WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-03-15 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: The BeardedMan
Howzit
I know I type this often enough – but did we really expect anything else? Mugabe will pay lip service to all observers, and without indicating his ulterior motive, he and his administration work feverishly behind closed doors to tilt the playing field in the ruling party’s favour.
“ZBC, the national public broadcaster, now behaves as if it is ZANU PF’s own private radio television station in flagrant violation” of domestic laws and regional African norms on fair coverage of election campaigning, the group said.
Henry Muradzikwa, director general of the state broadcaster, said there was no bias against ruling party opponents but political advertisements had to be paid for in advance, an arrangement opponents failed to honor while the ruling party paid fees “up front.” He did not elaborate on news coverage.“
I disagree. If the opposition has not the money to pay for adverts, then that is as a direct result of the mismanagement in Zimbabwe by Mugabe’s government. When it comes to air time on the television – which ZANU PF sponsors very heavily – this should be shared on a fair basis. Obviously it is not.
As can be seen in the long, rambling article that I highlighted yesterday that was published in The Herald, the Harare daily newspaper is openly being used as part of the Mugabe and ZANU PF campaign.
And it doesn’t stop with just the radio, television and newspaper coverage…
“An independent group of lawyers, meanwhile, protested what it called voter intimidation by military chiefs. Zimbabwe defense forces commander Gen. Constantine Chiwenga and the head of the prisons service Maj. Gen. Paradzai Zimondi were reported to have vowed they would not recognize or salute anyone but Mugabe as head of state.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said in a statement it was also concerned by reports members of the armed forces were sent on vacation to their rural homes to campaign for Mugabe’s ruling party.
Chiwenga has described Makoni and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as a ‘sell outs’ who did not fight against colonial era forces ahead of independence in 1980.
Police commanders also have publicly pledged their allegiance to Mugabe, the nation’s longtime ruler, and warned police against voting for Mugabe’s opponents.“
This is what Mugabe wants. He wants the armed forces on high alert, with their votes already dictated – and then he has the media services swamping their sectors with pro-ZANU PF articles and programmes – and has instilled fear in ‘his’ population.
“Such statements created an environment of fear and intimidation ahead of the polls, the lawyers group said.
Under election law, ‘it is a criminal offense to intimidate people with the effect of compelling them or attempting to compel them to vote for a particular political party or candidate,’ it said.“
And yet, because he has the judiciary so tied up with his own supporters and people that sympathise with Mugabe, there will be little, if anything, that anyone can do to rectify the situation. Observers sympathetic to Mugabe’s cause will shrug their shoulders and move on…
Last Friday I commented on an article that suggested that the CIO chief was unlikely to have his tenure at the top of the secret police tree extended. Of course, much of what we read on the internet – or in any printed newspaper – is unsubstantiated, but with Mugabe, there is seldom smoke without fire.
“Zimbabwe's chief spy Happyton Bonyongwe has been linked to former finance minister Simba Makoni's bid to oust President Robert Mugabe, in the first signal that divisions in the ruling ZANU PF party may be filtering down to the security establishment.
Authoritative sources told ZimOnline yesterday that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was in the grip of a power struggle between Bonyongwe, its director-general, and his deputy, Maynard Muzariri, who is said to back Mugabe continuing in power. Makoni, who was expelled from ZANU PF for challenging Mugabe last month, has repeatedly said he is closely working with several top people in the ruling party and government who he has not named but who he says are equally eager to see the March 29 elections usher in a new leadership for the country.
While top ZANU PF officials and military commanders have in recent days publicly declared their backing for Mugabe, insiders say many among these clandestinely support Makoni.“
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It would be very difficult to actually prove what is going onto with Bonyongwe as it all is within the dark and secretive folds of the CIO cape, and they are not about to let us mere minions know the inside story. I do, however, feel concerned for Bonyongwe’s safety, as Mugabe would not hesitate to have him ‘disappeared’ if he believes that he might blow the gaffe on the inner workings of Mugabe’s secret police.“No comment could be obtained from the CIO, which does not disclose its affairs to the media as a matter of policy. A hostile Intelligence Minister Didymus Mutasa refused to take questions on the matter also because it involved the secret service.
