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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'Responding well;' Mugabe critic collapsed ahead of AU summit
AFP Jul 3, 08 9:35 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa is resting comfortably in a Paris hospital, said a government spokesman today, denying "malicious" widespread reports that the leader had died after suffering his second stroke in 2 years ahead of an African Union summit. Mwanawasa "is responding well to treatment. He has made steady progress," said the spokesman.
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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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Move a rare shot at Mugabe by leaders
Reuters Jul 1, 08 3:44 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The African Union adopted a resolution today calling for President Robert Mugabe to begin negotiations with the Zimbabwean opposition on forming a unity government, Reuters reports. The action marks the first time the AU has censured Mugabe, who once enjoyed a strong reputation as Zimbabwe’s liberator, for his undemocratic practices.
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COMMENTARY
Troubled country unrecognizable to reporter once stationed there
Washington Post Jul 1, 08 1:29 PM CDT
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"Is that the bad guy?" asks Chipo, the Zimbabwean-born adopted daughter of journalist Neely Tucker, watching Robert Mugabe on TV. She is a constant reminder of life a decade ago in the African nation, he writes in the Washington Post . "Mostly I miss the way it was then only because it looks good by comparison," Tucker writes.
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Spokesman angrily dismisses any deal with opposition
Guardian (UK) Jul 1, 08 8:52 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Robert Mugabe's spokesman angrily dismissed the possibility of a national unity government today, reports the Guardian , telling the US and other nations supporting the opposition to "go hang." Speaking at the African Union summit, the spokesman told reporters that no other country could interfere in Zimbabwean affairs, and equated British criticisms of Mugabe to colonialism. The African Union holds a special session on Zimbabwe later today.
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