Why are you laughing at a persecuted man's dire plight?
Is it somehow fitting, somehow justified, that Tsvangirai deserves to be scared for his life at the hand of the same despot who is aiming to kill off half the country's population?
Feb 13, 2002 Canadian firm accuses Zimbabwe opposition leader of plotting to kill Mugabe*** JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader was involved in a plot to assassinate or overthrow Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a consulting firm with ties to Mugabe's government claimed Wednesday.
An official at Dicksen & Madson said he secretly taped a meeting with Morgan Tsvangirai, president of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, where they discussed removing Mugabe from power. Tsvangirai was apparently unaware of the firm's connection to the government. The grainy footage was broadcast on Australian television Wednesday night. Tsvangirai told The Associated Press the tape was "contrived."***
Feb 21, 2002 - Washington Times-- Zimbabwe intensifies election blackout ***The intimidation is so great that in an opinion poll made public yesterday, more than half of the 1,693 persons surveyed refused to say how they intended to vote.
Among those who did express an opinion to a University of Zimbabwe research group, Mr. Tsvangirai led Mr. Mugabe by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Police quickly banned the researchers from releasing further details of the poll.
Nor is the government eager for outside election observers to do their work. Last week, observers from the Washington-based National Democratic Institute were turned back at the border town of Livingstone near Victoria Falls. Observers from its Republican counterpart, the International Republican Institute, need not apply either. Swedish diplomat Pierre Schori, head of the European Union's observer delegation, was effectively thrown out of the country Saturday after the government, which had given him only a tourist visa, interpreted his statement that he intended to go ahead with his work as "arrogant" and "political."***
Feb 26, 2002 - NY TimesZimbabwe Candidate Charged With Treason*** Government officials have repeatedly accused Mr. Tsvangirai of instigating violence and serving the interests of white farmers and Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler. Mr. Tsvangirai's party is bankrolled by white business people and farmers - a tiny minority, which owns more than half of the country's fertile land. And he has, on occasion, lent credence to the government's suspicions by making damaging statements. At a rally two years ago, he told a cheering crowd that Mr. Mugabe should step down from power or face the consequences. "If you don't want to go peacefully, we will remove you violently," he said.
The current treason charge, he said, stems from a setup by the consulting firm, Dickens and Madson, which is based in Montreal and has worked for the government. He said he was approached by Dickens and Madson executives, who said they wanted to help build the opposition party's image abroad. Mr. Tsvangirai said that he met them four times and that at the fourth meeting, they mentioned eliminating Mr. Mugabe. He said he became uncomfortable and walked out.
"It clearly seems like a setup," said a Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "In no case do they ever have Tsvangirai using the word `assassinate.' There's been no evidence presented." In an interview with the BBC today, Ari Ben-Menashe, the executive who runs the consulting firm, said he was approached by Mr. Tsvangirai, who wanted Mr. Mugabe "eliminated." In a statement, Mr. Tsvangirai said, "We believe in the democratic electoral process and that a change of government is delivered peacefully through people exercising their democratic rights via the ballot box."***
Mugabe 'death plot film was doctored' -- By David Blair (Filed: 27/02/2002) Daily Telegraph - [Full Text] THE covertly shot video footage that is at the heart of the treason charges against Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, has been doctored, experts said yesterday.
Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, has been charged with treason, an offence punishable by death, following the broadcast of film purporting to show him discussing the assassination of President Mugabe.
Mr Mugabe's official media seized on the footage, first shown by an Australian current affairs programme a fortnight ago.
They have used it as "evidence" to support the regime's theory that Mr Tsvangirai and a shadowy array of British supporters are planning a violent takeover.
The film has been a propaganda gift for Mr Mugabe and a six-minute clip was shown repeatedly on state television. The film was secretly shot by Dickens and Madson, a political consultancy hired by the regime.
Experts from the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe have analysed the state television clip and the transcript of the original programme, Dateline, which was shown on the SBS channel on Feb 13.
Andrew Moyse, head of MMPZ, said that a key section from Dateline, in which Mr Tsvangirai uses the word "eliminated" in connection with the president, had been "doctored".
The announcer says that Mr Tsvangirai plotted to "seize power with sections of the military, override parliament [and] suspend the elections" under a state of emergency that would follow the supposed murder of Mr Mugabe.