“The CIO is not run through the media. Why do you think I can talk to you about the country’s intelligence matters,” Mutasa said curtly. Our sources said the rivalry between Bonyongwe and Muzariri had virtually paralysed intelligence gathering with the two CIO bosses spending time spying on each other than running the organisation. For example, they said last January CIO officials in Harare compiled a report and submitted it to Mutasa, linking Bonyongwe and retired army general Solomon Mujuru, among others, to Makoni's presidential ambitions.
Mujuru, husband of ZANU PF and state Vice-President Joice Mujuru, is one of the power brokers in the ruling party and has long been rumoured to support Makoni.“
Mutasa has refused to forward the report to the ZANU PF leader as his believes it is ‘biased’. In other words, it needs to be rewritten to implicate Bonyongwe in Makoni’s camp, thereby giving Mugabe the excuse he needs to rid himself of Bonyongwe.
Meanwhile Mugabe has had words with Bonyongwe and his tenure is likely to expire for good in April…
“Those who have multiple farms, those quarrelling over a farm, we will address that after the elections as well as giving out leases to regularize what we have given out. We will do some cleaning up,” Mugabe told a gathering of cheering supporters at a campaign rally in Inyathi yesterday. The ruling ZANU PF’s campaign rally was at Sobomvu Secondary School in Inyathi, Matabeleland North province of southern Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe holds harmonized presidential, senate, ward and house of assembly elections on March 29.“
My concern is that Mugabe promises to do ‘some‘ cleaning up. Why not clean it all up? Why not clean it up the the point that the new ownership of the farms is transparent and published?
“Mugabe’s statements follow last week reports where former white commercial farmers were said to be mulling to file a joint application later this month challenging the seizure of their farms by the ZANU PF led government at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal. The farmers are represented by the Justice for Agriculture (JAG), a grouping of former white commercial farmers. Top government ministers and ruling ZANU PF officials grabbed multiple farms at the height of the chaotic land reform programme in 2000 that saw white commercial farmers being forced off their land by landless blacks.“
And while you are about it, how about charging those people that are responsible for the death of farmers and their workers? Come on… if the people are truly Zimbabwean, then surely they are entitled to some sort of justice, some sort of closure. Or do the commercial farmers and their workers that perished at the hands of the ZANU PF thugs and others, not count?
“Agricultural production plummeted to low levels since then, resulting in the country battling yearly food crisis as the new farmers failed to produce adequate food for the nation due to either lack of farming expertise or farming inputs. International food monitoring agencies have said that thousands of Zimbabweans this year face food shortages following indications that the country will again fail to meet its targeted harvest estimates.“
I refuse to entertain Mugabe’s promise that ‘no one will starve’ – a day late and a dollar short. People have already died of starvation. Don’t make promises you cannot keep!
On Wednesday this week I commented on an article about the fact that less polling stations in MDC strongholds meant that voters would have to be processed at an incredible rate to allow all the registered voters to exercise their democratic right.
“Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Wednesday filed an urgent court application to compel the country's electoral body to increase the number of polling stations, a lawyer confirmed.
“We are, among other issues, seeking an increase in the number of polling stations and the stationing of opposition members in the National Command Centre,” a lawyer for the MDC at Harare law firm Coghlan & Welsh, said.
The MDC moved after an independent election monitoring group warned that thousands of voters in Zimbabwe‘s cities – strongholds of the opposition – may not have time to cast ballots in the March 29 elections because too few polling stations have been provided.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said it feared a repeat of the 2002 presidential elections when tens of thousands of voters were turned away across the country after polls closed.“
I do wonder what sort of hope an application like this has – in all reality. The judiciary we know is horribly bent in Mugabe’s favour. Very few High Court Justices would be prepared to rule in favour on the MDC.
People who read this page will probably be shaking their heads at my continued negativity when it comes to the Mugabe reign. But much of what I have written about has come to pass. The mediated talks – from the first day we heard about the SADC mandated talks, I foresaw that Mugabe would waste everybody’s time – and he did.
