Archivo etiqueta «Zimbabwe»
By David Coltart, a senator and member of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (THE WASHINGTON POST, 24/12/08):
There is a perfect humanitarian storm in my country. The threats of AIDS, poverty, hyperinflation and malnutrition, and now cholera, combined with a regime that has given up on its people, add up to an all-but-untenable state of affairs. It is difficult to know where to turn, but it is clear that under such a barrage, a haven must be found. At the moment, that haven — perhaps the only port in this storm — is the transitional agreement inked … Seguir leyendo
By Yeukai Taruvinga, who is not allowed to work; the fee for this article has been donated to Women Asylum Seekers Together in London, which she chairs refugeewomen.com (THE GUARDIAN, 20/12/08):
When I tell ordinary British people that I came to this country from Zimbabwe to seek asylum because of Robert Mugabe’s government, they are always sympathetic. They see the humanitarian crisis, the old people and children dying of cholera – the UN reported yesterday that there were more than a thousand dead and another 20,000 sufferers. They see on the news night after night what Mugabe is doing … Seguir leyendo
By Jonathan Steele (THE GUARDIAN, 15/12/08):
The substance of Zimbabwe‘s horror stays the same. Only its miserable form keeps changing. Alongside hyperinflation, shanty-town evictions, mass unemployment, police-sponsored election violence and murder, badly-administered farm takeovers, rampant food shortages and the abduction of human rights activists, there now comes the latest manmade disaster – cholera. Close to 800 lives have already been lost. Thousands have fled to South Africa to try to avoid it or, if already afflicted, at least to get treatment.
As the horror mounts, calls for action grow. A few verge on the risible. “Bush steps up pressure … Seguir leyendo
By Ben Macintyre (THE TIMES, 11/12/08):
The horror story that is cholera-wracked Zimbabwe begins with a hand-pump in a Soho street and a British doctor who came up with a very simple, very brilliant idea one and a half centuries ago.
Cholera is more than just a dreadful disease: it thrives on ignorance and the most abject poverty; it breaks out when a state breaks down; and it is ultimately curable not by medicine alone but by organising society itself on rational, scientific principles. The only antidote to cholera, in the end, is political action.
Today, Robert Mugabe’s most powerful … Seguir leyendo
By Richard Cohen (THE WASHINGTON POST, 09/12/08):
What I would like to do — not that you’ve asked — is have a Predator drone circle over Robert Mugabe‘s luxurious villa until this monster of a dictator who has brought such misery to Zimbabwe runs screaming from his home and into the arms of his own people. What happens after that is none of my business.
I do not mean to sound harsh or cruel, but when I say that what happens to Mugabe is none of my business, it is because it already appears to be almost no one’s … Seguir leyendo
By Ben Freeth (THE TIMES, 02/12/08):
All around, the effects of the Zimbabwean land programme are affecting our everyday life. How can people eat when those trying to produce food on the land are still being forcibly removed? How can a country go forward when there is no money being generated from production to allow it to do so?
I spoke to a friend of mine, Deon Theron, who is vice-president of the Commercial Farmers Union. A senior reserve-bank official wanted his farm and so Deon was prosecuted by the police this year. He was found to be a criminal … Seguir leyendo
Por Brian Raftopoulos, director de investigaciones del Solidarity Peace Trust, Sudáfrica (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 26/11/08):
Tema: La mezcla de esperanza y desesperación que siguió a las elecciones de marzo de 2008 en Zimbabue y la violencia que se desató tras éstas dieron paso posteriormente a las nuevas posibilidades ofrecidas por el acuerdo político firmado el 11 de septiembre de 2008 por la Unión Nacional Africana de Zimbabue-Frente Patriótico (ZANU-PF) y las dos facciones del Movimiento para el Cambio Democrático (MDC) lideradas por Tsvangirai y Mutambara, respectivamente.
Resumen: Los múltiples aspectos de la crisis en que se ha visto envuelta … Seguir leyendo
By Michael Holman, a former Africa editor of the Financial Times, grew up in Zimbabwe. His latest novel is Fatboy and the Dancing Ladies (Abacus) (THE TIMES, 27/10/08):
Most crises blow over. A few blow up. But one or two live in our memories, scars on the conscience of a world that had knowledge of tragedy, the capacity to intervene, yet failed to act.
