mainly inspired or engineered by external forces that view Africa's unity and solidarity as threats to their political and commercial interests on the continent.
The saying that "united we stand, divided we fall", is instructive enough and should inform the final resolutions of the African leaders meeting in Cairo.
They should blow the whistle to signal the end of the game for those of their members who run with the hares and hunt with the hounds.
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Zimbabwe: President leaves for African Union summit
Posted: Monday, June 30, 2008
Herald Reporter
June 30, 2008
The Herald
PRESIDENT Mugabe left Harare last night for Sharm El Sheikh Resort of Egypt to attend the African Union summit that begins today.
At his last campaign rally in Chitungwiza last Thursday, Cde Mugabe said he was prepared to face any of his AU counterparts disparaging Zimbabwe's electoral conduct because some of their countries had worse elections record.
Some AU foreign ministers, preparing for the summit, tried to discuss the Zimbabwe issue on Friday but AU Commission chairperson Mr Jean Ping said the matter was best left to the heads of state.
The theme of the summit is "Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation".
According to a draft agenda on the AU website, the summit will consider a report of the first meeting of the committee of 12 leaders on the proposed AU government.
The meeting will also discuss the status of implementation of regional and continental integration.
Adoption of the single legal instrument on the merger of the Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and People's Rights of the African Union will also come under discussion.
The summit will deliberate on the appointment of the Members of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and appointment of the judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.
Briefing journalists on the agenda of the summit, Mr Ping highlighted the issues of peace and security, human rights, governance and free, fair and democratic elections, which, he said, were imperative in enhancing the socio-economic and political integration of Africa.
Other issues include the integration of Nepad into the structures of the AU, Sino-African relations, Afro-Arab co-operation, consolidation and reinforcement of partnerships with the external world and shared values.
Mr Ping further emphasised the need to reinforce the AU Commission by improving on its financial and human resources to enable the institution to attain its goals.
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Myths of 'humanitarian' imperialism
Posted: Sunday, June 29, 2008
By Stephen Gowans
June 29, 2008
gowans.wordpress.com
Timothy Garton Ash, a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian, has called on "people outside Zimbabwe" to "help the majority inside Zimbabwe have its democratic will recognized" by doing seven things, the first of which is to press their governments for stronger sanctions on Zimbabwe. Ash's column is titled, "We don't need guns to help the people pitch Mugabe from his perch."
Ash's argument, a call for "liberal" or "humanitarian" imperialism, is based on a false premise. It is also morally repugnant.
False premise: The idea that a majority in Zimbabwe is awaiting the help of Westerners is at odds with reality. If you check, you'll discover that the governing Zanu-PF party won the popular vote in the March 29 elections, but owing to Zimbabwe's first past the post system, won fewer seats than the MDC did. It would be more accurate to say that somewhat less than 50 percent of Zimbabweans would welcome the MDC coming to power, and fewer than that, I suspect, would welcome further misery from a stepped up Western intervention.
Morally repugnant: Ash's argument amounts to this: Imperialism is fine, just so long as it isn't pursued by military means. Lay aside his eagerness to outrage the sovereignty of Zimbabwe, but not, say, Ethiopia, whose brutal Meles' regime steals elections, locks up the opposition, and has invaded and occupied Somalia, on behalf of London and Washington. People ought to ask themselves why they've heard so much about Zimbabwe, but not Ethiopia.
Non-military interventions can be just as harmful, if not more so, than military ones. The international sanctions regime imposed on Iraq led to the excess deaths of more than a million people, deaths caused by Western countries whose governments lied their only concern was freeing Iraqis from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, and then freed numberless Iraqis from life (and, if Washington and London get their way, from the benefits of their oil wealth.) Sanctions were denounced as sanctions of mass destruction, as devastating as campaigns of carpet bombing. No one should delude themselves into thinking that non-military interventions are free from grim humanitarian consequences.
Ash's appeal for intervention, then, is based on three myths: (1) that a majority of Zimbabweans are opposed to the Mugabe government and would welcome Western intervention; (2) imperialism without guns is better than imperialism with guns; (3) Western intervention in Zimbabwe (which has already happened on a massive scale through funding of the opposition by Western governments and corporate foundations, and though financial isolation of the country) is motivated by humanitarian, not, imperialist goals (otherwise, why no indignant calls for intervention in Ethiopia – or in Egypt, where the president has hung on to power for as long as Mugabe has, but acts to promote British and US foreign policy goals?)
