Zimbabwe: The Backlash Begins As Paramilitaries Launch Raids
| AR Articles on Zimbabwe |
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| Zimbabwe: 23 Years of Black Rule (Jul. 2003) |
| Zim Over the Edge (May 2002) |
| War on African Whites (May 2001) |
| Thank You, Mr. Mugabe (Jul. 2000) |
| Heart of Darkness (June 2000) |
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The ebbing regime of Robert Mugabe began its fightback in earnest last night, launching raids against opposition offices and foreign journalists in what many feared was the start of a campaign of intimidation.
Paramilitary police raided opposition offices at a hotel in central Harare, ransacking rooms as riot police moved in to arrest foreign journalists at a guest house in the capital.
George Sibotshiwe, spokesman of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said that the party’s headquarters in the centre of Harare and offices in Meikles hotel in the capital had been raided. “They took nothing. They simply ransacked the place,” he said.
As many as four journalists were arrested, including a reporter from the New York Times, in a separate raid on Harare’s York Lodge hotel, where many correspondents were staying.
The moves, described by opposition leaders as the beginnings of a “crackdown”, came after a day in which the besieged octogenarian leader appeared in public for the first time since the polls in which he was defeated by his challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai. Mr Mugabe was shown on state television yesterday meeting African Union election observers—his first public appearance since the close of polls.
Ruling party officials subsequently announced that he would hold a critical politburo meeting today to plot his next move. State media, the ruling Zanu (PF) party and even—according to some—the President himself have conceded that he lost the race to Mr Tsvangirai, but maintain that the challenger failed to secure an absolute majority.
But the Government insisted that Mr Mugabe was in no mood for surrender and was gearing up to fight on. Fears that the embattled leader may yet resort to violence peaked as news of the raids seeped out last night to Harare’s diplomatic community.
Earlier in the day a senior government spokesman said that the party was preparing to invoke “energy” that it had not tapped during the previous election. “Zanu (PF) is ready for a run-off, we are ready for a resulting victory,” Bright Matonga, the Deputy Information Minister, said.
“In terms of strategy, we only applied 25 per cent of our energy into this campaign,” he added, but the run-off would be different. “That is when we are going to unleash the other 75 per cent that we did not apply in the first case.”Unconfirmed reports were circulating among the diplomatic community about an alleged government plot to extend the three-week run-up to the second round to three months, and to use the time to shut down the provisions in the election law designed to thwart poll-rigging.
Key among them is the precedent of publicly posting each polling station’s results on its walls—a move that allowed the MDC, as well as independent observers, to collate the figures and release them in a preemptive strike against poll-fixing.
But well-placed sources were adamant that any such attempts to manipulate the process would fail, even if they were unprepared to rule out some last desperate, and possibly violent, attempt to cling to power.
“Mugabe is a villain of the first order,” one source told The Times. “He is desperate to stay in power and the sting may be in the tail.”
Zimbabwe’s African neighbours are the only countries with any significant influence over Mr Mugabe’s regime but they have thus far failed to intervene in any significant way. Yesterday’s television appearance came after Mr Mugabe met an African election observer team led by Ahmad Tejah Kabbah, the former Sierra Leonean President. Mr Kabbah has also met Mr Tsvangirai, who claims victory in the election with 50.3 per cent of the vote, but who had vowed to contest a run-off if official election results award him less than 50 per cent.
Rumours have swirled around Harare in the six days since the election, amid the absence of information. Zimbabweans, drained by the fatigue of economic collapse, have displayed epic patience in their wait for an outcome. The slow drip-drip of parliamentary results has held people’s focus as they listen to radios, keeping their own running tallies of the score.
But yesterday the information vacuum yawned open again. The long-delayed partial results for the Senate, parliament’s upper chamber, began to start trickling out only last night. The delay, blamed on logistical problems, again heightened fears of manipulation. Since the presidential tally will be released only when the full Senate count is completed, Zimbabweans suspect a government plot to buy time.
“We will stay patient because we must,” said Blessing, a street vendor in the Harare slums of Mbare. “But it is frustrating.” News of the Zanu (PF) loss of its parliamentary majority boosted morale, but only led to further questions over the delay in the release of presidential results.
The grinding logistics of everyday life under Zimbabwe’s collapsing economy have kept many distracted from their fears of worst-case scenarios.
