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| 5/25 |
| 2008/6/4-10 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:50154 Activity:moderate |
6/4 Zimbabwe opposition leader has been detained by police
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7435869.stm
Goodbye, Tsvangirai; we have failed you
\_ This is sad. I'm curious though, who is 'we'? I'm not sure there's
much the West could have done about Mugabe, we don't have much
leverage left.
\_ We should have negotiated. Used diplomacy. Talked with him.
\_ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080605/ap_on_re_af/zimbabwe_22
Diplomats attacked.
\_ This amounts to an act of war. Arrest Mugabe.
\_ Yeah, cause getting into yet another war is really what the
US needs right now.
\_ Feh. Arresting Mugabe would be somewhere between Grenada
and Panama. And we can probably count on his neighbors to
help out. Hell, just bus back all the Zimbabweans who are
in SA right now and hand them guns.
\_ And we could do it, if we weren't already over
comitted in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reason #479 why
invading Iraq was a dumb idea.
\_ Amen, brother.
\_ Invading Iraq was a dumb idea, but why the hell
should the US invade Zimbabwe? Maybe a UN force
with a strong US contigent ala Serbia I could get
behind (but I'd still be skeptical) but a US
lead invasion? Seriously?
\_ A UN force would be fine by me. -op |
| 5/25 |
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| news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7435869.stm A spokesperson travelling alongside Morgan Tsvangirai speaks about the situation Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been detained by police during campaigning for the country's presidential election, his party says. A convoy carrying the Movement for Democratic Change leader was stopped at a police roadblock at 1000 GMT, party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. The MDC leader and his entourage were taken to a police station in the far west of the country, said Mr Chamisa. "It appears they want to disrupt our campaign programme," he said. It comes as Zimbabwe prepares for a run-off election between Mr Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe on 27 June. The US said the Mr Tsvangirai's detention was "deeply disturbing", and the EU presidency, currently held by Slovenia, called for the opposition leader's immediate release. The entire group - including the party's vice-president, national chairman and security personnel - are currently being "illegally detained" at the police charge office in Lupane, he said. Two MDC supporters who say they were beaten by Mugabe supporters - 3/5/2008 MDC supporters say they have been attacked by Zanu-PF supporters Mr Chamisa called for Mr Tsvangirai's immediate release, adding that without the intervention of the United Nations and the international community it would be impossible to hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. MDC campaigning efforts have been severely hampered, with four other party leaders being arrested in the run-up to this month's election. The party says 58 of its supporters have been killed by pro-government henchmen since March's national elections. In the latest political violence, two MDC supporters were burned to death by suspected Zanu-PF supporters. There are fears for the lives of four other MDC supporters after Tuesday's attack in the southern town of Jerera. MDC Masvingo provincial chairman Wilstaf Stemele told the BBC that Zanu-PF supporters had doused the blankets of the two men with petrol before setting them on fire. He said the victims had not yet been identified as their bodies had been burnt "beyond recognition". The government says the scale of the violence has been exaggerated and blamed the MDC for instigating attacks. Rome summit Speaking in Bulawayo on Tuesday, Mr Tsvangirai said: "Mugabe is determined to turn the whole country into a war-zone in order to subvert the will of the people and steal the June 27 election by any means possible. "But we will not stop campaigning, the people will not stop supporting the MDC and together we will defeat this illegitimate and desperate regime." Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has criticised the Zimbabwean government for restricting the work of aid agencies operating in the country. The operations of one of the largest groups - Care International - have been suspended amid allegations the group had been campaigning for the opposition. Care denies that it "has encouraged or tolerated any political activity". Mr Mugabe is currently attending a UN-sponsored summit on the global food crisis in Rome, where he blamed Western sanctions for Zimbabwe's economic woes. Some four million Zimbabweans - a third of the population - are believed to need food aid this year. Advertise with us BBC MMVIII The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. |
| news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080605/ap_on_re_af/zimbabwe_22 AP US, British diplomats attacked in Zimbabwe By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 5, 10:45 AM ET HARARE, Zimbabwe - US and British diplomats were attacked Thursday as they tried to investigate political violence in Zimbabwe and a US Embassy staffer was beaten, an embassy spokesman said. WnmfDxJJQAV6w8F/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1212700544/L=2vL2YkWTVvr83xETQI4Vvx E3RTfow0hIO2AABO80/B=7UbKBNGDJHg-/J=1212693344363321/A=4919452/R=0/* The group was still being held some six hours after being stopped at a roadblock just north of Harare, spokesman Paul Engelstad said. Britain's Foreign Office said it was aware of the incident but was making no comment at the moment. US Ambassador James McGee, who was not with the convoy, told CNN that Zimbabwean police and military officers and so-called war veterans, a group of fiercely loyal and often violent supporters of President Robert Mugabe, were responsible for what he called an "illegal action." "The war veterans threatened to burn the vehicles with my people inside unless they got out of the vehicles and accompanied the police to a station nearby," McGee said, saying he was in touch with the group by mobile phone. He said five Americans, four Britons and three Zimbabweans were in the three-car convoy. The opposition and rights groups have accused Mugabe of orchestrating violence and intimidation in the run-up to a June 27 presidential runoff. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena denied security agents had threatened the diplomats, saying instead that police were trying to rescue them from a threatening mob. "It's unfortunate when diplomats behave like criminals and distort information," Bvudzijena said. In mid-May, McGee had led a similar convoy that was stopped at a police roadblock. Police eventually let the convoy through, and a patrol car escorted them back to the US Embassy before disappearing. At one point during the May incident, a police officer threatened to beat one of McGee's senior aides. The officer got into his car and lurched toward McGee after he had demanded the officer's name. The car made contact with McGee's shins, but he was not injured. Also Thursday, Zimbabwe's opposition presidential candidate resumed campaigning, the morning after he spent nine hours in police detention near the country's second main city, his party said. Morgan Tsvangirai said in a statement that the hours he spent in a Bulawayo police station after being stopped at a roadblock while campaigning demonstrate the lengths to which Robert Mugabe was prepared to go to "try and steal" the runoff. But police spokesman Bvudzijena said police merely wanted to establish that one of the vehicles in Tsvangirai's convoy was properly registered. He said police had asked only the driver to accompany them from the roadblock to the station, but others in the party insisted on coming and waiting while the documents were reviewed. Also Thursday, rights activists in Zimbabwe said that alleged Mugabe supporters petrol-bombed an office of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change in the southern province of Masvingo on Wednesday, killing at least two party officials. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. |