Note: All NewsBites' excerpts from external news media end with the word: "Refer".

Oprah opens school in South Africa
News.nine.msn.com (March 17, 2007)

Picture: Oprah Winfrey

AP - US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey launched her
second project for poor South African children, this
one an innovative, environment-friendly institution she
hopes will be a model for public education in this country.

This comes as authorities at the exclusive girls academy
Winfrey opened in January dismissed complaints it is
too strict.

While the girls' academy is private, the 12-million-rand
($A2 million) Seven Fountains Primary School outside
the remote town of Kokstad in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal
province is public. But it was funded by Oprah's Angel Network,
a public charity that supports organisations and projects
focused on, among other issues, education and literacy.
"The Seven Fountains School is an example of what schools
in South Africa can become," said Winfrey at the formal
dedication of the school, where lessons began earlier this year.

CLICK HERE to read the full story
Refer.

Britain to bring Zimbabwe turmoil to U.N. Council
Washington Post (March 16, 2007)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Britain on Friday asked U.N.
officials to brief the Security Council on Zimbabwe's political
oppression and economic chaos, but South Africa made
clear no action would follow.

Critics of President Robert Mugabe, 83, Zimbabwe's leader
since independence from Britain in 1980, accuse him of
ruining the country's economy and clamping down on any dissent.

CLICK HERE to read full report.

Tutu says African silence on Zimbabwe is a 'shame'
SABC (March 16, 2007)

Picture: Arch-bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa

Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel laureate, said today
that African leaders should feel ashamed for their silence on
events in Zimbabwe where the main opposition said police
assaulted activists including its leader.

"We Africans should hang our heads in shame," Tutu said in
a written statement. "How can what is happening in Zimbabwe
elicit hardly a word of concern let alone condemnation from us
leaders of Africa?" he said.
Refer.

ZIMBABWE: Rising frustration brings hardening attitudes
HARARE, 16 March 2007 (IRIN)

Photo: from Kubatana website; Arrested opposition leaders
arriving at court this week

- As Zimbabwe's opposition groups vowed on Friday to keep up the pressure on the government for "democratic change", a defiant President Robert Mugabe lashed out at Western governments for supporting political violence.

Opposition leaders and pro-democracy groups at a meeting
issued a declaration committing themselves to a "heightened
momentum" of protest action, Nelson Chamisa, spokesman
for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), told IRIN.

The gathering, under the auspices of the Save Zimbabwe
Campaign (SZC), a pro-democracy drive launched by several
NGOs, labour unions, students and opposition parties in
February, was attended by both factions of the MDC.

Zimbabwe has been in the spotlight since Sunday, when the
police violently broke up a prayer meeting they had declared
illegal, beating protestors including the opposition leadership.
There was international condemnation of the crackdown.

But the official newspaper, The Herald, on Friday quoted
Mugabe accusing western governments of ignoring what
he had said was MDC instigation of the violence. "When
they criticise government when it tries to prevent violence,
and punish perpetrators of that violence, we take the position
that they can go hang."

CLICK HERE to read the full report, including details of
how a policeman in Zimbabwe views his responsibilities
assigned by the system.
Refer.

Mugabe tells West to 'go and hang'
Source: South African Broadcasting Corporation (March 15, 2006)

Picture: Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, today told Western countries which have criticised his government over accusations that it assaulted the main opposition
leader to "go and hang". "It is the West as usual ... when they criticise the government trying to prevent violence and punish the perpetrators of that violence we take the position that they can go hang," Mugabe said after a meeting with Jikaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian leader.

Meanwhile, in South Africa the ANC Caucus in Parliament
has expressed grave concern over the current situation in
Zimbabwe, saying that torture, assault and acts of violence
against any citizen cannot be condoned.
Refer.

South Africa Unveils Plan To Fight Hiv
Sci-tech-today.com (March 15, 2007)

The proposed HIV plan -- meant to be finalized by the South
African National AIDS Council later this month -- set a target
for reducing the number of new HIV infections by 50 percent
by 2011. To reach the target, it called for more effort in
empowering women, who often are targeted in sexual abuse,
and to encourage people to be tested for the virus.

The government proposed a five-year plan Wednesday to
halve the number of new HIV infections in South Africa,
saying it had failed to persuade young people to change
their sexual habits.

In a report, the government also said the country needed to
better address the stigma associated with the disease,
which discouraged many people from being tested, and
vowed to expand its treatment and care program to cover
80 percent of people with AIDS.

The report's frankness -- and the warmth with which it was
received by AIDS activists -- marked a turnaround in
government rhetoric on AIDS, after years of international
condemnation for policies that many said went against
medical advice and activists' efforts. The health minister
in particular has been criticized for questioning antiretroviral
treatments and promoting nutritional remedies, such as
garlic and lemons, to fight the disease.

CLICK HERE to read the full report.
Refer.