This point about the number of polling stations is nothing new. This is tried and tested. I think the only reason we know about it is that Mugabe has done things underhandedly, but in the open – because he can…
“A list of polling stations released by the Electoral Commission, whose members are appointed by President Robert Mugabe, showed “a significant discrepancy” that favoured the ruling party in its rural strongholds, the network said.
The ZESN group said Harare has 379 polling centres for about 760,000 registered voters, leaving an average number of 2,022 voting at each station over 12 hours. If there is maximum turnout, that gives each citizen an average of 22 seconds to vote.
In one city district, it came down to nine seconds if all 4,600 registered voters showed up.
In contrast, most rural polling stations would handle only about 600 voters each, the network said.“
Unfortunately, Mugabe has such a hold over the judiciary that I despair for the opposition party. I also feel for those people who, having taken the time to register, are going to be turned away without voting due to time constraints.
“The MDC wants at least 12 polling stations in each ward. In areas like Chitungwiza, some wards have just two polling stations. The party also wants to be informed and be present throughout the postal voting process by members of the armed forces, lawyers said.
Over four million Zimbabweans living outside the country are barred from voting in the elections. Postal voting is restricted only to serving members of the armed forces in foreign postings and embassy staff.“
This is just plain sad…
Malinga becomes the third parliamentary candidate and the second sitting MP from the faction to die in the space of three weeks. The Mutambara MDC first lost its candidate for Gwanda, Glory Makwatu a week after the nomination court, then a few days later their MP for Mpopoma, Milton Gwetu, died of a suspected heart failure.
Professor Welshman Ncube said they were in ‘total shock’ over Malinga's untimely death.
“This is very, very painful. It's a sad experience and I'm completely at a loss of words to describe this tragic moment. We are all numb with shock,” Ncube said.“
My sympathies to the MP’s friends and family.
“Several other people, including the MDC MP for Mkoba in Gweru, Amos Chibaya, where in the same vehicle with Malinga when it veered off the road and hit a tree just as they were approaching KweKwe. Chibaya is believed to have sustained serious head injuries. He was admitted to a hospital in KweKwe.“
Chihuri has come out in support of Mugabe ever since he became the Commissioner of Police. And it saddens me. Within the Police Act serving police officers are instructed to be apolitical. And yet Chihuri has not only made no pretence of his alliance, and has openly instructed his officers to support the ruling party.
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri told officers at Police General Headquarters in Harare he was sending “a warning” to “puppets”, echoing President Robert Mugabe’s label for his opponents.
“We will not allow any puppets to take charge,” said Chihuri in comments carried by the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
Chihuri is the third service chief to come out in support of 84- year old Mugabe, who is facing a stiff challenge to his 28-year old hold on power in national elections in just over two weeks.“
I can say that I am exceedingly happy that I no longer wear the uniform of the ZRP. I do not want to be a part of such a bigoted and rigged election, especially not as a police officer…
“The Zimbabwe police chief said Thursday most senior police officers had benefited from Zimbabwe‘s controversial land reform programme.
He claimed an opposition victory would reverse those gains. “Most of us in here are truly owners of the land. This is the sovereignty we should defend at all costs because for us to get at this point others had to lose their lives,” Chihuri said.
“At this point our gains should never be reversed,” he added, claiming he was not partisan.“
This is more out of protection of the ‘spoils of war’… The land, which was meant to change hands under a ‘willing buyer – willing seller’ basis was forcibly taken from the white commercial farmers, and Mugabe’s government then ensured that the farm were handed out to the senior members of his regime, as opposed to being handed to those that he publicly announced would receive the land – ‘the landless blacks’.
Mugabe has proved himself to be a liar – by his own actions – and is only intent on shoring up his faultering rule – and sadly the people put in control of the public services have abandonned those which they are meant to serve, and have chosen to chase riches and rewards.
Peace will not come to Zimbabwe. Not while Mugabe hangs on to power. The only way this man is going to go is for the overwhelming majority of voters to come out in support of one or the other Presidential rivals.
