State radio: Zimbabwe voter campaigners arrested

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's state radio says police arrested three polling campaigners for illegally promoting voter awareness ahead of crucial elections.

The radio said Sunday the activists were not authorized to carry out voter education by the official elections commission. It said they were giving out information on polling procedures in an upmarket Harare suburb on Saturday.

Another 19 democracy activists were arrested last month for allegedly impersonating state election officials in a drive to get potential electors to register their names on voters' lists. They are still waiting to appear in court.

President Robert Mugabe, 89, said Friday he will proclaim a date for the elections next week, after the parliament passes a new constitution.

He wants polls earlier than the September date demanded by his opponents in the dispute-ridden coalition government.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe army chief: No talks with prime minister

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's army commander said he would not speak to the nation's prime minister, describing him as a "sellout" and a "psychiatric patient," reported a state-controlled Sunday newspaper.

Gen. Constantine Chiwenga dismissed calls for him and other top security officials to meet with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to discuss demands for reforms in the armed forces ahead of crucial elections this year, reported the Sunday Mail, , which is a mouthpiece of President Robert Mugabe's party.

Chiwenga denied claims by Tsvangirai's party, which is in a shaky coalition with Mugabe, that military chiefs have welcomed approaches on reforms. He called the claims "hallucinations" and said the military chiefs will not meet with politicians who did not fight in the guerrilla war that ended colonial rule in 1980.

"We have no time to meet sellouts. Clearly Tsvangirai is a psychiatric patient who needs a competent psychiatrist . he seems to be suffering from hallucinations," said Chiwenga. "We are different. Just like oil and water, we cannot mix."

Zimbabwe's police and military are accused of state-orchestrated violence surrounding the last disputed polls in 2008.

Similar remarks against Tsvangirai were made by Mugabe's loyalist police commissioner general on April 27.

The army commander was "fired up" when speaking Saturday after the funeral of his brother outside Harare, said The Sunday Mail.

"Who the hell does Tsvangirai think he is? No-one can make us turn our back on the liberation struggle. It is unimaginable for us to spit on the struggle by meeting sellouts," Chiwenga said, the according to the paper.

Tsvangirai, 60, was a trade union leader when the independence war ended with a British-negotiated truce in 1979, leading to the first democratic elections that swept Mugabe to power.

Several service commanders have refused to salute Tsvangirai at state ceremonial events.

Tsvangirai's party insists it wants to meet with powerful pro-Mugabe generals to discuss their future role after new elections expected later this year, possibly in September. Tsvangirai's supporters have demanded that the security chiefs be fired, charging that in their loyalty to Mugabe the military heads have been partisan and unprofessional.

The two similar statements by Mugabe's two top security chiefs within a week of each other signal a hardening of their stance and point to continuing bias of the police and military against Tsvangirai's party ahead of upcoming polls, say analysts.

The coalition agreement brokered by regional leaders that made Tsvangirai the Zimbabwe prime minister in 2009 demands significant democratic and security reforms, the scrapping of sweeping media curbs and an end to hate speech dominating the state media controlled by Mugabe loyalists before new elections.

The international media freedom group Reporters Without Borders on Friday described Mugabe, 89, as "a predator of freedom of information."

Mugabe remained inflexible, refused to cooperate with the former opposition in the power-sharing government and blocked media reforms necessary for a free and fair election, said the group in a statement marking World Press Freedom Day.

Mugabe and his senior officers and officials still exercised strict control over the state media and curtailed the activities of independent media organizations through threats and surveillance, said the press watchdog.

That included an oppressive George Orwell-style "Big Brother is Watching You" law that lets Zimbabwe security authorities intercept communications without asking the courts, said Reporters Without Borders.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe generals: We won't meet prime minister

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's official media says the nation's generals and police commanders won't meet with the prime minister and other "malcontents" trying to undermine their powers.

The state-owned Herald newspaper, controlled by President Robert Mugabe's party, reported Wednesday the country's police chief warned critics of the army and police that they risked being arrested if they continued demanding reforms in the security forces and "peddling lies" on the role of the armed services ahead of crucial elections later this year.

Security chiefs "will neither meet or engage" with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the paper quoted police chief Augustine Chihuri saying.

Zimbabwe's security chiefs "have no business talking to individuals of no substance," Chihuri said.

Tsvangirai's party has called for an overhaul of the police and military blamed for openly supporting Mugabe.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe groups: election intimidation building

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Elections in Zimbabwe are still months away, but already President Robert Mugabe's party is intimidating its opponents and threatening violence, human rights and pro-democracy groups say.

Witnesses say Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has begun deploying youth militia groups in some of its strongholds. A young mother in the Harare township of Mbare said militants of a pro-Mugabe youth group known as Chipangano, or "the brotherhood" in local slang, have started door-to-door visits in the neighborhood and told residents to attend night meetings where names and identity particulars of participants were written down.

"They are watching me every day," she said, refusing to give her name because she feared violent retribution.

If she doesn't go to the meetings with family members and friends her absence will be noted down on another list of suspected Mugabe opponents, she said.

Mugabe party officials say the logging of names is merely part of regular campaigning to keep supporters up to date with the party's activities in the runup to polling.

Rugare Gumbo, the party's spokesman, denied a campaign of intimidation was under way. He has accused Mugabe's opponents of making "sensational" allegations to garner sympathy in the face of electoral defeat.

"We have become more and more aware of their machinations," he said.

