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Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association

LONDON - News is filtering in from around the UK that a small number of Zimbabweans have been detained. All the detainees we have spoken to were picked up at places of work. If anyone knows of people detained in different circumstances please contact the ZA office so we can keep track of the current position.

The lawyers for AA consider that the AA ruling is defective and are applying for permission to appeal to the AIT. The legal process is continuing, and until it is at an end or the AA determination is finally endorsed by the courts, there is an argument that no one whose case relies on AA should be detained for removal, or forcibly removed.

A large turn out at the vigil on Saturday reflected the anxiety that everyone is feeling. Instead of stressing yourselves worrying about the future please help us by getting organised. Some of you may be in a good position to lodge fresh claims under the AA ruling, but you need to get hold of your files so that this can be checked. Even if your last lawyer has stopped doing immigration work you should still be able to get your file back from them. This may take some time as files are often archived. You MUST start working on this straight away. If they refuse to return your file let us know and we will help you to make a complaint to the Law Society.

For those of you who do not remember who your lawyer was or had a crooked legal representative who has closed down, you may be able to get a copy of your file from the Subject Access Bureau. Check the ZA website for more information on this. If you have none of the necessary reference numbers to apply for your file, don’t despair. They are likely to be written on any correspondence you may have from the Home Office. You can contact the Immigration Office where you sign, by telephoning the Immigration Office at the airport where you entered the country, and by giving them your name and date of birth. They may then be able to tell you your Home Office reference number.

If you wish the ZA to help you find competent legal representation you will need to send us a photocopy of your determination, plus a signed letter from you authorising us to do so. It is possible to come to our office and discuss your situation in person but you need to ring and make an appointment first.

An updated Removals Guidelines will be available from the ZA office shortly and will also be found on our website.

We can be contacted at the office on 020 7549 0355 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, messages may be left on the answer machine at other times, or by fax 020 7549 0356 or email: zimbabweassociation@yahoo.co.uk.

ADVICE LINE: Wednesday 2 – 5 pm
Asylum queries: 13 September
Support queries: 30 August, 27 September



Zims agree on Home Office meeting

LONDON - In a show of unity, Zimbabweans representing various groups met here on Friday and agreed on a delegation to discuss the asylum situation with the Home Office. Representatives of the Vigil, the Zimbabwe Association, the Zimbabwe Action Group, the Zimbabwe Community Association, Free-Zim Youth and both factions of the MDC attended.
Harris Nyatsanza, who initiated the project, was chosen to be part of the three-person delegation to the Home Office, together with Ephraim Tapa, chair of the MDC Central London Branch, and Yvonne Mahlunge, a well-known lawyer. Another lawyer, Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa of the Vigil would assist and two others, Lucia Dube of the Zimbabwe Community Association and Faith Nyamuti of MDC, were chosen as reserves in case the Home Office objected to any of the delegates.
Fazil Kawani of the Refugee Council will facilitate the Home Office meeting, as he did with a similar approach on behalf of Zimbabweans last year. He said the Home Office must be made to understand that the situation in Zimbabwe continues to worsen.
The meeting felt that the main focus should be on protecting people who were in fear of their lives should they be forced home. Others, who had perhaps only become politically active in exile, should be strongly supported. Some asylum seekers, whose cases had been badly represented by dodgy lawyers must be allowed new hearings. While there was general sympathy for Zimbabwean economic migrants, there was criticism that too few of them had been active in the struggle on behalf of their more unfortunate compatriots back home.
Mahlunge said the asylum system had been abused, and the Zimbabwean protest movement in the UK did not have the necessary critical mass to influence government decisions: not enough people, for instance, attended the Vigil. It was also pointed out from the floor that the Home Office knows that many Zimbabweans come and go to Zimbabwe. It was essential to be honest. A ban on sending back Zimbabweans should not include supporters of Zanu (PF) and other nationals pretending to be Zimbabweans. It was suggested that the delegation should offer to help the Home Office in weeding out bogus asylum claims. – Own correspondent