Zimbabwe is no Rwanda. Not yet. But after enduring years of Robert Mugabe’s thuggery, it has another cross to bear. The country is weeks away from what could become a catastrophe. Already more than … Seguir leyendo
By Knox Chitiyo, head of the Africa programme at the Royal United Services Institute, London, and a former co-director of the Centre for Defence Studies at the University of Zimbabwe (THE GUARDIAN, 18/09/08):
The events of this week mark a milestone in Zimbabwe’s history. The Harare agreement is a breakthrough that represents the country’s last, best chance of averting apocalypse. Sceptics insist that the deal cannot work; but for millions of suffering Zimbabweans, it is a sweet tea. And the risk is now that the international community might inadvertently undermine this source of hope.
It will not be easy … Seguir leyendo
By Martin Jacques, a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre (THE GUARDIAN, 30/07/08):
We are but halfway through 2008 yet it has already born witness to a sizeable shift in global power. The default western mindset remains that the western writ rules. That is hardly surprising; it has been true for so long there has been little reason for anyone to question it, least of all the west. The assumption is that might and right are invariably on its side, that it always knows best and that if necessary it will enforce its … Seguir leyendo
By Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society. His book: Africa Altered States, Ordinary Miracles is published in September (THE GUARDIAN, 26/07/08):
It is clear what Robert Mugabe wants to see from the talks with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that began in South Africa on Thursday. On December 27 1987 he sat down with Joshua Nkomo, the leader of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) and signed a unity accord. It followed seven years of sustained violence against Nkomo’s party in which some 18,000 people died. The creation of a government of national unity made Nkomo … Seguir leyendo
By Peter Preston (THE GUARDIAN, 14/07/08):
It is a matter of principle, surely. Here’s an ageing dictator using every means to hang on in power. His people are starving. Hundreds of thousands flee to a safe haven in the democratic country to the south. Elections are a malign joke. And what does the west do about it? Why, pile in with food aid, trade deals and sweet promises. Prop up the dictatorship for all its worth. Because for the moment we’re talking North Korea, not Zimbabwe: and Pyongyang has (or perhaps had) a little bomb that turned idealism on its … Seguir leyendo
Por Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo, escritor y periodista guineano (EL PAÍS, 03/07/08):
Robert Mugabe, el octogenario presidente y principal artífice de la independencia de Zimbabue, se ha vuelto un déspota. Consiguió lo que quería: la presidencia vitalicia. Con la oposición en el exilio, en las cárceles o muerta, puede seguir “hasta que Dios le eche”, según dice. Pero, aunque hace décadas que sus compatriotas padecen su tiranía, los occidentales sólo descubrieron el verdadero rostro de Mugabe en 2001, cuando, para camuflar su incapacidad de resolver los agudos problemas del país, azuzó a sus “veteranos” de la guerrilla a ocupar las tierras … Seguir leyendo
Por Priti Patel, abogado en el Centro de Litigios de Sudáfrica en Johannesburgo (LA VANGUARDIA, 03/07/08):
Hace unas semanas, el Tribunal Supremo de EE. UU. dictaminó que los detenidos en Bahía de Guantánamo tienen derecho a un hábeas corpus – el derecho a recusar la base fáctica y legal de su detención en un tribunal de justicia-. La decisión me regocijó, después de cuatro años de haber trabajado para asegurar el régimen de derecho en la política de detención e interrogatorio de Estados Unidos, incluida la supervisión de los juicios de comisiones militares en Bahía de Guantánamo. Pero mi … Seguir leyendo
By Mark Y. Rosenberg, the southern Africa analyst for Freedom House (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 02/07/08):
Now that President Robert Mugabe has been sworn into a sixth term after an election widely viewed as illegitimate, what is the rest of the world going to do about it?
So far, the response has been slow or ineffective; the United Nations Security Council has managed to pass only watered-down condemnations of Mr. Mugabe’s electoral terror because of resistance from South Africa, China and Russia. And Tuesday, the African Union urged Mr. Mugabe to join in a power-sharing agreement — a government … Seguir leyendo