Mugabe inauguration scheduled in Zimbabwe

NF Reporter · 06-29-2008, 08:07 AM

AP - President Robert Mugabe was preparing to be sworn in for a new term Sunday and extend his nearly three decades as Zimbabwe's ruler, claiming victory in a violent and widely discredited runoff election.

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waltky · 06-29-2008, 09:08 PM

Guess the rest of `em are just as corrupt as Mugabe is...

African Union unlikely to confront Mugabe
Sun., June. 29, 2008 - Despite calls to isolate him, AU ready to greet dictator after disputed vote

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Fellow African leaders showed little willingness to stand up to President Robert Mugabe and condemn the longtime Zimbabwe ruler's disputed, violent reign Sunday ahead of his arrival at an African Union summit. Despite international calls to isolate Mugabe, the AU readied to welcome him as a legitimate head of state.

"It will be none of this summit's business to choose the titles for leaders, it is the business of this summit to see what we are going to do for the suffering people and masses in Africa," Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe remarked when asked if he would address Mugabe as president. Mugabe was inaugurated Sunday after declaring victory in a presidential run-off election from which the opposition dropped out, citing violence against its supporters.

A draft resolution written by African foreign ministers during two days of talks ahead of the AU summit, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, did not criticize the elections or Mugabe. It condemned violence in general terms and called for dialogue. At least 86 people have died in election-related violence and some 200,000 people have been driven from their homes.

Participants may push for power-sharing

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UN: Zimbabwe vote not legitimate
June 30, 2008 : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has criticised Zimbabwe's election in which President Robert Mugabe won another term as "deeply flawed" and the result not legitimate.

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"The Secretary-General has said repeatedly that conditions were not in place for a free and fair election and observers have confirmed this from the deeply flawed process," Mr Ban's spokeswoman Marie Okabe said as the UN head visited Tokyo. "The outcome did not reflect the true and genuine will of the Zimbabwean people or produce a legitimate result," she said.

Mr Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, was sworn in yesterday, barely an hour after the election commission declared he won more than 85 per cent of the votes cast. Mr Mugabe had lost the first round to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who pulled out of the run-off election citing a campaign of violence against his supporters.

Mr Ban "encourages efforts of the two sides to negotiate a political solution that would end violence and intimidation", his spokeswoman said. The UN was "ready to help in any way possible to produce this result", and deputy UN chief Asha-Rose Migiro and Mr Ban's Zimbabwe envoy Haile Menkerios were at the African summit opening today in Egypt.

UN: Zimbabwe vote not legitimate | NEWS.com.au

waltky · 07-08-2008, 09:59 PM

Russia's no help...

Zimbabweans attacked after leaving embassy grounds
Monday 7th July, 2008 - More than 350 people, who had sought santury in the South African embassy from political violence, were attacked on Monday at a government camp, where they had been relocated.

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About 20 men in military fatigues and balaclavas carrying shotguns, burst in on the refugees at the state rehabilitation camp near the village of Ruwa about 30 km east of Harare, where they had been assured last month by the South African embassy they would be secure. Eight people, three of them women, had to be taken to hospital after the beatings.

Fourteen young men, believed to have either fled into bushland or been abducted, are missing. The 354 refugees were displaced from their homes in northern Zimbabwe by a countrywide wave of state-backed militia violence against supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change before the June 27th presidential run-off election.

The violence caused MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out of the run-off, leaving President Robert Mugabe to sweep up a controversial sixth term in power uncontested. The group had been sheltering at Harvest House, the MDC's headquarters in Harare last month, when police raided the building. Most were able to flee and make their way to the South African embassy's car park.

After spending nearly five days in the open in midwinter, they were finally provided with food, water, sanitation, tents, blankets and mats by local non-governmental organisations. On June 27th, they were moved again by Zimbabwe authorities, with the agreement of the South African embassy, after obtaining assurances they would be protected by police.

Zimbabweans attacked after leaving embassy grounds

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Russia rejects sanctions against Zimbabwe
Tuesday 8th July, 2008 - Russia at the Group of Eight (G8) leaders meeting here Tuesday rejected further sanctions against the regime of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

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'We don't believe that in this case sanctions are an effective tool to improve the situation in Zimbabwe,' said Russian official Alexander Pankin on the sidelines of the summit meeting in Japan.

Pankin added that Russia was of the opinion that there first should be 'a broad negotiation' at the national level, which would include other leaders from the continent.