The independent Zimbabwe Peace Project, which monitors political intimidation and violence, reported in its latest bulletin Mugabe militants are also marking with stickers the homes of their supporters and new converts.

"There is no doubt those with stickers would be used to identify people (without them) who would then be victimized before and after elections," the group said.

Mugabe's party insists its members are free to display party loyalty and regalia during election campaigning, a common practice in most countries. But independent campaign monitors have reported rival fliers and posters being torn down and destroyed, mostly by militant youth groups.

Monitors representing both local and foreign rights groups say there is now burgeoning fear because Zimbabwe's elections have been marred by violence and alleged vote rigging since 2000, mainly by Mugabe's party.

Actual physical violence this time around has been comparatively limited so far but there has been an increase in police action against groups and individuals seen as Mugabe opponents, including the arrests on March 17 of Beatrice Mtetwa, Zimbabwe's most prominent human rights lawyer, and four senior staffers of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe's main rival.

Mugabe is to announce an election date in consultation with the coalition partners, but it is bogged down in technicalities. Under the constitution, new elections must be held within 90 days of June 29, when the term of the current parliament expires and the body is automatically dissolved. Mugabe wants the poll as soon as possible. Tsvangirai says it would be late July at the earliest but it could come as late as September.

Mtetwa, held in jail for eight days, appeared briefly in a Harare court Wednesday on charges of obstructing justice that carry a penalty of a fine or up to two years imprisonment. Prosecutors said they were not ready to go to trial and the hearing was put off to Monday. She denies the charges and says she only demanded to see a police search warrant when officers combed through offices of Tsvangirai's communications unit searching for alleged subversive materials and then seized equipment and documents. She said her arrest was a ploy to intimidate democracy activists ahead of new elections.

The police force is generally loyal to Mugabe.

"There will be many more arrests to follow as we near elections. The police were all out to get me," said Mtetwa after her release on bail on March 25. "They wanted me to feel their might and power."

Legal experts dismiss the charges against Mtetwa as spurious, but right groups also warn that more such arrests can be expected.

"We will see more of these kinds of tactics to criminalize key activists. It is a ZANU-PF strategy they are unlikely to stop," said McDonald Lewanika, director of Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition, an alliance of independent rights and civic groups. Lewanika's alliance also alleged that villagers where harvests had failed were made to take part in activities of Mugabe's party in order to receive food aid and school places for their children.

Underscoring how security forces operate with impunity, the African Union's Commission on Human and People's Rights on March 23 said Gabriel Shumba, a well-known human rights lawyer, was arrested in Zimbabwe in 2003 while meeting with a client and was then tortured. Police and intelligence agents threatened Shumba with death, and subjected him to electric shocks, the commission reported, adding that Shumba was doused in chemicals and became incontinent, he vomited blood and was forced to drink his vomit. It said Zimbabwe failed to open an official investigation into Shumba's "torture and trauma" and that it should now do so and prosecute those responsible.

For a decade, rights groups have campaigned to bring to justice perpetrators of political killings, torture, rape, assault, death threats, the destruction of homes and the looting of livestock and property surrounding a series of past elections. At least five groups belonging to the alliance have been targeted this year, with several activists arrested and alleged to have broken a range of security and criminal laws. None has yet been convicted.

Lewanika said police and other security services apparently intend to "disable groups that have a clear presence on the ground" which will leave communities vulnerable to threats of a return to the violence seen before and after the 2008 polls.

"This could have a huge and telling impact on voting. At this stage, we think there will be rampant fear affecting the vote," he said.

Mugabe, 89, led the nation to independence from colonial-era rule in 1980 and ruled virtually unchallenged until Tsvangirai, 60, founded his urban and labor based opposition Movement for Democratic Change in 1997. Mugabe's party suffered setbacks at polls that followed and in 2000 he ordered the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms crippling the agriculture-based economy of the former regional breadbasket.

Mugabe said he was correcting colonial imbalances in land ownership by the descendants of British and South African settlers so as to hand over farms to impoverished black Zimbabweans. But most prime farms went to his party elite and loyalists and many still lie idle.

The nation now depends on food imports and the United Nations estimates that 1.5 million Zimbabweans are currently in need of emergency food handouts.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe court releases 4 aides to prime minister

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's High Court on Wednesday freed on bail four senior officials from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party accused of illegally collecting information on high level corruption.

Their arrests and detention are widely seen by critics of President Robert Mugabe as political intimidation ahead of crucial elections scheduled around July.

The four were arrested at offices of Tsvangirai's communications unit on March 17. They were denied bail by a Harare magistrate on March 20 on grounds they "impersonated police officers and posed a serious threat to national security." They were ordered to reappear in the same court on April 3.

Police allege the officials, Thabani Mpofu and Felix Matsinde, both former state prosecutors, and Mehluli Tshuma and Warship Dumba on Tsvangirai's staff possessed police files on corruption cases.

High court judge Chinembiri Bhunu on Wednesday ordered the four to post $500 bail each. He said they should not have been denied bail because they were well-known public figures unlikely to abscond from justice.

In ordering them held in custody, the magistrate "grossly misdirected" her ruling, said the judge.

"The magistrate's conduct betrayed the country's guiding principles on the application of the law and failed to follow laid down procedures of the presumption of innocence of the accused," Bhunu said.

He also said such a ruling is a "serious infringement of rights should the persons turn out to be innocent."