Unity our only weapon

LONDON - During the time when the case was being prepared against the Home Office most Zimbabweans were nowhere to be seen or heard. Evidence was needed to be used against the heartless secretary of the state. Now with the court having decided in favour of the Home Office, most Zimbabweans frantically trying to find out what is the next step.
Most Zimbabweans have their asylum cases denied and have exhausted all the legal channels. Only a few made fresh applications to the AIT basing their references on the AA case. This means a lot of Zimbabweans are facing imminent deportation. The only way forward is for us to be united.
Many Zimbabweans are quite happy supporting the cause from the comfort of their house and are either scared to come out for fear of arrest or for very selfish reasons.
We need urgently to appeal against the decision. We need to mobilise a lot of Zimbabweans to come up with as much evidence and information as possible to help us build a good defence. On the day the decision was announced, 14 Zimbabweans were in detention awaiting deportation.
Everyone is asking: “what do we do now the Home Office has won the case?” We still have options left, we can appeal against this decision to the High Court and if we loose we can pursue it to the House of Lords.
A day of protest should be organised in solidarity with this outcome. It can only be a success if a lot of Zimbabweans participate. John Reid’s office would be an ideal place since it is near the Buckingham Palace. We should understand that the secretary of state has a target to meet. He has to reduce the number of immigrants in this country and Zimbabweans constitute a large number - and he doesn’t care about the current situation or what the deportees will face when they are deported.
The problem is more political than legal and we can’t blame the judges for coming to the conclusion they did, given the quality of the cases they were faced with. Sadly, some of the leadership in our Zimbabwean organisations are hell-bent on creating names for themselves, and in the process they tend to loose focus. We need a committed leadership if we are to make any headway.
We need to take control of our own destiny and be careful of some of our supposed sympathisers, who end up hijacking our cause in order to raise their own political profile. We need to come together as Zimbabweans and make decisions for ourselves and only solicit assistance for logistical and moral support and not sell our souls to the same people who have got us into the situation we find ourselves in today. - Godfrey Nyandoro (gnyandorouk@yahoo.co.uk) & Luka Phiri (lphiriuk@yahoo.co.uk)


Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – 12th August 2006

LONDON - A large and boisterous Vigil with good news from several quarters. Harris Nyatsanza reported on a meeting to prepare for talks with the Home Office on the asylum situation – a three-person delegation accompanied by a member of the Refugee Council will be meeting the Home Office to put the case for Zimbabwean asylum seekers.
Sara Harland of the Zimbabwe Association urged failed asylum seekers to make sure that somebody knew where they were (and had their solicitor’s number) when they went to sign on in case they were detained. She stressed that they should live quietly and avoid breaking the law – no speeding and driving without a licence. Vigil Co-ordinator Evelyn paid tribute to the enormous amount of hard work put in by Sarah.
Someone who has been helped by the Vigil and the ZA, Fadzanayi, came down from Milton Keynes with eight other MDC activists to celebrate getting leave to remain in the UK. They were among supporters who came from far and wide, some of them with children – though we lost a group from Manchester whose car broke down on the motorway. They were not the only people who had trouble getting to the Vigil – the Milton Keynes group traveling in two cars arrived together at nearby Trafalgar Square but managed to get to the Vigil one hour apart!
We were pleased to have founding Vigil member, Chipo, with us again from Leeds. Chipo fled Zimbabwe after being tortured and lost contact with her husband who also fled. He was discovered living in Zambia and has now been enabled to join her in England. - For this week’s Vigil pictures: http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.
FOR THE RECORD: 85 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday 21st August, 7.30 pm, Zimbabwe Forum – upstairs at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2



DUT can help

LONDON - The Dzimbahwe-Umuzi trust (DUT), a non-partisan charity launched in 1999, wants to become more active among the Zimbabwean community in the UK. The group’s main aims are to be an advisory forum on a wide range of matters from immigration, education, employment and training to cultural and spiritual issues, says the coordinator Richard Nyirenda.
They also want to be a forum for the mobilisation of funds and resources for Zimbabweans in hardship and to be a voice of advocacy on issues affecting them. DUT has therefore organised a series of informative meetings, commencing on August 12 at the Mahoe African-Caribbean Centre, in Dudley, West Midlands.
“We will share our vision, the progress made so far and the part one can play in fulfilling this vision. We will also be giving a free update on immigration law,” said Nyirenda
He said many highly skilled Zimbabweans had not been able to make full use of their abilities and DUT was working on how this gap could be bridged. The evening will also be a social evening to meet members of the DUT committee, chaired by Dr Max Matonhodze. For further info www.dutrust.org Richard Nyirenda Co-ordinator 0776651008, Tembelani Tshuma Secretary 07904019469, Mrs TC Gadaga Legal Affairs Secretary at tgadaga@ dutrust.org. Max Matonhodze Chairman 07702499040. Email: mmatonhodze@doctors.org.uk.




