Overpopulation: The plan to poison South East Asia
By Global Research
Global Research, June 16, 2008
The Age Australia February 10, 2002
This article was originally published in 2002.
Burnet’s solution: The plan to poison S-E Asia
By Brendan Nicholson
Poltical Correspondent
March 10 2002
World-famous microbiologist Sir Macfarlane Burnet, the Nobel prize winner revered as Australia’s greatest medical research scientist,
secretly urged the government to develop biological weapons for use against Indonesia and other “overpopulated” countries of South-East Asia.The revelation is contained in top-secret files declassified by the National Archives of Australia, despite resistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Sir Macfarlane recommended in a secret report in 1947 that biological and chemical weapons should be developed to target food crops and spread infectious diseases.
His key advisory role on biological warfare was uncovered by Canberra historian Philip Dorling in the National Archives in 1998.
The department initially blocked release of the material on the basis it would damage Australia’s international relations. Dr Dorling sought a review and the material was finally released to him late last year.
The files include a comprehensive memo Sir Macfarlane wrote for the Defence Department in 1947 in which he said Australia should develop biological weapons that would work in tropical Asia without spreading to Australia’s more temperate population centres.
“Specifically to the Australian situation, the most effective counter-offensive to threatened invasion by overpopulated Asiatic countries would be directed towards the destruction by biological or chemical means of tropical food crops and the dissemination of infectious disease capable of spreading in tropical but not under Australian conditions,” Sir Macfarlane said.
The Victorian-born immunologist, who headed the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, won the Nobel prize for medicine in 1960. He died in 1985 but his theories on immunity and “clonal selection” provided the basis for modern biotechnology and genetic engineering.
On December 24, 1946, the secretary of the Department of Defence, F.G. Shedden, wrote to Macfarlane Burnet saying Australia could not ignore the fact that many countries were conducting intense research on biological warfare and inviting him to a meeting of top military officers to discuss the question.
The minutes of a meeting in January, 1947, reveal that Sir Macfarlane argued that Australia’s temperate climate could give it a significant military advantage.
“The main contribution of local research so far as Australia is concerned might be to study intensively the possibilities of biological warfare in the tropics against troops and civil populations at a relatively low level of hygiene and with correspondingly high resistance to the common infectious diseases,” he told the meeting.
In September, 1947, Sir Macfarlane was invited to join a chemical and biological warfare subcommittee of the New Weapons and Equipment Development Committee.
He prepared a secret report titled Note on War from a Biological Angle suggesting that biological warfare could be a powerful weapon to help defend a thinly populated Australia.
Sir Macfarlane also urged the government to encourage universities to research those branches of biological science that had a special bearing on biological warfare.
A clinically scientific approach is evident in a note he wrote in June, 1948.
He said a successful attack with a microbiological agent on a large population would have such a devastating impact that its use was extremely unlikely while both sides were capable of retaliation.
“The main strategic use of biological warfare may well be to administer the coup de grace to a virtually defeated enemy and compel surrender in the same way that the atomic bomb served in 1945.
“Its use has the tremendous advantage of not destroying the enemy’s industrial potential which can then be taken over intact.
“Overt biological warfare might be used to enforce surrender by psychological rather than direct destructive measures.”
The minutes of a meeting at Melbourne’s Victoria Barracks in 1948 noted that Sir Macfarlane “was of the opinion that if Australia undertakes work in this field it should be on the tropical offensive side rather than the defensive. There was very little known about biological attack on tropical crops.”
After visiting the UK in 1950 and examining the British chemical and biological warfare research effort, Sir Macfarlane told the committee that the initiation of epidemics among enemy populations had usually been discarded as a means of waging war because it was likely to rebound on the user.
“In a country of low sanitation the introduction of an exotic intestinal pathogen, e.g. by water contamination, might initiate widespread dissemination,” he said.
“Introduction of yellow fever into a country with appropriate mosquito vectors might build up into a disabling epidemic before control measures were established.”
The subcommittee recommended that “the possibilities of an attack on the food supplies of S-E Asia and Indonesia using B.W. agents should be considered by a small study group”.
It 1951 it recommended that “a panel reporting to the chemical and biological warfare subcommittee should be authorised to report on the offensive potentiality of biological agents likely to be effective against the local food supplies of South-East Asia and Indonesia”.
Dr Dorling said that while Sir Macfarlane was a great Australian he was also a product of times when many Australians held deep fears about more populous Asian countries.
He said the Menzies government was more interested in trying to acquire nuclear weapons. “Fortunately this also proved impracticable and Australia never acquired a weapon of mass destruction.”
The secretary of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, Peter French, said he had not yet seen the files but the whole notion of biological warfare was something that Australian scientists would not be comfortable with today.
“Viewed through today’s eyes it is clearly an abhorrent suggestion,” Dr French said.
Labels: ASIA, EUGENICS, POPULATION CONTROL, WAR CRIMES
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Privatising Land in Timor Leste
By Prof. Tim Anderson
Global Research, September 15, 2008
September 15, 2008
This article was first published in the Tetun language, in Timor Leste’s Kla’ak (The Flame) newspaper
In July 2008 Timor Leste’s Agriculture Minister Mariano Sabino spoke at seminars about agricultural sustainability and food security in Dili and Dare. Yet a few months earlier the Minister had signed a document which could deliver the most devastating blow to Timor Leste’s sustainability and food security since independence.
In a January 2008 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Indonesian-based GT Leste Biotech, Minister Sabino agreed to hand over 100,000 hectares of Timor’s scarce agricultural land to be used as a sugar-cane plantation.
Similarly, in February, Secretary of State Avelinho da Silva signed a contract with the Australian-based biofuel company Enviroenergy Developments Australia for Jatropha development on 59 hectares of land at Baucau. It is rumoured that even larger tracts of land are under discussion for rubber plantations.
These documents signal a move underway in the AMP Government to privatise large tracts of Timor Leste’s land. Yet the country’s Constitution says that “only national citizens have the right to ownership of land” (s.54). This means neither foreigners nor corporations can own land. However the recent agreements would effectively alienate prime agricultural land to foreign corporations through long term leases.
When Minister Sabino’s MOU and the Enviroenergy contract were made public, they attracted widespread condemnation. Demetrio de Carvalho, Director of the Haburas Foundation, said a sugarcane monoculture would threaten East Timor’s biodiversity and that the chemicals used would pollute the country’s water. Fretilin MPs warned this land ‘give away’ was corrupt and would threaten the country’s food supply. NGO representatives argued that large plantations would destroy the soil and that participation in the biofuel industry would push food prices even higher.
The AMP Government responded with counter-claims that biofuel plantations would generate thousands of jobs, provide cash opportunities for neighbouring farmers and add to the country’s infrastructure and training capacity. Minister Sabino claimed the plantations would not compete with food crops and argued the benefits of biofuels.
The big powers, through AusAID, USAID and the World Bank, have pushed for commercialisation of land in Timor Leste. They would like to see Timor Leste’s constitution amended, to allow foreign corporations to own land. Yet they too were unhappy, because of the way in which contracts seem to have been awarded. The corruption claims are serious, but will not be discussed here.
In this article I want to highlight the serious food security and sustainability consequences of land privatisation for Timor Leste, with reference to the experience of other developing countries in land alienation, agricultural liberalisation and large monoculture cash crops. I also present some reasons why Timor Leste’s constitutional ban on foreign ownership of land is worth defending.
The problems come from three linked processes: the likely undervaluation of land, poor accounting of the costs and benefits of large monocultures, and the instability introduced through agricultural liberalisation.
Undervaluation of land
Agricultural land in developing countries is seriously undervalued when it is alienated, either by long-term lease or sale. The AMP Government has suggested the land to be handed over to GT Leste is unused and ‘unproductive’. But with one of the fastest growing populations on earth, Timor Leste will certainly have to expand its food crop lands, in the very near future.
Reference to land being ‘unused’ is one factor that contributes to undervaluation. Another is the uncertainty over title. Whose land is this that is to be leased? Many disputes over title remain in Timor Leste, a product of colonial history. A third factor is that most land has never been commercialised and there is no market for land. With no experience in valuing land, and short of cash, Timorese communities are highly vulnerable to ‘bad deals’.
The undervaluation of land is widespread. Studies I have carried out in Papua New Guinea, show that local communities there have leased their land to oil palm plantations for as little as $10 per hectare per year, plus minimal royalties. Yet the subsistence production value of one hectare of good land in PNG (the local market value of one family’s food, grown and consumed) will often reach $5,000 per year, or five times the minimum wage. Companion planted cash crops can add between several hundred and several thousand dollars to this amount. Imagine the total value of those thousands of dollars per year, over many generations. This capacity of land to deliver sustainable yields, year after year, is never fully reflected in rents or sale prices.
When PNG communities realise a company is making thousands of dollars from their land, they want a share of that money – but long term leases creates legal barriers to their claims. Land is a people’s most precious and enduring asset – far more valuable than minerals, oil or gas. Yet cash-poor communities often give away this precious asset, in their desperation for a few dollars.
