MEDIA REPORTS

Zimbabwean army generals urged President Robert Mugabe to quit and anoint a successor on the eve of the governing party’s Victoria Falls conference to enhance Zanu PF’s chances in next year’s crucial presidential election, it was learnt this week. Authoritative sources said the top generals, under the umbrella of the Joint Operation Command (JOC), met Mugabe in one of their regular briefings just before the conference at the weekend to "reflect" on his and ZANU PF’s chances in the election set for March. The JOC comprises General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Constantine Chiwenga, Commander of the Zimbabwe National Army, Air Marshall Perence Shiri of the Airforce, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Elisha Muzonzini, Director-General of the spy Central Intelligence Organisation.

In the meeting, the sources said, the generals expressed feelings that Zanu PF’s chances in next year’s poll could be enhanced by a new unifying candidate given the rampant factionalism which has torn Zanu PF and resulted in its dwindling national support base in recent months.

Four bills being pushed through parliament in Harare have put paid to any chance that Zimbabwe’s presidential elections will be recognised internationally, diplomats said yesterday. They said the passage of the bills - the public order and security bill, the information bill, and bills to amend the country's electoral laws and industrial relations act – made free and fair elections impossible. Jonathan Moyo, information minister, said he expected the bills to be passed today. The speaker of parliament yesterday suspended standing orders so that the legislation could be rushed through parliament before Christmas. This will allow President Robert Mugabe to sign the bills into law before the election campaign starts early in the new year.

The Public Order bill makes it an offence to criticise the president. It will also be an offence to "excite people and express dissatisfaction" with the president. Police will be able to arrest anyone found without an identity card or passport. Tawanda Hondora, chairman of Lawyers for Human Rights said "any party campaigning in presidential elections that criticises Mr Mugabe could be prosecuted under the new law and sentenced to a heavy fine, or 10 years in jail, or both." "The bill is far worse than any previous colonial legislation in this country or in apartheid South Africa," he added.

The information bill makes it a criminal offence for a journalist, foreign or local, to report on events in Zimbabwe, unless licensed to do so by a government body. The proposed amendment to the labour legislation bans strikes, while the changes to the electoral laws will make it impossible to hold free elections, according to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mr Mugabe has flown to Libya to renew the country's fuel supply agreement with Muammer Gadaffi, the Libyan president. The agreement has largely ended the country's fuel supply crisis. In August, Libya agreed to a US$ 360m revolving credit arrangement to supply Zimbabwe with the equivalent of US$ 90m of oil every quarter. The fact that the deal is being renegotiated at a time of warnings of fuel shortages soon suggests Zimbabwe has not been able to pay on time.

Commonwealth ministers have agreed to discuss Zimbabwe formally for the first time early next year. Correspondents say this could be the first step to a possible suspension. President Robert Mugabe received another setback when parliament adjourned for the year, without passing two controversial bills. The government had been keen to pass the laws which introduce tight controls on the media and ban independent election monitors before the Christmas break. Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo had said this would leave next year clear to prepare for presidential elections in March. But it now appears that parliament will need to reconvene in January in order to pass the bills.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group will meet on 30 January to discuss the democratic situation in Zimbabwe. The grouping of mostly former British colonies has expressed concern at the political violence in Zimbabwe but correspondents say it has never before officially put the situation there on its agenda. "The situation in Zimbabwe constitutes a serious and persistent violation of the Commonwealth's fundamental political values and the rule of law," the CMAG statement said. Both the European Union and the United States Congress have been taking steps towards targeted sanctions and even neighbouring South Africa has warned the crisis could drag down the economy of the entire region.

The legal committee of Zimbabwe's parliament will consider the controversial bills and debate will resume next year. Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called some of the new measures "preposterous", such as the threat of imprisonment for criticising the president. Correspondents say this would seriously curtail the opposition's ability to campaign in the run-up to the presidential elections. In a BBC interview, Mr Straw also accused the Zimbabwean leader of seriously damaging the whole of the economy of Southern Africa by his actions, and of using the Afghanistan crisis as a cover to strengthen his grip on power.

The opposition has sharply criticised the new laws during debate this week, said MP Paul Themba Nyathi. "There was an outcry. We told them (government) to go and reconsider the bills," Mr Nyathi told Reuters news agency. Under the proposed media bill, only Zimbabwean citizens would be allowed to work as journalists and even they would need journalism degrees and government licences. Any breach of the regulations, which includes reporting unauthorised accounts of cabinet discussions, could lead to fines and even imprisonment. Amendments to the electoral laws would only allow civil servants - susceptible to government pressure - to monitor elections and prevent non-governmental bodies from conducting voter education. Millions of Zimbabweans living abroad would also be denied the vote. As the economy has deteriorated, many Zimbabweans have fled to South Africa and elsewhere and many of these are thought likely to support the opposition.

