Zimbabwe army accused of sniper plot to kill Morgan Tsvangirai

Times Online
May 19, 2008

Jenny Booth and agencies
Zimbabwe’s opposition party today publicly accused the army of plotting to
assassinate opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai using snipers.

The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change would have been gunned down
soon after he returned home to Zimbabwe, said Tendai Biti, the
Secretary-General of the MDC, at a press conference in Nairobi, the Kenyan
capital.

“The assassination plot involves snipers,” said Mr Biti, confirming rumours
first reported in The Sunday Times yesterday, and adding details.

“It is the military, the JOC (the army's Joint Operational Command) that has
been running the country. I cannot speak (more) of that because it would put
a lot of lives at risk.”

Mr Biti said that 18 snipers were involved in the alleged plot drawn up by
the JOC, which he said had been running Zimbabwe since President Mugabe lost
parliamentary and presidential elections to his rival Mr Tsvangirai on March
29.
The opposition said that it had received details of the alleged plot on
Saturday as Mr Tsvangirai was on his way to the airport in Johannesburg,
South Africa, to fulfill his commitment to return home and fight run-off
elections.

Mr Biti said today that Mr Tsvangirai still planned to return to Zimbabwe to
contest the June 27 presidential run-off, but only once security measures
were in place to protect him against assassination.

Not contesting the run-off was not an option as it would hand Mr Mugabe
victory, he said.

The MDC claims that Mr Tsvangirai won the elections outright in the first
round, but official results and those compiled by independent monitors
suggest that he did not win the 50 per cent plus one vote needed to avoid a
run-off.

Mr Biti criticised the run-off, saying that it legitimised Mr Mugabe’s
“theft" of the election, and would not resolve Zimbabwe’s crisis.

It still was not too late to negotiate a “unity government of national
healing”, he said.

“The basic problem is that we have an old man, a geriatric, who is not
prepared to give up power and that situation isn’t going to change on June
27,” Mr Biti said.

A runoff was “merely extending and exacerbating the crisis" and legitimising
“Mugabe’s constitutional coup”.

The answer, Mr Biti said, should have been for African leaders to persuade
Mugabe to negotiate a coalition government, but instead the leaders of
neighbouring countries had failed to confront Mr Mugabe.

“What’s concerning us is this lack of statesmanship, of leadership by
African leaders,” he said.

“I think that the paralysis of leadership and perspective lies (with)
certain officers indebted to Robert Mugabe ...”

Mr Biti’s party has asked the Southern African Development Organization to
replace Thabo Mbeki as its chief negotiator in the Zimbabwe crisis.
The MDC says the South African President's insistence on “quiet diplomacy"
to persuade Mr Mugabe to change has largely failed. His negotiations that
led to election results being posted outside ballot stations did however
ensure a more open process that allowed the opposition to claim victory.

International efforts to intervene have been hampered by Mr Mbeki and South
Africa’s current chairmanship of the UN Security Council.

“The Zimbabwe crisis is exposing every leader on the African continent,
embarrassing us as Africans because we are not able to resolve our own
problems,” Mr Biti said.

He called for the Southern African bloc, the African Union and the United
Nations to help ensure a secure and democratic environment for run-off
elections, including an end to the “reign of terror" which has left dozens
of opposition supporters dead, hundreds injured and thousands displaced from
their homes.

The MDC also wants an international force to police the country, freedom for
the opposition to campaign, international election observers not biased
toward the Mugabe regime and a reconstitution of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission to include international board members.

Mr Biti claimed that many of the millions of Zimbabweans who have fled the
country planned to return to vote in the June runoff election.

A third of the population has fled Zimbabwe in recent years as the country
confronts chronic shortages of food, medicine, fuel and cash precipitated by
the government’s seizure of white-owned farms that once produced enough to
feed the country and export to neighbours.

The government this month introduced a half-billion Zimbabwe dollar note in
efforts to deal with runaway inflation that unofficial estimates put at
700,000 percent a year.

Military tried to wipe out opposition leadership: MDC

Yahoo News

by Fanuel Jongwe Mon May 19, 6:12 AM ET

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's opposition accused Robert Mugabe's military
intelligence Monday of trying to wipe out its leadership as the ruling party
outlined battleplans for a run-off presidential election next month.

With opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai refusing to return home over fears
for his safety, his number two Tendai Biti claimed he was one of dozens of
top figures in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who were on a
hitlist.

"They have been killing our people since 1980 and now Mugabe's military
intelligence has compiled a list of 36 to 40 people to be assassinated," MDC
secretary general Biti told AFP during a visit to Nairobi.

"Top of the list are our leader Morgan Tsvangirai, myself and our spokesman
Nelson Chamisa."

Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in the first round of voting on March 29, had
been due to return home at the weekend to begin campaigning for the run-off
but cancelled at the last minute after the MDC claimed it had uncovered an
assassination plot.

The party at the time refused to give any details of the alleged plot which
has been laughed off by Mugabe's governing Zimbabwe African National Union -
Popular Front (ZANU-PF) party as pure fantasy.

