Mugabe sends modern 'ark' with animals to North Korea

Besides taking young elephants away from their mother - which conservationists say could lead to health problems or death - there is another rumor that he included endangered rhinos in the shipment. Robert Mugabe will give away anything to hold onto power for another day. The Guardian:

According to conservationists, the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, will send a modern-day ark – containing pairs of giraffes, zebras, baby elephants and other wild animals taken from a national park – to a zoo in North Korea.

The experts warned that not every creature would survive the journey to be greeted by Mugabe's ally Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader.

There are particular fears that a pair of 18-month-old elephants could die during the long airlift.

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Mugabe's police raid opposition offices

Same old, same old. Time to completely shut down this ridiculous unity government that is anything but.

Zimbabwe police raided a house used by executives of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party, saying they were searching for weapons, the country's finance minister said Saturday.

Tendai Biti, secretary-general of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, said about 50 armed police "ransacked" the house in a Harare suburb on Friday night.

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Mugabe welcomes back familiar face

Which of course, is not good news for Zimbabwe. AFP:

Zimbabwe's former information minister, reputed to be the mastermind behind Zimbabwe's harsh media laws, has rejoined President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF, the party said Friday.

Jonathan Moyo, currently Zimbabwe's sole independent lawmaker, had been welcomed back into the fold, said Ephraim Masawi, ZANU-PF spokesman.

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Robert Mugabe's 10,000 acre farm

It's good to be the king. The Telegraph, of course, is obsessed with the white farmers but the real issue is not the skin color of the farmers. The more important issue is that again, Mugabe is behaving as though it's his kingdom and his disastrous agricultural policies that have left people starving. (h/t Cat)

The discovery of the 10,000-acre holding worth £2 million is the first evidence of how he personally benefited from the land seizures programme which started in 2000.

More than 4,000 commercial farmers had their land taken in the drive that destroyed Zimbabwe's agriculture industry, the bedrock of the economy.

Even in the Mugabe-created failed state of Zimbabwe, these farm holdings are worth over $3 million. Read More......

Mugabe claims sanctions are illegal

Probably not, but certainly torture, murder and starvation are crimes against humanity. CNN:

Mugabe, giving his first major Western network interview for at least five years, also defended his government's record in the face of international accusations that he has driven a once-prosperous country to the brink of ruin.

"It is not a basket case at all," he said.

"Things are much better in terms of food. We have had hard years... years of drought. Sanctions as well. Combine effects of drought and sanctions and what do you get?"

To be fair to Robert Mugabe, yes, it's definitely not as bad as Pol Pot's Cambodia. Compared to the neighboring countries and considering how strong the agricultural output was even during his early years, it's a basket case. Having spent a good deal of time in southern Africa and being familiar with how it compares, Zimbabwe is a catastrophe. The sooner Robert Mugabe goes, the better. Read More......

Mugabe slams "bloody whites" as EU delegation arrives

As someone who believes post-colonialism is still pilfering the African continent, this is counter production to moving the continent forward. How is it that "bloody whites" are the problem yet when Mugabe hands over the only functioning businesses (mines) to China, that has nothing to do with colonialism? Oh that's right, he receives military equipment to repress the black population of Zimbabwe. It's corrupt leaders like Mugabe who are destroying Africa and blocking progress. The "bloody whites" may be guilty of many things but in recent years it's Robert Mugabe who is the murderer of Zimbabwe as he regularly deploys thugs to beat up, torture and murder political opponents, most of whom are black.

Hungry people are more interested in farms producing food over handing out land to old friends. Instead of handing over those farms to incompetents, how about turning over lots to people who know how to farm? Bad rule is bad rule whether those in charge or black or white.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has condemned "bloody whites" for meddling in his country's affairs and attacked the West for trying to impose its rule on the southern African nation.

Mugabe's comments on Friday came a day before he met a delegation of European Union representatives who are in the country to ease relations and push progress on Zimbabwe's political reforms.

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US to extend aid to Zimbabwe

The challenge here is to deliver aid to the people and not to Robert Mugabe and his allies. In many surrounding African countries, aid is typically delivered via the traditional local power structure. The tribal chief is in charge, so the tribal chief takes more and the rest is trickled down through the tribe. In Western eyes it's not always fair but that's how it works. At this point anything is better than passing through the Mugabe power structure. CNN:

The United States will provide $73 million in aid to Zimbabwe, President Barack Obama announced Friday after meeting with Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House.

