Rajoelina, a 34-year-old former disc jockey who is now the youngest and newest president in Africa

TO BE NOTED: From Reuters:

"Army-backed leader cements grip in Madagascar

Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:33pm GMT

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By Richard Lough

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's new president, Andry Rajoelina, celebrated and consolidated power on Wednesday after being appointed by the Indian Ocean island's military in a move drawing international disapproval.

Rajoelina, a 34-year-old former disc jockey who is now the youngest and newest president in Africa, partied with supporters in the street after meeting his ministers to plan strategy.

His priorities are anti-poverty programmes expected by locals, handling international concern at his ascent to power and controlling some dissent in the armed forces.

"We will bring about the return to a normal life, to security and above all national reconciliation, which is at the heart of democracy," he told several thousand supporters celebrating in the capital Antananarivo's May 13 square.

In a boost to Rajoelina's legitimacy, Madagascar's Constitutional Court issued a statement endorsing the takeover.

He is to be formally sworn in on Saturday.

President Marc Ravalomanana, 59, resigned on Tuesday after most of the military backed his rival, who had led weeks of anti-government strikes and protests.

The unrest killed at least 135 people, devastated the $390 million-a-year tourism sector and worried multinationals with investments in the mining and oil industries.

The outcome was also a slap in the face for the African Union (AU), which has censured recent violent transfers of power that have damaged the continent's reputation with investors.

Nervous of more turmoil, the U.S. embassy ordered non-essential staff and their families to leave Madagascar.

Experts said Western donors' disquiet at the manner of Rajoelina's rise would probably be short-term.

"With so many people below the poverty line I can't see the international community abandoning Madagascar in the long run, and (Rajoelina) knows this," Lydie Boka, of Paris-based risk group StrategiCo, told Reuters.

While the military was crucial in installing the opposition leader, analysts say he also has the backing of exiled former president Didier Ratsiraka and his allies. Some analysts said former colonial ruler France gave him tacit support too.

Ravalomanana's whereabouts were unclear. The opposition had accused him of corruption and of losing touch with the majority of the population who live on less than $2 a day.

There was a heavy military presence at the palace where Ravalomanana capitulated. A Reuters TV witness saw broken windows and furniture, as well as a crowbar lodged in the door of a safe. It was not clear whether departing presidential guards, the army or the public had ransacked the building.

FRENCH CONCERN

According to Malagasy law, the head of parliament's upper house should have taken over after the president's resignation and organised an election within two months on the island of 20 million off Africa's southeastern coast.

Instead, Rajoelina -- who is six years too young to be president under the constitution -- now heads a transitional government which has pledged to hold a poll within two years.

Pierrot Rajaonarivelo, a former deputy premier and close ally of the exiled Ratsiraka, said that was much too long.

"Why and for what reason is he taking 24 months as his starting point?" Rajaonarivelo told Reuters in Paris. "I'm among the people behind him (Rajoelina) but I think as far as his approach is concerned, there's a bit of amateurism there."

France echoed that concern.

"The waiting period of 24 months that has been announced for the organisation of new elections is too long. In this type of exceptional situation, the international community wishes to see that democracy can be expressed as rapidly as possible," the Foreign Ministry said, adding that aid flows would continue.

The AU had demanded the constitution be respected scrupulously. But the fact the army refused to take over on Tuesday, as Ravalomanana had requested, means the AU may not brand it a coup, which would have meant suspending Madagascar.

"The fact the president let go of power offers the international community a legal footing (for relations with the new government) if it is looking for one," local constitutional law expert Jean-Erik Rakotoarisoa told Reuters.

After recent coups in Mauritania and Guinea as well as the killing of Guinea-Bissau's leader, Ravalomanana's fall raises doubts over the durability of democracies elsewhere in Africa.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who is chairman of the SADC regional trade bloc, denounced the change of power.

SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao said the bloc had scheduled a meeting in Swaziland on Thursday to discuss how to handle the situation, which he said was sad and unacceptable.

Still, some analysts said the departure of Ravalomanana -- a self-made dairy tycoon -- would at least end the bloodshed for now and soothe the concerns of foreign investors.

"The transitional government will probably not take aim at foreign investors in the extractive industries, in part because it will be desperate for those revenues," said Philippe de Pontet, Middle East and Africa analyst at Eurasia group."