Siyaya rocks Edinburgh


EDINBURGH - Siyaya’s energetic musical extravaganza tHAtHA and its brand new musical, Onke Ose, premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have been described by one reviewer as “colourful and climactic” with “ass and hip shaking moves” guaranteed to set the place on fire. After performing at Live 8 last year and winning international acclaim for the exuberance and joy with which they perform, the 15-member group has just undertaken a world tour to Germany, Belgium, South Africa and Scotland.
Siyaya is firmly rooted in Makokoba high density area, Bulawayo. It was founded in 1989 as the Nostalgic Actors and Singers Alliance (NASA). They re-christened themselves Siyaya (meaning on the move) on the eve of their 10th anniversary. One of the group members says the name is “a literal description of our journeys all over the world as well as an identity, an ethos and a heartfelt belief”.
Under the direction of Saimon Mambazo Phiri, Siyaya has toured the world playing at numerous international festivals such as Glastonbury and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. - KJW



Letter from America

Dysfunctional unity – Mugabe’s dream

BY STANFORD MUKASA

WASHINGTON - Many analysts have commented positively on what they saw as hopeful signs that the long-awaited unity of the opposition movement in Zimbabwe is now set to take off.

The recent meeting of opposition leaders, and their expressed interest in pooling energies to fight Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will come as a relief to the masses who felt the split in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)leadership weakened the struggle.

There are basically two dynamics in the opposition politics. One is where opposition leaders come to a unity through a marriage of convenience resulting in jostling for power. Each partner wants a predominant influence over others and tries to impose the agenda.

In the process the momentum of a united front against the enemy gets lost as the former partners publicly trade insults as happened in Kenya.

Someone suggested that a dysfunctional unity has always been Mugabe’s dream and strategy to destroy the opposition. Meanwhile, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) infiltrated the opposition to the extent that the suspicion Mugabe may even have been instrumental behind-the-scenes in forging the broad alliance is plausible.

Yet there is another dynamic to unity in opposition politics. When two or more parties enter into a genuine alliance they use their respective strengths to act as checks and balances on each other. This way, no one can manipulate the other.

In the case of the unity posture exhibited by the civic society leadership recently the parties represented were of substantially different political strengths and degrees of influence.

There are very few people who doubt that Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC is by far the most popular in the country. This gives the party some extraordinary strength in the opposition politics.

Looking at the leaders who participated in the broad alliance formation there are some whose credentials have not been well-established. And the question to them will be: What exactly will be the nature of their contribution to the struggle? It will be helpful if they can itemize what they can do in confronting Mugabe.

It is therefore absolutely important that there be a serious vetting of the coalition partners.

Meanwhile, there is also a real danger that the struggle could be subverted if groups, like Mutambara’s MDC are part of the coalition because they could disown or oppose mass action, as has been the standing policy position articulated by the faction’s Welshman Ncube.

How can the broad coalition call for and implement an agenda of mass protest if Ncube, Mutambara and their colleagues in the breakaway group are pulling against the notion of mass protest?

The problem of forging a common platform under this obstinate opposition to mass action is that negotiations could take a very long time – days into weeks and weeks into months. In the process, the action against Mugabe could be halted pending the outcome of such negotiations.

What is needed is for the parties to the coalition to use whatever resources they have to keep the fire of protest alive. Lovemore Madhuku articulated well the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) position that while the organisation is involved in the formation of the broad alliance, it will meanwhile continue protests.

The same should apply to other parties or groups. Whatever plans or strategies they have for confronting Mugabe they should start or continue them.

The situation in Zimbabwe is desperate – the devaluation of the dollar and subsequent confusion brought by the cancelling of three zeros to the currency has so far created an untenable situation for Zimbabweans.

To make matters worse, thousands of failed asylum seekers face deportation from Britain. Many of these asylum seekers had become the source of support for the
beleaguered Zimbabweans back home. With no hope for getting jobs any deported asylum seeker faces economic hardships, not to mention the prospect of harassment and prosecution by Mugabe and Zanu (PF).

