Zimbabwe: The turmoil, reconciliation, and the future!

[Lunyungu]

Hii inatokea Zimb mbele ya macho ya JK ? Ndiyo maana Raila kawapa LIVE majuzi na Mbeki akabaki hana la kusema .

 

[Dua]

Zanu-PF intensifies terror in urban areas

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/

June 21, 2008

HARARE - Marauding Zanu-PF youth militia have evicted scores of families suspected of being MDC supporters from council flats in the poor suburb of Mbare, forcing them to endure winter nights in the open as the current political violence takes new dimensions......................[.size]

Let's finish it! Tsvangirai in call to bring down Mugabe


Dos Santos tells Mugabe to stop violence
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/

June 21, 2008

HARARE - One of President Robert Mugabe's closest allies in the southern
African region, Angolan leader Eduardo Dos Santos, yesterday joined the
growing list of African leaders who have expressed serious concern over the
escalating violence in Zimbabwe.

Angolan State radio reported yesterday that the Angolan leader, one of
Mugabe's few friends in the region, has asked a member of the Angolan
election observer team to deliver the letter to the Zimbabwean leader. Dos
Santos's emissary is said to be Angola's representative in the observer
mission from the 14-nation SADC, the radio station reported.................................................

Even amid the horror, an election is still the best way to oust this tyrant
Independent, UK

Leading article:
Saturday, 21 June 2008

The benighted country of Zimbabwe has entered the last days of campaigning before next Friday's poll. As recently as a week ago it was hard to imagine how the circumstances of this presidential run-off could possibly ........................................................

Mugabe's men bring rape and torture to Harare suburbs

Chris McGreal in Epworth
The Guardian,
Saturday June 21, 2008

Yvonne Chipowera doesn't know the names of those who raped her, whipped her with sjamboks and urinated on her face while making her call Zimbabwe's
opposition leader a dog. Her ordeal lasted 16 hours.

Her attackers were young men drawn from Robert Mugabe's militia, armed with knives and slingshots, who rule the streets of Epworth, a sprawling poor
township on the edge of Harare.....................................

It's Time for Gordon to Dial the Despot

June 21st, 2008
By Andy Rowell

The Ambasciotori Palace Hotel ranks amongst Rome's finest, being housed on
the via Veneto, one of the most famous avenues in the world. It is used to
hosting international dignitaries such as film stars Liza Minnelli, Sean
Connery and Sofia Loren.
Police watch as war veterans loot shops ...............................

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/

June 21, 2008

MASVINGO- A group of war veterans and Zanu-PF youth militia yesterday went on the rampage in Masvingo, looting goods from shops and flea markets while accusing the owners of selling goods on the black market.

Killer Robert Mugabe.

 

[Alnadaby]

Please...let all good men and women of Africa condemn the violence with full force.this is intolerable.

 

[Ben Saanane]

I loudly condemn!

 

[Dua]

Kwa wale wanaoweza kuona BBC news 24 - 'OUR WORLD' Zimbabwe documentary kuhusu uchaguzi LIVE now.

 

[Dua]

Zimbabwe opposition 'to pull out'

Morgan Tsvangirai says he won the vote outright in March​

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has decided to pull out of the presidential run-off on 27 June, party officials have told the BBC. The decision, taken at a meeting of the leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change in Harare, means Robert Mugabe will remain as president. The MDC says the decision comes after at least 70 of its supporters have been killed in the run-up to the poll.

President Robert Mugabe says the opposition is behind the violence. On Sunday, the opposition was due to stage a rally in the capital - the highlight of the campaign. But supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF occupied the stadium venue and roads leading up to it. Witnesses reported seeing hundreds of youths around the venue wielding sticks, some chanting slogans, and others circling the stadium crammed onto the backs of trucks. They reportedly set upon opposition activists, leaving a number badly injured.
The MDC said African election monitors were also chased away from the rally site.

Unity government?

The MDC says Morgan Tsvangirai won the presidential election outright during the first round in March. The government admits he won more votes than President Mugabe, but says he did not take enough to win outright. Mr Mugabe has said he will never accept a Zimbabwe run by the On Saturday, South Africa sent two mediators to Harare, just days after its President, Thabo Mbeki, went to Zimbabwe himself, for separate talks with Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai. The BBC's Peter Biles, in Johannesburg, says this was possibly a last effort to persuade Mr Mugabe to cancel the election run-off, and to persuade both sides to begin negotiations on a government of national unity. It is widely accepted that in the present circumstances, with serious political violence, the election will not resolve Zimbabwe's problems, our correspondent adds.

