Mugabe 'bullies way to poll win'

[seemslikeadream]

Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria
Wednesday March 31, 2004
The Guardian

President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party was accused yesterday of using violence to win a parliamentary byelection in which one opposition supporter was shot dead and 50 more taken to hospital.
Mr Mugabe's party lost the Zengeza seat in Harare in the June 2000 parliamentary elections. It had been considered a stronghold of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Mr Mugabe's party bussed in violent youth militia who set up camps in the constituency and threatened voters during the campaign and the voting.

The ZANU-PF candidate, Christopher Chigumba, won 8,447 votes, compared with 6,706 for James Makore of the MDC, according to results announced by the state-run election commission.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,2763,1182430,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. link to Mugabe thread from yesterday interested DU'ers might want to read

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x452757

[seemslikeadream]

4. Have you got your salt shaker ready?

The gash in my heart is open and still bleeding. Are you ready to pour the salt in it?

[seemslikeadream]

47. COLONIALISM AND GENDER VIOLENCE IN THE LIVES OF AMERICAN INDIAN WOMEN

Colonizers have long tried to crush the spirit of the Indian peoples and blunt their will to resist colonization. One of the most devastating weapons of conquest has been sexual violence.

In the eyes of colonizers, Indian bodies are inherently "dirty." White Californians of the 1860s called Native people "the dirtiest lot of human beings on earth." They described Indians as dressed in "filthy rags, with their persons unwashed, hair uncombed and swarming with vermin." In 1885, a Proctor & Gamble ad used this image to advertize Ivory Soap:


We were once factious, fierce and wild,
In peaceful arts unreconciled.
Our blankets smeared with grease and stains
From buffalo meat and settlers' veins.
Through summer's dust and heat content,
From moon to moon unwashed we went.
But IVORY SOAP came like a ray
Of light across our darkened way
And now we're civil, kind and good
And keep the laws as people should.
We wear our linen, lawn and lace
As well as folks with paler face
And now I take, where'er we go
This cake of IVORY SOAP to show
What civilized my squaw and me
And made us clean and fair to see.


In the colonial worldview, only "clean" and "pure" bodies deserve to be protected from violence. Violence done to "dirty" or "impure" bodies simply does not count. For example, prostitutes are seldom believed when they are raped because the dominant society considers the prostitute's body violable at all times. Because Indian bodies are also seen as "dirty," they too are considered "rapable." The practice of mutilating Indian bodies, both living and dead, makes it clear that colonizers do not think Indian people deserve bodily integrity. This attitude dates back to the earliest periods of westward conquest:

more
http://www.incite-national.org/involve/colonialism.html

[seemslikeadream]

2. One Killed, 11 Injured In Zimbabwe Election Violence

VOA News
29 March 04


One person is reported dead and 11 others injured in violence surrounding Zimbabwe's parliamentary by-election.
Witnesses say gunshots were heard during voting early Sunday in the Zengeza district of Chitungwiza, 30 kilometers south of the capital, Harare.

Leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change say an opposition supporter was killed when suspected ruling party supporters tried to raid the home of opposition candidate James
Makore. They say another supporter was wounded in the leg.

http://www.voanews.com/Zimbabwe/article.cfm?objectID=A6A3918A-060B-48EA-B0161031DF810020

[AP]

15. Compare any Zimbabwean election to any, say Nigerian, British or Ugandan

election, and Zimbabwe looks like a DAR board member election.

In the UK, before every general election I can remember, some immigrant gets knifed thanks to the tories stirring up anti-immigrant sentiment.

Why don't you post some of those articles.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AP]

24. Because the press DOESN'T write those stories. An immigrant...

...gets knifed thanks to the evilness of William Hague in ENGLAND, and the press doesn't connect it up.

But if it happens in Africa, well they're barbarians who can't rule themselves, and who were better off under colonialism, and, oh yeah, we can blame the party leaders too.

Why doesnt' the Scotsman apply that logic to William Hague?

You know why? Because of economic intersts and because of racism.

[seemslikeadream]

48. The Birth of the A.I.M

It was to revive the resistance to the white establishment ultimate goal of outright removal of the Indians from the history of this land - resistance that had stood idle for over 80 years - that in the late sixties Dennis Banks, Russell Means and Clyde Bellecourt gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and founded the American Indian Movement.

Set out as a spiritual movement to regain the lost cultural identity through the rediscovery of Indian languages, songs and prayers, and to confront the English only campaign that the US governments had been pursuing, the A.I.M soon became the propelling force of political activities mainly directed to engaging those governments onto the ground of their treacherous Land Treaty Policies.

By 1975, over 75 AIM members had been murdered on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation alone. Over 300 indian activists have been murdered thenceforth, almost all associated with the AIM, and many imprisoned.

