- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- On a clear and bright winter day this week, President
Mugabe and his wife Grace emerged from a spotless and sparkling open topped
black Rolls Royce outside Parliament buildings in Harare. Crowded at the
fencing nearby were scores of women who ululated fanatically whenever they
caught a glimpse of the President. They were all wearing skirts, dresses
or head scarves which have President Mugabe's face printed on the fabric
and so wherever we looked the President's face looked back. In his speech
to mark the opening of Parliament, the President defended the countrywide
destruction of squatter camps, informal housing and street vending stalls
and markets.
-
- The President said this was a "vigorous clean up
campaign to restore order" in urban areas. Half an hour later the
President and his wife left in their convertible Rolls preceded and proceeded
by shiny limousines containing men wearing dark glasses, ear pieces and
black suits, and trucks filled with soldiers in yellow berets. The large
chested women in their portrait decorated clothes left and that was the
end of that view of Zimbabwe.
-
- Meanwhile, in the same week, same country and same town,
a very different picture was being seen. I quote from the report by opposition
MP Trudy Stevenson: "This afternoon police set fire to furniture and
other belongings of those Hatcliffe Extension residents who had not yet
managed to leave - despite the fact that there were not enough police lorries
to ferry all the people away to Caledonia Farm by the time they started
burning. My suspicion is that they simply got tired, and decided to finish
quickly by burning out everyone remaining - babies, sick, elderly, crippled,
etc. included.
-
- As I write, I have no idea how many people have lost
everything they possessed, nor do I know what has happened to those people.
It was reported that they were told by the police that they had taken too
long to leave, and now they would have to go in the lorries simply in the
clothes they were wearing, nothing else - no food, no clothes, no furniture."
-
- In another report, the chairman of the Harare Residents
Association writes: "If you take a drive to the north tonight you
will see on the side of the roads out towards Domboshawa, as many as 10
000 people just camping in the open."
-
- For three weeks now we have been surrounded by horror
in Zimbabwe. Ordinary people have become helpless pawns, at the mercy of
state officials who bundle them into lorries and take them away. It is
happening in towns all over the country. Since the closure of Short Wave
Radio Africa 11 days ago, there has been no way for ordinary people to
tell the world of the hell that is overtaking them. Night after night we
despairingly search along the short wave frequencies hoping to hear what
was our only voice but it is gone. We can find only religious channels
or Chinese ones but our Zimbabwean voices are lost and we despair. If you
are an exiled Zimbabwean or simply someone who cares please help give us
back our voice.
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- Until next week, the website is www.swradioafrica.com.
-
- With love, cathy
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- Copyright cathy buckle 11th June 2005 http://africantears.netfirms.com
-
- My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears"
and "Beyond Tears" are available from: orders@africabookcentre.com
; www.africabookcentre.com ; www.amazon.co.uk ; in Australia and New
Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au ; Africa: www.kalahari.net www.exclusivebooks.com
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