Poor accounting of large monocultures
While land is undervalued, the claimed social benefits of large monocultures are typically over-stated. Corporate investors encourage this. Yet the extraction of profits from local resources and labour is the main reason large monocultures are created. So the income benefits to local communities are exaggerated and the environmental costs are played down.
The AMP government plans to charge no rent at all “during the first nine years” for the 100,000 hectares of land offered to GT Leste Biotech. The only consideration that can be seen, from the MOU and government statements (and putting aside the possibility of corrupt payments), is an “expectation” of several thousand jobs, a vague offer to “provide community facilities” and promises to share some electricity capacity and to sell sugar and ethanol at “reasonable” prices.
However, from the MOU, there would be no claim on the company if this “expectation” of thousands of jobs became just a few hundred. Further, it is almost certain that most will be lowly paid jobs. While the benefits for Timor are vague, the company’s rights in the MOU are more emphatic. The first 50 years of the lease will be “irrevocable” and there will be “no state participation of any sort, whatsoever” in the business. That is, Timor Leste will not share any of the sugar-cane-ethanol profits.
There is also a suggestion to engage local smallholder farmers in cane production, to provide additional fodder for the company’s sugar-ethanol mill. This is the ‘agro-nucleus estate’ model promoted by the Asian Development Bank, and seen in some parts of PNG over the past thirty years.
In PNG ‘village oil palm’ farmers are paid by for their oil palm fruit contributions to the monopoly mill. However they are forced to accept fruit prices set by the company, and complain bitterly about fruit prices. The average income for oil palm farmers in PNG’s Oro province (61 Kina per week) is higher than the minimum wage (37 Kina) but less than half the average informal sector incomes (130 Kina) for example in small businesses, fruit selling and transport.
Monocultures reduce the diversity of production in a region, and reduce the capacity of small farmers to companion plant and spread their crop options. Sugar cane is similar to oil palm in this regard. The land clearing erodes and degrades the soil, silting up rivers and choking surrounding coral reef. Over half the fertiliser used runs into the water, causing algae blooms. In the oil palm areas of PNG there has been obvious loss of crop diversity, biodiversity and damage to rivers.
Finally, monocultures undermine small farming and local food production and contribute to food insecurity. The economic liberal argument is that they produce more income, which can then be used to purchase imported food. However most of that new income is appropriated by the investor company and local communities become more dependent on cash income to feed their families.
Small farms are undermined yet, as U.S. food security expert Peter Rosset says:
“Small farms are ‘multifunctional’: more productive, more efficient and contribute more to economic development than large farms. Small farmers can also make better stewards of natural resources, conserving biodiversity and safeguarding the future sustainability of agricultural production.”
Local communities are no better off financially with these monocultures yet they bear very serious environmental and food insecurity costs. None of this is properly accounted for when governments hand over precious land to private investors.
Instability from agricultural liberalisation
Concerns over sustainable agriculture are closely linked to food security concerns and to the current global food crisis. Until the recent crisis, brought on by steeply rising food prices, small farmers had been hurt by cheap imports. When imported staple food is cheap, farmers cannot justify planting next season’s crop. They just cannot compete.
The earlier low prices were a result of heavy domestic subsidies by the big grain exporters, such as Australia, the EU and the USA, and pressures for agricultural liberalisation. Since the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture, the big powers have poured large subsidies into agriculture (allowed under WTO rules as they are not directly ‘trade related’), yet tried to dismantle the tariff protection and food price regulation that was more common in developing countries.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in 2004: “Although lower basic food prices on international markets bring short-term benefits to net food-importing developing countries, lower international prices can also have negative impacts on domestic production in developing countries that might have lingering effects on their food security.” Indeed, some countries experienced famines from the impact of low food prices on domestic farming.
PNG has few food security problems, because the land is fertile and families have kept their traditional lands. However if we go to a poor Caribbean country like Haiti we see a different picture. Like many countries, Haiti had moved from more diverse staple foods (rice, corn, cassava, millet) to greater dependence on rice. Yet Haiti had been almost self-sufficient in rice, until the 1980s. Then, under financial pressure from the World Bank it began to dismantle its tariffs and other forms of protection. Haiti began to import 200,000 tonnes of rice per year, mostly from the US. This drove many local farmers out of business and, when prices rose again, poor people could not afford to buy rice. Today, more than half the population of Haiti is food insecure or malnourished.
Low food prices damage local production. High food prices hit poor people who have to buy their food. This is the unstable situation created by trade-dependent food patterns.
The recent high food prices have been driven by the high oil prices (which contribute to fertiliser and transport costs), demand for richer diets (meat, oil seed) in the wealthier countries and pressure on land, including from the biofuel industry. The FAO points out that these rising prices, in the last year, have pushed the number of hungry people in the world from 850 million to nearly one billion.
Biofuels have raised introduced competition between food for people and food for cars. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, who has called biofuels a “crime against humanity” puts it this way: “232kg of corn is needed to make 50 litres of bioethanol. A child could live on that amount of corn for a year.”
Now, in the middle of Timor Leste’s own food crisis, it has been proposed that Timor, on the one hand, gives away farm land which could produce food and, on the other hand, participates in a global industry which will raise even more the price of imported food. Will Timor export ethanol at the expense of food for its children?
Concluding comments
A prudent approach to food security, in any country which does not have a staple food surplus, must involve strong measures of domestic self-reliance and self-sufficiency. This includes Timor, which has special reasons of history, environmental damage, population growth and climate to be concerned about food security and sustainable agriculture.
Putting aside the word games some agricultural exporting neighbours play with the words ‘self-reliance’ and self-sufficiency’, self-reliance must mean Timor seeking to grow most of its own food, support small farmers to remain on their land, encourage domestic markets and place agricultural exports in second place.
Such an approach will meet hostility from the big powers who advocate agricultural liberalisation and the privatisation of land. But they are looking to their own advantage and are not the ones who have to live with food insecurity and environmental damage.
Niche and companion planted exports such as organic coffee and tropical fruits may not compromise the land, but export oriented monocultures certainly will. And after all, well managed tourism will raise many times more money that any agricultural exports, and distribute that money far more widely.
No sensible person should seriously link land privatisation and large monoculture cash crops to ‘agricultural sustainability and food security’, but this is now happening in Timor Leste. It is the East Timorese people who, with their great spirit of resistance, will have to ensure that they do not, once again, become beggars in their own country.
Dr Tim Anderson is Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney.
Labels: LAND RIGHTS, NEOLIBERALISM, PRIVATISATION
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Eurobond pushes Zambia’s foreign debt to over $2 billion
TIME PUBLISHED - Saturday, September 15, 2012, 8:15 am
Zambia’s external debt has swelled to over USD 2 billion following Zambia’s hugely successful Eurobond issue. Ministry of Finance Acting Director for Investments and Debt Management Fortune Kamusaki told Journalists in Lusaka that the
USD 750 million bond forms part of the already existing
USD 1.5 billion external debt.
Dr. Kamusaki explained that the external debt is mainly made up of concessional and non-concessional loans. He however assured that Zambia’s foreign debt stock remains highly sustainable obtained a huge debt relief under HIPC.
Dr. Kamusaki noted that the Zambian government has been prudent in its borrowing and there is no risk that the country could slip back into a debt trap.
Dr. Kamusaki said the foreign debt stock has been building up steadily from the time the country got debt relief under HIPC .
Labels: BONDS, DEBT
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We are not persecuting RSZ owners-Chikwanda
TIME PUBLISHED - Saturday, September 15, 2012, 8:59 am
Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has said that Government is not persecuting the owners of Railway System of Zambia (RSZ). Commenting on the interception of RSZ chief executive officer, Benjamin Even and his Managing Director, Pelossor Yair, Mr Chikwanda said there was no persecution of the two as alleged by some opposition leaders. He
advised opposition leaders not to glorify foreign company owners even when they had failed to perform to expectations as enshrined in agreements.
“There is no persecution, we want them to stay, a little longer for accountability and smooth handover. Why should they want to run away? In mature countries, in matters like this, Government and the opposition usually work together because the issue is of national interest.
But in the case of our opposition, who’s interests are they serving? That is why they will continue to be in the opposition. They want to play to foreign gallery when it doesn’t even work for them. How can they lead people against their interest?” Mr Chikwanda said.
And Home Affairs deputy minister in-charge of Immigration, Stephen Kampyongo the interception of Mr Even and Mr Yair was meant to have the two officials help with a smooth and transparent handover of the railway assets.
Mr Kampyongo said there was nothing sinister with the interception of the two who wanted to exit the country at Lusaka’s Kenneth Kaunda International Airport on Thursday.
Alert Immigration officers intercepted Mr Even and Mr Yair at the airport when they tried to leave for South Africa.
The two were scheduled to leave the country on an early morning flight to Johannesburg through the airport when they were blocked.
“There is nothing sinister about intercepting them. What we want, is to ensure that the two hand over RSZ assets to Government in a smooth and transparent way,” he said in an interview yesterday.
He said Government would promote transparency in the manner RSZ would be handled and that it wanted Mr Even and Mr Yair to be around as Government took over operations.
“We want to ensure there is a proper hand-over of all assets so that there exit is also smooth. We don’t to see a situation where they go while certain issues remain pending because it will be difficult to call them,” he said.