"The southern African country is battling hyperinflation and has endured food shortages since 2000"

Checking in on Zimbabwe. From Reuters:

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By Paul Simao

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, on Wednesday described Zimbabwe's government as illegitimate and said regional leaders had allowed hundreds of thousands of people to die needlessly in the African nation.( THANK GOD )

Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian catastrophe as President Robert Mugabe and the opposition bicker over a stalled power-sharing deal. Rights groups say scores of opposition activists have been murdered, tortured and beaten.( TRUE )

"Any government that goes out and assaults its people, its citizens, it has lost completely any kind of legitimacy," Machel said at a news conference where Zimbabwean activists launched a hunger strike to pressure Mugabe and the SADC regional body.( GREAT )

Asked if the veteran Zimbabwean ruler, in power since independence in 1980, should step down, Machel said: "The people of Zimbabwe have already said so ... the ballot has spoken."( WOW )

The Mozambican-born Machel joined a growing list of prominent Africans who in the past year have criticised Mugabe's authoritarian rule or called for the removal of his government.

Mugabe lost the first round of a presidential election last year to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but he won the second round overwhelmingly after Tsvangirai pulled out of the race, citing violence against his supporters.

For almost a decade South Africa and other nations in SADC (Southern African Development Community) have used quiet diplomacy to try to nudge( WITHOUT EFFECT ) Mugabe toward democratic reforms and halt Zimbabwe's meltdown.

An apparent breakthrough was reached last September when Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed to form a unity government, but the deal has unravelled over control of key ministries and many doubt it can be salvaged.

In the meantime, food shortages have worsened and the healthcare system has all but collapsed, exposing the population to diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cholera, which has killed more than 2,100( 2100 ) people in recent months.

Machel, who was barred from entering Zimbabwe on a humanitarian visit late last year, said hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved had the leaders of SADC taken stronger action to end the crisis.( YES )

"We trusted too long. It's time to tell our leaders we lay the lives of all those who passed on ... in the hands of the SADC leaders because they took responsibility to stop the mess there," she said.

Machel, however, said she would not join the hunger strike and rotating fasts, which are due to last for three months.

A total of 55 activists have joined the protest, according to Kumi Naidoo, one of the hunger strikers.

The protesters are demanding, among other things, that SADC recognise that Mugabe's government is illegitimate and a transitional authority be set up to implement the power-sharing deal if the deadlock continued past the end of February."( YES )

And more bad news:

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HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe faces another huge food deficit in 2009 due to continued falls in farm production, mounting political uncertainty and economic instability, a report by a farmers' union said on Wednesday.

The southern African country is battling hyperinflation and has endured food shortages since 2000, when President Robert Mugabe's government began seizing farms from whites to resettle landless blacks.( A TERRIBLE POLICY )

A power-sharing deal signed by Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai last September looks fragile due to bickering over control of key cabinet posts, dimming hopes the ruined economy will be rescued.

The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which represents most of the few remaining white commercial farmers, said agricultural output would continue to fall sharply until the country's political crisis was resolved.

"Investment in agriculture is long-term and its risk factor very high, therefore under the present unstable conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe at the moment, production in all sectors is expected to be extremely low this season," the CFU said in a report.

The CFU added that the economic meltdown had also hit farm operations.

"The super-hyperinflation prevailing in the country and the unavailability of cash from the banks has also impacted negatively on any meaningful production this season," the union said.

The last official inflation rate, for July last year, stood at 231 million percent.

Donor agencies say more than 5 million Zimbabweans, almost half the population, currently rely on food handouts and expect the number to rise following another poor agricultural season.

The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) says its $140 million emergency food aid appeal for Zimbabwe has come up $65 million short.( NOT GOOD )

The CFU said continued disturbances on farms, where some white farmers are still being forced off land or prosecuted for failing to do so( THIS NEEDS TO BE CONDEMNED ), had also hit production.

Less than 500 white farmers remain active on their farms, down from over 6,000 before the land seizures began.( THIS HAS WORKED WELL )

Mugabe's government has said it would press on with the prosecution and eviction of white farmers still on land earmarked for acquisition, despite a ruling by a regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal stopping such action( UNREAL ).

Critics say Mugabe's land policies have ruined Zimbabwe's once prosperous economy, but the veteran ruler says the seizures were meant to reverse colonial land imbalances."( WHAT A DISASTER MUGABE HAS BEEN. )

Mugabe should be condemned by the entire planet.

Someone appeals for bolder regional action, saying: "Please SADC take our problems seriously, don't neglect us."

From Africa Can...End Poverty:

"Letter from Zimbabwe

Submitted by Shanta on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 13:16.

