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Zimbabwe Opposition Member beaten at Airport
ABC Radio Australia (March 19, 2007)

An Opposition member of parliament in Zimbabwe has been
beaten by unidentified men as he was about to board a plane
for Europe.

Nelson Chamisa from Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic
Change was later diagnosed with a fractured skull.

He describes how he was approached by a group of men at
Harare Airport.

"All of a sudden I was surrounded by, I think there were eight men,"
he said.

"Then I was hit around three times...then I fell to the ground."

Last week, a number of opposition politicians and supporters,
including the Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were badly
beaten by Zimbabwe's police.

'Barbaric' says Australian PM
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PM Proposes Tougher Stand On Zimbabwe
Ninemsn.com (March 19, 2007)

Prime Minister John Howard has proposed a tougher stand on
Zimbabwe following the brutal suppression of an opposition
gathering.

Mr Howard said Australia had imposed progressively strengthened
travel bans and financial sanctions against the Zimbabwe
government since 2002, and greater pressure was now needed.
Zimbabwean police used tear gas, water cannons and live
ammunition to crush a March 11 gathering of government opponents,
with opposition members accusing police of beating activists,
including the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, during and
| after arrests.

"We'll also be working with other concerned countries to place
greater pressure on the Zimbabwean leadership including by
allowing the situation to be considered by the United Nations and
its Human Rights Council," Mr Howard said in his weekly radio
message.

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South Africa 'Stood By' As Tsvangirai Lay In A Police Cell,
Bloodied And Beaten
Zwnews.com (March 18, 2007)

Picture: South Africa’s President, Thabo Mbeki

Response "a classic piece of fence-sitting"

South Africa's ruling African National Congress party rebuffed attempts to get it to intervene in a bid to save the life of the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. As Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of Movement for Democratic Change, lay beaten and bloodied in a police cell having been refused access to a doctor or his lawyer, the MDC's exiled treasurer, Roy Bennett, wrote to the top ANC official requesting an urgent meeting to brief him on what was happening. "I was hoping the South African government would make a statement against the Mugabe regime, because at that stage we were fearing for the life of Morgan Tsvangirai," said Mr Bennett, who himself fled Zimbabwe after a campaign of intimidation against him. Yet, despite follow-up phone calls, and another letter, he received no response. Yesterday Mr Bennett said he was "lost for words" at the ANC's attitude. The revelation of the ANC's rebuff will fuel criticism of South Africa's policy of "quiet diplomacy" towards its
northern neighbour. Tony Leon, the leader of South Africa's
opposition Democratic Alliance, accused President Thabo Mbeki
of "dithering, inaction and often tacit support" of Mugabe.

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Zimbabwe: Botswana MPs Want Embassy Closed
Allafrica.com (March 18, 2007)

BOTSWANA Parliamentarians last week called for the temporary
closure of their embassy in Harare "pending stabilisation of
the economic and political arena" in Zimbabwe.

They said the closure of the embassy would send "a strong signal"
that Botswana did not condone the worsening situation in Zimbabwe,
according to the official government mouthpiece, Botswana Press
Agency (Bopa).

The MPs said Zimbabwe had become a liability to the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) region and had since
"epitomised an example of bad governance" and disregard for
the rule of law.

This followed the violence that erupted at a Save Zimbabwe
Campaign prayer meeting in Highfield, Harare, last Sunday,
resulting in the arrest and brutal assault of 50 members of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), including
president of the anti-Senate faction, Morgan Tsvangirai

The police shot dead National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
chairperson for Glen View, Gift Tandare, and left leaders of the
Save Zimbabwe Campaign seriously injured.

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Zimbabwe steps up efforts to block opposition from
travelling abroad
Muzi.com news (March 18, 2007)

Zimbabwe has continued its violent crackdown on dissents
after an opposition activist was badly beaten and prevented
from leaving the country at Harare International Airport, his
colleagues reported Sunday.

The attack on Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) comes
amid mounting criticism on the continent and abroad of the
government action against opposition activists.

"He was badly beaten this morning whilst he was on his way
to the airport by security agents," said William Bango,
a spokesman for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Chamisa
had been due to fly out to Belgium for a meeting. Muzi.com
News 10039148-2 (muzi.com)

He became the third opposition politician to be blocked from
leaving the country this weekend.