Harare - President Robert Mugabe is recalling thousands of soldiers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help him fight a crucial presidential election in March next year, said officials on Thursday. They said there would be no fresh troop deployments in the DRC and all Zimbabwean soldiers had also been barred from taking leave from now until after the conclusion of the presidential election. The decision to recall some of Zimbabwe's 10 000 troops stationed in the DRC comes barely a week after Mugabe started deploying troops in opposition strongholds in Zimbabwe's southern provinces to protect his supporters from "terrorism". Ministry of Defence officials, interviewed on condition of anonymity, said there would be no fresh troop deployments in the DRC as the soldiers were needed at home to help Zanu-PF win the election. "The president has indicated he needs the entire army for the forthcoming election. We are therefore recalling most of the soldiers but they will be sent back," said an official. All efforts failed to get official comment from the Zimbabwean army spokesperson Mbonisi Gatsheni.

Meanwhile, violence broke out in Zimbabwe's high density suburb of Budiriro on Wednesday when dozens of young people on the government's controversial national youth service programme descended on the suburb and started attacking and harassing residents. Reports said the youths, clad in their military fatigues and patrolling several Harare suburbs ostensibly on a "clean up campaign" arrived at Budiriro shopping centre in a bus and started forcing everyone in sight to sweep. They viciously assaulted anyone who refused to comply. Angry residents retaliated by throwing stones at them.

Zanu PF has resolved to bar the opposition MDC party from campaigning in the rural constituencies and will use war veterans to effect this strategy, a senior party official has said. In what is promising to be a repeat of last year’s parliamentary election campaign scenario when war vets terrorised villagers and effectively barred the opposition from campaigning in rural areas, the party has again vowed to jealously guard what it considers to be its stronghold. War veterans secretary-general Andy Mhlanga told The Standard last week: "We are saying that the MDC must not address any rallies in the rural areas and we do not want a situation where MDC supporters from Harare constituencies are holding rallies in Murehwa. This is not going to be accepted by the war veterans. We are going to do what we used to do during the liberation struggle when the rural areas were prohibited zones for the enemy." The MDC boasts of having support from the urbanites so let them organise their rallies with these people and leave our rural supporters alone," said Mhlanga.

Asked to comment on Mhlanga’s statement, Zanu PF secretary for information and publicity, Nathan Shamuyarira, said the party would not stand in the way of the war veterans. "They are part of us and it’s part of our campaign strategy to concentrate on the rural areas where the majority of our supporters are," said Shamuyarira. Of the 57 seats the MDC clinched in last year’s parliamentary elections, only 15 were from rural constituencies. On the other hand, 56 of Zanu PF’s 62 seats were from rural areas. Mhlanga said the decision was reached by war veterans at the Zanu PF National People’s Conference held in Victoria Falls two weeks ago. The decision to seal off rural areas, comes in the wake of Mugabe’s declaration that his party would wage a war against the MDC in order to win the presidential poll.

The violent campaign by Zanu PF has since the run-up to last year’s general election, left at least 82 opposition supporters dead. The orgy of terror by war veterans seen mainly in rural areas and the farming community has mostly targeted opposition supporters and white farmers. The presidential election has taken on a new dimension with Zanu PF training a youth militia for deployment in the country’s 10 political provinces to wage a violent campaign. Mhlanga warned urban dwellers that if they visited their families in the rural areas they should not spread the "MDC gospel". "We also know that some of the people from the towns are visiting their folks in the rural areas...and then they start campaigning for the MDC in townships and at growth points. Let them be warned that we will be on the look out for them and will be monitoring them," said Mhlanga.

The latest move by Zanu PF is also aimed at thwarting the MDC’s efforts to penetrate the highly conservative rural areas where it has already made headway through the setting up structures in every constituency. But the party remains defiant in the light of the Zanu PF "ban". Party spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe said: "War veterans can ban the MDC from campaigning, but they cannot stop the people from casting their votes at the ballots to determine who should be their next president. The issue is that we have a de facto state of emergency. We simply have to try to put our messages across despite all these threats and violence in the rural areas." At the Zanu PF people’s conference in Victoria Falls last weekend, Mugabe railed at the town people for failing to support Zanu PF but expressed gratitude to the rural electorate for being loyal. Encouraging a vigorous campaign, Mugabe said: "What we are now headed for is a real war, a revolutionary war. We have to move like a military machine and you must prepare your own unit to move forward. This is no longer just a contest. This is a revolutionary war."