'It is important to maintain peace and stability in Zimbabwe and not to trigger a situation that would be unstoppable or could unfold in a very negative way,' he said.

Russia rejects sanctions against Zimbabwe

waltky · 07-23-2008, 01:21 AM

Good for the EU!...

EU widens Zimbabwe sanctions
July 22, 2008 - EUROPEAN Union foreign ministers have widened sanctions against Zimbabwe, adding 37 more people to a list of individuals under a visa ban and asset freeze.

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The EU's French presidency and an EU official said 37 individuals and four "entities" - probably major companies - will be added to the list of more than 130 individuals under a visa ban and whose assets are frozen. It is the first time that business people and companies in Zimbabwe have been targeted by EU measures.

The move, at talks in Brussels, was announced despite the signing yesterday of a deal between veteran President Robert Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai on the framework of the talks. Mr Mugabe was re-elected in a run-off last month after his opponent MrTsvangirai pulled out, citing a campaign of intimidation and violence against his supporters that had killed dozens and injured thousands.

Britain said earlier this month that it was seeking tougher EU sanctions after a bid to pass United Nations sanctions against Zimbabwe's leadership was vetoed by Security Council members Russia and China. "The sanctions that we and others are proposing are designed very much to reinforce the drive for the transition government to reflect the democratic will of the Zimbabwean people," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

EU widens Zimbabwe sanctions | NEWS.com.au

waltky · 08-27-2008, 12:10 AM

Zimbabwe Parliament heckles Mugabe...

Trying to Boo Mugabe Offstage
Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 - With Zimbabwe's economy in ruins, millions of its people living as refugees abroad and its security forces beating, torturing and killing dissenters to Robert Mugabe's regime on a daily basis, Zimbabwe's opposition could be forgiven for having a few things to get off their chests. On Tuesday, they did.

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For the first time in living memory, 84-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for 28 years, was heckled and drowned out in parliament. As Mugabe tried to deliver a keynote speech opening a new session of parliament, opposition members — who now form a majority in the assembly and reject Mugabe's authority to call them together — broke out in whistles, shouts and even song. From the opposition benches, where the MPs refused to stand, a chorus of "Zanu Yaora" rang out, meaning 'Zanu is rotten.' (Zanu is the shortened acronym for Mugabe's party, the Zanu-PF or Zimbabwean African Union-Patriotic Front.) Mugabe tried to ignore the noise and continued to speak but many of his words were lost.

The scenes were an unprecedented public show of defiance from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (M.D.C.). The party won a parliamentary majority in the first round of a general election on March 29, and its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, bested Mugabe in the presidential election, without winning an outright majority. That was the cue for the security forces and their allied militias to unleash a wave of repression which Human Rights Watch says resulted in the deaths of 166 opposition supporters and activists, more than 5,000 injured and tens of thousands of Zimbabweans displaced. Three months of that was enough to persuade Tsvangirai to withdraw, and Mugabe "won" a second round of the presidential election unopposed in late June. But so blatant was the regime's conduct that Mugabe drew unprecedented criticism from within Africa — something that appeared to have persuaded him to open power-sharing talks with the M.D.C. Now a month old, those talks have stalled and, perhaps in an attempt to continue his one-man rule, Mugabe announced last week that he would appoint ministers and regional governors and convene parliament. If that was his intent, it backfired. On Monday, M.D.C. MPs elected one of their own as speaker of the house. Tuesday's scenes were perhaps even more humiliating for the octogenarian president.

The day began badly for Mugabe when, displaying scant regard for the poverty of his people, he arrived at parliament in a Rolls Royce, his chief adjutants trailing in Mercedes. "No wonder why these people don't want to relinquish power," an onlooker shouted at massed police lines guarding the building. "Who would want to leave such high life? The cost of these cars alone would pull Zimbabwe out of its mess!"

Nearby, queues formed outside a bank as Zimbabweans waited to withdraw remittances sent from abroad by relatives. When a 21-gun salute sounded in Mugabe's honor, people scattered, as though they expected reprisals. The mood of rebellion seemed to infect the ranks of Harare's political analysts too. Though few could hear him, Mugabe vowed in his speech to tackle corruption and provide food. Political analyst Fred Musayengana dismissed the address as lacking substance. "There is really nothing to talk about in the President's speech," he says. "It is hollow. It does not address fundamental issues like employment, increased production and how Zimbabwe might become self-sufficient."

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