- PRETORIA -- Amid claims that
up to 10,000 Zimbabweans have died from malnutrition in the past year,
President Robert Mugabe has been accused of raiding his country's dwindling
coffers to fund an extended holiday in Asia.
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- The charges against Mugabe came as police yesterday arrested
three senior journalists from the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper for reporting
his winter break.
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- Editor Iden Wetherell, news editor Vincent Kahiya and
senior reporter Dumisani Muleya are being held on charges that the newspaper
criminally defamed Mugabe by reporting that he commandeered an Air Zimbabwe
jet for his three-week trip.
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- 'I told police that we stand by our story,' Wetherell
said when reached by mobile phone while in police custody. 'The police
say the plane was chartered by Mugabe.'
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- The news comes amid warnings that famine has contributed
to the deaths of 10,000 Zimbabweans last year.
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- The claim is made by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of
the southern Matabeleland area, Pius Ncube.
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- 'There are people who sit four or five days without any
food,' Ncube said, adding that malnutrition was exacerbating Aids-related
diseases, which accounted for a third of the deaths.
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- The seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution
to blacks, coupled with erratic rains, have crippled the agriculture of
a nation that was once a regional bread basket.
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- The World Food Programme (WFP) cut its maize meal rations
for 2.6 million Zimbabweans by half at the end of last year because of
insufficient donations. Oil and pulses have been cut out altogether.
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- As many as six million people could need food aid in
the first three months of this year, according to the independent Famine
Early Warning Systems. The WFP has also warned that the food situation
in urban areas is getting critical. It is facing a $111 million shortfall
from a $197m international appeal it sent out in June.
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- The arrest of the three journalists has come amid evidence
of mounting human rights abuses against opposition party members and a
resurgence of violence.
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- In the latest reported incidents, Mugabe's youth militia
beat to death a member of the opposition MDC and seriously injured two
others, one of whom suffered fractured fingers and toes.
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- MDC supporter Alexander Chigiga, a farmer, was beaten
to death at his home in Shamva, north of Harare. He had returned to Shamva
during the Christmas holiday, after spending nearly two years in hiding.
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- A gang of 40 youths attacked Chigiga at his home after
midnight on 5 January, according to the reports. Several MDC supporters'
homes were raided that night and a number of people sustained serious injuries.
Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said police were investigating.
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- In another incident, a village headman has been abducted
in the Lower Gweru area. Shadreck Sikombingo was still missing yesterday
after being kidnapped by a group of 27 'war veterans' and Zanu-PF youths
on Monday.
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- According to the headman's family, Sikombingo had been
warned by Zanu-PF officials the previous week that he would be 'dealt with'.
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- Zanu-PF supporters have resumed illegal roadblocks, along
with patrols, in Gweru with a view to identifying opposition supporters,
who are then taken away and tortured, according to local reports.
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- MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi deplored the re-emergence
of state violence. 'Despite claims by Zanu-PF and the Mugabe regime that
there is peace in Zimbabwe, these incidents demonstrate beyond doubt that
lawlessness prevails. The law-enforcing agents have become part of the
instruments for lawlessness and violence.' Nyathi added: 'Suppressing opposition
political parties has no place in a democratic Africa.'
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,2763,1120539,00.html
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