The MDC says its members have been beaten, and its supporters evicted from their homes, forcing it to campaign in near secrecy. The party's secretary general, Tendai Biti, is under arrest charged with treason. Mr Mugabe has accused the MDC of acting in the interest of Britain, the former colonial power, and other Western countries. Zimbabwe's other immediate neighbours have also added their voices to increasing international concern over the validity of the run-off.

Killer Robert Mugabe.

 

[JokaKuu]

..aah, bora ajitoe tu Zimbabwe isijegeuka Somalia nyingine.

..kwa hali ilipofikia sasa ni bora JESHI litwae madaraka na kusimamisha shughuli zote za vyama vya siasa.

..JESHI pia lichukue jukumu la kuwaondoa in the political scene mahafidhina wa ZANU-PF, pamoja na wale MDC, and usher in an era of political sanity in Zimbabwe.

..wa-Zimbabwe wanapaswa kuelekeza akili, nguvu, na rasilimali zao, kuujenga upya uchumi wa nchi yao. ninaamini wanaweza kuinuka kwa haraka kwasababu tayari wanao msingi mzuri wa uchumi.

..siasa na demokrasia should not be their priorities for now.

 

[Dua]

Earlier .......

Armed Mugabe supporters at opposition rally site: MDC

By Nelson Banya 19 minutes ago

HARARE (Reuters) - Armed supporters of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
have occupied the area where opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was to hold
an election rally on Sunday, Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change
said.

"Thousands of armed (ruling party) ZANU-PF youth militia have violently occupied the MDC rally venue at Harare showgrounds to disrupt the rally, which the High Court granted," the MDC said in a statement.

The two men are scheduled to face each other in a run-off election for
president on June 27 after months of high political tension marked by
opposition allegations of violence and intimidation by Mugabe's supporters. A Reuters correspondent said pro-Mugabe youth were carrying sticks and
knives at the venue for the rally, which police had banned. A High Court in
Harare on Saturday overturned the ban.

Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a March 29 election but fell short of the
outright majority needed to avoid a run-off, according to official results. Tsvangirai, according to a spokesman, is now considering pulling out of the
run-off because of what the MDC says are strong-arm tactics by Mugabe's men.

The MDC says at least 70 of its members have been killed since March in a
campaign of intimidation by Mugabe's government to scare opponents and
voters. The veteran Zimbabwean leader blames the opposition for the
bloodshed. Tsvangirai has been detained five times during his election campaign and MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti remains in custody facing a treason charge and other offenses. Biti faces a death sentence if convicted.

Mugabe, 84, is fighting to cling onto power in the country he has ruled
since independence from Britain in 1980. Once prosperous, its economy is now ruined and millions have fled the political and economic crisis to
neighboring states.

Baada ya kushinda High court ili wafanye kampeni haya ndio matokeo yake .....Mugabe tuone sasa atawezaje kuongoza wakati hata wabunge alionao sio majority.

 

[jmushi1]

Siku ya jumapili wiki iliyopita..Nilkuwa nikiangalia CCN...Betty Nguyen na T J Holmes ambao ni hosts wa CNN SUNDAY walikuwa kazini kama kawa.

T J Holmes alikuwemo kwenye msafara wa Kina Andrew Young huko kwenye ule mkutanao wa Sullivan Uliofanyika Arusha.

Alitoa habari moja kuhusu shule ya msingi iliyoko katikati ya moshi na Arusha.
Habari hiyo ilinigusa sana.
Kuna kijana mmoja alikuwa akiongea kwa ufasha wa hali ya juu...Kijana huyo nafikiri alikuwa kaka mkuu wa shule ila jina limenitoka!
Kijana alidai hata yeye anakipaji cha uchiraji..Lakini nafikiri kijana atakuja kuwa kiongozi wan dei!
Kwakweli alinipa goose bumps kwa confidence yake na maelezo yake kwa kutumia kiingereza fasaha ambacho hata hapa jf wengi wetu kinatupa tabu!

Nilipoona hayo...Nilitaka nihakikishe kuwa hawa kina HOLMES si wapambe wa Young ambaye ni msanii!
TJ Holmes alisema kuwa Tanzania imewaabia kuwa watoto wanaoenda shule ni chini ya asilimia 50..Na kwamba serikali imeahidi kuiongeza at least ifikie asilimia 50!
Yani nilishtushwa kusikia kuwa watoto wetu hawaendi shule!