While it's bad enough that the heirs of British colonialism press for neo-colonial interventions, it's even worse when they wrap up their arguments in a tissue of myths.
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Voting begins in Zimbabwe
Posted: Friday, June 27, 2008
by Floyd Nkomo
June 27, 2008
VOTING has started in Zimbabwe in a presidential run-off election despite the withdrawal of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai and calls to postpone the election which the ruling party defied.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who officially withdrew from the run-off on Tuesday citing mounting violence and intimidation and called on MDC supporters not to vote.
Reports from Harare, the capital say voting began shortly after 0500 GMT and turnout was low at many polling stations. Polling is scheduled to end at 1700 GMT.
The Associated Press reported that in the capital's high-density Mbare suburb, lines built up at polling stations as voters arrived in groups.
The news agency quoted a voter, Livingstone Gwaze, who said he had voted for President Mugabe as saying: "Things will get better. There is darkness before light," he said.
Approximately 5.9 million Zimbabweans are entitled to cast their ballots, overseen by African but not Western monitors.
Full Article : talkzimbabwe.com
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Zimbabwe: Our sovereignty not negotiable
Posted: Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Herald --Opinion
June 26, 2008
EVENTS since Sunday have exposed the Anglo-Saxon game plan, that is regime change in Zimbabwe at all costs even if it means trashing the Constitution to get their man, Morgan Tsvangirai, into power.
This should come as a sobering thought to all who have been swayed by Western claims that London and Washington's support for Tsvangirai is in pursuit of good governance, rule of law and democracy.
We all know the Westerners' record on these values, and we would have to be monumental fools to believe their rhetoric.
It all began with Tsvangirai's announcement on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the run-off, a position legal experts – even those close to him – have since dismissed as untenable and unconstitutional.
This move was meant to set the stage for the extra-judicial attempts to anoint Tsvangirai president of Zimbabwe.
We saw this manifest in attempts by Britain and the US to effect a coup through the Security Council which they wanted to declare Tsvangirai the "legitimate president of Zimbabwe" yet we have a binding Constitution detailing how the presidency is elected.
When that move was shot down by progressives, came Tsvangirai's call for a military invasion of Zimbabwe, which was immediately echoed by Washington, which threatened unspecified action, should the run-off proceed.
Tsvangirai, yesterday, wrote an opinion piece in the British newspaper, The Guardian, calling for the deployment of a foreign military force that he said should oversee "transition".
We could not help but remember reading similar language in a document titled, "The Transition Strategy", that exposed how Tsvangirai approached the British government grovelling for a military offensive.
Though MDC-T leaders disowned the document, which set conditions for a virtual return to Rhodesia, their utterances and actions have since confirmed our worst fears.
As we report elsewhere in this issue, the Anglo-Saxon alliance has emerged as the real power behind Tsvangirai and his MDC-T as they are threatening military action and further sanctions if the run-off is not cancelled.
We find it odd, though hardly surprising, that at every stage of this campaign and even the previous one, Tsvangirai's statements and positions have always dovetailed with those from London and Washington.
If anyone had any doubt as to the identity of the forces confronting us today, those doubts should be dispelled by the voices around Tsvangirai today.
As Zimbabweans we will never bow down to threats from, and accept to be lectured by the evil regimes in London and Washington.
We won our right to self-determination 28 years ago, after a bitter 14-year struggle against the Smith regime that had the tacit support of London and Washington.
What is more, over the past eight years we have withstood concerted attempts at economic strangulation, again largely on our own.
As such, we cannot begin now to take instructions from anyone, let alone our avowed enemies.
Our independence and sovereignty are not negotiable, never to be sacrificed for political expediency.
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Tsvangirai pull-out was ill-informed and untimely - Moyo
Posted: Thursday, June 26, 2008
By Dyke Sithole
Thu, 26 Jun 2008
INDEPENDENT House of Assembly Member of Parliament elect for Tsholotsho North constituency and former Minister of Information, Professor Jonathan Moyo said the decision by Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out of tomorrow's presidential run-off election is ill informed and untimely.