He appealed to Mr Even and Mr Yair to remain patient and cooperate with Government.
On Thursday, Home Affairs Permanent Secretary, Maxwell Nkole said the duo was found with RSZ employment permits which have since been withdrawn and their passports withheld.
Mr Nkole said it was important that a full audit of all assets was thoroughly undertaken with the assistance of the former management.
Labels: ALEXANDER CHIKWANDA, RAILWAY SYSTEMS OF ZAMBIA
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President Sata expresses gratitude for the successful launch of Zambia’s Eurobond
TIME PUBLISHED - Friday, September 14, 2012, 3:45 pm
President Michael Sata has expressed profound gratitude to the international investor community for the massive and overwhelming support for Zambia’s first sovereign bond.
This is according to the statement made available to the media by the President’s special assistant for press and public relations George Chellah.
According to the statement, President Sata is delighted at the confidence placed in Zambia by financial houses in America, Europe and Asia resulting in the bond realisation of US$750 million, far beyond the US$500 million which was originally envisaged.
The Head of State wishes to heartily congratulate the Zambian team for the superb accomplishment.
The team led by finance deputy minister Hon. Miles Sampa included among others Ministry of Finance permanent secretary for economic management Mr. Felix Nkulukusa and Bank of Zambia (BoZ) deputy governor operations Dr. Bwalya Ng’andu.
The President has highly commended the team’s unique sense of duty and commitment stating that they went on road show to sell the bond and were thoroughly prepared for the task.
“The achievement of the first bond being oversubscribed establishes Zambia as a very credible investment destination and that our country has a vibrant future,” the President observed.
“We will continue to value foreign investment and do everything within our powers to safeguard the investment climate. Clean investment has no reason to fear Zambia.
“This happy outcome is a credit to the people of Zambia who are the architects of unity, peace and stability that our development prospects are firmly anchored on.”
Labels: BONDS, DEBT, MICHAEL SATA
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Zanu PF, MDC-T clash over economy
14/09/2012 00:00:00
by Moses Chibaya
EMPOWERMENT Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has dismissed the MDC-T’s new economic blue-print as a half-baked political gimmick aimed at hoodwinking Zimbabweans ahead of next year’s elections.
The MDC-T is planning the launch of its JUICE (Jobs, Upliftment, Investment, Capital and Ecology) blueprint which the party insists will help take the country’s economy out of the woods.
But Kasukuwere said: “The MDC-T is fooling the people of Zimbabwe; you cannot come up with a policy which is half baked and planned for you by foreigners to compromise the aspirations of our people.
“We have a government policy (Indigenisation and economic empowerment); it came as a result of years of discussions. But now they tell us that they have their JUICE policy.
“What they are simply saying is that they continue to oppose the empowerment of our people. They continue to send a message that they do not believe in this policy.”
However, MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora retorted: “Firstly, Kasukuwere is intellectually unsuited to evaluate an economic document.
[I guess we're just not smart enough to see how your neoliberal bs could work, right? - MrK]
“The MDC thrust on its economic blue print is to put an emphasis on the creation of jobs because the unemployment rate is more than 80 per cent.
“We need policies that lead to the opening of mines, revival of industry as well as bring in international businesses; that way we will create employment.
[Save it for the campaign trail. - MrK]
Still, Kasukuwere countered: “The MDC will never come up with policies that make sense because we know they are not genuine. How will they convince their whites that we want to empower our people?
“We will not change (our policies) we already have instruments that carter for foreigners who want to come and invest in Zimbabwe - we are talking about entrepreneurs who create the jobs.”
Zimbabwe’s economy has enjoyed steady, if marginal, growth since the formation of the coalition government in 2009 and the adoption of foreign currencies in place of a virtually worthless local unit.
But the recovery has not come with jobs and unemployment remains high with most companies still operating at levels well below capacity due to the lack of capital.
Again, the growth registered over the last few years has begun to falter with Finance Minister Tendai Biti recently admitting that projections for the year would not be met on the back of poor revenue inflows and the lack of international budgetary support.
Top economic analyst John Robertson said Zimbabwe needs to concentrate on ensuring the operating environment was encouraging of new investment.
[Please, not that neoliberal rhodesian fossile again. - MrK]
“To fix the deeply entrenched problems, we have to deal with the basic issues, so the required recovery plans should, first, concentrate on the policy changes needed to place the Rule of Law onto a sound footing and to repeal all laws and regulations that discourage investors,” he said.
[FDI (Anglo-American De Beers) at all cost. - MrK]
“The important point here is that job creation depends upon investment. Investors can go anywhere in the world, so we have to make them want to stay here, or come here.
“We therefore need to get rid of any laws or attitudes that interfere with the acquisition, ownership and marketability of property.
[By foreign whites, of course. - MrK]
In this regard, all forms of property count, whether these are areas of land, mining claims, financial instruments or company shares,” he said.
Robertson added: “If Zimbabwe had forward-looking policies that showed a commitment to restore an attractive investment climate, its officials would have no difficulty inviting experts to make estimates of the time and funding that would be needed to restore each utility and service.”
[Gee Tony, would those experts be from... the World Bank, perhaps? - MrK]
Labels: DOUGLAS MWONZORA, MDC, NEOLIBERALISM, SAVIOUR KASUKUWERE
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Hypocritical Reactions to the Murder of US Ambassador in Libya…
By Lizzie Phelan
Global Research, September 14, 2012
lizzie-phelan.blogspot.ca
The first thing that comes to mind about the murder of the US Ambassador and his three staff in Benghazi, Libya today is the cruel irony. Indeed this is the man who served as envoy to the rebels/mercenaries during the illegal NATO proxy war against the legitimate government headed by Muammar Gaddafi of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah.
His life has been taken by what he helped give birth to, and indeed this is what Gaddafi and other former officials warned the west about time and time again, but it is hard to believe that the west were so naive as to not foresee this and so it seems clear that they were willing to pay this price.
The second thing that stands out is the somewhat mild response of the US, in comparison to say if an act much less grave than this was carried out on one of their embassies in places like Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua, China, Russia, or in any other country that unlike today’s Libya, the government is not its product.
While the US may expect events like this, it is nonetheless embarrassing and comes as close as one can get to the loss of western troops in their theatres of conflict that they have so deviously sought to avoid, not in small part because of the unease it creates with populations at home who can stomach their government’s wars more readily when it is exclusively brown people and people of the south who are losing blood on behalf of the NATO powers.
Finally, since February last year, the extent to which NATO’s mercenaries have been destroying and desecrating the country’s infrastructural and historical and religous architectural wealth has been well documented, and this has only intensified over the last few months, including the bulldozing of a mosque in broad daylight in Tripoli at the end of last month. It is hard to escape the irony of these Salafist groups killing US officials in response to a blasphemous Islamophobic film released in the US, when they themselves have been busy destroying a Muslim country and sites that are dear to many Muslims.
Late US Ambassador Christopher Stephens (right), with NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil
According to the Reuters Report (September 12, 2012):
The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed as they rushed away from a consulate building in Benghazi, stormed by al Qaeda-linked gunmen [paraphrasing - MrK] blaming America for a film that they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.
Gunmen had attacked and set fire to the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of last year’s uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, late on Tuesday evening as another assault was mounted on the U.S. embassy in Cairo.
The California-born ambassador, Christopher Stevens, was trying to leave the consulate building for a safer location as part of an evacuation when gunmen launched an intense attack, apparently forcing security personnel to withdraw.
“The American ambassador and three staff members were killed when gunmen fired rockets in their direction,” a Libyan official in Benghazi told Reuters. Airport sources said the bodies were due to be flown from Benghazi to Tripoli.
The attack was believed to have been carried out by Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda-style Sunni Islamist group that has been active in Benghazi, a Libyan security official said. Witnesses said the mob also included tribesmen, militia and other gunmen.
The attack raised questions about the future U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya, relations between Washington and Tripoli, the unstable security situation in post-Gaddafi Libya and whether more protests might take place in the Muslim world.
The film portrayed Mohammad as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake. In one clip posted on YouTube, Mohammad was shown in an apparent sexual act with a woman. For many Muslims it is blasphemous even to show a depiction of the Prophet.
U.S. President Barack Obama, whose administration supported the Libyan insurgency with funds, weapons and training, branded the killing an “outrageous attack” and ordered increased security at U.S. diplomatic posts worldwide.
….
The consular officials were killed after heavy clashes between Libyan security forces and Islamist militants around the consulate building. Looters raided the empty compound and some onlookers took pictures after calm returned.
“The Libyan security forces came under heavy fire and we were not prepared for the intensity of the attack,” said Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya’s Supreme Security Committee.
…
On Wednesday morning, the compound in Benghazi stood empty, with passers-by freely walking in to take a look at the damage.
Labels: AL-QAEDA, AMBASSADOR, LIBYA, TERRORISM
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Deadly Riots in Libya: Right-Wing Christian Group Behind Anti-Muslim Film?