I received this missive from a friend:

December 11, 2008

Harare, 1.00am

It is just after midnight in Harare. I have just returned from a midnight tour of the ATMs in Harare with a cousin. There are queues of people still waiting to get their weekly cash withdrawal limit of $100,000,000,000 (US$2.50). I saw the queues this morning when I went for my first meeting at 7.45am. I did not know then that I would be seeing them throughout the day. Most of the ATMs had run out of money. Rather than go home, people saved their precious place in the lines by lying down where they stood and taking a nap. Covering themselves with sacks, newspapers and whatever warming clothing they had. Those ATMs that were still paying out cash had queues of policemen and soldiers. I dared not pull out my camera then( YIKES ). When I did pull out my camera, it was of people too tired to care. Needless to say, picture quality from a moving car using a micro camera is not the best. This is not a normal interpretation of 24-hour banking; seven days a week.

Three hours earlier, I had gone to one of the cholera infected areas where my aunt lives. I had not intended to stay long. It is a way out of town and I did not want her worrying about my safety getting back into the city. There was a power outage from 6 p.m. and it had taken us two hours to find a house I last visited 20 years ago as a boy. But I did ask how she was coping in Harare; and to her nephew she poured her heart out. No clean water for weeks on end, no food in the shops and constant power cuts. She drives an hour and half across the township in search of clean drinking water, which she brings back in plastic containers. When the city council water does run through the taps in the house, the water is discolored with sewer water. The shops in the neighborhood are empty of basic necessities including mealie meal. Her husband now lives at their farm in another town so that he can plant, guard and harvest the maize that they will live on next year. There are groceries in some shops in the city, but they are sold in US$ and priced beyond her means. I am glad I brought her a suitcase of groceries. Groceries that, 20 years ago, my parents once drove from Lusaka to Harare to buy when Zambia was going through similar madness in the 1980s.( UNREAL )

December 12, 2008

Today the Reserve Bank increased the cash withdrawal limit from $100,000,000 to $200,000,000 (US$4). It also introduced two higher-denomination notes, $200,000,000 and $500,000,000. As expected there was a mad rush to withdraw and spend the cash before it loses value( A RUN OF ANY KIND IS SERIOUS. HERE, IT CAN BE LIFE OR DEATH. ). It is widely expected that retailers will increase their prices in line with the higher withdrawal limits. There were long (and I mean l…l…o…o…n…n…g…g) queues at every single working ATM. Offices were abandoned. I took pictures of the lines outside Barclays bank by walking to the first floor offices of government labor department. In a large pool office with at least 20 desks there was a lone clerk who looked up at me for all of two seconds. As I walked across the room to the window facing the bank, the files lay unattended on people’s desks…probably untouched for weeks. With civil service wages eroded by hyperinflation, people necessarily spend more time in the parallel economy trying to make ends meet. Interestingly, there are no runs on banks. The value of the withdrawals is so meaningless that the banks will be able to meet depositor demands with ease.( I GUESS THIS IS A WAY TO END RUNS. )

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• Economic Policy & Debt
• Financial Crisis
• Poverty
• Public Sector Governance
• Zimbabwe

More from the Zimbabwean:

"The Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) is an independent Trust that works to promote freedom of expression and responsible journalism in Zimbabwe.

MMPZ notes with disappointment the punitive US-dollar-denominated fees to be paid by foreign correspondents and news agencies operating in Zimbabwe for applications, accreditation and registration to practice their profession, as reported in the January 6 issue of The Herald. This new fees structure, published pursuant to the provisions of the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, clearly represents an intensification of the Zimbabwean authorities’ sustained campaign to block access to the foreign media seeking to cover the Zimbabwean story, thus depriving Zimbabweans (and the world community) of a variety of alternative sources of information to the output of the government-controlled media( THIS MUST BE PUBLICIZED. ). In fact, MMPZ believes that all such registration and licensing regulations that exist under the Act constitute a clear violation of regionally and internationally recognised guarantees safeguarding freedom of expression and of the media and should be condemned( YES ). Such regulation of the media and prohibitive fees structures also contravene the spirit of the global political agreement signed on 15th September 2008. ( YES )
MMPZ therefore calls on the Zimbabwean authorities to immediately revise any fees charged for the registration of any journalist or media organisation to no more than a token administrative cost.
Most importantly, MMPZ urges any new government to commit itself to the following:
• Ensure that any media activity is not rendered dependent upon any form of statutory registration or admission and that mechanisms promoting media self-regulation are created and strengthened;

• Encourage a diverse and independent print and electronic media, including foreign media;

