With inflation at 40M%, government can't print money to keep pace
Guardian (UK) Jul 24, 08 2:58 PM CDT
(Newser)
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International sanctions and hyperinflation have left Zimbabwe nearly unable to print money, the Guardian reports. Stocks are nearly depleted since shipments ceased early this month from the German firm that supplied paper for banknotes; worse, the license will soon expire on the software used to design and print the bills. And with inflation around 40 million percent, demand for new, larger-denomination bills is insatiable.
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Mugabe, Tsvangirai sign deal creating framework for talks
BBC Jul 21, 08 12:40 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Robert Mugabe has signed a deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai establishing negotiations on the future of Zimbabwe, the BBC reports. The rivals met for the first time in 10 years to sign the agreement, which South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki witnessed. The deal does not create the power-sharing structure Mbeki proposed; it creates a framework for further negotiations.
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Note likely to prove ineffectual against hyperinflation
BBC Jul 20, 08 3:29 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Zimbabwe will introduce a new $100 billion bank note tomorrow to offset rampant inflation—a seemingly exorbitant sum that may not even buy a loaf of bread. The official annual inflation rate in the country tops 2,200,200%, but independent estimates peg the actual rate at many times higher. Denominations have grown exponentially since the central bank introduced a $10 million bill in January.
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As cash becomes worthless, citizens
face starvation
Guardian (UK) Jul 18, 08 9:56 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The political violence that ravaged Zimbabwe has subsided since Robert Mugabe's sham reelection, but another devastation continues unabated: economic meltdown. Zimbabwe's inflation rate has now hit 9 million percent, and a $50-billion Zimbabwean note is worth just 34 cents and falling in American currency. The Guardian investigates the surreal economic landscape of what was once one of Africa's most prosperous nations.
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US-led resolution would have imposed sanctions, restrictions on Mugabe
Reuters Jul 11, 08 6:41 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Russia and China today threw out a UN resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe for its violent presidential election, Reuters reports. Nine countries supported the US-backed sanctions, which would levied an arms embargo and restricted the travel and finances of officials, including President Mugabe. But five nations voted against it, calling the resolution unworthy of the UN Security Council.
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Opposition welcomes plan ceding real power to Tsvangirai as PM
Guardian (UK) Jul 7, 08 10:33 AM CDT
(Newser)
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South African president Thabo Mbeki has proposed a compromise in Zimbabwe’s political crisis: Let Robert Mugabe remain president in name, but hand power to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as temporary prime minister, the Guardian reports. Members of opposition party Movement for Democratic Change were said to be largely satisfied with the plan, on the condition that the African Union would help enforce it.
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Pregnancy spike among victims as militia crushes Mugabe opposition
Times (UK) Jul 6, 08 8:30 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Teenage pregnancy rates have spiked after youth militia members began raping Zimbabwean girls in President Robert Mugabe's torture camps, human rights workers tell the Times of London . The stigma against rape victims has kept the victims mostly silent, but a single hospital saw a spike of 16 expectant teenagers, and the trend is thought to be fairly widespread.
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The Washington Post probes a campaign of intimidation
Washington Post Jul 5, 08 12:25 PM CDT
(Newser)
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When Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, first learned he’d lost his March bid for re-election, he told supporters he’d concede–but they wouldn’t listen. Instead, Mugabe agreed to let the army swing the vote in his favor. Thus began a campaign of violent intimidation that ultimately forced his opponent to drop out. Using meeting notes and witness reports, the Washington Post describes the brutality.
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Prison officer shot footage, passed it to Guardian
Guardian (UK) Jul 5, 08 7:38 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Film shot secretly by a Zimbabwean prison guard shows how President Robert Mugabe’s party used intimidation to earn votes in last week's run-off election, the Guardian reports. In the footage, ruling party members watch as prison officials fill out their ballots and inspect the results. At a rally, party members are shown telling people to feign illiteracy so Mugabe supporters could fill out their ballots for them.
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OPINION
From HIV to Zimbabwe, S. African's inaction has cost lives, says Cohen
New York Times Jul 3, 08 6:45 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Five years ago Roger Cohen interviewed Thabo Mbeki in the New York Times , and even then the South African president insisted that Zimbabwe will "get over" its conflicts. So as supposed mediator in Zimbabwe's deepening economic and humanitarian disaster, why has Mbeki still done nothing? An earlier act of stubbornness might provide a clue: his AIDS denialism, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives in his own country.
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Secretive German firm caves to pressure
Wall Street Journal Jul 2, 08 12:46 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The German company that supplies Zimbabwe with the paper for its hyper-inflated currency has caved to pressure from the German government and stopped doing business with embattled dictator Robert Mugabe. The secretive Bavarian firm, Giesecke & Devrient, had been airlifting tons of special blank bank notes—fortified with watermarks and other antiforgery features—to Mugabe so that new currency could be printed, adding more zeros, every couple of weeks.
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South African too close to Mugabe, Zimbabwe opposition leader says
Associated Press Jul 2, 08 11:58 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Zimbabwe’s opposition party won’t accept South African President Thabo Mbeki as a mediator in negotiations with the government, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said today. Arguing that Mbeki is too close to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai said without another mediator “no meaningful progress can be made.” The African Union supported Mbeki as mediator yesterday, the AP notes.
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OPINION
Tsvangirai has the tools to eliminate presidency: scholar
New York Times Jul 2, 08 7:33 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Robert Mugabe has been sworn in for a sixth term as Zimbabwe's president—but this time, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change commands a majority in the country's parliament. That split offers the best hope of deposing Mugabe, writes Mark Y. Rosenberg in the New York Times. The best way to oust the president, he says, might simply be to get rid of the office altogether.
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