The vote recount has been released and they confirmed the initial results. Whether Mugabe will respect the results is another question.
For the first time in 28 years, the opposition had wrested a parliamentary majority from President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF in March 29 polls, triggering a recount of 23 out of 210 constituencies.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said 14 out of the 23 seats had been recounted so far, and the original result was confirmed in all of them.
These are people who don't just talk about democracy and ignore it, they live democracy. No flashy photos of inked fingers and no seats of honor at the State of the Union address. Just real people taking real initiative in the face of a violent dictator. Unlike Iraq where democracy is hardly of interest to anyone, the US included, the Zimbabwe opposition is standing firm in the face of a aggressive and often violent 'police' action. Can you imagine what we would see if the Chinese weapons had arrived?
Riot police in Zimbabwe yesterday raided the offices of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change as well as those of independent election observers, seizing computers and documents and arresting scores of people in the biggest crackdown since last month's disputed election.
Truckloads of officers surrounded the building in Harare during an operation that lasted several hours. MDC officials said police had taken away more than 100 people, including staff and party supporters who had fled to the capital to avoid a crackdown in the countryside.
Great news. Gambling on the long term future of Robert Mugabe is a losing bet. China already is unpopular in Zimbabwe due to previous arms shipments so if they want anything to do with the new government, this was a smart move.
"The Chinese company has already decided to send the military goods back to China in the same vessel, the An Yue Jiang," said the spokeswoman, Jiang Yu.
China's decision will be welcomed as a victory by the dockworkers, trade unionists, religious leaders, western diplomats and human rights workers who have been campaigning since last week to block delivery of the weaponry to Zimbabwe – weaponry they said could be used to carry out an even more lethal crackdown on Zimbabwe's political opposition, which is allied with that country's unionized workers.
China's strategic retreat in delivering the weapons also allows it to avoid further inflaming yet another protest over its human rights record before it hosts the Olympic Games this summer.
Turned away from South Africa and Mozambique, the Chinese weapons ship stuffed with military equipment for Robert Mugabe, is heading towards Namibia or Angola. The US is reportedly asking countries to deny access or refuse unloading though the Bush administration has struggled with diplomacy, especially in Africa. Because the US does have a special trading status with Angola you would expect that might provide some leverage though when is the last time the US negotiated anything that threatened an oil business relationship? How often does the Bush administration stand up to China? Let's hope for the best.
The people who won are now being rounded up by Mugabe. It's no wonder the opposition leadership is staying outside of the country. What is it going to take for Thabo Mbeki to realize that his 'quiet diplomacy' is a failure? Robert Mugabe never shies from using violence and detention yet Mbeki stays quiet. He should be ashamed of his actions and turning his back on the people of Zimbabwe who are suffering from the dictatorship. The people of South Africa including others in his own party as well as dock workers all see the obvious, but not Mbeki. His 'quiet diplomacy' defies all reality, much like his weird beliefs on AIDS.
The latest new on the Chinese weapons ship is that it's headed to Angola. The people of Angola are among the poorest people though the 'communist' leadership is among the richest in the world courtesy of oil money. Naturally the Bush administration promoted Angola to a high trading partner level a few years ago despite no sign of the government investing anything in its people. I traveled along the border of Angola a few years ago and was shocked at the extreme poverty of its people. The country is littered with land mines so they can't safely farm and the ocean fishing rights have been sold to the EU so they can't fish. Something tells me this is a government that won't say 'no' to supplies of military repression for a fellow dictator. Isn't it time the US speaks out on this with it's special trading partner or is oil too valuable? After all, they're just people in Zimbabwe and how will they help fuel our cars?
South African dock workers refused to unload the delivery for the desperate Robert Mugabe and the South African courts backed up the dock workers. The Chinese ship has since left Durban, South Africa and rumored to be heading for Mozambique. The shipment may unload in Mozambique (if dock workers again refuse) though it's a poor government so they may end up allowing passage. The problem there is that after decades of war, roads in Mozambique are difficult and drop off quickly outside of the city. Will the Chinese weapons make it in time to be distributed to Mugabe's thugs before his government folds or will the Chinese weapons be used to kill even more people?
Oh the Olympic spirit! Nothing says 'Olympic spirit' quite like a massive new arsenal of guns and ammo for a dictator to repress a nation who just voted him out. All of the critics of communist China should just understand that Robert Mugabe has the full authority to kill and torture anyone and everyone because it's an internal matter and has nothing to do whatsoever with human rights or the world community. The world should ignore such violations and mind their own business. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Thabo Mbeki is also doing the right thing by allowing safe passage of weapons because after all, the papers are all in order. That's fair, right?
A Chinese cargo ship believed to be carrying 77 tonnes of small arms, including more than 3m rounds of ammunition, AK47 assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, has docked in the South African port of Durban for transportation of the weapons to Zimbabwe, the South African government confirmed yesterday. It claimed it was powerless to intervene as long as the ship's papers were in order.
Moving forward, this is great news both for Zimbabwe and South Africa. For whatever reason (historical perhaps) South African President Thabo Mbeki has never criticized Robert Mugabe and repeatedly has talked of 'silent diplomacy' in Zimbabwe as the way forward. The policy has failed and Mbeki has never been a neutral observer, but a Mugabe supporter.