Nikawaaadikia email mara moja...Nikawaambia kuwa ni LAZIMA WASEME WAZI KUWA NI YAPI YAMECHANGIA HAYO NA SI WAANZE KUSPIN HABARI!
Nikawaeleza wazi kuwa shida ni rushwa inayokumbatiwa na viongozi wakuu wa nchi na kama kweli wana nia nzuri na hao watoto...Basi washupalie haki kwa myonge!
T J Holmes alisema ana habari nyingi za huko Tanzania na angezileta kuanzia wiki iliyopita pamoja na hii.
Sijasikia kitu zaidi na sasa hapa naagalia CNN wanadai mambo ya Zimbabwe na sasa wanasema Tsivangirai amesema hatashiriki UCHAGUZI MKUU UTAKAOORUDIWA!
Ni wazi kuwa RUSHWA IMEUPOTEZA UMAARUFU WA KIKWETE BARANI AFRIKA NA HIVYO KUM DISQUALIFY KULIONGOZA BARA NA AMA KUTOA MAAMUZI MUHIMU KUHUSU BARA LETU LA AFRIKA KAMA ALIVYOSEMA OLUSEGUN OBASANJO HUKO ARUSHA!

 

[jmushi1]

African NOW LIBERATE...ZIIMBABWE...I and I are LIBERATE..ZIMBABWE..Tutamkumbuka Bob...Afrika ipo kwenye vita mpya!

 

[Lunyungu]

Kwa tabia za viongozi wa CCM na NEC yao na maamuzi yao hata Bungeni ni wazi kwamba Tanzania we are next Zimb .Uongo mwingi na hila katika uongozi hii ni hatari sana kwa Taifa .

 

[BAK]

Mugabe rival quits election race
BBC News Online

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he is pulling out of Friday's presidential run-off, handing victory to President Robert Mugabe.

Mr Tsvangirai said there was no point running when elections would not be free and fair and "the outcome is determined by... Mugabe himself".

He called on the global community to step in to prevent "genocide".

But the ruling Zanu-PF said Mr Tsvangirai had taken the decision to avoid "humiliation" in the poll.

The opposition decision came after its supporters, heading to a rally in the capital Harare, came under attack.

Mugabe will remain unopposed to seek revenge and retribution on all who stood for democracy and change

MDC pull-out: Have your say
Tsvangirai withdrawal: Key quotes

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says at least 70 supporters have been killed in recent months.

At a press conference in Harare on Sunday, Mr Tsvangirai said: "We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process."

"We will not play the game of Mugabe," he added.

He called on the United Nations, African Union and the southern African grouping SADC to intervene to prevent a "genocide" in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told the BBC that Mr Tsvangirai pulled out the vote because he faced "humiliation and defeat" at the hands of President Mugabe, who he said would win "resoundingly".

"Unfortunately," he said, the opposition leader's decision was "depriving the people of Zimbabwe of a vote".

Rally blocked

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the key question now is what Thabo Mbeki, president of Zimbabwe's powerful neighbour South Africa, will do.

He is in the best position to step up the pressure on Mr Mugabe, since Zimbabwe is so economically dependent on South Africa, our analyst says.


Some opposition supporters at the rally were captured and beaten

South Africa immediately responded to the news by calling on the MDC to continue talks to try to find a political solution.

"We are very encouraged that Mr Tsvangirai, himself, says he is not closing the door completely on negotiations," said a spokesman for Mr Mbeki.

On Sunday, the MDC was due to stage a rally in Harare - the highlight of the campaign.

But supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF occupied the stadium venue and roads leading up to it.

Witnesses reported seeing hundreds of youths around the venue wielding sticks, some chanting slogans, and others circling the stadium crammed onto the backs of trucks.

Some set upon opposition activists, leaving a number badly injured, the MDC said.

It said African election monitors were also chased away from the rally site.

Beatings and arrests

The MDC says Morgan Tsvangirai won the presidential election outright during the first round in March.

The government admits he won more votes than President Mugabe, but says he did not take enough to win outright.


Robert Mugabe has said only God will remove him from power

But in recent weeks, as the run-off approached, the MDC said it had found campaigning near impossible.

