Zimbabwe’s Bennett not involved in terrorism: witness

A Zimbabwe state witness said on Wednesday opposition politician Roy Bennett was not involved in a terrorism plot against President Robert Mugabe’s government.

Bennett — a white commercial farmer and treasurer-general in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — faces a possible death penalty if convicted of illegal possession of arms for purposes of committing terrorism, banditry and sabotage.

On Wednesday key state witness Peter Hitschmann, who was this week declared hostile to the state’s case, said Bennett had nothing to do with firearms he kept and did not provide funds to buy the arms for an anti-government plot.

When asked by Bennett’s lawyer whether the MDC politician had deposited funds into his account to buy guns or whether he plotted terrorism, Hitschmann said: “No my Lord, he did not.”

The state charges that Bennett funded a plan in 2006 to blow up a major communication link in the country and assassinate key government figures. He is accused to have deposited funds in Hitschmann’s Mozambican account for the operation.

Bennett has branded the charges political persecution by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF to stop him from taking office as deputy agriculture minister.

Arms dealer Hitschmann, 49, says he was tortured by state security agents to implicate Bennett. On Monday the court threw out confessions made by Hitschmann’s in 2006 because they were not made freely, weakening the state’s case.

Hitschmann, who served jail time for possessing dangerous weapons, said it was not normal that the state had never interviewed him or taken a statement from him before he was called to testify as a witness.

“It’s not only not normal but also dangerous, my Lord. I would have given an indication (to the state) that I would be of little use to the state,” Hitschmann said.

Hitschmann, a former police officer, said as a licenced arms dealer he collected guns from white commercial farmers who were forced off their land for safekeeping or for sale on commission.

Prosecutors have said the trial is likely to end next week.

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ZIMBABWEAN OFFICIALS SAY MUGABE IS WELL

Zimbabwean officials dismissed a South African newspaper report that President Robert Mugabe was ill on Wednesday as rubbish and the product of “sick and evil minds”.

The Times newspaper had reported that Mugabe, 85, was taken to a Dubai hospital after falling ill and was undergoing specialist treatment.

“The president is not sick but was away on holiday. He returned home yesterday, and those reports are a load of rubbish that we get from sick and evil minds,” said one official.

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Speculation regularly surfaces over the health of Mugabe. He has been in power since independence in 1980 and in February formed a unity government with old rival Morgan Tsvangirai to try to end political crisis and economic decline.

Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba told Reuters: “He is fit, and has not been to any hospital. He is being made ill by newspapers and not his God. We are being forced to dignify these reports by commenting on them.”

South African President Jacob Zuma is expected to visit Zimbabwe on Thursday to discuss the progress of the unity government

ZIMBABWE LEADERS IMPLORE FOR PEACE

Zimbabwe’s president and prime minister have condemned disturbances at a meeting to discuss a new constitution, and issued a call for unity.

President Robert Mugabe told a news conference that the government would “not brook any further nonsense”. The comments came after the meeting was abandoned when fights broke out between his supporters and those of his former rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Mr Mugabe’s supporters disrupted the opening speech by dancing and singing. At a joint press conference with Mr Tsvangirai, Mr Mugabe said it was necessary to complete the update of the charter.

“These things we’ll continue to rectify and improve as we move forward,” he said.”Rome was not built in one day. “Mr Tsvangirai said the disturbances did not benefit anyone.

“Whether as a political party or as a nation, we are only hurting our efforts,” he said.On Monday, water bottles were thrown and scuffles broke out between politicians from both parties in Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government. Some delegates walked out in protest and riot police were brought in to clear the venue. Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party wants the new constitution to be based on a draft drawn up last year, but critics say it gives the president too much power

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ZIMBABWEAN MP’S RUCKUS DISRUPTS CONFERENCE

Zimbabwean authorities abandoned a national constitution-making conference on Monday after chaos broke out among hundreds of rival delegates, witnesses said.