However Biti said it now had firm evidence that pointed to military
intelligence involvement.

"We know that there is a group of about 18 snipers from the military
intelligence who have been assigned to carry out the killing of our leader
and the rest of us. But we will not be cowed," Biti claimed.

The allegations by Biti, who has himself been out of the country since
shortly after polling day, will raise the stakes yet further in the
countdown to the run-off in which 84-year-old Mugabe is seeking a sixth term
in office.

Many analysts believe Tsvangirai, regardless of fears for his safety, is
losing the momentum he built up in the first round by declining to return
home.

Tsvangirai fell only two percentage points short of an overall victory in
the first round and should in theory be the favourite to beat Mugabe in the
run-off with another opposition candidate Simba Makoni now out of the race.

ZANU-PF is now trying to seize the initiative, setting up special committees
to address failings in the first round which also saw it lose control of
parliament for the first time since independence in 1980.

According to a report in the state-run Herald newspaper, one committee would
be dedicated to ensuring voters do not go hungry for the run-off while
another would help bus voters to the polling booths.

"We have realised that people were hungry when they went to the polls and
the committee has been mandated to ensure food production while another
committee would also look at mobilisation of transport," said the party's
chief spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira.

The paper said the committees had been agreed at a meeting Friday of
ZANU-PF's central committee when Mugabe gave a damning assessment of what he
called a "disastrous" electoral performance.

Shamuyarira said it was vital that ZANU-PF supporters who stayed at home on
the original polling day are encouraged to vote in the June 27 run-off when
Mugabe will seek to extend his 28-year rule in the former British colony.

"We believe many people did not go to the polling stations to vote," he
said.

"We have also discovered that they did not go to the polls maybe because of
over-confidence and we would also like to make sure that all our supporters
who did not vote in the last election would do so in the presidential
run-off."

ZANU-PF's share of the vote took a notable dive in rural areas, previously
seen as strongholds of the ruling party but where near drought conditions
have badly hit agricultural production.

The MDC believes authorities are also trying to intimidate rural voters
against casting their ballots in the second round through a campaign of
violence.

The party says more than 30 supporters have been killed by Mugabe followers
and tens of thousands displaced, although the president has accused the
opposition of trying to spread terror.

MDC Say SADC Working On 'Safe Passage' for Tsvangirai to Return Home

SW Radio Africa (London)

19 May 2008
Posted to the web 19 May 2008

Tichaona Sibanda

The Southern African Development Community is making every effort to ensure
that MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai gets back into the country safely and
in the shortest time possible, his spokesman George Sibotshiwe said on
Monday.

'He (Tsvangirai) is facing a very serious threat to his life and the MDC
security team had to restrain him from going ahead with his return trip to
Zimbabwe on Saturday,' Sibotshiwe added.

The MDC is accusing the country's military of plotting to assassinate
Tsvangirai.

His spokesman said they got a tip-off from a well-placed source within the
security services in Harare of a planned assassination.

Sibotshiwe said Tsvangirai has received many messages of support from people
in Zimbabwe and the region, adding that SADC was working on a plan to ensure
he returns home safe to start his campaign for the run-off poll of 27th
June. There are reports that SADC was considering asking South African
President Thabo Mbeki to try again, as facilitator of the Zimbabwe crisis,
to put pressure on the regime in Harare to guarantee Tsvangirai's safety
during the campaign period. It's believed Mbeki tried but failed to get
these assurances when he met Mugabe a week ago in Harare.

Responding to suggestions that the MDC leader was damaging his credibility
and his hances of toppling Mugabe in the second round, Sibotshiwe said
anyone saying that was failing to understand the political terrain in the
country.

'He has done the right thing to make sure he's protected to complete the
struggle, so that people in Zimbabwe will be freed from this tyranny,'
Sibotshiwe said.

Speaking in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti said
the assassination plot involved snipers. He said the military, which has
been 'running the country' since Mugabe lost to Tsvangirai in the March
elections, were involved in the plot.

Biti said he could not give more details because it would put a lot of lives
at risk. He also condemned African leaders' failure to confront Mugabe. He
also said that Mugabe's campaign of violence will almost certainly backfire,
as so many victims have said they are now more determined than ever to vote
out the regime. Many Zimbabweans in exile have also vowed to return to vote
in the June runoff presidential election.

Mugabe party targets food as key in Zimbabwe run-off

africasia

HARARE, May 19 (AFP)

Zimbabwe's ruling party has set up a special committee to ensure voters do
not go hungry ahead of a run-off presidential election next month, state
media reported on Monday.

The Herald newspaper said President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) had set up committees responsible
for food distribution and for transport while conducting an inquest into a
first round defeat in March.

"We have realised that people were hungry when they went to the polls and
the committee has been mandated to ensure food production while another
committee would also look at mobilisation of transport," the party's chief
spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira told the daily.

The paper said the establishment of the committees had been agreed at a
meeting Friday of ZANU-PF's central committee when Mugabe gave a damning
assessment of what he called a "disastrous" performance in joint
parliamentary and presidential polls on March 29.