Article Six of the US Constitution states that the Treaties are the Supreme Law of the Land. Yet those governments never abided by any of those. The Lakota Nation at Pine Ridge, according to the treaties of the United States, is a Sovereign Nation. Likewise are all other Indian Nations.

The US Constitution grants all imprisoned indian activists the status of Political Prisoners. Yet the US Judicial System refuses to abide by its own Constitution.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1088/natives/editorial.htm

[AP]

25. Sanctimonious rantings and ravings?

Sorry if I'm challenging your preconceptions of African politics.

But this isn't about me, and if you think anything I'm writing is a rant or a rave, maybe you need to be doing a better job of explaining why you think that.

[seemslikeadream]

49. A Multidimensional Theory of Colonialism:

The Colonial Context of North America
Political competition, economic incorporation, cultural exchange, and biological resistance are major features of the colonial context. By political competition, I mean the strategic and diplomatic bargaining between nations by which they ensure their own protection, and effect and protect their strategic interests. Geopolitics is the realm of study undertaken by those who study international relations or by historians of diplomatic national policy (Rawlinson i). As to economic incorporation, world systems theorists and economists have long argued for the relative autonomy of markets, or a pattern of relations based largely on material interests, which drives the expansion of markets or explains exchange and market relations. Economists, and many economic anthropologists, believe that the urge to truck and barter is part of human nature (Frank; Wallerstein; Jorgensen). Cultural exchange refers to the transfer and internalization of symbolic codes between colonized and colonizer. Such symbolic codes include language, information, norms, economic ethics, worldviews, religion, and many other aspects of culture (Champagne, "Transocietal Cultural Exchange within the World Economic and Political System" 120-153; Durkheim; Parsons,The Evolution of Societies 25-31). Biological resistance refers to the capability of the colonized to resist the diseases of the colonizer (Dobyns; Duffy; Thornton).

While there have been colonial systems in many historical periods and in many places, the colonization of North America exhibits several characteristics that can shed some information on processes of colonialism in general. A major distinguishing feature of North American colonialism was the colonial rivalries among European powers. Multiple European powers struggled for control of North America. The British, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedes, and, to some extent, the Russians struggled for control of land and trade. The situation of competitive rivalries reflected the situation of competing nations in Europe, and these rivalries usually resulted in armed conflicts and wars in North America (Hintze, "Economics and Politics in the Age of Modern Capitalism"; "Military Organization and State Organization" 160-188; Skocpol 19-24). The intense political and economic competition led to treaties of alliance with Native nations, which held important trade, diplomatic, and military assets capable of tipping the balance of European colonial relations. (Native leverage on rival European contenders ended by about 1820.) Europeans made trade and diplomatic agreements and treaties of alliance with Indian nations, and thereby gave these nations international recognition. These early treaties later became the precedent for the treaties negotiated for land by the United States and Canada with their respective Native peoples. There are few other places in the world where colonizing nations negotiated similar treaties.

Like that of many non-European peoples over the past 500 years, the colonization of Native North Americans occurred in association with the rise of capitalism in Europe and with the increasing emergence of world markets. Furthermore, the United States ultimately emerged as a central player among the core capitalist countries. Consequently, Native North Americans were colonized by a major capitalist force in the world system. This proximity to the capitalist core is not the same experience as that of the African nations, the Native peoples of Latin and South America, Australian Aborigines, or the peoples of India, China, Japan and other non-western nations who were forced to respond to the world expansion of capitalism. In some ways the future of non-western peoples, increasingly incorporated into a world capitalist market, can be seen in the experience of Native North Americans.

Cultural exchange in the colonial situation was carried by interpersonal interaction with missionaries, traders, colonial officials, slaves, and other colonists. To varying degrees both the indigenous peoples and colonizers got to know each other's language, culture, economy, political norms, and social relations. Ideas, words, economic techniques, forms of dress, and many other cultural and normative items were selectively appropriated by each group (Weatherford; Grinde and Johansen). In recent years, some cultural theorists have focused on the effects on subject peoples of cultural domination (Findlay 18-32; Foucault; Biolsi). But, it is also critical to understand the extent to which the colonized internalized selected aspects of the colonizer's culture. The cultural knowledge gained from the colonizer by the colonized was used to build resistance to colonization and/or promote acceptance and participation in the colonizer's new order.
more

http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~jast/Number3/Champagne.html

[AP]

51. Are you learning something?

Is reading about these issues in a context to which you (I presume, from your avatar) relate giving you a perspective on how these same themes play out in, say, African politics, or in VZ, or even, say, in Hong Kong or Jamaica?

[seemslikeadream]

54. Are you learning something?

that's is the question.

[AP]

58. What I thought was happening...

...was that you were connecting imperialism and colonialism in Africa with something that you seem to (juding from your avatar) care about personally.

