Posted on 09/03/2002 2:22:30 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - A defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday blamed Britain and other rich countries for the poverty and despair in his country.
Mugabe, speaking at the World Summit, also defended his seizure of white farms, saying the program pitted the majority against an "obdurate" racial minority "supported and manipulated" by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"We have not asked for any inch of Europe," said Mugabe. "So, Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe."
But some here said Mugabe's Zimbabwe offered delegates a troubling glimpse of the future and the human cost of failure to confront the huge global problems faced by the summit.
More than half of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people face imminent starvation. Its once vibrant economy teeters on the brink of collapse. More than 70 percent of its people live in poverty. Most are unemployed. They lack proper housing, basic health care, clean water, sanitation, electricity and quality education for their children.
"We regard Mugabe's attendance as an affront to the whole concept of sustainable development," said Tendai Biti, the shadow foreign minister for Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
In just five years, Zimbabwe has fallen from a relatively prosperous and stable country to one wracked by economic despair and government-sponsored political violence.
Zimbabwe government statistics indicate the economy has shrunk by 28 percent and per capita income has been cut almost in half to $380 a year.
Inflation last month reached an annual rate of 123 percent, and independent economist John Robinson in Harare predicted it could reach 1,000 percent by the end of the year.
Mugabe's Education Ministry said school enrollments and literacy have declined by a third in the past decade. In 1990, Zimbabwe was the pride of Africa with a literacy rate of 70 percent.
Access to clinics and medicine was also declining rapidly, Mugabe's Health Ministry said. Since 1998, malnutrition was associated with half of all childhood deaths.
Despite a looming famine in southern Africa, Mugabe has continued with the seizure of 95 percent of the white-owned farmland in Zimbabwe, bringing to a standstill an industry that once helped feed southern Africa and accounted for a third of Zimbabwe's foreign exchange earnings.
Even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a speech last Tuesday, urged Zimbabwe to change its land policies to help stave off famine. Annan also called on Zimbabwe to observe its own laws and compensate displaced farmers.
The United States has called it "madness" to seize farms and arrest farmers at a time when starvation threatens more than 6 million Zimbabweans.
Mugabe claims the seizures are necessary to correct lingering colonial injustices and to empower thousands of poor, black, landless Zimbabweans.
But while his government has given thousands of poor Zimbabweans access, though not title, to small plots of land, many of the biggest and best farms have gone to Mugabe's relatives, government ministers, ruling party officials and even journalists in the state-run media.
One large farm went to Mugabe's wife Grace, another to his sister Sabrina.
Mugabe dismissed the criticisms of his government as attempts by some countries and regional blocs "bent on subordinating our sovereignty" to their ambitions.
"The real objective is interference in our domestic affairs. The rule of law, democracy and governance are indeed values that we cherish because we fought for them against the very same people who today seek to preach them to us," said Mugabe.
The landless are being given LEASES, I guess the state owns the land.
Mugabe and family loot blood gems*** Marsischky's account depicts corruption at the heart of Zimbabwe's government. It is a murky world of clandestine meetings, of millions of dollars changing hands and of Congo being looted by its supposed ally. It is also a world of danger. Marsischky believes that by going public with his allegations his life may be at risk. 'Blood diamonds are a very dangerous business,' he said. Marsischky says he has come forward now because of a fear that Mugabe would try to fix next week's elections. 'We have not come forward before now, as we hoped the elections would be fair enough for a change of leadership. This seems to be slipping away now,' he said. *** [He was right - the election was stolen.]
Zimbabwe -- Mugabe's sister wanted victim's house*****'GIVE me the house and furniture' Sabina Mugabe told farmer who was later shot. Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg and Philip Sherwell in Harare report Sabina Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president's oldest sister, wanted property on the farm of Terry Ford, killed by settlers last week, for herself, according to local farmers and the country's Commercial Farmers Union. Miss Mugabe, the Zanu-PF MP for Zvimba South, Robert Mugabe's home area, and Agness Rusike, a leader of the so-called war veterans, united to lead a terror campaign against white farmers and their workers in Mr Ford's area of Norton 16 months ago.****
Gadaafi to supply Mugabe with death squads?***Relations between Mugabe and Gadaafi have been warm for some time but it is only in the last year, as Zimbabwe's shortage of foreign exchange has caused repeated fuel cut-offs that Mugabe has several times flown to Tripoli to plead with Gadaafi for deliveries on credit. Gadaafi, who has despaired of his efforts to play a leadership role in the Arab world, has begun to use his financial muscle to make interventions right across black Africa where he has made Zimbabwe a special case, advancing Mugabe a loan of $100 million.……More sinister is the fact that Gadaafi insisted on calling into conclave Harare's small community of Indian Muslims, telling them that they must assist Mugabe's plans by declaring a jihad (holy war) to throw the whites out. If they did not do this, he told the Muslim elders, he would bring in strong arm men from the Pagad movement in Cape Town with which he had close links. There has long been speculation that Gadaafi might have links to Pagad, an extremist Muslim vigilante movement often linked to bombings and murders in the Cape, including bomb attacks on US-linked enterprises such as the Planet Hollywood restaurant on the Cape waterfront, but this is the first open confirmation of the fact.
