Although some of the concerns of the Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC) were addressed in recent amendments to the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the law still remains lethal in as far as it makes demands for the accreditation of journalists and media houses respectively. Access to information remains totally closed and much power is vested in public officials and the MIC. This is according to a statement on the amendments made by MISA-Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) says it has received disturbing reports of the harassment of lawyers at police stations throughout the country. "This is a very serious issue and is of grave concern to ZLHR," the organisation said in a press statement.

Zimbabweans returned to work after a week of strikes and violently repressed attempts at protests. But the country's daily suffering - including shortages of food, fuel, electricity, cash and even blood - is expected to bring a rapid return of tension. A five-day strike called last week by the Movement for Democratic Change was successful, but its attempt to bring people out on the streets "in your millions" was violently repressed by the security forces and their notorious militia allies, known as the "Green Bombers".

We are writing to implore you to seek a peaceful and just solution to your country's escalating national crisis. Those signed below are Americans of Africa descent - many of them representing major organisations of civil society in the United States - who have worked for decades to support the liberation movements of Africa and the governments that followed independence which promoted and protected the interests of all of their nation's people. We form part of an honorable tradition of progressive solidarity with the struggles for decolonization, and against apartheid and imperialism in Africa.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has pledged that the challenge to the Mugabe regime will continue with greater intensity. "From now onwards we will embark on rolling mass action at strategic times of our choice and without any warning to the dictatorship," he said in a statement. Tsvangirai said Mugabe had been exposed as a "violent and illegitimate dictator with absolutely no pretence to any semblance of civil mass support. He continues to shamelessly hang on to power through brutal force."

Shackled in leg irons and handcuffs, Morgan Tsvangirai was brought into court visibly shivering from cold. Despite the winter weather, he was wearing only scant prison-issue khaki shorts, a short-sleeved shirt and loose sandals. But after complaints on Wednesday by defence counsel George Bizos, Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader was allowed to change into a suit.
Related Link:
* Mugabe keeps Tsvangirai behind bars
http://zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=6959
* Hunger strikers urge Mbeki to use his clout to free Tsvangirai
http://zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=6960

The mass action in Zimbabwe last week organised by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) should be seen in the context of a protracted struggle that is part of a process of building a successful movement, says this commentary published on the site. The harsh reaction of the state to the protests had been a "rude awakening" for the MDC and the party would now have to go back to the drawing room to reorganise. There was a need for civil society to be involved in this process and the ball was in the MDC’s court to immediately call in civil society and work together in strategizing for the future.

Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian crisis unprecedented in its history. Save the Children has been running a food aid intervention since October 2001, and has also been providing technical support to two local NGOs undertaking supplementary and general feeding programmes. This postholder will work alongside a second food security advisor and be responsible for providing technical guidance on the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of food security interventions in Zimbabwe.

Bulawayo businessman Mr Delma Lupepe has donated $100 million to the Great Zimbabwe University in Masvingo and pledged more money over the next five years.

Two journalists from the Voice of the People Communications Trust were detained, interrogated, beaten and had their mobile phones and recorders confiscated by ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front youths and war veterans. In a related incident, the home of John Masuku, Coordinator of Voice of the People, was searched and Voice of the People administrative files and a computer used in the production of programmes, confiscated.

Higher education institutions in the country, the University of Zimbabwe in particular, have lost their status as academic institutions ready to offer a haven for constructive criticism of government excesses, writes Tapera Kapuya, the former Secretary General of the University of Zimbabwe Student Union. 'Bomber' militia run university security. Students are harassed and beaten with apparent impunity. Members of the secret police watch dissident lecturers and students, and armed riot police are ready to pounce at any slightest show of discontent by members of the academic community. As Brian Raftopoulos, a professor at the university’s institute of development studies and chair of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee, said in his Canon Collins Memorial Lecture in London last week, its academics are polarised between adjuncts to the Zanu PF propaganda machine and critics of the regime.

Human rights conditions have deteriorated markedly in Zimbabwe over the last few months, Human Rights Watch said in a new briefing paper. The briefing paper, "Under a Shadow: Civil and Political Rights in Zimbabwe," details the government's policy of repression and the harassment of opposition party members by state institutions and supporters of the ruling party.

The privately owned daily The Daily News was targetted in the Zimbabwean government crackdown on protests last week, with the newspaper reporting acts of vandalism by ZANU PF youths who destroyed its papers across the country. Soldiers also reportedly barred some vendors from selling the paper because it was allegedly “fanning the protests”.

This week, while African leaders persuaded the G8 heads in Evian to listen to the views of African heads of state on their own development path, the Zimbabwe regime used military force to suppress the views of its people.

The five African leaders argued for a new attitude towards Africa, based not on aid, but on respect for African approaches to solving economic and social problems. While there is debate on the paths being put forward, the idea that powerful nations stop unilaterally restructuring the world to suit their own goals, at the cost of poverty and decline in the south is not in dispute.

