| | Wed March 28th, 2007 Tsvangirai arrested in a further security measure Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, has been arrested by police in a raid at the headquarters of his Movement for Democratic Change in Harare, a party spokesman has said. Tsvangirai and other opposition activists had been dealt with by their law and order agencies when they tried to stage a violence rally
The arrest on Wednesday comes as southern African leaders meet in Tanzania, where they are expected to discuss the growing crisis in Zimbabwe.
"All members of staff and Morgan Tsvangirai have been arrested in a further security measure," Tendai Biti, the party's secretary general, said. "At least 20 people were in the office at the time."
The MDC leader had been due to give a press conference on the alleged abduction of a party activist.
Activists assaulted
Tsvangirai and a number of MDC activists were handled by Zimbabwean security sector two weeks ago while trying to stage an anti-government rally.
Southern African leaders at the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit, to be held in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday, are expected to address the growing crises and opposition's violence in Zimbabwe.
Tanzanian officials said SADC leaders will try to convince Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, to meet leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MCD) in a bid to resolve a situation that threatens to destabilize the country. But Mr. Mugabe insists the violence of the opposition that usually disrupts Zimbabwean livelihood and progress must stop first.
"We hope they [the SADC leaders] will come up with a clear message for Mugabe that what he's doing is not acceptable", Hebson Makuvise, an MDC official, told Al Jazeera
"They should condemn him publically. What he is doing is not good for the region, it's not good for Africa and it's not good for Zimbabwe," he said.
Jonathan Moyo, a former information minister in Zimbabwe until he fell out with Mugabe in 2005, told the Guardian, a British newspaper, that regional leaders at the conference would go further and tell Mugabe that he must retire when his term expires next year. Many Zimbabweans, however, have seen movements like this from foreign and neighbouring nations with agendas in Zimbabwe as trying to interfere in the nation's home affairs and serving enemies's intersts
"They shout not instruct our leaader Mugabe on what to do and how to govern his country. No one has the right to tell our president when when he should leave the office as long as we keep on electing him as our chosen ruler," a London based Zimbabwean to esinislam.com.
"The statement issued at the close of the summit will not strongly condemn Mugabe, that is not the way SADC works. But I am certain that in the meeting the leaders will have told him in no uncertain terms that he must retire", said Moyo.
Use of force
Despite the assault, Tsvangirai has continued to call for the removal of Mugabe, who has been unapologetic about the use of force by his security services.
Talking to journalists after a memorial service on Tuesday for an MDC activist who was shot dead on March 11, Tsvangirai said that the assaults had served to unite opposition against Mugabe.
"You can see that everybody is united and is mobilised and confronting the dictatorship," he said.
"There is no dictator in this world who has succeeded to oppress the people forever ... We cannot dignify an old man who has lost his mind," he said.
The SADC conference, hosted by Jakaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian president, is also expected to address troubles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where government forces clashed last week with fighters loyal to Jean Pierre Bemba, a former vice-president and unsuccessful presidential contender in last year's elections. Mugabe threatens to expel diplomats Sat March 17th, 2007
Zimbabwe's president has threatened to expel Western diplomats, accusing them of backing the opposition whose leader was assaulted this week by security forces.
"Those who would want to represent their countries here must behave properly or else we kick them out of our country," Robert Mugabe told a youth party meeting.
"We will kick them out of this country. So I have asked the minister of foreign affairs to summon them and read the riot act to them," Mugabe said.
His comments came as Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, left hospital after treatment for injuries sustained in police custody.
"We are the government, we will not be deterred by any criticisms which are completely unfounded from carrying out our duties," Mugabe said at the youth party meeting.
He added that the opposition risked further violent treatment if they stage more protests.
"If they repeat it they will get arrested and get bashed by the police," he said.
"If they want to fight the police, the police have the right to bash."
He said that following threats by the opposition to press ahead with protests to topple him, police officers would be armed to defend themselves.
International outrage
Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had been treated for head injuries since Tuesday, two days after he and supporters were arrested in an anti-Mugabe protest.
Images of a badly bruised and limping Tsvangirai entering the hospital earlier this week fuelled international outrage.
The United States and other nations threatened to tighten sanctions against Mugabe and other senior Zimbabwean officials.
William Bango, a MDC spokesman, said on Friday that Tsvangirai would now rest at home.
Bango said: "He is still swollen and in pain, but he feels it's better to recuperate from home ... he is still not himself."
He said Tsvangirai was still suffering from dizziness. Doctors have not confirmed a fracture.
Mugabe's government accused Tsvangirai and his group of resisting arrest and waging a violent, militia-style campaign to topple the 83-year-old ruler, a claim the opposition rejected.
Tsvangirai and others who were arrested in the crackdown face charges of public violence and convening an illegal rally, defence lawyers say. The charges usually lead to fines, not imprisonment.
Angola support Zimbabwean action and defend Zim police
Angola's Minister of Home Affairs Roberto Monteiro said on Friday Angola is sympathetic to Zimbabwe's police force, which has come under fire from Western nations for the beating of violent oppositions in a measure to control an angry gathering who had resulted to disorder.