The bulk of Harare's Muslim community, consisting largely of merchants and professionals, was aghast at this demand and has failed to declare a jihad ,a failure which they believe lies behind the sudden spate of attacks on Muslim shops by Zanu-PF youths in the last ten days. For heaven's sake, said one Muslim merchant, we all do business with whites all the time. We rely on them and most of us are appalled by what Mugabe's doing. It's obvious that those youths who were sent to attack white and Muslim shops were meant to be punishing us for not complying. However, Gadaafi - like Mugabe a virtual paranoiac in matters of personal security - had also left behind two extra bodyguards for Mugabe and four specialist coordinators. These men are believed to have experience in the training and handling of death squads and they have, in the last month, bought up 20 houses right around Zimbabwe to act as safe houses for the squads. The houses are strategically scattered only four are in Harare and there is one in every regional town or centre of any size. ***
British Officials Report Assets Frozen of Zimbabwe's Re-elected President Mugabe*** (Sunday Business - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Millions of dollars secretly deposited in the offshore financial haven of the Turks & Caicos by Zimbabwe's recently re-elected president, Robert Mugabe, have been frozen, according to British intelligence sources. He has used accounts in the Caribbean islands to store funds from his Isle of Man-based Eagle Investments through which much of his wealth is concentrated. Last month the European Union and the US froze the assets of Mugabe and his associates and placed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe. But the Turks & Caicos are British territories and do not fall under EU jurisdiction.***
Zimbabwe's first lady grabs luxury farm - Personally evicts farm couple*** Witnesses said Mugabe--who was accompanied by senior army officers, government officials and young toughs from her husband's ruling party--told the couple that they had 48 hours to vacate their farm or be arrested. "I'm taking over this farm," witnesses quoted the first lady as saying…. Grace Mugabe, the president's former secretary, has a reputation among many people as a profligate shopper. Before the European Union imposed travel bans on dozens of the Zimbabwean president's friends, relatives and cronies, numerous news reports said she frequently used state-owned Air Zimbabwe to go to London and Paris on lavish shopping jaunts.
Opposition groups and commercial farmers charge that her brother, a former envoy to Canada, used youth members of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party to chase away the owner and about 200 workers and their families from a farm in the Glendale district, a two-hour drive northwest of Harare. They say that the president's sister, Sabina, lives on a confiscated farm 80 miles west of Harare. A list prepared by Justice for Agriculture, a new lobbying group for white farmers, says that about 200 army officers, influential businessmen and senior ZANU-PF members are the new owners of formerly white-owned farms.***
Zimbabwe -- False confidence***Yet still the aid maize pours in, freeing up Mugabe to spend his hard-stolen cash on important things like arms and pay-offs for the army and police and to maintain his stumbling youth brigades. This last is most important: rumour has it that there are a couple of families in Mutorashanga who haven't been beaten senseless for months now and one can't have that kind of sloppiness. Better still, it now transpires that the UNDP now plans to give some Zimbabwean banks (run by Mugabe's cronies) $85m US dollars which they will lend to licensed grain importers (Mugabe's cronies) who will use the money to import food for Mugabe's cronies. Why so complicated? Far simpler just to make cheques payable to Robert Gabriel Mugabe.***
'Pol Pot' tactics leave half of Zimbabweans to starve***. "There is only food available for half the country of 13 million people," an economist in Harare said. "Robert Mugabe is employing the tactics of Pol Pot. He plans to get rid of the dissenting half of the population by starving them to death." A village close to Nkayi, in the Midlands region of Zimbabwe, made the mistake of voting for the opposition in last February's elections. Now its people are being punished. No food trucks arrive here and there are only 44lb of maize left for 200 people until the next harvest in June. Sithembiso Sekai sits in a forlorn heap outside her house, watching her painfully thin eldest daughter crack muphura, a foul-tasting wild nut, to feed to the other four children. The baby at her breast lies asleep, exhausted by the effort of sucking to no avail.***
Say what? It's madness, plain madness, no more.
