MDC launches diplomatic offensive

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MDC launches diplomatic offensive

BY WILF MBANGA

LONDON - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is making a last ditch effort to galvanise the international community into action over Zimbabwe. He will tell European leaders that they must get involved in extricating the nation from the economic meltdown and political logjam that is causing severe suffering to millions and having a negative impact on the entire southern Africa region.

Founding president of the MDC, Tsvangirai and his modest delegation of four will meet with several European leaders during the next two weeks, including the Nordic states, Belgium, France, Germany and the UK.

President Tsvangirai will highlight the situation in Zimbabwe and tell the world leaders that the crisis is now a national emergency. It is no longer a Zanu (PF) or MDC issue. It needs international help," said party spokesman Nelson Chamisa in an interview with The Zimbabwean this week.

Tsvangirai is accompanied by secretary general Tendai Biti, deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma and deputy secretary for international affairs Grace Kwinjeh.

His goal is to force Mugabe to relinquish power to a government of national unity, which will be tasked with writing a new, democratic constitution and ensuring free and fair elections held under international supervision.

He will address Zimbabweans in the UK at a meeting in London on Sunday night.
This trip, the first since the MDC Congress in March this year, is part of the diplomatic offensive aimed at informing international opinion and urging the world community to come to the aid of oppressed Zimbabweans.

Meanwhile the second prong of MDC's strategy - the nation-wide outreach programme to coordinate national sentiment against tyranny, continues.

While the rest of the country was reverberating with the echoes of the party's victory in Budiriro, about 10,000 people gathered at Gokwe Centre in the Midlands North province on Sunday with the party leadership to chart the way forward, reported Chamisa.

Vice President Thokozani Khupe, told the crowd that the MDC was ready to govern, and had already put in place a reconstruction and stabilization framework for a post-Mugabe era.

The leadership has realized that Zanu (PF) and Mugabe are already history. The MDC belongs to the future, and the rural people must be part of the democratic train to save our country and build a new Zimbabwe, she said.

Rallies are scheduled this weekend in Bindura, Chiredzi and Tsholotsho.

Campaign teams are being deployed to all corners of the country in fulfillment of a Congress resolution that the party will mobilize Zimbabweans for a sustained programme of mass resistance against the regime to demand a new Zimbabwe and arrest the declining political and economic situation engulfing the nation, she said.


Letters to the editor

Vic Falls experience?

EDITOR
I was amazed to read your story "Fantastic experience in Vic Falls". It is common knowledge that Mugabe has destroyed tourism, the economy, degraded the lives of millions of people and yet somebody was able to have a wonderful time at the Elephant Hills hotel - re-living the colonial dream in amazing surroundings, bags to eat and drink and entertained by "young ebony skinned maidens."

I would just like to remind your readers that Victoria Falls may well be the perfect place to be on a Zimbabwean winter's weekend, but only if you are not one of the hundreds of thousands with nowhere to live and nothing to eat, who lives against the backdrop of a 1,800 percent inflation rate and who will be dead before his/her 35th birthday!

TREVOR GRUNDY, UK

Silence is betrayal

EDITOR - In the time of every nation, there comes a time when silence is betrayal and the time has come for genuine and serious human rights defenders to speak out. I am joining the many people who have been brave enough to speak about the suffering we have had under the Mugabe regime.

The people who have taken the biblical message seriously: Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:8ff).

Zimbabweans have nothing to show for 26 years of independence. We no longer have a leader, I mean a caring leader to address our suffering. It is paradoxical because the person who is supposed to be there for us happens to be the author of our suffering. Zimbabwe is today torn between two societies. One society is built upon the freedom of the human person, and the other one is opposed to that freedom.

All democratic and progressive forces belong to the society built upon the freedom of the human person. This is the category of people who have been labelled enemies of the state, puppets of the West etc. But I differ with whoever came up with such nauseating labels.

Who is the enemy of the state? The enemy of the state is anyone who uses force to stay in power, anyone who uses the uniformed forces to suppress any peaceful demonstration, anyone who rigs an election to lengthen his overstaying in power.

We are experiencing hell on earth due to sheer misrule. In a country fraught with injustice, repression and corruption there is no philosophical justification to remain the leader. Give others their chance. People power will set you free. In the end victory belongs to the people. Whether you like it or not.

MUTSA, Harare

Roy Bennet has suffered enough

EDITOR - Roy Bennett is a highly respected Zimbabwean leader. In denying him political asylum, the South African government has clearly displayed its support for Zanu (PF) and it's insensitivity to the suffering of Zimbabweans.

Roy Bennett was sentenced to one year in prison by a Mugabe kangaroo court for pushing a fellow MP in parliament as a result of false and insulting accusations by Patrick Chinamasa. He served the sentence and came out a popular hero of the Zimbabwe people.

This was not what the Mugabe regime had anticipated, so they dreamed up ridiculous treason charges, which would see him sentenced to death. It is a well-known fact that the judicial system has been subjugated, corrupted and vandalised by the regime, so much so that magistrates and judges who try to give impartial verdicts are targeted by Mugabe's agents.

The upshot of this is that Roy Bennett, an innocent man, was likely to have been faced with the hangman's noose. It is for this reason that he fled the country. The fact that the South African government refused Bennett asylum reflect either dangerous and ominous signs of sheer racism or complete ignorance of the realities on the ground in Zimbabwe.

It must make one think about recent statements made by Cosatu about the possibility of another dictatorship, like Zimbabwe's, becoming a reality in South Africa. Roy Bennett, his family and the people who used to work with him have suffered immeasurable tragedies at the hands of Mugabe's thugs.

