Zimbabwe: ruling party burning crops

[Mayabird]

Destruction of property and food

It is well known now that the homes and possessions of many people in the rural areas have been destroyed. These images were uploaded to our flickr account yesterday and show some of the destruction (for more, visit this set here). These are from Maramba (above) and Uzumba areas (two images below).

Destroyed home

Destroyed home

But this is what I find to be one of the most calculated acts of cruelty by this regime, one of their tried and tested tactics. They have destroyed food: in a country which needs food aid, Zanu PF loyal thugs have burned piles of maize. Both the images below were taken in the Uzumba area.

Food destroyed

Food destroyed

To give some sense of the history behind Zanu PF’s politicisation of food supplies, we can point you to an article Sokwanele wrote in 2005, describing how food was used as a tool for retribution and punishment by Zanu PF after the 2005 elections - Reward or Retribution: the politicisation of Zimbabwe’s food supply. And this article written in 2004 tackles the same topic: Hunger as a political weapon.

The devastation has immediate physical impacts on human beings it will also affect the run-off election campaign. Intimidation and fear are discussed at length, but even if that is overcome, the practical considerations are significant.

For example, a colleague asked how the party’s rural structures could be revived in time for a run-off. Some of the people who have fled these areas don’t have homes to return to, and their food and clothes have been stolen and destroyed. The same person noted too that that many of those who had been viciously assaulted need time to recover before they can tackle the fight again. She said, “Broken bones take weeks to heal”.

The other side of the struggle rests with those who confronting the challenge, coordinating efforts, trying to repair and help the injured. Another message received recently from someone described a conversation he had had with a health professional who simply said to him “my heart is in tatters”. It says it all.

Zimbabweans are very strong and have endured a lot, but the relentless onslaught by the regime is exhausting and dispiriting and has a massive impact on daily lives.

Acting in response

If people would like to send messages of support and thanks to the health professionals, please leave them as comments below. I will collate them all into a long message and pass them back. It makes a big difference to know the world is watching and responding and grateful for everything being done.

For those of you who are left feeling impotent by this, we have received the names of two people who are instrumental in some of the devastation. Do what you can to find out information on them. I am not sure how much information on these two is available online, but do your best and leave in the comments below.

Retired major Cairo Mhandu (who is also the M.P. for Mazowe North) has been very involved in the violence in Chiweshe, and so has the unopposed Zanu PF winner of Muzarabani South constituency - Raradza.

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/952

[Patrick Degan]

I guess Mugabe saw he was being outdone in the malignancy scale by the military dictatorship of Burma and is trying to one-up them.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

He also started emulating the Junta persecuting the Anglican church there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/world ... we.html?hp

The New York Times
May 16, 2008
Zimbabwe’s Rulers Unleash Police on Anglicans
By CELIA W. DUGGER

JOHANNESBURG — The parishioners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded for the doors, witnesses said.

A policeman swung his stick in vicious arcs, striking matrons, a girl and a grandmother who had bent over to pick up a Bible dropped in the melee. A lone housewife began singing from a hymn in Shona, “We will keep worshiping no matter the trials!” Hundreds of women, many dressed in the Anglican Mothers’ Union uniform of black skirt, white shirt and blue headdress, lifted their voices to join hers.

Beneath their defiance, though, lay raw fear as the country’s ruling party stepped up its campaign of intimidation ahead of a presidential runoff. In a conflict that has penetrated ever deeper into Zimbabwe’s social fabric, the party has focused on a growing roster of groups that elude its direct control — a list that includes the Anglican diocese of Harare, as well as charitable and civic organizations, trade unions, teachers, independent election monitors and the political opposition.

Anglican leaders and parishioners said in interviews that the church was not concerned with politics and that it counted people from both the ruling party and the opposition in its congregations. Yet the ruling party appears to have decided that only Anglicans who follow Nolbert Kunonga — a renegade bishop in Harare who is a staunch ally of President Robert Mugabe — are allowed to hold services.

Over the past three Sundays, the police have interrogated Anglican priests and lay leaders, arrested and beaten parishioners and locked thousands of worshipers out of dozens of churches.

“As a theologian who has read a lot about the persecution of the early Christians, I’m really feeling connected to that history,” said Bishop Sebastian Bakare, 66, who came out of retirement to replace Mr. Kunonga. “We are being persecuted.”