• Repeal of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act as a matter of urgency, and remove all those clauses in the Broadcasting Services Act, Public Order and Security Act, and all other pieces of legislation that hinder the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas without hindrance, as guaranteed under Zimbabwe’s Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such repressive laws have no legitimate purpose and are not necessary in a democratic society."( ABSOLUTELY )

And here:

"HARARE, Zimbabwe - Opposition members accused of being involved in a bomb plot in Zimbabwe told a court Thursday that they were tortured into making false confessions( THIS IS HOW TORTURE REALLY WORKS ). The allegations were made a day after the seven were formally charged with terrorism, banditry and insurgency. All pleaded not guilty. They face the death penalty if convicted.( UNREAL )

The seven are among a number of rights activists and opposition party members detained in recent weeks in what the opposition calls a crackdown on dissent.( IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME )

In a separate case, another group of detainees has been accused - but so far not formally charged - of attempting to recruit fighters to train in neighboring Botswana to overthrow President Robert Mugabe.( EVERY TIME )

The arrests have raised tensions in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe and the opposition are locked in a long dispute over allocation of cabinet posts under the power-sharing agreement, seen as the best chance of easing a deep economic crisis.

Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to pull his Movement for Democratic Change party out of negotiations over the issue. Many of the activists in custody are MDC members and the party has said they were abducted.

Tsvangirai won the first round of voting in March elections, but fell short of the majority needed to become president, triggering a run-off which Mugabe won after the MDC leader pulled out, citing violent attacks on his supporters. - msnbc.msn.com"

And here:

"CIVIL society organisations in SA are to press the government and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to hasten resolution of the crisis in Zimbabwe.( PLEASE )

Helping to co-ordinate the campaign, expected to start in the next 10 days, is Kumi Naidoo, honorary president of the global alliance for citizen participation, Civicus.

Naidoo said Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu had committed himself to a weekly fast, together with Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Church. Tutu is a member of the Elders, whose delegation was denied entry into Zimbabwe late last year.( A GREAT MAN )

"We need to up the ante a bit in terms of the types of activities that put pressure on the government," said Naidoo, who is also co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty.

Together with Pastor Raymond Motsi of the Bulawayo Baptist Church, Naidoo has committed himself to a hunger strike.

The planned campaign is expected to impress upon the continent, as well as South African society, including members of the African National Congress, the wider implications of the crisis in Zimbabwe.( PLEASE )

Naidoo was part of a delegation that spent Christmas in Zimbabwe where he met scores of Zimbabweans and compiled some of the testimonies into a film, Time 2 Act . Copies of the film will be given to President Kgalema Motlanthe, to other SADC heads of state and to the African Union .

In the film are descriptions of the humanitarian crisis. For instance, a woman speaks of overcrowding in the mortuaries, which has pushed the cost to $300 a body. Someone appeals for bolder regional action, saying: "Please SADC take our problems seriously, don't neglect us."

Naidoo said many of those interviewed could not understand SA's position on Zimbabwe, especially its stance at the United Nations Security Council, where it voted against tougher action on the authorities in Zimbabwe( IT'S NOT ISRAEL ).( A DISGRACE )

"Overall we were struck by how much worse it (the Zimbabwe situation) actually was in terms of the humanitarian crisis and on the political repression again significantly worse."( EVERY DAY IT GETS WORSE )

The team found a breakdown in the school system. Garbage collection had also come to a standstill in the major centres, further contributing to the cholera outbreak.

Even respect for the dead had gone. "One of the mortuaries was closed while we were there and what it means is that families have to put some sand inside the house, put some water in that sand and put the (deceased) family member there," Naidoo said. - businessday.co.za"

This is another disgrace that we allow to happen through simple indifference.

"it is local and international aid workers and non-political social activists who will likely be the real agents of change in Zimbabwe in 2009."

Checking in on Zimbabwe. From the Guardian:

"What does 2009 hold for Zimbabwe?

Will a government of national unity, if finally formed, be the solution to the country's problems?

Comments (11)

• 
• • Knox Chitiyo
  • guardian.co.uk, Sunday 4 January 2009 12.00 GMT
  • Article history

As Zimbabwe limps agonisingly into 2009, there is one immediate question which the MDC has to answer; will they join the still notional government of national unity, or not? Morgan Tsvangirai stated that unless well-known activists Jestina Mukoko and other civil society and opposition figures are released, he will ask the MDC's national council to suspend negotiations.