The conference — to discuss how to write a new constitution under a unity government formed by President Robert Mugabe and old rival Morgan Tsvangirai — degenerated into shouting and heckling during an opening statement by the speaker of parliament.

Delegates from Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party booed and threw bottles of water at each other before riot police moved in to drive them out of the conference venue.

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IMF REJECTS NEW AID FOR ZIMBABWE

The International Monetary Fund has told Zimbabwe that it will not provide the country with more funds until its existing $1bn debts are settled. Zimbabwe’s government estimates it will need $10bn (£6bn) of foreign aid to help rebuild its battered economy.

But the IMF said that Zimbabwe would need to clear its debts and show a sustained record of sound policies before it could give financing. China recently agreed to give Zimbabwe a loan of $950m. China was one of the few countries to retain economic support for Zimbabwe in recent years.

The IMF said that Zimbabwe’s economic policies had improved and a “nascent economic recovery appears to be under way”. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai visited the US and Europe earlier this month in an attempt to raise funding for the struggling nation.

The US promised $73m in aid while the UK pledged to boost its funding by about $8m, taking its total to $98m for the year. Mr. Tsvangirai said he had received pledges totalling $500m during his trip.

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ZIMBABWE GETS $950 MILLION CREDIT FROM CHINA

Zimbabwe has secured $950 million in credit lines from China to help rebuild the country’s economy, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Tuesday. Zimbabwe has appealed to the world for a “financial stimulus package” for its devastated economy, saying lack of foreign support put a recovery plan drawn up by the unity government in peril.

The southern African country says it needs $10 billion to rebuild dilapidated infrastructure and ease a 90 percent unemployment rate. “The government through the minister of finance, secured credit lines of almost $950 million from China,” Tsvangirai said in a news conference. Tsvangirai, who shares power with President Robert Mugabe, said a three-week tour he conducted of the United States and Europe had yielded pledges totalling more than $500 million.

“The amount of assistance that was raised on my visit to Europe and the United States does not reflect the enormous support we will be able to utilise if we are to fulfil all our political obligations,” he said. He said other promises of aid would be fulfilled only when Zimbabwe created a democracy and improved human rights after what critics say is Mugabe’s repressive rule.

“If we want outside assistance, we must first prove that we are able to fulfil the obligations we have undertaken within the agreement that was brokered by SADC,” Tsvangirai said. “Actions speak louder than words and while I was away there were instances of peaceful protestors being beaten by our police, innocent individuals arrested on trumped up charges and continued vilification of the MDC by the state media.”

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MDC MINISTERS BOYCOTTED CABINET MEETING

Ministers from Zimbabwe’s ex-opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have boycotted a cabinet meeting chaired by President Robert Mugabe. The meeting, usually held on a Tuesday, was brought forward as Mr Mugabe is off to Libya for an African Union summit. When Mr Mugabe is away, MDC leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai chairs the cabinet gathering.

The MDC deputy leader said it showed “contempt” for the power-sharing unity government formed in February. Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party “has not welcomed MDC as an equal”, MDC Vice President Thokozani Khupe said. She said the decision to move the meeting “reflects unilateralism, disrespect, contempt and refusal to recognise the reality and the letter of the global political agreement”, AFP news agency quotes her as saying.

“Is this inclusive government a government of hunger?”
President Robert Mugabe

She said the MDC had the right to consider leaving the power-sharing government. Mr Tsvangirai arrived back in Zimbabwe on Monday morning after touring the West lobbying for aid for the poverty-stricken country. He managed to drum up just over $200m (£121m) in aid, but not the $7bn the country’s finance minister says the country needs to revive its devastated economy.

Much of the money raised is not going directly to the government as donors are wary of sending money which could be misused by Mr Mugabe and his allies. But Mr Tsvangirai defended his move to join Mr Mugabe in government. “Those who accept me have to accept Robert Mugabe… If there is a problem, we go and fail together,” he told reporters in Johannesburg on Saturday, AFP reports.

