Archivo etiqueta «Zimbabwe»

By Michael Gerson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 15/06/07):

When I talked this week with David Coltart, a Zimbabwean member of parliament and human rights lawyer, his office in Bulawayo had been without power for five hours. The central business district of Zimbabwe‘s second-largest city, he said, was “a ghost town,” with “hardly anyone on the streets” and “signs everywhere of total economic collapse.”

Four days previously the price for a liter of gasoline had been 55,000 Zimbabwean dollars; that morning, gas stations were advertising $85,000. Inflation, by conservative estimates, gallops at an annual rate of 3,700 percent. Perhaps 3 1/2 … Seguir leyendo

By Arnold Tsunga, executive director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and secretary of the Law Society of Zimbabwe (THE WASHINGTON POST, 05/04/07):

When the heads of state of the Southern African Development Community convened last week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss the political situation in Zimbabwe, hopes among the Zimbabwean people ran high. President Robert Mugabe had recently extended his brutal efforts to crush dissent from his political opponents to include ordinary Zimbabweans. His ruling party left a trail of fractured bodies and two dead in its most recent crackdown.

With the economy in shreds and … Seguir leyendo

By Peter Godwin, the author of a forthcoming memoir “When a Crocodile Eats the Sun” (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 03/04/07):

EVER since Zimbabwe began imploding in 2000, the conventional punditry about its president, Robert Mugabe, has largely been of the good-leader-turns-bad variety. Now, as the country’s economy enters its death throes — hyperinflation at 1,700 percent and expected to exceed 5,000 percent by year’s end; unemployment at 80 percent; the average person’s purchasing power at 1953 levels; life expectancy the lowest in the world; an exodus of Africa’s most educated population — it would seem a good time to … Seguir leyendo

By Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, was archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996 and headed South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Madeleine Albright, who served as secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, is principal of the Albright Group LLC and chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (THE WASHINGTON POST, 29/03/07):

Zimbabwe, long plagued by the repressive leadership of President Robert Mugabe, has reached the point of crisis. Leaders of the democratic opposition were arrested and beaten, and one was killed, while attempting to hold a peaceful … Seguir leyendo

By David Aaronovitch (THE TIMES, 20/03/07):

In another life I used to go on “delegations”. One of my first was to Lisbon in 1976, to represent the National Union of Students at a grand meeting of antiapartheid movements from all over the world. We were a jolly bunch on the British team: Commies, Liberals, Labour people, as well as London-based exiles from South Africa. There was the fabulously brave South African lawyer, Albie Sachs, later terribly injured by a South African car bomb in Mozambique, and I think Aziz Pahad attended too.

I liked Aziz. A pale-skinned Indian South African, … Seguir leyendo

By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 13/03/07):

The latest spasm of violent repression in Zimbabwe has sparked speculation that the era of Robert Mugabe may finally be drawing to a close. But the country’s self-styled founding father and president since 1980 shows no sign of leaving voluntarily – and it remains unclear who or what can force him out.

Rather than loosening Mr Mugabe’s grip on power, factional rivalries within the once monolithic ruling Zanu-PF party have enabled him, so far at least, to divide and neutralise his critics. Disaffection within the army and police over the impact of inflation on … Seguir leyendo

By Max Hastings (THE GUARDIAN, 27/02/07):

If Tony Blair had wanted to sponsor a military adventure that would have played brilliantly with the British middle class, instead of sending the army to Afghanistan and Iraq he would have dispatched it to Zimbabwe. In Hartlepool and Hemel Hempstead, there was never much spleen against the Taliban or Saddam Hussein. A great many people, however, hate Robert Mugabe.This is, of course, the fruit of his persecution of the shrinking band of white farmers in his country – our own kith and kin, to use a phrase that became familiar during the 14 … Seguir leyendo

By Jan Raath (THE TIMES, 07/12/06):

The audience in the cinema in Bulawayo was distressed, said the German Ambassador. Pius Ncube, the outspoken Roman Catholic Archbishop, was quite emotional. Paul Themba Nyathi, the articulate opposition figure, had just been charged with inciting the Armed Forces to rise against Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe. Police had intercepted pamphlets that he and a party worker were distributing, which criticised the Government’s failure to ensure their welfare . “They are struggling to pay for food and health and education because they are poorly paid,” it said. He could get 20 years in … Seguir leyendo

Africa Briefing N°38 (06/06/06):

OVERVIEW

With scheduled presidential elections less than eighteen months away, Zimbabwe faces the prospect of greater insecurity and violence. The economy’s free fall has deepened public anger, and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party wants to avoid a popular vote by using the legislature it controls to establish a “transitional presidency” and appoint a successor to Robert Mugabe, who has said he will retire. By engineering a transition, Mugabe also intends to secure a dignified personal exit that includes a retirement package and security guarantees. However, such plans may come unglued due to … Seguir leyendo

Los campos de la muerte de Zimbabwe. Roger Bate es residente del American Enterprise Institute (GEES, 30/06/05).