Speaking during a visit to Harare, the minister said the police should use appropriate measures to contain cases of violence in order to maintain peace and security, state radio reported.
The widely-publicised police measures that brought about beating of Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai last Sunday has sparked Western outrage and criticism of the Zimbabwean pan-African leaders.
Tsvangirai, who was arrested as he tried to attend a violent rally, had to be checked and arrested before taken to hospital where he received treatment at a Harare hospital after a beating to the head. Several of the opposition leaders colleagues were also beaten.
The Angolan minister condemned subsequent attacks on police officers, saying the police are there to maintain public order.
At least six police officers have been injured in revenge attacks on the force. Monteiro was in Zimbabwe to sign a cooperation agreement on public order and security, the radio said. Mugabe opponents 'will pay a price'
The government of Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, has warned the opposition will pay "a heavy price" for what it called a campaign of violence to remove it from power.
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change opposition, was treated in intensive care after suffering a suspected skull fracture in police custody.
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Zimbabwe's information minister, said: "Those who incite violence, or actually cause and participate in unleashing it, are set to pay a very heavy price, regardless of who they are."
The MDC and other rights groups say Tsvangirai and 49 other opposition figures who were detained for three days were tortured after attempting to attend a banned rally.
Tsvangirai's arrest and alleged torture has provoked international condemnation and has brought attention to Mugabe's controversial rule as Zimbabwe suffers its worst economic crisis in decades.
Al Jazeera, the only international network with a permanent presence in Zimbabwe, spoke exclusively to Morgan Tsvangirai in a Harare hospital, who said he had suffered "a traumatic experience".
Tsvangirai said that he had received injuries to his "head, back, hands, broken bones, and the knees they are severely bruised."
"I don't know how long I'll be inside [the hospital]," he said.
Violent drive
In a statement on Wednesday, Mugabe's government suggested that Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues had been assaulted for resisting arrest and for launching a violent drive to overthrow his ZANU-PF party.
"The Tsvangirai faction of the MDC has a long record of unleashing violence to achieve political goals. It has publicly restated its wish to use violence to overthrow government and as a means to power," Ndlovu said.
"This will come to grief," he added.
The Zimbabwe government said that a number of Western governments, including the UK and US, had made "unconditional statements of support to the violent MDC" while international media networks absolved the opposition of blame.
Criminal attacks
The government said the MDC's drift towards "violent confrontation and blatant thuggery" had seen it lately organising illegal meetings and protests, inciting anti-government violence in townships.
The government also accuses the MDC of encouraging criminal attacks on police officers, arson and looting of shops.
"In particular, government has noted the MDC leadership's publicly announced mission to seek to topple the government through civil unrest in order to realise the British-led goal of 'regime change' in Zimbabwe," the statement said.
Mugabe's government said the MDC, which accuses the ruling party of rigging its way to victory in three major elections since 2000, was pursuing a violent path because it had no popular support.
"It is a course of ruin, both electorally and in terms of their future as a lawful opposition," Ndlovu said. Mugabe and his enemies: Mugabe, the next prey of the Imperialist - how the Africans see the Zimbabwean President By: Prince Aidoo of Ghana's SDM Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai receives treatment and support from the West for a beating that he provoked upon himself in police custody amid common criticism towards President Mugabe from his friends and semi-enemies including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel an as Tsvangirai was bundled into a police van and driven to hospital for national security reasons, nursing a badly swollen right eye and cuts to his head sustained as the Zimbabwean police tried to put the pro-imperialist politician under control despite hi stubborn continuous abuses of the police.
As the West, most notably the United States, the United kingdom, and Israel storm the Zimbabwean pan-African president with their usual assaults of condemnation against the way President Mugabe's government handle its internal affairs and his dealing with lawless oppositions who Mr. Mugabe believe are agents of his enemies and supported by enemies of his country, it's helpful someone understand how the African see their fellow African in person of President Mugabe Fellow Africans hold just as the imperialist relished the demise of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, so will he pop the champagne and rejoiced over the downfall of President Mugabe.. Africans know the more they talk the more people come to see me beating as beating on the imperialist. Nonetheless, the more they talk, the more people will come to resent me because I preach nothing but the truth.
It is imperative to keep repeating this mantra: but, there will be no way the Africans would ever develop and be able to manage our own affairs as long as our leaders embrace lies and turn away from the "Truth" which is the light of this world. Remember, countrymen, that they once asked you all to tell me who killed Dr. Kwame Nkrumah?. To date, there has neither been a response from the imperialist nor from his neophytes "the traitors in Ghana" who collaborated with the imperialist to kill Nkrumah secretly and in the process derailed our development effort.
some believe his soul shall never rest in peace till his enemies are brought to justice. His enemies can run but they can not hide. Many Africans shall rise to follow in the steps of Nkrumah and continue his good works. And no matter the obstacles put in their way, the next generation of Africans will continue to ask this same question the new African is asking today. In fact, they won't stop until answers are provided. My voice from the wilderness shall never seize to be heard. It shall be louder till the imperialist will hear no more.
