The Destroyer Part IV

Mugabes Mansion

Zimbabwe's economy wasn't the only thing that was falling apart but Zimbabwe's Government was still intimidating the opposition. Posters of Mugabe were posted all around with the slogan "The final battle for total control". Opposition newspapers were still being published despite the acts of terror that were used to intimidate them were still going on. These were sold at traffic corners with pictures of victims of the official violence that the government caused. In response there was a pro - government paper published which reported that Mugabe was the beloved leader of all Zimbabweans. Grace Mugabe was Robert Mugabe's second wife, his first wife died a of a kidney ailment. When they got married he was 72 and she, his Secretary at the time, was only 31. In a article in the local newspaper she stated "Nowhere in the world has a government distributed farm equipment to its citizens. He is doing this because he has the people at heart". Later she talked about the war veterans "Those who died during the war did not die in vain. They died so that we can have total empowerment. Mugabe and his wife live in a 25 bedroom mansion in Borrowdale Brooke, a Harare suburb. People question on how he paid for the estimated 10 million US dollar mansion. Some say the Chinese built it because Mugabe granted them mining and trade rights.

The Destroyer Part III

The followers of Mugabe did not like Western reporters at all. In fact many of them disguised themselves as tourists to avoid any contact and possible arrest. Mugabe destroyed the country that he created and also ruined his reputation with many people around the world. At Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday party he stated "the tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring country Zimbabwe". Barely any African leaders are able to speak out against Mugabe, who is in fact 84 years old but still feared by many leaders. Morgan Tsvangirai has faced a hard price going up against Mugabe in the election, surviving three assassination attempts, trial for treason and a brutal beating by police which left him the severe head injuries. Mugabe on one had is the reason Zimbabwe is here today but on the other hand he has caused to many deaths to count and has lead the country into a huge economic crisis. In the weeks that passed after the election one US dollar equaled 35 billion Zimbabwean dollars. They have five, twenty five and fifty billion dollars bills. A few days later the inflation rose to 100 billion to one. A half liter bottle of water was 1,900,000,000,000 which amounts to 19 US dollars.

The Destroyer Part II

In 2000 Robert Mugabe and his military supporters began forcefully occupying white farm land with the help of gangs and The ZANU officials. This is what has lead the country into a economic decline, Leo disagreed with this saying "We have no regrets, he has none, I have none". They have taken the land so what was their next move? Leo stated " the next move is the mines, the minerals. We know we are very rich - without the British or the Americans. Yes, they invested but if we have to we will go and take over the mines too." Zimbabwe is currently the world's second largest spot for mining platinum and also is very rich in other minerals too such as gold and nickel. The mining industry is a huge part of the income that Zimbabwe gets. Mugabe has threatened to nationalize the mines by giving Zimbabwe 51 percent say in what they do. The mine owner's including South Africa and the United Kingdom have been given negotiations but have yet to settle a deal with Mugabe yet. Leo states that " We can give the mines to the black Zimbabweans that are working in them now, we are not going back to the land issue and the wealth that lies beneath them will remain ours too". Also diamonds have recently been discovered and Zimbabwe have invited the other rich countries such as Russia and China to deal with them.

The Destroyer Part I

In the first part of this article it talks mostly about Robert Mugabes nephew Leo. Leo is an entrepreneur and has stakes in many companies including the mobile phone network in Zimbabwe. He is the director of Zimbabwe's Defense Industries which is in charge of the purchasing of weapons for Mugabe's army, most of the weaponry coming from China now days. Also he controls a farm that was taken from a white farmer. In 2005 he ran for Parliament for the Zimbabwe African National Union or also known as the ZANU, he won the election in a landslide. Leo was recently added to a sanctions list by the US, the sanctions include no traveling, the freezing of foreign assets and prohibits any Americans doing business with him. Not only was he on the US sanctions list but also put on the list by the European Union for the arms deals he was involved in. When Robert Mugabe found out about this he unleashed hell among the country's presidential campaign. More than 150 opposition supporters were brutally murdered, raped, and beaten terribly. He sent them to reeducation camps where they were tortured. Due to all the violence Mugabe's opposition Morgan Tsvangirai, who won in the first round of the elections, dropped out of the race and went in to hiding because he was afraid for his life. In the next vote Mugabe had no opposition and therefore was declared the winner. Leo blames the suffering of the Zimbabwean people on the sanction's that were set by the US, Britain and Europe. Although that week the inflation rate in Zimbabwe sky rocketed to 11 million percent and a little while later was announced at 230 million percent. Eighty percent of people were out of jobs twenty percent of people were infected with HIV. Two million people relied on food aiding services for their meals. And the average age for men and women are around 40 years old, but Leo doesn't think so, "people are going about their business, their not starving, their driving nice cars.