Confusingly, it seems like the only reason you're bringing it up at all is to make a point about the futility of trying to make a difference in peoples' lives through good, sensible, liberal politics.

Correct me if I'm wrong...

[seemslikeadream]

3. Zimbabwe ruling party wins controversial by-election

30.03.2004 10.20 am

HARARE - Zimbabwe's ruling party edged closer on Monday to the two thirds majority it needs to push through constitutional changes after winning a parliamentary by-election marred by the death of an opposition activist.

Mugabe's governing ZANU-PF party and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) fiercely contested the weekend poll in Zengeza, 35km southeast of the capital Harare.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said Mugabe's governing ZANU-PF party had secured the parliamentary seat, previously held by the MDC which has lost three seats to ZANU-PF in a series of by-elections in the last four years.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3557766&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

[AP]

16. Controversial in New Zeeland or controversial in Zimbabwe?

[mobuto]

19. And yet you insist you don't support Mr. Mugabe?

Who exactly are you fooling, AP?

[AP]

23. The western media would print lies about ANY anti-neoliberal

African leader.

I'd make these same arguments about any of them.

Look at all the assholes the US has SUPPORTED in Africa who get glowing press coverage from western media, and tell me that this ISN"T about neoliberalism?

Who are YOU trying to fool????

[seemslikeadream]

5. Mugabe's Party Wins Violent By-Election

President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party today controversially won a by-election that independent observers said was marred by violence, intimidation, vote buying and rigging.

The election in the Zengeza district near Harare was won by Zanu over the opposition Movement for Democratic.

Independent observers said the two days of voting and the electioneering period leading up to it was far from free and fair.

Onlookers alleged that a government minister fired the shots that killed one opposition supporter and injured two others south of Harare, the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network said.

In a second incident, opposition party candidate James Makore fired three warning shots into the air to disperse what he called a “rowdy mob descending on him” near a polling station.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2714243

The election was called after opposition MP Tafadzwa Musekiwa fled to Britain, claiming he was the victim of politically motivated assaults and death threats.

[AP]

17. I wonder if the Scotsmen published a headlines like this,

"Blair wins violent election" when, an immigrant got stabbed the day before the May 97 election, thanks to Tory anti-immigrant BS???

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. Have you got a reference for that?

Or the stabbing before the 2001 election you talked about earlier? (and maybe earlier elections before that, since you claim this has been going on for as long as you can remember). Please make it a reference that shows the link to the election.

[muriel_volestrangler]

44. Can we take the silence as a 'no', then? (n/t)

[AP]

45. I'll google for it...

...I saw it on the BBC.

Of course they didn't play it up because it really is a scathing indictment of British politics.

[AP]

46. 2001-Oldham

http://www.cre.gov.uk/media/nr_arch/nr010528.html

http://www.e-n.org.uk/racists.htm

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006D8C1.htm

Would you argue that this racist, anti-immigrant violence wasn't stoked by electioneering?

Imagine if Oldham were in Zimbabwe. Imagine how the press would have treated it. It would have been a condemnation and delegitimization of democracy in Zimbabwe.

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. Oldham was stoked by the BNP

who are a very small party - in most of the country. It certainly doesn't bear out your accusations against Hague. Though your final citation doesn't hold the view that the BNP politics were solely to blame - he calls it 'simplistic'.

Also note that the race riots in 2001 came both before (May, Oldham) and after (June, Burnley; July, Bradford) the election. They weren't attempts to intimidate voters or candidates.

So yes, I'd say this was not 'election-related violence'. The CRE mention neither elections nor political parties; 'Evangelicals Now' only talk about the BNP; and all 3 citations say this has been a long standing problem.

It came from racism and social problems that have built up over years. I don't think it's directly comparable, or relevant, to the reports from Zimbabwe.

[AP]

52. The BNP stoked what? It wasn't just BNP supporters who participated.

When Hague runs on a little England platform and gives speeches which talk about the pound and euro in thinly-velied nationalist terms, and he criticizes immigrants, he creates a mood which the BNP exploits.

It doesn't matter that the riots happened before and after the election. It matters that they happened at a time when the right was pushing nationalist and racist ideas.

This is pretty much what happened in Zimbabwe. Calling it voter intimidation is the spin the press puts on it. I don't know how it's different from Oldham. It's people who care about politics getting caught up in a mood and lashing out.

One could argue that if Mugabe's guilty, so is Hague and the BNP. If politicians aren't responsible for creating this mood, then I don't see you can treat total fucking riots in England as being superior, culturally and politically to what the western press criticizes in Zimbabwe.

The truth, however, is that both are due to very particular social, cultural and political factors and that, in neither case is the media interested in investigating the truth. They're interested in having the stories fit into a narrative that helps them with their more general editorial aims. In the UK, it's pretending that the whole Tory party ISN'T part of a dangerous, narrow, illogical racist and nationalistic project. In Africa the project is undermining any government that threatens the one-way flow of profits from Africa to Europe.

