|
Zimbabwe at point of no return,
says US envoy
www.iol.co.za (March 26,2006)
Harare, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis
had "passed the point of no return" for recovery without
basic
internal reforms and substantial international help, the United
States
ambassador said in an interview published on Sunday.
Calls by President Robert Mugabe for
improved relations and
"bridge building" with foreign nations so far had made
no progress,
Christopher Dell was quoted as saying in the independent
Standard newspaper.
"It is our hope that in the face
of the massive crisis that it has
brought on itself, the government here will recognise that it needs
to do more than talk about bridge building," Dell was quoted
as saying.
Refer.
Nigeria pressed to detain Taylor
BBCworld Africa (March 26,2006)
 Photo:
Charles Taylor, former Liberian Leader facing 17 counts
of War Crimes.
Nigeria should detain Charles Taylor immediately to ensure
he does not flee before he is handed back to Liberia, a war
crimes prosecutor has said.
Desmond de Silva, chief prosecutor of
the UN-backed tribunal in
Sierra Leone, spoke after Nigeria agreed to hand the ex-leader
back at an unspecified date.
The tribunal has indicted him for war crimes in the conflict in
Sierra Leone.
A number of Mr Taylor's supporters have been detained in Liberia
amid fears they may stage an armed uprising.
Mr Taylor, Liberia's former president, went into exile in Nigeria
in 2003 in a deal ending Liberia's civil war.
A warrant was issued for his arrest three years ago on 17
charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the
civil war in Sierra Leone.
"The watching world will wish to see Taylor held in Nigerian
detention to avoid the possibility of him using his wealth and
associates to slip away, with grave consequences to the stability
of the region," Mr De Silva said on Sunday.
The 15,000 United Nations peacekeepers in Liberia are under
instructions to arrest and transfer him to the UN-backed Special
Court for Sierra Leone if he ever sets foot on Liberian soil.
N.B: To read more on this story, Click
Here.
Refer.
Go to the top
Looking at the World’s
worst ‘democracies’ –
a report by Freedom House
FreeAfrica (March 25, 2006)
The Worst of the Worst –
The World’s most repressive
societies 2005; a special report to the 61st United Nations Commission
on Human rights, Geneva 2005
Freedom House has prepared this overview
report in conjunction
with the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights in Geneva. We present our findings on countries
and territories that represent the worst environments for political
rights and civil liberties.
The reports are excerpted from the Freedom
House survey
Freedom in the World 2005, which surveys political rights
and
civil liberties in 192 countries and 14 major territories. The ratings
and accompanying essays are based on events from December 1,
2003 through November 30, 2004. The 18 countries and 3
territories profiled in this report are drawn from the total of
49 countries-a quarter of the world's total-and 9 territories that
are
considered to be Not Free and whose citizens endure systematic
and pervasive human rights violations.
Included in this report are eight countries
judged to have the
worst records: Burma, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Saudi
Arabia,
Sudan, Syria, and Turkmenistan.
Also included are two territories, Chechnya and Tibet, whose
inhabitants suffer intense repression. These states and regions
received the Freedom House survey's lowest rating: 7 for political
rights and 7 for civil liberties. Within these entities, state control
over daily life is pervasive and wide-ranging, independent
organizations and political opposition are banned or suppressed,
and fear of retribution for independent thought and action is part
of daily life. In the case of Chechnya, the rating in large measure
reflects the fallout of a vicious conflict that in the last 11 years
has
disrupted normal life and resulted in some 200,000
deaths.
The report also includes ten further
countries near the bottom
of Freedom House's list of the most repressive:
Belarus, China, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos,
Somalia,
Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
The territory of Western Sahara is also included in this group.
While these states scored slightly better than the "worst of
the
worst," they offer very limited scope for private discussion
while
severely suppressing opposition political activity, impeding
independent organizing, and censoring or punishing criticism
of the state.