However, last week Mr Mugabe said the unity government was not living up to its promises. “Our inclusive government came with the expectation that since we were all in this partnership, there would be aid from all quarters of the world,” Zimbabwe’s Herald newspaper quoted him as saying. “Money cannot be found to pay those who are working. Not even the ministers, not the president,” he said. “So is this inclusive government a government of hunger? I had never received a US$100 in salary but this year that is what I was promised – not a single cent has come to me so far.”

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ZIMBABWEAN ARMY ENGAGES IN ILLEGAL DIAMOND MINING

Lobby group Human Rights Watch has accused Zimbabwe’s army of using forced labour, including children, to mine diamonds in the east of the country.

Local villagers who do not co-operate with the military are beaten and tortured, the US-based group says.

Their report also details an alleged massacre of diamond diggers last year, after the disputed elections.

It urges the unity government to take control of the mines and use the revenue to help rebuild the country.

“Zimbabwe’s new government should get the army out of the fields, put a stop to the abuse,” Human Rights Watch’s Africa director Georgette Gagnon said.

“The police and army have turned this peaceful area into a nightmare of lawlessness and horrific violence,” she said.

The report is based on interviews done in February in Marange district.

Its researchers say that as far as they are aware, the situation has not changed since the former opposition joined the government four months ago.

Human Rights Watch claims control of the mines is part of a systematic attempt by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party to buy support from the military.

The diamond fields in Marange were seized just one month after the power-sharing deal was first agreed in September 2008.

On the face of it, the military takeover was an attempt to seize control from unlicensed miners, the lobby group says.

But in reality it was a systematic attempt to enable key army units, whose support President Mugabe needed following June’s elections, to have access to riches, Human Rights Watch says.

“Documents that we reviewed that we got from the military and the police clearly indicate that this was a clearly designed system to benefit the army,” researcher Dewa Mavhinga said.

Witnesses say it involved a brutal military operation that saw some 200 people killed in three weeks.

It says army brigades are still in control forcing hundreds of children and adults endure forced labour for mining syndicates.

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BRITAIN SAYS TOO EARLY TO LIFT ZIMBABWE SANCTIONS

Britain said on Friday it was too early to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe despite the creation of a new unity government in its former colony. Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai arrives in Britain later on Friday on the final leg of a tour of Europe and the United States to woo financial support for the unity government he shares with long-ruling President Robert Mugabe.

Writing in the Times newspaper, Africa minister Mark Malloch-Brown noted that sanctions were directed against individuals linked to Mugabe’s rule and the companies that bankrolled it. “We will not lift the bulk of these measures until we are convinced that Zimbabwe’s transition to democracy has reached a point of no return,” Malloch-Brown wrote.

He said Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change had taken a “leap of faith” in entering government with Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. “It is beginning to make it work, although there are plenty of pitfalls. Mr Mugabe could easily try to go back on his word and grab absolute power again.”

Malloch-Brown said the media in Zimbabwe was not free, political activists were being harassed and farm seizures were continuing. Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday that the government has failed to curb human rights abuses. Britain pledged 15 million pounds in April in humanitarian assistance for Zimbabwe but has channelled this through the United Nations and non-governmental organisations ran than directly to the government.

The Zimbabwe government says it needs $10 billion to rebuild its shattered economy, but most Western donors have been offering limited sums and bypassing the government.

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ZIMBABWE TO GET $73M AID: OBAMA

President Barack Obama has announced $73m (£44m) in aid for Zimbabwe. The US president was speaking at the White House in Washington, where he met the visiting Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mr Obama said he wanted to encourage the rule of law, human rights and basic health and education in Zimbabwe. Mr Tsvangirai – who entered a power-sharing agreement with President Robert Mugabe in February – is on an international tour to seek aid.

President Obama said he had “extraordinary admiration for the courage and tenacity” shown by Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe.

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