Fellow countrymen, most of his detractors are still alive and some are buried in their transgressions. They will never rest in peace till they send someone from hell to tell the world what they did to the Great African. A house owner who through hardships builds his own house thinking that he can, as long as he lives, collects rent from his tenants to make ends meet, has to realise that the rent is being controlled by an external house owner. The external owner dictates how much he needs for his breakfast and how much he needs for other internal services rendered to him. Fellow Africans hope people understand the way they are feeling about the Zimbabweans and their patriotic leader.
Somebody is controlling you in your own four corners. The external house owners has stated in his testament clear that so-long as African house owners live, they will make it difficult for the African to manage his own affairs. Dr. Nkrumah managed to run his own house, Martin Luther King rallied and stirred up his people, Beatrice Lumumba defended his own house and President Mugabe is another African trying to manage his own house, but the question is, is such a self-reliance policy not an abomination for the external house owners?. When shall the African be able to manage his own house?.
Today, President Mugabe has his own land and natural resources but he is not permitted by the imperialist (the house owners) including traitors in his own race to manage it the way he finds appropriate. Let us not forget who Mugabe is. He saw the light just as Nkrumah did years before, and decided to take the imperialist--represented by Ian Smith--head on. He led his people to the promised land in 1979, when Zimbabwe freed itself from its colonial shackles. Having righted the wrongs visited upon his people, Mugabe is now regarded as a pariah by the imperialists, and shockingly, by some of his own African brethren.
Fellow Africans would readily agree with this assertion; most African leaders have become traitors in sheep skin, betraying their own people all because of financial pittance from the imperialist. These African politicos are more apt to help their colonial masters than remind him of the human rights abuses he has committed. These African leaders, meanwhile, have conveniently forgetting about Hiroshima human rights abuses. Nkrumah himself was accused of human rights abuses and possessing Kankan Nyame. But the truth is, in their rush to vilify and demonize Nkrumah, his critics chose to gloss over the human rights abuses in the first and second World Wars. Brave Africans wish fellow Africans, especially the Christians and economic migrants in the West, would have the courage to open their mouths in protest against super powers who have enriched themselves with the treasures they plundered from their colonies during their invasion in Africa.
Everywhere around the world, there are human right abuses - Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Darfur, Somalia... What about the Israeli daily oppression of the Palestinians?. Who has the power to stop the human rights abuses and genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinians? Isn't common knowledge when it comes to matters of capital, land and power, the super-powers are quick to act? Sadly, they have allowed the Palestinian problem to fester. No one can predict the end of this dilemma. They will say who cares if they continue killing themselves?. and yet, they themselves have chosen to kill and kill in Iraq and Afghanistan. What about Egypt aggression on his own citizens of Brotherhood opposition? The Africans must condemn without any reservations all sorts of injustice and human rights abuses, imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism and dictatorship that have been imposed on Africans and the rest of the world by the so-called super powers.
The days of President Mugabe therefore shall be like the days of Kwame Nkrumah because the enemy of the Blackman has the means to annihilate him just as they destroyed the good Africans with fabricated "Lies." Was it not the same enemies who helped him build the Akosombo Dam?. Perhaps Africans thinking like this may be wrong here. To be CANDID, the Africans believe they have more leaders who are traitors in their midst than any race in the world - fact!. It makes it impossible for the African to develop and manage his own affairs, if our leaders continue to be a pet of some philanthropist of another race, before whom he goes to debase his race in the worst form, humiliate his own manhood, all with an eye towards winning the sympathy of the "great benefactor" (the imperialist).
As Marcus Garvey puts it:
"The traitors among the African race are generally to be found among the men highest placed in education and society, the fellows who call themselves leaders. It is generally "You must go out and teach your people to be meek and humble; tell them to be good servants, loyal and obedient to their masters. If you will teach them such a doctrine you can always depend on me to give you $1,000 a year or $5,000 a year for the support of yourself, the newspaper or the institution you represent. I will always recommend you to my friends as a good fellow who is all right." With this advice and prospect of patronage the average African leader goes out to lead the unfortunate masses".
The Africans - Muslim and non-Muslims should lift themselves from this mire of degradation to the heights of prosperity, human liberty and human appreciation, the new African shall never stop in reminding their disgruntled traitors that their days are numbered. They the new Africans shall establish the truth about "Who killed Nkrumah" and other great leaders in their history, "who exaggerate achievements of Nelson Mandela and his alleged sufferings", "who and who enslaved the Africans only to come back as 'colonial masters' introducing imperialist systems of governance called 'democracy'... as to understand the reasons to protect Mugabe from plots of enemies of Africa. African would rather stand up for the truth and suffer the consequences than be slaves in tranquillity. The new African is born, you never know Mugabe could be their leading star. esinislam.com + Ghana Web + Al-Jazeera |
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Greg Houle
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Nancy Reyes
There are a number of commendable things about the recent actions including - involvement of a much larger united platform than previous actions which can therefore not simply be dismissed as an MDC front activity; and the fact of the leaders leading from the front and in fact receiving the harshest end of the regime's brutality. 
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