Polls this year – Mugabe tells UN Rights chief
This article was written by Brett Mashingaidze on 23 May, at 23 : 39 PM
THE principals in the inclusive Government of Zimbabwe do not have the people’s mandate to keep extending the life of the current administration, President Mugabe told the visiting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navanethem Pillay yesterday. For that reason, he added, Zimbabwe will be going for elections this year without fail.
He said principals in the inclusive Government do not have the people’s mandate to continue extending the life of the Global Political Agreement – the legal document that gave effect to the current arrangement.
President Mugabe had an hour-and-a-half-long meeting with Ms Pillay at State House.
Sources said the President told the UN envoy that elements scared of elections were deliberately delaying the completion of the Constitution-making process.
“They touched on the issue of elections with President Mugabe bemoaning the slow pace of the Constitution-making process, which he blames on those who are afraid of going for elections,” a source told The Herald newspaper.
Quoting the President, the source said: “The President said, no, we must have elections this year. In any case, principals to the GPA do not have the mandate of the people to extend the life of the inclusive Government to next year.”
President Mugabe outlined to Ms Pillay how illegal Western sanctions were hurting the economy and the people of Zimbabwe.
“He told Ms Pillay that the illegal sanctions on the country were causing economic hardships and infringing on the enjoyment of economic and social rights by citizens.
“He gave an example of Bulawayo where industries have closed down as a result of sanctions,” the source said.
President Mugabe narrated to Ms Pillay how Zimbabweans were not benefiting from minerals such as diamonds because of sanctions, saying the Americans were frustrating diamond sales despite the fact that the country was granted permission to export her gems by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme.
The US intercepts payments meant for Zimbabwe whenever the country exports its diamonds, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
President Mugabe also talked about the abuse of the country by the Western media that peddle lies about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe.
Ms Pillay told President Mugabe that she celebrated his release from prison during the war of liberation.
“She said she celebrated Cde Mugabe’s release from prison and followed his life history, which has been one of struggle for the civil and political rights of his people,” the source said.
In an interview after meeting the President, Ms Pillay commended President Mugabe’s stance against political violence.
“I commended the President for making a call that there should be no violence in future elections and I urged him to continue to make such calls.
“I also urged him to ensure that future elections would be free and fair,” she said.
Ms Pillay said President Mugabe recounted to her the country’s history and attributed “some of the current problems to the past”.
Earlier, Ms Pillay had visited Boka Tobacco Auction Floors where she interacted with farmers.
The UN envoy acknowledged the pivotal role the historical land reform programme has played in empowering the poor.
“I see that there has been an improvement. Poor people and women now have the dignity to produce (on farms) and see their children going up to university.
“I have noticed women farmers. This is welcome and it gives them an opportunity to claim property rights,” she said.
Ms Pillay’s visit comes at a time when most tobacco farmers have already sold their crop since the opening of the selling season.
However, Ms Pillay observed that most women were still disempowered as they did not own land.
She said smallholder farmers were also facing challenges such as lack of inputs.
“I need to know how they can be assisted and to know how Government is responding,” Ms Pillay said. She said she was impressed that former farm workers “now have the dignity to produce their own crop”.
Ms Pillay sought to know how farmers were allocated land by Government.
She asked if there was discrimination according to political affiliation during land redistribution.
“This programme is open to all Zimbabweans who want it and can apply for it,” said Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chairperson Ms Monica Chinamasa.
She added: “What happened was that some people could not believe it and stood aside and watched but after realising the land reform is a reality and other people are benefiting from farming they now need land.
“There is serious need for land. The programme is open to everyone.”
TH/TZG
Labels: ELECTIONS, LAND REFORM, RAVI PILLAI, UN
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No International Justice for Congo. UN Coverup of War Crimes
by Ann Garrison
Global Research, October 12, 2010
Human rights activists around the world have called for international justice and an end to impunity in the wake of the UN Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The report, which covers the period from 1993 to 2003, was released on October 1st, by the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says that, though it covers a time period ending in 2003, these crimes continue because the perpetrators have never been prosecuted.