The elections saw ZANU-PF lose control of parliament to the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change for the first time while MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai fell just short of an overall majority and now faces Mugabe in a
run-off on June 27.

Shamuyarira said it was vital that ZANU-PF supporters who stayed at home on
the original polling day are encouraged to vote in the run-off when Mugabe
will seek to extend his 28-year rule in the former British colony.

"We believe many people did not go to the polling stations to vote," he
said.

"We have also discovered that they did not go to the polls maybe because of
over-confidence and we would also like to make sure that all our supporters
who did not vote in the last election would do so in the presidential
run-off."

ZANU-PF's share of the vote took a notable dive in March in rural areas
which had previously been seen as strongholds of the ruling party.

A one-time regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe has recently experienced shortages
of basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil and sugar as a result of an economic
meltdown characterised by an inflation rate officially put at 165,000
percent.

The situation has been exacerbated by near drought in some parts of the
country which the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned could
badly damage the upcoming maize harvest.

MDC say 43 killed in worsening political violence

By Lance Guma
19 May 2008

The MDC have said 43 of their activists have been killed so far in worsening
post-election violence countrywide. The official death toll stood at 41 over
the weekend, but the party received information on Monday that two
decomposed bodies had been unearthed in a village near Goromonzi just
outside Harare. The bodies had gunshot and knife wounds. The party is yet to
confirm the identity of these murdered activists, but party spokesman Nelson
Chamisa told Newsreel they had dispatched a team to verify the identities.

Meanwhile concern is growing over the welfare of activist Tonderai Ndira who
was abducted from his home in Mabvuku by heavily armed police last
Wednesday. Ndira, a veteran of 35 police arrests, was beaten up in front of
his wife and children before his abductors bundled him into a white 4x4
pick-up and drove away. Ndira is the MDC secretary for security in the Youth
Assembly and an activist with the Combined Harare Residents Association. His
abduction is part of a state-sponsored crackdown targeting key opposition
activists. Lawyers, students, trade unionists, diplomats and other activists
have all been targeted.

The President and Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
were finally released on Monday after spending almost 11 days in custody.
Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe were released on Z$20 billion bail
each and told not to interfere with state witnesses and not to address any
political rallies. The state accuses the two of communicating falsehoods
when they allegedly told workers during May Day celebrations that two
teachers had been murdered at Kondo School in Guruve. Both deny that they
ever said this.
The Zimbabwe Liberators Platform (ZLP) has strongly condemned what it calls
the ‘systematic reign of terror unleashed by Zanu PF on innocent children,
women and men in rural areas across Zimbabwe.’ The organization which groups
together veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war said Zanu PF militants were
targeting anyone suspected of voting for the MDC. Femias Chakabuda, the
national chairman of the ZLP, questioned why Zanu PF bothered to participate
in an election if it was not prepared to accept the ‘people’s verdict’. He
said no genuine war veteran would beat up people, simply because they chose
to vote for a party other than Zanu PF.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

More on the arms shipment to Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Lawyers For Justice:A Bogus Organisation

Two more MDC activists callously murdered

The Zimbabwean

Monday, 19 May 2008 11:15

Two more decomposing bodies of murdered MDC activists were discovered
in Goromonzi, bringing to 43 the number of opposition activists murdered by
Zanu PF and state security agents in an orgy of retribution following the
people's victory on 29 March 2008.
The bodies of Ken Nyevhe and Godfrey Kauzani, who were abducted
together with Beta Chokururama last Tuesday at Juru Growth Point, were
discovered in Goromonzi on Saturday. This was three days after Chokururama's
bosy was found in the same area.
Chokururama was found dead the following in the Chikwaka area on
Wednesday with gunshot and knife wounds. He was buried at the Warren Park
cemetery on Saturday.
As Chokururama's body was being laid to rest, another shocking
discovery was made in Goromonzi district where the bodies of Nyevhe and
Kauzani were found also murdered in cold blood in the same area by a
ruthless regime.
The bodies of Nyevhe and Kauzani were discovered by villagers in
Goromonzi with similar gunshot and knife wounds to those of Chokururama.
Their bodies are at the mortuary at Parirenyatwa Hospital.
The two were members of MDC national youth wing.
Kauzani's wife, Felistus, was on Sunday picked up by the police from
Goromonzi police station who are interrogating her on how the families of
the deceased discovered the bodies.
Zanu PF and state security agents have been on an orgy of violence
since the opposition party and its president Robert Mugabe lost in the 29
March 2008 elections to the MDC.
Over 5 000 families have been displaced from their homes across the
country while hundreds have been injured and are receiving treatment at
various hospitals.
The move by Zanu PF is meant to displace at least 500 000 eligible
voters who are perceived to be MDC supporters ahead of the 27 June 2008
presidential run off.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Tonderai Ndira, Harare province's
secretary for security, who was abducted by armed state security agents at
his Mabvuku home are still unknown.
 

Riot Police and CIO stop Church services

The Zimbabwean

Monday, 19 May 2008 11:05
Anglican Church in Zim.