The programme then cuts to covertly shot footage showing Ari Ben Menashe, the head of Dickens and Madson, asking Mr Tsvangirai: "Who's going to call the emergency? Who is going to call the suspension of the constitution and the emergency?`"
Mr Tsvangirai replies: "No, they don't have to. All they need to do is tell the acting vice-president, 'Look we have got a crisis, we cannot proceed immediately after the head of state has been eliminated'.
To me, that is the fundamental issue. That plus how the two forces, the MDC on the one hand and the army on the other, can work together to ensure a smooth transition towards democracy through an election process."
In fact, after Mr Tsvangirai said the word "eliminated", 15 minutes passed before he talked, in a completely different context, of the MDC and the army working together. The final quote on the video was an amalgamation of two separate statements. Mr Tsvangirai seemed to reject any idea of assassination in a statement that was not included in the Australian documentary: "We cannot move into a free and fair election under circumstances when the country is unstable because the head of state has gone."
The footage shown on state television was cut and re-arranged so that the effect was more damning.
Mr Moyse found that the timing given on the film, originally shot by surveillance camera, jumped from 9.45am to 9.25am to 9.43am and back to 9.27am before leaping forward to 9.52am and then to 9.44am.
He said: "Nowhere is there evidence of Tsvangirai initiating a conversation or seeking help about assassinating the president. There is nothing that would incriminate him."
Dickens and Madson said a meeting with Mr Tsvangirai in Montreal on Dec 4 was arranged and filmed "in order to obtain conclusive proof" of his intention to murder the president. [End]
Feb 22, 2002 Zimbabwe diamond deal with Ari Ben Menashe exposed***"American international diamond buyer, John Marsischky, managing director of gemstones company Flashes of Color, revealed in an interview this week that Dickens & Madson, the company which last week claimed it was hired by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to assassinate President Mugabe, has been working as a conduit for the transfer of funds between Zimbabwean officials and buyers."***
Mar 8, 2002 - After two decades of Mugabe domination, a presidential challenger for ZimbabweHARARE, Zimbabwe - From factory laborer and mine worker to trade union leader and presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai has risen from obscurity to pose the first real challenge to one of Africa's last and most resilient old-style rulers.
Tsvangirai, head of the labor-backed Movement for Democratic Change, who turns 50 on Sunday, is expected to benefit from a massive protest vote against the increasingly autocratic President Robert Mugabe in presidential elections this weekend.
He founded his party in 1999 after urban unrest in which Mugabe deployed troops for the first time to crush food riots triggered by soaring inflation.
Mugabe has ruled mostly unchallenged for 22 years since the former Rhodesia became independent Zimbabwe. But in February 2000, the new opposition and a coalition of labor and civic groups overwhelmingly defeated a constitutional referendum that would have given the president new powers. It was Mugabe's only electoral defeat.
Tsvangirai led the opposition in parliamentary elections later that year. Mugabe's party narrowly won, but the campaign was marred by violence and intimidation.
That vote handed Tsvangirai's party 57 seats to 62 seats for Mugabe's Zinbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. The result dramatically changed the nation's political landscape. In the previous parliament, Mugabe had controlled all but three seats.***
April 19, 2002 Zimbabwe -- Treason "witness" Ben-Menashe backs out***TREASON charges against opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two of his senior officials face collapse as the key witness in the alleged assassination plot against President Robert Mugabe, shadowy publicist Ari Ben-Menashe, yesterday distanced himself from the case saying "it's now none of our business". Ben-Menashe had been due to appear as the state's star witness.***
July 10, 2002 Zimbabwe -- Mugabe 'paid Israeli spy to frame opposition leader'***A former Israeli intelligence officer has earned more than US$450,000 (£290,000) from President Robert Mugabe, partly as a reward for framing the Zimbabwean leader's main political opponent, officials in the government revealed yesterday. Mr Mugabe's chief political foe, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), faces hanging or life in jail if convicted of high treason over an alleged plot to kill President Mugabe. He is to appear in court to answer the charges next month. The Zimbabwe government is using grainy video footage of a meeting Ari Ben-Menashe held with Mr Tsvangirai in Montreal as the basis of its evidence against the opposition leader.***
Feb 2, 2003 Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, goes on trial for his life tomorrow***At his trial, Mr Tsvangirai will be represented by George Bizos, the veteran South African anti-apartheid lawyer who came to prominence when he defended Nelson Mandela in the 1963 Rivonia trial. Despite his impressive defence, Mandela spent the next 27 years in jail. The treason charge is based on a secretly filmed meeting between Mr Tsvangirai and a Canadian consultancy company hired by the Zimbabwe government to improve its international image. When the tapes were first broadcast on Zimbabwean state television, viewers noted that the digital timing did not run in sequence between frames.