N.B: For a full Report,
Click Here
to Download (Adobe file)
Go to the top
Govt to spy on phones, e-mails
Zwnews.com (March 19,2006)
The full bench of the Supreme
Court upheld contentions by the
Law Society of Zimbabwe that the presidential powers provided
for in the Act to intercept mail, telephone calls, e-mail and any
other form of communication were unconstitutional.
In yet another serious assault on civil
liberties, government has
drafted a Bill to pry into telephone and e-mail messages and to
compel service providers to install equipment to help the state
intercept private communications. The proposed law, the
Interception of Communications Bill, 2006, should be gazetted
today and is set to be fast-tracked through parliament. The Bill
reverses a Supreme Court ruling in 2004 which declared
unconstitutional Sections 98 and 103 of the Posts and
Telecommunications (PTC) Act because they violated Section 20
of the Constitution of Zimbabwe…Section 20 of the constitution
provides for freedom of expression, freedom to receive and impart
ideas and freedom from interference with one's correspondence.
However, the Bill restores the provisions
that were ruled
unconstitutional. It seeks to empower the chief of defence intelligence,
the director-general of the Central Intelligence Organisation,
the Commissioner of Police and the Commissioner General of the
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to intercept telephonic messages passed
through fixed lines, cellular phones and the Internet. The Bill
also
empowers state agencies to open mail passing through the post and
through licensed courier service providers.
Refer.
Go to the top
Looking back at History –
On this day
BBCworld, Africa (March 13, 2006)
 Photo:
Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, the late P.F Zapu leader.
1983: Nkomo flees Zimbabwe 'death threats
The embattled leader of Zimbabwe's opposition party, Joshua Nkomo,
has flown into London as his country appears to be teetering on
the brink of civil war.
Mr Nkomo, leader of the Zimbabwe African
People's Union (Zapu) party,
says he was forced to flee from Zimbabwe because his life was in
danger.
Troops from the Fifth Brigade have sealed off his power base in
the
Ndebele people's stronghold of Bulawayo.
Ethnic tensions between the Ndebele
and Shona tribes within Zimbabwe have been rising since President
Robert Mugabe accused Mr Nkomo of attempting to overthrow his government
last year.
Mr Nkomo told a news conference, held
at midnight in Bulawayo last
Sunday (a week ago), the soldiers had been sent to assassinate him.
He also claimed the North Korean-trained troops had killed his chauffeur
and ransacked his home.
He has previously denounced the Fifth
Brigade as a "political army"
because they are mostly made up of Shona tribesmen supporting
the ruling Zanu-PF party.
N.B: To Read more Please
Click
Here.
Refer.
Go to the top
A look at History – On
this day
BBCworld Africa (February 2, 2006)
 Photo:
Former President F. W. De Klerk
1990: De Klerk dismantles apartheid
in South Africa
The President of South Africa has lifted the 30-year ban on leading
anti-apartheid group the African National Congress.
In a televised speech at the opening
of Parliament in Cape Town,
President FW de Klerk announced restrictions would be lifted on
the ANC, the smaller Pan Africanist Congress and the South African
Communist Party, which is allied to the ANC.
He also made his first public commitment
to release jailed ANC
leader Nelson Mandela, but he did not specify a date.
N.B: To read more on
this story please Click
Here.
Refer.
Go to the top
A look at History – On
this day
BBCworld Africa (January 27, 2006)
 Photo:
Zimbabwe’s current imposed president, Robert G. Mugabe
1980: Exiled Mugabe returns
to Rhodesia
Rhodesia opposition leader Robert Mugabe has made a triumphant
return to his home country after five years in exile.
Cheering crowds greeted Mr Mugabe's
arrival in the capital, Salisbury,
from Mozambique where he has been gathering support for his
Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) or Zanu (PF) party.
The Rhodesian black nationalist leader,
who spearheaded a
guerrilla war against the Salisbury government, told a tumultuous
rally of supporters there would be no more injustice based on race
and colour.
An estimated 200,000 or more people were at the Zimbabwe grounds
in the Highfield black township of Salisbury to greet Mr Mugabe.