HARARE -  Baton-wielding riot police on Sunday burst into a number of
Anglican church services across the capital Harare, disrupting mass at
churches aligned with the Right Reverend Bishop Sebastian Bakare.
Bakare was appointed substantive bishop of the Harare diocese in
December following the ouster of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, Mugabe’s prominent
pet bishop.

At least three priests and several parishioners were arrested in the
raids on the charge of holding services without the authorization of police
or government. Only clergy supporting Kunonga may legally continue to hold
services, police warned parishioners in leaflets.
Bakare said he was “appalled” by the reports of Zimbabwean police
forcibly stopping the Sunday services in Harare where clergy have publicly
refused to acknowledge Kunonga's episcopal authority.
The Zimbabwean heard that police, for the second week in a row,
viciously broke church services on  Sunday at St. Pauls Parish in Highfield,
St Columbus in Kuwadzana, Christ Church in Borrowdale, St Francis in
Waterfalls and St. Andrews Parish in Glenview , where parishioners were
beaten up and some taken into police custody.
Kunonga, a close ally of Mugabe, had his priestly license revoked last
December after illegally separating from the Anglican Central African
Province.
He later claimed he had formed his own Anglican Church of Zimbabwe and
installed himself as Archbishop.
An obscure number of Anglican supporters of Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party
are accusing Bakare of breaking church canonic law in the ouster of Kunonga.
While independent of the Church of England, the denomination - with an
estimated 40,000 active members - belongs to the worldwide "Lambeth
Communion".
Supporters of the election of Bakare, the new vicar general of the
diocese, say he is a dedicated and impartial theologian unlike Reverend
Kunonga, a toadying bootlicker of Mugabe who preaches Zanu (PF) rhetoric
from the pulpit.
Kunonga, who has stayed in the United States for years, is alleged to
support Mugabe's militant black empowerment policies. He is also a former
theology lecturer at Africa University, in Mutare. Repeated efforts to reach
him for comment were futile. But  Bishop Bakare said he was "deeply
concerned about the continuous disruption of church services by the police
and the army who have disregarded  High Court orders."
Bakare said Kunonga was giving false information to the police and
security chiefs that the diocese of Harare supports the MDC, which Bakare
vehemently rejected insisting “the Church preaches Christ Crucified and
Righteousness not party politics.”
Bakare said Kunonga was lying to the authorities that the diocese of
Harare was an appendage of the Church of England eager to recolonise the
country and that it was pro homosexual, said Bakare.
In the divide over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion, Kunonga
has attempted to claim he is on the side of biblical orthodoxy.
Bakare alleged that Kunonga was personally involved in the roping in
of riot police and intelligence operatives to stop his services. Bakare said
they had four High Court orders issued by Judge President Rita Makarau,
reference number HC.345/08 , Justice Lawrence Kamwi (HC 402/08), Justice
Hungwe (HC 3208/07) and the latest by Justice Antonia Guvava (HC 2259/08)
giving  the Anglican diocese of Harare a  legal right to access and use of
the Anglican properties and premises.
Bishop Bakare said on Sunday: "We will ask other religious leaders in
Harare to lend us their churches from next Sunday so our congregations can
continue to worship. We will also sue the commissioner of police next week.
"We know the orders are coming from high up, not from ordinary
policemen."

If violence pays, who wins?

zimbabwejournalists.com

19th May 2008 15:28 GMT

By Chenjerai Chitsaru

POLITICAL violence is once again top of the agenda in Zimbabwean politics.
President Robert Mugabe spoke of it at a meeting of Zanu PF's central
committee.

He sounded as if he was actually condemning it, which must come as something
of a surprise to many who have heard him, in the past, espousing "bashing"
as a stock-in-trade of politics.

His rival for the presidency of the republic, Morgan Tsvangirai, did sound
off on the subject too, although the circumstances were different.
Tsvangirai was still out of the country, having departed these shores after
the 29 March presidential election, which his party claimed he won.

Tsvangirai had planned to return to begin his campaign for the run-off
presidential poll due next month. His party said he would not, after all, be
returning as scheduled because they had stumbled upon an assassination plot
against their leader.

What they were demanding was a guarantee that his diabolical plot would not
be carried out if he returned. The government seemed to pooh-pooh the whole
suggestion of an assassination plot.

Again, some people were surprised. Since 1980, this government has been
involved in skullduggery which has been documented.  One of them, the
attempt on Patrick Kombayi's life in 1990, ended up in court, with two
people associated with the government charged with attempted murder.

Both were convicted and sentenced to jail, but the same Mugabe, who was
president then, got the men released.

In the 2000 election campaign, two people, again associated with either the
government or the ruling party, were identified as the perpetrators of one
of the most gruesome assassinations in the country's history: they killed
two activists of the MDC in Buhera.
To this day, they remain free.

In the 1990s, Tsvangirai himself was held by his legs out of a window in the
ZCTU offices by people alleged to be war veterans – they threatened to throw
him downstairs if he did not repudiate his organisation's plan to oppose the
payout to the war veterans.