Defense attorney Chris Mhike praised Bhunu's ruling.

"We are encouraged as lawyers to see that there are still moments in the administration of justice when the law is applied as it should be," Mhike said.

Prominent Zimbabwe human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, also arrested by police while trying to represent the four officials, was released on bail Monday after spending eight nights in jail.

Mtetwa and the four officials deny any wrongdoing.

On her release, also on $500 bail, Mtetwa described the arrests as being orchestrated by police and judicial officials loyal to President Robert Mugabe.

"There will be many more arrests to follow as we near elections," Mtetwa said.

This year, police have mounted a series of raids on rights and pro-democracy groups searching for alleged subversive materials and have removed documents and equipment from their offices.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai met for their weekly consultation on Monday where the clampdown was discussed, said Luke Tamborinyoka, Tsvangirai's spokesman.

They are to schedule a meeting with police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri and "agreed that the behavior of the police was tainting the image of the country and it was creating the impression that the country is not ready for a peaceful poll," Tamborinyoka said.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe court frees rights lawyer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's top rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, released by a court after eight days in jail for allegedly obstructing justice, said Monday her arrest was a ploy to intimidate human rights activists and pro-democracy groups ahead of upcoming elections expected in July.

A visibly tired Beatrice Mtetwa walked from the High Court in Harare in the company of two colleagues and her lawyer after her release papers took several hours to complete. 

She told reporters she believed she had been targeted by police.

"It is a personal attack on all human rights lawyers but I was just made the first example. There will be many more arrests to follow as we near elections," Mtetwa said. "The police were all out to get me. They wanted me to feel their might and power because I call myself a human rights lawyer and I felt it."

Mtetwa was arrested on March 17 along with four officials from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party. The officials are accused of illegally compiling information on high level corruption and are schedule to appeal for bail on Tuesday. Mtetwa was accused of shouting at police officers who were conducting a search at Tsvangirai's staff offices when she demanded to see a search warrant.

Mtetwa and the four officials deny any wrongdoing.  She said she merely told the police that "what they were doing is illegal, unlawful and undemocratic."

High Court Judge Joseph Musakwa ruled early Monday that Mtetwa was following professional legal procedures when she demanded to see a search warrant from police at the offices of the four officials.

"She was entitled to be appraised of the legality of the search," Musakwa said.

After her release, Mtetwa said she was not well-treated while in police custody. She wasn't allowed to take a bath and was denied access to her lawyers and family.

But she said she will not give up the fight for human rights.

"I will not be cowed," Mtetwa said. "There has to be mutual respect between police and lawyers because we will all be doing our job."

Critics have cited Mtetwa's prolonged jailing as the start of a fresh wave of political intimidation against opponents of President Robert Mugabe by loyalist police and judicial officials ahead of elections.

The European Union said in a statement Monday that European governments were "deeply concerned" by Mtetwa's arrest and the onslaught against civic groups as Zimbabwe prepares for elections to end the shaky and dispute-ridden coalition government.

The European bloc conceded that a referendum vote on March 16 on a new constitution was "credible" and reflected the free will of about 3 million voters who cast their ballots and overwhelmingly accepted the reformed constitution, EU spokesman Carl Skau said Monday.

As a result the EU suspended with immediate effect travel and banking bans on 81 leaders of Mugabe's party. But Mugabe, his wife, military, police and security chiefs and several others key loyalists remain on the ban list.

The restrictions were imposed in 2002 to protest the human rights record, violence, corruption and allegations of vote-rigging by Mugabe's party in past elections.

Regional mediators forged the coalition government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai after the disputed and violent elections in 2008.

So far this year, four rights and advocacy groups have been raided by police searching for alleged subversive materials relating to their activities campaigning for free elections and an end to political intimidation and human rights abuses that have dominated past elections.

Mtetwa had been scheduled to act as lead defense attorney in the trial, resuming Monday, of 29 supporters of Tsvangirai's party charged in the murder of a police inspector in an impoverished township suburb in western Harare.

Most of those suspects were denied bail for more than a year. Defending them, Mtetwa noted that six police officers charged in the assault and murder of a theft suspect received bail within a month of their detention. The officers are still to go to trial in that case nine months ago.

Swaziland-born Mtetwa moved to Zimbabwe in 1983. She has represented key leaders in Tsvangirai's party including its treasurer Roy Bennett, now in self-imposed exile after repeated threats. She has also defended journalists and prominent rights workers, some of whom were tortured, according to evidence in court, and held incommunicado without charge for several weeks late in 2008.

Last week police ignored an earlier High Court order to free Mtetwa and on Wednesday the lower Harare magistrate's court ordered her held in custody to reappear in that court on April 3.

Charges of obstructing justice carry a maximum of two years imprisonment.

The judge said Mtetwa should not have been denied bail because of her "professional standing." He said the police officers conducting the search could have "easily subdued her because she is a woman" if they felt she was hindering them from doing their job.

"She is a lawyer of many years, with a forceful, combative and at times aggressive personality but she remains professional and dignified" when doing her job, the judge said.

Mtetwa is a recipient of an array of awards from international jurists' groups including the American Bar Association over a distinguished career of three decades.

Mtetwa is known for her feisty and outspoken style and for quickly responding to calls for representation around the clock by activists and journalists held by police.

Media freedom groups said her detention, the first time she has been jailed, left independent reporters and rights campaigners fearful of being left without her voice.