By Max Blumenthal
Global Research, September 13, 2012
maxblumenthal.com
“Innocence of Muslims” consultant Steve Klein is a veteran anti-Muslim organizer with close ties to the Christian right in CaliforniaThe US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three US diplomats were killed in attacks and rioting provoked by an obscure, low-budget anti-Muslim film called “The Innocence of Muslims.” The producer of the film is a real estate developer supposedly named “Sam Bacile” who claims to be an Israeli Jew. Bacile told the AP the film was made with $5 million raised from “100 Jewish donors.” He said he was motivated to help his native country, Israel, by exposing the evils of Islam.
While Bacile claims to be in hiding, and his identity remains murky, another character who has been publicly listed as a consultant on the film is a known anti-Muslim activist with ties to the extreme Christian right and the militia movement. He is Steve Klein, a Hemet, California based insurance salesman who claims to have led a “hunter-killer team” in Vietnam.”
Klein is a right-wing extremist who emerged from the same axis of Islamophobia that produced Anders Behring Breivik and which takes inspiration from the writings of Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, and Daniel Pipes.
It appears Klein (or someone who shares his name and views) is an enthusiastic commenter on Geller’s website, Atlas Shrugged, where he recently complained about Mitt Romney’s “support for a Muslim state in Israel’s Heartland.” In July 2011, Spencer’s website, Jihad Watch, promoted a rally Klein organized alongside the anti-Muslim Coptic extremist Joseph Nasrallah to demand the firing of LA County Sheriff Lee Baca, whom they painted as a dupe for Hamas.
Klein is also closely affiliated with the Christian right in California, organizing resentment against all the usual targets — Muslims, homosexuals, feminists, and even Mormons. He is a board member and founder of a group called Courageous Christians United, which promotes anti-Mormon, anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim literature (including the work of Robert Spencer) on its website. In 2002, Klein ran for the California Insurance Commissioner under the American Independent Party, an extremist fringe party linked to the militia movement, garnering a piddling 2 percent of the vote.
Klein has been closely affiliated with the Church at Kaweah, an extreme evangelical church located 70 miles southeast of Fresno that serves as a nexus of neo-Confederate, Christian Reconstructionist, and militia movement elements. The Southern Poverty Law Center produced a report on Kaweah this spring that noted Klein’s long record of activist against Muslims:
Over the past year, Johnson and the church militia have developed a relationship with Steve Klein, a longtime religious-right activist who brags about having led a “hunter killer” team as a Marine in Vietnam. Klein, who calls Islam a “penis-driven religion” and thinks Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca is a Muslim Brotherhood patsy, is allied with Christian activist groups across California. In 2011, as head of the Concerned Citizens for the First Amendment, he worked with the Vista, Calif.-based Christian Anti-Defamation Commission on a campaign to “arm” students with the “truth about Islam and Muhammad” — mainly by leafleting high schools with literature depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a sex-crazed pedophile.
Klein, based in Hemet, Calif., has been active in extremist movements for decades. In 1977, he founded Courageous Christians United, which now conducts “respectful confrontations” outside of abortion clinics, Mormon temples and mosques. Klein also has ties to the Minuteman movement. In 2007, he sued the city of San Clemente for ordering him to stop leafleting cars with pamphlets opposing illegal immigration.
Like many other activists who fashion themselves as “counter-Jihadists,” Klein has organized against the construction of mosques in his area. While leafleting against a planned mosque in Temecula, California, which he claimed would herald the introduction of Shariah law to the quiet suburb, Klein remarked, “It all comes down to the first amendment. I don’t care if you disagree with me. Just don’t cut off my head.”
Klein appears to be allied with the National American Coptic Assembly, a radical Islamophobic group headed by Morris Sadik. Sadik claims to have discovered the film and began promoting it online. Once it went viral, the trailer was translated into Arabic, sparking outrage in the Middle East, and ultimately, to the deadly attacks carried out by Muslim extremists today.
Klein claims credit for inspiring “Sam Bacile” to produce “The Innocence of Muslims,” promising him he would be “the next Theo Van Gogh,” referring to the Dutch columnist who was murdered by a Muslim extremist. Of the attacks in Libya, Klein said, “We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen.”
Labels: ISLAM, LIBYA
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WRAPUP 5-US ambassador to Libya killed in Benghazi attack
Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:37pm GMT
By Hadeel Al Shalchi
BENGHAZI, Libya, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed in an attack on the Benghazi consulate and a safe house refuge, stormed by Islamist gunmen blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.
Gunmen attacked and set fire to the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of last year's U.S.-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule. Another assault was mounted on the U.S. embassy in Cairo.
U.S. President Barack Obama branded it an "outrageous attack" and ordered increased security at U.S. diplomatic posts worldwide.
Violence also threatened to spread to other Muslim countries. By nightfall on Wednesday, 24 hours after the attacks in Egypt and Libya, police were firing teargas at angry demonstrators outside the U.S. embassy in Tunisia.
The attacks could alter U.S. attitudes towards the wave of revolutions across the Arab world, which toppled secularist authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, bringing Islamists to power.
The violence could influence a close-fought U.S. presidential election, in which Obama's challenger Mitt Romney has accused him of not defending U.S. interests robustly enough.
Romney issued a statement criticising Obama's initial response; the president's campaign responded by accusing him of scoring political points at a time of national tragedy.
It was not immediately clear precisely how or where California-born ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed during the assault. Stevens was a key player when the Obama administration supported the anti-Gaddafi insurgency.
U.S. consular staff were rushed to a safe house after the initial attack, Libya's Deputy Interior Minister Wanis Al-Sharif said. An evacuation plane with U.S. commando units then arrived from Tripoli to evacuate them from the house.
"It was supposed to be a secret place and we were surprised the armed groups knew about it. There was shooting," Sharif said. Two U.S. personnel were killed there, he said. Two other people were killed at the main consular building and between 12 and 17 wounded.
The attack raised other questions about the future U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya, relations between Washington and Tripoli and the unstable security situation after Gaddafi.
The amateurish film portrayed Mohammad as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake. In one clip posted on YouTube, Mohammad was shown in an apparent sex act with a woman.
For many Muslims it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet. The incident had echoes of the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons that touched off riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2006 in which at least 50 people died.
Images of ambassador Stevens purportedly taken after he was killed circulated on the Internet. One image showed him being carried, with a white shirt pulled up and a cut on his forehead.
Across the Muslim world, leaders will be concerned about preventing the spread of violence. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the film in a statement, calling its making a "devilish act" and saying he was certain those involved in its production represented a very small minority.
The statement from Karzai - who is defended by 113,000 NATO-led troops including nearly 75,000 Americans - made no mention of the violence against U.S. diplomats.
Afghanistan shut down the YouTube site so Afghans would not be able to see the film. The U.S. embassy in Kabul appealed to Afghan leaders for help "maintaining calm".
In Egypt, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil condemned violence while calling on Washington to act against the film's makers.
"What happened at the U.S. embassy in Cairo is regrettable and rejected by all Egyptian people and cannot be justified, especially if we consider that the people that produced this low film have no relation to the (U.S.) government," he said.
"We ask the American government to take a firm position towards this film's producers within the framework of international charters that criminalise acts that stir strife on the basis of race, colour or religion."
"SMALL AND SAVAGE GROUP"
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the attack was the work of a "small and savage group".
Accounts of the consulate attack described chaos and bloodshed, with Libyan security over-run and retreating.
"We started shooting at them, and then some other people also threw hand-made bombs over the fences and started the fires in the buildings," said 17-year-old Hamam, who took part in the assault and refused to give his last name.
"There was some Libyan security for the embassy outside but when the hand-made bombs went off they ran off and left," said Hamam, who said he saw an American die in front of him in the mayhem that ensued. He said the body was covered in ash.
One Libyan security official blamed the attack on Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda-style Sunni Islamist group that has been active in Benghazi. Sharif, the deputy interior minister, said leaders of the group had denied responsibility: "There is no specific side to blame."
Witnesses said the mob included tribesmen, militia and other gunmen. Ansar al-Sharia cars arrived at the start of the protest but left once fighting started, Hamam said. "The protesters were running around the compound just looking for Americans, they just wanted to find an American so they could catch one."
On Wednesday, the sprawling, leafy compound in Benghazi stood empty, with passers-by freely walking in to take a look at the damage. The heat of the fires could still be felt.
Walls were charred and a small fire burned inside one of the buildings with glass from shattered chandeliers on the floor. A small group of men was trying to extinguish the flames and three security men briefly surveyed the scene.
Chairs, a table and food lay alongside empty bullet shells. Some blood stains could also be seen in front of one of the buildings. Three cars were burnt out.
UNPREPARED FOR INTENSE ATTACK
"The Libyan security forces came under heavy fire and we were not prepared for the intensity of the attack," said Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee.
U.S. ambassadors in such volatile countries as Libya are accompanied by tight security, usually travelling in well-protected convoys. Diplomatic missions are normally protected by Marines or other special forces.
Stevens grew up in California, graduated from Berkeley and worked in North Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. He taught English in Morocco before joining the foreign service where he worked in the Middle East and North Africa.
Tributes poured in to honour Stevens, who said in a video posted on the embassy website of his involvement in the revolution: "I was thrilled to watch the Libyan people stand up and demand their rights."
Libya's interim government has struggled to impose its authority on a myriad of armed groups that refused to lay down their weapons and often take the law into their own hands.
