Posted on 02/11/2003 3:07:45 AM PST by Clive
The most disgusting aspect of the scenes outside the Harare High Court last week when the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai opened was the obvious delight Robert Mugabe’s police and unidentified thugs took in baiting and assaulting diplomats, opposition lawmakers, journalists and members of the public. The crucial question now is whether there will be a repetition of these scenes during World Cup cricket games which started this week.
Two of the Zimbabwean team, Andy Flower, the best batsman the country has produced, and Henry Olonga, Zimbabwe’s first black Test cricketer, courageously turned out for the opening match in Harare against Namibia wearing black arm bands in mourning for the death of democracy in their nation.
But mass protests are a different matter - although Australian High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, Jonathan Brown, warned his foreign ministry that violent opposition protests may erupt if the Australian team plays here.
For a start, protests, violent or otherwise, will not be allowed. "We will not be heavy handed with demonstrators - it is ridiculous to suggest that," declared police Assistant Commissioner Albert Mandizha, referring to the special "task force" set up to "ensure security". He went on to say that no protests would be allowed, and any "troublemaker or misfit" who applied for a permit to demonstrate would "not be in their normal senses." So now we know.
The major risk is that people will fall victim to violence perpetrated by the forces of the state, anxious to please their superiors. There is also a grave danger of a player, official, visiting or local fan being the target of some ludicrous accusation of spying or sabotage.
Harare and Bulawayo have been saturated with the Green Bombers youth militia, newly kitted-out in civilian clothes, with orders to infiltrate crowds and public places.
In short, the Zimbabwean Cricket Association can assure the International Cricket Council that the matches are safe from everything except the most dangerous element in the country today - Mugabe's paranoid regime itself.
And there is only one thing from which no one can protect the players and spectators: Mugabe’s men of violence and their culture of impunity. MDC activist Edison Mukwazi, 29, has just died, allegedly from injuries he received when detained at the Zimbabwe v Pakistan match in November. Seven black fans say they were assaulted last week just trying to buy tickets, police demanding: "What would you know about cricket?"
The premeditated viciousness of Mugabe's minions in not just suppressing any expression of dissent, but manufacturing pretexts for violence, contrasts with the unctuously conciliatory approach to him by the International Cricket Council, and South Africa and Nigeria.
South Africa and Nigeria this week refused another meeting with Australian John Howard to consider extending Zimbabwe’s suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth for a further year, despite the worsening repression and suffering. Howard, expressing regret interpreted this as a refusal to extend the suspension.
"We must help Zimbabwe out of its predicament and problem," said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. "We cannot do that if we become unduly and unnecessarily critical and antagonistic."
However, Zimbabwean police were clearly acting on orders to be seriously antagonistic at the start of the trial of Tsvangirai and two other leaders of his Movement for Democratic Change.
Sophie Honey, second secretary at the British High Commission, had a baton thrust against her throat, despite producing her Zimbabwe government card identifying her as a diplomat.
A man wearing a pistol in a shoulder holster, a grass hat, and casual shirt saying "Lazy Sam - Call of Nature" manhandled lawyers waiting to enter the court building as if they were cattle. Whatever Lazy Sam was, a "war veteran" or an undercover security policeman, he was obviously certain he was above any law.
A baton was menacingly waved in the face of US Ambassador Joe Sullivan. The German Deputy Ambassador Jan-Hendrik van Thiel was threatened with arrest and his immunity was scorned when he asked why two journalists had been arrested.
The paramilitary riot squad ordered we form one line, and a gloating detail in blue fatigues laughed in the face of my colleague Andrew Meldrum as he forced him to the back. Police then drove us all away with great truculence.
Judge Paddington Garwe eventually ordered police to "let the press and interested persons enter," but I was still harassed for not having a 2003 press card. I told security police I had applied in October 2002 and had been advised I remain "legal" until I get a response. They let me pass as a member of the public.
The security of the individual in this society is, to take a line from Damon Runyon, "a permanent, floating crap game". Those who play must know the risks.
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