The state's Sunday Mail newspaper criticized Mtetwa for thinking she was "untouchable" and said her "stage-managed antics in and outside the courts" earned her "dubious awards" from African and international lawyers groups.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe rights lawyer bail appeal postponed

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A Zimbabwean court on Friday postponed a bail appeal to release the nation's top rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.

Mtetwa was arrested March 17 on allegations of obstructing justice and will spend eight nights in jail before she reappears in court on Monday.

Her jailing and the detention of members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's office she was defending have been described by rivals of longtime President Robert Mugabe as a campaign of intimidation ahead of elections scheduled around July.

High court judge Joseph Musakwa ruled Friday that state prosecutors needed more time to prepare for the bail hearing.

But defense attorney Harrison Nkomo said Mtetwa's appeal papers were filed early Thursday, giving prosecutors ample time to study them

"This is the state's way of punishing her by letting her spend more time in jail. We are concerned by the way the state is dragging its feet," he said.

Lawyers were planning to demonstrate outside the court Friday where Mtetwa was refused bail on Wednesday and ordered to be held in custody to April 3.

Police say Mtetwa shouted at them and caused a distraction during which three laptops with information police were looking for disappeared and were presumed to have been hidden.

Mtetwa denies any wrongdoing and says she only asked police officers to show her a valid search warrant during a raid on offices of Tsvangirai's staff on Sunday.

Obstructing justice carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment.

She was brought to court Tuesday after police ignored a judge's order to release her Monday.

Prosecutors oppose bail on grounds she could hinder police investigations into allegations that officials from Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change illegally collected information on high level corruption and impersonated police in doing so.

Mtetwa's prolonged detention in jail has prompted outcry from the African and international legal groups.

Mtetwa is the recipient of an array of awards from international jurists' groups including the American Bar Association over a distinguished career of three decades.

She has also defended journalists and human rights activists against prosecution by police and Mugabe loyalists in Zimbabwe's judiciary.

"There is absolutely no legal basis for her arrest and continued detention," Mtetwa's defense attorney Nkomo told The Associated Press.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe court denies bail to human rights lawyer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A Zimbabwe court refused Wednesday to free on bail the nation's top rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, on charges of obstructing justice after her arrest by police Sunday.

The court ordered her to be held in prison until her next court appearance on April 3, but lawyers said they will immediately appeal the ruling.

The ruling by Harare magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa was "shocking, disappointing and injudicious," said attorney Alec Muchadehama, member of Mtetwa's defense team.

"This is a serious assault on the legal profession in Zimbabwe. The magistrate was wrong and misdirected herself. We are not happy at all about the ruling," Muchadehama said.

A defiant Mtetwa waved at activists and legal colleagues as she was led from the courthouse.

The judgment marked a "sad day" for the rule of law in Zimbabwe, said Irene Petras, head of the independent Lawyers for Human Rights. "Despite what has happened, we need to carry on the fight for justice."

"It is a travesty of justice not founded on fact and law," said Abel Chikomo, head of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum.

The next step is to seek an urgent hearing at the High Court to overrule Gofa's decision, said the lawyers.

Mtetwa appeared at the court in the morning in green prison uniform after spending a third night in jail despite a judge's order to authorities to release her on Monday.

Her arrest, the day after a referendum vote on a new constitution that calls for stronger human rights, prompted an outcry from African and international law organizations. On Sunday, she was representing four officials of the Zimbabwe prime minister's party being searched by police on allegations of illegally collecting information on high level corruption.

The four officials, brought to court in leg irons, were also denied bail Wednesday.

Prosecutors said Mtetwa is a citizen of Swaziland and it is feared she might abscond before her next court appearance and she "might hinder further police investigations by causing commotion and shouting."

Police say that Mtetwa shouted at them during house searches Sunday. Mtetwa says that she merely told police that they were violating her clients' rights by carrying out illegal searches and refusing to produce valid search warrants.

Obstructing justice carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

Mtetwa's prolonged period in jail is seen as a crackdown on critics of President Robert Mugabe. She has represented Tsvangirai and several of his top aides in past cases brought against them. She has also successfully defended journalists and human rights workers against prosecution by the Mugabe government. Mtetwa is the recipient of an array of awards from international jurists' groups including the American Bar Association.

The American Bar Association on Wednesday condemned Mtetwa's treatment in detention and called on Zimbabwean authorities to "cease further harassment of political opponents and their representatives exercising their rights under international law."

"The eyes of the international legal community are on the Zimbabwe government's flagrant and deplorable disrespect for the rule of law, the authority of the judiciary of Zimbabwe, and the government's unwarranted punishment of lawyers trying to protect the rights of Zimbabwe citizens," said Laurel Bellows, president of the American Bar Association.

Mtetwa is a "victim of arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention and must be released immediately," said Noel Kututwa, Amnesty International's southern Africa director. "It's staggering that while Zimbabwe is in the process of adopting a new constitution which provides a stronger bill of human rights, lawyers in the course of their lawful duty are being so blatantly harassed and intimidated."

View the original article here

Zimbabwe rights lawyer to spend 3rd night in jail

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Prominent Zimbabwean rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa was set to spend a third night in jail Tuesday after a court adjourned a hearing on charges she faces of allegedly obstructing justice.

Police brought her to court after ignoring a judge's order to release her Monday.

Her arrest, the day after a referendum on a new Zimbabwe constitution, prompted an outcry from African and international law organizations.