One of his workers, a woman, was raped and murdered when his farm was invaded. The South African government must know about what happened because it was well publicised in the media. It boggles the mind to contemplate the possibility that their love for Mugabe has blinded them or is it that the South African government is simply following Mugabe's orders. The Pretoria administration has openly supported the atrocities being perpetrated on the people of Zimbabwe under the smoke screen of quiet diplomacy.

South Africa could have used its political muscle and economic muscle to reign in Mugabe. However, a donkey cannot laugh at another donkey's tail when it can feel its tail growing also. People like Willkie Modishe, Zwelinzima Vavi, their team and followers realise that this country is a powerhouse to liberate the rest of the oppressed African Countries. If these people were in power, then Swaziland would not be where it is today, and Zimbabwe would still be a land of milk and honey.

South Africa would have a lower unemployment problem because the almost 4,5 million Zimbabwean refugees would not be competing for South African jobs.

We believe South Africa is in the wrong hands and we predicted it three years ago. The article that we wrote three years back clearly stating that South Africa was in the footsteps of Zimbabwe is available on www.zimbabwean.netfirms.com

To President Thabo Mbeki, we say that this callous, blatant action to refuse Roy Bennett sanctuary from tyranny is a disgrace to humanity. It smacks in the face of your constitution and your obligation to preserve and foster human rights on this continent. We Zimbabweans will remember you actions and when freedom comes to our land, as it most surely will, you will not be welcome under any circumstances.

CONCERNED ZIMBABWEANS ABROAD, Johannesburg

A salute to Budiriro residents

EDITOR
Please allow me this opportunity to salute the Budiriro residents for daring to vote against both Zanu (PF) Mugabe`s and Mutambara`s. The MDC under its incumbent leader Morgan Tsvangirai has revealed its usual colours to its opponents that it is people's party by winning a heavily-contested Budiriro by-election by such an amazing big margin.

The Budiriro Residents have also conveyed a clear massage to the said Professors that with or without them MDC will remain the only people's party under its President Tsvangirai. Also, though Mugabe and his fake war veteran candidate tried to intimidate them by singing liberation songs at their rally and claiming to own them they refused to be owned, but chose to affiliate themselves to MDC for a New Zimbabwe and a New Beginning. I salute your courage guys! Keep it up.

S MASUKU, Johannesburg

In the name of freedom

EDITOR
It is not surprising that Thabo Mbeki is in Britain negotiating a deal on behalf of Robert Mugabe in order that he has immunity from prosecution from human rights abuses in the past and the present. Now we know what Thabo Mbeki means when he speaks of quite diplomacy with Mugabe.

Let us not forget the ANC'S 100th anniversary in 2007, where Mugabe will no doubt be hailed as a hero in the so-called liberation struggle. Where freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of movement in Zimbabwe are monitored daily and crushed by the army, police and so-called war veterans. Where the media have been bombed and shut down by Mugabe, where the judiciary is politicised and belong to Mugabe抯 regime. All in the name of freedom!
NAME WITHELD, Harare

Blair an embarrassment

EDITOR
Tony Blair you are embarrassment and a disgrace. No wonder Britain is spiralling out of control. Mugabe and ZANU-PF have total control over the economy in Zimbabwe regardless of which political party forms a new government. Why not give a blank slate to all ZANU-PF members who have murdered, raped and robbed for that in truth is how deep the mass human rights abuses are. Enter the IMF and the United Nations for Tony Blair's quite diplomacy. He has blood on his hands with Iraqi why not Zimbabwe?
ALBERT WEIDEMANN, North Yorkshire

Zimbabwe will be free again
EDITOR
It gives me great joy to see copies of The Zimbabwean side by side with the major tabloid newspapers in most retail and convenience shops in UK.

At these sad times when most independent newspapers have been banned, freedom of speech denied, journalists arrested and the state-controlled media so economic with the truth, your paper is without doubt the best thing that has happened to those in pursuit of the truth, facts, unbiased news and information about the current political and economic situation in our troubled land.

It is through The Zimbabwean that most of us in the diaspora have of late learnt with regret the extent of the unprecedented economic crisis, the untold sufferings of the starving masses, the unspeakable horrific demolitions of houses, the excruciating suffering of the displaced homeless people, the dire shortages of food and fuel, crumbling health and education system, spiralling HIV and AIDS, the collapse of basic amenities in urban areas, the crippling shortage of foreign currency, the alarming school fees hike, rocketing inflation, the blatant violation of peoples rights, the unjustified closure of independent newspapers and the brutal violence perpetrated on long-suffering Zimbabweans by the repressive regime.

The voice for the voiceless has become the ideal oasis for reliable and factual news at these current times when the propaganda-laden state-owned and controlled media now resorts to distorting news, peddling lies, diverting attention from fundamental issues bedevilling country, downplaying sensitive stories, burying news regarded as bad for government publicity and fabricating information about what's really going on in Zimbabwe.

It is saddening to see the state mouthpieces shamelessly trying to give the impression that all is well and under control in Zimbabwe, publishing what they want people to believe ?not the facts.
Its common knowledge that the repressive media laws have been legislated to hide the real truth from the populace and world at large about how bad things have gone in our homeland and who is to blame for the crisis. Thanks to your paper and a few other newspapers that have survived the slaughter of press freedom, we are kept abreast of the key developments at home and we have a forum to express our views.

Mr Editor, let it be known to the architects of the draconian media laws AIPPA and POSA and those enforcing them that they may crack down on press freedom, ban or close newspapers, arrest journalists and silence people from expressing their views and opinions freely but they can's remove that burning desire for change.

Keep telling it as it is Mr Editor, bare the truth without fear and let The Zimbabwean newspaper be the mouthpiece of the downtrodden oppressed majority. As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, one day Zimbabwe will be free again and some people will be held to account for the part they played in destroying this once peaceful and prosperous country of ours.

INNOCENT CHIMHAU, London UK