The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) urged Western donors on Tuesday to put aside politics and back its health, nutrition and education projects in Zimbabwe, where nearly one in three children is stunted by malnutrition. Only $2,6-million has been received towards an appeal of $13,8-million launched six months ago, leaving programmes "grossly underfunded", the agency said.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Zimbabwean government to end its attacks and harassment of journalists and to stop police harassment of newspaper photographer Boldwill Hungwe. "We are very upset by recent incidents that show a pattern of media repression and we urge the government to put an end to it," said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Office.

This report was produced by five independent human rights organizations in response to the government of Zimbabwe’s state party report to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (African Commission). It presents a very different picture of the state of human rights in Zimbabwe to that contained in the government’s report.

REDRESS, the international NGO working to obtain justice and reparation for torture survivors, today calls on the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to firmly address Zimbabwe’s torture record, which is rapidly spiraling out of control. Recently, human rights lawyers in particular have been targeted, including Zimbabwe Law Society President Ms Beatrice Mtetwa who earlier this month was severely beaten by police when she and other human rights defenders were participating in a peaceful protest outside the Harare High Court.

There is a lot is to be desired as far as the Zimbabwe crisis is concerned. Factual comment has been put forward, indicating the sufferings that the people of Zimbabwe are enduring. It has been pointed out that action needs to be taken by the neighbours of Zimbabwe, the leaders of SADC, particularly by our president, President Mbeki.

Relating to the position taken by the South African government, the question is: to what extent should the government interfere with the issues of Zimbabwe? To what extent will this government be undermining the sovereignty of Zimbabwe?

The solution to the Zimbabean problem lies with the people of Zimbabwe. Those outside can provide assistance such as free and fair elections and stability during transition.

I am firmly of the view that it is unacceptable to suggest that there is power sharing amongst the elite. Many are to some extent satisfied with the actions of our governments. Dialogue is key in resolving the Zimbabwe crises, as opposed to the US kind of military infiltration and overthrow of governments. Africa still faces grave problems of division along ethnic, religious, cultural and traditional lines. To invade Zimbabwe would be fuelling already existing potentials for conflict.

Africa has suffered many conflicts. Let us give dialogue a chance and respect the work our leaders are doing. Let us find some other creative ways of addressing the problem, and not just utter solutionless comments that may have far reaching consequences.

Christopher Dyani, South Africa

I am responding to Ronald Wesso's article on the challenges for solidarity with Zimbabwe activists. I am a member of Amnesty International South Africa. Our group has a great concern for what is happening in Zimbabwe. We would like to play a more active role than writing letters to Robert Mugabe and his cronies in the government, which remain forever unanswered. If we wished to offer assistance, how is this possible without endangering the human rights defenders in Zimbabwe?

The ministry of education in Zimbabwe is panicking amid reports that over 10 000 teachers are missing after going AWOL when government schools opened for the second term last Tuesday. The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) revealed to ZimDaily that the situation in the ministry has reached alarming levels and ministry officials were in panic mode after the discovery that thousands of teachers were absent without official leave from their stations since schools opened a week ago.

This letter comes from the children of a small nation called Zimbabwe. We are not as old as you are nor are we as wise as you are. We are only children, poor children for that matter. This we say because we believe we do not have the right to be addressing you, rather it would be more than a privilege if this letter passes through your hands, let alone enter your incoming-mail baskets.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/304/41422.jpgRonald Wesso argues that international solidarity with Zimbawean activists, particularly from South Africa, is crucial.

The Zimbabwean situation raises the importance of international solidarity to extraordinary levels.

Many stomachs fell through the floor when people heard President Mbeki and his Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state after their recent summit in Dar es Salaam.

The most these presidents and prime ministers are willing to do are express concern and encourage dialogue.

It is not even clear whether they are concerned for President Mugabe and his violent, power hungry, oppressive regime; or for the victims of the violence, power and oppression.

They are just concerned. So much so that they want sanctions directed against the Zimbabwe government to be softened or lifted.

It is also not clear how Mugabe’s victims are supposed to dialogue with him, while his regime is starving, demonising, beating, raping, jailing and killing them.

Two things are however abundantly clear. President Mbeki and his SADC counterparts will not act against the Mugabe regime in defence of the Zimbabwean people.

They are hoping for an ‘elite transition’ similar to the ones in South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where those with the power and wealth, or who at least have the backing of the rich and powerful, work out amongst themselves how to divide up power and money.