"Her arrest is not just an attack on her profession but on the people of Zimbabwe who have just voted yes to a new constitution that enshrines fundamental human rights," said her lawyer, Thabani Mpofu.

Mtetwa, arrested Sunday while representing four officials of the prime minister's party being searched by police, arrived at the Harare magistrate's court in an open-back police truck. She greeted colleagues and activists with a spirited wave but was not allowed to speak to reporters.

In court, state prosecutors alleged the four officials in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's office, including his chief legal advisor, were compiling information, some of it in breach of official secrets laws, to discredit the nation's judicial officials for allegedly not prosecuting corrupt politicians.

Mtetwa's arrest was a ploy to stop her from defending officials of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party, her attorney argued in court Tuesday.

State prosecutors objected to bail for Mtetwa and the officials and Gofa adjourned the court to resume Wednesday.

Mtetwa was led by prison officials to the basement cells of the courthouse for transportation to the main Harare remand prison.

Mtetwa's arrest was "patently senseless" at a time when she wanted to act on behalf of suspects on Sunday, argued Mpofu, her lawyer.

"Her intimidation was of unwarranted proportion which reflects badly on our institutions," he said.

She was abused by the police in "the high-handed manner in which they treated her by handcuffing her and throwing her into the back of an open truck as if she was a threat to police and national security," Mpofu said.

While in custody, police confiscated her mobile phone and went through it in breach of norms of attorney-client confidentiality.

"There is no basis to act in such a manner to a lawyer of over 30 years," said her lawyer.

He said when locked in a cell two male police officers at around midnight even tried to remove prison-issue blankets from her.

To the charge she shouted at police officers and attempted to prevent them from doing their duty, Mtetwa,  in her written testimony, said she told the police she wanted to see their search warrants but was ignored.

"What you are doing is unlawful, unconstitutional and undemocratic," she told the officers, Mpofu said.

The police response was to arrest her, he said.

Justice Charles Hungwe issued an order around 1 a.m.Monday (2300 GMT Sunday) for arresting officers to immediately release Mtetwa.

But police refused to obey the order and Mtetwa was still held in police cells on Monday. 

The action showed that Zimbabwe "is a state that is prepared to act like an outlaw," Mpofu told the court.

Obstructing justice carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

Mtetwa has represented Tsvangirai and several of his top aides in past cases brought against them. She has also defended human rights defenders and journalists. She holds an array of international awards, including those from the American Bar Association and the main European Bar Human Rights body.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe police arrest PM's officials, top lawyer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe police arrested the country's most prominent rights lawyer and four senior officials with the prime minister's party on Sunday, a day after the nation voted in a referendum on a new constitution that calls for more protection against human rights violations.

Rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa is being charged with allegedly "obstructing or defeating the course of justice" and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's chief legal adviser, Thabani Mpofu, is accused of impersonating police by compiling dossiers on unspecified crimes, a police official said.

Mtetwa was called to an address in Harare where police were searching an office used by Mpofu and began "shouting at officers and preventing them from doing their duties," police official Charity Charamba said Sunday. She said all of those arrested were being held for questioning Sunday.

Police had been instructed to search the offices of a private group, the Democratic Alliance of Zimbabwe, where it was believed some information on alleged crimes was being illegally held, she said. Police removed unspecified "exhibits" for evidence against the group that they were engaged in police-type investigations, she said. Witnesses said computer equipment and mobile phones were seized.

Democracy and rights groups routinely gather witness accounts of alleged crimes and abuses of power in state institutions, including the police force, controlled by President Robert Mugabe.

Obstructing justice and impersonating police officers carry a penalty of imprisonment or a fine.

Witnesses said Sunday that Mtetwa demanded that police produce a search warrant at the suburban house used by Mpofu. Officers accused her of trying to take photographs of a security detail on her mobile phone and she was forced into a police vehicle, the witnesses said.

Mtetwa has won an array of awards from international bodies, including the American Bar Association and the European Bar Human Rights Institute, during her legal career of three decades. She has represented Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his supporters in high profile cases where she has accused police of the wrongful arrest and detention of Mugabe's perceived opponents without sufficient evidence.

Mpofu is a senior attorney who is the head of the research and development department in the prime minister's office. Police on Sunday also raided and searched Harare offices of Tsvangirai's media and communications unit.

Three other members of Tsvangirai's personal staff were arrested Sunday morning, the independent Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said. They were identified as Warship Dumba, Felix Manditse and Annah Muzvidziwa, all close aides of Tsvangirai.

Voting in a referendum on a new constitution ended late Saturday. All main party leaders called for a "Yes" vote on constitutional reforms. Another official of the former opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested before polling began Saturday. No reasons were immediately given for the arrest by four armed police of Sampson Magunise, a party organizer in eastern Zimbabwe, but Charamba said Sunday he was a suspect in an alleged gasoline bomb attack on a the car of a Mugabe party official.

Zimbabwe's official election body said Sunday an estimated 2 million people cast their vote in a referendum on a new constitution that seeks to curb presidential powers and strengthen human rights.

Judge Rita Makarau, head of the electoral commission, said the low estimate came from early returns from the nation's 9,400 polling stations.

Zimbabwe has an estimated 6.6 million registered voters. Full results from isolated areas are expected within five days.

Police enforced a clampdown on rights and pro-democracy groups in the run-up to the referendum vote.

