Zimbabwe -- US delays Mugabe flight, Libya steps in

CLAIMS that President Mugabe was free to travel wherever he wanted in France and the United States on his recent trip to New York for a United Nations conference on children were firmly rejected this week by French and US officials.

Foreign Affairs minister Stan Mudenge was quoted on Monday as telling the state media that sanctions would not stop Zimbabwe's leaders from carrying out diplomatic functions. He pointed out that despite the European Union's imposition of smart sanctions, the president-ial party flew to New York via Paris.

"We used Paris, an EU country (sic) and were not hindered to use their international transit facilities," Mudenge said. Everybody on the delegation was free to go into town."

Spokesman for Zimbabwe's permanent mission to the UN, Emmanuel Gumbo, dismissed reports that Mugabe's movements had been restricted in New York. He said the president had "25 green lights ahead of him to travel anywhere he wishes in the United States".

US officials who asked not to be named said this week Mugabe's visa had been issued in terms of the 1947 UN headquarters agreement which confined the visiting leader to a 25-mile radius of the UN building in downtown Manhattan.

French ambassador Didier Ferrand yesterday confirmed that Mugabe's party did not leave the airport transit lounge during their Paris stopover.

"The French are abiding by the decisions of the European Union," he said. "During his stopover on the way to New York and back the president was in the international zone of Charles de Gaulle Airport."

Mugabe's visa application was made "at the last minute", the Zimbabwe Independent was told, and was not ready by the time Air Zimbabwe's flight on Sunday, May 5, on which the presidential party was booked, left for London. As there was no Air Zimbabwe flight out on Monday, May 6, they finally left on Tuesday morning, May 7 aboard a Libyan plane sent to collect them.

The Independent heard this week that Mugabe was picked up at the airport in the early hours of Tuesday, May 7 by a Libyan Boeing 767 jet, which took him to Paris where he connected to New York - arriving there on Wednesday morning. The same plane flew him back from Paris, arriving at Harare International Airport last Sunday.

Air Zimbabwe spokesman Moses Mapanda this week confirmed that the Sunday night London flight had been delayed on May 5.

"The flight to London was delayed due to operational reasons," he said, without elaborating.

It is understood the US Embassy in Harare had to seek guidance from the State Department in Washington on the issuing of visas to Mugabe's party.

"The special visas were only issued sometime on Monday and these had geographical restrictions to the Zimbabweans, under the UN headquarters agreement," a US official said.

Notwithstanding the restrictions imposed, Mugabe took the opportunity in the United States to fire pot shots at the West and grandstand in front of the few heads of state present.

Heads of state present included Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, Rex Meidani of Albania and Jorge Sampaio of Portugal.

"It is hideously ironic that when children are starving in Zimbabwe because of his flawed economic policies," a US official observed, "the president should suddenly find it necessary to attend the UN."

It is reported that the presidential party spent three nights at the New York Palace Hotel and Towers where the cheapest room costs US$450 a night and the most expensive US$2,100.

A planned show of solidarity by Coltrane Chimurenga's December 12 Movement and Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem failed to materialise, most probably because of the travel restrictions placed on Mugabe.

Diplomats who spoke to the Independent this week on condition of anonymity said Mudenge's claims were misleading. No foreign leader, however odious their policies, was prevented from attending sessions of the UN under specific conditions.

This

Even though I had sworn that I would only allow friendly brothers such as Cde Coltrane Chimurenga as international observers, it has dawned upon me that there are other benefits that we can derive from the gay gangsters who are insisting on observing the election.

I have been advised by my economic experts, who now include patriotic cadres such as Cde Chinos, that inviting the free-spending gay gangsters and their friends from Brussels and Washington will bring enough business to see our struggling hospitality industry through the whole year.

is from

I found it, while trying to find out just who Coltrane Chimurenga is.

Click on the logo for the web site.

Zimbabwe moves to reassure Asian citizens

The Zimbabwean government is reassuring its Asian citizens their businesses and homes will not be seized by ruling party militants.

Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo says threats towards the 12,000-strong Asian community are being investigated.

