- Dear Family and Friends,
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- A little before midday on the second last day of October
it rained for the first time in six months in my home town. The rain was
neither heavy nor prolonged but just enough to wet the dust and cut through
the searing heat which had reduced most of us to melting pools. The delicious
smell of African rain in the air and the first sighting of a Burchells
Coucal in the garden bought a moment of sanity into what is fast becoming
a crazy and frightening time in Zimbabwe.
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- Just when we had dared to hope that perhaps we could
stagger on in this lopsided unity government until we got a new constitution
and a new election, the wheels fell of completely. Most ordinary people
only realized that something was going on when suddenly there were police
roadblocks everywhere. Gone was the usual bored interrogation of motorists
by painfully young police details, watched by even younger uniformed chaps
standing nearby in the bush with AK-47s.
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- Suddenly, this was a serious business: open the trunk
of the car, open your suitcase, what's in the bag, what's behind your seat?
They wouldn't say what they were looking for but it turned out to be arms
and ammunition which had apparently disappeared from Pomona Army Barracks
in Harare.
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- Then we heard the frightening news of the armed abduction
of an MDC employee from Mufakose and the attempted armed abduction in the
centre of Harare of the MDC's security administrator, Edith Mashayire which
was foiled after she repeatedly screamed for help. MDC spokesman Nelson
Chamisa then told us exactly what we feared. he said:
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- "What we are beginning to see is the genesis of
a political storm of persecution, abductions, and even murder."
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- Then came the own goal everyone's been waiting for Zanu
PF to score, and they did, in classic style. After ten months of posing
as new improved, reformed leaders, everything fell apart at Harare airport.
Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment, was denied entry into Zimbabwe. Despite
having been invited, and then un-invited by the government, and then re-invited
by no less than the Prime Minister of the country, Mr Nowak wasn't allowed
out of the airport and was later sent back to South Africa.
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- Suddenly after months of silence, Zimbabwe was back in
the world news. "Totally unacceptable, unprecedented, a major diplomatic
incident," said Mr Nowak. And so, here we are, back in this grim place
where it's Zimbabwe against the world. It was like being back in time this
week when a BBC reporter speaking about a recent interview in Zimbabwe
used phrases including: "increasingly tense... safe house .... in
hiding ...make sure we're not being followed..."
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- The rain storms haven't started but the political and
human rights ones sure have. Until next week, thanks for reading, love
cathy.
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- Copyright cathy buckle 31st October 2009.
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- www.cathybuckle.com
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- For information on my new book: "INNOCENT VICTIMS"
or my previous books, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears,"
or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to:
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- cbuckle@mango.zw
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