Addressing the Bulawayo Press Club, Moyo said the reasons Tsvangirai cited for the withdrawal was not justified.
"Tsvangirai said the reason for his withdrawal was that the violence in Zimbabwe today is the worst since 1980 which is not true.
"We all know that about 20 000 people died during the Gukurahundi era in 1985, but elections were still held in July 1985. Morgan is saying 86 people have been killed in the violence during the build-up to the presidential run-off," said Moyo.
Moyo said there is no legal basis for Tsvangirai to withdraw from the race and the election will go on as announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
He said Tsvangirai had not consolidated his near-win of March 29, but instead wasted time globe-trotting appealing to world leaders instead of campaigning for the second round.
On the other hand, Zanu PF regrouped and agreed to bury its differences while they concentrated on campaigning for President Mugabe in the run-off elections.
Moyo said after winning the run-off tomorrow Mugabe would form a Government of National Unity which will include opposition members and was not likely to include Tsvangirai in his cabinet.
Full Article : talkzimbabwe.com
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Blow your trumpet 'Gabriel' Mugabe
Posted: Thursday, June 26, 2008
By Lloyd Whitefield BUTLER, Jr.
June 26, 2008
talkzimbabwe.com
A US Virginia Governor told the legislature: "You may place the slave where you please–you may put him under any process, which, without destroying his value as a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational being–you may do all this, and the idea that he was born to be free will survive it all. It is allied to his hope of immortality–it is the ethereal part of his nature which oppression cannot reach–it is a torch lit up in his soul by the hand of the Deity, and never meant to be extinguished by the hand of man." Robert Mugabe recently told the British American Pharaohs "Only God will remove me!"
May millions of Zimbabweans come out dancing, singing, drumming, and cast their votes in the spirit of self-determination, independence, and pay homage to the greatest African leader and elder statesman in the world President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
God will honor and bless the Elders and the Ancestors of Africa so that thy days in the land shall be long.
Praise the God that blessed Africa from the beginning of time. The Great God Who has placed the focus of the world on Zimbabwe to express in behalf of the suffering people of the world to blow your Trumpet as a vote for self-integrity, independence, and sovereignty.
Zimbabwe Voters: Remember that "God Hears The Cry Of The Oppressed" and while President Robert Gabriel Mugabe stand's before the biblical Pharaoh slave-making governments of America and Britain in the tradition of the Biblical Gabriel, he blows his trumpet for the freedom, justice, and equality of the African people.
Blow your Trumpet for Robert "Gabriel" Mugabe and cast your votes.
May God give the people of Zimbabwe and Africa the strength and wisdom to protect and strengthen the wisdom of the military generals, and preserve their God-given land and mineral resources.
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Blow your trumpet blow,
Come Gabriel blow your horn
Let the whole world know
It's time for judgment morn.
Run, run, they're goin' run
To find a hiding place
Run, but not a one
Can ever hide his face.
The important role of defending our country cannot be left to mediocre officers incapable of comprehending and analytically evaluating the operational environment to ensure that the sovereignty of our state is not only preserved, but enhanced...
With the current unjustified demonization of Zimbabwe by Western powers, the role of intelligence in shaping foreign, security and economic policies become even more critical...
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel (non italic excepts of United Nations Speech)
Blow your trumpet loud,
Blow your trumpet high
The whole world's goin' shake
From motion depths up to the sky
The day's not far away
The West still negates our sovereignties by way of control of our resources, in the process making us mere chattels in out own lands, mere minders of its trans-national interests. In my own country and other sister states in Southern Africa, the most visible form of this control has been over land despoiled from us at the onset of British colonialism.
That control largely persists, although it stands firmly challenged in Zimbabwe, thereby triggering the current stand-off between us and Britain, supported by her cousin states, most notably the United States and Australia. Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and now Mr. Brown's sense of human rights precludes our people's right to their God-given resources, which in their view must be controlled by their kith and kin. I am termed dictator because I have rejected this supremacist view and frustrated the neo-colonialists.