[muriel_volestrangler]

53. AP, this is election violence:

a fatal shooting, injuries, and beatings at the polling stations. That can be intimidating to voters.

http://www.zesn.org.zw/docs/zengeza%20by-election%20press%20statement--final.doc

No, the BNP weren't the rioters; they were Asians. But people (eg the Labour candidates) don't blame the Conservatives for the mood in Oldham; they blame the BNP, or wider problems in society. What the BNP want to see is more trouble, because that encourages stupid white people to vote for them.

When liberal newspapers like The Guardian, broadcasters with a worldwide reputation for objectivity like the BBC, progressive magazines like New Internationalist, and human rights groups like Amensty International all criticise Mugabe for being corrupt and violent, don't you think there might be something in it?

I'm not saying the 2001 riots were superior to anything; I'm saying they are not examples of voter intimidation and election fixing.

Are you still searching for election violence in Britain, or have you given up?

[AP]

57. If you hear about a knifing of an immigrant the day after Hague or Major

are out there complaining about imigration and talking about Europe in thinly-veiled nationalist terms, it clicks in your head. It has happened. However, immigrants get knifed all the time.

In my opinion it's all part of the same complicated political nexus, and it IS, to me, a form of intimidation in the UK. However, nobody would ever tell Hague or Major to shut up with their racism. Yet everyone is very quick to hold up evidence of stuff that's pretty similar, all things considered, in Africa as a sign of illegitimacy.

Curious to know what you think about, say, the violence in Nigeria during the last election. It's hard to find concrete evidence of more than 20 deaths in Zimbabwe related to the elections (I couldn't open you link, so I couldn't see what it said, but most of the stories I've read have hard time coming up with super-concrete facts). Now, compare that to the 1000s (you can google to get the number) of people in Niegeria they caught on camera, and have of which really good documentaion, being intimadated, beaten, and killed. Why doesn't the US question the legitimacy of that government? Because we got the outcome we wanted. We treat Nigeria like it's just crazy tribalism, but the government is still fine with us.

Why does the violence in Zimbabwe totally deligitimize Mugabe in the eyes of the press?

Why?

Because it's isn't about the violence. It's about the neoliberalism. If we get the outcome we like, we don't complain about the violence. If we don't get the outcome we like, all we can talk about is the violence, and the poor white farmers, and the famine, and we use all the racist stereotypes we can think of, and we say these people aren't able to govern themselves, much less, able to farm a plot of land.

It's really really disturbing.

It's all about the money.

[muriel_volestrangler]

60. Being anti-neoliberalism is not the point

It is about the violence. It's about behaving decently towards people, which Mugabe doesn't. No, the Nigerian government isn't any better; but I haven't seen people here extolling their policies.

http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/zwe-summary-eng
President Robert Mugabe was re-elected in March amid serious concerns about the fairness and transparency of the elections. The run-up to the election was marred by intimidation, arbitrary arrests, torture and attacks on the political opposition, as was the period following the election. This pattern was repeated during local council and parliamentary by-elections also held during the year. Violations reported during 2002 included at least 58 political killings and widespread torture and ill-treatment throughout the country. Legislation passed during the year further curtailed freedoms of expression, association and assembly. An estimated six million Zimbabweans were at risk of starvation by the end of 2002. Food shortages resulting from sub-regional drought were exacerbated by the government's acquisition of commercial farms and the political manipulation of the delivery of food aid by officials and supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/Nga-summary-eng
Penal legislation inspired by Sharia (Islamic law), which had been gradually introduced in 12 states in northern Nigeria since 1999, was applied throughout the year. One person was executed for murder after being sentenced to death in 2001 by a Sharia court in Katsina. During 2002 at least five people were sentenced to death under this legislation and in at least three cases corporal punishments of amputation of hands or flogging were carried out. Three people were sentenced to death by High Courts. The security forces continued to act with impunity. No one was brought to justice for the extrajudicial execution of civilians by the army in Bayelsa and Benue States in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Dozens of criminal suspects were tortured by the police; according to reports, at least two people died in custody as a result. At least five people were unlawfully killed by the police. State-endorsed vigilante groups carried out hundreds of extrajudicial executions in the southeast of the country and were responsible for acts of unlawful detention, torture and "disappearances". Peaceful protests by women in Niger Delta region outside oil company premises were repressed with excessive use of force by the army and the paramilitary Mobile Police.

Position on the RSF Press Freedom Index (not so much of a worry in itself, but an indication of how much the government can get away with): Nigeria 103, Zimbabwe 141.

[AP]

61. I'm not sure if that's responsive to my arguments.

Are you saying that people do argue that Nigeria's government is illegitimate?

