Zimbabwe: News from an Eye Witness

FROM EISA Zimababwe Election Update 2000, 2, 24 June, 6-7.

Campaigning is in full swing. The ruling party and the opposition parties have been addressing rallies.

The United Kingdom is featuring prominently in the electioneering. The president has been criticising Britain charging that the British are resorting to following ships laden with fuel destined for Zimbabwe and offering them double the amount paid by the country for the fuel in a bid to deprive the country of normal supplies of the commodity. The President was addressing party loyalist from Mbare West Constituency.

ZBC did not carry any comment from the fuel companies verifying the President's allegations, nor from the British High Commission. The state controlled 'ZIMPAPERS' stable of newspapers carried the same story, and like the ZBC it carried no comment from the parties involved.

Cases of political violence have been reported in many parts of the country. There is confusion over the number of people who have died as a result of this violence. The Sunday Mail (4 June) quoted the police as saying opposition and anti-government groups such as the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the National Constitutional Assembly were to blame.

The state controlled paper said "Police maintained that a total of 19 people had since January 1 died in incidents linked to political violence, with only ten of those having been confirmed as having died in politically motivated attacks".

The private press says the number of the dead is up to 30.

Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) says a scan of those deaths reported in the state controlled The Herald reveals discrepancies in the number of the dead from the figures released by the police. "The interesting story would be not only which is the correct figure, but also who is massaging the figures and why."

The Herald (30 May) carried an article headlined "ZANU PF candidate's campaign manager shot dead" which reported in-fighting within ZANU (PF). The second part of the article reported the death of a ZANU (PF) supporter in Honde Valley, the province of Manicaland. In an attempt to pin the death on the opposition the newspaper article said the ruling party supporter had been assaulted by a group of men suspected to be from one of the many opposition parties in the country. The gang was apparently wearing ZANU PF T-shirts.

However the incident was also reported in a state controlled newspaper The Manica Post and privately owned The Eastern Star. Both papers from the province in which the incident took place blamed ZANU (PF) supporters.

The Herald (1 June) did accuse ZANU (PF) of being behind the death of an MDC candidate in an article headlined "Political Violence: MDC candidate killed in Bikita". However, the article was relegated to page 5. The front page was an article on MDC in-fighting headlined "MDC's Masvingo executive plunged into chaos". The Chronicle, another state controlled daily based in the second largest city of Bulawayo published on page 8 on 1 June, an article titled "MDC candidate found dead". In follow-up articles, the state controlled dailies reported that the police had picked up the son of the deceased MDC candidate for questioning.

According to MMPZ an NGO which tracks media in Zimbabwe the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) did not report the deaths of farmer Tony Oates in Beatrice and one of his attackers, in what they said was an armed robbery. ZBC also did not report the death of a ZANU (PF) supporter after policemen opened fire on a mob of two hundred militants who were reported to have stormed the police station in Mvurwi in an effort to free colleagues who were being held in detention there.

The state controlled electronic media continued to quote police statements that there was a reduction in political violence (Television, 30 May, 8.00 pm) and created the impression that the police were getting tough with perpetrators of political violence (Radio 2/4 30 May, 8.00 pm).

There appears to be a new initiative from the police to provide information on political violence on both Radio 2 and the AM Zimbabwe television programme. However, ZBC continues to blame the MDC for violence seeking comment from the MDC.

The ZBC did not report on the intra-party fighting in ZANU (PF) in Bulawayo or Masvingo, although the state controlled ZIMPAPERS stable did. However these stories received coverage from the private press.

"War veterans attack Bulawayo ZANU PF provincial chairman" (Zimbabwe Independent, 2 June) and "War vets beat up top ZANU PF officials" (Zimbabwe Mirror, 2 June) reported that war veterans had beaten up the provincial chairman, Edson Ncube, and two other senior officials for failing to provide funds from the $2m allocated to the province, to run the ZANU (PF) election campaign.

The private press continues to identify ZANU (PF) supporters and the war veterans as the main perpetrators of violence. Violence against teachers and rural people also continued to be covered. The Daily News followed up the disturbances at schools in its articles, "War vets, ZANU PF supporters threaten to close Buhera school" (29 May) and "Seven rural schools closed" (1 June).

The Financial Gazette ("Unpopular phone Act to be signed", 1 June) reported that the bill allowing government to eavesdrop on telephone and email communication would receive the presidential assent this month. The same paper ("Senior ZBC man suspended for opposing farm invasions") reported that a senior ZBC employee, Edison Nyarambi, was suspended indefinitely for joining Liberator's Platform, a group of former freedom fighters who are opposed to farm invasions by war veterans.

There were also reports of private newspapers being outlawed in some parts of the country by war veterans and ZANU (PF) supporters. The Zimbabwe Independent ("War veterans threaten vendors of private papers", 2 June) reported that vendors' papers were being burnt in Kwekwe.