Security experts say the area around Benghazi is host to a number of Islamist militant groups who oppose any Western presence in Muslim countries.
The worst-case scenario for Western governments is that a spate of recent attacks could be the start of an Iraq-style insurgency by Islamist militants. That could have an impact on oil exports as the energy sector depends on foreign workers.
However, security analysts say an insurgency is unlikely to gain the kind of traction it had in Iraq, mainly because Western states have no military presence on the ground in Libya.
Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagour condemned the killing of the U.S. diplomats as a cowardly act. The head of Libya's national assembly vowed to bring the killers to justice.
U.S. PASTOR
The precise provenance of the film was the subject of some debate. The Wall Street Journal quoted a man who described himself as an Israeli-American property developer and said he produced the film with funds raised from the Jewish community.
Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church condemned Copts living abroad who it said financed had financed "the production of a film insulting the Prophet Mohammad". About a 10th of Egypt's 83 million people are Christian.
Florida pastor Terry Jones, who inflamed anger in the Muslim world in 2010 with plans to burn the Koran, said he planned to show excerpts of the film to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet as offensive and any depiction of him can cause furious protests in the Islamic world as well as among Muslims in Europe.
In neighbouring Egypt, demonstrators tore down an American flag and burned it during Tuesday's protest against the film. Some tried to raise a black flag with the words "There is no God but God, and Mohammad is his messenger".
The crowd of around 2,000 protesters in Cairo protesting against the film was a mixture of Islamists and teenage soccer fans known for fighting police and who played a part in the revolt that toppled Egypt's leader Hosni Mubarak last year.
Labels: AMBASSADOR, LIBYA
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Deadly Riots in Libya: Right-Wing Christian Group Behind Anti-Muslim Film?
By Max Blumenthal
Global Research, September 13, 2012
maxblumenthal.com
“Innocence of Muslims” consultant Steve Klein is a veteran anti-Muslim organizer with close ties to the Christian right in CaliforniaThe US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three US diplomats were killed in attacks and rioting provoked by an obscure, low-budget anti-Muslim film called “The Innocence of Muslims.” The producer of the film is a real estate developer supposedly named “Sam Bacile” who
claims to be an Israeli Jew. Bacile told the AP the film was made with $5 million raised from “100 Jewish donors.” He said he was motivated to help his native country, Israel, by exposing the evils of Islam.
While Bacile claims to be in hiding, and his identity remains murky, another character who has been publicly listed as a consultant on the film is a known anti-Muslim activist with ties to the extreme Christian right and the militia movement. He is Steve Klein, a Hemet, California based insurance salesman who claims to have led a “hunter-killer team” in Vietnam.”
Klein is a right-wing extremist who emerged from the same axis of Islamophobia that produced Anders Behring Breivik and which takes inspiration from the writings of Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, and Daniel Pipes.
It appears Klein (or someone who shares his name and views) is an enthusiastic commenter on Geller’s website, Atlas Shrugged, where he recently complained about Mitt Romney’s “support for a Muslim state in Israel’s Heartland.” In July 2011, Spencer’s website, Jihad Watch, promoted a rally Klein organized alongside the anti-Muslim Coptic extremist Joseph Nasrallah to demand the firing of LA County Sheriff Lee Baca, whom they painted as a dupe for Hamas.
Klein is also closely affiliated with the Christian right in California, organizing resentment against all the usual targets — Muslims, homosexuals, feminists, and even Mormons. He is a board member and founder of a group called Courageous Christians United, which promotes anti-Mormon, anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim literature (including the work of Robert Spencer) on its website. In 2002, Klein ran for the California Insurance Commissioner under the American Independent Party, an extremist fringe party linked to the militia movement, garnering a piddling 2 percent of the vote.
Klein has been closely affiliated with the Church at Kaweah, an extreme evangelical church located 70 miles southeast of Fresno that serves as a nexus of neo-Confederate, Christian Reconstructionist, and militia movement elements. The Southern Poverty Law Center produced a report on Kaweah this spring that noted Klein’s long record of activist against Muslims:
Over the past year, Johnson and the church militia have developed a relationship with Steve Klein, a longtime religious-right activist who brags about having led a “hunter killer” team as a Marine in Vietnam. Klein, who calls Islam a “penis-driven religion” and thinks Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca is a Muslim Brotherhood patsy, is allied with Christian activist groups across California. In 2011, as head of the Concerned Citizens for the First Amendment, he worked with the Vista, Calif.-based Christian Anti-Defamation Commission on a campaign to “arm” students with the “truth about Islam and Muhammad” — mainly by leafleting high schools with literature depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a sex-crazed pedophile.
Klein, based in Hemet, Calif., has been active in extremist movements for decades. In 1977, he founded Courageous Christians United, which now conducts “respectful confrontations” outside of abortion clinics, Mormon temples and mosques. Klein also has ties to the Minuteman movement. In 2007, he sued the city of San Clemente for ordering him to stop leafleting cars with pamphlets opposing illegal immigration.
Like many other activists who fashion themselves as “counter-Jihadists,” Klein has organized against the construction of mosques in his area. While leafleting against a planned mosque in Temecula, California, which he claimed would herald the introduction of Shariah law to the quiet suburb, Klein remarked, “It all comes down to the first amendment. I don’t care if you disagree with me. Just don’t cut off my head.”
Klein appears to be allied with the National American Coptic Assembly, a radical Islamophobic group headed by Morris Sadik. Sadik claims to have discovered the film and began promoting it online. Once it went viral, the trailer was translated into Arabic, sparking outrage in the Middle East, and ultimately, to the deadly attacks carried out by Muslim extremists today.
Klein claims credit for inspiring “Sam Bacile” to produce “The Innocence of Muslims,” promising him he would be “the next Theo Van Gogh,” referring to the Dutch columnist who was murdered by a Muslim extremist. Of the attacks in Libya, Klein said, “We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen.”
Labels: LIBYA
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Gvt to renegotiate Essar deal
This article was written by Our reporter on 14 September, at 02 : 17 AM
GOVERNMENT is renegotiating with Essar Africa, the Ziscosteel deal to ensure it retains control of Buchwa Iron Ore Mining Company, renamed NewZim Minerals. Under the new agreement, Government wants the Indian firm to buy the rights to Bimco’s iron ore claims.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe Mining Indaba, Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Gift Chimanikire said the original US$750 million deal had to be revisited, considering that iron ore was a strategic mineral to the country.
Under the initial deal, negotiated by Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube (pictured), Essar Africa had assumed about 60 percent of NewZim Steel (Ziscosteel) and 80 percent of Bimco.
Prior to the deal, Government owned 90 percent of Zisco and 100 percent of Bimco.
“We have appointed a committee to look into the issue we once talked about — that there must be payment for the claims from the new company (Essar),” said the deputy minister.
“Government used to own, under the then Rhodesia Iron and Steel Company, all iron ore reserves because it had identified iron ore as a strategic mineral.”
In terms of the initial agreement, Essar pledged to assume Zisco’s US$340 million external debt and also revive the company. But the steelmaker remains inactive due to differences over the claims.
Government is largely concerned that the agreement gave Essar virtual control of most, if not all, iron ore rights, which are obviously more than what the Indian firm requires to revive Zisco. Had the deal stood in its original form, Essar was entitled to more than US$30 billion worth of iron reserves and had future plans to establish an iron ore beneficiation plant to export the mineral.
“When Government held 100 percent of the (iron ore) mineral it was because we were contributing to various companies to supply Ziscosteel (with iron ore),” said Deputy Minister Chimanikire.
“Government cannot hand over 80 percent (of iron ore claims). If you read in detail the agreement we saw three days ago, the 80-20 percent agreement (for Bimco), it appears the guys have 100 percent control.”
He said considering the firm’s plans to produce 150 000 tonnes of iron ore annually, when Ziscosteel (NewZim Steel) required only three tonnes, showed there was a clear intention to export.
“Government policy adopted by Cabinet is that we should make sure there is value addition.
“We cannot indulge in an agreement that is going to ensure that they would export through that pipeline they wanted to build, although they denied it.
“But we kept on arguing, since we had the evidence because the Environmental Management Agency was already doing feasibility (environmental impact assessment) studies,” said the deputy minister.
Against this background Government is still to assess how much it would give to Essar on the basis of NewZim Steel’s requirements, but the Indian firm would have to make a down payment first.
“We owe it to the future generation to ensure that Government remains with a large percentage in ownership of the mineral. We can’t sell our country on a platter, surrendering the nation over a bowl of soup.
“We also want to issue other firms with the claims to exploit. We do not want a monopoly, because we already have problems (in platinum),” he said.
Presently, Government has already issued six claims to Essar, which it said should be enough to resume operations at NewZim Steel.
Essar would also get claims commensurate with the huge debt the former steel-making giant owed foreign banks.
Asked if the fresh round of negotiations would not scupper the deal, Deputy Minister Chimanikire said there was commitment from both sides.