And for Mugabe to accept his fate and stand down – without fighting, without resistance and without rancour.
“Zimbabwe‘s presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29 are rigged in favour of the incumbent leader Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. Much ink has been spilled on the electoral prospects of his two opponents – Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, and former Finance Minister Simba Makoni. But neither have a realistic chance of winning, for Mr Mugabe knows that the most likely alternative to the State House in Harare is a prison cell at The Hague.
The case against Mr Mugabe and the ZANU PF for crimes against humanity would be compelling. They have turned one of Africa‘s most prosperous and relatively free nations into an Orwellian nightmare. Since 1994, the average life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen to 34 from 57 for women and to 37 from 54 for men. Some 3500 Zimbabweans die every week from the combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty and malnutrition. Inflation and unemployment are at 150000% (no misprint here) and 80%, respectively. The country has no freedom of speech or assembly, and the government has used violence to intimidate and murder its opponents. In the meantime, Zimbabwe‘s delusional leader rails against non-existent Western plots supposedly concocted by George W Bush and Tony Blair.“
That the people of Zimbabwe deserve better is accepted. That the people of Zimbabwe want better is also accepted. That the people of Zimbabwe are able to chose a leader that will hopefully turn the tide in Zimbabwe is a huge hope.
I have no reason to pour water onto the hopes, but Mugabe does not seem to be panicking. He does not appear to be a man in the final throes of his 28 year reign.
Even so, we continue to read about how Mugabe and his henchmen continue to try every trick in the book, every favour owed is called in, and every eventuality is pre-ordained.
“By right, Mr Mugabe and the ZANU PF should have been voted out of office long time ago. But one of Mr Mugabe’s first steps after gaining power was to root out all threats to his rule. In August 1980, newly elected Prime Minister Mugabe asked Kim Il Sung, the North Korean dictator, for help in setting up a special army unit devoted to quelling Zimbabwe‘s internal dissent. Paradoxically, the potential dissenters Mr Mugabe wanted destroyed were not the tiny minority of white Rhodesians, but his comrades in the fight for a majority rule – the Zimbabwe African People’s Union.
A self-declared Marxist with his sights set on the creation of a one-party state, Mr Mugabe knew that ZAPU and its charismatic leader Joshua Nkomo could become his only serious opposition in the long run. In 1983, therefore, Mr Mugabe sent his North Korean-trained death squad into Nkomo’s stronghold in the Matabeleland, where they killed some 20,000 civilians. This massacre eviscerated ZAPU’s strength and sent Nkomo into exile. In 1987, he agreed to merge his party with ZANU in exchange for the largely meaningless title of Zimbabwe‘s vice president.“
As many of you are aware, I penned “Without Honour” in late 2006. The book is the story of+Story(43)+Scan.JPG)
my service in the ZRP based at Esigodini, Plumtree and Gwanda during the time that the Fifth Brigade killed between 20 and 30 thousand people.
Within a few weeks, my book will cease to be a topical work, given that Mugabe is still in power, but with his possible (hopefully probable) dethroning, it will become a reference book, a historical naration of past events. I can only hope that those that the Gukurahundi damaged will see some closure when Mugabe moves on…
It is available as a Print on Demand book from Lulu at just (163)£9.99 plus postage.
Why not buy yourself a copy and find out exactly what happened in Matabeleland all those years ago..? Have a look at the readers’ comments if you aren’t sure…
“Mr Mugabe’s desperation is understandable. The moment he loses power, he could quickly find himself in the dock. The new government would, no doubt, come under tremendous pressure to ensure that Mr Mugabe stands trial for his crimes. An exile to a friendly country, like Angola or Malaysia, had been rumored, but is unlikely. Charles Taylor was lured out of the Liberian presidency in 2003 with a promise of a comfortable life in Nigeria. Three years later, he was flown to The Hague where he has been fighting for his freedom ever since.