The popular masses are excluded from the process. Inevitably the resulting system leaves them at the mercy of the oppressors and exploiters, trapped in poverty and social crisis. For the vast majority therefore, the SADC solution is no solution.

Zanu-PF is momentarily even dead set against this ‘solution’. Their social base seems to have shrunk to a very tiny business elite and the security apparatus of the state.

Their electoral base among the rural population is shrinking fast. They are not at all confident that any semblance of greater democracy will allow them to satisfy their power hunger.

As for the MDC, both factions want the same transition that the SADC leaders think will emerge from dialogue. They just want more of it and they want it more urgently.

The same could be said of a number of civil society formations such as the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and the Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights.

Of course these groups are not as vile in their betrayal of the Zimbabwean masses as the men who run SADC, but they are politically orientated to work with these men for an ‘elite transition’.

Therefore despite their obvious bravery, courage and dignity that contrast so sharply with the cowardice and selfishness of the region’s rulers, these groups do not really point to a solution for the majority.

So what about other activist forces?

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has led a number of strikes and protests for higher wages and workers’ rights. But politically they are a support for the MDC not an alternative to it.

Civil society formations such as the Women of Zimbabwe Arise, the Zimbabwe Social Forum, the Combined Harare Residents Association and the Feminist Political Education Project have organised campaigns and actions to demand social services that meet the basic needs of the masses. They have initiated and taken part in discussions aimed at envisioning and facilitating a political alternative based on freedom and justice for the currently oppressed.

These groups face enormous odds. Even the strongest among them, the ZCTU, operate as a trade union in a situation where 80 per cent and more of people are unemployed. It is easy to understand how this undermines their bargaining power.

Then there is repression. Just recently the ZCTU had to cancel four rallies they were planning to celebrate Workers’ Day because government supporters (agents) threatened to attack and kill unionists if they go ahead.

All of the activists in these civil society groups have had to face similar arrests, violence, threats and insults. Being an activist in Zimbabwe requires levels of bravery and commitment that few are able to muster right now. It is no criticism of these heroines to say that on their own they will not be able to significantly shift the balance of power from the Mugabe regime, and from the SADC/MDC type of elite transition.

This is where international solidarity becomes so important. From South Africa’s history we know that international solidarity is helpful and necessary.

We also know that there are certain periods when it becomes decisive. After the repression of the Sharpeville era in the early 1960s, the struggle went through a long period where international solidarity was one of its most important mainstays.

Zimbabwe is in a similar period now. International solidarity, particularly from people in South Africa, can play a decisive role in this period and opening up the way for future mass movements in favour of emancipation from patriarchy, state power and capitalism.

Activists in South Africa have been taking up the challenge in various ways. COSATU has been openly critical of both the Mugabe and Mbeki governments and have also organised protests at the border.

Among other things the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) and the Social Movements Indaba (SMI) went on solidarity visits to groups in Zimbabwe and have hosted such groups on visits to South Africa.

Abahlali base Mjondolo (Abahlali) has also expressed solidarity and shown a willingness to take up issues, as has the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and some other groups such as the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.

In Cape Town, the Building Women’s Activism Forum led a public demonstration in solidarity with sisters in Zimbabwe dealing with state and male violence.

This demonstration, as well as others like those initiated by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, attracted relatively small number of people, though not significantly smaller numbers than many demonstrations about ‘South African’ issues such as water cut-offs and the housing crisis.

Clearly, despite widespread xenophobia, and despite numerous grinding social crises in South Africa itself, a number of people are willing to act in solidarity with the oppressed and exploited masses of Zimbabwe. The challenge is to find ways making solidarity actions stronger and more effective.

Broadly it would seem we need to move from protests that express our outrage to direct support.

Take the Building Women’s Activism Forum for example. These are worthy sisters that did a great thing. They had an effective public demonstration against gender violence in Zimbabwe that attracted significant support, including from men. But what next? More demonstrations? Bigger, more militant ones?

Yes, of course. However it would certainly be helpful if the sisters could identify women’s groups in Zimbabwe to support politically, educationally and financially. Such support could mean the difference between surviving or not for women’s groups in Zimbabwe trying to live a feminist agenda.

It is certainly within the capability of activists in South Africa to support their Zimbabwean counterparts with political and educational materials as well as with money. Not only are we better funded and face less repression, the exchange rate means that money we raise can sustain activities in Zimbabwe.

In order to do this kind of work, activists in South Africa will have to identify specific individuals and groups in Zimbabwe to work with.