In recent weeks, police have seized documents, equipment and cheap wind-up radio receivers from the offices of several rights and pro-democracy groups.

The radio receivers, capable of receiving broadcasts not controlled by President Mugabe's state broadcasting monopoly, were declared illegal by police under broadcast regulations. The broadcasts were used for Mugabe's ZANU-PF party propaganda and were intensified around the referendum vote. Rights groups have challenged the legality of the radio ban, arguing that regular short-wave receivers and satellite television are not outlawed as long as they are covered by routine state listeners' licenses.

Police regularly mount searches without complete warrants looking for allegedly subversive materials said to be a threat to national security. They insist private rights and media freedom groups are trying to incite tensions between political parties ahead of crucial national elections later in the year to end a shaky and acrimonious coalition between Tsvangirai and Mugabe. The coalition was formed by regional mediators after the last violent and disputed elections in 2008.

------------

Associated Press reporter Gillian Gotora in Harare, Zimbabwe, contributed to this report

View the original article here

Zimbabwe: 2 million people voted in referendum

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's official election body says an estimated 2 million people cast their vote in a referendum on a new constitution that seeks to curb presidential powers and strengthen human rights.

Judge Rita Makarau, head of the electoral commission, said Sunday the low estimate came from early returns from the nation's 9,400 polling stations.

Zimbabwe has an estimated 6.6 million registered voters. All main political parties had called for a "Yes" vote amid fears of a low voter turnout. Zimbabweans were given just three weeks to read the 170-page draft of the constitution.

Makarau said Saturday's voting was carried out peacefully. Vote counting began late Saturday and full results from isolated areas are expected within five days.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe police question PM's party, top lawyer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — The Zimbabwe prime minister's party says police took three of its senior officials from their homes early on Sunday but gave no reasons for their action.

A prominent human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, was a fourth person taken to a suburban office of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's media and communications department for questioning.

The party said in a statement the three party officials, including senior attorney Thabani Moyo, work on the prime minister's staff.

Voting in a referendum on a new constitution ended late Saturday. All main party leaders called for a "Yes" vote on constitutional reforms. Another official of the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change was arrested before polling began Saturday.

Police enforced a clampdown on rights and pro-democracy groups in the run-up to the referendum vote.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe to vote on new constitution

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — One campaign ad on the Internet shows video footage of a lawmaker in Zimbabwe's tenuous coalition government punching a Cabinet minister appointed by President Robert Mugabe. Another ad attacks the president's rival and coalition partner, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, with a clip of him defending gay rights, an unpopular stance in many sectors of Zimbabwean society, during a television interview.

Ahead of a vote Saturday on a new constitution, Zimbabwe's main political camps are urging their supporters to approve it, making the outcome all but certain. But you wouldn't know they were in agreement from the tone of some campaigning, which amounts to a test run for national elections slated around July, a high-stakes event expected to end coalition rule and determine whether Mugabe retains his tight grip after decades in power.

The referendum this weekend mirrors the hopes and fears of four previous elections which were marred by violence and vote-rigging since Tsvangirai, a former labor leader, founded his Movement for Democratic Change party, the first real challenge to Mugabe, in 1999.

Already, tensions erupted in the volatile western Harare township of Mbare on Friday. An alliance of rights groups said eight supporters of the Zimbabwe prime minister's party were assaulted while putting up 'Vote Yes' posters for Saturday's poll.

The Crisis Coalition said injured victims of the Friday attack included future parliamentary candidate Sten Zvorwadza.

A visiting British Broadcasting Corp. news crew witnessed the assault.

BBC correspondent Andrew Harding said "an increasingly large and agitated crowd" tried to grab the crew's camera, threw dirty water at the journalists and punched them on their arms and backs without inflicting serious injuries.

The Mbare township has recently been the scene of violence blamed on a youth gang known as Chipangano, or, in the local Shona language, brotherhood, a group loyal to Mugabe.

Nelson Chamisa, a Tsvangirai party official, said the "complicit police" failed to stop the assault.

"The ghost of violence has reared its ugly head. We were expecting a peaceful referendum but once again the safety of the voter and the vote is no longer certain," he told The Associated Press.

All political groups have called for a 'Yes' vote on a constitution whose reforms would reduce presidential powers and grant more democratic rights. However, even if the constitution is approved, arrests and harassment of rights and democracy activists this year by police loyal to Mugabe raise doubts about whether such changes would be seriously enforced.

The draft constitution, for example, imposes a limit of two five-year terms on the office of president but it is not retroactive, enabling Mugabe to rule for two more terms to age 99 if he were to win the next two elections.

Mugabe's loyalists have posted United States-style presidential campaign advertisements on the Internet claiming that Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change Party even resorts to violence by punching and assaulting members of the Harare parliament while Mugabe spurns violence. Gay rights have been rejected by Mugabe, an outspoken critic of same sex partners he has described as "lower than pigs and dogs," a well-received stance in many generally homophobic African communities.

Tsvangirai denies unequivocal support for gay rights but says the new constitution being voted on Saturday enshrines broader protection for equal rights among all Zimbabweans.

He has recently been on a high-profile campaign of daily rallies in favor of the referendum, while Mugabe has only touched briefly on the referendum at small public engagements.

Slick ads on YouTube and other sites implore Zimbabweans to "Think Before You Vote" for the country's next president later in the year. Mugabe had ruled virtually unchallenged until Tsvangirai launched his opposition party. Mugabe's loyalists have been blamed for most violence in a decade of political and economic turmoil.