The candidacies of Messrs Tsvangirai and Makoni might be hopeless, but they are not meaningless. A fraudulent election will further undermine Mr Mugabe’s legitimacy. It will energize the opposition’s local structures and allow it some representation in Zimbabwe‘s parliament.“
The next two weeks are a very important time in Zimbabwe, Many people’s lives hang in the balance, and even more people’s futures will be decided – and I am not just talking about the political candidates – I am talking about Zimbabweans worldwide…
“Considering that Mr. Mugabe cannot afford to give up power, he will try to hang on. He may then find himself in charge of a paper tiger and unable to stop a surge of public resentment against his rule. If that takes place, let us hope it will be fast and bloodless.“
No. These are the results that we see.
The cause is the megalomania of Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The man who has trashed the agricultural sector, stripped Zimbabweans of their dignity and consigned the entire nation to the poorhouse.
So the cause of all this unhappiness is the sitting President.
“Zimbabwe‘s economy has been in crisis for nearly 10 years, but as election day approaches, its collapse is gathering pace, and no one is sure where it is heading. Peta Thornycroft reports for VOA that economists, industrialists ans political analysts say the economy can only recover if there is new political leadership.
Zimbabwe used to be a breadbasket of Africa and was the second most industrialized nation on the continent. Now it depends on food aid and most of its industries have closed or are working only one or two days a week, a decline many analysts attribute to the failed leadership of President Robert Mugabe and his chaotic land reform program.
Mr Mugabe blames Western nations, particularly Britain and the United States, for his country’s economic woes.“
I actually get sick and tired or Mugabe’s cry that the country’s problems are orchestrated by Western powers. It reminds me of a spoiled child continually begging for something – and is prepared to continue the cry until they get their own way.
The man has ruined the country. His party is broke. His government is broke. The country is broke.
No problem – he just has the Reserve Bank print mountains of bearer cheques as he seeks to bankroll his own re-election. And he insists on doing it by buying the loyalties of his party faithful with salary increases, motor vehicles, farm equipment (having hand the majority of them former white-owned commercial farms that remain untilled) and mortgaging the country to foreign powers and personalities.
“They will have to do some amazingly difficult things, because most of ZANU PF policies over the last decade or more have been policies designed to avoid pain, avoid the difficulties they should have accepted front on,” he said. “A new leader would have to fix those very quickly and (that) would be very much more painful than a politician trying to win popular support.”
Robertson is alluding to the coming election in which two candidates are challenging Mr. Mugabe to become the new president of Zimbabwe.
Simba Makoni, who was finance minister during the start of the land reform program, announced his candidacy just last month. He had to quit his job, or was forced to, when he advised his then boss, Robert Mugabe, to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar in 2002.
The other candidate is Morgan Tsvangirai, who started out as a unionist and led the recovery of the trade union movement in Zimbabwe before he became the founding present of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2000.
Both men devote a lot of campaign time telling people how the economy needs to be reformed. Economist Robertson says if either man wins the election he will be faced with a daunting task to inject life back into the economy.
At present it takes about 30 million Zimbabwe dollars to buy $1 US on the black market, which is the only way to acquire foreign currency these days. Robertson says Zimbabwe will not recover without international assistance, in particular to stabilize the Zimbabwe dollar, which loses value every day.“
The man has to go to allow anyone to begin the rebuild.
“The women sat in the rural way; on the ground, with their legs stretched out straight in front of them, under an enormous old tree. The men sat in a group apart from them, all listening to Zimbabwe‘s newest opposition leader, Simba Makoni.
They had been ordered by the chief of the area not to attend, but they came anyway. They did not move when two policemen approached to watch the meeting, nor were they distracted by a campaign meeting, 200 metres away, of the ruling ZANU PF party, even with its large heap of food-for-votes grain bags ready for distribution to the faithful.
Mr Makoni, President Mugabe’s former Finance Minister, left the party a month ago to challenge him for the presidency in the March 29 elections. When he made a joke of Mr Mugabe’s totem, he got loud, derisive laughs. They clapped and cheered when he scorned the situation where a box of matches now costs Z$2 million.