Harare - Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said yesterday that his supporters were being attacked and killed by an unofficial militia established by President Mugabe's government. Mr Tsvangirai said deadly assaults were rising ahead of presidential elections scheduled for March. He said: "Three Movement for Democratic Change people have been killed in attacks. It is obvious now that Zanu PF is not going to retreat from its campaign of violence as we head towards the elections."

Today the funeral will be held of MDC youth organiser Trymore Midzi who died in a private hospital after being attacked in his home town, Bindura, 40 miles north west of Harare. He was found by his brother after being so savagely beaten that he needed 72 stitches to his head and many more in other parts of his body. Mr Midzi was repeatedly beaten by Mr Mugabe's supporters earlier this year but refused to stop working for the MDC, according to his younger brother, Roy. Another MDC official was beheaded and a third was beaten to death, according to Mr Tsvangirai. He said he would not be going to any of the funerals. "It will attract too much attention if I go, and that can lead to our people being hurt." He said Mr Mugabe's national servicemen, so-called war veterans and the ruling party's youth brigade had made it impossible for the MDC to hold rallies in many rural districts. "However we are managing to quietly campaign, and people are courageous."

Mr Tsvangirai said the government was operating an unofficial militia. "They are operating under the guise of national service, and about 1,000 of them have been let loose to terrorise MDC supporters in the towns and rural areas." The group was blamed for an attack on a doctor and a disability therapist at a rural hospital 15 miles south of Harare after a Christmas party. Mr Tsvangirai said he had reports that they later went into a township on the outskirts of Harare on Christmas Eve and caused "havoc." Mr Tsvangirai presents Mr Mugabe with his first serious challenge when voters go to the polls in a presidential election due before March 17. Yesterday the police said they could not confirm nor deny whether any suspects had been arrested in connection with any of the violence of the past few days.

Harare - Militias which back Robert Mugabe are blamed for killing four members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) during the past week, raising fears of a wave of state-sponsored murders before the presidential elections due in March. One MDC supporter, Milton Chambati, 45, was beheaded by 50 followers of Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF party in the small north-western hamlet of Magunge, according to local reports. Many witnessed the gruesome murder. In Karoi north-west of Harare, Titus Nheya, 56, was stabbed to death allegedly by Zanu PF militiamen on December 21. As the MDC's parliamentary candidate for the area, Mr Nheya lost to Mr Mugabe's sister, Sabina, in the June 2000 elections. Trymore Midzi, 24, an MDC official in the northern town of Bindura, died on Boxing Day after being stabbed and assaulted by men in the para-military uniforms of the militia, according to the MDC. Laban Chiweta, 24, also died on Wednesday, from head wounds and burns he received from Zanu PF militiamen in the town of Trojan Mine. The MDC alleges that the men who killed Chiweta were trained by Zanu PF's political commissar, Elliot Manyika.

The holiday killings bring to 87 the number of MDC supporters who have been killed in state-sponsored violence, according to the opposition party. The recent murders come amid reports that followers of Mr Mugabe, 77, who has been in power for 21 years, have established bases across the country and are stepping up a campaign of intimidation. "This government is using millions of dollars of public money to set up terror training camps to train a private army that is given state sanction to kill, abduct, torture and maim," an MDC statement claimed. War veterans and other Mugabe supporters have said that the rural areas of the Mashonaland provinces, where all four of the Christmas killings took place, are "no go" areas for the MDC. The state-owned news media, meanwhile, repeatedly charge that "the MDC and its British sponsors" are spreading violence. But they have very little evidence to back up the claim.

Harare - Zimbabwe's national service officers have been accused by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change of political violence and terror over Christmas. Sekai Holland, an senior MDC official, brought three severely injured supporters to hospital in Harare on Wednesday after, she claimed, a rural government clinic refused to treat them. She said on Thursday that they were kidnapped from their homes about 250km south-east of Harare, and were tortured by servicemen. "Some of them had their hamstrings and tendons cut, others have been chopped all over their bodies," said the distraught Holland. The first man allegedly attacked by national service officers, MDC activist Laban Chiweta, died in hospital on Wednesday from injuries sustained on December 6. Three other opposition activists were killed a few days before Christmas, allegedly by war veterans and national servicemen, bringing the total number of MDC supporters killed since the June 2000 election to about 90. About 1 000 national service officers were recruited by the government after one of Mugabe's militant cabinet ministers, Border Gezi, died in a car crash in April. A national service training camp was established in his memory and the first 1 000 graduates were sent into service six weeks ago. Jacob Thabane, an MDC MP, said rural people had reported increased army patrols in their areas. "They're becoming frightened."

