- President Robert Mugabe's regime drove some of the most
repressive laws in Zimbabwe's history through parliament last night, hours
before the arrival of the English cricket team on its controversial tour
of the country.
-
- Critics say that one law will cripple human rights groups
and allow the regime's abuses to pass unrecorded. Another law will ensure
that Mr Mugabe's allies run the parliamentary elections due in March. The
regime announced that parliament would sit all night, ensuring that the
Non-Governmental Organisations Bill and the Electoral Commission Bill will
be available for Mr Mugabe to sign into law today.
-
- Both will be ready to come into effect a few hours before
the scheduled arrival of the English team in the capital, Harare,
tonight.
-
- The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which
has called on the England authorities to boycott Zimbabwe, believes that
Mr Mugabe's new laws will remove the country's last vestiges of democratic
freedom.
-
- Once they come into effect, all charities will be forced
to register with a council appointed by the regime. Any deemed to be
concerned
with "governance issues" will be banned from receiving foreign
funding.
-
- The regime has already named 20 organisations, including
every human rights group, as targets for this measure. Innocent Gonese,
the MDC's chief whip, pointed out that all these groups are entirely
dependent
on outside funding.
-
- Mr Gonese added: "What they are trying to do is
effectively prevent non-governmental organisations from reporting on their
bad human rights record. Abuses of human rights will go
unrecorded.''
-
- The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum recorded 37 political
murders and 18,000 other abuses, ranging from assault and torture to
abduction
and rape, before polls in 2000. It blamed supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF
Party for more than 90 per cent of all offences. Deprived of foreign
funding,
they will be unable to do the same for the next elections.
-
- The regime accuses human rights group of conspiring with
the British Government to overthrow Mr Mugabe. The Herald, an official
daily newspaper, yesterday accused them of "destabilising the country
and meddling in its internal affairs under the guise of promoting and
championing
human rights".
-
- An ally of President Mugabe, who styles herself
"Comrade
Spillblood", was all but certain to become Zimbabwe's new
vice-president
yesterday.
-
- Joyce Mujuru, 49, the rural resources minister, vaulted
into the most senior ranks of the ruling Zanu-PF Party after a career
steeped
in the violence and corruption of Mr Mugabe's rule.
-
- Mrs Mujuru chose her bloodthirsty nom de guerre while
fighting with Mr Mugabe's guerrillas during the 1970s bush war against
white Rhodesia. She is married to a retired general.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.
- jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/24/wzim24.xml
- &sSheet=/news/2004/11/24/ixworld.html
|