Seriously, NPR, the Times, etc, spend a lot of time trying to discredit Zimbabwe's and Venezueala's gov't. I've seriously never seen or heard a pattern of either trying to discredit the good friends of the American fascists, and, in fact, have misrepresented the political situation in the Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, and dozens of other countries in a clear pattern: neoliberalism good, anti-neoliberalism bad.

Are you really denying that this isn't the case?

Edit: by the way, it was that last Nigerian election that was PARTICULARLY violent. And you know what drives the violence in both cases? Potential profits. You know who won the election in Nigeria? The party that will protect Shell's profits (which are profits that leave Nigeria). You know who won in Zimbabwe? The party which threatens the profits for foreign corporations and promises to create wealth within Zimbabwe.

You know when there won't be violence in elections? When there isn't so much profit at stake for people who are willing to fight over it -- ie, when the swing in potential profits isn't so dramatic -- when it isn't between neoliberalism and anti-neoliberalism. But should theh anti-neoliberals stop trying to win elections? Is election violence a more important issue than, say, ending neoliberalism. I think the fight against neoliberalism is the DEFINING issue of our time.

And it's important to the citizens in the west too. Your government is being bought by the companies who are getting easy profits by ripping off (mostly dark-skinned) people all over this planet, whether in the sweat shops of the Philipines, Honduras, Guatamala and Haiti, in the fields of Namibia and Zimbabwe, or in the oil fields of Nigeria, Venezuela (of old) and Nepal.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Mugabe supporters shoot opposition youth leader

Harare -- A Zimbabwean opposition activist was shot dead and 11 others injured yesterday by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's party, according to a senior opposition official.

A youth activist of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was shot when supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF raided the home of opposition candidate Jame Makore, party secretary-general Welshman Ncube said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040329/WORLD29N-2/TPInternational/Africa

[seemslikeadream]

7. MDC might boycott Zim elections in wake of 'rigging'

March 31, 2004

By Basildon Peta

Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is considering a boycott of all future elections after losing what it considered a safe seat in a weekend by-election in Harare.

The MDC's national executive committee - the supreme decision-making body - meets this weekend to review its defeat in the Zengeza parliamentary by-election in the Harare township of Chitungwiza.

The ruling Zanu-PF party's candidate, Christopher Chigumba, won with 8 447 votes, compared to 6 706 for the MDC's James Makore, a majority of 1 741. The results showed a massive turnaround from the general election in June 2000 when the MDC won with 14 814 votes to Zanu PF's 5 330 - a majority of 9 484. It also won all the other constituencies in Harare.

Although the MDC had already been toying with the idea of boycot-ting the next parliamentary elections in March next year, it said the open rigging of the Zengeza by-election had added impetus to the need to make a final decision.

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=389049

[AP]

18. The MDC is admittedly financed by Europeans. I wouldn't expect

any other conclusion about the election from them.

[seemslikeadream]

8. Zanu PF fires 'warning shot' at MDC

The poll in the Zengeza district town of Chitungwiza, 30km south of Harare, was called after opposition lawmaker Tafadzwa Musekiwa fled into self-imposed exile in Britain, claiming he was the victim of politically motivated assaults and death threats. The by-election was a crucial test of opposition support in its urban strongholds ahead of national parliament elections next March. Reginald Matchaba-Hove, head of the Election Support Network, said observers reported irregularities and intimidation across the Zengeza voting district. "Free and fair elections can only take place in a tolerant political environment," he said. He said ruling party militants were camped outside polling stations and took down the names of voters. Observers saw two women accused of voting for the opposition being assaulted and heavily armed troops, and police were deployed in the district to instil fear in voters. "It is also worrisome that law enforcement agents are mentioned among the perpetrators of violence," the network said. It said ruling party militants moved around the district in large numbers, hindering campaigning. Most opposition meetings and rallies were cancelled, their posters torn down and replaced by ruling party ones.

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=8962

[seemslikeadream]

9. Mugabe is Right, Whites Must Give Up the Land!

by Koigi Wamwere




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, Europeans own almost all the land in the Americas, almost all the good land in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, and most of the best land in many African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. To acquire this land outside Europe, Europeans did not use law, justice or money.
They took it with the gun.

But the West does not want Africans to mention either this fact, or the fact that white people are wrong in wanting to own all the land and everything else in Africa.

And the West is the champion of free speech in the world!

When Africans in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and elsewhere fought for their independence, it meant two things to them - land and freedom. But when Europe conceded independence to African countries it was self-rule without land and freedom.

And so most Africans continue to be landless while Europeans continue to own millions and millions of hectares of the best land in Africa.

