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Title: Babies Seized by Robert Mugabe's Forces as Zimbabwe Hounds Voters (Chinese Soldiers Also Seen)
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URL Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ne ... orld/africa/article3822569.ece
Published: Apr 26, 2008
Author: Christina Lamb and John Makura
Post Date: 2008-04-27 13:08:21 by Peppa
Keywords: Mugabe
Views: 269
Comments: 25
Thousands flee crackdown Scores of children and babies have been locked up in filthy prison cells in Harare as Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, sinks to new depths in his campaign to force the opposition into exile before an expected run-off in presidential elections. Twenty-four babies and 40 children under the age of six were among the 250 people rounded up in a raid on Friday, according to Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Yesterday they were crammed into cells in Southerton police station in central Harare. “This is ruthlessness of the worst kind. How can you incarcerate children whose mothers have fled their homes hoping to give their children refuge?” asked an emotional Chamisa yesterday. “In Mugabe’s Zimbabwe even children are not spared the terror that befalls their parents.” The families were rounded up from MDC headquarters, where they had sought refuge from violence in the countryside. Related Links Mugabe’s link to arms firm revealed Thought to be directed by top military officers, Operation Where Did You Put Your Cross? has prompted thousands to flee. They are trying to escape the so-called war veterans, who are attacking people and burning down hundreds of houses for voting “incorrectly” in last month’s elections. “What we’re seeing is an undeclared civil war,” said Chamisa. “It’s genocide. This situation is out of control, it’s now beyond the capacity of the MDC alone. It requires the region, the continent, the international community to act.” Four weeks after the elections, official results have still not been released for presidential polls widely thought to have been won by Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader. Simultaneous parliamentary elections saw the ruling Zanu-PF party lose its 28-year-long majority. The election commission is engaged in the recount of 23 constituencies after regime claims that they had been rigged by the opposition. None of the results has been overturned in the 14 so far announced. Even if the remaining nine were to go to Zanu-PF it still would not have won a majority. While some Zimbabweans see a glimmer of hope in this, Mugabe has remained defiant in the face of international condemnation. Most expect the regime to announce that no candidate won a majority in the presidential election and to order a run-off next month which Mugabe will ensure that he wins. “The only game in town is a run-off,” said George Sibotshiwe, Tsvangirai’s spokesman. “The recount was just to buy them time to smash people’s heads in, so when they go for a run-off nobody will even be thinking of voting.” The regime’s strategy is to ensure that by the time of the run-off, Mugabe would have a clean sweep in rural areas, where 70% of Zimbabweans live. A police officer admitted yesterday that he had been instructed not to interfere with war veterans as they carry out their campaign of terror. At the same time the opposition leadership has been driven into hiding or abroad. Tsvangirai fled Zimbabwe two weeks ago after he was charged with treason for “conspiring with the British to oust Mugabe”. “I am unable to return home for fear of my life,” he wrote in The Washington Post last week. On the ground the party’s network of district officials is being decimated. Tichanzii Gandanga, the MDC election agent for Harare province, can barely walk after he was beaten and left for dead. Four men arrived at his offices in central Harare at about 6pm on Wednesday. “They told me I knew my crimes and so I had to confess,” said Gandanga. “They blindfolded me, bundled me into a truck, then drove for a long distance, beating me on the head, on the back, everywhere. They played loud music so that no one could hear my cries. I don’t know how I survived.” As he was being beaten, Gandanga was questioned about the whereabouts of Tsvangirai. Eventually he was dumped in the bush. He managed to crawl to a main road where he was picked up and taken to the head of a nearby village. For two days Gandanga was nursed by villagers. Eventually he got word to his relatives who moved him to a private hospital. Ten people have been killed so far, according to the MDC, including a five-year-old boy who was burnt to death in a hut. The first victim on April 12 was Tapiwa Mubwanda, 54, the organising secretary for the MDC for Hurungwe East. According to his widow they were on their way back to their village when they saw a group of Zanu-PF youth militia. While she fled into the bush with their children, her husband and his elder brother were beaten with rocks. “They said, ‘You voted for the MDC, now we want to do this in order to teach you to vote. You wasted your vote by voting for Tsvangirai. He will never be the president of Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe will remain, so