Ah, it is unjust to make money and pay people below minimum wage, but it is just to involve them into unpaid murder rewarding revolutions.
Until they get the job done.
Pro-Mugabe militants drive hundreds of opposition activists from their homes***Lovemore said torture of opposition supporters has been widespread in the election's aftermath and that the human rights group has evidence that some 1,250 opposition supporters are being "actively hunted" by militants seeking revenge. There were also reports, cited by opposition officials, that in an area near the Mozambican border, people accused of voting for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai were ordered to pay compensation to a local pro-Mugabe chief. ***
When killing accompanies elections/Zimbabwe's 'elected' dictator***Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF militia beat several MDC supporters to death. Darlington Vikaveka and farm manager John Rutherford were beaten to death on a farm near Mrondera. In Kwekwe, Mugabe troops killed Funny Mahuni at a torture camp in the Mbizo township. Witnesses said Mahuni's stomach was slit open with a knife. Many street vendors in Bulawayo were beaten and had their "for sale" items taken away by the Mugabe militia when they were suspected of voting for the opposition.
During the election, Mugabe's militia - bolstered by 20,000 new recruits based at 23 posts in Mugabe's tribal homeland of Mashonaland - spread out around the nation and prevented at least 500,000 registered MDC voters from turning in their ballots, about 15 percent of all registered voters. The militia set up roadblocks all across the nation and would allow only passengers with ZANU-PF membership cards access to voting stations. On one Zimbabwean farm, where a poster of Mugabe was ruined with graffiti, the militia reportedly threatened to send the black workers on the farm to one of Mugabe's "re-education camps."
Philip Chiyangawa, a ZANU-PF member of parliament was captured on videotape telling one Mugabe youth militia member to "get a hold of MDC supporters; beat them until they are dead. Burn their farms and their workers' houses, then run away and we will blame the burning of the workers' houses on the whites. Report to the police, because they are ours." ***
Zimbabwe - Leader of war veterans group jailed for corruption (How to dispose of your henchmen)*** HARARE, Zimbabwe - A leader of Zimbabwe's war veterans, who helped lead the two-year occupation of white-owned farms, has been sentenced to three years in jail for taking bribes.***
Zimbabwe -- Mugabe's hungry and unpaid stormtroopers threaten violent revolt***"We've turned ourselves into killers and thugs - and for what?" asked David, 35. "We have no money, no jobs and no future. All we have are hungry stomachs and bad dreams about what we've done." He described the missions of murder, abduction and arson on which he sent young men and women earlier this year to help keep Mugabe in power.
"We did everything they wanted," he said. "We won the election for them, but they have treated us no better than donkeys. They have used us and thrown us away." .... "I don't want to do those things any more," said Sam. "My parents are so unhappy." David added: "We're in a jail of our own - never free to leave and always being punished for what we do. We'll never have our lives back until Mugabe is gone." ***
Instead, let's have the European empires return, re-establish order, the infrastructure, and an actual system of laws. People like Mugabe would be shot for crimes against humanity.
I know, I know, it's a pipe dream. But that appears to be the only way for all of Africa to get out of the morass it's in.
Regards, Ivan
This sounds like "reparations" to me!
What the Afghans need is colonizing (And Africans!) ***What will we do this time round? Will we stick Zahir Shah back on his throne to preside over a ramshackle coalition of mutually hostile Commies, theocrats and gangsters, and hope the poor old gentleman hangs in there till we've cleared Afghan airspace? Or will we understand Osama bin Laden's declaration of war on pluralism for what it is? The most unstable parts of the world today are on the perimeter between Islam and the infidel -- places such as the Sudan, where vast numbers of Christians have been slaughtered -- and given the vast illegal immigration of Muslims into western Europe and elsewhere that perimeter is expanding. Afghanistan needs not just food parcels, but British courts and Canadian police and Indian civil servants and U.S. town clerks and Australian newspapers. So does much of the rest of the region. Given the billions of dollars of damage done to the world economy by September 11th, massive engagement in the region will be cheaper than the alternative.***
Sounds to me like Mugabe's using "racism" to secure communism.
And communism is indeed self-bribery.
Yep, this is the fate of those black liberals who support democrats. They might as well form their own party.
The difference is, of course, that Blair understands he is an elected official but Mugabe really believes his country is his personal property.
Bump!!
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