Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2000 15:24:56 -0700
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis#73 -- Collection of your Responses
Cc: "Australian government":;, "British government":;,
"Canadian government":
;, "South African government":;,
"US government":;, Commonwealth:;, "NG organisations":;,
"African press":;, "Foreign press":;
Hi everyone,
A collection of most of the responses and reports I have received over the past week.
Craig
RESPONSE ONE:
For 20 years and even longer the people of Zimbabwe have had Mugabe thrown at them from every direction. A new party, not even a year old, gains almost half the seats in parliament, and people are disheartened?! The fact they won so many seats, especially with the threats and intimidation, is incredible. Zimbabwe finally is a real 2 party state, required for there to be any hope of salvation from Mugabe and co.
The fight for democracy has just begun, the elections were the first peephole into a new Zimbabwe, and there is no room for pessimism or disheartedness. If people start to give up instead of diving even further in, the fight for government accountability and rule of law will be lost.
RESPONSE TWO:
Where does one go from here? Not give up for a moment I believe, no the MDC must NEVER do that. They fought hard, yes they are a very very young party in the sense of speaking, but give up, no not now.
I fear the thought that Mugabe may well send the 5th Brigade back into Matabeleland to teach them a lesson. God help him, I think the backlash will be unthinkable this time. I hope it does not lead to that.
Again I say the MDC must fight, they must not ever give up hope. A person (Mugabe) can only last for so long.
RESPONSE THREE:
In response to your request for feedback. Most of the people around here are very positive knowing that we now have a really strong opposition. The general feeling is that when the next elections are held there will be even more of a swing toward the opposition. All those poor people who were so severely intimidated in the deep rural areas will have seen that the process can work and will perhaps be less afraid to vote the way want to. We were just sorry that the independents didn't throw in with MDC. If they had MDC would have romped in.
There has been a bit of violence in one of our high density areas, but this time the boot was on the other foot. ZANU PF louts started attacking some people in Amaveni. Within minutes apparently the crowd had set upon them - the youth - and everyone of them is now reclining in hospital. The army were called out to intervene, and took the general public's side, which must have been a bit of a shock to the ZANU PF boys. According to my gardener who related the story to me, everyone is feeling much stronger and will not permit violence or intimidation anymore. Good news???
We are all waiting a little trepiditiously to see what the immediate future holds for us. The fact that the dollar will have to be devalued and the fuel shortage is worsening are major factors for concern. Hopefully the international will not forget about us and have enough sense to have seen from the vote that the intelligentsia of the Zimbabwe nation voted for MDC and change. A massive vote of no confidence for Mugabe.
RESPONSE FOUR:
Briefly to answer your questions:-
How are we? On the farms - still anxious, and watching developments. We're still on "red- alert" for any backlash, which still seems possible. Wedza, Marondera South / Ruzawi River are very tense. Demands, threats, pegging, massive theft of maize, stock theft, poaching, eviction threats - all continue, with very limited interest from the police, who don't seem yet to know what they are expected to do! I suspect that they have had no direction from H.Q. since last weekend - after all they haven't got a Minister, effectively, now that Dabengwa's lost his seat.
Other areas - Shamva, Mvurwi, Centenary... are similar. The culture of lawlessness is deeply ingrained now, and will be difficult to fix.
But we wait with some excitement to see how the dust settles. There is more going on in the "Palace" than we can imagine, and the next week is critical. Cabinet appointments - very interesting. And the challenges in various constituencies - Mash East, Chikomba, Bindura... we will see.
Is your role over? No. Please continue. It is far from over - perhaps the most interesting period is still to come. I have meant for some time to thank you for all the information - and I don't know how we got on your mailing list. Thank you very much from all of our extended family and friends.
RESPONSE FIVE:
I was a little worried when I did not hear from you after the elections. I had the same old feeling when the Gulf War ended! Kind of abstinence syndrome!
I have resolved to post back into Zimbabwe, to my contacts there, articles taken from the overseas press which reveal what Mugabe and his party did and is doing. I hope that by disseminating this news, most of it more objective than may be available there, it will serve to hasten the eventual Zanu-PF departure. I hope it will give courage to those who didn't support the MDC because of intimidation.