N.B: To read more on
this story, Please Click
Here.
Refer.
Go to the top
ZIMBABWE: ZANU PF fronted suspended
opposition leader Tsvangirai
for ZCTU post in 1988, insiders
andnetwork.com (Sunday, 15 January 2006)
As suspended MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai struggles to
convince the world that his opponents in the party are agents of
the
ruling ZANU PF, it has emerged that his 1985 election as caretaker
secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU)was engineered by ZANU PF and the then Prime Minister
Robert Mugabe.
According to former ZCTU sources, the
Tsvangirai executive came
after the then socialist ZANU PF, which had single-handedly created
the ZCTU by merging various industry-based labour unions, had
dissolved the previous executive when it failed to live up to its
expectations of a 'social partnership " with the workers .
The sources said the pre-1985 ZCTU executive,
which was led by
Alfred Makwarimba and the president Mugabe's brother Albert Mugabe
as Secretary-General, was dissolved after it failed to live up to
the
expectations of ZANU PF's "social partnership" with the
umbrella
labour movement.
An insider who was close to Makwarimba
at the time said Tsvangirai,
then a trusted member of ZANU PF, won the support of Mugabe when
he pledged to work with the government and more importantly,
to embrace the spirit of the 1987 Unity Accord which had been signed
the previous year.
"We have heard Tsvangirai saying
some of his opponents are paid
by ZANU PF. If anyone has to thank President Mugabe for a lavish
lifestyle, it is him and him alone. The Makwarimba excecutive was
fired because it failed to fulfil the master's mandate - which was
to win workers support for Mugabe.
N.B: For a full report
on the above, Click
Here
Refer.
Go to the top
Victory for Zimbabwe asylum
seekers
Newzimbabwe.com (October 14, 2005)
BRITISH Home secretary Charles Clarke's
policy on deportation to
Zimbabwe was severely criticised Friday in a court ruling which
found that a failed asylum seeker had a "well-founded fear
of
persecution" if he was sent home. The asylum and immigration
tribunal said the lack of interest of the home secretary in how
Zimbabwean authorities dealt with returned nationals was "rather
alarming".
The man, who cannot be named, would
be at risk of harm if he was
sent back to President Robert Mugabe's regime, the tribunal chairman,
Mark Ockelton, said. Although the failed asylum seeker had been
"fraudulent" and "deliberately dishonest" in
his dealings with British
authorities, the fact that he had spent time in the UK would put
him at
risk at home, the tribunal said. "The fact that the appellant
made
a false claim, so generating the risk which would otherwise not
have
existed, does not alter the fact that the real risk of serious harm
exists now," the ruling said. The tribunal criticised the home
secretary
for his department's research into conditions in Zimbabwe and for
the
lack of evidence uncovered by a fact-finding delegation sent by
the
government last month. Evidence from the home secretary appeared
to show that deportees were escorted on planes with UK officials
handing their papers over to the air crew. "At that point,
it appeared to
us that the respondent (the home secretary) ceased to have any
very clear interest in what happened. We find the respondent's lack
of interest in the process by which individuals that he returns
to
Zimbabwe are received by the Zimbabwean authorities rather alarming."
The British government delegation to investigate conditions in
Zimbabwe had been made up of civil servants involved with policy
matters, Mr Ockelton said. "The way in which the investigation
was
conducted, and the way in which the results were presented to us,
gives rise to the possibility - we say no more than that - that
the
investigators may have had existing policy in mind rather more than
the discovery of new facts. "Despite the facilities available
to the
investigation and the level at which it was conducted, it reveals
nothing of the actual process which returned asylum seekers go
through on their arrival at Harare airport." The decision will
force the
government to rethink its deportations policy to the southern
African country. Campaigners told the court earlier this month that
people returned from the UK are regarded as "spies" and
"traitors" by
Mr Mugabe's regime.
N.B: to read
more on the report, Click
Here.
Refer.
Go to the top Last
Page Next
Page |