The war veterans are allied to the ruling party, a fact illustrated by
Jabulani Sibanda's prominent role in the Re-Elect Mugabe campaign: he is the
leader of the Zanu PF-allied war veterans' movement.

There has been so much violence against MDC supporters, particularly in the
rural areas, that it is emphatically arrogant of Zanu PF to turn around and
claim they are, in fact, victims of unprovoked, MDC–sponsored violence.

Moreover, it is the ruling party which would reasonably and even logically
be expected to engage in such activities because of the results of the
elections.

The party performed so dismally it would be unreasonable to expect them to
accept the humiliation without some form of protest.
This is a party of violence, let's not forget. Perhaps its very origins as a
liberation movement would be automatically associated with a plan to engage
in violence.

After independence, that phase would be expected to have been replaced by a
sober, civilian-like devotion to negotiation rather than violence. But we
all know bad habits die hard.

Yet a recent development in far-away Nepal might provide Zanu PF with a
useful lesson: the Maoist opposition, once engaged in violent attempts to
overthrow the conservative and largely autocratic monarchy, took part in an
election – and won.

Of course, it is reasonable to assume that the voters had to bear in mind
the fact that the Maoists were offering them a chance to endorse them
without a gun being held to their head.

Today, the monarchy is on the verge of being abolished altogether, and
hopefully, replaced by a civilian administration, ostensibly answerable to
the voters.

Of course, Zanu PF is another party altogether. It has so many skeletons in
its cupboard it is understandable for it to want to hold on to power until,
as they say, kingdom come.

It intends to accomplish this by using violence – there can be no disputing
that. The run-off for the presidency is likely to see one of the most
violent campaigns we have witnessed, perhaps worse than the 2000 one, which
must have broken all records.

What Zanu PF and its leaders ought to consider is the likelihood of this
country degenerating into another of those African countries where people
kill each other every day in an insane struggle for power which can end only
after millions have died and the economy is virtually dead – as in Somalia,
or the Sudan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Those countries may have attracted much international attention, some of it
well-intentioned and aimed at ending the blood-letting.
But so far the killing continues unabated. In he DRC, Joseph Kabila, the
youthful president, may turn 70 or even 80 before anything remotely related
to order is restored to that God-forsaken country, independent since 1960
but so blood-soaked it must be counted among the few countries in the world
which should never have been granted full nationhood.

Someone has to pay for all the violence to which we have been subjected
since 2000. The economy is in tatters and only people very intellectually
challenged can take Gideon Gono seriously when he speaks as if our inflation
rate is not the highest in the world and our growth rate is not one of the
most pathetic in the world.

Some people will insist that our problems were not self-inflicted, that we
were doing very well when foreigners intervened by throwing a spanner in the
good works. This would not be true at all. At some point after independence,
our economy was poised on the edge of really taking off, our dollar strong,
the economy sound and our political and economic relations with the rest of
the world on an even keel.

Then Zanu PF, a party so self-absorbed in its self-importance and so
obsessed with creating a one-party, one-leader, and one ideology country
decided to take matters into its hands by using violence – in the land
reform chaos and in the subsequent parliamentary election campaign.

Almost everything went up in smoke then. Nobody has been able to put out the
fire since then. Millions of young people fled the looming disaster and made
their lives in foreign countries.

Zanu PF remains committed to chaos, unprepared to do the decent thing and
leaving the scene with dignity. Where violence is the prime factor of
handling sensitive situations, there can be no winners. Zanu PF certainly
won't be the winner.

Posterity might, in fact, ensure that it ends up in the dock. It would have
to answer for all the blood and the destruction of what was once seen as a
model economy, but has now been reduced to one of the biggest jokes in the
world.

Beaten, wounded, bleeding and even lost life for exercising my right to vote

The return of the 'necklace': Anti-immigrant violence sweeps South Africa's townships

By IAN EVANS - Last updated at 19:49pm on 19th May 2008

 

A wave of anti-immigrant attacks has rocked South Africa's seething townships, with mobs beating foreigners and setting some ablaze in scenes reminiscent of the bloodiest days of apartheid.

And in the most savage of scenes, there were terrifying examples of "necklacing" - the dreadful punishment dealt out to collaborators and criminals in anti-apartheid days in which a tyre filled with petrol is put around a victim's neck and set alight.

Necklacing sentences were handed down in the 1980s and 90s by "people's courts" established in black townships.

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Uproar: Men cheer and dance as people's houses lie burning on the ground

The practice was frequently carried out in the name of the now-ruling African National Congress and was alleged to have been implicitly endorsed by Winnie Mandela.

The country has been rocked by the scale and ferocity of the attacks which has left more than 20 people dead, with hundreds arrested.

The savage violence has been aimed mainly at Zimbabweans and other African nationals who have fled violence or poverty in their own countries.

They are accused by the impoverished blacks of South Africa's townships of taking jobs and fuelling the high rate of violent crime.

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Desperation: A man tries to douse the flames on one ramshackle building

In the horrific attacks, mainly around Johannesburg, foreign women have been raped while men have been set upon by gangs wielding guns, clubs and machetes.

Shops and homes have been looted and dozens of shacks burnt to the ground.