Generalised, abstract declarations of solidarity will not do the job. High levels of trust will be required as some of the activities will be illegal in Zimbabwe and will be frowned upon by the quiet diplomats of the South African government.

This would need the development of a shared political orientation. It does not mean having the same ideology or even the same strategy. But it needs broad agreement on the major issue whether to seek forms of struggle that create the possibility of going beyond the horrors of today as well as avoiding the pains of an elite transition to slightly different forms of patriarchy, state power and capitalism.

In fact if we take the case of COSATU, we can argue that it is their refusal to take a political position that has constrained their activism on Zimbabwe. They have been careful to avoid the question of who represents the possibility of a Zimbabwe free of state oppression, male domination and capitalism.

When they have been pressed, their closeness to the ZCTU has brought them to a seemingly pro-MDC position. But they have never really acted on supporting the development of an emancipatory political movement in Zimbabwe.

If the TACs and the Abahlalis and the SMIs do not engage in this kind of direct political solidarity with activists in Zimbabwe, they will similarly miss opportunities to contribute to the making of an emancipatory movement and a liberated society.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

To those of you who care about human rights, the rule of law and human decency:

I was one of the lawyers assaulted by Mugabe's thugs in Harare on 8 May 2007.

Our crime: we sought to present to the minister of justice and commissioner of police a petition by Zimbabwe lawyers protesting the unlawful arrest and detention of two of our colleagues, and the defiance by the police of court orders requiring their release and declaring their arrest and detention unlawful.

We assembled outside our high court. Before we could exercise our constitutional right, we were ordered by a senior police officer to disperse - or else. We sought to comply. As we were trooping away some of the police thugs in plain clothes said we were moving too slowly and in the wrong direction.

In actual fact we were going to our offices. They then set upon us with rubber truncheons and baton sticks. I tried to assist one of the female lawyers as she was close to being hit. For my chivalry, I was singled out.

I was hit twice on the head and back, and four times on my arms by a female who seemed to relish assaulting an unarmed defenceless lawyer. I ended up with a swollen head and badly bruised and marked arms and back.

Other of my legal colleagues were hit in varying degrees. The president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe Mrs Beatrice Mtetwa was arrested with three others, driven away in an open truck, and assaulted severely. She needed medical attention. By comparison, I probably got off lightly though I am still in pain.

None of us were charged with any offence, for we committed none. All we wanted was to assert the rule of law and persuade the Mugabe regime to respect laws and the rights of citizens.

For our efforts we were violated and humiliated. But we cannot give up on our country. We cannot yield to a despot or succumb to this lawlessness. While we do not plan to be martyrs, we will nevertheless stand for what is right.

For all its brutality, the government of Mugabe and its instruments of oppression have lost the battle of ideas and values. They rely on brute force to assert themselves. In the long term this is not sustainable, as history amply demonstrates.

Some of you may ask: how can we help? Well I have no great ideas in this regard. The least you can do is pray for the people of this land and for good to triumph over evil. You may also also document these atrocities so that those responsible may know that they will one day be required to account for their misdeeds. You may assure us you care about our battles.

I suspect that I might get into trouble for this email. But others in my country have made greater sacrifices than any I have so far contemplated.

Regards and many thanks for reading this.

This is a call for poetry reflecting on experiences in Zimbabwe, past and present. Poets must also reflect on the spirit of this country's people through words that survive and vibrate.

For further information: write to Tinashe Mushakavanhu: [email][email protected]

The Trustees of the Legal Resources Foundation are deeply concerned by the arrest on Friday 4 May of two lawyers in Harare who had gone to the High Court in pursuance of their clients’ cases. Our deep concern stems from the following:

· The arrest In terms of section 8 of the Legal Practitioners Act [Chapter 27:07] legal practitioners are entitled to represent their clients without fear of harassment from law enforcement agents. Whilst section 13 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe allows the police to effect an arrest upon reasonable suspicion that one has committed or is about to commit an offence, it is impossible to see how the two lawyers could have been reasonably suspected of committing an offence when they were merely representing their clients. There is no way the Police could be said to have been acting lawfully or in good faith.

· Denial of access to a legal representative Section 13(3) of the Constitution states that once a person has been arrested and detained they shall be permitted, without delay, to obtain and instruct a legal representative of their choice and communicate with him/her. By denying the two arrested lawyers access to their legal representatives the Police were acting in direct contravention of the Constitution.