Labels: ESSAR AFRICA HOLDINGS, PRIVATISATION
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Tsvangirai setting terrible example
13/09/2012 00:00:00
by Psychology Maziwisa
Legend of the seas ... Tsvangirai on a cruise in Singapore with ex-lover NosiphoWHAT the hell does Morgan Tsvangirai think he is doing, changing women like a lustful 18-year old? He is not a teenager any more. He is an adult, a 60-year-old man who happens to be the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. His actions must be well beyond reproach.
National leaders are not just called upon to defend the country’s independence and sovereignty (a task Tsvangirai has failed dismally to live up to). They are also expected to defend our nation’s moral fibre, to present themselves as staunch upholders of our ethical standards.
Regrettably, our dishonourable Prime Minister seems to think that his love for sex (hereafter euphemistically referred to as cup-cake) is deserving of a special exemption. This cannot be right and there is only one word to describe such behaviour: disgraceful.
Ever since he ascended to the throne as Prime Minister in 2009, Morgan Tsvangirai has been linked to almost ten women. And this is just the official figure, the actual number, I’m told, is well in excess of 20. He has sired children with a handful of them, but for the greater majority, it’s been a case of Tsvangirai tapping the cup-cake and hitting the road.
Now it seems he has finally decided to settle permanently with one of the women. If true, this will surely be a huge relief to scores of his bewildered supporters and a major boost to the moral reputation of our country. Yet at this rate, there is nothing at all stopping our Prime Minister from becoming Tiger Woods number 2.
So far we have had two of his girlfriends – Locardia Karimatsenga and Nosipho Regina Shilubane – coming out to try and stop his marriage. There could be more before Saturday.
Of course, all of this could be an attempt by the Prime Minister’s detractors to embarrass him, yet that does not excuse his erotic and unacceptable behaviour. At the end of the day, being a leader is about one thing: leading by example.
It wouldn’t at all be surprising to learn that attitudes towards women have changed drastically for the worse among young males. Or to hear that ever since Tsvangirai became Prime Minister, we have recorded more cases of rape in this country than at any other time in the history of our great nation. Indeed, it would come as no surprise to discover that our AIDS infection rate, despite commendable government efforts to bring it down, has remained stubbornly high because of the influence the Prime Minister’s actions have had on our young people. And we shouldn’t rush to blame these youngsters, it is the terrible example Tsvangirai has set.
[As fun as it would be to blame the PM, the HIV rates in Africa are completely statistically generated and based on the faulty application of tests in surveys. - MrK]
Already, more and more young males are getting accustomed to the idea of treating women as sex objects. They no longer value the importance of marriage. Some will say that we were always like this. I disagree. There was a time, not too distant, when our nation was renowned for the value it placed on the sanctity of marriage.
Our youngsters were known for their honesty, faithfulness and respect for the girl child. Yet, suddenly, we have become a nation of loose cannons, Casanovas and very horny prostitutes. What is so sad is that our own Prime Minister has become, and I’m sorry there is no polite way of putting this, the horniest of those prostitutes.
It doesn’t have to be like this. One of the most important tasks of a Prime Minister is to set the tone for the entire nation and Tsvangirai has a chance to do this by settling down after his marriage. Failure to utilise this golden opportunity will reinforce growing perceptions that our Prime Minister regards morality in our political system not as a compulsory value, but an optional extra.
There are some who will argue that the Prime Minister’s sex life is his own business which should be of concern only to the Premier himself. They will point out that he lost a wife of many years in very tragic circumstances and that, rather than condemn his latest behaviour, we should in fact sympathise with him. They will say that there is absolutely nothing untoward in Tsvangirai’s behaviour because almost every man would have acted similarly if they were in his position.
All of this is perfectly understandable, but totally beside the point. The Prime Minister is no ordinary man, or a celebrity, or a porn star. He is a leader. The entire nation looks up to him to show the way and to be a good example in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Indulging in deep sexy games with a dozen women all without condoms and leaving some of them to endure the post traumatic disorders that come with miscarriages and heartbreaks is a monumental betrayal of that expectation. It reflects poorly on him as a leader and makes us wonder whether the call by MDC-T’s Thabitha Khumalo to legalise prostitution was not made with the Premier’s deeds in mind.
Psychology Maziwisa is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist
Labels: MDC CORRUPTION, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI
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Tsvangirai: legend of the carnal seas
Love machine .... Tsvangirai with late wife Susan, Locardia and getting engaged to Elizabeth
13/09/2012 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
IT was Oscar Wilde who suggested that only the ugly and the stupid have the best of this world, and the matter of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the many women in his life suggests that, that equally scandalised 19th century Irish poet and playwright may have been onto something after all.
By Jove, hasn’t our Prime Minister been a busy old chap! The fellow has been enjoying without restraint his clearly voracious lust, in the process paying little if any regard to the old maxim that the upper orders of society should be careful to minister to their vices with a sense of finesse, discretion and proportion.
Harold Wilson did say a week is a long time in politics, and right he was too! Indeed, over these last few days, what we have learnt of the man who would be leader of this great nation is quite simply incredible. Dizzying is what it is! What a charmed life the fellow has been living!
Love machine .... Tsvangirai with late wife Susan, Locardia and getting engaged to Elizabeth
The MDC-T boss bedded Locardia Karimatsenga and Elizabeth Macheka at about the same time and still found the energy to take his charms across the borders into South Africa where Nosipho Regina Shilubane found her lucky self being sprung from the slums of Yeoville to be ensconced into more posh digs at a cost of about US$1,500 a month to our PM.
Living large ... Tsvangirai on cruiseship with ex-lover Nosipho
Not only that, the South African so enchanted our amorous PM that he took her on an expensive holiday off the coasts of the Seychelles where they went seafaring on a cruise ship called the Legend of the Seas. How very charming!
Some may say what’s the fuss? The man has every right to bed who he wants, when he wants, as long as the said bedding is consensual and not with minors. Indeed, Tsvangirai has not been accused of forcing himself on any of these women. What they complain about, in fact, is the possible denial of his delightful charms through the prospective marriage to one of their number.
Again, shameful as these revelations maybe, the suggestion that Tsvangirai’s irresponsible wassailing and rather liberal ways with women and sex could harm his prospects at the next election, as feared by his backers and the rest of the ‘anyone-but-Mugabe’ lobby, is entirely contestable.
Rightly or otherwise, the morality or lack thereof, of our leaders is unlikely to feature on the list of concerns when voters cast their ballots at the next election. In addition, those who have voted for Tsvangirai are neither priests nor bishops; and we know anyway (thanks to a former ‘Pious’ one,) that men of the cloth are not beyond enjoying the illicit pleasures of life either.
MDC-T activists may see the hand of state security agents behind these embarrassing revelations and would be right complain that their Zanu PF rivals are not subjected to the same scrutiny and exposure.
But the MDC-T project promised that it would be different and yet we still do not see encouraging signs in that direction. Instead, we have the totally discomfiting picture of a party leader who treats women with the consideration of a medieval lord; a man who is clearly living it up, showering his many mistresses with expensive gifts and holidays at a time the large majority of the people he promised to deliver from Mugabe’s supposed tyranny continue to live a life of penury.
The more significant point however, was probably made by veteran journalist, Geoff Nyarota, in a recent article for The Standard newspaper when he suggested that Tsvangirai’s embarrassing conduct was unedifying and beneath the dignity of the office of Prime Minister.
It may also be suggested that the messy and imprudent manner in which he has conducted his private life is not becoming of one who would be head of this nation; indeed, and to again borrow from Wilde, the masses expect that stupidity and immorality should be the property of ordinary people; their leaders must be people of good character and, when possible, awesome intellect.
Tsvangirai is evidently not gifted with an awesome intellect; and now we know that he does not have a good character either. When I was a schoolboy, my father (God rest his soul for the man keeps popping up in my dreams complaining about one thing or the other) always reminded me and my brothers that Mugabe’s Zimbabwe would be no place for the uneducated.
However, more than ten years since he became leader of our biggest opposition party, I still do not have a clear idea of what kind of a country Tsvangirai’s Zimbabwe would be. What I am certain of now, at least and thankfully too, is that I must always tell my daughters to stay well clear of the fellow.
But perhaps we are being too harsh with the man; perhaps the people responsible for this mess are the forces behind the MDC project who, in the premature belief that conditions were ripe for anyone/anything to win an election against Robert Mugabe, may have burdened this mediocre individual with responsibilities much too onerous for one so simple; indeed one so rudimentary.
Tsvangirai was and remains a simple man who never had any grand designs for his life. He laboured through his secondary education, became a miner and started looking after his family; perfectly honourable.
The MDC-T leader never lived the ascetic and studious life of his bitter rival who read for all of six degrees and must have determined, at a very young age, that he, one day, would win power and retain it with a ruthless efficiency – which he has done.
To be fair with him, Tsvangirai did well to become head of the country’s largest trade union body but to seek to propel him beyond that achievement is to promote the man beyond his capabilities and appropriate station in life. We are all for upward social mobility, but only up to a point.
As such, whether or not these revelations are a CIO and Zanu PF hatchet job is not the issue. The point is that if the last three decades have been a nightmare, then this nation deserves something better and it has since become evident that, with Tsvangirai, the ‘anyone-but-Mugabe’ lobby has failed to deliver.