Their shouts became angry ones when he told them that the members of Mr Mugabe’s politburo had sent their own children to schools in Australia and Malaysia “after they have destroyed our education system”. One woman cried out: “I want to vote now!“
This article serves to illustrate just how Mugabe works. Here we have a rally going on, and just a few hundred metres away there is a food collection point – but you would have to show your party card before any food comes your way – and you best not pitch up there directly from the Makoni rally…
“This could never have happened here, not even two months ago,” said a retired civil servant, who gave his name as Albert. “Anything can happen in this election now. We cannot continue suffering.”
The next two meetings I followed on Mr Makoni’s whistle-stop tour of the area proceeded without interruption. People cheered him, raised their clasped hands in his salute and, in full public view, put on free T-shirts bearing his sunny visage. “We don’t want Mugabe any more,” said a thin, young mother called Esnat. “We are hungry. We have nothing. We want change.“
The only persons in Zimbabwe that carry any body weight are ZANU PF goons. Everyone else is hungry, weak and tired.
It is great to read of people attending rallies for people and parties other than ZANU PF. But we all know that the people who attend these rallies do so under huge threat, and they are aware that they become targets by attending.
“At his meeting here, Mr Makoni told his audience that police had instructions to intimidate people into voting for Mr Mugabe. “Please, resist these pressures,” he appealed to the two officers present. They made no move to interfere with the meeting. “There is a wind of change,” said Eldred Masunungure, who directs a respected political opinion poll from Harare. “Similar reports are confirmed from all round the country. Something is unfolding.“
I found this article particularly interesting as we all know that Mugabe seldom, if ever, agrees to an interview – especially by a reporter of a Western paper. Heidi Holland wrote “Dinner With Mugabe” due for release this weekend. But agree he did – and I was struck by the vagueness of his responses. And the self-adulation that flowed from his mouth.
He is adamant that the country is in fine fettle and that the problems being encountered are caused by Western powers.
He is full of praise for himself and his government.
But when she arrived at Zimbabwe’s State House in Harare, the capital, that December morning, a massive banner outside the office of President Robert Mugabe made clear she would find little reflection – or contrition – inside.
“Mugabe is Right,” declared the wall-size banner, hung where only the president’s staff and handpicked visitors such as Holland could see it.
The interview that followed – a 2 1/2 -hour conversation with a man who rarely speaks to any writer outside Zimbabwe‘s tightly controlled government propaganda machine – was like the banner: odd, boastful, unrepentant. It offered rare insight into the thinking of Mugabe as he faces a difficult bid for reelection this month after almost three decades of unbroken power.
The interview included tender moments, such as when he discussed the deaths of relatives and his enduring “love” for Britain’s royal family. But Mugabe, 84, displayed little remorse for the actions many Zimbabweans regard as his signature misdeeds, including the slaughter of thousands of minority Ndebeles in the 1980s and, more recently, land invasions that destroyed Zimbabwe‘s agriculture industry.“
I find Mugabe’s feelings about the British royal family misplaced. He likes to be treated like royalty. Indeed, he has had the interior of Parliament refitted including a throne for himself – and one for his wife, the Amazing (Dis)Grace…
If he is so anti the West, why then do he insist upon all the trappings of the West?
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These are all part of a hangover from the Rhodesian days, and even before then. How can he hate the West as much as he says he does, and yet still lives with the Western influence.
What a hypocrite!
“When Holland suggested that the nation’s economy was ailing, Mugabe angrily insisted that – contrary to hyperinflation then racing toward 100,000 percent and all other evidence – it was “a hundred times better” than that of most African nations.
“Outside South Africa, what country is like Zimbabwe?” Mugabe said. “Even now, what is lacking now are goods on the shelves, perhaps. That’s all. But the infrastructure is there. We have our mines, you see. We have our enterprises.”
After that and several similar comments, Holland concluded that Mugabe was profoundly out of touch, surrounded by sycophantic aides unwilling to speak truthfully about Zimbabwe‘s deterioration.