"This is a war," said Lucas Zimila, a 60-year-old Mozambican man who was attacked by a machete-wielding mob while sleeping in his shack in Tembisa, north of Johannesburg.

"They screamed at me to get out, that I didn't belong here. Then they burned everything in my house," said Zimila, who suffered a five-inch gash in his head.

South Africans yesterday woke up to view terrifying scenes on the front pages of their newspapers while television pictures showed nervous, gun-toting police struggling to keep order on the outskirts of Johannesburg's central business district, bringing the violence closer to commerce and the white population.

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Violence: A South African policeman shoots a rubber bullet as officers try to disperse rioters

Last night the country's Human Rights Commission supported by the opposition Democratic Alliance called on the government to put soldiers on the street of the areas worst affected by the trouble.

Former president Nelson Mandela said he was saddened by the violence against foreigners, while Archbishop Desmond Tutu, another of the country's most respected leaders, made an impassioned plea for the violence to end.

"Please stop. Please stop the violence now," he said. "This is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers."

He said neighbouring states had taken in South Africans during the struggle against white minority rule. "We can't repay them by killing their children," he said.

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Horror: The dead body of a Malawian national stabbed to death during xenophobic clashes in the Reiger Park Township lays on the ground as locals look on

South Africa, with a population of 50 million, is home to an estimated 5 million immigrants. Foreigners from poorer countries have been lured by work in mines, farms and homes and by one of the world's most liberal immigration and refugee policies.

Immigrants say that far from being criminals they are more often the victims of crime. Several claimed organised criminals were using the violence as cover to rob and loot.

Gangs of mainly male South Africans have been targeting Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Malawians as they roam through townships, squatter camps and poorer suburbs, demanding to see people's identification papers to check their nationalities.

Refugees from Zimbabwe are bearing the brunt of the attacks. There are an estimated 3.5 million Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa, escaping the horrors of Mugabe's regime in their own country and lured by job prospects in a country with one of the world's most liberal immigration and refugee policies.

But despite being Africa's biggest economy with a growth rate of 5 percent for the past four years, the boom has failed to make a big enough dent in unemployment which stubbornly remains at around the 25 percent mark.

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A man armed with a hammer and stick runs from police during riots in the Ramaphosa squatter camp

Many in the townships claim foreigners are given preferential treatment on houses, a claim denied by the authorities.

In truth many refugees work for pitiful wages unprotected by labour laws, or set up businesses particularly among the Somali community. Poor South Africans say their willingness to work for lower wages undermines their job prospects.

An estimated 6,000 refugees have been forced to escape their shacks in townships with only the possessions they could carry, and find sanctuary at police stations where they are protected by armed officers.

Around 1,000 have taken refuge at the Central Methodist Church in central Johannesburg which has long been a safe haven for recent newcomers from Zimbabwe.

The church's Bishop Paul Verryn said: “We consider the situation is getting so serious that the police can no longer control it.”

He said a group of armed people had approached the church on Sunday night, and only police intervention kept them away.

“It is so sad. They need security, blankets, food and counselling. But most of all they just need to be treated as human beings,” he added.

One of those targeted was Emmerson Ziso who fled hunger and repression in Zimbabwe, but says he now wants to go home.

“Most of the Zimbabweans want to leave. It is better at home than here,” said the former teacher who was chased from his home by a mob on Sunday morning.

“It's spreading like wildfire and the police can't control it,” Ziso said.

The right wing Freedom Front Plus party called for a state of emergency in Gauteng province where the violence has occurred.

Jaco Mulder, FF Plus's provincial leader said he had been warning government since 2004 that the handling of undocumented migrants and refugees could lead to resistance from various communities.

“This uncontrolled immigration has an impact on education, health and job creation that are already under severe pressure.”

President Thabo Mbeki and ANC leader Jacob Zuma have both condemned the violence. Mr Mbeki said a panel had been appointed to probe the reasons for the xenophobic attacks which critics say is not enough. The beleagured leader has been widely criticized for his failed “quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe which has seen a flood of refugees from the crisis-hit country.

Mr Zuma added: “We can't be a xenophobic country. It's not good for our country. The hatred of certain people just because they are foreigners is becoming a general problem, but how we conduct ourselves says a lot about us in the international community.”

The unrest is an embarrassment for South Africa, which has vaunted its tolerance since the end of apartheid and hopes to encourage foreign visitors for the football World Cup in two years time.

S. Africa police use rubber bullets, arrests to fight anti-foreigner violence; 22 killed

International Herald Tribune

The Associated PressPublished: May 19, 2008

REIGER PARK, South Africa: Clashes pitting the poorest of the poor against
one another have focused attention on complaints that South Africa's
post-apartheid government has failed to deliver enough jobs, housing and
schools to go around.

Police brought in reinforcements as violence hopped from slum to slum in
scenes reminiscent of the bloodiest days of apartheid. Most of the victims
were foreigners in squatter camps.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu made an impassioned plea Monday for the violence to
end.

"Please stop. Please stop the violence now," he said in a statement. "This
is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers."