Gilbert Nyambabvu is the deputy editor of New Zimbabwe.com
Labels: MDC CORRUPTION, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI
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Refugees face deportation over Satanism
13/09/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
TWO Congolese and a Rwandese national are facing deportation from Zimbabwe after they
tried to establish a Satanism church at Tongogara refugee camp in Chipinge. Police in Mutare confirmed that George Rene Lungange, Ngendo Brangsto from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwandese Busy Mana Thenetse were in custody.
Mutare Remand Prison officer-in-charge, Superintendent Reuben Zimondi, said: "The best we can do is to separate them from others and we have achieved that. We are facilitating their deportation by following proper procedures."
The trio was arrested after they filed an application with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to establish a Satanism church at the refugee camp which was rejected.
Lungange, who also claimed to be a political leader in his country, said had had tried to establish a branch of his church at the camp since coming to Zimbabwe in 2010.
He told the local Manica Post newspaper: "I approached the Tongogara Refugee camp administrator, who is a Zimbabwean to facilitate my dream (of opening a Satanism church) and he advised me to write a formal letter to the ministry.
“The reply took long until March this year when a heavy delegation from Mutare led by law enforcement agents and Social Welfare officials questioned me on my real intentions of opening a Satanism branch in Zimbabwe. I told them my story but they never understood me.
"You people in Zimbabwe believe that Satan is evil, yet he is just an ordinary person like you and me. And why do you persecute people who follow him? I explained to them what Satanism is including the name of our church (Radio City Station) which has its main offices in New York, USA and is led by Peter Gilmore.
"I also told them about other branches we have in Africa including the main one in Sandton, South Africa. Maybe what angered the delegation is that I told them that the so-called Jesus Christ is just a human being and can take long to respond to people's pleas and prayers unlike our Satan who is always quick to give us our needs.
“We were arrested and detained in cells. Satan is a spirit and so is God, but the fact is Satanism is more powerful than Jesus since he is a mere spirit like God. God created Satan so that means God himself loves Satan."
Lubanga claimed that he had managed to recruit more than 10,000 followers in the Kivu province of the DRC.
"I managed to lure more than 10 000 people into the cult and I am proud of that. More powerful people in Sandton, South Africa at a church called Devil Angel are doing even greater things.
“We were obliged to fulfil promises and abide by the Satanism law. We were baptised by human blood. People should not blame Satan for any bad things which happen in their lives. Satan does not kill physically, but spiritually.”
Labels: RELIGION
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Affidavit reveals intimate details on PM Tsvangirai
This article was written by Our reporter on 13 September, at 16 : 49 PM
ZIMBABWE Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s wedding to Elizabeth Macheka remains doubtful following the filing of another urgent application at the magistrates’ court by a South African woman who is claiming to be legally engaged to marry Tsvangirai.
Nosipho Regina Shilubane filed the urgent application objecting to the pending wedding ceremony between Tsvangirai and Macheka in terms of Section 19 of the Marriages Act Chapter 5:11, through her lawyer Wellington Pasipanodya. Below is the affidavit filed by Nosipho:
In the magistrates court held at Rotten Row Magistrates Court before Mr Munamato Mutevedzi ESQ.
In the matter between Nosipho Regina Shilubane, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai and Elizabeth Macheka (1st and 2nd applicants respectively)
Objection in terms of section 19 (1) (3) of the Marriages Act Chapter 5:11
Be pleased to take notice that the objector Nosipho Regina Shilubane hereby intends to object the granting of a marriage licence in favour of the Applicants in terms of the affidavit and annexures herein attached.
- I Nosipho Regina Shilubane do hereby make oath to swear and state that: I am the objector and the facts i depose to herein are personally known to me.
- I was introduced to 1st applicant by my Pastor Mr Lazarus Muriritirwa from the Gospel Assembly Church sometime on the 5th September 2009. This was in Johannesburg at Monte Casino Shopping Complex.
- He said there was a friend of his who wanted to meet me. I only got to know it was Tsvangirai when I went to his hotel room in Pallazio Hotel in Fourways, in Monte Casino Mall.
- When we were introduced at his hotel room, he asked his Pastor and his son Edwin Tsvangirai who were present on the day to give us some privacy and we remained the two of us in the Hotel room.
- When we were left alone in the hotel room, he told me that he was a widower and that he was looking for a new bride to marry as he had lost his wife and he had approached the pastor to find a suitable woman for him.
- He told me that he wanted to start a relationship with me and that I could go home and think about it and if I was willing and interested I could return the next day and we talk as on this day he said he had other things to do since it was his son’s birthday and he was having a party for him.
- So he left for the birthday and then I went home but before I left he gave me his business card with his name and details and the number at that time was 0027718972979 although he subsequently changed his cell numbers numerous times thereafter inclusive of the following numbers 00263772383532 and 00263772383593.
- He called on me on the same date at midnight just to tell me that the party was good and that he had enjoyed meeting me.
- The following day he phoned me again and asked if I had ever been to Zimbabwe and I said I had only came once for a church conference. He said he wanted me to come and see Zimbabwe. I agreed that I wanted to date him and I would like to see him and visit Zimbabwe. So he bought me an aeroplane ticket and that was on the 18th September 2009 via the British Airways. I stayed at my pastor’s house in Borrowdale and he would come after work to see me. I stayed in Zimbabwe from 18th September to 20th September 2009. We made love for the first time on Saturday 19th September 2009 at the pastor’s house; in Borrowdale. I returned to South Africa on the 20th September 2009.
- After my first visit, I returned to South Africa and he phoned me and asked me where I was staying and I advised him that I was staying in Yeoville and he expressed disgust and shock and he said “how can you stay in that hell hole; you need to get a nicer place in a nice location where I can come and see you in an uptown area”. I looked for a place and I found a Town House in a place called Buccleuch in Johannesburg North near Sandston at No 3 Northfields, Fife Street Buccleuch.
- R13,000 were deposited into my Standard Bank Acc No 026640473 by Morgan. I paid for the place and moved into the new place at the end of November 2009.
- We communicated daily on my mobile 0027726854436 and in November he said that he wanted to go with me for a holiday and on the 28th December 2009, he flew to south Africa with his children Millicent and Vincent who are twins. We met at OR Tambo airport to fly together to the Seychelles.
Our tickets were already paid for and they were booked from Zimbabwe through Traverze Travel Agency, the contact there was Zodwa Mtunzi. We went on holiday from the 28th December to 10th January 2010. We were intimate throughout the holiday period and we always had unprotected sex all the times as he had asked me to go on family planning medication as he said he did not want to have anymore children.
- On our return from the Seychelles, we dropped off in Kenya and I connected to South Africa and Morgan proceeded to Dubai with his children and aides.
- We continued communicating on the phone everyday and whenever he went to a foreign country, he would pass by South Africa and I would go to whichever hotel he would be in and we would be intimate and make love two or three times on each occasion. The relationship continued.
- On the 19th November 2010, he asked me to follow him to Gaborone in Botswana where he had gone for vacations, he said he was distressing, and he missed me and wanted to make love to me, I eagerly followed him, and we stayed together at his hotel making love.
- On the 27th December 2010, we went for another love cruise holiday in Singapore for two weeks until early 2011. Our holiday love cruise was a boat called Legend of the Seas.
- In January 2011, Morgan came to our house in Buccleuch as he said he now wanted to be serious with me and throw me in the kitchen. I introduced him to my two children as my boyfriend and during this year he visited me on numerous occasions with his motorcade and sometimes he would even come with South African Police Services motorcade vehicles.
- In February 2011, Morgan proposed and asked me to marry him and he indicated that he wanted to have a wedding ceremony and wed me in Zimbabwe. He told me that he would speak to our pastor for all the wedding arrangements. I accepted his marriage proposal and I told him that he needed to pay lobola as per our Tsonga custom. He promised he would do that and he tasked me to go and speak to my family to arrange a date which I did and was set for early 2012.
- Morgan started acting funny when stories and issues of his numerous women started, first there was a woman called Loretha Nyathi, then Aquiline Pamberi and then Locardia Tembo. Every time I asked about these stories, he would deny them and I always believed his explanations as we were in love and I never thought that Morgan could have such a character as every time he professed undying love for me and he never seemed to be such a chauvinistic man that he now poses himself to be.
- When we got to January 2012 my family convened and waited for Morgan to come for the lobola negotiations he failed to come for the customary wedding ceremony because he said he had to deal with government business as the Prime Minister so he would reconvene the date when he was free and he indicated that it would be the end of December 2012. For all the intents and purposes we have and are still engaged to be married.
- I am therefore shocked to discover that Morgan intends to marry another woman Elizabeth Macheka on Saturday 15th September 2012 without my knowledge and without first of all finishing issues with me, that is his proposal of marriage, engagement and his outstanding lobola negotiations and marriage to me. We are still very much in love and as such I object to granting of a marriage licence. I am legally advised, which advice I take as my own, that I can object to the issuance of a marriage licence in terms of Section 19 (1) and 19 (3) of the Marriages Act [5:11].