“He’s not mad, but he lives in the world in a mad kind of way,” Holland said. “He’s constructed his world as this kind of bubble.“
Any chance I can have some of what he’s drinking/smoking?
“He described the land invasions of white-owned commercial farms in 2000 not as criminal acts but as political protests against Britain, the former colonial ruler of Zimbabwe. He said Britain had failed to pay its fair share to resdistribute land originally taken by its settlers. War veterans instigated the invasions, but Mugabe supported them even as many became violent.
“They criticized us for having allowed this form of occupation to become legal,” Mugabe said of the British. “In fact, we didn’t regard it as legal, but we didn’t disallow it because we were taking action against the British government, who had torn up what was a legal agreement… They had reneged on it, so why look at just our own act?“
Incorrect. The British government made available to Mugabe’s government in the early 1980’s money to be used for the purchase of land from the commercial farms. Mugabe used the money elsewhere – but, for some reason, has never been asked to give account of the money.
The land acquisition was agreed to be on a ‘willing buyer – willing seller’ basis. I see nothin ‘willing’ in Dave Steven’s murder – or the killing of Martin Olds – or his mother.
I see nothing like handing the farms to the ‘landless blacks’ as Mugabe is fond of repeating.
If anything, it is the Mugabime regime that reneged on to Lancaster House Agreement.
“Mugabe also accepted little responsibility for his army’s killing of Ndebele civilians – estimates run up to 30,000 – for supposedly fomenting rebellion against his rule.
“You had a party with a guerrilla force that wanted to reverse democracy in this country,” Mugabe said. “And action was taken. And, yes, there might have been excesses, on both sides… But we’d have to start with the excesses of Ian Smith – and the colonialists, the British, who were still in charge, because lots of people disappeared, lots of people died.” Smith was Rhodesia‘s longtime prime minister.“
He excuses the Fifth Brigade because of the Rhodesia bush war. The man is deluded! That is like blaming the Vietnam War on the Boer War. The ‘excesses’ of Ian Smith’s rule in no way contribute to the atrocities of the Gukurahundi…
I could probably carry on writing all day, but I have to consider my own time – and I still have things to do today that cannot wait.
So – finally, I thought that this article would leave a lasting impression upon the reader, given that it is a prime example of the uncaring nature of the Mugabe government.
“This is an unpleasant and disturbing story. If you have a sensitive nature you might be well advised to skip it. It concerns the unidentified corpses of 20 murder victims which have lain, unknown and unclaimed, on the slabs of a Zimbabwe mortuary for six years.
The slain are believed to have met their fate at the hands of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) during the 2002 election. Today frantic efforts are being made to get them buried before they become a scandalous issue in the current election.
I have spent some days investigating this story, and these are the facts as I have been told them:
The victims were all supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zimbabwe‘s official opposition, and were from the Lupane district. After the murders, and to cover their tracks, the CIO had the bodies transferred to neighbouring Nyaki, where they were dumped in the local morgue.
And there they remained. In Zimbabwe any burial requires an order from the police, who cannot issue the order before investigating the death. But the Nyaki police were reluctant to begin inquiries, partly because of the scale of the task, and partly because they feared they would put themselves in danger.“
Now I know that there is the saying about people hiding the truth by having ‘skeletons in the closet’ – well, Mugabe has gone one better, and has got bodies in the morgue – six years later!
“The bodies might have stayed in the mortuary for ever, if it wasn’t for the national fuel shortage. This has led, as we all know, to widespread and lengthy power cuts. Refrigeration has failed. And those 20 bodies are now in an advanced state of decomposition. The morgue is part of the hospital complex, and near Nkayi business centre. Enough said.
For this and other reasons, Nkayi Rural District Council, who are responsible for the morgue, have finally lost patience. They have written to the appropriate ministries demanding explanations and action.
And as a result, the Provincial Medical Director for Matabeleland North, Dr. Irene Ndiweni, has been spending days at Nkayi lately, cobbling together the necessary paperwork to get the bodies buried, and thereby forgotten.<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic
Source: http://thebeardedman.blogspot.com/2008/03/saturday-15th-march-2008.html