Yesterday, as every other day, huge queues formed outside a bakery from morning as people stood in line clutching bundles of cash, hopeful that there would be food to buy. More than forty people were still queueing when, at lunchtime, the bread ran out.
(Posted on April 4, 2008)
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Has Conceded Defeat: Report
Marius Bosch; Reuters, April 3, 2008
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has admitted to his family and advisers that he has lost the most important election of his 28-year rule, South African financial daily Business Day reported on Thursday.
Mugabe lost control of parliament for the first time since independence in 1980 and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said he had also been defeated in a presidential election last Saturday and should concede defeat.
Business Day said Mugabe had privately conceded defeat and was deciding if he should contest a run-off vote needed because MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed to secure a clear majority.
“Mugabe has conceded to his closest advisers, the army, police and intelligence chiefs. He has also told his family and personal advisers that he has lost the election,” Business Day quoted an unidentified source as saying.
The newspaper said hardliners in Mugabe’s government wanted him to see the contest through to the bitter end, but that personal advisers and his family want Mugabe to quit.
{snip}
In final results of the election for parliament’s lower house, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won 99 seats, while Mugabe’s ZANU-PF won 97 seats and a breakaway MDC faction won 10. One independent candidate won a seat.
Results for parliament’s upper house, the senate, will be issued next.
No official results have emerged in the presidential vote.
{snip}
The mainstream MDC faction said its Tsvangirai had won 50.3 percent of the presidential vote and Mugabe 43.8 percent according to its own tallies.
Comments
The front page of the print version of today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch led with MLK 40th above the fold, and had a story like this below the fold. The first person that fits those two stories together gets a gold star.
Posted by Question Diversity at 7:08 PM on April 4
“Mr Kabbah has also met Mr Tsvangirai, who claims victory in the election with 50.3 per cent of the vote, but who had vowed to contest a run-off if official election results award him less than 50 per cent.”
Zimbabwe has 400,000% inflation (a World record for sure?), starving masses that have started eating dogs and killing the remaining wildlife for food, and almost 50% of Zimbabweans vote to RE-ELECT Mugabe? Of course, one has to be highly dubious about those numbers, but still…Maybe Mugabe has imported some of those notorious Diebold electronic voting machines down there in exchange for more printing presses for our private Federal Reserve System.
Oh that the departed patriot Ian Smith did not live to see Mugabe finally defeated…It doesn’t really portend any different outcome for this country though Morgan Tsvangirai seems to be an intelligent, Western-minded individual who has surely suffered for his activism. He has proven himself a relentless thorn in Mugabe’s side, and has perhaps at long last triumphed.
I’m sure our Western governments and the usual criminal element that helped impose this marxist regime on Rhodesia will provide refuge to this black psychopathic MONSTER even as they left the Whites to suffer and die by genocide/dispossession rather than offering them sanctuary.
For those of you who’ve never seen Mugabe’s humble abode in the face of so much wretchedness, please do check out the provided link (thanks to the poster who emailed it to me):
http://www.thebirdman.org/Index/Others/Others-GuessWhoseMansion-Tony.htm
Posted by Voir Dire at 9:15 PM on April 4
I hope the remaining whites will be able to escape. I would like to have them come to America.
Posted by at 10:20 PM on April 4
I hope the persecuted Whites come to the USA. They have seen first hand what a black communist dictator does. They will be on our side.
Posted by at 6:43 AM on April 5
I’m certain that if he (Mugabe) is forced to leave the country he will 1) destroy his mansion and 2) The Saudis will put him up like a king as they did Idi Amin until his death, and then give him a royal funeral too.
Posted by Skip at 8:52 AM on April 5
The MSM seem to be totally unaware of the fact that Zimbabwe was once ruled by whites. I heard a discussion on public radio yesterday about how Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of Africa. What they somehow failed to mention was that was when the country was called Rhodesia and ruled by whites. If there is one principle that you can take to the bank it is that whenever blacks are allowed to rule themselves it always ends in tribalism, violence and disaster(and this has nothing to do with their so-called “colonial past”). Put Ian Smith back in power in Zimbabwe and it would once again become the breadbasket of Africa, but it would have a white government and power structure. There are so many reasons for the failure of black states: low IQ, a tradition of corrupt tribalism, monetary support from the West which simply feeds the corruption, no real sense of justice or or the rule of law; and the list goes on and on.
