Zimbabwe Resolution

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Comment by Kate Kooyman on August 27, 2008 at 8:33am

This doesn't look promising: "Mugabe to form government alone" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7583748.stm

Comment by Kate Kooyman on July 30, 2008 at 9:10am

Will new currency solve the inflation problem in Zimbabwe? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7532702.stm

Comment by Kate Kooyman on July 24, 2008 at 4:45pm

Got this update on Zimbabwe in my inbox today:

Zimbabwe rivals sign agreement
By ALAN COWELL
Monday, July 21, 2008
Zimbabwe's feuding political leaders appeared jointly for the first time in years on Monday to sign a preliminary agreement laying out terms for negotiations to wrest their land out of political chaos.
The ceremony brought together President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. News reports said the two men had not met for a decade, when Tsvangirai was a labor union leader before he emerged as the head of the main opposition group in 1999.
"We sit here in order for us to chart a new way, a new way of political interaction," Mugabe said, striking more measured tones than his frequent firebrand rhetoric.
Tsvangirai said there was "no one with a monopoly on patriotism, there's no one with a claim that he has a monopoly on the will of the people." He called the agreement "the first tentative step towards searching for a solution for a country that is in crisis."
While the so-called Memorandum of Understanding was a modest step in light of Zimbabwe's chaos and collapse, the sight of Mugabe in the same room as Tsvangirai seemed a dramatic departure from their land's more usual images of political bloodletting, electoral rigging and economic ruin.
The ceremony in a Harare hotel was overseen by Thabo Mbeki, the president of neighboring South Africa who labored for months as a mediator, defying critics who said his efforts merely gave Mugabe time to outwit his opponents. Mbeki sat between the two men as they signed, Reuters reported from Harare. A small breakaway faction of the opposition also committed itself to the talks.
The agreement "commits the negotiating parties to an intense program of work to try and finalize negotiations as quickly as possible," Mbeki said, without giving details. "All parties recognize the urgency," he said. News reports said the agreement committed the negotiators to begin talks within two weeks.
Tsvangirai had grown increasingly hostile to Mbeki's mediation, saying the South African leader was biased in favor of Mugabe. But the mood shifted last week when Mbeki agreed to a role for the African Union, the United Nations and a 14-nation grouping of southern African nations.
Those institutions will form a so-called "reference group," overcoming Tsvangirai's objections to Mbeki's role as exclusive mediator on behalf of southern African nations.
The ceremony on Monday offered Mbeki some vindication for his efforts and provided ammunition to justify his resistance to demands by the United States and Britain for punitive sanctions against Mugabe and his close supporters.
Mbeki flew to Harare on Monday as word emerged of the agreement to sign a preliminary agreement setting out the framework for negotiating a substantive agreement.
In a telephone interview, Ronnie Mamoepa, the South African Foreign Ministry spokesman, called the occasion a "positive step forward in the ongoing dialogue."
Analysts in Zimbabwe said the toughest issues would not be addressed until full negotiations got underway between deeply opposed and mutually hostile political figures seen by many analysts as unlikely partners in a power-sharing agreement of the kind that emerged earlier this year from Kenya's post-election bloodletting.
Under that power-sharing arrangement the authorities created a post of prime minister for Raila Odinga, the main challenger to President Mwai Kibaki.
In Zimbabwe the hostilities run deep and it was not known if mediators would press for a similar arrangement. Tsvangirai has been pushing for the creation of a transitional authority leading to new elections. South Africa has been urging a government of national unity.
After 28 years in power and showing no readiness to stand down, Mugabe has dismissed Tsvangirai as a puppet of neo-colonial maneuvers by Britain and the United States. Tsvangirai says Mugabe has stolen Zimbabwe's presidency in fraudulent elections and deployed security forces to mount a bloody campaign of repression.
Mugabe met a smiling Mbeki at Harare airport and the two men drove into the city in the Zimbabwean leader's limousine after embracing and shaking hands.
Zimbabwe has been in political deadlock since presidential elections on March 29, when victory was claimed by Tsvangirai, who, even by the official count, polled more votes than Mugabe.
Mugabe, however, insisted on a run-off vote, which he won as the only candidate in a ballot on June 27. The run-off was widely condemned by western and some African leaders as a sham. Tsvangirai withdrew a week before the ballot, saying his followers were suffering waves of violence and intimidation. In the days before the run-off, Tsvangirai took refuge in the Dutch Embassy in Harare, saying it was not safe for him to remain at home.
Both men had set out preconditions for Monday's meeting. Mugabe insisted on being recognized as president while Tsvangirai wanted guarantees that political violence would end and his jailed supporters would be freed.
In the past, Tsvangirai has insisted that negotiations be based on his March 29 election victory, but Mugabe refused to talk until he felt able to claim legitimacy as president from the June 27 vote.
In the March 29 vote, Mugabe lost control of the lower house of Parliament for the first time since he took office at independence from Britain in 1980. Tsvangirai has said he wants legislators to be sworn in, giving him a parliamentary power base.
Progress towards a meeting has been erratic, with Tsvangirai rejecting the idea as recently as last week.
Last weekend, however, the United Nations special representative to Zimbabwe, Haile Menkerios, expressed confidence that a preliminary deal would be signed.
The events in Zimbabwe have divided Africa, with some leaders prepared to continue supporting Mugabe and others insisting that he had clung to power illegitimately.
A subsequent push by Britain and the United States at the United Nations to impose sanctions drew a rare joint veto by Russia and China.
In Zimbabwe, the protracted political crisis has been thrown into ever shaper focus by economic freefall and hyperinflation. The ceremony Monday coincided with the issue of a new banknote with a face value of 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars — less than one dollar and not enough to buy a loaf of bread.
With most economic activity based on hard currency remittances by some of the three million Zimbabweans who have fled the country in recent years, hyperinflation at the official rate has reached a staggering 2.2 million percent.