Tutu said that when South Africans were fighting against apartheid they had
been supported by people around the world, and particularly in Africa.

"We can't repay them by killing their children. We can't disgrace our
struggle by these acts of violence," he said.
President Thabo Mbeki also reiterated his call for an immediate stop to the
attacks saying "nothing can justify it" and that police will get to the
"root of this anarchy."

South Africans are struggling to buy food as prices rise. Unemployment is 23
percent and many complain the government hasn't worked fast enough to build
houses, schools and hospitals for the long-neglected black majority.

Foreigners have been targeted because they are seen as competing for scarce
resources — and because they were the closest targets on hand for the poor.

Leyton Salaman, a 35-year-old tiler from Malawi, said the trouble started
slowly in Ramaphosa, a collection of shacks among the mine dumps and
warehouses east of Johannesburg. A few foreigners were beaten Friday.
Saturday, shacks were set alight. When the killing started Sunday, Salaman
and hundreds of others fled to the neighboring community of Reiger Park,
where he sat in a church yard Monday.

"These people, they said, 'You are taking our jobs,'" said Salaman, who has
lived and worked in South Africa for eight years. "Now they just come and
take our things."

Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said that, since the violence broke
out last week, 22 people had been killed. Mariemuthoo said more than 200
people had been arrested on charges including murder, rape and robbery.

Mariemuthoo said police reservists and officers from other regions were
being called in to help. The South African Red Cross and other aid groups
appealed for funds to care for the hundreds of people who have been
displaced.

Some victims were set alight. Jonathan Whittal, a humanitarian affairs
officer with Medecins Sans Frontieres, said his group had seen cases of rape
as well as gunshot and other wounds.

"The violence is extreme," Whittal said, calling for a broader, more
coordinated humanitarian response. He also said security for immigrants
would remain a concern even after the current outbreak is extinguished, and
the underlying causes would have to be addressed.

The violence would likely only add to South Africa's image as a crime
capital — it has a murder rate of more than 50 per day — just as it prepares
to host visitors from around the world for the 2010 soccer World Cup.

While still shockingly high, crime rates in South Africa have been slowly
dropping. Many South Africans, though, say they believe crime is rising,
questioning the official statistics in one measure of distrust of the
government.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation was among the organizations called for calm.
The foundation noted that the former president had sponsored projects aimed
at helping immigrants integrate into South African communities.

In a statement, the foundation repeated a plea that Mandela, South Africa's
first black president, made during an outbreak of xenophobic violence in
1995: "We cannot blame other people for our troubles."

President Mbeki said in a statement issued by his office that he was being
kept informed of developments and that "law-enforcement agencies must and
will respond with the requisite measures against anyone found to be involved
in these attacks."

"Citizens from other countries on the African continent and beyond are as
human as we are and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity," he
said. "As South Africans, we must recognize and fully appreciate that we are
bound together with other Africans by history, culture, economics and, above
all, by destiny. "

Zimbabwean Gina Themba nursed her 2-week-old daughter on the floor of a room
at a police station in downtown Johannesburg Monday. She said neighbors
among whom she had lived for three years broke into her house the night
before and demanded she leave. She said she did not understand why.

Such scenes were repeated in pockets across the Johannesburg region.
Foreigners fled to police stations, churches and community halls. At one
police station-turned-refugee camp, a young man wandered with a loaf of
bread and a knife, selling slices for a 1 rand (about 15 U.S. cents; 10 euro
cents) each, in a display of immigrant entrepreneurship that has sparked
resentment.

Vincent Williams, head of an immigration research project of the independent
Institute for Democracy in South Africa, said accusations that immigrants
take jobs from natives, or that they are responsible for crime, are heard in
many places around the world.

He said it was rare for such sentiment to erupt into sustained violence, but
this was not the first time it has done so in South Africa. The last serious
outbreak was just after apartheid ended in 1994.

"We've known for quite a while that levels of xenophobia in South Africa are
high," Williams said. He said speculation about the reasons has touched on
the isolation created by apartheid as well as fears the institutionalized
racism of the past has left even black South Africans suspicious of black
foreigners. Zimbabweans, Malawians, Mozambicans and others from elsewhere in
Africa have been the main targets of the violence.

President Thabo Mbeki said Sunday that he would set up an expert panel to
investigate. Williams said the panel should probe whether the violence has
been orchestrated, perhaps by an as yet unknown anti-immigrant group.
Williams also called for a public awareness campaign to ensure immigrants as
well as native-born South Africans understood their rights, and understood
that while immigrants may take jobs here, they also buy South African goods
and services, and pay taxes.

Some South Africans were moved to help foreigners, dropping by the impromptu
shelters with food, clothing, blankets and other donations. Lisa Letsoso, an
18-year-old South African living in the Ramaphosa squatter camp, was up all
night working with church groups distributing aid to people from the camp
who had fled to Reiger Park.

"The South African are fighting the foreigners. Now the foreigners are
fighting back," Letsoso said. "Everyone is suffering."