"I obviously have extraordinary admiration for the courage and tenacity that the prime minister has shown in navigating through some very difficult political times in Zimbabwe," Obama said.

"There was a time when Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa, and (it) continues to have enormous potential. It has gone through a very dark and difficult time politically."

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Morgan Tsvangirai to meet with Obama today

If anyone would know a few ways to get around Robert Mugabe and his criminal regime, it ought to be Tsvangirai. Asking the US and other countries to invest in what's left of Zimbabwe is no small task because of pillaging of anything with a value in Zimbabwe. Regardless, the power-sharing PM needs to find investments, food, assistance to stop the bleeding in that country. While many at home complain of the failure of the Mugabe-Tsvangirai unity government compromise, there is not much that can be done as long as the healthy looking 85 year old Mugabe remains alive and in power.

Until Mugabe is gone, nothing will change quickly so Tsvangirai can only ask for help and hope for the best. Washington Post:

MDC officials insist they have made progress. Now in control of the Finance Ministry, the party has stabilized the previously astronomical inflation rate. Store shelves are stocked, gas stations have fuel and public teachers and health workers are back on duty, thanks to new a $100 monthly stipend.

But much remains unchanged. The media cannot report freely, though Tsvangirai has said restrictions would be scrapped. The attorney general and the central bank governor are still in their jobs even though Mugabe appointed them in violation of the power-sharing agreement and MDC leaders have called for their ouster.

At least 170 farmers have been taken to court recently for "illegally" occupying their land in a continuation of a decade-long campaign by Mugabe to reclaim white-owned land despite a regional tribunal's order that it stop.

MDC officials say human rights abuses have declined, but many observers disagree. In recent months, opposition and civil society activists have been dragged in and out of courts and prison cells on charges -- widely considered fabricated -- that they plotted to overthrow Mugabe.

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Mugabe celebrates 85th birthday with massive party

The healthy looking 85 year old spared no expenses including the efforts of schoolchildren. A dictator has minimum standards, you know. Can't someone send him a bag of those pretzels that Bush liked so much?

Robert Mugabe marked his 85th birthday yesterday with a sumptuous banquet in Harare at the start of a week of parties which observers say is a further sign of the Zimbabwean president's defiance in the face of growing criticism of his regime.

His latest show of excess came as prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai said "maybe US$5bn (£ 3.5bn)" would be needed to rehabilitate the collapsed health, social and education systems.

Surreal celebrations got under way on Friday as schoolboy pipers, accompanied by drum majorettes, marched through the decrepit capital and members of a ruling party youth organisation sold $10 raffle tickets.

Teetotal Mugabe's private party yesterday was hosted by his wife, Grace, 44, and attended by friends and a number of African diplomats. But state television did not, as is customary, broadcast his speech.

A $100-a-ticket gala dinner at Harare's Rainbow Towers Hotel on Wednesday is advertised as a musical extravaganza including Nigerian hip-hop star 2Face, Congolese rhumba band Werrason and a host of local acts. The parties will culminate on Saturday with a public feast and concert at Chinhoyi, about 50 miles west of Harare, which is to be televised. Dozens of animals will be slaughtered for the event and guests include hundreds of children also born on 21 February.

Zimbabwe University political science professor John Makumbe said the birthday display was the latest of many signals that the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) does not intend to respect the power-sharing agreement that saw Tsvangirai sworn in on 11 February.

"The money for the parties and the cattle and chickens donated are extracted from people virtually against their will," he said. "Thousands have died from cholera and many students are not attending school or university because teachers are not paid. It's unbelievable that he can blow quadrillions of Zimbabwe dollars on parties."

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Zimbabwe opposition official arrested

That didn't take long. Robert Mugabe strikes again. Once a lying, cheating, corrupt despot, always a lying, cheating, corrupt despot.

A top official of the Zimbabwean prime minister's party who had expected to join the unity government was arrested Friday, the party said, in an early indication the country's new political partnership will be rocky.

The arrest of Roy Bennett, which party officials said was unexplained, was announced shortly before senior ministers in the coalition government were sworn in.

The inauguration ceremony was delayed in a last-minute dispute that, like Bennett's arrest, underlined the challenges of bringing the Movement for Democratic Change into government with a party that has beaten and detained opponents.