After the tumultuous silence following their abductions, Mukoko and her co-accused were suddenly produced, rabbit–style, out of the police hat. Allegedly, the accused were involved in the recruitment and training of saboteurs to overthrow Robert Mugabe from bases in Botswana. Even if this were true( COME ON ) – and there is as yet no wisp of evidence to support the state's case – the inhuman treatment of the activists is utterly unconstitutional and goes far beyond any crimes they have supposedly committed( IS THIS A SURPRISE ? ). If the MDC wish to give force to their ultimatum, they should not allow themselves to be steamrollered by Zanu-PF, South Africa and Southern African Development Community (SADC), into joining a Government of National Unity (GNU) just so they can all feed from the same trough.( AMEN )

"Operation Chimumumu"

Here's what that is:

"MARONDERA – Zanu (PF) has launched “Operation Chimumumu” - a nationwide campaign aimed at eliminating MDC officials and activists and some staff of targeted NGOs – in a desperate attempt to force MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai, into a marriage of inconvenience.
The MDC has continued to resist being pressurized into the formation of an inclusive government in which Robert Mugabe continues to wield all the power – in contravention of the letter and spirit of the agreement signed in Harare on September 29.
Thirty armed men are reportedly being accommodated at a house owned by a senior Zanu (PF) politburo member in Winston Park, Marondera. The gunmen are allegedly dressed in riot gear and have been arresting locals before whisking them away to killing zones.
Mugabe and his military junta continue to thwart the legitimate power-sharing demands of the MDC - with the connivance of former South Africa president, Thabo Mbeki, and other undemocratic regional leaders."

The post continues:

"– the late 2009( 2008-DON ) assault on opposition and civil society activists by the Police and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) – is part of the carrot and stick strategy; the carrot is the shiny new passport for Tsvangirai (and the promise of a seat at the edge of the high table as Prime Minister if he plays ball). The stick is the inevitable arrests, abductions and torture of opposition and civil society activists and the threat of worse to come if the MDC does not co-operate( YES ). Oddly enough, Zanu-PF may have given the opposition succour in making their choice. High court judge Yunus Omerjee ordered the immediate release of most of the accused. He also ordered that they be given access to proper medical treatment (many of them bear the signs of torture( TORTURE ) ), full access to lawyers, and normal visitation rights. Instead, the state has placed them in the notorious Chikurubi maximum security prison – a facility originally designed for the most violent criminal offenders.

There are other issues which need to be resolved – the ministerial posts, the governorships and the question of who will control the finances. But both MDC groups should insist on an unconditional end to political violence as a precursor to a GNU. Zanu-PF has alleged that the MDC is training military recruits in Botswana. If this is the case, then indeed the MDC has a case to answer; but Zanu-PF has not yet produced any proof. There is currently a SADC investigation into these claims. The MDC should insist that the findings be published before any GNU is formed, otherwise it will simply be yet another stick that they will be beaten with( LITERALLY ). The state is also making a distinction( UNREAL ) between humanitarian politics and human rights politics. Humanitarian aid organisations have been allowed ingress into Zimbabwe's blighted communities; human rights activists, in contrast, have not been spared the rod. The MDC then, if it were to join a GNU, would need to be aware of what it was getting into. It can hardly be part of a coalition government while civilians are being abducted and killed. There is no "acceptable" level of political violence, and the GNU cannot be Zimbabwe's redemption if the drums are beaten on human skin.( TRUE )

And what of military intervention? I don't see it happening. The most common suggestion is a military invasion of Zimbabwe from, or by, a neighbouring country (possibly Botswana)( I'D BE FOR IT ). Idi Amin's removal by Tanzania's Julius Nyerere in 1979 is cited as a useful precedent. There are many similarities between Mugabe's Zimbabwe and Amin's Uganda; a brutal leadership, a broken economy, the flight of millions, and a restive military. But there are some vital discrepancies – Amin provoked Tanzania and sent Ugandan forces into his neighbour's country in a hunt for Ugandan "dissidents". Mugabe has been very careful not to overstep the mark in his war of words with Botswana, and it would be difficult for the Botswana Defence Forces or other neighbouring country to justify invading Zimbabwe, other than in self-defence( A FAIR POINT ).

That leaves the UK and the United States to mull the challenge of direct intervention( NOT A GOOD IDEA ). This won't happen; UK and US forces are at full stretch in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Caucasus and Middle East will always be considered more important than Africa; there is also little public or state appetite further military adventures in far away places. It would be a huge operation and there is little indication that anyone is willing to pay the costs. In addition, humanitarian military intervention is best applied when civilians are clustered in readily identifiable camps or zones which can be cordoned off and protected by an international mission. This is not the case in Zimbabwe at the moment – although there has been tremendous dislocation, most people are still in their rural or urban homes, and this makes it difficult to imagine how an operation such as this would work. More importantly, at the first intimation of a major military offensive against it, the security sector in Zimbabwe would target the opposition leadership for elimination or for use as hostages.