In Kenya, 10 percent of the population, both black and white farmers, owns 73 percent of all arable land. In South Africa, 16 percent of the population, made up of whites, owns 87 percent of all arable land. And in Zimbabwe, 4,500 white farmers - or a mere .03 percent of a population of 13 million Africans - own 12 million hectares or 73 percent of all arable land.
by Koigi Wamwere




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, Europeans own almost all the land in the Americas, almost all the good land in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, and most of the best land in many African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. To acquire this land outside Europe, Europeans did not use law, justice or money.
They took it with the gun.

But the West does not want Africans to mention either this fact, or the fact that white people are wrong in wanting to own all the land and everything else in Africa.

And the West is the champion of free speech in the world!

When Africans in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and elsewhere fought for their independence, it meant two things to them - land and freedom. But when Europe conceded independence to African countries it was self-rule without land and freedom.

And so most Africans continue to be landless while Europeans continue to own millions and millions of hectares of the best land in Africa.

In Kenya, 10 percent of the population, both black and white farmers, owns 73 percent of all arable land. In South Africa, 16 percent of the population, made up of whites, owns 87 percent of all arable land. And in Zimbabwe, 4,500 white farmers - or a mere .03 percent of a population of 13 million Africans - own 12 million hectares or 73 percent of all arable land.

http://www.bbjonline.com/mugabe-is-right.html

[seemslikeadream]

10. Robert Mugabe's War to Crush Press Freedom in Zimbabwe

During most of President Robert Mugabe’s 22-year rule in Zimbabwe, freedom of the press was imperfect, but better than in most African nations. That began to change, however, when the independent press started to challenge Mugabe and when the president, threatened by loss of political power, responded by cracking down on the press.


Insecure Government Restricts Press

For most of the two decades since he first won election in 1980, Robert Mugabe has enjoyed public support and unchallenged rule in Zimbabwe. Two years ago, however, his grip on the nation started slipping when his ruling party, Zanu-PF, nearly lost the parliamentary elections. Then, during the presidential elections last March, Mugabe experienced his first real opposition in more than 20 years. Although he was declared the winner, the opposition has refused to recognize the vote and independent international monitors have criticized the elections as neither free nor fair. During the elections, journalists were barred from sites where votes were being counted. This is only one of the slaps that the media in Zimbabwe have taken in Mugabe’s battle to stay in power. Some of the others are much worse.

http://www.iwmf.org/features/4240

[seemslikeadream]

11. Zimbabwe describes Taiwan's referendum as provocative

HARARE, March 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge has said that Taiwan's March 20 referendum is "provocative."

Mudenge said in a statement on Tuesday evening that the government of Zimbabwe has followed developments in Taiwan "with grave concern."

The statement said the Zimbabwean government condemned the controversial "presidential election" as being provocative and reckless.

It added that any attempt to challenge the fact that Taiwan is a province of China constitutes a danger not only to the stabilityof China but also to international peace and security.

"The government of the Zimbabwe wishes to reiterate its supportfor the 'one-China, Two-systems policy' which seeks the peaceful reunification of the province of Taiwan to the mainland and condemned all forces both internal and external that seek to destabilize the country," the statement said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-03/31/content_1394724.htm

[AP]

13. VZ, China, Zimbabwe -- coalition of the anti-neoliberals.

I don't think Chavez has criticized the Taiwan elections, but he definitely has praised China for being anti-neoliberal.

This statemente tells you that Mugabe is standing by his partner against neo-liberalism.

[Zynx]

39. China is hardly a regime that should be praised.

They are horrible, brutal, and thugish. Show me how China is some great enlightened government.

[seemslikeadream]

12. ZIMBABWE: Increase in malnourished children at clinics

"Before we were estimating there were 1 million needy people in urban areas. The assessment quantified the number of people, stating that there were 2.5 million," Walker noted.

The increase in the number of malnourished children attending clinics in the two major cities "shows the great impact has had in urban areas, as the most vulnerable people, when there is a crisis, are of course children and women".

WFP and its implementing partners are working with 40 clinics to prevent a deterioration in the condition of malnourished children between the ages of six months and six years. "Over 80,000 children received food aid under the programme during February," the aid agency said.

Walker added that the programme has been running for a year now. "It started as a pilot programme in Harare and then extended to Bulawayo and covers most of the clinics in the cities. WFP is working with the NGO, Help Germany, and the children are referred to this programme through the clinics once they are registered as 'growth faltering'," she explained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40168&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ZIMBABWE

[seemslikeadream]

14. Zimbabwe lawyer tells US Congress of torture

Off to the right, I could hear the sounds of horrible screaming. I was thrown against the wall and the hood was then removed. I was stripped utterly naked, then had my hands and feet handcuffed and bound so that I was in a foetal position. The police then thrust a thick plank between my legs and hands. Other planks lined the room and the light was dim. In a corner to my right side, there was a pool of what my tormentors told me was acid, into which I could be dissolved without a trace. I was also informed that I could be crucified on the planks against the wall, or have needles thrust into my urethra if 'you are not co-operative'. In the middle of the room were a small table and a chair. About 15 or so interrogators stood over me and some of them began assaulting me with booted-feet and fists all over the body. I was then given the option of either 'telling the truth or dying a slow and painful death'.