Straw threatens Zimbabwe with suspension

By Ben Russell and Basildon Peta in Harare

09 January 2002

Britain will press for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the Commonwealth if the country continues its slide into totalitarianism, Jack Straw said yesterday.

The warning came as President Robert Mugabe prepared to push two draconian laws through the Zimbabwe parliament today, curbing free speech and tightening a clamp-down on political opponents.

Analysts said the measures, aimed at cementing Mr Mugabe's grip on power ahead of presidential elections in March, went far beyond the worst excesses of white minority rule in pre-independence Rhodesia. Lovemore Madhuku, professor of constitutional law at the University of Zimbabwe, said: "Even [the former Rhodesian Prime Minister] Ian Smith did not pass these kind of laws to suppress black people."

Mr Straw condemned the growing cycle of "political violence, including deaths, occupation of property and the harassment of independent journalists". He said Britain would press for Zimbabwe to be suspended when Commonwealth heads of government met in Australia in March if conditions, which were being monitored by the Commonwealth's democracy watchdog Cmag (Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group), continued to deteriorate.

The Foreign Secretary told MPs that the position in Zimbabwe constituted "a serious and persistent violation of the Commonwealth's political values and the rule of law". Downing Street said the statement had been cleared by the Prime Minister.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill, which was expected to be fast-tracked through the Zimbabwean parliament today, would empower Mr Mugabe to jail journalists who practise "unethical journalism" and ban foreigners from working as correspondents in Zimbabwe. Local journalists will require one-year renewable licences, and will face heavy fines and two-year jail terms for publishing stories deemed likely to cause "alarm, fear and despondency".

A second measure, the Public Order and Security Bill, will impose life and death penalties on those convicted of assisting in terrorism, espionage, banditry, sabotage and treason against the government.

Analysts say the offences are so ill-defined in the Bill that any criticism of Mr Mugabe could be classed as aiding terrorism. Journalists from five newspapers including The Independent, were accused last year by President Mugabe's government of aiding terrorism through their reports in the British press. Mr Mugabe has repeatedly accused Tony Blair of orchestrating "terrorist" plots to oust his government, and the British press of conspiring in these plots.According to Mr Madhuku, this could mean that anyone in contact with British organisations could be charged with aiding terrorism.

The Zimbabwean Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, defended the Bills, saying they were being passed to address the problem of "lies" by foreign correspondents describing events in Zimbabwe.

Staff Reporter

THE British government has come under fire for deporting Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the face of the danger of arrest and torture on their return.

A South African newspaper, The Sunday Times, reported at the weekend that British opposition parties and human rights activists branded Prime Minister Tony Blair's government hypocritical and racist, after it vowed to continue deporting Zimbabwean asylum seekers.

The newspaper said the uproar comes after the British government - one of the most strident critics of President Mugabe's rule - deported a Zimbabwean activist, who on arrival at Harare International Airport last month, was arrested and allegedly tortured by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

The newspaper did not identify the activist, but said at least 170 Zimbabweans are reportedly languishing in British detention centres awaiting the results of their applications for asylum.

On average three applications for asylum from Zimbabweans, described as members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), are refused by the British government every day, according to a United Kingdom-based organisation calling itself Zimbabwe Association.

The organisation said seven MDC members were due to be deported this past weekend.
But the MDC's spokesperson, Learnmore Jongwe, said the party was not aware any of its members were having problems with British Immigration authorities.

Jongwe said: "The party is not aware of any of its members or officials who went on an official visit to the UK and are now involved in immigration problems. The policy of the party is not to assist Zimbabweans to get out of the country as we need all Zimbabweans at home to take part in the forthcoming presidential election.

Britain's parliamentary opposition parties, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, have branded Blair's government as hypocritical for refusing to deport terror suspects to countries where they might be tortured or killed, but continuing to deport Zimbabweans fleeing human rights abuses.

Simon Hughes, a leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: "It is clearly now not safe for people with any record of political party activity to go back to Zimbabwe.

"The government must suspend deportations until the Commonwealth heads of government agree that normality has returned, and people can live in Zimbabwe in safety and freedom."