This is not to say that Zanu-PF will not face a military threat. Growing dissatisfaction within the rank and file of the security establishment, increasing indiscipline and possible small-scale mutinies might be complemented by a possible "third force" of anti-state military operatives beginning a campaign of violence if the politics remain unresolved. This third force, if it comes into being, would be a threat to both Zanu-PF and the MDC. It would not be an MDC organisation, but its existence would be used by Zanu-PF to justify further repression. For Zanu-PF, an open military challenge would bind supporters together, but it would also widen the fissures in the security sector periphery and lead to overstretch.

The year 2009 will start the way 2008 ended; with the Zimbabwe question unresolved. Zimbabwe will be on the SADC agenda in its January meeting, and it will also feature at the UN Security Council meeting early in 2009. Although the regime v opposition polemic will continue, for ordinary people what really matters is how their daily lives can be transformed for the better. In this regard, it is local and international aid workers and non-political social activists who will likely be the real agents of change in Zimbabwe in 2009."

A sad but realistic appraisal. We could do more. Certainly South Africa could.

"she wanted their farm and intended to get it through the government’s land redistribution program."

More on Zimbabwe from the NY Times by CELIA W. DUGGER:

"CHEGUTU, Zimbabwe — Edna Madzongwe, president of the Senate and a powerful member of Zimbabwe’s ruling party, began showing up uninvited at the Etheredges’ farm here last year, at times still dressed up after a day in Parliament.

Skip to next paragraph

The New York Times

Several farms in Chegutu have come under assault.

Mr. Freeth circulated photographs of his injuries online after the invasion of his farm.

And she made her intentions clear, the Etheredges say: she wanted their farm and intended to get it through the government’s land redistribution program( I DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS POLICY AT ALL. THIS ARTICLE GIVES ONE REASON. CRONYISM. IF THERE NEEDS TO BE REDISTRIBUTION, IT SHOULD COME THROUGH TAXES ON THE FARMERS WHICH THEY CAN AFFORD ).

The farm is a beautiful spread, with three roomy farm houses and a lush, 55,000-tree orange orchard that generates $4 million a year in exports. The Etheredges, outraged by what they saw as her attempt to steal the farm, secretly taped their exchanges with her.

“Are you really serious to tell me that I cannot take up residence because of what it does to you?” she asked Richard Etheredge, 72, whose father bought the farm in 1947. “Government takes what it wants.”

He dryly replied, “That we don’t deny( WELL PLAYED ),” according to a transcript of the tapes.

Mr. Etheredge this year became one of dozens of white farmers to challenge the government’s right to confiscate their land, and they sought relief in an unusual place: a tribunal of African judges established by the 15 nations of the Southern African Development Community regional trade bloc.

The case is rooted in one of the most fraught issues facing not just Zimbabwe, but other nations in the region, especially South Africa: the unjust division of land between whites and blacks that is a legacy of colonialism and white minority rule( AGAIN, USE TAXES ).

But the tribunal’s recent ruling, in favor of the white farmers, is also a milestone of particular relevance to Zimbabwe. It suggests that a growing number of influential Africans — among them religious leaders and now jurists — are confronting Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s 84-year-old liberation hero and president, for his government’s violations of human rights and the rule of law( FINALLY ), even as most regional heads of state continue to resist taking harsher steps to isolate his government.

Zimbabwe’s handling of the land issue has had disastrous consequences. Since 2000, when Mr. Mugabe began encouraging the violent invasion of the country’s large, white-owned commercial farms — once the country’s largest employers — food production has collapsed, hunger has afflicted millions and the economy has never recovered( WELL DONE ).

Mr. Mugabe presents this redistribution as a triumph over greedy whites( THAT DESTROYED FARMING IN THE COUNTRY. A GOOD TRADE-OFF? ). But it set off a scramble for the best farms among the country’s ruling elite, who often had little knowledge or interest in farming, and became a potent source of patronage for Mr. Mugabe. His own relatives, as well as generals, judges, ministers and members of Parliament, were beneficiaries, farmer and human rights groups say.

By this year, the number of white-owned commercial farms dwindled to about 300 from 4,500. Even many of the remaining ones came under assault in this year’s bloodstained election season.

Among those singled out were farms here in Chegutu, where some owners had dared to take their cases to the S.A.D.C. tribunal, challenging Mr. Mugabe before judges he could not entice with gifts of land.