Church leaders say the struggle in the Anglican diocese of Harare is not only over its extensive, valuable properties, but also over who controls the church itself in a society riven by political divisions, especially since the disputed elections of March 29.

Mr. Kunonga, who broke with the church hierarchy late last year and recently called Mr. Mugabe “a prophet of God,” is known in Zimbabwe as an avid supporter of the ruling party and a proponent of its seizures of white-owned commercial farms, often accomplished violently. In fact, he appears to have benefited richly from the policy himself.

While such strong allegiances have clearly played a role in the attacks on parishioners, Anglicans beyond Zimbabwe have also taken steps likely to have enraged Mr. Mugabe and the ruling party, known as ZANU-PF.

The worldwide Anglican Communion issued a statement in January expressing “deep concern” about Mr. Kunonga’s close ties to Mr. Mugabe. Then on April 21, amid the postelection intimidation of opposition supporters, the communion called on all Christians to pray for Zimbabwe’s rescue “from violence, the concealing and juggling of election results, deceit, oppression and corruption.”

And three weeks ago, an Anglican bishop in South Africa persuaded a judge there to halt the delivery of Chinese-made ammunition to Zimbabwe’s military — bullets the bishop warned could be used to repress Zimbabweans.

This is not the first time that a church has felt the ruling party’s fury. Last year, state-controlled television showed photos of one of Mr. Mugabe’s most ferocious critics, Archbishop Pius Ncube, a Roman Catholic, in bed with a married woman, effectively neutralizing him as the leader of the clerical opposition to Mr. Mugabe’s rule. This month, the state-run newspaper, The Herald, reported that the woman had died “lonely and miserable after being abandoned by Ncube.”

Now Bishop Bakare’s followers, who include most of the city’s Anglicans, say that Mr. Kunonga has falsely told the government that they are politically aligned with the opposition — an accusation the ruling party seems to be taking seriously.

Despite a High Court order requiring that Anglican churches be shared among the worshipers, church officials say that only people who attend services led by priests allied with Mr. Kunonga have been allowed to pray in peace.

This week, the Supreme Court dismissed Mr. Kunonga’s appeal of the sharing order, but church leaders say they are far from sure that the law will be enforced.

A widowed mother of five who sings with the choir at St. Francis Church in Waterfalls — and who was too frightened to be quoted by name — asked despairingly this week where she could seek solace now that her church was no longer sacrosanct.

“I go to church to talk to the Lord and feel better,” the woman said. “Now, I don’t know where to go.”

Neither Mr. Kunonga nor his spokesman, the Rev. Morris Brown Gwedegwe, has returned repeated calls seeking comment.

When Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, a police spokesman, was asked about police assaults on Anglican parishioners, he said he was unaware of such episodes and asked for the names of those complaining. “Give me names, because without those I will not comment,” he said. “Thank you and bye.” Then he hung up.

At the heart of the conflict with Mr. Kunonga is more than property and power, but also some of the church’s core values. Mr. Kunonga told Anglican officials last year that he was withdrawing from the mother church because of its sympathy toward homosexuals, they said. By October, the Anglican Province of Central Africa said Mr. Kunonga had “severed” his relationship with the church.

Bishop Bakare said Mr. Kunonga had preached hatred of gays and lesbians, contrary to the Harare diocese’s stand. “We believe in a church that is inclusive, a church that accepts all people,” Bishop Bakare said.

But even a spokesman for an alliance of conservative bishops who oppose “the ordination of practicing homosexuals as priests,” distanced them from Mr. Kunonga. Arne H. Fjeldstad, head of communications for the alliance, the Global Anglican Future Conference, said in an e-mail message that Mr. Kunonga was not part of the conference, but “rather that he’s one of Mugabe’s henchmen.”

Mr. Kunonga appears to have gained much from that loyalty. In 2003, the government gave Mr. Kunonga a 1,630-acre farm outside Harare and a seven-bedroom house that sits on it, according to Marcus Hale, who said the farm, bought by his family in 1990 for $2 million, was confiscated without payment.

Mr. Kunonga’s influence has been felt in church after church in recent weeks as well. Anglican parishioners said they found themselves shut out or driven out by police officers who claimed to be acting on orders from their superiors to allow only Mr. Kunonga’s priests to preside.