The Sunday Times quoted the Zimbabwe Association as saying no white Zimbabwean had been detained or deported

In Other News:

Chidyausiku tight-lipped over human rights abuses

Gweru police in alleged brutal murder of suspect

Voter registration officers still not paid despite RG's promise

Stamps still at home

Matabeleland urged to vote in large numbers in presidential election

Mudzuri wins MDC Harare primary poll

Parliament reopens

UK attacked for deporting black Zimbabweans

Bindura sealed off

Zimbabwean Asylum Seekers

	Home Office ministers have been accused by both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats of letting down Zimbabwean refugees who have fled to Britain in fear of persecution at home. With tension high in Zimbabwe in the run-up to the presidential election in March, several members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been killed by government supporters. Despite this, Zimbabwean opposition members have had their applications for political asylum here rejected. Gerald Muketiwa, a supporter of the MDC, was deported from Britain last month. He told the Today Programme how he had been picked up by the security services on his arrival in Harare. After he had been interrogated, and fearing for his life, he escaped through a police station window. He is now in a neighbouring country and is applying for political asylum in Canada. Another Zimbabwean - who wanted to remain anonymous - but is currently living at the Tinsley House detention centre near Gatwick airport, has had his application for asylum rejected and was due to be deported on New Year's Eve. Although his deportation has been temporarily suspended, he fears that as a member of the MDC he will be beaten and persecuted if he returns to Zimbabwe - "I left home because I was being persecuted because of my political opinions…I know that if am I to be returned home it is imminent death." The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to halt the deportation of people to Zimbabwe until further notice. Baroness Williams of Crosby, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords accused the Government of acting illegally - in breach of the UN Convention on Refugees. She said, "It is clearly now not safe for people with any record of political party activity to go back to Zimbabwe. The Government must suspend deportations until the Commonwealth Heads of Government agree that normality has returned and people can live in Zimbabwe in safety and freedom." Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin told us that the Government should offer a safe-haven to dissident Zimbabweans - "The general principle is that if people are genuinely refugees…then we grant them asylum and clearly people in this condition are awfully likely to be persecuted." The Home Office has refused to put up a minister for comment, but did provide the Today Programme with a statement saying that "All asylum decisions are open to appeal and only when the appeal is rejected by the independent adjudicators are the applicants removed from the UK. All asylum decisions are made on the basis of information concerning the particular case available at the time and on the basis of information available about the country of origin." Their statement also noted that "Improvements or deterioration in the circumstances of the country of origin are monitored closely and the policy in relation to that country is kept under review at all times." Back to Reports Index Page

Mr Blair must halt all deportations to Zimbabwe

15 January 2002 Editorial from The Independent

To conceive of a country where critics of the government have a better-founded fear of persecution than Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe is not easy. Which makes the British Government's reluctance to suspend the deportation of Zimbabwean asylum-seekers not only heartless from a human perspective, but irrational and of questionable legality.

It is all very well for the Prime Minister to say that anyone with a legitimate claim to asylum will be allowed to remain in this country. But the fact is that Britain is still initiating deportations to Zimbabwe, even if it is dithering about actually putting people on planes, and there is no discouragement coming from the place it should come from: the top.

Interviewed on Sunday, Mr Blair tried to shuffle some of the blame for this harsh policy on to the British public. It is indeed true, as Mr Blair said, that only a short time ago people were complaining that official policy towards asylum-seekers was too lenient. But the context for such complaints – alleged connections with terrorism – was quite different. Few with any knowledge of the current situation in Zimbabwe, especially after the two bills on security and censorship were issued last week, could have any quarrel with a decision to suspend deportations to that country forthwith.

Indeed, we have reached a pretty pass when the shadow Home Secretary in a shadow Cabinet that is hardly disposed towards leniency on asylum lends his voice to refugee groups and others calling for a change in policy. So far, though, the official response has been temporising of the purest bureaucratic variety. Statements talk of a "deteriorating situation", of "monitoring closely", but not of action.

Yesterday, Downing Street gave its first – belated – hint that a change might be imminent. "Workers do operate from a country assessment and we are reviewing the situation in relation to Zimbabwe," the spokesman said. An "updated country assessment" would be issued "shortly". How shortly, though, was not specified.

The war of words between Britain and the Mugabe government is at its fiercest for years. The British Government has nothing to lose – certainly not diplomatic leverage in Harare, of which it has none – by halting all deportations at once. In so doing, it would not only send a clear signal to President Mugabe and his ilk, but – far more important – save lives.

Britain temporarily halts deportations to Zimbabwe

Associated Press

15 January 2002

Britain temporarily halted deportations of asylumseekers to Zimbabwe today after Home Secretary David Blunkett called for a review of the situation in the southern African country.

A Home Office spokesman said nobody had been deported Monday and the ban would remain for 24 hours while an assessment was carried out.

Zimbabwe has seen growing unrest in the runup to a presidential election in March. Governmentbacked militants beat and critically injured several opposition activists over the weekend and burned down an opposition party office.

President Robert Mugabe also is backing a bill that would ban foreign journalists from working in the country and require local journalists to register with the government or face up to two years in jail.

In Britain, opposition politicians and refugees groups have asked the government to stop deporting Zimbabwean asylum seekers. Some are opposition activists who say they face the possibility of being killed or tortured by Mugabe's secret police.