we want to teach you to vote’.” When she crept out of hiding her husband was dead. Another MDC activist, Manyika Kashiri, 55, of Chigumbu village in Uzumba, had his foot smashed by an axe when militias stormed into his shack at midnight on Tuesday. Kashiri woke after a bang at his door and rocks smashing against his windows. When he emerged, he was hit with a log by one of the militias and another tried to chop off his right foot with an axe in front of his grandchildren, one of whom was just four. “We’re seeing a major increase in government-sponsored violence,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The ruling party has been sending its allies after people it thinks voted for the opposition. Now anyone seen as opposing Mugabe is in danger.” One activist, a 25-year-old fitter in hiding in Bulawayo, told The Sunday Times how he and two colleagues had been picked up by intelligence officers and forced to eat a poster of Tsvangirai. “You like him so much, now eat him,” they told him. “Every day that passes, hope is seeping away,” said an aid worker in Zimbabwe. “This could very easily end up being yet another stolen election.” Zimbabwe’s churches said yesterday that they had opened up their premises to victims of the violence. Church leaders worldwide have declared today to be a day of prayer for Zimbabwe. “The current climate of political intimidation, violence, vote-rigging and delay has left the presidential election process without credibility,” read a statement from two senior Anglican archbishops, Rowan Williams and John Sentamu. “Now the people of Zimbabwe are left even more vulnerable to conflict heaped upon poverty and the threat of national disintegration.” International pressure has continued. The top US envoy for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state, has declared Tsvangirai the clear winner of the presidential vote. Tsvangirai has spent the past two weeks travelling round Africa trying to drum up support to pressure Mugabe to step down. After the weak response from Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, focus has shifted to the African Union (AU). Its chairman Jikaya Kikwete, president of Tanzania, has privately said that he would be willing to consider convening a summit on Zimbabwe. Britain is hoping to get the United Nations involved and has managed to put Zimbabwe on the agenda of the UN security council this week. Proposals include an arms embargo and sending a UN envoy to Harare “with a tough message”. At the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo on Friday, Mugabe was defiant. “When the West, led by the British, shamelessly continue to denounce our country, what is our crime?” he asked. “We are simply defending our hard-won national sovereignty.”
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#1. To: Peppa (#0)
This guy makes Saddam look like Gandai, yet local yokals think we invaded Iraq to free them from oppression. Go figure.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" Go figure. I remember reading a post from Palo a long time ago... she said something like, YAY, THEY'RE BOMBING US INTO FREEDOM! LOL! I think there are two important takeaways from this article. One seizing children of your opponents, (think TX now), and taking revenge on voters for the opposition. As cyni has pointed out before, it's happened before in America and it can happen again. Don't think it's not possible. Americans need to wake up. Obama wants a global tax to subsidize goverments like Mugabes. That's subsidizing genocide.
This isn't about the crazy Mormon group?
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
When Mugabe was first elected, he was hailed as a "savior". Now look what he's turned into? Then I look at the newest "savior", Obama.....
#2. To: tom007 (#1)
This guy makes Saddam look like Gandai, yet local yokals think we invaded Iraq to free them from oppression.
#3. To: tom007 (#1)
Twenty-four babies and 40 children under the age of six were among the 250 people rounded up in a raid on Friday,
#4. To: Peppa (#0)
 | Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#5. To: Elliott Jackalope (#4)
Yessir, You got it. It serves the masters on many levels.
When Mugabe was first elected, he was hailed as a "savior". Now look what he's turned into? Then I look at the newest "savior", Obama.....
#6. To: Peppa (#2)
Maybe the oppressed in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe will rise up against their tyrant just as Americans rise up to toss out their own tyrants.../s
#7. To: Peppa (#2)
The African Union is going to get a LOT of attention from the next puppet quisling, that you can be sure of...
#8. To: FOH (#6)
They can not.
Maybe the oppressed in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe will rise up against their tyrant just as Americans rise up to toss out their own tyrants.../s
#9. To: Elliott Jackalope (#4)
Remember all the fruitcakes screaming about Rhodesia and South Africa? Remember all the protests about "human rights" violations and how they should be sanctioned into what the lefties thought those countries should do? Where are the protesters now?
When Mugabe was first elected, he was hailed as a "savior". Now look what he's turned into?
