Free Zim youths demonstrate against Mbeki

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LONDON - The pressure group Free-Zim Youth (UK) marched and danced on the streets of London and staged a demonstration at the South African embassy last weekend. The event coincided with the fourth anniversary of the Zimbabwe Vigil.

The event, which was attended by more than 200 people, was filled with chants and songs against the Zanu (PF) government in Zimbabwe. Many political and human rights activists, Zimbabwean and non-Zimbabwean, attended the event showing solidarity with the Free-Zim Youth group.

Speakers included the prominent civil rights activist, Peter Tatchell, gender activist and advocate, Yvonne Marimo, and the African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALSCN)'s Tokumbo Oku, who called on all Africans to show international solidarity as was done to the African National Congress (ANC) during the apartheid era.

Tokumbo blasted the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe for writing historic wrongs about his contribution and about neo-colonialism. He blamed Mugabe for presenting himself as an African revolutionary, instead calling him an "African dictator".

ALSCN is a democratic organisation led by Africans who support independent African organisations who are fighting oppression and tyranny in Africa, and who are fighting racism in the West.


The long trail marched from Zimbabwe House to the South African embassy in central London. Free-Zim Youth leaders, Alois Mbawara and Wellington Chibanguza were dressed in military gear to mark the renewed fight for democracy in Zimbabwe.

The group marched carrying a mock coffin symbolising the Gukurahundi massacres and this was dumped at the embassy.

Alois Mbawara and Wellington Chibanguza leaders of Free-Zim Youth, expressed their disappointment at Mbeki for not speaking out against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and blamed the South African leader as not being an honest broker in the crisis. They said that this is the first of a number of campaigns scheduled at the South African and SADC country embassies in the UK.

After the demonstration the Free-Zim Youth group marched back to the Zimbabwean embassy to join the Zimbabwe Vigil in marking their fourth anniversary.

The event included many groups, including the press from different Zimbabwean and foreign newspapers and many concerned people from the streets of London often stopped to join in the dances and find out more about the demonstrations.

"Mugabe should be ashamed of his betrayal of the Zimbabwean people," said one passer-by. "I saw him here in London in the late 70s during the Lancaster House negotiations and he seemed like a visionary who would make the lives of Zimbabweans better, instead he has made their lives worse, and should be ashamed", she continued.

The Youth said this was only the start of war with Mbeki. They are also demanding an update from the outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan before he leaves office.

Solidarity messages from YCL (young communist league) of South Africa, Gabriel Shumba (Zim Exiles Forum SA) and COSATU who are also working to put pressure on the South African Government. – Own Correspondent