"There is a real possibility that this will save lives," said Nick Hardwick, chief executive of the Refugee Council.

"In the short term we hope the Home Office will listen to experts when updating their country assessment. In the longer term we urge the Home Office to establish an independent body to produce country assessments so that this situation does not arise again."

Conservative Party foreignaffairs spokesman Oliver Letwin said the suspension of deportations was "a victory for common sense."

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said an updated country assessment of the situation in Zimbabwe would be issued to immigration officials shortly.

"We do have concerns in relation to the position there and that is obviously being monitored very closely," the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.

Deportation of Zimbabwe asylum-seekers halted

By Andrew Grice in London and Basildon Peta in Harare

16 January 2002

The Government bowed to pressure to stop deporting failed asylum-seekers to Zimbabwe yesterday after repeated warnings that they could be tortured or killed.

About 90 asylum-seekers from Zimbabwe are in detention in Britain. Refugee groups and MPs from all parties have criticised the Home Office for deporting people despite the threat of reprisals against political activists.

However, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said yesterday that no Zimbabweans who had been refused asylum would be returned before elections in Zimbabwe in March. He will review his decision immediately after the poll.

Mr Blunkett stressed that each asylum claim would still be judged on its merits: "I am committed to ensuring that we grant asylum to those genuinely at risk of persecution and torture, whilst refusing claims that do not have merit."

He said refugee status had been granted in the past months to activists from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), including teachers, nurses and journalists who had been beaten up.

He insisted that most people who had come to Britain from Zimbabwe did not have valid claims to asylum, saying that many claiming to be MDC activists were not. In the nine months to last September, there had been 1,225 applications, with only 5 per cent being granted asylum and 2 per cent exceptional leave to remain.

Nick Hardwick, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, welcomed the Government's move and said there was a real possibility it would save lives. He urged the Home Office to set up an independent body to produce "country assessments" so that it no longer relied on out-of-date information.

Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, said the Home Office's assessment of the situation in Zimbabwe had been shown to be "wildly out of date". The Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes said: "It is a concern that it took so long for the worsening situation in Zimbabwe to be recognised."

Yesterday Zimbabwe's government postponed the punitive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill, but it is expected to be rubber-stamped today or Thursday.

Innocent Gonese, the Chief Whip of the MDC, said: "I don't think that the delay means that the Bill has been shelved."

Zimbabwean journalists were barred from handing over a petition to Parliament to protest against the Bill. Security officials blocked the main entrances into Parliament to representatives of Zimbabwe's journalists' unions.

The unions had asked the Speaker to stop passage of the Bill, which will in effect eliminate independent journalism in Zimbabwe. The new law would ban all foreign journalists from working in Zimbabwe, it would put Zimbabwean journalists on a system of one-year renewable licences and it would allow for hefty jail sentences and fines for reporters deemed to have criticised President Mugabe and his officials.

On Monday police broke up an all-night protest against the Bill outside Parliament. Reporters were threatened with beatings and dispersed as police reinforcements moved in on the peaceful protest.

No more failed asylum seekers will be sent back to Zimbabwe until after the country's presidential elections, Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced.

A temporary freeze in deportations had already been put into force while the political situation in the country was reviewed.

I am committed to ensuring that we grant asylum to those genuinely at risk of persecution

David Blunkett

The latest decision follows pressure from human rights groups who say those returned to the country face possible torture or death.

Fears over the fate of those sent back to Zimbabwe follow President Mugabe's clampdown on his political opponents ahead of the March polls.

There are currently 106 failed asylum seekers awaiting removal from the UK.

In a statement issue at Tuesday lunchtime, Mr Blunkett said the suspension of removals followed consideration of all available evidence and official advice.

"We will continue to monitor the situation closely, with a view to re-appraising our position once the elections are concluded."

The home secretary stressed asylum claims would continue to be assessed on an individual basis.

Those genuinely risking persecution should be given asylum, said Mr Blunkett, but equally most of those who had recently come to the UK from Zimbabwe did not have valid claims.

Speaking later on BBC Radio 4's World At One, Mr Blunkett said his decision was a response to the "pressure of events" in Zimbabwe, rather than from calls from the media and other politicians.

The move will be welcomed by opponents of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe trying to remain in Britain.

Blair concern

The Home Office signalled a change of heart on Monday, when it announced a temporary suspension of deportations to Zimbabwe while a review of the situation was carried out.

The decision follows a cross-party meeting between Mr Blunkett and his Tory counterpart Oliver Letwin.

Both Mr Letwin and Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes welcomed the suspension.