Food Shortage

Sky news recently found that many children are dying of food shortages in Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe was caught trying to use his security forces to hide the malnutrition from the rest of the world. Many hospitals are being strictly monitored so that people can tell the world what is going on. This is a direct impact of Mugabe's organized campaign to cover up what is going on in Zimbabwe. One of the security officers was interviewed and told them that they were ordered to make threats to the hospitals and said that the nurses would face jail if they were to tell what was going in the hospitals. They also found that many kids aren't even going to the hospitals anymore because Zimbabwe's health system can't do anything for the dying children. The UN currently states that 3.9 million Zimbabweans need food and next year it will increase to 5.1 million, half of the country's population. The agencies that help people in Zimbabwe had been banned for 3 months by Robert Mugabe during the election but now are back and struggling to help the people because there are so many. Even the aid agencies are still being harassed by the security forces. They are setting up road blocks and searching all the aid vehicles even taking some of the food meant for the starving children. Many families are now living on one meal a day or even starting to eat poisonous trees to fill up their empty stomachs.

Current News - Children at work

13 year old Brighton Ziruvi takes a 12 km every morning with a back pack full of mobile phone chargers to a corner to which he calls his office. He then yells all day trying to sell these sometimes not getting anything, then having to find a ride home from a stranger to meet with his boss. He does this every morning for six days a week. His parents support him in this because his family could use the extra income. His father buys fish then resells them and his mother is a vegetable vendor. This is just one of the kids that go through this everyday, he quit school and so have many of the teachers. Right now the school doors are locked and many of the teachers have quit or have moved out of the country. The number of employed minors, that is under the age of 18, has risen from last year's 60 percent to 75 percent. Aids, the economic imbalance and the loss of family support networks are what has driven these kids to work. There is laws against child labor but the authorities are taking no action against this and they are also blaming parents for letting their kids do this. They believe that if their children go through hard times they will be ready for the future challenges that await them. This is extremely sad because the children are left to fend themselves and they have become prone to drugs alcohol and abuse.

Inflation

The inflation crisis happening in Zimbabwe has increased immensely in the past few months. In May 2008 the inflation was at a stunning 2.2 million percent and has increased to a shocking 11.2 million percent. Back in a February the price for a loaf of bread cost a little less than 200,000 dollars and that same loaf of bread costs 1.6 trillion dollars today. Zimbabwe was once known as the backbone of Africa but since the land reform program started they have been through a chaotic economic meltdown. Many people now believe it has gotten worse because of President Mugabe's reelection in June which caused a huge dispute with his opposition Morgan Tsvangirai. The economy has been destroyed in Zimbabwe and people can no longer afford many basic things that people need to survive anymore. A lot of the people in Zimbabwe have left the country hoping to find a better life somewhere else.

Chimurengas

Chimurenga means struggle or conflict, but has been extended now to a struggle for human rights and political dignity. There has been 3 chimurengas in Zimbabwe, the Africa insurrection against the British Colonial rule in 1896 - 1897, the guerrilla war against the British settler's minority in Rhodesia 1966 - 1980, and the current Chimurenga started in 2000 against the Zimbabwe government for their land reform program that has been under taken. The very small population of white farmers in Zimbabwe are causing this struggle because there are so few white farmers but they own the majority of the good farming land. Much of the white farmers land were destroyed by the ZANU and Zimbabwe went into a major food crisis and still today are struggling with food.

Gukurahundi

Gukurahundi was the armed conflict between the Zimbabwe Government and the ZAPU. The ZAPU armies terrorized civilians, farmers and government officials. During the time of Liberation of Zimbabwe the main liberation group (ZAPU) split into 2 groups, ZAPU and ZANU. There was a rivalry between the 2 groups for the support of the people and they would fight each other. In 1982 things became worse after ZANU found arm caches and they accused ZAPU of plotting another war. The ZAPU leaders were arrested and brought to court but were not imprisoned and all of them were released except Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku whose trial was not given for 4 years. During this time the ZAPU lost thousands of followers because they saw this necessary to stay alive, with all their leaders in jail they felt there was no one to protect them. Mugabe made a deal with the Prime Minister of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, to have the North Korean Military train a group of Zimbabwean soldiers. This brigade would be called the Gukurahundi, the leader of the brigade was Perence Shiri and was consisted of all the other Zimbabwean army units. Most of the ZAPU were killed in public executions in front of family and friends after they dug their own grave. Many of them were burned alive and marched to a central place where many people could see them die. An estimated 700 to 800 people were killed until Mugabe and the leader of ZAPU, Joshua Nkomo, signed a Unity Accord in 1987 this ended the fight but there is still many problems that exist today.