The defence will claim that the video had been doctored to misrepresent the conversation and that key exchanges are inaudible. The prosecution's chief witness is Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence agent who runs the Canadian firm, Dickens and Madson. Last week he said that he had been subpoenaed to appear and would testify if called, ending speculation in Zimbabwe that he would not attend the trial. The timing of the hearing may be awkward for the government as it launches a diplomatic offensive to persuade the Commonwealth "troika" of South Africa, Nigeria and Australia to lift its suspension. The case also comes as Zimbabwe attempts to take advantage of a French invitation to visit Paris to have sanctions lifted on Mr Mugabe and his allies.
"I think Tsvangirai and his colleagues are going to use this trial to highlight Mugabe's violent campaign against the opposition, his record on human rights," said a Western diplomat in Harare. "I think Mugabe's politics will end up in the dock and the president's and the government's image is likely to suffer." Last week, Mr Tsvangirai said: "We will defend ourselves strongly because we are innocent. We're victims of a government frame-up."***
Feb 7, 2003 BBC: Zimbabwe witness 'a fraudster' Tsvangirai says he is being framed Lawyers defending Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges have accused the key prosecution witness of being a serial fraudster. They say that Canada-based political consultant Ari Ben-Menashe video-taped a meeting with Mr Tsvangirai as part of a government plot to stifle the opposition. Mr Tsvangirai and two colleagues from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) pleaded not guilty to treason charges when the trial began on Monday.
Mr Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence officer, says the three contracted him to assassinate President Robert Mugabe before last year's elections. Mr Mugabe won but international observers said the poll was marred by violence and fraud and Mr Tsvangirai is contesting the result in court.
Coincidence
South African anti-apartheid lawyer George Bizos said prosecutors would not give him any information on Mr Ben-Menashe's work for the government, though the consultant testified that he had been paid about $1m for his lobbying work. Prosecutors said Mr Ben Menashe's services to the government were unrelated to the treason charges, Mr Bizos told Judge Paddington Garwe.
"There is a similarity between the fraud we say was committed against the MDC and its office bearers and a number of other frauds that have been committed by the witness and his companies by interfering with high profile political matters, getting money and then turning the tables against the people to whom the fraudulent representations were made," Mr Bizos said.***
Feb 21, 2003 - CS Monitor Zimbabwe's opposition frayed - treason trial of Tsvangirai has tied hands of followers.***NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku, a thin lawyer in a crumpled suit whose fiery calls for action contrast greatly to Tsvangirai's pleas for caution, says the protests failed because the MDC did not support them. The MDC must be willing to risk the arrest, torture, and perhaps even death of their followers through peaceful protest, he says.
"If Morgan had come out, I think it would made a difference," says Mr. Madhuku. "Now the people are losing faith, there is no doubt about it. He may lose the momentum." But Tsvangirai and others in the MDC say the failure of the NCA to attract widespread support for their "stay-aways" demonstrate the danger of moving to fast. Any action must be planned carefully. Failed action, they say, is worse than none at all. Tsvangirai insists that plans are being made, but that he is not at liberty to discuss them. But even he acknowledges that action is difficult while, as he puts it, "the noose" is around his neck.***
June 20, 2003 Morgan Tsvangirai - Zimbabwe's Opposition Leader Is Released *** HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's opposition leader was released on bail Friday after two weeks in jail on treason charges,but he was told he may not call for President Robert Mugabe's overthrow. Accompanied by his wife and a small throng of supporters, Morgan Tsvangirai left a Harare prison after delivering four cardboard boxes stuffed with 10 million Zimbabwe dollars - about $12,000 - in bail. Under the conditions of his release, Tsvangirai is barred from advocating Mugabe's removal by what Judge Susan Mavangira termed "violent or other unlawful means."
Tsvangirai, the head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested June 6 on treason charges following a week of anti-government strikes that shut down much of the already fragile economy. Opposition officials said Tsvangirai was held in a filthy, overcrowded cell. They vowed to continue their struggle. "His incarceration has only served to strengthen the people's resolve to intensify peaceful efforts to tackle the crisis of legitimacy in Zimbabwe," opposition spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said. ***