In March, the tribunal ordered the Zimbabwean authorities not to evict any farmers seeking legal protection, pending resolution of the case. But as with other international efforts to influence Mr. Mugabe and his allies, Zimbabwean authorities apparently decided to ignore the tribunal’s order( OF COURSE ).

On June 17 — just 10 days before the discredited presidential runoff between Mr. Mugabe and his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai — dozens of youths led by a man named Gilbert Moyo surrounded Mr. Etheredge’s son, Peter, 38, at the main gate of the farm, family members said.

“Moyo told me he’d been sent by Edna,” Peter recalled, referring to Mrs. Madzongwe, the Senate president. Peter said Mr. Moyo threatened to kill him if the Etheredge clan did not clear off the farm immediately.

Peter, his twin, James, and their families fled.

Mrs. Madzongwe denied hiring Mr. Moyo and his gang. “If a farm is acquired, there are rules,” she said in a recent telephone interview. “I go by the book.”

But Jason Lawrence Cox, a local farmer, swore in an affidavit that he saw her on June 21 drive past piles of the Etheredges’ belongings, dumped at the side of the road, and onto their farm.

The gang had looted the three family homes on the farm of all but the large mounted heads of an eland and a kudu, according to photos taken before and after the invasion. They used a jackhammer to break through the foot-thick wall of the walk-in safe. The haul from the homes and the farm included 1,760 pounds of ivory, 14 handmade guns, 14 refrigerators and freezers, 5 stoves, 3 tractors, a pickup truck and 400 tons of oranges, the family said.

Eleven days later, a far more violent farm invasion occurred at the home of Mike and Angela Campbell, also here in Chegutu. Mr. Campbell, 76, was the first farmer to take on Mr. Mugabe before the tribunal.

A gang came that Sunday afternoon, pouring out of a pickup truck and a bus, Mrs. Campbell said. Her son-in-law, Ben Freeth, 38, said that he was bludgeoned with rifle butts and that his skull and ribs were fractured. Mike Campbell was also severely beaten.

Mrs. Campbell, 66, said she was dragged by her hair, after her arm was broken in multiple places, and dumped next to her husband. The doctor who treated them in the capital, Harare, signed affidavits confirming the severity of their injuries.

“Mike was so battered, I hardly recognized him,” Mrs. Campbell said. “I didn’t know he was alive until he groaned.” The three of them were loaded into the Campbells’ truck and driven to a nighttime vigil of youth loyal to the ruling party at Mr. Moyo’s base camp, she said.

It was cold, and men poured freezing water over them. Mr. Campbell drifted in and out of consciousness. By the flickering light of bonfires, the youths denounced the Campbells as white pigs, Mrs. Campbell said, and ordered her to sing revolutionary songs. She remembers singing a children’s song instead, which enraged one of her intoxicated tormentors. He charged at her, she said, trying to thrust a burning stick into her mouth.

Later that night, the Campbells and Mr. Freeth were again stuffed into the back of the Campbells’ truck. Before they were dumped, Mrs. Campbell said, the kidnappers insisted that she sign a paper promising not to press the tribunal case.

Within days — just as the international outcry mounted over the state-sponsored beatings of thousands of opposition supporters — photographs of the grotesquely battered faces of the Campbells and Mr. Freeth circulated on the Internet.

By July 4, the police informed the farmers here who were part of the tribunal case that they could go back to their land. Peter Etheredge speculated that the authorities might have relented because the photographs were spreading online just as Mr. Mugabe was meeting with Africa’s leaders about his country’s political crisis.

On Nov. 28, the farmers gathered in Windhoek, Namibia, to hear the final ruling of five judges of the S.A.D.C. tribunal. As Justice Luis Antonio Mondlane of Mozambique read the full 60-page decision aloud, it dawned on the farmers that they had won.

The tribunal found that the government had breached its obligations under the trade bloc’s treaty, which committed it to respecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law, by denying the farmers compensation for their farms and court review of the government’s confiscation of them.

More broadly, it rejected the government’s claim that the land redistribution program was meant to right the wrongs of a colonial era when a white minority ruled what was then Rhodesia. Instead, the court found that the government had itself racially discriminated against the white farmers.

In a stinging rebuke, the tribunal, citing an earlier legal case, said it would have reached a different conclusion( THIS IS SAD. LAND EXPROPRIATION DOESN'T WORK ) had the government not awarded “the spoils of expropriation primarily to ruling party adherents.”

The usually stoic farmers wept. “We burst into tears, the whole lot of us,” Mr. Freeth said.