At least one third of Zimbabwe's population of 12 million is estimated to have Internet access through mobile phones.

To woo younger support, Mugabe, 89, has also appeared in a new pop music video on state television with a singing group called the Born Free Crew, symbolizing young Zimbabweans born after he led the nation to independence. The ascetic Mugabe, dressed in a business suit, dances awkwardly with the young African rappers in denims with roughed-up hair shaven into strips and zig-zags.

Mugabe then sings "Zviri sei sei" in the local Shona language, street slang for "Hey, how's it going?"

The state Electoral Commission said mobile phones won't be allowed Saturday into the 9,400 polling stations in case voters photograph their ballot papers. This was seen in this month's Kenya presidential race so that voters could prove to their leaders how they balloted, said the acting head of the Zimbabwe election body, Joyce Kazembe.

In past voting, Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has been accused of coercing voters to support it with threats of retribution after polling.

Pro-democracy groups and witnesses have reported this month that supporters of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party have been making door-to-door visits to list the names and identity details of householders and their members. The supporters have also activated car theft alarms outside homes in an apparent attempt to unsettle voters by trying to convince them that they will be under technical surveillance, even inside voting booths.

Witnesses also reported being told incorrectly that Tsvangirai did not favor a 'Yes' vote in the referendum and therefore the expected overwhelming approval of the constitution would show a Mugabe landslide that would be repeated in upcoming presidential polls. According to this scheme, citizens would then deem it pointless to vote for Tsvangirai, 61, as a presidential hopeful.

The election body says it has printed 12 million ballot papers for the referendum. The nation has 6.6 million registered voters, but on Saturday all Zimbabweans over age 18 carrying a valid citizens' identification document can vote over a 12 hour period from 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT). Polling stations using indelible finger ink on the hands of those who have already voted will stay open later if voters are still in line at the closing time.

A final tally of turnout and results is expected within five days.

The draft constitution reduces presidential powers to pass authoritarian decrees and paves the way for a National Peace and Reconciliation Commission on past violence and human rights violations.

It also strengthens the bill of rights to protect all Zimbabweans from "torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment" that would be enforced by a new Constitutional Court with powers above the main existing highest court of appeal, the Supreme Court.

In urging supporters to vote 'Yes,' Mugabe's party says the draft recognizes as irreversible the seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for handing over to blacks since 2000, black empowerment programs and taking local control of foreign-owned mines and businesses.

It says the draft honors black guerrilla fighters who ended colonial rule after a seven-year bush war with white-led troops of the former colony of Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was known before independence.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe groups plan to boycott vote monitoring

Mar 11 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 2. Tiger Woods $2,671,600 3. Matt Kuchar $2,055,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,491,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 11. Charles Howell III $1,238,219 12. Brian Gay $1,171,721 13. Jason Day $1,080,664 14. Chris Kirk $1,004,053 15. Keegan Bradley $976,993 16. Josh Teater $883,229 17. Bill Haas $876,800 18. Scott Piercy $868,592 19. ...

View the original article here

Zimbabwe resort town in new lion alert

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Wildlife officials say they have renewed a lion alert at the northern tourism and fishing resort town of Kariba after the reported sighting of two more lions near the suburb where two people were mauled to death last week.

The state wildlife authority said Monday the weekend sightings were in the "same general area" around the Mahombekombe township suburb. Three rogue lions were hunted down and killed there Thursday and Friday.

Officials said it was not proven that new "man eaters" have been sighted at all. Rangers and volunteers are deploying before dawn Tuesday to look for fresh lion tracks and echo animal calls to try and rouse any lions nearby.

After rogue lions terrified the townspeople last week, "everyone is seeing lions in every shadow," one official said.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe town on lion alert

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Wildlife rangers in Zimbabwe put the northern resort town of Kariba on full alert Wednesday after rogue lions mauled to death two people near a suburb there.

The National Parks and Wildlife Authority said fliers were being handed out in the town and volunteers were using a loudspeaker to caution townspeople on the dangers of lion attacks on the shores of Lake Kariba, a man-made hydroelectric dam popular for fishing and tourism.

It said one man escaped from a lion attack on Tuesday, but the woman with him was savaged to death. An arm and a few remnants of a second corpse were found by rangers hunting for the lions.

The predatory animals had eaten most of one corpse but did not devour the body of the dead woman, rangers said.

The wildlife authority warned people against walking at night and crossing through thickets of bush where lions conceal themselves. It urged people in the area only to use wide and established roads.

Lion attacks are not common close to urban settlements. In the past, elephants have roamed into Kariba's suburbs, causing several deaths in recent years. Victims were often heading home from late night taverns and bars.

Wednesday's lion alert fliers also warned "beer drinkers to avoid moving at night on foot." With the recent growth of outdoor Christian groups and religious and other tribal sects, the authority advised their followers to "stop going for secretive prayers in thick vegetation" in and around Kariba.

Rangers said the hunt for the rogue lions was continuing late Wednesday.

It is known in common conservation practice that lions that have eaten human prey will continue preying on people until they are hunted down and killed.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe PM's party reports increase in violence

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — The party of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Tuesday that violence against its supporters is increasing as political tensions rise before upcoming elections.

