Posted on 03/22/2002 1:15:22 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Zimbabwean opposition, was charged with high treason by President Robert Mugabe's government yesterday: a defiant response to Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
Earlier this week the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, and other neighbouring African leaders urged Mr Mugabe not to press the charge, to create a more conciliatory political climate after last week's bitterly contested presidential election.
By going ahead with it Mr Mugabe seems to be showing that he is not interested in negotiations with Mr Tsvangirai.
Since Mr Mugabe was declared the winner on March 13 he has signed into law a repressive press bill and his supporters have begun a campaign of violent retribution against the opposition.
Four supporters of Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change have been killed, and a white farmer.
In a courtroom packed with his supporters, Mr Tsvangirai pleaded not guilty to the charge that he sought to hire Canadian political consultants to assassinate Mr Mugabe.
His lawyer, Eric Matinenga, said told the court that the charge was "a kneejerk reaction" to Zimbabwe's one-year suspension from Commonwealth membership.
"Mr Tsvangirai's stake in this country is too high to think he would run away from allegations that are very weak indeed," Mr Matinenga said.
The MDC's secretary general, Welshman Ncube, who is also charged with treason, said the charges were "an attempt to continue the harassment of the leadership of the MDC and to make it impossible for us to continue to resist an illegitimate government".
He said the suggestion that the MDC should enter into a government of national unity with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party "was always out of the question", adding: "You cannot negotiate a government of national unity with a government you believe to be illegitimate."
Mr Tsvangirai was remanded until April 30 and released on bail of Z$1.5m (£20,000) in cash and Z$3m in property surety. He had to surrender his passport and must appear at his local police station every Monday.
Renson Gasela, an MDC MP and the shadow agriculture minister, was also charged with treason and released on bail of Z$500,000.
The state said it would produce six witnesses, a videotape and other evidence against Mr Tsvangirai.
Legal experts dismiss the evidence as "unconvincing and circumstantial, at best".
But Zimbabwe's judicial system has lost a great deal of its independence and lawyers say that Mr Tsvangirai may not get a fair trial.
As he went to court, most Zimbabweans went to work, ignoring the three-day strike called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
Virtually all shops and banks were open, but about half the country's factories were closed.
Factory workers said the ZCTU had not explained the reasons for the strike.
"No one told us what this strike is about," said a machinist who did not want his name used.
"I missed work last Monday to vote. If I missed three days this week I would not have enough pay to feed my family. But if the unions had called a protest against the elections and said that clearly, we would have all supported it."
International pressure on Mr Mugabe is continuing to grow. His party's violent retribution against the MDC was criticised yesterday by the Norwegian election observers.
"Following the election it quickly emerged that Zanu-PF supporters had embarked on systematic reprisals against opposition members and supporters," said Kare Vollan, the leader of the group, which reported that Mr Mugabe's followers were carrying out arson, beating, torture and killing with "impunity".
Diamonds coming from war-torn countries like the DRC, Sierra Leone and Angola should have letters of certification from those governments. Diamond traders must also have permits from governments where gemstones originate.
……….. Subsequent meetings with government officials revealed their involvement in the illegal diamond trade with uncut stones being flown to South Africa where they were cut and fake documentation obtained to facilitate export to Europe.
…………. "Codrington explained that the financial transaction would take place with the aid of the security consulting firm Dickens & Madson," said Marsischky.
"He said they would designate accounts that we would transfer money to and when receipt by electronic transfer or letter of credit was confirmed, the diamonds would be released to us in the designated country such as South Africa. [End Excerpt]
_______THE PRICE: Government propaganda blitz on Mugabe assasination plot --[Excerpt] Dambiti, huddled with friends over a copy of the state-run Herald newspaper during their lunch break, said reports of the plot made him wonder if Tsvangirai was trustworthy.
But his friends said they didn't believe the claims given all-out coverage by the state media since they were first broadcast by an Australian television station a week ago.
Andrew Moyse, head of the independent Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe, said poor Zimbabweans - 70 percent of the population live below the poverty line - mostly have access only to the dominant state controlled media.
"There is proof of the old adage that if you reproduce propaganda long enough people will begin to believe it, irrespective of whether they believed it in the beginning," Moyse said.
The Canadian firm Dickens and Madson said last week that it secretly videotaped a meeting on Dec. 4 in its Montreal offices with Tsvangirai in which he allegedly asked for help to kill or overthrow Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation has repeatedly run the grainy footage. State newspapers have given prominence to the claims every day.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo suggested Britain, the former colonial power, and several member nations of the European Union were trying to hide their role in the alleged assassination plot. [End Excerpt]
__________THE STING: Government set up Mugabe assassination sting, Zimbabwe opposition leader says [Excerpt] In a statement Thursday, Tsvangirai [Zimbabwe opposition leader] denied Dickens and Madson's claims the opposition approached the firm to assassinate Mugabe.
He said the firm used a former Zimbabwean based in South Africa to present an offer to improve the opposition's image abroad. Four meetings were held with the firm.
"At no stage during the first three meetings was the issue of elimination or assassination ever discussed," Tsvangirai said.
The meetings focused on the need "to bridge the communications gap abroad."
At the fourth meeting, secretly filmed in Montreal, Ben-Menashe and his team "raised the issue of elimination and kept on asking strange questions."
Tsvangirai said he became suspicious of the firm's motives and walked out. The opposition later found out Ben-Menashe had been hired by top Zimbabwean officials "to set up the MDC," he said.