The reaction of the government was defiant. Didymus Mutasa, the minister who oversees the distribution of seized land, told the state media that the judges were “daydreaming” if they thought Zimbabwe would heed the ruling.

The government would take over the rest of the white-owned farms, he vowed. And the state has since moved to prosecute four Chegutu farmers, though not yet the Etheredges or the Campbells, for illegally occupying land they owned before the government claimed it, the farmers’ lawyer, Dave Drury, said.

Perhaps it was a banner at the recent funeral of a ruling party boss that best captured the government’s rejection of those who question its righteousness, even a panel of distinguished African jurists.

The banner said: “The Rhodesian Tribunal Can Go to Hell( SAY HELLO TO MUGABE WHEN YOU GET THERE ).”

These Land Expropriations are a disaster. A tax, which farmers can afford, could have been used to provide a social safety net, loans to small businesses, education, etc. By the way, this historical righting of wrongs can easily spread to tribal conflicts, if it isn't humanely and legally dealt with.

"The crisis is getting worse and worse in Zimbabwe and only SADC can pull the plug on the Zanu-PF government. "

From the Guardian:

"Zimbabwe's neighbours must act

Forget the bombast, David Miliband. Concentrate on getting southern Africa to pull the plug on Robert Mugabe's regime

Comments (…)

• Phil Hall
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 27 December 2008 10.00 GMT
• larger | smaller
• Article history

If the British government wants to help Zimbabwe, it would be better if the foreign secretary, David Miliband, refrained from making bombastic pronouncements and instead focused on petitioning legitimate political players in the region to act against Robert Mugabe. Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries are the ones who can cut off the supply line of luxury goods to the Zimbabwean regime just in time for Christmas, not Britain.

Of course, Britain as the former colonial power in Zimbabwe lacks the moral authority to intervene directly. It is too easy for Mugabe to respond by characterising Miliband's soundbites as hypocritical interventions, mainly concerned with preserving the land rights of the residual white diaspora.

By portraying Blair, and now Brown and Miliband, as machinating "racists", "imperialists" and "former settlers", Mugabe has been able to increase the level of solidarity and warmth felt towards the Zanu-PF government by a few degrees. Because nobody likes an interfering former colonial power.

In contrast to the British government, however, the British people have a magnificent record of fighting against injustice in southern Africa through the anti-apartheid movement. And one of the strategies of anti-apartheid that worked was to target those companies that sustained the apartheid regime.

Two of those companies were Barclays Bank and Anglo American. And just to prove that they are truly colour blind when it comes to supporting oppressive regimes, the same companies are also currently shoring up the Zanu-PF dictatorship.

Barclays provides the government with the lines of credit it needs and foreign earnings from mining provide the Zanu-PF elite with enough foreign currency to live comfortably. In June this year, British-based Anglo-American announced it would be investing £200m in its Unki platinum mine.

In another echo of former times, it was Peter Hain, one of the leaders of the anti-apartheid movement, who immediately spoke out against Anglo American's decision to make a major investment in Zimbabwe. These two companies should now be boycotted by the British people and targeted for their support of Mugabe in the same way that they were boycotted and targeted in the time of anti-apartheid.( HEAR HEAR )

But ultimately, of course, the solution to the problem is in the hands of the SADC countries. In fact, there are very few reasons for the governments of the other SADC countries to support Mugabe. There were always deep differences between them and the Mugabe government.

It had to be explained to me that Mugabe did not "go bad" after independence; he was always a conniving apparatchik scheming and murdering his way to the top.( TRUE )

Wilfred Mhanda has chronicled how he did this. Mhanda describes the reaction of African leaders to Mugabe seizing control of Zanu from Ndabaningi Sithole in 1975: "Robert Mugabe and his followers had staged a coup against Sithole while they were all in prison. Smith released Mugabe, who then led a Zanu delegation to meet with the leaders of the frontline states - Agostino Neto, Julius Nyerere, Samora Machel and Kenneth Kaunda. They were surprised and horrified to see Mugabe leading the delegation and asked how on earth he could stage a coup inside an enemy prison against the properly elected leader of the movement. They suspected the prison authorities had helped Mugabe."

Mugabe was even put under house arrest by Samora Machel, the president of Mozambique in 1977. Unlike the other African leaders, Mugabe was not a socialist, a nationalist or even a brave military commander. He was a tribalist, who we now know was responsible for the Gukurahundi massacre of an estimated 20,000 in Matabeleland.

The crisis is getting worse and worse in Zimbabwe and only SADC can pull the plug on the Zanu-PF government. It should put aside false loyalties and do so, and as soon as possible."

That he has remained in power is an international disgrace.