The Movement for Democratic Change party said an arson attack on the home of an election candidate in eastern Zimbabwe killed the politician's 12-year-old son. The attack was one of 120 incidents of violence recorded so far this year, said the third ranked MDC official, Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

The candidate's house has suffered nine attacks surrounding previous elections and the last violent and disputed elections in 2008. The child's burial is to be on Thursday.

Biti said his party was "enraged at the increase in politically motived violence throughout the country" that he blamed on a faction of President Robert Mugabe's party.

Biti accused Mugabe's ZANU PF party of attempting to once again instill fear in the electorate.

"ZANU PF intends to harvest fear in the 2013 elections," he said.

He also alleged that Mugabe's security services have crafted a strategy of intimidation, arrests and possible assassination attempts against leaders of the former opposition in a shaky coalition government with Mugabe.

Voters go to the polls March 16 in a referendum on a new constitution, followed by parliamentary and presidential elections slated around July to end the coalition brokered by regional mediators after the troubled 2008 vote.

No arrests have been made in the death of the 12-year-old. Party officials said it took seven hours for police to reach the scene of the fire in the Headlands district, 140 kilometers (90 miles) east of Harare, on Saturday.

Mugabe's party, blamed along with loyalist police and military for much of the political violence surrounding elections over the last decade, has denied the involvement of its supporters in the fire at Headlands, a stronghold of a staunch veteran Mugabe ally, Didymus Mutasa.

The United States embassy in Harare immediately called for urgent and impartial investigations into the alleged arson attack.

"Respect for the law and apolitical policing are essential for creating conditions for credible and non-violent Zimbabwe elections this year," it said in a statement.

Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have repeatedly called for violence-free elections.

Human rights monitors of an independent group, Heal Zimbabwe Trust, said authorities on Tuesday attempted to stop mourners and sympathizers gathering at the scene of the fire.

Tsvangirai party activist and aspiring lawmaker Shepherd Maisiri, the father of the dead child, said communities were fast losing confidence in the calls for peace by political leaders, according to the trust's information bulletin on Tuesday.

The trust quoted Maisiri telling its monitors: " I am told I must trust Robert Mugabe that elections are going to be peaceful. Well, this is proving false. My son is dead before we even get to the referendum. What more will happen as we approach highly contested elections?"

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network also reported Tuesday its observers noted the re-emergence of feared pro-Mugabe youth militia groups in several parts of the country.

It reported "instability and political tension" across the nation.

"Observers continue to report the presence of intolerance and a generalized lack of freedom of association and expression," the group said.

View the original article here

Zimbabwe says it has found funds for a referendum

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's broke coalition government says it has raised enough money privately to pay for a referendum on a new constitution scheduled March 16.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the vote, just three weeks away, "will not be stopped because of lack of money," the state Sunday Mail newspaper reported.

Chinamasa said the financing was "sourced locally" from commercial and business interests after the United Nations and possible outside donors weren't given enough time to contribute. The referendum date was announced a week ago.

The state election commission says it needs $85 million for the vote ahead of national elections later in the year to end the nation's shaky coalition between President Robert Mugabe and the former opposition formed after the violent and disputed elections in 2008.

All coalition leaders have called for a 'Yes' vote on the new constitution.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the United Nations cited bureaucratic procedures preventing it from providing referendum money, adding "we submitted our budgets a bit late," the Sunday Mail reported.

"I think they are going to fund the actual election but this time (for the referendum) we are going it alone," the paper quoted Biti saying. Biti is the third ranking official in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party.

Presidential and parliamentary elections are expected to be held around July.

Rights and democracy groups have called for a postponement of the referendum to give voters more time to study the 160-page draft constitution first published last Monday. They insist a hasty vote will not produce a credible outcome.

Vice President Joice Mujuru said Saturday no Western observers will be allowed into the country to monitor either of the upcoming polls.

Only African and regional observers will be permitted as election monitors, she said while addressing a state funeral in Harare, in the absence of Mugabe, who was on an official trip to West Africa.

Western nations hostile to Mugabe sought to infiltrate the country as monitors to influence the outcome of voting in their favor, Mujuru said.

"Let us be wary of foreign interference in our internal politics," she said.

Mugabe expelled a European Union observer mission during elections in 2002 that the European monitors alleged were marred by violence and vote rigging.

Western donors give the bulk of pledges to United Nations appeals for funds to help member states.

The official election commission says that in a departure from usual election practice the voters' lists will not be used in the March 16 referendum. Voters aged 18 and above can cast their ballots in any of 9,000 polling states across the country using only valid national identity cards.

That procedure would mean a larger voter turnout within the time constraints up to referendum, it says.

In previous parliament and presidential elections, glaring errors in the voters' lists, including registered voters who have long since died or have moved to other districts, were blamed for vote rigging and fraud.

View the original article here

Media group: Zimbabwe radio receiver ban illegal

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Media freedom campaigners say police in Zimbabwe are breaking the law by seizing and banning small radio receivers that can tune in to stations not linked to the state broadcasting monopoly controlled by President Robert Mugabe's party.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa said Friday no regulations outlaw the hand-cranked, solar powered radios that democracy and election support groups plan to use ahead of a referendum on a new constitution next month and crucial elections later in the year.

Police insist the radios and cheap Chinese 3G smartphones are being supplied by "subversive organizations" and pose a security threat surrounding the polling.

MISA said any broadcast receiver only requires a routine listeners' license. The police action was a grave threat to active and informed participation in upcoming voting, it said.

View the original article here