All these events bring renewed pressures on the opposition movement to take bold, decisive steps towards mass mobilization against Mugabe. The broad coalition must not be a coalition for its sake. It must be an alliance of dedicated revolutionaries who have selflessly given themselves both by word and deed to the struggle.

The clarion call to confront Mugabe means there must be an unimpeded progress to plans for mass action. Any unity in the opposition movement must effectively promote and support mass action.


African art in Paris

BY STEPHEN CHAN & RANKA PRIMORAC

Paris is a city replete with museums, and the idea of building another might have seemed unlikely, yet one has just been opened at an elite location near the Seine and the Eiffel Tower: the Musée du Quai Branly, devoted to the indigenous arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Visitors interested in the material culture of Zimbabwe will encounter an unexpected but welcome sight in one of the African rooms: a wooden headrest with the familiar concentric circles on the vertical support pillar.

This collection – the pet project of President Jacques Chirac - is housed in a series of magnificent new buildings, designed by the architect Jean Nouvel. When questioned, Chirac said he would not demur if the new complex came to be named after him. This museum is his monument, and it has established its collection by ransacking two smaller museums: the former National Museum of African and Oceanic Arts and the collections formerly held by the Museum of Mankind .
But it is also intended as a monument to something else: at a time when France is beginning the search for a way to acknowledge the ethnic and cultural differences among its citizens, while at the same time holding on to the ‘universal’ Republican values, the new museum consciously seeks to recognise and celebrate otherness. It displays 1000 items of indigenous art rotated from a repository of 70 000. The majority of its African artefacts is looted from the former French colonies.

The term ‘looted’ is not idle. The instructive element of Branly is not only the collection itself, but also the gormlessness of the labelling. The descriptions of objects on display are antiseptic, almost to the point of banal: only in one tiny touch-screen enclave is there a short illustrated sequence of how the kings of Dahomey resisted the invasion of the French. The Dahomean warriors are shown armed with rifles, but being driven back by the French.

This is the only recognition of resistance to the process of colonisation, through which the Branly’s collection was acquired – and it is a depiction of resistance lightly told. In actual fact, in the early 1890s, the armies of Dahomey fielded 1700 rifles, five machine guns and six artillery pieces; they hired foreign instructors; they deployed trench warfare and artillery control of river crossings. It took the French army two months to slog it to the Dahomeyan capital, whereupon King Gbehanzin burnt his city to the ground rather than surrender it, and took to the bush to fight a guerrilla war. His royal artefacts are on display in Branly, but his name does not loom large over them.

This much is expected of all postcolonial institutions that reduce colonialism to symbols and gestures. But there is a further element to the Branly museum that many will find troubling. Nouvel’s buildings are surrounded by a 200-m glass wall, facing the river, through which the greenery of the surrounding gardens will soon be visible. Those gardens have deliberately been designed to seem disorderly, and to form a contrast with the disciplined symmetry of a typical French Garden. Even the metal back fence of the Branly property is made to resemble the reed and bamboo plants which it will contain; at the museum’s front, there is an entire wall covered with vegetation – the Branly’s ‘hanging garden,’ designed by a botanist. It is as if it was deemed obvious that non-western art should be surrounded by something approximating a wilderness.

Inside the main building, galleries are shaped like great wombs – accessed through a narrow winding passage, earth-coloured, bathed in muted light and eschewing straight lines and right angles – so that African, Oceanian etc. parts of the exhibition merge into one another without strongly marked boundaries. The intended effect, we are told, is to preserve the poetic qualities of the other’s art – but what is also achieved is further distancing: yet again, non-western worlds are represented as both seductive and disturbing, both exaggeratedly ‘natural’ and irredeemably different.

Having said all that, it must also be said that the collection, as a collection alone, is superb. Some of the exhibits are so beautiful and powerful that it is perhaps no wonder they were taken back to France. It is also no wonder they later inspired an important part of Picasso’s work – some of it displayed across town in the Hôtel Salé in Marais. But the Branly museum seems suspended in its own world, isolated from both history and everyday realities surrounding it.

It is a museum that is greater than the other Parisian museums in this ability to secure an attention torn away from context; that is to say, a museum that succeeds through its dictatorial qualities. Perhaps to some French citizens, torn themselves from Africa and now inhabiting the poor housing estates around Paris, it might seem logical that the building should be named after Chirac. - For visitor information, see http://www.quaibranly.fr