The point of this e-mail is to say that your newsletters would be good to send back, by post, to those who don't have e-mail or access to it there. It is a small action but may help.
Your assessment of the overseas media seems accurate. I think people are hoping that MDC can consolidate their position.
I still think the e-mail campaign you set up was first class. If you have the time, to prepare the newsletters, I'll be happy to receive them and pass them on.
Very best wishes from us here in Spain.
RESPONSE SIX:
We are in Western Australia and would like to congratulate all at the MDC Party in all the offices (especially in the Bulawayo area as I have friends there) on their performance in the elections. We of course were hoping that you would win more seats, but for such a young party you have done so well - it is unbelievable in such a short time that you could do so much!!!!!
We do believe (and everyone that we speak to knows) that due to the intimidation, the rigging of the election boundaries and the elections boxes that the election was not free and fair. But what do the rest of the world do, when ZANU PF were so very clever to scale down the whole campaign of violence to nothing during the election and so make the rest of the world think that the election was all so well run and everything went off so smoothly. We have had plenty of interest in WA as the situation has been on our news every day since January!!!
I do think that you must consider using the Internet more as your way of communicating with the ex-Zimbos network to keep them in the know, so that they can elicit assistance from their governments and also use human rights groups to bring awareness of the situation, should violence flare up again. The world has had their eyes opened with regard to the way politics is conducted in Zimbabwe and other African countries and there is still a huge concern as to what will happen next in Zimbabwe.
We will all be assisting you to get Morgan into the presidential candidacy during the next two years. Please let us know what we can do.
RESPONSE SEVEN:
Sorry about not contacting you for a while! What a relief for us townies to have the elections over and done with... pity the farmers can't say the same thing. Three new invasions reported and only yesterday heard of one of our clients (who is away in Mozambique) had his white caretaker beaten unconscious. The local security liaison person reacted and when he arrived he too was beaten unconscious! This was in the Concession / Mazowe area just North of Harare. Surprise, surprise, 'No arrests!'
All my clients still have invaders on their farms. There is still intimidation going on and I believe it is going to get far worse! We must all remember Mugabe's reaction after his defeat in the referendum only this time multiply the savagery that will now take place!
Can you believe 'Hitler' Hunzvi is now a member of Parliament?! So too 'Border' Gezi! To round off the terrible trio we now also have Phillip Chiangwa. These three are devout racists and have half the ethics of a 'good' gangster. All their 'results' are highly suspect and it is notable that the level of intimidation prior to the elections in their areas was significantly higher than in other areas.
I believe no election supervisors, monitors or any independent persons were allowed to accompany ballot boxes being transported to the various counting centres. These were mostly moved under cover of darkness and little imagination is required to think what 'may' have happened between the voting station and the counting station!
There is a report of one ballot box being left 'by mistake' on the dock at Andora Harbour in Kariba.
I am afraid the rest of the world does not care about Zimbabwe and are rather too quick to accept the 'free and fair' ticket for the sake of expediency. The fact that even one person died should be enough for any civilised person to record that it was in fact not free and fair. Sure it was quite calm on the two days of voting but what about the four to six weeks of sheer terror experience by farm workers and peasants subjected to pungwes every single night? Rape was used as a weapon just as much as sticks and sjamboks so don't let any little European / African or any other foreign arse-licking neo liberal wimp try and tell the world otherwise.
I and a lot of other 'Zimbabweans' are heartily sick and tired of the West's and indeed the rest of the world's lack of intestinal fortitude when it comes to dealing with tin pot dictators like Mugabe. So too South Africa's stance. Although political expediency is obvious with Mbeki's response (he too will have to placate the 'comrades') I would have thought that he had more balls than what he has displayed so far... I wonder if he too has been offered a diamond mine in the D.R.C.?
Yes indeed, where too? Far too early to tell until Mugabe's real response is known. If his past is anything to go by then I think this will just be a minor irritation to his designs on destroying this beautiful country of ours. His legacy, like so many of Africa's past dictators will be one of destruction, pillage, rape and theft on a scale not witnessed since the Vikings!
I'm getting too emotional so will end now. Will keep in touch.
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. Any reports from respondents that are relayed to the mailing list will be done so anonymously.