· Disregard of court orders In an effort to secure the release of the two lawyers, two applications for their release were granted by the High Court. The detention was declared unlawful and the Police were ordered to release the two lawyers. The orders were served on the Police, on 5 May and the second on 6 May. These orders were ignored and the lawyers remained in detention until 7 May. This shows the police’s deplorable disregard for the Judiciary and thus for the rule of law.

This reprehensible and unlawful conduct by the Police resulted in the lawyers spending three nights in detention. They were finally taken to court on Monday 7 May, charged with “obstructing the course of justice”, a patently spurious charge. They have since been placed on remand and granted bail of $500 000, despite the High Court orders for their release. It is shocking that the magistrates’ court found the facts as presented by the police justification for putting the lawyers on remand.

· Arrest of state counsel To compound this sad turn of events, the state counsel who consented to the granting of the High Court order on 5 May was arrested and allegedly assaulted by the Police. He went through this harrowing experience lawfully performing his duties. If this is not a breakdown of the rule of law, we do not know what is. The impunity with which the Police have continued to behave in this and similar previous incidents involving civic society leaders has frightening implications. Both the state counsel and the Judges who granted the court orders have been humiliated. A Judiciary which is insulted in this way can no longer guarantee the rights of the people.

· Police attack on lawyers In a show of solidarity with their counterparts, the Law Society of Zimbabwe called a protest march on Tuesday 8 May. The march was to culminate in the handing over of a petition to the Minister of Justice. Lawyers gathering at the High Court were met with a hostile reception by Police, riot police and army personnel. A senior police officer proceeded to declare the gathering unlawful and ordered the lawyers to disperse but before they had time to do so the lawyers were attacked with batons and at least six were severely beaten.

The Trustees of the Legal Resources Foundation unreservedly condemn such high handedness on the part of the Police. In a country where the rule of law applies, the Police, and any other Government agency will obey court orders without question. Where court orders are ignored or disobeyed with impunity, then there can be no doubt that the rule of law has been abandoned. Is this the image of Zimbabwe that the Government wants to portray to the rest of the world or are rogue elements of the Police acting on their own?

It is deeply regrettable that the Minister of Justice, the Chief Justice, the Judge-President and the Attorney-General have remained silent in the face of this invidious assault on the rule of law. Their silence states loudly that our Justice system can no longer deliver and that no one in Zimbabwe is guaranteed the protection of the law.

Trustees, Legal Resources Foundation Date: 11 May 2007

In an unprecedented poll by show of hands, the Pan African Parliament (PAP) voted overwhelming on Friday to send a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. Suzanne Vos, a member of the South African delegation to the PAP, proposed a motion asking for a debate on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and that the PAP send a fact-finding mission to that country.

At least 370 Zimbabweans were on Wednesday arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa during a police crackdown on crime and illegal immigrants in the city. In an early morning raid, the police stormed a building in central Johannesburg that they said was a sanctuary for “illegal immigrants and criminals terrorising the city.”

The country is losing an area of green belt equal to two football fields a day in the wake of massive electricity shortages, Newsreel learned on Thursday. Since the beginning of the year the country’s urban areas have experienced rampant deforestation as a result of persistent power cuts by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority.

Zimbabwean lawyers have tasted the cruelty of their country’s baton-welding security officers. After breaking their organised march, the police beat up several lawyers outside the High Court in the capital Harare. The police had earlier unleashed similar attacks on opposition activists, including the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, for holding a prayer meeting in Harare.

Zimbabwean police banned journalists from holding peaceful street marches on Thursday to commemorate World Press Freedom Day, while there were renewed calls to repeal harsh media laws and improve working conditions for journalists.

The massive hike of prices of maize by the Zimbabwean government was a far from the expectation of poor Zimbabweans. Rugare Gumbo, the agriculture minister, spilled the beans that the government increased the country’s staple food by 680 per cent. The agriculture minister said the government had taken the decision was to back a 570 per cent increase of the producer price of maize awarded to farmers to encourage food production.

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe warned Zimbabwe's Catholic bishops, who have become increasingly critical of him, that they are treading a 'dangerous path', according to reports published on Friday. Mugabe's comments, in the state-run Herald newspaper, come after a pastoral letter was read out by the country's Catholic bishops on Sunday calling for a new people-driven constitution to avert bloodshed and mass uprising.

A regional NGO based in Harare seeks to recruit a suitable candidate for the post of executive director. The executive director currently reports directly to the board of trustees and heads the organisation’s secretariat. deadline for applications is 9 May 2007.