Ben-Menashe said Wednesday that at two meetings in London Tsvangirai raised the subject of assassinating Mugabe and arranging a coup d'etat.
Ben-Menashe said he had an audio tape of one of those meetings, but refused to allow a reporter from The Associated Press to listen to it.
The surveillance tape, aired Wednesday on SBS television's "Dateline" program, showed an aerial view of four men sitting around a boardroom table. The black-and-white picture was grainy and the faces of the men - including the one identified as Tsvangirai - were largely obscured.
"The MDC, represented by the top man who's sitting here right now, commits to ... the coup d'etat or the elimination of the president," Ben-Menashe said on the tape.
During the meeting, the man identified as Tsvangirai expressed concern the military might take over if Mugabe was "eliminated."
Ben-Menashe on Wednesday denied accusations his firm had framed Tsvangirai. [End Excerpt]
=====Who is Ari Ben-Menashe? This is what (MRC) Media Research Center found out--[Excerpt] BEN-MENASHE. Ari Ben-Menashe appeared three times in the first show, highlighted as an Israeli intelligence officer. PBS reported that "Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe says he was one of half a dozen Israelis sent to Paris at Casey's request to help coordinate arms deliveries" and "Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe claimed that he saw intelligence reports about Casey's trip to Madrid." After Newsweek and The New Republic published their exposés of the sources pushing the October Surprise story, including the fact that Ben-Menashe's wife called him a liar, Frontline's second program admitted: "His credibility with reporters collapsed because some of his assertions proved implausible, particularly his claim about George Bush."
THE HASHEMIS. While Frontline disavowed Brenneke and Ben-Menashe, the producers stood by their belief in the Hashemi brothers, Jamshid and Cyrus, a pair of Iranian arms dealers. This despite the New Republic exposé, which declared Jamshid Hashemi had "even worse credibility problems" than Brenneke and Ben-Menashe; and the Village Voice placed Cyrus as flying from Paris instead of to Paris on August 14, when the meetings supposedly took place. [End Excerpt]
Tsvangirai video evidence 'doctored'--[Excerpt] THE surveillance video footage which purportedly shows Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe has been extensively "doctored", evidence made available to the Zimbabwe Independent this week shows.
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) director Andrew Moyse said the video footage shown last week by Australia's Special Services Broadcasting (SBS) station was tampered with.
Moyse said a common cut-and-paste editing method was used.
"Notably, what Tsvangirai was heard to say did not match the titles on the screen," he said……………………….. Davis said Dickens & Madson's chief executive Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence operative who has been involved in a series of questionable dealings, opened the meeting. [End Excerpt]
_________THE PURPOSE: "The opposition said the story was part of an ongoing government smear campaign intended to distract people from the important issues of joblessness, AIDS and food shortages.
The Zimbabwean government did not immediately comment on the accusation. Under security laws passed last month acts of "insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism" carry a penalty of life imprisonment.…" AP LINK
==============================================================================================================================================
Before the elections: Mugabe's 'Taliban' torture opponents in terror camps--[Excerpts] At one stage, a group of men forced his mouth open under a tap of running water. He could not breath or swallow. Then the men started beating him again. He was dumped unconscious outside his wife's hut.
Across hundreds of miles of seemingly idyllic Zimbabwean countryside, similar stories were repeated again and again last week.
Mthoko Ncube, 25, was in hiding at a 'safe house' occupied by the opposition in Matabeleland. He had been released from hospital 24 hours earlier after being seized, with 12 other friends, as he walked through a rural area last month. None of the group, which included three girls, was carrying a Zanu membership card.
They were taken to a camp on a farm commandeered as a base for 300 militiamen. One of the girls was taken to an outbuilding. The rest of captives were told to do physical exercises: press-ups, sit-ups and running on the spot. They were then forced to strip and graze on grass. Attempts to resist brought blows from clubs and sjamboks . Then they, too, were tortured under running taps.
'I did not ask the girl they took about what happened to her,' said Ncube. 'I could see different men going over to the outbuilding while they were beating me.'
………… Asked whether MDC supporters would be too scared to vote, he added: 'The people have had enough. This election is about life and death. People have had enough and they will turn out in their millions to rid Zimbabwe of Uncle Bob. The people will vote for change. The people want change.'
………. The opposition, which believes in non-violence to achieve its aims, fears that there will be a mass uprising if Mugabe rigs the election or introduces martial law. Senior MDC officials claim they do not have enough weapons to wage a war against Mugabe, who has reportedly ordered home more than 8,000 soldiers fighting over 'blood' diamonds in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
'We don't know what will happen,' said Sibanda as the sun burned below the African horizon, heralding another night of violence in isolated rural communities. 'If things are fair, we will win. If they are not, who knows? The people blame Mugabe, not whites, for our troubles. We cannot hold the people back forever.' [End Excerpts]
Human rights groups will complain about US treatment of Prisoners in Guantanamo
There'll be a " show trial ", a la Stalin, an murder, and then ... more murder. What else is new ?
I suppose he might not have the man executed, he might die from an 'accident' in prison. He'd be lucky if he were exiled, but I doubt that would happen.
That is the only slight hope I have for southern Africa. The Media Jackals may set aside their prejudices long enough to "talk about" the untold story and arouse the public's interest to a level that will be self-sustaining. One can hope, anyway....
Don't think so either, but it's times like these when I really miss Margret Thatcher, though.
Good morning, btw. =^)
I imagine a lot of pressure is going on behind the scenes. At least there better be!!
And keep making noise!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.