Several questions were asked about my background as a student activist, my allegiance to the MDC, the political affiliation of judges, my scholarship to pursue the Master's Degree in South Africa, my alleged involvement in the burning of a government bus, my political ambitions, as well as the arms caches that the MDC was alleged to have had. At some point I was hung upside down on the planks and assaulted beneath the feet with wooden and rubber truncheons, as well as some pieces of metal.

Running concurrently with the other assaults and ongoing interrogation, various electrical shocks were introduced into my body. A black contraption resembling a telephone was placed on the small table. It had several electric cables emanating from it. One cable was tied to the middle toe of my right foot, whilst another was tied to the second toe of the left foot. Another copper wire was wrapped tightly around my genitals. Again, another one was put into my mouth. Still in the foetal position, I was ordered to hold a metallic receiver in my bound right hand and I was then forced to place this next to my right ear. A blast of electric shocks was then administered to my body for about 8 to 9 hours.

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/SHUMBA.1556.HTML

[seemslikeadream]

20. Political strife has two-thirds of Zimbabwe on brink of starvation

By Michael Wines
The New York Times

One need not imagine. The United Nations and other relief agencies here have raised their estimate of Zimbabwe's "food insecure" population — essentially, those who have no ready access to a bare-bones daily diet — from nearly half its 11.6 million citizens to two-thirds.

Two years of drought are partly to blame for the food shortages. Most experts say, however, that more responsibility rests with President Robert Mugabe's government, whose seizure of white-owned commercial farms in recent years has destroyed large-scale agriculture, sent foreign investors fleeing and caused economic panic.


In interviews in Harare and elsewhere, health experts said that as many as eight in 10 malnourished children brought to clinics and hospitals for emergency nutritional treatment were HIV-positive.

"Normally," said one expert, "if you're treating kids under 5 with a therapeutic feeding program for malnutrition, your mortality is less than 5 percent. In theory, they should walk away with their parents after a couple of weeks. Instead, we're getting mortality rates between 20 and 30 percent

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001867880_zimbabwe29.html

[AP]

22. Seems,, you're proving that there's no end to the propaganda

western media is willing to publish in order to demonize anti-neoliberalism.

I have a book for you: Hearts of Darknes by Milton Amiladi (sp.)

[seemslikeadream]

55. Yes I am proving that aren't I?

The propaganda is just as kind to the Native American.

[gottaB]

26. I wish there were better sources

Meldrum's reporting on Zimbabwe always sounds biased to me. Why? He has a history of publishing total fabrications about ZANU-PF. Although he was legally cleared of responsibility for publishing the lie that a ZANU-PF opponent had been decapitated in front of her two children, there is no question that the story was a total lie, and that makes him less than credible.

International journalists made the Meldrum case something of a cause celeb, but think about it. Does a free press mean that people can publish total lies with impunity? I'm not sure. What I am certain of is that when I read a story about election violence in Zimbabwe, if Meldrum is the author, I take it with a big fat grain of salt.


On Edit: added "case" after Meldrum

[AP]

27. Right on.

It's a fascinating set of circumstances.

I think if you push most DU'ers, they'd admit that the lies on CNN and FOX are serious threats to democracy, but they have no appreciation of what the press is doing in Zimbabwe or Venezuela, where they're even more agressive cheerleaders for foreign wealth and capital.

Did anyone see Letterman last night? CNN lied THREE TIMES about that segment with the bored child at the Bush speech. That was was sick. Meldrum's lies are 1000 times worse.

[seemslikeadream]

28. Thank you for your polite and measured

response to the article. I appreciate your views. I am here to learn.

[AP]

29. Yeah, it was polite of that poster

not to call you a sanctimonious ranter and raver.

[seemslikeadream]

30. Like a should be polite to you?

I tried that once and found I had miss read your intentions?

[AP]

33. I have no idea what you're talking about.

You're upset because I said the Bruce Hornsby sone with the line, "That's the way it is" is a little bit racist?

I was trying to be nice by suggesting things for you to read, and this is what I get?

By the way, it's funny to see you write that you're hear to learn AFTER starting about three threads about Zimbabwean politics, and loading one of them with a dozen stories, some of which are from extremely biased sources, and then relying on NED-financed allafrica.com for another.

If you're going to have a firmly held opinion on something which you imply with dozens of posts on it, you have to take some responisibility for learning about it from an earlier stage.

[seemslikeadream]

35. I imply nothing by the articles I post

I post them. Read them, believe them, disregard them, refute them, that's your right and that's why they're being posted.

[AP]

38. ...and we complain about the editors at the New York Times and CNN

for having that same cavalier attitude towards their jobs.