Its members have been beaten, and its supporters evicted from their homes, forcing it to campaign in near secrecy.

Mr Tsvangirai was arrested several times, and the party's secretary general, Tendai Biti, has been held and charged with treason.

The BBC's Peter Biles, in Johannesburg, says Mr Mugabe has made clear he will never relinquish power, saying only God could remove him.

While Mr Tsvangirai's move will hand victory to Mr Mugabe, it is unclear whether the international community or election observers will confer any legitimacy on the process, our correspondent says.

 

[Indume Yene]

Nani wa kulaumiwa hapa, Mugabe, Thabo Mbeki, SADC, AU? Ni upuuzi mtupu kuona hayo yote yanafanyika Zimbabwe huku viongozi wengine wakiwa wamenyamaza tu. Hivi karibuni baadhi ya viongozi aliwemo Membe walionyesha concerns kuhusu mauaji yanayoendelea humo Zimbabwe, lakini that was too little, too late. kuna makubwa yatafuatwa baada ya hapo. SADC, AU, UN mnatakiwa kusimama imara. Thabo Mbeki ni kama vile picha tu ya kideo, hana lolote kwenye hiyo mediation. Unapofikia ku-block issue ya Zimbabwe UN unategemea watu waku-judge vipi. Huu umwagaji damu Zimbabwe unatakiwa ujibiwe mapema na Mbeki will be one of people to asked too maana yeye naye amekuwa akikanusha kuwa hakuna mauaji Zimbabwe. Waafrika hatuwezi kuendelea kunyamaza ndugu zetu wanakufa kama kuku. Ule msemo wa "WATU WOTE NI NDUGU ZANGU NA AFRIKA NI MOJA" umeeshia wapi?

 

[Mbu]

Nani wa kulaumiwa hapa, Mugabe, Thabo Mbeki, SADC, AU? Ni upuuzi mtupu kuona hayo yote yanafanyika Zimbabwe huku viongozi wengine wakiwa wamenyamaza tu...

...tena walivyokuwa wanafiki wanasubiria kwa hamu kutuma salamu za Pongezi!

yalitokea haya 2006 Ethiopia kwa Meles Zenawi, na 2007 Kenya kwa Kibaki!

Kwenye hizi nchi za 'kusadikika' ni 'undava' tu kwenye presidential elections!

 

[Moshe Dayan]

shame on AU, shame on Mbeki, shame on SADC, shame on Mugabe.This guy is very greedy and selfish.ameiharibu nchi ambayo years ago ilikua among the top economies of africa.its gonna take decades to shape uchumi wao.Its a bad image kwa africa.

AU should be serious na viongozi kama hawa wanaobadilishakatiba ili waendelee kuongoza.Thats pure selfishness.halafu, its very strange viongozi wa africa hawakemei waziwazi, sjui wanamuogopa!!

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

Waafrika Ndivyo Tulivyo!!!!!

 

[Mbu]

shame on AU, shame on Mbeki, shame on SADC, shame on Mugabe.This guy is very greedy and selfish.ameiharibu nchi ambayo years ago ilikua among the top economies of africa.its gonna take decades to shape uchumi wao.Its a bad image kwa africa.

AU should be serious na viongozi kama hawa wanaobadilishakatiba ili waendelee kuongoza.Thats pure selfishness.halafu, its very strange viongozi wa africa hawakemei waziwazi, sjui wanamuogopa!!

...i bet it's all about, "scratch my back and i'll scratch yours!" , hakuna wa kumfunga paka kengele.

 

[Kaa la Moto]

Hivi sisi pia tunashangaa yanayotokea Zimbabwe? mbona tusishangae yanayotokea Pemba? Nani kasahau ya 2005 tulipoona magari ya kijeshi na kipolisi kila mahali yakipishana? Utadhani tulikuwa katika vita, maana niliiona hali hiyo wakati wa vita na nduli tu!.
Hivyo tukae kimya hatuna ubavu wa kunyooshea Zimbabwe kidole.

 

[Kaa la Moto]

Lugha anayotumia Mugabe ni ile ile ya vitisho anayoitumia Karume kila siku. Nilishangaa kusikia huyu Membe eti anashutumu Mugabe. Najiuliza usanii huu wanamfanyia nani? Tumeshakua siku hizi.

 

[Pundit]

Tsvangirai is a big punk.