Defense lawyers for the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda say, however, that there is no reason to expect justice from an international criminal tribunal.
The UN report suggests a mode of transitional justice in Congolese courts, but much of the international community has reacted skeptically, because the Congolese judicial system is barely functioning. A coalition of Africa advocates, including Friends of the Congo, Africa Faith and Justice Network, and many others, also say that justice is not possible in Congo because Rwanda and Uganda are occupying eastern Congo, and plundering its natural resource wealth, with Congolese President Joseph Kabila's collaboration. They will focus instead on pressuring President Barack Obama to end the U.S.A.'s longstanding military and diplomatic support for Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whose army is most controversially implicated in the report, in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese Hutus in Congo.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his army are implicated in the same crimes, and both reacted angrily to the report. This week Kagame, also said, at the swearing-in ceremony for his Cabinet ministers, that he will not respond to foreign donors pressuring him to create political space for the opposition in Rwanda.
On Saturday morning, October 9th, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, leader of the FDU-Inkingi, Rwanda's broadbased opposition coalition of parties, confirmed that the security operatives always outside her home have been replaced by police with firearms, a least six of whom were visible from inside. She also said that expanding the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, to include the crimes of the Rwandan army and others in Congo, was the best hope for international justice.
But International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda defense lawyers Christopher Black and Peter Erlinder say that the power of the U.S., the UK and their allies so distorts international justice tribunals that international justice is not possible.
ICTR defense lawyer Christopher Black, who recently published, "The Rwandan Patriotic Front's Bloody Record and the History of UN Cover-Ups," in Monthly Review Zine, says that the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda will never charge officers of Kagame's army because, if charged, they will implicate their U.S. and European allies:
"They're never going to charge the RPF, because it would be too dangerous. If you start charging the RPF, RPF officers, to save their necks, are going to start talking about others. And then you're going to get up to the Americans and the British and the Canadians and the Belgians. The whole thing would fall apart. They don't dare do that."
Peter Erlinder says that the U.S. controls the decisions of the Security Council, and/or ignores them, as it did, with impunity in Iraq, and that it will therefore control any attempt to expand the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda.
"If the United States wants something to happen, in terms of punishing these criminals, there's a way to do it. If the U.S. doesn't want it to happen, it won't happen, tribunals or no. Because the United States controls the ICTR; because the United States controls the I.C.C.; because the United States controls the Security Council. So extending the mandate of the ICTR has no effect unless the policy of the United States changes to allow the prosecution of the RPF and Kagame for the crimes that are already known, that they've committed, and those crimes have been known for 15 years."
Erlinder agrees with the coalition now focused on Obama's response to the report. He says that the goal should be changing U.S. policy in East/Central Africa, which has been shaped by the determination to control geostrategic resources, most of all, those of resource rich Congo.
An excerpt of the UN Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1993-2003, is available at Monthly Review Zine, and the entire report is available on the website of the UN High Commission on Human Rights.
Ann Garrison is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Ann Garrison
Labels: ANN GARRISON, PAUL KAGAME, RAVI PILLAI, YOWERI MUSEVENI
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TAJ Pamodzi Hotel pays courtesy call on Sata
By Chibaula Silwamba
Tue 29 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT
TAJ Pamodzi Hotel yesterday paid a courtesy call on Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata at his residence and gave him Christmas/New Year gifts which included a card, cake and wine. Hotel general manager Ravi Pillai and two of his officials presented the gifts to Sata at his residence.
Pillai told Sata that Taj would look into the possibility of building hotels in other parts of Zambia and invited the PF leader to Pamodzi Hotel for a meal whenever it would be convenient for him.
Sata encouraged Pillai to ensure that Taj builds more hotels in Copperbelt Province and other tourist destinations in Northern, Southern and Western provinces.
Labels: RAVI PILLAI, SATA, TAJ PAMODZI HOTEL
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