Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tens of thousands have fled Zim for South Africa in past 5 months
Zimbabwe’s worsening humanitarian, economic and political situation forced over 100 000 people to claim asylum in South Africa in 2008, according to pressure group Human Rights Watch. The group have released a report saying at least 30 000 claimed asylum in the last 5 months of 2008, a period that started after the violent June one man presidential run-off, and this figure was double the total number of Zimbabwean claims made in all 6 of South Africa’s refugee reception offices in 2007. The figure is also more than half of the total number of asylum claims made by all nationalities in South Africa in those offices the same year. It’s now believed there is a backlog of at least 200 000 Zimbabwean asylum cases in South Africa.
MoreTens of thousands have fled Zim for South Africa in past 5 months
Zimbabwe’s worsening humanitarian, economic and political situation forced over 100 000 people to claim asylum in South Africa in 2008, according to pressure group Human Rights Watch. The group have released a report saying at least 30 000 claimed asylum in the last 5 months of 2008, a period that started after the violent June one man presidential run-off, and this figure was double the total number of Zimbabwean claims made in all 6 of South Africa’s refugee reception offices in 2007. The figure is also more than half of the total number of asylum claims made by all nationalities in South Africa in those offices the same year. It’s now believed there is a backlog of at least 200 000 Zimbabwean asylum cases in South Africa.
MoreSADC set to throw in towel on Zim
SADC threatened to drop its mediation effort on Zimbabwe as another attempt to form a unity government in the country failed late Monday. Prime minister-elect Morgan Tsvangirai described the failure as “the darkest day of our lives”. South Africa’s President Kgalema Motlanthe and former president Thabo Mbeki and Mozambican President Armando Guebuza representing the Southern African Development Community (SADC) failed to persuade the MDC leader, Tsvangirai, and President Robert Mugabe to overcome their differences in another marathon session in Harare Monday.
MoreThursday, January 15, 2009
South Africa still backs Zimbabwe deal
South Africa still believes Zimbabwe’s unity accord can pull the country from crisis, despite a four-month stalemate in implementing the deal, a top foreign ministry official said Wednesday. Ayande Ntsaluba, director general of the foreign ministry, told reporters that a unity government was the only way for President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to settle their differences.
MoreMDC MP arrested by police in Chiredzi
Arrests and threats against the MDC continue and the latest case is the arrest of the MDC MP for Chipinge South in Manicaland province, Meke Makuyana. He was picked up by the police on Wednesday from his Chiredzi home by several officers from the Law and Order section based in Chipinge and Mutare.
MoreSoldiers assault traders selling wares in forex
A group of rowdy soldiers at the weekend assaulted informal traders and stole their wares in the city of Chitungwiza, in a disturbing repeat of riotous behaviour by Zimbabwe’s soldiers once famed for their discipline. According to witnesses, the soldiers who were in uniform but unarmed went on the rampage at the popular Makoni shopping centre, apparently incensed that informal traders were selling basic commodities in foreign currency without authorisation from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
MoreToddler freed in Zimbabwe after 76 days in prison: opposition
A two-year-old boy detained in a Zimbabwean prison with his activist parents has been freed after 76 days behind bars, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said Wednesday in a statement. Nigel Mutemagau, who was abducted by gunmen together with his parents from their home in Banket in northwestern Zimbabwe, was released from detention on Tuesday, the MDC said.
MoreRights activist is ‘threat to society’
A top Zimbabwean human rights activist facing charges of recruiting people for insurgency training and terrorist bombings is a “threat to society” and must remain in custody, the country’s attorney general said. The activist, Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina Mukoko, is behind bars with eight other activists, mainly from the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change. They have been jailed on remand for allegedly recruiting people for banditry training in Botswana.
MoreWednesday, January 14, 2009
Zimbabwe cholera epidemic: over 2,000 dead
The cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has now killed more than 2,000 people, it was confirmed today. Almost 40,000 have also now contracted the normally preventable disease as the crisis resulting from a collapsed health service threatens the entire region. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the outbreak in Robert Mugabe’s shattered nation now represented the worst in Africa in nearly a decade.
MorePasipamire Recounts Ordeal After Abduction: Zimbabwe
An opposition activist abducted by Zimbabwean security forces last month recalled Tuesday spending long nights listening to the screams of other detainees being tortured. An opposition activist abducted by Zimbabwean security forces last month recalled Tuesday spending long nights listening to the screams of other detainees being tortured.
MoreZambia to dispatch cholera kit to Zimbabwe
Zambia has purchased drugs and other medical kits which will be dispatched to help neighboring Zimbabwe contain cholera which has killed hundreds of people in the country, a senior government official said here Tuesday. Ministry of Health Spokesperson Dr Canicius Banda said the medical kit, valued at 2 billion Zambian kwacha (approximately 400,000 U.S. dollars), is expected to be dispatched to Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
MoreZimbabwe Education in Chaos as 2008 Exams Still Unmarked
Zimbabwe’s government is frantically mobilising teachers to mark last year’s public examinations, amid fears schools may fail to reopen for the new term on January 27, plunging education deeper into chaos. Zimbabwe’s once admired public education sector is in crisis, weighed down by incessant strikes for more pay by teachers that disrupted learning for most of last year and a severe brain drain that has seen thousands of the best qualified teachers leave for better paying jobs abroad.
Prayerful Fast for Zimbabwe
Two clerics have joined Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, in fasting in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe, which faces a collapsing economic and political order and reports of a military alert amid fears of a coup - writes Hans Pienaar.
MoreSaturday, March 01, 2008
In Kenya, U.S. Added Action to Talk of Democracy
New York Times
By HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON — Within hours of Thursday’s power-sharing deal between Kenya’s rival leaders, the State Department issued a rare statement from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, praising the pact and citing the United States for providing “intensive support” to bring it about.
Indeed, while Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, spent weeks in Kenya negotiating the agreement, many foreign policy experts also credit the Bush administration for putting action behind its talk of the need for democracy in Africa.
In Kenya, that meant pressing President Mwai Kibaki, whose supporters, many policy experts say, were most to blame for December’s disastrous elections and the ensuing fallout.
After almost two months of watching Kenya’s rival factions battle in ethnic-fueled violence that left more than 1,000 Kenyans dead, President Bush dispatched Ms. Rice to Nairobi. Ms. Rice let it be known that the United States would not look kindly on Mr. Kibaki’s actions and pointedly called for him to compromise, saying, “The time for a political settlement was yesterday.”
Mr. Kibaki bristled at the outside interference, but yielded.
“I think Kenya was a wake-up call for the United States,” said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, who has been openly critical of the administration’s response to flawed elections in Africa. In the end, Mr. Roth said, “Rice did play a constructive role in Kenya, and this agreement is a wonderful step forward.”
MoreTeams seek long-term solutions
The Standard
By David Ohito and Abiya Ochola
For the first time, the mediation teams returned to a table together, a day after a historic power sharing deal was signed.
The Party of National Unity (PNU) and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) negotiators agreed on key proposals to seek long-term solutions to the political crisis.
More