Leading ANC figures have openly contradicted President Thabo Mbeki, who declared after meeting Mr Mugabe in Harare last weekend that there was "no crisis" in Zimbabwe. A top ANC official, Matthews Phosa – a close ally of the ANC leader Jacob Zuma – said yesterday that a crisis was "evident" in South Africa's northern neighbour. The party's national working committee, in a snub to the president, resolved to open direct contact with Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to promote dialogue.
The deadlock in Zimbabwe has caused frustration in South Africa with Mr Mbeki's brand of "quiet diplomacy" to boil over.
Even in the face of electoral defeat, Robert Mugabe will not go down easily. Using violence again the opposition has been a mainstay of the Mugabe period. After all, his military force has been fed a steady diet of military equipment thanks to the Olympic hosts China so he has the tools to clamp down and maintain control of his collapsing nation.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claimed a landslide victory and declared its leader Morgan Tsvangirai an outright winner. Spokesman Tendai Biti warned the government against stealing the election, saying: "Zimbabwe is on the edge of a precipice."
He said the people would not accept a faked outcome and vowed "peaceful protests" if his party was denied the win. A cabal of Mr Mugabe's top aides, including six cabinet ministers, the Vice-President and a former intelligence chief, have lost their "safe" seats already.
Naturally, Mugabe's government has yet to release polling data. Vote rigging has increasingly been a complaint in recent Zimbabwe elections as the country has spiraled into runaway inflation and chaos. Will Mugabe step down if the results hold? That would be shocking.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) defied a government ban on pre-empting the official announcement of the election results and released the count from polling stations that showed Tsvangirai beating the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years, even in the president's home territory of Mashonaland.
'We've won this election,' said Tendai Biti, the MDC's secretary-general. 'The results coming in show that in our traditional strongholds we are massacring them. In Mugabe's traditional strongholds they are doing very badly. There is no way Mugabe can claim victory unless it is through fraud. He has lost this election.'
So this is the leadership that the European Union so desperately wants to invite for a summit? Pathetic.
Zimbabwean security forces routinely torture and sexually abuse women opposed to President Robert Mugabe's government, a human rights group said on Wednesday.
"The women endured various forms of torture, including beatings with a variety of instruments ... baton sticks, booted feet, wooden planks, being slapped, and falanga (beatings on the bottom of the feet," Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) said in a report.
"Some violations occurred in the street during arrest, whilst others took place in police vehicles and/or in police custody."
Why is Gordon Brown the only European leader who is taking a stand against this?
Pathetic. You would think that someone who grew up in communist East Germany might show more interest in the plight of the people of Zimbabwe who live under a brutal dictatorship but human rights are apparently only for others. Gordon Brown is right to dig in and ask for European "leaders" to choose between Brown or Mugabe at the upcoming Europe-Africa summit. It sounds as though Merkel is hiding behind the failed "quiet diplomacy" program that has shown no results despite all of the talk from Thabo Mbeki.
Unfortunately this won't be the first time the EU has folded and given in to Mugabe, allowing him to visit Europe despite legislation that forbids his travels to Europe. Perhaps torture, starvation and political prisoners are OK in the new Germany and the new Europe.
For those living in the industrialized first world, comprehending such levels of inflation are almost impossible. My first experience with such numbers were in the early '90s when working with Brazilians who told stories about getting paid and running out to buy groceries immediately before the value declined. In Zimbabwe today, the scene is even more extreme with valuations being adjusted twice per day with expectations of 1.5 million percent by the end of 2007. Black market currency trading, while illegal, is necessary for anyone who hopes to keep pace with the staggering rates.
All of this adds up to continued misery for the general population and the strong likelihood of regime change for Mugabe, brought on by himself and his self-centered policies according to US ambassador Christopher Dell.
Thank goodness Desmond Tutu started this trend of criticizing the sad events in Zimbabwe. Tutu deserves a lot of credit for speaking his mind on a lot of issues and being spot on. Now that the barrier has been broken, more voices are coming forward such as two Catholic Church leaders from South Africa.
"The church is challenging SADC leaders because they are silent and letting this oppression go on," Bishop Dowling said during a prayer service in Bulawayo, second city in the country, late Thursday.
"Our political leaders by their silence are cooperating in the oppression of Zimbabweans and we are going to tell this," he said.
The two bishops, who were hosted by Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube -- an outspoken critic of Mugabe -- compared the current situation in Zimbabwe to that of South Africa under apartheid.
"Apartheid did what the current regime is doing to Zimbabweans. Listening to your stories has helped us remember and realise that the oppression here and the oppression we endured is very similar," Dowling said.
"Enablers" is exactly on the money. To say nothing is to support Mugabe and his policies.
With Mugabe poised to rig five more catastrophic years in office, it is time for regional leaders to recognize that his campaigns of oppression make apartheid Rhodesia and South Africa look like amateurs. As Bishop Desmond Tutu has said, we as Africans must hang our heads in shame at our failure to make a difference to the suffering men, women and children of Zimbabwe.
When will Southern Africa's leaders decide they will no longer align themselves with tyranny? When will they abandon their failed strategy of "quiet diplomacy" and move to help the people of Zimbabwe?
African leaders and the international community must demand that the government of Zimbabwe stop its violence against political opponents; create a democratic environment through the repeal of repressive legislation; enact a democratic constitution; and hold free, fair elections that are supervised by the international community.