Posted by at 9:21 AM on April 5
Bale’s Rules regarding the “success” of black rule:
The “success” of black rule in any country is inversely proportional to the GDP of the country
The “success” of black rule in any country is directly proportional to the level of violence in the country.
The “success” of black rule in any country is directly proportional to the level of international hand outs that the country receives through the IMf, etc.
The level of international hand outs in a black ruled country is directly proportional to the degree of governmental corruption and misappropriation of funds.
Posted by at 9:33 AM on April 5
I have heard stories that white refugees from Africa are not gave refugee status when they request to come to America. I would rather them be here then the child mutilating Somalis.
Posted by at 10:37 AM on April 5
Am I the only one that notices, the majority of rulers that become dictators, are black, brown and yellow?
Posted by at 10:42 AM on April 5
An excerpt from AmRen’s “Zimbabwe: 23 Years of Black Rule” (Jul. 2003)
Zimbabwe teaches several lessons. Two are all too familiar: blacks make a mess of Western institutions, and some will brutalize whites if they get the chance. South Africa will meet the same fate; it is only a matter of time. But losing southern Africa to savagery is far less important than the fact that Britain, the United States, and all other European countries are letting it happen. If the British cannot bring themselves to save their Zimbabwean cousins from white-hating barbarians, they cannot be counted on to save themselves either. If immigration continues, and dispossession comes to the home islands, there will be no mother country to ignore their pleas for help.
Until my Western/White countrymen awaken to WHO is running their governments, and WHO owns the MSM, there is no hope of reversing this disasterous course planned for us all. The tragic fates of White Zimbabweans and now unfurling for South Africaners was orchestrated by the usual culprits and is gradually (through mass immigration) being implemented and will be visited upon us as well.
For the hands-down best article written about this once prosperous country, see The New Americans “From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe” (And please duly note the ubiquitous Kissinger’s role in this epic crime against White humanity - by their words and their deeds, ye shall know them)
http://thenewamerican.com/node/5059
Posted by Voir Dire at 11:54 AM on April 5
“The MSM seem to be totally unaware of the fact that Zimbabwe was once ruled by whites. I heard a discussion on public radio yesterday about how Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of Africa.”
I’ve noticed this too. ‘Zimbabwe’ has never been anything but a hellhole. ‘Rhodesia’, on the other hand, was the bread basket of Africa. You can guarantee that the MSM is totally aware of the difference. This is classic deception by omission.
Posted by Wonder Bread He-Man at 3:10 PM on April 5
I’m not surprised that Mugabe is clinging to his office; indeed, I said this would happen in a previous post on a story run here, a few days ago.
Mugabe’s actions are similar to Kwame Kilpatrick’s- but, then again, they’re soul brothers,right?
Let a hundred flowers bloom on Zimbabwe’s grave. Let a hundred jackals contest over her remains.
Posted by Soprano Fan at 7:36 PM on April 5
I can not wait to see how Mugabe is going to blame this on whites while demanding that white taxpayers in the developed West fork over their tax money on foreign aid.
This moron bought MiG-29 fighter jets from Russia while his subjects starved. What foreign enemy does Zimbabwe have that would justify the purchase of MiG-29s? Is Zambia going to invade? Is Namibia going to send its tank divisions down the Caprivi Strip?
I am delighted that this has been allowed to happen, for the same reason that I am delighted that American blacks have been allowed their own city governments. If blacks want to be in charge of their own affairs, great. I am even opposed to our intervention when someone like Mugabe or Fitzpatrick or Nagin does something wrong or just plain stupid.
I’d really like to hear how none of this would have happened if only we “respected” them enough. That would make my day, because I’d have a great, big belly-laugh.
Posted by Michael C Scott at 9:54 PM on April 5
It is correct to criticize the corrupt black regime in Rhodesia.
But the corrupt white regime of GW Bush is not much different.
Both leaders bent on the destruction of their societies.
Posted by at 1:07 AM on April 6
And dont forget how they came to power and what they did to whites and white farmers when they attained it only to revert back to 3rd world povery hunger disease and 3rd world evils. Actually this is below 3rd world status.