Elect anyone but Obama, Clinton, or McCain.
#10. To: Peppa (#2)
Mugabe was given many more powers because when Bush called for a war on terrorism Mugabe treated anyone opposed to him a terrorist not sure if it was Mugabe or Bush who first introduced the wire tapping provision...bottom line there is no difference between the two...outside of one being black!
#11. To: Elliott Jackalope (#4) (Edited)
Oh for pity's sake!
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
#12. To: robnoel (#10)
Yes, yes.. agreed.
Mugabe was given many more powers because when Bush called for a war on terrorism Mugabe treated anyone opposed to him a terrorist not sure if it was Mugabe or Bush who first introduced the wire tapping provision...bottom line there is no difference between the two...outside of one being black!
#13. To: robin (#11)
Oh, I'm sorry, you're upset because I recognize Obama for what he is? Another shill for the plutocrats to legitimize our hopelessly corrupt empire "of the corporate elites, by the corporate elites and for the corporate elites"? Well guess what, too bad. Anyone who has ANY hope whatsoever for this despicable evil empire to reform in any way whatsoever is terminally deluded. Never forget, Nazi Germany was NOT overthrown by its own people, it was CRUSHED by the REST OF THE WORLD declaring TOTAL WAR against it and DESTROYING IT. And THAT is going to be the ONLY hope for the human race regarding scAmerica.
| Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#14. To: Elliott Jackalope (#13)
Comparing Obama with Mugabe is outrageous! There is nothing to support this disgusting idea.
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
#15. To: robin (#14)
Aww, was that a dirty rotten below the belt sucker punch? Pity. I feel SO bad about that. Golly gee, I think I'm learning how to think and act like a Good American!
| Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#16. To: robin (#14)
They're both black and incompetent. Oh, I forgot, I'm on Bozo and you can't read this. I'll send thought waves.
Comparing Obama with Mugabe is outrageous! There is nothing to support this disgusting idea.
#17. To: mirage (#9)
Mission Accomplished.
Where are the protesters now?
Q: Why will Obama make a great American President?
A: He's the only candidate with menagerial talent.
#18. To: Elliott Jackalope (#13)
I won't quite say that. Lenin and crew ended the Czar's involvement in WWI via internal methods. And on the flip side the USSR bit the dust when everyone called Moscow's bluff and the army had a belly full of the Kremlin's stupidity. But will America make that kind of stand? I don't think so. The few resisters will be snuffed out like The White Rose group was in Germany. At least the Germans produced a Stauffenberg. Think anyone in the pentagon would have that kind of fortitiude? I'm not sure if people cling to a "great white hope" canadate because they either are power loving statists at heart, find voting as a moral excuse for not taking more effective action, or are truly deluded into thinking they really are making a difference.
Never forget, Nazi Germany was NOT overthrown by its own people, it was CRUSHED by the REST OF THE WORLD declaring TOTAL WAR against it and DESTROYING IT. And THAT is going to be the ONLY hope for the human race regarding scAmerica.
"The more I see of life, the less I fear death." - Me.
"If violence solved nothing, then weapons technology would have never advanced past crude clubs and rocks." - Me.
#19. To: robin (#14)
Actually there is, but you refuse to open your eyes to the truth regarding Obama.
Comparing Obama with Mugabe is outrageous! There is nothing to support this disgusting idea.
God is always good!
#20. To: RickyJ (#19)
Have you no shame? I know you think your particular brand of racist hatred is important, but nobody is fooled when you try packaging it as compassion and your lies as wisdom. I feel sorry for you. You have no idea what God or love really means. Your heart is a stranger to everything except what is black and puerile. Grow up.
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." Robert F. Kennedy
#21. To: Ferret Mike (#20)
I wasn't aware that reading Obama's own books and determining he is a racist himself was "lies".... It is only racist" to take someone's own words and say "Golly, this guy has a problem" -- if he's black. Nobody else gets this special treatment.
I know you think your particular brand of racist hatred is important, but nobody is fooled when you try packaging it as compassion and your lies as wisdom.
Elect anyone but Obama, Clinton, or McCain.
#22. To: tom007 (#1)
No blood for diamonds!