June 23, 2008
Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Pulls Out of Runoff
By CELIA W. DUGGER and BARRY BEARAK

JOHANNESBURG - Only five days before Zimbabwe's presidential runoff election, the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai announced Sunday that he was pulling out of the race because armed forces backing President Robert Mugabe have made it clear that anyone who votes for Mr. Tsvangirai faces a real possibility of being killed.

At a news conference, Mr. Tsvangirai, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or M.D.C., said he was unwilling to ask the party's supporters to go to the polls on Friday "when that vote will cost them their lives."

Mr. Tsvangirai's decision came on a day when governing party youth militia armed with iron bars, sticks and other weapons beat his supporters as they sought to attend a rally for him in Harare.

It was the latest incident in a tumultuous campaign season in which Mr. Tsvangirai has been repeatedly detained, his party's chief strategist has been jailed on treason charges most observers believe are trumped up, and rampant state-sponsored violence has left at least 86 dead and thousands injured, according to tallies by doctors treating the victims.

Over the past week, a growing chorus of leaders in Africa and abroad have declared unequivocally that a free and fair election is now impossible in Zimbabwe.

There are growing cracks in the longtime solidarity of African leaders with Mr. Mugabe, a liberation hero whose defiant anti-western rhetoric for years struck a chord in the region, but it remains to be seen whether Zimbabwe's neighbors will censure Mr. Mugabe or take even tougher steps, such as economic sanctions, to isolate his regime. They have never done so before despite elections in 2002 and 2005 that were widely believed to have been marked by rigging and fraud, but that his peers in southern Africa declared legitimate.

The United States and Britain are pressing to have Zimbabwe's political crisis debated on Monday in the United Nations Security Council, a step South Africa, the southern African region's most powerful nation, has consistently opposed.

But Mr. Mugabe, in power for 28 years, has made it difficult for his fellow African heads of state to pretend there is anything normal about this election. He has repeated declared at public rallies in recent days that he would never allow Mr. Tsvangirai, whom he denounces as a pawn of Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe, to become president through the ballot box, vowing that the bullet is mightier than the ballpoint pen.

"Only God who appointed me will remove me - not the M.D.C., not the British," Mr. Mugabe vowed in the city of Bulawayo on Friday. "Only God will remove me!"

Mr. Tsvangirai beat Mr. Mugabe in the March general election by 48 percent to 43 percent, even by the government's own official count. The opposition claimed it won outright and that no runoff was needed.

The Movement for Democratic Change has a history of agonizing about whether to participate in elections it believes will be fundamentally unfair, and there have long been deep divisions within the party about how to proceed. This year, Mr. Tsvangirai reluctantly entered the race, though he argued that the regional mediator, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, had failed to ensure conditions for a fair contest.

Mr. Tsvangirai said earlier this year that at least the election would reveal the ugly face of Mr. Mugabe's despotic reign. Again, the opposition vacillated about whether to participate in the runoff, but finally decided to do so.

In a decision that will certainly provoke a range of feelings in his supporters, many of whom have paid a terrible price for backing his candidacy, Mr. Tsvangirai apparently reached a point where the levels of violence were more than he was willing to see inflicted on his supporters. It is also possible that he and his advisers concluded the systematic campaign to displace thousands of the opposition's polling agents and intimidate its supporters had succeeded in making victory virtually impossible.

Mr. Tsvangirai, a charismatic former trade union leader who has been Mr. Mugabe's hated rival for almost a decade, charged on Sunday that Mr. Mugabe's violent, retributive strategy had displaced 200,000 people, destroyed 20,000 homes and injured and maimed over 10,000 people in what he called in a statement "this orgy of violence."

The opposition party also issued a statement alleging that the high profile show of soldiers and police on Sunday showed, "Zimbabwe clearly is under military rule." It described military helicopters flying over Harare and Bulawayo, the country's largest cities, police officers in riot gear manning the grounds where Mr. Tsvangirai's rally was supposed to have taken place, and ruling party youth militia stoning cars in Harare's suburbs.

Mr. Tsvangirai's decision to leave the race with only days to the finish line ends an election year that seemed after the March general election to offer Zimbabwe its first real hope of change since Mr. Mugabe rose to power in 1980. For a moment, Mr. Mugabe considered relinquishing power, governing party insiders said. But by April, Mr. Mugabe and a clique of military, police and intelligence officials - the so-called "securocrats" - had decided to carry out a violent strategy to hang onto power.