- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- The end is near! I haven't felt so positive about Zimbabwe
since the 9th March 2002 when I stood for 4 hours in a queue and with huge
pride and satisfaction marked a bold cross on a ballot slip in
our Presidential elections. On that day, I felt 99% sure that we were
about to see democracy in Zimbabwe. I was wrong then but now I feel
100% sure that the end is in sight. No, I haven't gone mad but for
the first time since the September 11th terror attacks in America, the
world has started noticing us again and had the courage to openly criticise and
condemn our government's policies and actions. This is excellent news and
at last we have hope to hold on to.
-
- The US announced that they were considering taking what
they called intrusive and interventionist action in Zimbabwe to ensure
that people who are starving to death are able to access the food that
is being given to us as emergency relief aid. It's taken them long enough
but they seem to have finally admitted that a lot of their donated grain
is not reaching starving people but being hijacked and used to feed
people who support the government. With the US announcement came a
mass of propaganda here at home. The ZBC radio headlines screamed that
America was planning to invade Zimbabwe. Silly as that may sound I got
pulled off the road yesterday when travelling to Harare to make way
for a State motorcade to pass. These convoys are headed by outriders on
police motorbikes. The bikers travel in the centre of the Highway with
lights flashing and sirens blaring. When you see them you must immediately
pull up and stop. I sat on the edge of the road watching in the mirrors
as the car behind me did not stop quickly enough. The biker stopped, waved
his fist at the driver and shouted at the man for a couple of minutes
before moving off. Then I watched in wide-eyed horror as the convoy
passed. First a BMW, then a silver Mercedes and then 14 armoured cars.
All the vehicles were filled with soldiers wearing yellow berets,
pointing their rifles at us standing next to huge cannons. The convoy appeared
to be heading towards Mutare which is a border crossing into Mocambique
and perhaps our government think that that is where the Americans will
invade from!
-
- The EU also finally publicly announced that food
is being used as a political weapon in Zimbabwe. This announcement caused
another immediate rash of vitriolic propaganda in our State media and
resulted in our government playing tit for tat. They announced that they
had imposed a travel ban on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and 121 members
of his government and frozen their assets in Zimbabwe. They also announced
that the Zimbabweans who run the Voice of the People Radio Station and
Short Wave Radio Africa may not return to the country.
-
- For the last 32 months everyone has been saying
that things will have to hit rock bottom before anything happens to
change the situation in Zimbabwe I think it would be fairly accurate to
say that Zimbabwe has now hit rock bottom.Things are falling apart very
rapidly now. There are queues of 100 and more cars at the few filling stations
that have fuel, there's very little food to buy, meat went up 100% this
week, bread flour is non existent as is maize, sugar and cooking oil. One
cob of green maize costs $110 if you can find it and almost every queue
you see is now manned by police.
-
- Thank you all for reading my weekly letter these last
32 months, thanks for lobbying your MP's and ensuring that the true stories
of horror in Zimbabwe are exposed. At last our work is bearing fruit and
the world has started believing that the crisis in Zimbabwe is not about
land or race but about politics. We have hope now, we don't know how or
when this hell will end but now at least we know it will be soon. The EU,
US, UK and UN finally found the courage to speak out and now we look to
South Africa and our regional neighbours to do likewise and prove to us
that they aren't racists and greedy politicians but that they really
do care about the suffering of ordinary people. Until next week, with
-
- love, cathy
-
- <http://africantears.netfirms.com>http://africantears.netfirms.com
- Copyright cathy buckle November, 2002
|