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Mugabe's newest wave of terror

This is why someone needs to usher him out of Zimbabwe today. He's the healthiest looking 84 year old I've seen and has no plans to go anywhere, any time soon, so cut a deal and let the suffering people of Zimbabwe live in peace. The former breadbasket of Southern Africa has become a wastebasket, with cronyism, torture, death squads, cholera and starvation. Bringing Mugabe to justice would be great in an ideal world but at the moment, no one can afford another day of his brutality.

Fears are mounting in Zimbabwe for the lives of more than 40 opposition officials and human rights activists who have been abducted as part of a renewed crackdown by the regime in Harare. At least two more members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have disappeared in the past week, along with a freelance investigative reporter.

"The abductions are increasing and it now seems to be happening nationwide," Nelson Chamisa, an MDC spokesman,said yesterday.

The operation, codenamed Chimumumu according to sources in the army, aims to eliminate political opponents and remove human rights monitors. The kidnappings follow a pattern familiar from the past two years of political intimidation, where key middle- and lower-ranking officials are "disappeared" in an attempt to terrorise or destabilise opponents of the ruling party. Among those taken in the past month are Chris Dlamini, the head of security for the MDC, and Jestina Mukoko, the director of Zimbabwe Peace Project. The ruling party and security services have denied any part in the abductions.

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Failed harvest and failed policy puts Zimbabwe on verge of massive starvation

The power sharing deal between Robert Mugabe (brutal dictator for decades) and opposition member Morgan Tsvangirai was a bad idea when Thabo Mbeki created the arrangement and it's no better today. Morgan Tsvangirai won the election but was forced into agreeing to a power-sharing deal with the man who has controlled every inch of the government. As long as Robert Mugabe has any connection to the government and is not prosecuted for crimes against humanity, nothing will change in Zimbabwe. Nothing.

Aid experts are warning that millions of Zimbabwe's people face starvation as the country's political leaders remain deadlocked over a power-sharing deal and the economy heads for total collapse.

While officials of the Southern African Development Community prepare for a meeting tomorrow in Swaziland, where they will try to persuade President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders to resume negotiations, the United Nations World Food Programme has warned that the number of Zimbabweans needing food aid is expected to double by early next year, to just over five million. The UN has appealed for an extra $140m (£81m) to deal with the crisis.

Richard Lee, a WFP spokesman in Johannesburg, said the organisation was already giving emergency food aid to 2.5 million people in Zimbabwe after the failure of this year's maize harvest. On top of erratic weather, which resulted in droughts in some areas and flooding in others, there were shortages of seed and fertilisers. The government, which buys all grain production, had also failed to set a price that would encourage farmers to grow more than they needed for their own families.

But the "worst thing", the WFP official added, was the decision of Mr Mugabe's government to ban all foreign aid work for three months earlier this year, during the violence-racked second round of the presidential election. The ban was lifted at the end of August. "This delayed the launch of our programme to feed some 1.7 million people," Mr Lee told The Independent on Sunday. "They were more vulnerable as a result."

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Russia, China block UN sanctions against Zimbabwe

Russia has ties to Robert Mugabe dating back to the Soviet Union days and China continues to sell military equipment to Zimbabwe in return for raw materials. (A relationship the West is familiar with in other regions of the world.) Targeted sanctions are fine though leaders such as Mugabe tend to find a way to make life more painful for the general population, so it's not the worst situation to have failed. Besides, the EU has folded on travel bans a few times in recent years so it's not like they could even maintain an existing travel ban. Time to move on to another plan. Read More......

Mbeki continues to coddle Mugabe and promote violence

The long time friend of Robert Mugabe delivers another new plan to divide the opposition and make life easier for the violent despot. Looking at this, of course the MDC opposition sees Mbeki as a dishonest broker. It's even easier to see why his own people voted him out of power. In American terms, this would be like negotiating with Nader, saying he was a relevant leader of the left instead of a fringe element. In an American sense, this would be dishonest. With the violence and murder in Zimbabwe, this is promoting even more violence, if not death.

South African President Thabo Mbeki met Saturday with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and members of a breakaway opposition faction, the South African Foreign Affairs Department said.

Mbeki -- appointed by the Southern African Development Community last year to mediate between Mugabe and the opposition -- met in Harare with the Zimbabwean president and members of a faction of the Movement for Democratic Change.