THUS DONE, SWORN TO AND SIGNED AT HARARE ON THIS 13th DAY OF SEPTEMBER 2012
This affidavit was reprinted from New Zimbabwe.com
Nosipho Regina Shilubane
Nosipho Shilubane Affidavit reveals intimate details on PM Tsvangirai
Source: New Zimbabwe.com
Labels: COURTS, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI
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President Michael Sata retires Secretary to the Cabinet Mr. Evans Chibiliti
TIME PUBLISHED - Friday, September 14, 2012, 1:00 pm
President Michael Sata has retired Secretary to the Cabinet Mr. Evans Chibiliti in public interest. This is contained in a statement made available to the media by State House.
The President expressed gratitude to Mr. Chibiliti for the services he rendered to the nation during his tenure as head of the civil service.
And President Sata has appointed Dr Rowland Msiska as acting Secretary to the Cabinet. Until now, Dr Msiska has been serving as deputy Secretary to the Cabinet.
“I wish you well in this appointment and I am confident that you will perform to the expectations of the people of Zambia,” read President Sata’s letter to Dr Msiska in part.
Dr Msiska’s work experience spurns over two decades at global, regional and national level. He has worked as Global Systems Advisor [UNAIDS - Geneva], Chief Technical Advisor [UNDP - Senegal], Director Southern Africa Capacity Initiative [UNDP], Director HIV and Development for Africa [UNDP] and Executive Director for the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management among others.
The changes are with immediate effect.
Labels: EVANS CHIBILITI, MICHAEL SATA
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ZRL to get a share of the $750 million as Zambia’s bond is oversubscribed 24 times
TIME PUBLISHED - Friday, September 14, 2012, 12:50 pm
Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has revealed that part of the UDS 750 million raised from Zambia’s debut 10 year Eurobond will be used to recapitalize Zambia Railways.
And Zambia’s inaugural bond was yesterday oversubscribed by 24 times with foreign investors willing to lend the country up to USD 12 billion as appetite for Sub Saharan debt instrument grows.
Mr. Chikwanda told a media briefing in Lusaka this morning that USD 120 million from the bond will go towards revamping the operations of the railway company.
He also revealed that a further USD 186 million from the bond will be used to pay for Zambia’s equity stake in the development of the Kafue Lower Power Station.
Mr. Chikwanda stated that the Nitrogen Chemicals will also benefit through capital injection from the money raised in yesterday’s bond issue.
He assured that government will prudently utilize the funds on infrastructural projects as outlined in the Sixth National Development Plan.
The Finance Minister has also promised to publish a list of projects that the funds will be used for and the schedule of disbursement to ensure transparency and accountability.
Mr. Chikwanda also reassured that the country’s foreign debt stock still remains sustainable even after the USD 750 million bond issue.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chikwanda has revealed that Zambia had to take up USD 750 million than the intended USD 500 million, the largest order book for Sub Saharan Africa this year but at 5.375% also the lowest coupon.
He explained that the successful first sovereign bond represents Zambia’s high rating by the international community.
The Finance Minister also cautioned some political groupings from politicizing the successful bond issuance saying credit should go to all Zambians.
Mr. Chikwanda said no politician should take credit for the success because development in Zambia will only happen if there is collective responsibility by all Zambians.ZRL to get a share of the $750 million as Zambia’s bond is oversubscribed 24 times
Labels: ALEXANDER CHIKWANDA
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Zambia has raised $750 million in a debut 10-year Eurobond
TIME PUBLISHED - Thursday, September 13, 2012, 5:51 pm
Finance Deputy Minister Miles Sampa (fourth from left), Finance Permanent Secretary Felix Nkulukusa Bank of Zambia Deputy Governor Dr Bwalya Ng’andu and other officials from Zambia, Barclays Bank and Deutsche Bank celebrate after the launch of Zambia’s US$750million-worth bond on Wall Street in New York on Thursday 13 September, 2012. Picture by Chibaula D. Silwamba GRZReuters reports that Zambia has raised $750 million, on the debut 10-year Eurobond with a yield of 5.625 percent on today, a market source said, adding that more than $11 billion of orders were received for the issue.
The popularity of the issue by Africa’s biggest copper producer reflects strong investor appetite for scarce frontier African paper.
The yield was 25 basis points tighter than Zambia’s initial 5.875 percent guidance.
The size of the Zambian bond also means it will be eligible for the JP Morgan EMBI Global index, increasing its appeal to major investors.
The southern African country, which is rated B+ by Fitch and Standard and Poor’s, plans to use proceeds from the issue to upgrade its infrastructure, particularly in the transport and energy sectors.
Fitch cited the country’s buoyant copper mining sector, political stability and GDP growth of over 6 percent as strengths, but said prospects for growth beyond 2012 were less certain due to dependence on copper, which accounts for about 80 percent of exports
[Reuters]
Labels: BONDS, DOMESTIC DEBT
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Wynter and the rule of law
Fri 14 Sep. 2012, 10:20 CAT
Wynter Kabimba, the Minister of Justice and secretary general of the ruling Patriotic Front, has assured the nation that they will not protect their party members who take the law into their own hands.
"We don't want anarchy in this country; we don't want disorder in this country. Anarchy is anarchy, whether it is perpetrated by the MMD or it is perpetrated by UPND or it is perpetrated by PF. I want to appeal to PF members that they must respect the law. Wielding a machete is not how to solve a problem.
The issue of whether or not UPND should hold a rally is a police issue. It is not a party issue. I want to appeal to PF members, if they are genuine PF members, they must respect what this party stands for. This party stands for orderliness; this party stands for peace and this is what we promised the Zambian people. That is why we said that you can't continue with MMD and William Banda because they are bad elements for this country.
That is why people voted for us. We can't do the same things that MMD was doing. So I am appealing and sending a strong warning to those cadres to stop that kind of character. If we find them, we shall deal with them as a party. If they get arrested by the police, they will go and languish in prison. The party will not protect them, so they must know this that they must not do illegal things under the name of the party because that is not what we stand for."
It is impossible to disagree with what Wynter is saying. This is a very sensible and principled position. This is the type of message we don't get from the other political parties. MMD never issued such messages when they were in power. And the leadership of UPND has never made such an appeal or warning to their unruly and violent cadres, members and supporters. This message from Wynter stands out and should set an example for all others who see politics as something without principles.
Anarchy is not good. Lawlessness does not provide security to anybody because it endangers everybody, including those involved in it.
Every lawless act leaves an incurable wound, like one left by a double-edged sword. If a person is insolent and arrogant, he may lose everything he has. If you refuse to accept correction, you are digging your own grave; and if you love this country, you will make a sincere change in your ways.
A group of people who have no respect for the law is like a pile of kindling; they will meet a fiery end. It is said that the road that violent, lawless people walk is smooth and paved, but it leads to the world of the dead.
No one is above the law. There is no different law for those in power, their cadres and supporters and for those in the opposition. There is only one law for everybody. And there is equality for everyone before that law. No one is above that law.
We used to see different standards of law enforcement for the cadres of MMD when their party was in power. They did whatever wrong they wanted to do and got away with it. There was impunity for them. And it is that impunity that allowed people like William Banda to behave in such a brutish manner. They behaved in that way because they were rewarded for it. Any leader who rewards brutish behaviour or violent conduct of his followers is a foolish one and he won't be around for too long. Rupiah Banda abated the violence of MMD cadres against his perceived or real enemies and rewarded it. Where is he today?
What we need is a peaceful society that is governed by the rule of law. And the rule of law entails the right to equality before the law, or equal protection of the law as it is often phrased. This is fundamental to any just and democratic society. Whether political ally of those in power or opponent - all are entitled to equal protection before the law.
But the democratic state cannot guarantee that life will treat everyone equally, and it has no responsibility to do so. However, under no circumstances should the state impose additional inequalities; it should be required to deal evenly and equally with all its people. And all citizens must submit to the law. When laws are established by the people who then have to obey them, both law and democracy are served.
We should continue to remind ourselves of Dr Kenneth Kaunda's teachings when it comes to the maintenance of law and order in our country: "Nothing would be more dangerous than to confuse men and women who are responsible for the maintenance of law and order in any country. UNIP members, therefore, apart from the fact that they are humanists, must remember that even for their own good, their fellow workers in the police force must be left to deal with the maintenance of law and order in the way they were trained…" (address to the UNIP national council, March 1969).
Of course, it is very difficult to maintain law and order in a country where judicial personnel is not operating independently from the politics of the day. We today have a judiciary bequeathed to us by the MMD, which is not seen by many of our people to be independent and capable of defending constitutionalism and guaranteeing the success of the democratic process. We have a judiciary that many of our people do not see as being capable of discharging its judicial obligations without fear or favour. There are many in the Patriotic Front who believe that there are many individuals on our bench who didn't want their party to win the last elections and who were shocked to see them win and are still very much loyal to elements of the previous regime. This is dangerous for the rule of law and something should be quickly done to remedy this position. This calls for urgent reforms of the Judiciary. We need a judiciary where everyone believes they will get justice from it. And even when the courts get things wrong, one is not inclined to read politics in it because courts do sometimes get things wrong. We need to remove mistrust in our law enforcement agencies and in our entire judicial process. And the tone being set by Wynter lays a good foundation for this. But it calls for the co-operation of all.
Labels: CORRUPTION, MMD, PF, WYNTER KABIMBA
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