Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 01:28:24 -0700
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis#71 -- How are all my Zim contacts? Where do we go from here?
Cc: "NG organisations":;, "African press":;
Hi there,
I had originally planned to send this message only to my contacts in Zimbabwe, including the numerous people who have been in contact with me in the weeks leading up to the election. (I did get some reports over the weekend [which I sent out and for which I thank you], but nothing in the last three days.) After writing this, however, I decided to send it to the entire list so that I might get a broader response to my second question below.
My main concern is that I want to make sure you are actually alright, so if you could answer this and let me know that is the case, I would very much appreciate it.
Secondly; all of the media reports I have been monitoring suggest that the world is pretty happy with the outcome of the elections, even if there was a "little bit of violence" (to paraphrase the way it now seems to have been swept under the carpet) leading up to them, and that they cannot be categorically classed as "free and fair". Although there was much talk that anything but an MDC sweep would be evidence of vote tampering, I have heard nothing on that subject except the fact that the MDC plan to legally challenge results in about twenty constituencies. Has the MDC publicly concluded that the actual voting was, with some supposedly minor exceptions, actually "free and fair", even if the campaign wasn't?
(By the way, here's a question; although I presume the poll monitors were able to [after much to-do about it] monitor the ballot boxes at all times until the votes were counted, were the ballot boxes monitored as they were made and delivered to the polling stations? Am I out of line in wondering if some of the ballot boxes were stuffed *before* they even got to the polling stations? Maybe I'm just a paranoid kook, but the government kept most of the poll monitors wondering right up until Friday if they were even going to be able to do their job. Presumably the ballot boxes were not all made early on Saturday morning! Then again, maybe all of the ballot boxes were inspected by the monitors before polling began on Saturday.)
So my question to you, as the people who actually have to live with the outcome as opposed to all of the politicians in la-la land who sleep comfortably at night, is this; "Is my job done?" A lot of people, both inside and outside the country, have spent a lot of time mobilising all of their energy and time for the causes of defeating ZANU-PF and Mugabe at the polls, and to lobbying politicians around the world. Do those people now stand down and let the people (and a supposedly reasonably representative parliament) move forward, or is there more we can do?
I can't help feeling a little helpless right now, quite frankly, wondering which way Mugabe is going to lash out next. It's like being in a twilight zone. I also don't believe a word of Mugabe's supposed "conciliatory" remarks after the election. He's a liar and a thief who has shown his true colours and intents through his actions.
A final note. The Web site run by Karen in Australia is an excellent source for a collection of articles on Zimbabwe, and continues to be to this day. Please visit it if you think that articles culled and condensed from Web sites worldwide related to Zimbabwe would be of interest to or time-saving for you. The address is http://www.1freespace.com/beetee .
Hope to hear from some of you soon. Thanks for listening.
Craig
Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List
http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
This is currently a manually administered mailing list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to DELETED. Personal requests for removal will be carried out immediately. Requests from governmental, political or press organisations (or their representatives) will be treated less favourably. The purpose of this list is not necessarily to redistribute published news reports. Rather, it is intended to distribute reports from or directly affecting people in Zimbabwe. If you have seen something before, I apologise. Hopefully that will not be a regular occurrence.
Brief list of helpful sites on the issue:
- Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List Archives -- http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
- Comprehensive news updates -- http://www.1freespace.com/beetee
- Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans -- http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
- Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
- BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis#71 -- How are all my Zim contacts? Where do we go from here?
Cc: "NG organisations":;, "African press":;
Hi there,
I had originally planned to send this message only to my contacts in Zimbabwe, including the numerous people who have been in contact with me in the weeks leading up to the election. (I did get some reports over the weekend [which I sent out and for which I thank you], but nothing in the last three days.) After writing this, however, I decided to send it to the entire list so that I might get a broader response to my second question below.
My main concern is that I want to make sure you are actually alright, so if you could answer this and let me know that is the case, I would very much appreciate it.
Secondly; all of the media reports I have been monitoring suggest that the world is pretty happy with the outcome of the elections, even if there was a "little bit of violence" (to paraphrase the way it now seems to have been swept under the carpet) leading up to them, and that they cannot be categorically classed as "free and fair". Although there was much talk that anything but an MDC sweep would be evidence of vote tampering, I have heard nothing on that subject except the fact that the MDC plan to legally challenge results in about twenty constituencies. Has the MDC publicly concluded that the actual voting was, with some supposedly minor exceptions, actually "free and fair", even if the campaign wasn't?
(By the way, here's a question; although I presume the poll monitors were able to [after much to-do about it] monitor the ballot boxes at all times until the votes were counted, were the ballot boxes monitored as they were made and delivered to the polling stations? Am I out of line in wondering if some of the ballot boxes were stuffed *before* they even got to the polling stations? Maybe I'm just a paranoid kook, but the government kept most of the poll monitors wondering right up until Friday if they were even going to be able to do their job. Presumably the ballot boxes were not all made early on Saturday morning! Then again, maybe all of the ballot boxes were inspected by the monitors before polling began on Saturday.)
So my question to you, as the people who actually have to live with the outcome as opposed to all of the politicians in la-la land who sleep comfortably at night, is this; "Is my job done?" A lot of people, both inside and outside the country, have spent a lot of time mobilising all of their energy and time for the causes of defeating ZANU-PF and Mugabe at the polls, and to lobbying politicians around the world. Do those people now stand down and let the people (and a supposedly reasonably representative parliament) move forward, or is there more we can do?
I can't help feeling a little helpless right now, quite frankly, wondering which way Mugabe is going to lash out next. It's like being in a twilight zone. I also don't believe a word of Mugabe's supposed "conciliatory" remarks after the election. He's a liar and a thief who has shown his true colours and intents through his actions.
A final note. The Web site run by Karen in Australia is an excellent source for a collection of articles on Zimbabwe, and continues to be to this day. Please visit it if you think that articles culled and condensed from Web sites worldwide related to Zimbabwe would be of interest to or time-saving for you. The address is http://www.1freespace.com/beetee .
Hope to hear from some of you soon. Thanks for listening.
Craig
Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List
http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
This is currently a manually administered mailing list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to DELETED. Personal requests for removal will be carried out immediately. Requests from governmental, political or press organisations (or their representatives) will be treated less favourably. The purpose of this list is not necessarily to redistribute published news reports. Rather, it is intended to distribute reports from or directly affecting people in Zimbabwe. If you have seen something before, I apologise. Hopefully that will not be a regular occurrence.
Brief list of helpful sites on the issue:
- Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List Archives -- http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
- Comprehensive news updates -- http://www.1freespace.com/beetee
- Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans -- http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
- Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
- BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