If you're going to disseminate information, take responsibility for it, or don't let me see you complaining about Fox, or any other source of information.

[seemslikeadream]

56. You have never or will never see me complain about who's

disseminating information. It's a free country, I thought?

[AP]

59. so you don't think that CNN and Fox and total control by fascists of what

we get from 90% of our media sources isn't dangerous for democracy?

Do you remember in 2000 when Fox called the election for Bush? They knew he didn't win, but wanted to create a mood that he did.

You didn't complain about that?

[seemslikeadream]

31. Zimbabwe Crippled by AIDS, Famine

Feb. 19, 2003

In Zimbabwe, malnutrition accelerates the AIDS epidemic, which in turn amplifies the food crisis. HIV-infected farm workers are unable to tend their fields, worsening a national famine. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports.

http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1139862

Zimbabwe Election

March 14, 2002


Host Tavis Smiley gets an update on the controversial presidential election in Zimbabwe from Ofeibea Kwist Arcton, a journalist with Allafrica.com.
http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1139862

Thursday, August 30, 2001
Guest Host: Laura Knoy


10:00 - Zimbabwe
Listen in RealAudio!
A panel talks about how a resettlement program mandating the transfer of large, mostly white-owned farms to landless blacks has destabilized Zimbabwe.
Simbi Mubako, Zimbabwean Ambassador to the United States
John Prendergast, co-director of the Africa program at International Crisis Group
Ray Choto, journalist for The Standard (Zimbabwe) and senior research fellow in the department of communications at Stanford University


http://www.wamu.org/dr/shows/drarc_010827.html

[AP]

34. Allafrica.com is a NED organization with an agenda, as

JudiLyn showed the last time you cited them.

Do you realize that you're disagreeing with that cadre over Haiti, but agreeing with them regarding Zimbabwe?

[seemslikeadream]

32. BILL MOYERS TALKS WITH KINGSTON KAJESE:

BILL MOYERS TALKS WITH KINGSTON KAJESE:
Mr. Kajese spent nearly a decade working in community development in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa for international aid organizations. Today, Mr. Kajese teaches courses in international development and community relations at Africa University in Zimbabwe.


BILL MOYERS: This weekend one of the most important elections in Africa's troubled search for democracy will take place in Zimbabwe. Voters will choose where whether this man, President Robert Mugabe, once praised the world over for bringing white rule to a peaceful end, is to remain in power. I first reported from Zimbabwe some 25 years ago when it was known as Rhodesia and was ruled by the white racist regime of Ian Smith. Mugabe was the country's first elected black president, full of promising hope. Since then, he has become a despot and rules by fear and intimidation.

These pictures, taken only days ago, show activists who had spoken out against Mugabe and have been beaten, maimed, even killed. At least 25 people have been killed in the past two months.

If Robert Mugabe does win the election, it won't be because he is popular. He has allowed the cities to go to ruin, while in the countryside he has played the race card, urging his followers to drive white settlers from their land. Farming is in a tailspin. Food is scarce.

Later, we'll show you some exclusive and remarkable footage, but first, we want to talk to Kingston Kajese.

Mr. Kajese spent nearly a decade working in community development in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa for international aid organizations. Today, he's on the faculty at Africa University in Zimbabwe. Thank you very much for coming on with us tonight.

MOYERS: You were an early supporter of Mugabe's. Do you feel betrayed?

KAJESE: Yes. There are certain aspects of the situation in Zimbabwe that causes one to feel betrayed. In particular, the level of violence that's being meted out to citizens

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/kajese.html

[GCP]

36. Sorry, Seemslikeadream, you're trying to persuade someone

who's deaf to any criticism of Mugabe, even though he/she denied it yesterday.
There's nothing you could put up on the board that would change such a closed mind.
Forget him/her and move on, I did months ago.

[seemslikeadream]

37. Thank you so much

You have no idea. Last night was difficult but this morning it's been a little like fly fishing!

And maybe a few have read it all and asked, what's up with Zimbabwe?
Nothin' wrong with that.

[AP]

41. What's up with Zimbabwe? Read this:

http://www.swans.com/library/subjects/africa.html

[AP]

40. I can't believe how unsophisticated some people are here when it comes

to understanding the way the media covers African politics.

I do not care about Mugabe.

I care that the media is totally irresponsible in reporting on African politics and that it results in the level of sophistication we have here at DU.

It's really troubling.

Don't you see, the press loved Mugabe (and have loved every CIA-sponsored leader in Africa) when they stick to the neoliberal game plan. The minute any one steps out of line, they get assassinated and/or misrepresented in the press.

It seems like some people here are happy to ignore that this happens.

[AP]

42. deaf to criticism?

Sorry. I considered both sides, and came to my conclusions. My ears were and are open.