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African Union gives Mugabe a free pass

Although the AU as a group was unwilling to criticize Robert Mugabe, a few countries including Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Senegal did stand up and were not afraid to speak openly. Meanwhile, Thabo Mbeki is still holding out hope for his "quiet diplomacy" that has yet to show any success despite the lack of success, ever.

Botswana's vice-president, Lieutenant General Mompati Merafhe, declared that the outcome of last Friday's elections, in which Mugabe was the sole candidate, "does not confer legitimacy on the government of President Mugabe.

"In our considered view, it therefore follows that the representatives of the current "government" in Zimbabwe should be excluded from attending SADC and African Union meetings.

Taking the floor in a closed session, Mugabe spoke at length and delivered a blistering counter-attack on his accusers, according to diplomats at the summit. The tone was summed up by his spokesman, who said his critics could "go and hang. They can go to hang a million times. They have no claim on Zimbabwean politics".

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African Union silent on Mugabe election theft

Pretty pathetic, but at least they're not giving him a standing ovation this time. It is difficult for the world to take the AU seriously when no one can step up in public and provide valid criticism. No region is perfect but the election fraud and violence was so blatantly obvious, even a lapdog like Thabo Mbeki could not ignore it. Well, if he wasn't hugging Mugabe at the presidential palace, that is. All of this talk about promoting a joint government is ridiculous. Mugabe lost the election and then launched a campaign of extreme violence so who could possibly trust a partnership with him?

African leaders pointedly avoided public criticism of Robert Mugabe yesterday as he arrived in Egypt for a summit expected to press him to negotiate with the opposition that his Zanu-PF party bullied out of last week's election.

The African Union summit allowed the 84-year-old leader to take his seat, despite strong criticism from African election monitors who questioned the legitimacy of Friday's uncontested vote.

Some delegates at the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh said that in private there was little warmth towards Mugabe; but in public there were no statements condemning the violence that propelled him back into office. A draft of a final communique circulating yesterday called only for dialogue.

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How will African Union respond to Mugabe?

Now that the single-choice, violence-marred campaign is over Robert Mugabe is traveling to join fellow African Union countries in Egypt. Some observers are holding out hope that the AU will voice their opposition to the fraudulent election in Zimbabwe. In an ideal world, perhaps, though considering how European Union allowed Mugabe to visit Italy for a shopping trip only a few months ago, this may not be very realistic. Mugabe was one of the early revolutionaries who fought against European colonialism in Africa so for many, they can easily overlook recent events in Zimbabwe. How they can overlook the fact that the people suffering from hunger and violence are also black and disenfranchised is another question. Read More......

Red ink to save your life

Democracy in action in Zimbabwe. If you can show an ink stained finger, perhaps you will avoid a beating. Without it, anything goes. This is what Thabo Mbeki of South Africa thinks is democracy though the (probable) next President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has been critical of the despot. Nelson Mandela has delivered mild and veiled criticism of Mugabe this week in London though sadly, it's been a terrible missed opportunity for the otherwise respected elder statesman who guided the peaceful transition from apartheid to the new South Africa. I expect neighboring despots and Mbeki to be meek though it's not easy hearing so little from Mandela. Of course he is old and frail, but a few words would have gone a long way.

The young man who gave his name only as Wilson wanted just one thing from yesterday's presidential election in Zimbabwe: the indelible red ink on his little finger to show he had voted.

"They said they would come to see if we voted," he said after casting his ballot in a tent in a Harare suburb. "They know if we went to vote we would have to vote for the president. They were watching."

Who are "they"?

"The ones who made us go to the meetings at night. The ones who told us we must be careful to correct our mistake."

Wilson voted for Robert Mugabe yesterday, against his will but judging that it was the best way to save himself from a beating or worse.

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Mugabe's police raid opposition HQ and take 60 people

Most of those taken by police were women and children who had been seeking refuge from the political violence. Thabo Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" could not be any more quiet if he tried. What a horrible failure Mbeki has been and it's no wonder the opposition MDC views him as a Mugabe ally rather than an independent observer. Read More......

Zimbabwe opposition pulls out of election

Considering the excessive violence towards supporters, an understandable decision. The regional leaders including Thabo Mbeki have a lot of explaining to do for their years of inaction and support of Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has decided to pull out of the presidential run-off on 27 June, party officials have told the BBC.

The decision, taken at a meeting of the leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change in Harare, means Robert Mugabe will remain as president.

The MDC says the decision comes after at least 70 of its supporters have been killed in the run-up to the poll.

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