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: 2001-11-07 Time: 14:31:31 Posted By: Jan
ZIMBABWE’S government plans to ban foreign and independent local monitors
from observing upcoming presidential elections, the state-run Herald
newspaper said on Wednesday.
On the recommendation of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, government plans
to amend Zimbabwe’s Electoral Act to allow only civil servants to monitor the
polls, the paper said.
Last year, non-government organisations trained 24 000 monitors to observe
parliamentary elections which were marred by widespread violence and
intimidation during the campaign period.
At least 34 people were killed before the polls.
Chinamasa said in his recommendation that monitors trained by NGOs were not
impartial because they received funding from overseas.
“The situation has been discovered to be undesirable, considering the fact
that most non-governmental organisations are partial, foreign-funded, loyal
to their funders, and therefore produce monitors who were partisan,”
Chinamasa said.
Chinamasa plans to propose the new measure when parliament resumes sitting on
November 20.
The government has already refused to allow observers from the European Union
and the United States to observe the polls.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and civic groups have
insisted that international observers be allowed to monitor the elections,
which they fear will suffer from the same political violence that marred the
general elections.
The MDC does not hold enough seats in parliament to block the amendment to
the Electoral Act.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to pose the most serious challenge
ever to President Robert Mugabe in the elections, expected by April 2002. In
other developments, Zimbabwe’s former chief justice, who was forced by Harare
to retire in March, has attacked President Robert Mugabe for undermining
human rights and the rule of law and condemned his disrespect for the
judiciary, London newspapers reported this week.
In the annual John Foster Human Rights Trust lecture delivered in London late
on Monday, Anthony Gubbay said Mugabe had shown a “blatant and contemptuous
disrespect” for the judiciary over his treatment, according to The Times.
Gubbay was forced by Harare to retire in March after he opposed verdicts
favouring forcible seizures of white-owned land for redistribution to
marginalized blacks.
His speech on Monday marked the first time he had spoken in public since he
was forced to step down, The Times and Daily Telegraphreported.
“Judges should not be made to feel apprehensive of their personal safety.
They should not be subjected to government intimidation in the hope that they
would become more compliant and rule in favour of the executive,” he said.
Gubbay added that such “unjustifiable and unreasonable attacks (on the
judiciary) … damaged it as an institution”.
He said he was saddened not to be allowed to serve until April 2002, when he
had been due to retire, the papers reported.
The Telegraph quoted Gubbay as saying Mugabe had set out to undermine human
rights and the rule of law in Zimbabwe ever since he came to power more than
20 years ago.
“With hindsight I do not believe this can be dismissed as the teething
troubles of a new government flexing its muscles after an inordinate period
of white minority rule.”
The Times said some 300 of Britain’s most senior judges, including the Chief
Justice, gathered to hear Gubbay. – AFP