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
He's comin' soon I know
Stand upon the land
Take up your horn and blow
This ole' world's a-rockin'
Reeling and a-rockin'
How it a keeps on standin'
I don't know
I lost eleven precious years of my life in the jail of a white man whose freedom and well- being I have assured from the first day of Zimbabwe's Independence. I lost a further fifteen years fighting white injustice in my country.
Ian Smith is responsible for the death of well over 50,000 of my people. I bear scars of his tyranny which Britain and America condoned. I meet his victims everyday. Yet he walks free. He farms free. He talks freely, associates freely under a black Government. We taught him democracy. We gave him back his humanity.
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Lift up your voice, and shout, Gabriel
Take up your horn and blow, blow,
Come on and blow, your trumpet blow
Come Gabriel, blow your horn
Let the whole world know
It's time for judgment morn
He would have faced a different fate here and in Europe if the 50,000 he killed were Europeans. Africa has not called for a Nuremberg trial against the white world which committed heinous crimes against its own humanity. It has not hunted perpetrators of this genocide, many of whom live to this day, nor has it got reparations from those who offended against it. Instead it is Africa which is in the dock, facing trial from the same world that persecuted it for centuries.
Let Mr. Bush read history correctly. Let him realise that both personally and in his representative capacity as the current President of the United States, he stands for this "civilisation" which occupied, which colonised, which incarcerated, which killed. He has much to atone for and very little to lecture us on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His hands drip with innocent blood of many nationalities.
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Run, run, they're goin' run
To find a hiding (to find a hiding place) place
Run, but not a one
Can ever hide his face
Mr. President, We are alarmed that under his leadership, basic rights of his own people and those of the rest of the world have summarily been rolled back. America is primarily responsible for rewriting core tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We seem all guilty for 9/11. Mr. Bush thinks he stands above all structures of governance, whether national or international.
At home, he apparently does not need the Congress. Abroad, he does not need the UN, international law and opinion. This forum did not sanction Blair and Bush's misadventures in Iraq. The two rode roughshod over the UN and international opinion. Almighty Bush is now corning back to the UN for a rescue package because his nose is bloodied! Yet he dares lecture us on tyranny. Indeed, he wants us to pray him! We say No to him and encourage him to get out of Iraq. Indeed he should mend his ways before he clambers up the pulpit to deliver pieties of democracy.
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
Blow your trumpet loud,
Blow your trumpet high
The whole world's goin' shake
From motion depths up to the sky
The British and the Americans have gone on a relentless campaign of destabilising and vilifying my country. They have sponsored surrogate forces to challenge lawful authority in my country. They seek regime change, placing themselves in the role of the Zimbabwean people in whose collective will democracy places the right to define and change regimes.
Let these sinister governments be told here and now that Zimbabwe will not allow a regime change authored by outsiders. We do not interfere with their own systems in America and Britain. Mr Bush and Mr Brown have no role to play in our national affairs. They are outsiders and mischievous outsiders and should therefore keep out! The colonial sun set a long time ago; in 1980in the case of Zimbabwe, and hence Zimbabwe will never be a colony again. Never!
We do not deserve sanctions. We are Zimbabweans and we know how to deal with our problems. We have done so in the past, well before Bush and Brown were known politically. We have our own regional and continental organizations and communities.
Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
The day's not far away
He's comin' soon I know
Stand upon the land
Take up your horn and blow,
Blow, Gabriel , blow
Blow, Gabriel, blow
In that vein, I wish to express my country's gratitude to President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa who, on behalf of SADC, successfully facilitated the dialogue between the Ruling Party and the Opposition Parties, which yielded the agreement that has now resulted in the constitutional provisions being finally adopted. Consequently, we will be holding multiple democratic elections in March 2008. Indeed we have always had timeous general and presidential elections since our independence.
Mr. President,
In conclusion, let me stress once more that the strength of the United Nations lies in its universality and impartiality as it implements its mandate to promote peace and security, economic and social development, human rights and international law as outlined in the Charter. Zimbabwe stands ready to play its part in all efforts and programmes aimed at achieving these noble goals.
I thank you.
My Lord's Goin' Move this Wicked Race
Wicked race, wicked race
My Lord's Goin' Move this Wicked Race
Wicked race, wicked race
He's goin to raise up a nation that will obey!... American Negro Gospel Spiritual
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