This makes the Zimbabwe regime’s efforts to unilaterally restructure economic and political life to secure its own political survival at the cost of a nation’s economic misery and fundamental rights a problem for the continent as a whole. It fundamentally undermines a central African position in global engagement.

Zimbabwe is currently in a freefall to economic collapse. Unemployment has soared, rural production declined, productive land is underutilized, and essential supplies sold at unaffordable prices in the parallel market. Once vibrant production and service sectors have collapsed.

While the long term imbalances of an inequitable colonial economy are not in dispute, the flight of capital, the exile of millions of young Zimbabweans, destructive engagement with the international community, growth of hunger, acute collapse of production and growth in speculation traces back to the policies of the current regime, and its unwillingness to listen to national voices other than its own.

The massive desire for a new people driven constitution has been shelved, and efforts to revive it are met with brutal suppression. Electoral processes have been undermined by violence and suppression of basic electoral rights, culminating in a 2002 presidential election that Southern African Development Community (SADC) parliamentarians said did not met regional standards. People’s efforts to gather within civil society to defend labour rights, to be informed through national media, to join political parties of their choice or to freely chose elected leaders have culminated in arrests, assault, torture and starvation, reinforced by a violent extra legal partisan militia. Frustration over political exclusion, economic decline and rights abuses have led to an increasing level of non-violent social action in 2003, including labour strikes and national stayaways. These too have been met with arrest of civil and political leaders and assault of citizens. Southern African leaders calling for Zimbabwean people’s rights to peacefully protest have been ignored.

In May heads of state from the region travelled to Harare in an effort to broker dialogue. While the need for dialogue was publicly endorsed by both ZanuPF and MDC, there appeared to be no sign of urgency or initiative from the regime to take dialogue forward, nor to resolve the economic crisis. Instead dialogue was tactically blocked by ZanuPF demands that a central agenda issue– that of legitimacy – be dropped.

Angered by poverty, confronted by lack of constructive leadership in the regime, disillusioned by lack of decisive action from regional leaders, ordinary people have now pushed for their own right to act. In a week of collective action from 2 to 6 June 2003 in Zimbabwe, there was an almost complete shutdown of workplaces and stayaway of workers. Thousands of people tried to hold peaceful marches in different parts of the country but were forced back by police, army and armed militias using teargas and live ammunition. People were indiscriminately assaulted with batons and whips, some within their homes. Unarmed youth were forced back using dogs, helicopters with tear gas, water cannons and weapons. By midweek over 300 people were reported to have been arrested, including the MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Secretary-General, Welshman Ncube, the Mayor of Bulawayo, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, numerous city councilors, MDC officials and Members of Parliament. A number of cases have been reported of people still missing after being detained by security forces. The major cities of the country have been put under siege through army, militia and police assault and violence to hold people within their areas.

This stand off between ordinary people and the crackdown on democratic rights by security and army operatives in the streets of Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and other parts of Zimbabwe is not simply an abuse of the democratic right to peaceful protest, it is a symbol of the crisis that Zimbabwe has reached. Will Africans vacillate over political uncertainty while ordinary people are abused by military power? The UN Secretary General, an African, urged the MDC to ensure their action was peaceful and lawful, and urged the Zimbabwe government to respect basic principles of freedom of expression and assembly and the human rights of those participating in the mass action. African American Organisations in the US from trade union, African solidarity, church and civil society, coming from a tradition of progressive solidarity with struggles for decolonization and against apartheid, condemned the ‘police brutality and excessive force’ being used. “Such trends in the abuse of human rights are not only unacceptable, they are threats to your country’s stability and they are undermining the economic and political development your people desire and deserve.”

These and other voices are adding to the internal pressure calling for those holding political power to realize that constituent power, not military power, should determine our future in Africa. In the stand off between unarmed people exercising rights to freedom of expression and assembly and armed and violent repression by security forces, it is the hand that holds the ballot and not the gun that fires the bullet that is the basis for our sovereignty.

The bloodshed and abuse of people’s rights in Zimbabwe blots the conscience of the continent. If you agree, petition your media, political leadership, SADC and African Union (AU) leadership condemning the current flagrant abuse of people’s democratic rights in Zimbabwe and calling for:
* An end to the police and military siege of Zimbabwe’s communities;
* Disbanding of militia and an end to police brutality and use of excessive force to repress citizens;
* Recognition of the right to peaceful, non violent collective action;
* An end to political repression and release of political prisoners in Zimbabwe; and
* Immediate and unconditional dialogue between MDC and ZanuPF.