We must thank Bush for the advent of Obama who will do the same to America or at least the rest of what hasnt been done already to it by his people.
Posted by at 11:56 AM on April 6
If the whites in Zimbabwe had any brains (or balls), they’d stage a military coupe. In a population starving where money is worthless and the government is both hated and completely ineffective, people with wealth could hire an incredible number of mercenaries on the cheap. They would happy to round up the entire Mugabe government and execute the lot of them in return for regular meals and the promise of returning the country to prosperity.
Who would dare stand in their way? After what Mugabe did, what reason would the whites in Zimbabwe have to listen to the US, the UN or any other international group whatsoever? It’s what needs to be done to save the country.
Posted by at 6:36 PM on April 6
If the whites in Zimbabwe had any brains (or balls), they’d stage a military coupe. - 6:36 PM on April 6
You know not whereof you speak. Read the article linked to by Voir Dire.
The people of Rhodesia built a western society in Africa. At the time they were fighting their war against the terrorists, they numbered about 250000. The black population was over 6 million. The Rhodesians were fighting an enemy armed by China, while they were under a UN arms embargo and trade sanctions. Even so, outnumbered, outgunned, with the whole world against them, with every able-bodied man spending a good part of each year in military service, their economy still prospered.
White Rhodesians today number under 100000, while black Zimbabweans are over 10 million (I think the 12 million cited in the article is probably too high. Many of them have crossed into South Africa in recent years). They are outnumbered well over 100 to one, unarmed, and as hungry as anyone else in that country. Now, you tell me: with no arms, no supplies, no safe bases, and no support from outside the country, how are they supposed to mount a “coupe” (sic)? And what are the chances of international recognition of their government? Do you think George Bush will support them? Or do you imagine the local population would welcome them as liberators? If so, you are very mistaken.
No government will recognise a white minority government. And if you are thinking that they could just hold an election and elect a truly democratic, incorruptible and wise government that will proceed to heal their troubled land, then you have learned nothing from Africa’s history.
So, please show a little respect, and don’t insult the people of Rhodesia.
Posted by AnalogMan at 1:53 PM on April 7
I have to disappoint some of you. We won’t get assylum - we are left to our fate.
Kind regards.
Source: http://www.news24.com/News24/
South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2301821,00.html
‘US returned us to hijack hell’
08/04/2008 08:04 - (SA)
Lauren Thys, Beeld
Delmas - “We want the Americans to know to what kind of a country they sent us back to.”
Wentzel Herbst said: “I’ve had to go through another hijacking and, this time, my children were with me.”
Herbst had been in the car with his brother-in-law, Jimmy Watson, when Watson was killed during a hijacking just more than a week ago.
Wentzel, his wife, Carol, and their children, Deiran, six, and Tegan, three - who were born in the United States - were visiting the Watsons in Delmas.
Three years ago, the family was refused asylum in the US, after being there for six years and had to return to South Africa.
They had applied for asylum in the US because of the crime situation in South Africa.
Just before they left for the US, Wentzel had been shot in the back during a hijacking.
Wentzel and the children went to buy food for the family who had gathered in Delmas after they had heard that Watson’s daughter, Sharon Knoetze, had died in a car accident seven hours earlier.
Carol said: “My children are traumatised. They got such a fright when they saw the violence of the hijacking and when their father yanked them out of the car so quickly.
Wentzel said: “When we said we feared for our safety in South Africa, the Americans thought we were joking and said that South Africa was a perfectly safe country to go back to.”
Carol said: “If it were just me and my husband, it wouldn’t be that bad, but the children don’t know how to process it.”
When they came to South Africa, they were totally American.
“We had to teach my son (who was four at the time) not to talk to strangers because they could steal Mommy’s handbag.
“Since we’ve been back, many of our things have been stolen.”
She said of her son: “He can’t sleep at night - he said he was scared of baddies and that was before the hijacking.
Her daughter had struggled to fall asleep at night since the hijacking.
The American embassy would not comment on specific cases, but according to documentation on requirements for asylum seekers, crime wasn’t one of the criteria.
The fact that the children were born in the US did not make a difference to the status of the parents.
Posted by South African at 2:55 PM on April 8
A good mercenary force of whites or the Foreign Legion could wipe their slate clean and save the remaining whites in that country.
Posted by at 4:33 PM on April 8