Martin Meredith

Martin Meredith is a historian who has wrote many different books about people and things that go on in Africa. He used to work as a correspondent for in Africa for the London Observer than he moved to Oxford where he is an independent author. He is known for writing with a gloomy feel and his book usually end up with warfare and endless destruction.

Operation Murambatsvina

Operation Murambatsvina meaning Operation Restore order in English is a big Zimbabwean campaign that go around the country forcing people that are in illegal housing and commercial activities. The United Nations have estimated around 2.4 million people have been affected because of this. This operation is to help the spread of disease and other infectious things. Although the operation has received harsh attention from other political parties, church groups and other non government organizations. The UN has stated that this is an effort to drive out and make homeless of the urban and rural poor because they are the opposition of Mugabe. Many Zimbabweans refer to this as the Zimbabwe Tsunami because of the devastation it caused to the country in 2004. It has affected the major cities and the government would like to extend it into the rural areas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Murambatsvina

Land Conflict

The land issue has been a problem for over a hundred years in Zimbabwe. In 1888 white colonist under the British rule had taken some of the best land and began to to farm under colonial rule. In the 1950's the struggle for land became a major issue and even though the British agreed that the black's have voting rights the white minority did not want to share its power. In 1968 the war began for liberation and last 11 years ending in 1979. When they gained their independence in 1980 around two-fifths of the land was owned by white minority farmers while the other black farmers had to live and farm in bad areas. In 1980 the Lancaster House Agreement was made which gave Zimbabwe its independence and protected the white farmers from the government for the first 10 years. The in 1990 the government changed the constitution so that the government could have enforced land acquisitions but still most of the best agricultural land was owned by 4,500 white farmers. The Fast Track Land Reform began in 2000 and was supposed to help land equality but this process became extremely violent and caused intimidation as well as displacement. In the end of 2002 11.5 million hectares were taken from the white farmers and given to the black farmers most of the land going to government officials.

http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/zimbabwe.htm

Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe was born February 21st, 1924 and has been the President of Zimbabwe since 1982. Mugabe first became popular in the 60's when he became the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe African National Union. He was a prisoner of war in Rhodesia with the goal to replace the white minority. In 1979, when the war ended, many Africans saw him as a hero and he won the election in 1980. Early in his ruling he saw many killings targeting the Ndebele tribe in the midland of Zimbabwe. His government confiscated many white farms, printed trillions of dollars which caused hyperinflation and Mugabe has been accused of harassing other political parties especially members of the political party known as the Movement for Democratic change. Mugabe ruined Zimbabwe's economy with massive amounts of oil and food shortage. In the recent election against Morgan Tsvangirai he lost the first round 43% to 47%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe

Background Information

Zimbabwe has only had one ruler since it has gained its independence. President Robert Mugabe has been the country's only ruler since 1987 and has made sure that he has a lot of power and can repress opposite political parties that try and take his power. Mugabe has put his attention towards a land reform program that expels white farmers that are known as enemies of the state. People claim that he has rigged the 2002 election and they have comeback with brutal strikes. Before the country of Zimbabwe was created it was called Rhodesia and was controlled by the United kingdom. There were two groups formed to fight for their independence, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) led by Joshua Nkomo and the other group called Zimbabwe African National Union led first by Rev. Ndabaningi and then later by Mugabe. Eventually these two groups formed one group and came to an agreement with the United Kingdom and gained independence in 1980.

http://www.flashpoints.info/countries-conflicts/Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe_briefing.htm

Zimbabwe

• Location - Southern Africa between South Africa and Zambia.

• Area - Slightly larger than Montana

• Population - 11,350,111

• Ethnic Groups - African 98% (Shona 82%, Ndebele 14%, other 2%), mixed and Asian 1%, White less than 1%

• Religion - syncretic (part Christian, part indigenous beliefs) 50%, Christian 25%, indigenous beliefs 24%, Muslim and other 1%.

• Capital - Harare

• Government - Parliamentary Democracy

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html