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#73 -- Collection of your Responses
Cc: "Australian government":;, "British government":;,
"Canadian government":
;, "South African government":;,
"US government":;, Commonwealth:;, "NG organisations":;,
"African press":;, "Foreign press":;
Hi everyone,
A collection of most of the responses and reports I have received over the past week.
Craig
RESPONSE ONE:
For 20 years and even longer the people of Zimbabwe have had Mugabe thrown at them from every direction. A new party, not even a year old, gains almost half the seats in parliament, and people are disheartened?! The fact they won so many seats, especially with the threats and intimidation, is incredible. Zimbabwe finally is a real 2 party state, required for there to be any hope of salvation from Mugabe and co.
The fight for democracy has just begun, the elections were the first peephole into a new Zimbabwe, and there is no room for pessimism or disheartedness. If people start to give up instead of diving even further in, the fight for government accountability and rule of law will be lost.
RESPONSE TWO:
Where does one go from here? Not give up for a moment I believe, no the MDC must NEVER do that. They fought hard, yes they are a very very young party in the sense of speaking, but give up, no not now.
I fear the thought that Mugabe may well send the 5th Brigade back into Matabeleland to teach them a lesson. God help him, I think the backlash will be unthinkable this time. I hope it does not lead to that.
Again I say the MDC must fight, they must not ever give up hope. A person (Mugabe) can only last for so long.
RESPONSE THREE:
In response to your request for feedback. Most of the people around here are very positive knowing that we now have a really strong opposition. The general feeling is that when the next elections are held there will be even more of a swing toward the opposition. All those poor people who were so severely intimidated in the deep rural areas will have seen that the process can work and will perhaps be less afraid to vote the way want to. We were just sorry that the independents didn't throw in with MDC. If they had MDC would have romped in.
There has been a bit of violence in one of our high density areas, but this time the boot was on the other foot. ZANU PF louts started attacking some people in Amaveni. Within minutes apparently the crowd had set upon them - the youth - and everyone of them is now reclining in hospital. The army were called out to intervene, and took the general public's side, which must have been a bit of a shock to the ZANU PF boys. According to my gardener who related the story to me, everyone is feeling much stronger and will not permit violence or intimidation anymore. Good news???
We are all waiting a little trepiditiously to see what the immediate future holds for us. The fact that the dollar will have to be devalued and the fuel shortage is worsening are major factors for concern. Hopefully the international will not forget about us and have enough sense to have seen from the vote that the intelligentsia of the Zimbabwe nation voted for MDC and change. A massive vote of no confidence for Mugabe.
RESPONSE FOUR:
Briefly to answer your questions:-
How are we? On the farms - still anxious, and watching developments. We're still on "red- alert" for any backlash, which still seems possible. Wedza, Marondera South / Ruzawi River are very tense. Demands, threats, pegging, massive theft of maize, stock theft, poaching, eviction threats - all continue, with very limited interest from the police, who don't seem yet to know what they are expected to do! I suspect that they have had no direction from H.Q. since last weekend - after all they haven't got a Minister, effectively, now that Dabengwa's lost his seat.
Other areas - Shamva, Mvurwi, Centenary... are similar. The culture of lawlessness is deeply ingrained now, and will be difficult to fix.
But we wait with some excitement to see how the dust settles. There is more going on in the "Palace" than we can imagine, and the next week is critical. Cabinet appointments - very interesting. And the challenges in various constituencies - Mash East, Chikomba, Bindura... we will see.
Is your role over? No. Please continue. It is far from over - perhaps the most interesting period is still to come. I have meant for some time to thank you for all the information - and I don't know how we got on your mailing list. Thank you very much from all of our extended family and friends.
RESPONSE FIVE:
I was a little worried when I did not hear from you after the elections. I had the same old feeling when the Gulf War ended! Kind of abstinence syndrome!
I have resolved to post back into Zimbabwe, to my contacts there, articles taken from the overseas press which reveal what Mugabe and his party did and is doing. I hope that by disseminating this news, most of it more objective than may be available there, it will serve to hasten the eventual Zanu-PF departure. I hope it will give courage to those who didn't support the MDC because of intimidation.