Zimbabwe Bishop Warned
Living Church Foundation (March 14, 2007)

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the Primate
of Central Africa, the Most Rev. Bernard Malango, have
pressed the Bishop of Harare to distance himself from the
regime of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

Following a March 7 meeting with the Rt. Rev. Nolbert Kunonga
in Johannesburg, the two archbishops released a statement
of “deep concern” over the state of church and civil society in
Zimbabwe, and an oblique warning for the controversial bishop
to mend his ways.

“We encouraged the development of an independent voice
for the church” the archbishops said, and urged it to offer
its own response to the collapse of the social and economic
order in Zimbabwe and to speak to concerns over “issues
of human rights and peaceful non-partisan protest.”

The American-educated Bishop Kunonga has been banned
from travel to the United States for his complicity in the
crimes of the Mugabe regime. An ecclesiastical trial of
Bishop Kunonga on charges of heresy, fraud, misconduct
and incitement to murder collapsed in 2005 after the judge
hearing the case quit. Fearful for their lives, the witnesses
declined to return from exile to testify in person and the
judge denied their testimony by video.

Thirty Harare priests, representing at least half of the
active clergy and all of the white members of the clericus,
have been forced to leave the country since 2003. Bishop
Kunonga has replaced them by ordaining officials of
President Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party, including the
country’s vice president and two cabinet ministers,
none of whom have theological training.
Refer.

Botswana: Zimbabweans Fleeing Economic
Meltdown Unwelcome
Allafrica.com (March 13, 2007)

Gaborone: Zimbabweans trooping across the border
looking for jobs in Botswana face hardship, but would
rather stay than return to face the worsening economic
crunch at home.

That is a problem for an increasing number of Motswana,
who believe Zimbabweans have worn out their welcome.
Xenophobia is being stoked by the daily arrival of
economic migrants, and the popular belief that Zimbabweans
are responsible for increased crime in this diamond-rich
middle-income success story.

"Coming up with the exact number of Zimbabweans now
living here is impossible because a sizeable amount of
them are illegal immigrants who use undesignated crossing
points," an immigration official, who asked for anonymity,
told IRIN.

CLICK HERE to read the full article.
Refer.

Canada cannot indict Mugabe, says Vic Toews
Zwnews.com (November 22, 2006)

Picture: Canada’s Justice Minister Vic Toews's

Zimbabwe's ambassador welcomes Justice Minister Vic Toews's ruling on indicting Mugabe in Canada, but Liberal MP Keith Martin rejects the verdict.

Keith Martin, Member of Parliament, Canada

Canada will not indict Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on crimes against humanity charges because it does not have the jurisdiction to do so under Canadian laws. Justice Minister Vic Toews made the announcement
in a letter to Kevin Sorenson, chair of the Standing
Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development
on Nov. 9. Mr. Toews wrote the letter in response to an
inquiry the committee made about the possibility of using
existing domestic crimes against humanity legislation to
indict the Zimbabwean president. In June, the committee
adopted a motion that seeks to ascertain the possibility of
prosecuting Mr. Mugabe for crimes against humanity
committed in Zimbabwe. Embassy obtained a copy of the
letter in which Mr. Toews said even if Canada had the
authority to indict Mr. Mugabe under the Crimes Against
Humanity and War Crimes Act, it would still not be able to
do so because Mr. Mugabe enjoys head of state immunity
under international law.

CLICK HERE to read the full report.
Refer.

Australia lobbies UN to indict Mugabe
Zwnews.com (August 30, 2005)
Posted on FreeAfrica (November 20, 2006)

….but US, British and French want a bit more time.

Australia and New Zealand are lobbying the United Nations
Security Council to indict Robert Mugabe, the president of
Zimbabwe, and his government in the International Criminal
Court for crimes against humanity. Alexander Downer,
the foreign minister of Australia, said that, because Zimbabwe
was not a party to the International Criminal Court, Mugabe
could only be indicted with a reference from the UN Security
Council. "I very much hold the view that as a country which is
party to the International Criminal Court and bearing in mind
the simply horrific things that have happened in Zimbabwe ...
that it's worth a try to get an indictment," Downer told Australian
Broadcasting Corp. television. Mugabe has led a drive to
confiscate white-owned farms to give to majority blacks.
He says this is necessary to right the wrongs of colonialism,
which left the bulk of Zimbabwe's fertile land in the hands of
minority whites. More recently his government has cracked
down on what it calls illegal settlements in a move that rights
groups say has left up to 300 000 homeless. The official
figure is 120 000.

Downer admitted that getting a resolution to indict Mugabe
through the UN Security Council would be difficult. "We've
started a process of talking with some of the members of
the Security Council ... I think it's best to describe the
response as cautious," Downer said. "I think the US position,
the British position and the French position is one of wanting
a bit more time to consider this issue. Nobody has given a
commitment yet to take this forward ... I know it's going to be
very difficult." Relations between Australia and Zimbabwe
are frosty. In 2002 Zimbabwe was suspended from the
Commonwealth, a group of 53 mostly former British colonies,
after Mugabe was accused of rigging his re-election. The
country withdrew from the group in December 2003 when its
suspension was extended.

Refer.

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