But they argued the system for assessing risks in the home countries of asylum seekers needed needed to be reviewed so changes in the political climate were detected more speedily.

Margaret Lally, deputy chief executive of the Refugee Council, voiced similar worries as she welcomed the freeze on removals.

'Shameful system'

"It does highlight real concerns that the Home Office is just not committed to keeping up to date assessments of countries," she told the World At One.

Zimbabwe was not the only example where reports were being updated only in a "shoddy" way, said Ms Lally, arguing such failures were "shameful" as people's lives depended on accurate information.

Ms Lally pressed the government to follow the Canadian example of using independent experts to compile such assessments.

But Mr Blunkett rejected reports that the Zimbabwe assessment had not been reviewed since October and said it was the risks to individual asylum seekers that was most important.

The use of fast-track procedures for deciding Zimbabwean asylum claims has also prompted fears.

Those were rejected by the home secretary, who argued the process often the decision to allow people to remain in the UK was taken more quickly.

HOME

BARBED wire, scraped vigorously against the soles of dissidents' bare feet, is an effective campaign tool. Militia-men backing Robert Mugabe's bid for re-election as president of Zimbabwe use it often, and with impunity. It discourages Mr Mugabe's critics from speaking out, and makes it harder for them to walk to the polls. Members of the Zimbabwean opposition clearly have the "well-founded fear of persecution" that should allow them to qualify for asylum in Britain. But until this week, the British government routinely re-patriated Zimbabwean asylum-seekers.

Last year, fewer than a tenth of Zimbabweans who applied for asylum were granted it. Many of those who failed were bundled, often forcibly, on to planes back home. Some were met at Harare airport by officers of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation, and dragged off for interrogation. Others have simply disappeared.

While Britain's Foreign Office regularly denounces Mr Mugabe's brutality, the Home Office seems to have assumed that most Zimbabwean fugitives were lying when they said they feared for their lives. It was only after a barrage of protest from the press and the United Nations that the home secretary, David Blunkett, noticed the contradiction. On January 15th, he promised not to deport any more Zimbabweans until after the presidential election in March, the campaign for which has already involved several murders and one beheading. "We will pause," said Mr Blunkett, "and see if the situation stabilises."

The number of asylum applications by Zimbabweans doubled from the second to third quarters of last year, to 485. Groups that lobby for better treatment of asylumseekers suspect the authorities of having reacted to this increase by treating Zimbabweans more harshly, in the hope of deterring future arrivals. Tim Baster, the head of an organisation called Bail for Immigration Detainees, claims that this is the government's usual response to sudden surges of applicants from particular countries. Home Office officials insist that they treat each case on its merits.

Whether the doors are open or not, Britain is in no danger of being flooded by frightened Zimbabweans. There are only about 25,000 people with British passports in Zimbabwe. Of the country's 13m other residents, only a few planeloads could afford the air fare to London. If Zimbabwe descends into chaos, most refugees will walk to South Africa instead. .

Britain presses Commonwealth ministers to suspend Zimbabwe

By Mary Dejevsky and Stephen Castle in Brussels

Independent 30 January 2002

Britain will use a meeting of Commonwealth ministers in London today to press for a recommendation on formally suspending Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth because of President Robert Mugabe's pre-election crackdown on opposition groups and the media.

In principle, the ministers of the eight-member Commonwealth ministerial action group (CMAG) have the power to suspend Zimbabwe's membership of Commonwealth committees. But the authority to suspend Zimbabwe's membership altogether resides with Commonwealth heads of state and government (CHOGM) who will gather at their postponed summit in Australia at the beginning of March.

A recommendation to CHOGM to suspend Zimbabwe appears to be the maximum that Britain expects from today's meeting in London. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, has said: "I will be arguing for a recommendation to suspend, because violent intimidation of the opposition and the media on this scale should have no place in the Commonwealth."

Mr Straw, and his Australian and Canadian counterparts, are known to favour tough action, but British officials are not confident that the five other CMAG ministers – from Botswana, Barbados, Malaysia, Bangla-desh and Nigeria – would agree to immediate action. Mr Straw said: "The decision is one for the Commonwealth as a whole." Britain also wants to avoid an open black-white split that would set an unfortunate tone for the March Commonwealth summit. Mr Straw and other British ministers have abandoned their ultra-cautious tone in recent weeks to voice clear support for the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth if Mr Mugabe does not halt the repression of opposition figures and the media.

But British officials stress that the twin threats of suspension from the Commonwealth and possible "smart" or targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe's leaders, should be seen as a means rather than an end. The priority is to try to ensure that Zimbabwe's elections – on 9 and 10 March, less than a week after the Commonwealth summit – are as "free and fair" as possible.