The state Herald newspaper reports Andrew Ndlovu and a dozen other "rogue war veterans" are being questioned by police over threats made last month.

Ndlovu, quoted in the Herald on April 24, warned that militants planned a "door to door" campaign to force Asians to hand over their businesses.

Mr Nkomo said such threats were spurred by "personal agendas" and took advantage of the government's land reform programme that has targeted most white-owned farms for seizure.

"Certain statements have been made against some communities, including the Indian community. These statements are just hallucinations," he said.

Ndlovu had accused Asian businessmen of smuggling hard currency out of the country and charging exorbitant rents for their properties, while holding down their employees' wages.

Earlier, other government officials accused Asian shop owners of hoarding and profiteering as the country faced acute food shortages.

Asian businessmen, mostly descendants of Indian and Pakistani immigrants, have traditionally controlled many wholesale businesses and retail shops in most small towns.

State media this week said police were being ordered to evict settlers and squatters from some seized farms, nature conservancies and land owned by churches and other institutions.

White farmers, however, have reported little change in the programme for them to forfeit their land.

Story filed: 13:30 Friday 17th May 2002

Three million face starvation in Zimbabwe

May 16 2002 at 09:48PM

A relief agency on Thursday warned that as many as three million Zimbabweans might face starvation in two weeks' time as the European Union prepared to dispatch a high-level delegation to lobby southern Africa regional leaders to do more to rein in President Robert Mugabe.

Previous relief agency estimates have identified about 550 000 people in need of food aid in Zimbabwe. However, the Famine Early Warnings Systems Network said in Harare on Thursday that as many as three million people would need food aid on a daily basis from June.

Analysts have previously dismissed the 550 000 figure as an underestimation. Harare economic consultant Eddie Cross said the latest figure - an estimate by the Washington-based famine network which monitors the global food situation - might also be too low.

Cross said most of the previous estimates had been based on rural analysis of the food situation without taking into account the many people living in the urban areas who could hardly afford any food items. Zimbabwe's unemployment rate stands at 60 percent.

In its Zimbabwe Humanitarian Situation report, the famine network said Zimbabwe needed to mobilise $345-million (R3,5 billion) to import 1,3 to 1,4 million tons of maize to meet the country's consumption requirements this year.

The slow international response to a call by the World Food Programme for humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe would exacerbate the food situation.

Zimbabwe's food import programme has been hampered by an acute shortage of foreign currency leaving the burden of providing food aid on relief agencies.

Reports said a high powered delegation of the European Union would meet SADC regional leaders from Monday to pressure them to act on lawlessness and bad governance in Zimbabwe to put the country back on the road to economic recovery.

The EU delegation arrives in Maputo on Monday to meet President Joacquim Chissano. It was also expected to meet Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi, the current SADC chairman, and President Thabo Mbeki.

It was not clear whether the team would meet Mugabe. The 15-nation EU has imposed smart sanctions on President Mugabe and his close advisors after accusing the Zimbabwe leader of stealing the March presidential election.

The EU has also withdrawn all aid to Zimbabwe citing corruption, skewed economic policies and a haphazard land reform programme.

Meanwhile, Denmark has closed its embassy in Zimbabwe in protest at Mugabe's rights abuses.

Zimbabweans at the Danish embassy in Harare are demanding hefty severance packages from the Danes. They argue that the embassy closure was unexpected and they had no prospects of getting other jobs.

In Harare, three more independent journalists were arrested and charged on Thursday over reports in the last issue of The Sunday Standard that criticised the police, the newspaper said.

Editor Bornwell Chakaodza and reporters Farai Mutsaka and Fungayi Kanyuchi were questioned at the main Harare police station before being charged under strict new media laws, said assistant editor Brian Latham.

The charges related to two articles carried on Sunday on the importation by police of sophisticated Israeli-built riot control vehicles and alleged police corruption, he said.

The three are accused of "abuse of journalist privilege by publishing falsehoods", an offense punishable by up to two years in jail. Chakaodza, the editor, faced two charges for allowing the reports to be published. The three were jailed overnight and are due to appear in court on Saturday, Latham said.

Police had no comment. - Independent Foreign Service

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.