Salon.com > Andrew Meldrum

Determined to be counted

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 14:57:00 +0000

President Robert Mugabe defiantly predicted "a mountainous victory" for his party Wednesday night as Zimbabweans prepared to cast their votes in an election that most observers believe will be rigged. During a frantic final day of campaigning ahead of Thursday's election both the ruling Zanu-PF Party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) made their final appeals to the electorate.

Mugabe told cheering supporters in the capital, Harare: "We have never been losers, because we have always been a party of the people."

This election campaign has been less scarred by violence than previous polls in Zimbabwe, but Mugabe's opponents claim the ruling party has denied food to opposition supporters and is preparing to fix Thursday's ballot.

Army officers have been placed in charge of polling stations; ballot boxes have been made of transparent plastic so opposition voters can be identified, and critics say the electoral roll is full of flaws.

From an audit of 10 percent of the roll, one human rights group, FreeZim, estimated that the voters' roll listed up to 1 million dead people, more than 300,000 duplicate names and 1 million people who no longer live at their registered address.

“One of the top three or four torture-producing countries”

Tue, 18 Jan 2005 12:49:00 +0000

New evidence of alleged attacks on opposition supporters in Zimbabwe has been passed to the Guardian by activists who say they are being subjected to systematic violence, intimidation and sexual abuse in the run-up to elections in March. In one case, a woman who chaired a constituency group said she was covered in paraffin and set alight. She is now in hiding, but has agreed to have her photograph published to highlight the situation.

Supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party, say they have been targeted by youth militia groups sympathetic to Robert Mugabe's ruling party, Zanu-PF. Photographs given to the Guardian, MDC officials say, show evidence of intimidation and violence against local party activists, including systematic arrests and beatings of women. The Guardian has passed the pictures to Amnesty International.

A Zimbabwe government spokesman hung up the phone when asked to comment on allegations of torture by youth militia, police and other state agents. The government has previously denied torturing its critics.

Lawyers, doctors and Zimbabwean exiles involved in the asylum process in the U.K. also claim that the Home Office is ignoring prima facie cases of torture and repatriating exiles who will face further maltreatment on their return.

Ready to flee

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 13:43:00 +0000

Sir Mark Thatcher was preparing to flee South Africa when he was arrested over his alleged involvement in a botched coup attempt, police in Cape Town alleged yesterday.

As the apparent plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea continued to unravel, the elite Scorpions police unit said it had arrested Sir Mark after learning that he had put his house on the market, arranged to sell four of his cars, found boarding school places in the U.S. for his two children and bought his family plane tickets to the U.S.

When officers arrived at his home in the upmarket Constantia suburb of Cape Town at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, they found the Thatchers' suitcases packed and in the hall. The house had been placed on the market for 22 million rand.

"That's why we moved to arrest him," Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the Scorpions, told the Guardian. "We did not want him to leave the country while we were investigating him."

Further details of the charges against Sir Mark emerged yesterday. According to police, they have evidence that he invested $271,000 to fund the logistics of the coup attempt. Ngwema said the Scorpions were confident they had evidence against Sir Mark that will stand up in court. "We have evidence that Thatcher has been financing the plot against Equatorial Guinea. We found information when we searched his residence that is going to assist us in the case."

Mark Thatcher faces court showdown over coup plot

Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:14:00 +0000

Sir Mark Thatcher was last night facing a legal battle to avoid a lengthy jail sentence after being arrested and charged in South Africa with helping to finance a failed attempt to overthrow the president of a tiny but oil-rich west African state. Lady Thatcher's son, whose business dealings have been the subject of repeated controversy since the 1980s, suffered a humiliating day which began when an elite police squad known as the Scorpions knocked on his door at 7am and arrested him in his pyjamas. Police said they had "credible evidence" that he was involved in backing a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.

His appearance at a nearby magistrates court was then delayed, apparently because Sir Mark was robbed in his holding cell by other prisoners who, according to a court official, stole his mobile phone, shoes and jacket. All belongings were later returned.

Last night, he was confined to his home in the upmarket Cape Town suburb of Constantia after being released on strict bail conditions which require him to remain under virtual house arrest until he has posted bail of 2m rand (#165,000). He was also ordered to surrender his passport and stay in the Cape Town area until another court appearance on November 25.