EU diplomats hope to meet Zimbabwean officials in Harare today to try to clarify the government's intentions over the invitation of election monitors. European officials want an explanation of Zimbabwean calls for the monitoring team to be a joint one, drawn from the EU and a bloc of developing countries. The EU will not accept a situation under which a joint mission would produce one, unanimously agreed report which would restrict EU observers from reporting freely.

So the EU is continuing with two parallel sets of preparations to suit different possible outcomes, for the dispatch of an EU observer mission, and for the implementation of sanctions against Zimbabwe.

On Monday, EU foreign ministers said sanctions could come into play this weekend if Harare refuses to admit election observers. Mr Mugabe and 20 senior colleagues face a visa ban and a freeze of overseas financial assets. A ban on the export of equipment which might be used for internal repression would also swing into place.

The EU could also implement sanctions if the observers are stopped from operating freely, if the international media is prevented from covering the elections, or there is a "serious deterioration in the situation on the ground, in terms of a worsening of the human rights situation or attacks on the opposition". Finally, the EU could introduce the measures if the elections are judged not to have been free and fair.

Zimbabwe's parliamentary legal committee yesterday ruled that Mr Mugabe's media Bill violated the constitution, threatened free speech and gave the government "frightening powers". A repressive security Bill was passed into law 10 days ago, but the media Bill has not yet been debated.

EU gives Mugabe weekend ultimatum on poll

Independent By Stephen Castle in Brussels

29 January 2002

Zimbabwe faces European Union sanctions targeted on its leaders from this weekend if it obstructs election observers monitoring its presidential elections or stops the media reporting freely.

A toughly worded statement from European foreign ministers yesterday gave President Robert Mugabe until Sunday to allow European election observers into the country, and made clear the price to be paid if he fails to comply.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said Mr Mugabe and about 20 senior colleagues face a visa ban and a freeze of their overseas financial assets. Work is already underway to trace the funds of Mr Mugabe and the Zanu-PF leadership.

A ban on the export of equipment which might be used for internal repression would also swing into place.

Mr Straw, who lobbied hard for a tough line at yesterday's meeting in Brussels, said: "Mr Mugabe now has a choice: either he calls off the thugs, allows the media to operate freely and lets the population of Zimbabwe make a democratic choice, or he and his key ministers will pay the price."

France, which had been sceptical about sanctions, backed the position and Mr Straw said that the decision was a "clear, unambiguous and unanimous one".

The backing of all 15 EU foreign ministers was given after a day of diplomacy, including 11th-hour talks between Zimbabwean and EU officials in Harare yesterday.

The smart sanctions can come into play under a number of circumstances, the first of which would be if the Zimbabwe government prevents the deployment of an EU observation mission starting by Sunday, just after nominations of candidates for the elections to be held on 9-10 March.

The EU then reserves the right to implement sanctions if the observers are prevented from operating properly, if the international media is stopped from covering the elections or there is a "serious deterioration in the situation on the ground, in terms of a worsening of the human rights situation or attacks on the opposition".

Finally the EU could introduce the measures if the elections are judged not to have been free and fair.

The EU aims to dispatch an advance party of six election monitors to Zimbabwe to arrive on Sunday, with a further 30 to be on the ground by 9 February, and another 100 in the week before polling.

Glenys Kinnock, the Labour MEP, said she thought sanctions were almost inevitable. She said: "Even on Sunday when the visas for the observers should be on the table and the time should be right to go out to Zimbabwe, we are likely to see the activation of sanctions. This is a very clear signal to Mugabe and to the democratic forces in Zimbabwe that the EU has a strong case on democracy and human rights."

The mood in the EU has hardened as Zimbabwe has slipped into a political and economic crisis and Mr Mugabe struggles to maintain his grip on power. Harare has proved adept at rallying support among African allies and giving conflicting signals to the EU.

Last week it said that it was willing to admit EU observers, but not Britons, and allow access to the international media, except the BBC.

During the last presidential elections the EU observer mission did not include Britain and the British Government has made it clear that it will not object to its omission from the team. Likewise the exclusion of the BBC is unlikely, of itself, to trigger sanctions.

Mr Straw yesterday accused the Zimbabweans of deciding to "string things out" but he, like other European ministers, has faced a dilemma because he wants international observers to be admitted. Without them opposition voters will be deterred from turning out and vote-rigging would be easier.

Diplomatic efforts since Wednesday have focused on pinning down the Zimbabwe government. Without sufficient guarantees ministers opted, instead, for an ultimatum.

UK attacked for deporting black Zimbabweans
1/8/02 8:37:36 AM (GMT +2)