The point of this e-mail is to say that your newsletters would be good to send back, by post, to those who don't have e-mail or access to it there. It is a small action but may help.
Your assessment of the overseas media seems accurate. I think people are hoping that MDC can consolidate their position.
I still think the e-mail campaign you set up was first class. If you have the time, to prepare the newsletters, I'll be happy to receive them and pass them on.
Very best wishes from us here in Spain.
RESPONSE SIX:
We are in Western Australia and would like to congratulate all at the MDC Party in all the offices (especially in the Bulawayo area as I have friends there) on their performance in the elections. We of course were hoping that you would win more seats, but for such a young party you have done so well - it is unbelievable in such a short time that you could do so much!!!!!
We do believe (and everyone that we speak to knows) that due to the intimidation, the rigging of the election boundaries and the elections boxes that the election was not free and fair. But what do the rest of the world do, when ZANU PF were so very clever to scale down the whole campaign of violence to nothing during the election and so make the rest of the world think that the election was all so well run and everything went off so smoothly. We have had plenty of interest in WA as the situation has been on our news every day since January!!!
I do think that you must consider using the Internet more as your way of communicating with the ex-Zimbos network to keep them in the know, so that they can elicit assistance from their governments and also use human rights groups to bring awareness of the situation, should violence flare up again. The world has had their eyes opened with regard to the way politics is conducted in Zimbabwe and other African countries and there is still a huge concern as to what will happen next in Zimbabwe.
We will all be assisting you to get Morgan into the presidential candidacy during the next two years. Please let us know what we can do.
RESPONSE SEVEN:
Sorry about not contacting you for a while! What a relief for us townies to have the elections over and done with... pity the farmers can't say the same thing. Three new invasions reported and only yesterday heard of one of our clients (who is away in Mozambique) had his white caretaker beaten unconscious. The local security liaison person reacted and when he arrived he too was beaten unconscious! This was in the Concession / Mazowe area just North of Harare. Surprise, surprise, 'No arrests!'
All my clients still have invaders on their farms. There is still intimidation going on and I believe it is going to get far worse! We must all remember Mugabe's reaction after his defeat in the referendum only this time multiply the savagery that will now take place!
Can you believe 'Hitler' Hunzvi is now a member of Parliament?! So too 'Border' Gezi! To round off the terrible trio we now also have Phillip Chiangwa. These three are devout racists and have half the ethics of a 'good' gangster. All their 'results' are highly suspect and it is notable that the level of intimidation prior to the elections in their areas was significantly higher than in other areas.
I believe no election supervisors, monitors or any independent persons were allowed to accompany ballot boxes being transported to the various counting centres. These were mostly moved under cover of darkness and little imagination is required to think what 'may' have happened between the voting station and the counting station!
There is a report of one ballot box being left 'by mistake' on the dock at Andora Harbour in Kariba.
I am afraid the rest of the world does not care about Zimbabwe and are rather too quick to accept the 'free and fair' ticket for the sake of expediency. The fact that even one person died should be enough for any civilised person to record that it was in fact not free and fair. Sure it was quite calm on the two days of voting but what about the four to six weeks of sheer terror experience by farm workers and peasants subjected to pungwes every single night? Rape was used as a weapon just as much as sticks and sjamboks so don't let any little European / African or any other foreign arse-licking neo liberal wimp try and tell the world otherwise.
I and a lot of other 'Zimbabweans' are heartily sick and tired of the West's and indeed the rest of the world's lack of intestinal fortitude when it comes to dealing with tin pot dictators like Mugabe. So too South Africa's stance. Although political expediency is obvious with Mbeki's response (he too will have to placate the 'comrades') I would have thought that he had more balls than what he has displayed so far... I wonder if he too has been offered a diamond mine in the D.R.C.?
Yes indeed, where too? Far too early to tell until Mugabe's real response is known. If his past is anything to go by then I think this will just be a minor irritation to his designs on destroying this beautiful country of ours. His legacy, like so many of Africa's past dictators will be one of destruction, pillage, rape and theft on a scale not witnessed since the Vikings!
I'm getting too emotional so will end now. Will keep in touch.
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. Any reports from respondents that are relayed to the mailing list will be done so anonymously.
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
