PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday mocked Gordon Brown as "a little dot on this planet" as the impasse over Zimbabwe's March elections continued.
He was responding to Brown's warning to Mugabe that he is "appalled" at the latest developments in the country. "The Brown is the world?" said Mugabe. "Sure, the world is losing patience, but I know Brown is a little tiny dot on this world."
His comments came as Brown himself stepped up his own rhetoric against Mugabe, prior to his visit to the UN this week where he will seek an international commitment to resolve the crisis.
Brown said: "The international community will look to Zimbabwe for a declaration of elections and, if there is to be a future election, that there is proper international monitoring. It is appalling if there is intimidation and violence."
The Prime Minister's hopes were dented yesterday when, after talks with Mugabe, South African president Thabo Mbeki attempted to pour cold water on the affair. Mbeki claimed the two-week impasse since the March 29 vote was "normal electoral process", before adding: "I wouldn't describe that as a crisis."
At a Security Council summit on Africa on Wednesday, the Prime Minister will put further pressure on Mbeki to get Zimbabwe on to the UN's formal agenda. The UN Security Council could hold the key to a peaceful implementation of the results of the Zimbabwe elections.
But Mbeki's comments will be taken as a further sign he will resist demands to persuade Mugabe to stand down.
Caught between fear and famineCelean Jacobson
in Beitbridge, on South Africa's border with ZimbabwePRISCAH Godzamutsipa is nervous about returning across the border to her village in Zimbabwe for fear of militants loyal to President Robert Mugabe who are taking over white farms and intimidating villagers who voted against him.
In the fortnight after the presidential vote and with results not yet in, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, has accused Mugabe of unleashing an orchestrated campaign of violence against opposition supporters, especially in former rural strongholds of the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Zimbabwe's information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, calls the claims lies, saying the country is peaceful, with "no violence whatsoever".
"They say: 'We are going to kill you,'" said Godzamutsipa, sitting next to sacks of groundnuts she hopes to sell at the busy border post of Beitbridge that leads from South Africa to its troubled northern neighbour.
"We are worried about them. They say: 'Why did you vote for Tsvangirai?'"
In Godzamutsipa's Masvingo constituency, Tsvangirai's party won 14 seats to 12 for Zanu-PF in parliamentary elections held the same day as the presidential vote.
This cattle-ranching area is where ruling party militants began last week to invade white-owned farms. Only a few hundred remain of the 4,500 white farmers who used to grow enough food to feed the nation and export to neighbours.
Godzamutsipa, a matronly 55-year-old who farms 10 acres of family land with her husband, was once a staunch supporter of Mugabe.
But now she "wants change," the refrain of many Zimbabweans. "Before Mugabe was very good. I could pay school fees. There was food in the supermarkets," she said. "Now the shops are empty. You can have a billion dollars but you can't buy anything."
A lack of rain and fertiliser and only two oxen for tilling the earth means that Godzamutsipa can barely produce enough food to feed her six children as well as the six nieces and nephews she looks after.
So, every month, she makes the two-day bus journey to South Africa, hoping to sell enough nuts to pay for school fees and buy essentials such as cooking oil and soap.
The Beitbridge border post, set in dusty bushveld marked by giant Baobab trees, has become a hive of trade and activity.
A steady stream of cars and small trucks heavily laden with goods head north from South Africa, destined for Zimbabwe's thriving black market. At the gas station, a mass of plastic drums lie waiting to be filled with fuel – a scarce commodity across the border.
In the market, women sell tomatoes and sodas in the hot sun, while men with minibuses do a roaring business ferrying day-trippers and shoppers. In a darkened hut, a money changer counts out wads of US dollars and South African rands.
As Zimbabwe's economic and political woes have intensified, an ever-increasing number of Zimbabweans are fleeing to South Africa and other neighbouring countries. There are few reliable figures, but estimates consistently put the number of Zimbabweans in South Africa at three million – nearly a quarter of Zimbabwe's total population.
The International Organisation for Migration office in Zimbabwe says people are crossing the border into South Africa at a rate of more than 1,000 a day while by July last year the number of Zimbabweans deported from South Africa had reached 17,000 each month – up from 4,000 a month in 2004.
Some cross legally but then let their visas expire; others get truck drivers to smuggle them in.
"Most of the truck drivers do it now," said Tom Karonga, 34, who had been waiting on the Zimbabwean side of the border for a week while his cargo of luxury cars was being cleared, crossing daily into South Africa on foot for supplies.
"We know they are doing it for the better of their families or themselves," he said, adding that he had been approached by Zimbabweans on both sides of the border desperate for a lift to "anywhere".
But many Zimbabweans cross into South Africa illegally, braving the crocodiles of the Limpopo River and often paying exorbitant fees to guides.
The poorly patrolled border stretches for miles, with barbed wire marking out a rocky patch of no-man's land a few feet wide. Holes cut into the bottom of the fence are large enough for adults to crawl through on their stomachs. In some areas, there is no fence at all. Once through, 'border jumpers' make a dash across a narrow strip of tarmac, duck through some more ripped fencing and disappear into the bush, leaving behind an odd shoe or cap.
In the warm glow of the late afternoon sun, a man in a khaki shirt quickly rushed from the fence back into shadow on the Zimbabwean side. Disturbed by the cars on the South African side, he made one more bid to reach the fence before retreating to wait for a safer time to cross.
Bloggers tell the world about orgy of violence in ZimbabweMOSES MOYOWHILE the world waits for the results of Zimbabwe's presidential election, the people of Zimbabwe don't have to wait for Mugabe's revenge. The defeated president and his defeated party have launched an orgy of violence against activists and supporters of the successful MDC.
The party youth militia, the so-called war veterans, the secret service agents, all the paramilitary might that Robert Mugabe can call on, have been going into action in specifically targeted areas. For the record, here's a compilation of the reports coming to me.
People in the rural Matabeleland district are, of course, suffering more than most. I have had reports of intimidation from Plumtree, Binga, Nyamandlovu, Hwange, Insza and Lupane – all areas where it is thought MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai triumphed in the recent polls.
"The war veterans descended upon us yesterday," said Ndabambi Ndlovu, who fled his home in fear of his life. "They demanded that we leave the area, or be killed. They said we had sold out by supporting the opposition, and that we would not be allowed to vote in the re-run."
In Lupane, 600 kilometres southwest of Harare, more than a thousand villagers are said to have been assaulted by soldiers using rifle butts. Among the casualties were two Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officials. They showed the soldiers their ZEC cards – and were immediately beaten more severely.
The intimidation is even evident in Harare itself. Residents of the high-density suburb Mabvuku-Tafara fled for their lives when heavily armed police descended on the community and began beating people indiscriminately.
This last incident resulted in a choice quotation from police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena. He said: "I have not heard any such news. It must be false as police do not beat innocent civilians."
Meanwhile, the situation can only get worse. Appeals to the international community to intervene fall on deaf ears. Robert Mugabe is refusing to take calls from other African leaders. And depression and fear amongst those who oppose him grows by the day.
http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk/2008/04/mugabe-unleashe.html#moreSOKWANELEYesterday we heard reports of army jets flying over Harare and this morning there were soldiers marching through the centre of Bulawayo. I doubt these displays of intimidation are as effective against the people as they were seven years ago. The soldiers voted with us and they know we won and we know we won. The ironic thing is that we march together but the old man will not accept it.
There is not much talk any more of whether the results will be announced or not. The process seems pointless (albeit necessary) when the answer is clear. The only talk now is of the way forward and the Southern African Development Community meeting (in Zambia yesterday].
I lay awake last night wondering how the meeting will unfold.
http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/The full article contains 1594 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