At St. Paul’s Church in the Highfield suburb of Harare, the congregation refused to budge and kept singing “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” when a dozen policemen entered the church on May 4. But the commander radioed for backup, and soon more than 50 riot police officers arrived, the church’s wardens said.

Hundreds of parishioners were then drummed out of the church to the deafening beat of baton sticks banging on pews. People began taking out their cellphones to photograph the policemen who had forced them out.

The officers then charged into the scattering crowd, batons swinging. “Even myself, they hit my hand,” said a stunned seamstress. “They said, ‘Go back to your homes. You are not supposed to be here.’ ”

A journalist in Harare, Zimbabwe, contributed reporting.

[cosmicalstorm]

Every day I tell myself it couldn't possibly get any worse for Zimbabwe, every day Mugabe proves me wrong.

[Zixinus]

If there is a country I am thankful to be not born in, that would be Zimbabwe.

God, they are punishing the population by starvation.

[Coyote]

This asshole Mugabe is more repressive and reprehensible than the white government he deposed. The Ian Smith/Rhodesian regime was a weekend in Mister Roger's Neighborhood compared to this.

When will they rise up against him?

[Darth Wong]

This asshole Mugabe is more repressive and reprehensible than the white government he deposed. The Ian Smith/Rhodesian regime was a weekend in Mister Roger's Neighborhood compared to this.

When will they rise up against him?

The strong, the well-armed, and those predisposed to violence are part of his regime.

[Tasoth]

I already know the answer to this question, but if we can invade a country based on the false assumption that they have WMDs, why the hell can't we get on our white horse and intervene in this type of bullshit?

[Kanastrous]

I already know the answer to this question, but if we can invade a country based on the false assumption that they have WMDs, why the hell can't we get on our white horse and intervene in this type of bullshit?

(a) no immediate profit motive for the current US admin and beneficiaries

(b) Zimbabwe isn't co-located with any resources as interesting to us, as mideast oil

[Adrian Laguna]

That's my one and only reaction. I'm just not surprised any more, Mugabe has taken self-caricature so far it's like an old joke that has been told too many times in all its variations. Worse, at least Myanmar's jackasses seem to have some sinister logic (mostly likely just naked greed) behind their actions. Bob is just a stupid moron.

[Rogue 9]

Oh Jesus fucking Christ. Hasn't this bozo earned a JDAM through his bedroom window yet?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Oh Jesus fucking Christ. Hasn't this bozo earned a JDAM through his bedroom window yet?

Has he jeopardized any American or multinational corporate interests? The answer to both questions is the same, unfortunately.

[Guardsman Bass]

Maybe he's afraid that if he doesn't leave the country in bad enough condition, then when he's forced out his successor will have time away from cleaning up all his shit to push for him to be tried in International Court.

[Guardsman Bass]

EDIT: insert " " at end.

In all seriousness, though, why hasn't somebody in his government tried to off him? Are they so dependent on him for their livelihood (or terrified) that even pushing the population to the wall by starvation as well as economic collapse doesn't create an incentive to launch a coup?

[Adrian Laguna]

Oh Jesus fucking Christ. Hasn't this bozo earned a JDAM through his bedroom window yet?

That costs money and political fallout. Since the United States has no interests in the region, and the American people are not demanding action, the government cannot justify the costs associated with it.

[The Yosemite Bear]

This asshole Mugabe is more repressive and reprehensible than the white government he deposed. The Ian Smith/Rhodesian regime was a weekend in Mister Roger's Neighborhood compared to this.

When will they rise up against him?

The strong, the well-armed, and those predisposed to violence are part of his regime.

not to mention when you have no food, it's impossilbe to have the energy to rise up.

[RedImperator]

Starvation has been a weapon of oppressive governments probably since there have been oppressive governments. More often than not, it works. The targeted population is both physically weakened and expends what energy it does have trying to find food, and the rest of the population understands the lesson.

When everybody is starving, then it's a different story--and with the Mugabe regime's economic policies, that's a distinct possibility--but otherwise, it works. Cheaper than bullets, too.

[wautd]

There was an interesting article in my newspaper about hyperinflation. Appearantly, 250 million dollars (Zimbabwe dollars) can get you 2 loafs of bread