FOUR DAYS OF PROTEST: MONDAY TO THURSDAY

MONDAY:
* Cops shoot live rounds to disperse protestors

Zimbabwean police fired teargas and shot live rounds in the air to disperse several hundred protesters marching towards downtown Harare from the nearby township of Highfield, witnesses said.
* Demonstrators killed, report says
id=15521
"Zimbabwe must be seen as a test case for Africa, for the resolve of leaders and peoples to deal with a rogue and illegitimate regime. We in MDC recognise and affirm that violence does not resolve such a crisis, and we will not use the same tools that are used by the repressor." - Morgan Tsvangirai, in an interview with Zimwatch.
* MDC response to protest ban

Zimbabwean police fired tear gas and warning shots at demonstrators in one Harare township on Monday, the first day of a week of opposition protests against President Robert Mugabe, witnesses said.
* Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai released
http://allafrica.com/stories/200306030881.html
AT least 115 people were arrested yesterday as security forces swooped on demonstrators and officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a move to crush anti-government protests that are expected to end on Friday.
* G8 concerned about Zimbabwe
* Letter to Mugabe condemns repression
id=15431
MDC members arrested in Masvingo, including the member of parliament for Masvingo Central, Silas Mangono, were denied food while being detained, the MDC reported.

WEDNESDAY:
* Anonymous report on violence in Harare
* Arrests continue as Tsvangirai fights ban order
* Councillor assaulted in his home

Zimbabwe's anti-government strike kept the country at a standstill for the second day yesterday with fewer reports of public demonstrations in the face of a massive show of force by army and police.
* Police beat patients in Harare
Zimbabwean police raided a private Harare hospital, the third day of a week-long national strike, beating and arresting several patients, according to doctors.
* Opposition claims success

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it fears violence after information that Mugabe had ordered soldiers to move from door to door in overcrowded townships and beat anyone who failed to report for work
* Human Rights Activist Arrested

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claimed last night that one of its officials in Harare, Tichaona Kaguru, had died after being allegedly abducted and tortured by government security agents in a crackdown on opposition supporters.
* Protests and Arrests: Crisis Information Updates
http://www.zvakwana.org
Remember that in high density areas running battles continue to occur between pro-democracy activists and the repressive state authorities. Brave Zimbabweans have, throughout this week, taken on the might of the illegitimate regime. Visit the Zvakwana newsletter for the latest news.

The government has locked horns with the Private Hospitals Association (PHA) over plans to gazette and control all fees charged by private health institutions in the country, The Standard has established. Sources said the government would, in the next "few months", set all fees paid in private hospitals because the institutions were charging rates beyond the reach of the ordinary people.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), a regional freedom of expression and media freedom organisation that has been protecting media freedom and promoting free and pluralistic media in the southern Africa region over the past 10 years, says it is deeply concerned about the pernicious security situation facing independent media practitioners in Zimbabwe. MISA has strongly protested the government's tactic of utilising the confusion around the current mass demonstration to launch a crackdown on independent journalists and crush dissent in Zimbabwe.

Management at the government's Chronicle newspaper has ordered Internet service provider, M-Web, to investigate how a hacker broke into its website and posted 'unpalatable' stories that denigrated or criticised President Robert Mugabe. Stories critical of Mugabe were posted in Tuesday's online edition of The Chronicle after a hacker gained access to its website.

When Zimbabwe designated a 5,000 square kilometre stretch of southern savannah as the Gonarezhou National Park in 1966, the new park boundaries did more than protect the wildlife within; they locked people out. With the creation of the park, the government forcibly relocated a number of traditional communities that had lived on the land for generations. The conflict between parks and local people is not unique to Zimbabwe. Disputes can be found all over Africa. The continent has a history of displacement of villagers to make way for the establishment of national parks.

Land reform has brought about the most far-reaching redistribution of resources in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. After a slow but orderly process of redistribution between 1980 and 1999, a fast-track programme was implemented between 2000 and 2002. This phase of land reform involved the acquisition of 11 million hectares from white commercial farmers for redistribution in a process marked by considerable coercion and violence. Prior to land reform, an estimated 320,000 to 350,000 farm workers were employed on commercial farms owned by about 4,500 white farmers. Their dependants numbered between 1.8 and 2 million. How did farm workers fare in the massive redistribution of land? What was the broad impact on them? And what are their future prospects? This is the subject of a recent report, 'The Situation of Commercial Farm Workers after Land Reform in Zimbabwe', prepared for the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe.

As Zimbabwe moves inexorably into greater and greater crisis, the prospect of a negotiated transition moves higher up the agenda of possible solutions. What place will the allegations of crimes against humanity have on the negotiating table for the political transition in Zimbabwe? This is not a trivial problem, writes regional human rights defender A.P Reeler in a report 'Crimes against humanity and the Zimbabwe transition', but perhaps the most serious issue to be discussed in all the negotiations over the transition. "The manner in which this is dealt with will have an enormous effect upon the future of Zimbabwe, as was the case with South Africa," says the report.