Comment by Peter Vander Meulen on July 9, 2008 at 3:21pm

John Calvin and Zimbabwe!! Here's an interestinging item with news, prayer requests, (and a quote from John Calvin no less!) sent to me from a TEAR fund staffer in Africa a few days ago:

Dear friends,

My apologies for the long gap in emails and a welcome to those of you who have recently subscribed to this list. There are now just over 200 subscribers and I know many of you share these emails with others. It’s good to know that we share a concern for Zimbabwe with so many others? Thank you to those of you who have sent words of encouragement – I’ll be sure to pass these on to our partners in Zimbabwe.

It’s difficult to know where to start. Since my last email, Mugabe has ‘won’ an election in which he was the only candidate; the violence in Zimbabwe continues; the African Union (AU) has let down the Zimbabwean people, once again, with their weak statement (in spite of calls for stronger action by the presidents of Botswana, Senegal, Kenya and Liberia); and the economy continues it’s plummet. As I’ve said before, it’s hard to know how people are surviving.

There are quite a few issues that surround each one of these points but with a mind to helping you pray, I’ll just highlight a few things. If you’ve been watching the news closely you’ll have noticed that the AU are suggesting that they help to negotiate a govt of national unity (GNU). But the Zimbabweans and most of the western governments are insisting on a transitional govt. This is important because a GNU would be the same as discarding the will of the Zimbabwean people. The last time this happened in Zimbabwe, it resulted in the demise of the opposition. A transitional government which develops a new constitution and then holds free and fair elections is the only plausible option. Please pray for an AU mediation team who will be impartial; pray for a transitional govt to be set up.

I know it’s difficult to imagine that the economy could get any worse, but a friend forwarded the following information to me today: Bread is selling between 20 and 40 billion a loaf yet people are paid between 80 and 150 billion a month. 10kg maize meal, the staple diet, is 60 billion (this would normally feed one person for a month). A kilogram of beef is between 135 - 185 billion. A one way taxi ride into town is 8 billion while others charge 10 billion plus. Please pray for miracles of provision and multiplication; pray that aid agencies will be allowed to distribute food unhindered.

The lengthy, drawn out nature of this crisis is probably the biggest threat to positive change. This has been a tactic of Mugabe’s and I suspect he will continue to stall over the coming months. After 3 months of one election and years of crises, the Zimbabweans themselves are at the end of their ability to cope. In fact, it’s only because they’re such resilient people that they have lasted this long in the first place. But no-one can sustain life as they know it for long. More importantly, the rest of the world grows weary. You only have to look at the news coverage to see that interest is waning. And to be fair, it’s not the easiest environment to get news out of - journalists face a continual battle to report the situation. Getting news out is almost as hard as getting news in and journalists are the ones who see and hear the worst of it all. Please pray for the journalists who fight to keep the situation in the minds of the world’s leaders; pray for those struggling to get news into the country to balance the propaganda which is churned out by the state controlled media; pray for protection, encouragement and wisdom for them all.

Once again, thank you so much for all your support to our brothers and sisters in Zim. I came across this quote from John Calvin recently. It is a reflection on Psalm 13.

“Tyrants and their cruelty cannot be endured without great weariness and sorrow... Hence almost the whole world sounds forth these words “How long, how long?” When anyone disturbs the whole world by his ambition and avarice, or everywhere commits plunders, or oppresses miserable nations, when he distresses the innocent, all cry out: How long? And this cry... is at length heard by the Lord... [The oppressed] know that this confusion of order and justice is not to be endured. And this feeling, is it not implanted in us by the Lord? It is then the same as though God hears Himself when he hears the cries and groaning of those who cannot bear injustice”.

I hope it encourages you to keep praying, even if your prayers, at times, are only murmurs of ‘How long Lord?’

God bless you,

Karyn

Southern Africa Team, Tearfund.

Comment by Kate Kooyman on July 8, 2008 at 3:20pm

Here's another helpful article.

Comment by Kate Kooyman on July 8, 2008 at 9:42am

Here's a place to get updated on what's happening in Zimbabwe: recent (disputed) elections fueled the humanitarian crisis where thousands are displaced, a violent regime is cracking down on opposition, and hunger concerns grow as the government has banned food aid.