This guy makes Saddam look like Gandai, yet local yokals think we invaded Iraq to free them from oppression.
The old baboon by the light of the moon was combing his auburn hair.
#23. To: Ferret Mike (#20)
I have listened to Rev Wright not just the sound bites I have also takin the time to dig deeper into black theology and its leading advocate James Hal Cone who Rev Wright referenced this morning at the press club.....the official message of the Church is.... The message of black theology is that the African American struggle for liberation is consistent with the gospel--every theological statement must be consistent with, and perpetuate, the goals of liberation. This theology maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage--social, political, economic and religious. This liberation involves empowerment and seeks the right of self-definition, self-affirmation and self-determination. However when one goes deeper into James Hal Cone we find that he advocates that those that were oppressed need to kill the oppressors....kind of like what is going on in Southern Africa today...it should come as no surprise that Cone was very active in promoting this black theology in South Africa James Hal Cone From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cone was born and raised in Arkansas and received a B.A. degree from Philander Smith College in Arkansas in 1958, a B.D. degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in 1961, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University in 1963 and 1965, respectively. He taught theology and religion at Philander Smith College, Adrian College in Michigan, and beginning in 1970 at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he was awarded the distinguished Charles A. Briggs Chair in systematic theology in 1977. Cone felt that Black Christians in Northern America should not follow the "white Church", as it had failed to support them in their struggle for equal rights. Though this theme runs throughout Cone's work, his early books (Black Theology and Black Power and A Black Theology of Liberation) draw heavily on mainstream white theologians like Karl Barth (on whom Cone had written his doctoral thesis) and Paul Tillich. His theology was also heavily influenced by Malcolm X and the Black Power movement, as well as by Martin Luther King, Jr., whom he describes as a liberation theologian avant la lettre.[1] In response to criticism from other black theologians (including his brother, Cecil), Cone began to make greater use of resources native to the African American Christian community for his theological work, including slave spirituals, the blues, and the writings of prominent African American thinkers like David Walker, Henry McNeal Turner, and W. E. B. Du Bois. His theology developed further in response to critiques by black women, leading Cone to consider gender issues more prominently and foster the development of womanist theology, and also in dialogue with Marxist analysis and the sociology of knowledge.[2] Cone's thought stresses the idea that theology is not universal, but tied to specific historical contexts; he thus critiques the Western tradition of abstract theologizing by examining its social context, and formulates a theology of liberation from within the context of Black experience of oppression, interpreting the central kernel of the Gospels as Jesus' identification with the poor and oppressed, the resurrection as the ultimate act of liberation.[3] As part of his theological analysis, Cone argues for God's own identification with "blackness": The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism...The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering...Liberation is not an afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity. (A Black Theology of Liberation, pp. 63-64) Despite his associations with the Black Power movement, however, Cone was not entirely focused on ethnicity: "Being black in America has little to do with skin color. Being black means that your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are." (Black Theology and Black Power, p. 1)[4] In 1977, Cone wrote, with a still more universal vision: I think the time has come for black theologians and church people to move beyond a mere reaction to white racism in America and begin to extend our vision of a new socially constructed humanity in the whole inhabited world...For humanity is whole, and cannot be isolated into racial and national groups.[5] In his 1998 essay "White Theology Revisited," however, he retains his earlier strong critique of the White church for ignoring or failing to address the problem of race.
#24. To: robin (#14)
Mugabe sometimes has a clue: "The voice of Mr. Bush and the voice of Mr. Blair can't decide who shall rule in Zimbabwe, who shall rule in Africa, who shall rule in Asia, who shall rule in Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall rule in Iraq." "We don't mind having sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans." "Let those long distance philanthropists who want to romanticize shacks ... tell us why they don't allow them in their own land."
Comparing Obama with Mugabe is outrageous!
The old baboon by the light of the moon was combing his auburn hair.
#25. To: Elliott Jackalope (#13)
Bravo!
Anyone who has ANY hope whatsoever for this despicable evil empire to reform in any way whatsoever is terminally deluded. Never forget, Nazi Germany was NOT overthrown by its own people, it was CRUSHED by the REST OF THE WORLD declaring TOTAL WAR against it and DESTROYING IT. And THAT is going to be the ONLY hope for the human race regarding scAmerica.
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