Thabo Mbeki's critics demand action not words

Times Online
May 19, 2008

President Mbeki criticised for standing by as Zimbabwean refugees set ablaze
in South Africa's townships
Jonathan Clayton, Johannesburg
The sight of a poor Zimbabwean refugee set ablaze by a jeering mob in a
South African township has outraged public opinion and once again led to
fierce criticism of President Thabo Mbeki’s moribund government.

The picture of the victim covered in flames made the front page of several
newspapers and triggered a new round of soul-searching following a weekend
of xenophobic violence from which the death toll has now hit at least 12.

This latest attack, on a resident of Reiger Park on the East Rand outside
Johannesburg, has brought back memories of “necklacing” when the townships
were ablaze in the 1980s during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle
and “informers” and “traitors” had rubber tyres draped around their necks
and set on fire.

The violence, which began last week, has focused attention on the ruling
African National Congress’ (ANC) failure to make life much better for those
at the bottom of the country’s economic pyramid. Unemployment in the
townships is well over the national average of 25 percent and basic services
are in short supply.

“People are having to find scapegoats, this is about competition for
diminishing resource. Mbeki has tried to de-racialise the economy but only a
very small number at the top have really benefited,” said Sipho Seephe,
President of the South Africa Institute of Race Relations. Mr Seephe is a
fierce critic of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies which he accuses
of simply recycling "the same bunch of ANC cronies.”
Mr Mbeki’s government has overseen impressive economic growth rates which
have created an emerging black middle class, but some 40 per cent of the
population – 80 per cent of which is black – is little better off than at
the end of apartheid in 1994.

“The school system is crumbling, the public health sector is in crisis and
the HIV/AIDs epidemic is taking scarce resources and this feeds a perception
that nothing is improving,” added Mr Seephe.

Mr Mbeki has ordered an inquiry into the violence, but his critics insist
that what is needed is action.

“We have got inquiries coming out of our ears, but no leadership. What we
need is leadership, we know the causes of all these problems,” said one
political analyst.

Mr Mbeki, who is increasingly becoming a lame-duck leader after having lost
the ANC presidency at the end of last year, is also blamed for an influx of
some three million Zimbabweans into South Africa to escape economic
melt-down in that country.

“Mbeki could have probably not done that much to stop this influx, but he
could have used a language which better conveyed a sense of crisis,” said Mr
Seephe.

Mr Mbeki’s government is blamed for failing to grant many of the Zimbabweans
refugee status, leaving them few options but to work as illegal immigrants
and in some cases opt for crime which has fuelled “anti-foreigner” sentiment
also directed at Mozambicans, Somalis and Malawians.

Comments
It has been forecast in detail and so it is happening. SA will soon be a new
Zimbabwe: watch this space. The advice to tourists going there is make sure
your life insurance is up to date. Read the various government web sites.
Cry the Beloved Country- again!

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

What a complete waste of oxygen Mbecki is. He is totally unequal to the
problems facing southern Africa. Originally in denial over the HIV/Aids
epidemic, then over the Zimbabwe catastrophe, now over the resulting
problems for his own country.
It doesn't need an enquiry to know that he has to go.

Christopher, West Yorkshire, UK

Mr Mbeki could have done everything to prevent the influx, by helping to
oust Mugabe long ago. His attitude to Mugabe is hard to understand, except
in terms of ANC history. Does he want a country run by a bankrupt tyrant on
his doorstep? Or is he in thrall to the past in some way?

Paul, London, England

The carnage in Johannesburg is a direct result of Thabo Mbeki’s obstinate
stance on Zimbabwe and lacklustre attitude to maintaining the effectiveness
of the South African police services. No debates, no rose-coloured
spectacles, no excuses. The chickens are coming home to roost. Or roast.

peter frost, cape Town, south Africa

Mbeki reaps a tragic harvest

International Herald Tribune
May 19 2008

Posted by Daniel Altman

For years, as heads of state from around the world bemoaned the worsening
economic conditions in Zimbabwe, Thabo Mbeki kept mum. South Africa’s
president couldn’t bring himself to criticize his opposite number to the
north, Robert Mugabe, even as the country that had been Africa’s breadbasket
slipped into ruin. At the same time, thousands of Zimbabweans fled across
the border. Now, violent anti-immigrant riots have broken out across South
Africa, and Zimbabweans are the main victims.

Mbeki failed to deal with the problem when it was on his doorstep, and now,
as Barry Bearak reports, the problem is in his own house. The president
allowed Zimbabweans into his country, but he offered them no more than
informal support networks so they could find their feet. Unemployment and
crime were already problematic before the mass immigration, so it didn’t
take long for poor neighborhoods to turn into tinderboxes.

Some of the Zimbabweans are political refugees, but the vast majority appear
to be economic migrants - a pattern that is repeated around the world.
Economic output in Zimbabwe has tumbled, inflation is through the roof and
at one point male life expectancy had fallen below 40 years. These problems
might just have been avoided with a little more pressure and foresight.
Mbeki’s example will serve other heads of government well: Watching out for
your neighbor’s economy is the same as watching out for yours.

"Stand Up (for) Zimbabwe" Day ~ 25 May