Skepticism Surrounds The Motives of The Dictatorship

Skepticism Surrounds The Motives of The Dictatorship
I am skeptical about the talks that are set to resume between our MDC and the Zanu PF in South Africa today. My main worry is the motive of the dictator and his military junta? What do they hope to achieve by the talks? Because surely they can not suddenly claim a heartfelt need to solve the political crisis in Zimbabwe that has been going on for over 10 years now. The events in Zimbabwe speak for themselves, the violence against MDC members and still carries on with impunity over 1000 MDC officials and members are still in custody, to date 110 people have died since the start of April this year all victims of a state concerted effort to destabilise MDC members and instill fear in innocent citizens and cow them into supporting Zanu PF. A few days prior to the MOU, Mugabe was vitriolic in his usual attack of the British blaming them for the 5 million percent inflation in Zimbabwe, he never looked nor sounded like a man with reconciliation on his mind, his wife as well joined in the verbal attack of President Morgan Tsvangirai the leader of MDC and the rightful winner of the March 29 elections. All I am saying is nothing in actions or demeanour of the dictatorship indicated that they really wanted to resolve the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

Some of the critics of MDC say we will never negotiate from a position of strength after pulling out of the Presidential runoff that Mugabe then went on and declared himself a winner so he could negotiate from a position of strength. As usual the arm chair pundits are way off the mark, Mugabe and his junta never wanted to negotiate. At first they thought they had the April 27 runoff between Tsvangirai and Mugabe all wrapped up after the orgy of violence that they had meted out to MDC members they knew they were going to be winners predicting a low or no turnout of MDC voters. The violence was brutal, it left 10 000 homes destroyed, another 10 000 people requiring urgent medical attention, 250000 people internally displaced, 1000 MDC members in illegal detention over spurious charges and 110 people that lost their lives at the hands of bloodthirsty state machinery that was unleashed on innocent Zimbabwe citizens. MDC had no option than to pull out of the Presidential runoff. However the dictatorship welcomed the idea and went ahead with a shame election, as ridiculous as taking a penalty when they is no goal-keeper and surprise surprise there was one winner Mugabe. They hurried the inauguration and did it on a Sunday so that Mugabe could travel to AU summit in Egypt as a head of state. Despite the need for non-recognition of Mugabe as an illegitimate head of state as he predicated a few among his peers dared to declare his tenure illegitimate with Botswana only issuing the most strongest of terms. All the other African countries as I wrote here on this blog before are tyrannical and their tenures of office are equal questionable. So the expectation of many people that Mugabe would be rejected never happened. After the collapse of the British sponsored UN resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe there was little left that could be done by the world to help the situation in Zimbabwe.

I do not even think it was the sporadic uncoordinated sanctions against the regime in Harare that pushed them to begin negotiations with MDC nor was it the EU targeted personal sanctions. Yes the shortage of watermarked currency paper that the dictatorship imported from Germany company was the one that pushed the regime. However I acknowledge that the collapsed economy is starting bite the very architects of the collapse. Inflation at 2.2 million officially but economists put it at 5 million per cent is the highest in the world and is unsustainable. I think that was one of the issues that forced the dictatorship's hand. The other one might be the choruses of disapproval mostly from African countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria...... amongst those most critical of the illegitimate regime led by the despot Mugabe.

If Zanu PF and its machinery are going through this with insincerity or as a charade to wood wink the world that they are ready to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe then the talks will break down. If Mugabe thinks he can engineer another coup by swallowing MDC as he did Zapu in the late 80s and giving MDC MP token cabinet positions then I can assure you again that the talks will break down. MDC will never accept piece-meal type of settlements that disregard that MDC is the majority party in the parliament and that Morgan Tsvangirai is the rightful winner of the Presidential elections. There is also the issue of the immunity and amnesty, Zanu Pf will try and coax immunity pledges from MDC in exchange of release of all detained MDC members and officials, but we will refuse it. If however as a measure of compromise immunity is offered to Mugabe and his junta it will be difficult to stop individuals that will seek justice of the atrocities that the junta ordered in a new Zimbabwe.

Whatever the motive of the dictatorship in entering the talks, MDC will be on its guard and we will never play second fiddle to the junta we will claim what rightfully is ours, the people given victory of March 29. Any other outcomes the dictatorship can continue in its ruinous rule of Zimbabwe and we shall see if they have the political wherewithal to revive the collapsed economy and improve the lives of ordinary people.

Tortured by Zanu PF thugs

May 16, 2008
Sokwanele.com

Her name is Memory 　

This is Memory. Her story was told in an article published yesterday by the Daily Mail. It’s title: How one woman’s extraordinary bravery is a haunting rebuke to a world that is ignoring Mugabe’s genocide. Her experience of torture at the hands of Zanu PF thugs is beyond ordinary imagination. Her lovely face, with its almost serene expression, also protects the reader from the horror of her experiences. And the editorial rigours of the mainstream media buffers us from the full awful truth: the images of Memory’s injuries have been considered too graphic - grotesque - by most to publish.

When you click the read more link on this post, you will see the reality of what happened to Memory.

Writing for the Daily Mail, Peter Oborne tells Sokwanele what happened:
Four men held down her arms and legs, while a fifth gripped her head, placing his hands over her mouth to prevent her screams being heard.
Two others, wielding heavy wooden poles, then took turns to thrash her on the buttocks in a beating that lasted half an hour.

She told me how on arrival at the school (which she had attended as a child), she had been ordered to sit in the playground with a group of supporters of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - the opposition party led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

On the dot of 8am, the beatings started. Groups of eight people at a time were ordered out for treatment at the hands of a band of around 200 members of Robert Mugabe’s militia, each wearing Zanu-PF T-shirts and green, red and yellow bandanas signifying the national flag.
Many of them were high on drink or drugs.
She watched as four of her close friends were beaten and kicked to death. A fifth friend later died, and others remain unaccounted for.

The militiamen chanted songs and spat insults at Morgan Tsvangirai as they did their work. They told Memory, whose farmer husband was away: "You and your husband are MDC members so we must beat you.’ They said that she belonged ‘to a party of animals". Memory told me how she could hear her children screaming "Mamma, Mamma, Mamma!" during her beating. They were held back by female members of Zanu-PF. Later, Memory was ordered to sit for two hours on her wounds. Mugabe’s thugs told her she would be thrashed again if she moved a muscle.

"We spent the day without eating or water in the hot sun," she told me. "If we asked for water, they said: ‘Get your water from Tsvangirai’."

Believe it or not, just by being alive, Memory is one of the lucky ones.
The article, which has a lot more to say, is here : it ends like this:
As I stood up to leave the bedside of Memory, I asked if, despite all she had been through, she would still vote for Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential run-off. Her face lit up with a wonderful, radiant, artless smile. "Oh, yes!" she said. "I would. I will vote with confidence."

While this amazing spirit of courage and optimism remains, there is still hope this wonderful country could soon rid itself of its appalling despot Robert Mugabe - if only the world would stop averting its eyes and finally take the moral responsibility to help end this tragedy.
Memory’s courage is one of the reasons why these images have to be seen and we have to respond to them. Her courage is extraordinary.

Peter Oborne’s article highlights the way the terrible pain of what she has endured has not impacted on her committment to Zimbabwe’s future. But her courage is deeper than even that: readers should be aware that in telling her story, allowing her face to be pictured, showing the world her terrible injuries, Memory is risking reprisal attacks.

But she did it anyway, so you could see and hear what is happening.