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Mugabe Pressed To Quit
The Zimbabwe Independent (March 18, 2007)

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and his Tanzanian counterpart
Jikaya Kikwete yesterday held critical talks at State House in
search of an urgent resolution of the rapidly deteriorating
situation in Zimbabwe as international pressure mounts
on Mugabe to quit.

While Mugabe was meeting with Kikwete, US Assistant
Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour,
Barry Lowenkron was headed for Addis Ababa for emergency
talks on the situation in Zimbabwe with an African Union (AU)
team.

US ambassador to the AU Cindy Courville was expected to
be part of the talks. AU chairman John Kufour has already
said the situation in Zimbabwe is "embarrassing". The US
was yesterday lobbying the UN Human Rights Council in
Geneva to adopt a strong stance on Mugabe following
nearly a week of state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe.
The Mugabe/Kikwete meeting, which is part of a broad Sadc
initiative to resolve the Zimababwe crisis, came against a
background of international outrage at brutal police assaults
on opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leaders for defying a ban on political rallies on Sunday.

Sadc is keen to secure a Mugabe exit settlement in Zimbabwe
ahead of the regional summit in Zambia in August. The Zambian
foreign minister last week said the region could no longer
ignore the Zimbabwean issue. President Levy Mwanawasa
said he was gravely concerned about Zimbabwe’s problems.

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Zimbabwe: A Sense of Impunity
Source: AllAfrica.com (March 17, 2007)

A legacy of international inaction encourages Zimbabwe's
Robert Mugabe to believe there is no price to pay for his
crackdown on opponents.

The universal condemnation of the police assault on
Zimbabwean opposition leaders on March 11 is unlikely
to move President Robert Mugabe. Ordinary Zimbabwean
interviewed by IWPR say their president has got away with
this kind of thing for decades, and the international community
has done little more than issue protests from a safe distance.

Fifty opposition leaders on their way to attend a prayer meeting
at Zimbabwe Grounds in the working class suburb of Highfield,
Harare, were arrested and then savagely assaulted in police
cells on March 11…

…"Mugabe's story since independence in 1980 is a bloody trail
of mass murder and the torture of political opponents,"
said Thompson Zhou, a teacher in the farming town of Kadoma.
"With such a track-record, why would Mugabe lose sleep over
the recent round of condemnation over the torture of Tsvangirai
and company?"

In the Eighties, Mugabe began consolidating his position by
sending North Korean-trained troops into Matabeleland and
the Midlands to attack supporters of ZAPU leader Joshua
Nkomo.

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'Crimes Against Humanity'
News24.com-South African news source(March 17, 2007)

London - A senior British minister said on Friday that
attempts by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to
suppress opposition to his regime were "bordering on
crimes against humanity".

Amid international condemnation at the arrest and beating
of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, foreign office
minister Lord David Triesman said those involved needed
to be hit with tough sanctions.

He also called on African leaders to be "completely explicit"
in condemning Mugabe and the international community,
in particular the United Nations Human Right Council,
to do more to end the violence.

In a BBC radio interview, Triesman said: "I do think the
actions (of Mugabe's government) over quite a period now...
look to me to be bordering on crimes against humanity."
That included his suppression of Morgan Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the forced
eviction of thousands of people in Harare slums in 2005,
he added.
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African Union greatly concerned over human rights
in Zimbabwe
AOL news (March 17, 2007)

Picture: Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader after the
beatings on March 17.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) The African Union on Saturday called on Zimbabwe to respect human rights in the country, after a violent crackdown on political opponents.

AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare "has followed
with great concern the recent developments in Zimbabwe"
and "recalls the need for the scrupulous respect for human
rights and democratic principles in Zimbabwe," the 53-nation
bloc AU said.

"He urges all concerned parties to commence a sincere
and constructive dialogue in order to resolve the problems
facing Zimbabwe."
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Senior Zimbabwe Opposition Figure Arrested At Airport
ABCnews online (March 17, 2007)

Security officers have arrested a Zimbabwe opposition
party leader at Harare's airport as he prepared to fly to
South Africa, a party spokesman says.

Arthur Mutambara, who is head of a faction of the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), was picked up by security
forces at the airport "this afternoon," faction spokesman
Maxwell Zimuto says, adding "I had just dropped him off
at the airport as he was travelling to South Africa".

Harrison Nkomo, a lawyer for Mr Mutambara, says he had
no information on why his client had been detained.

CLICK HERE to read more on this story and on Confiscated
Passports of Opposition members.
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UN: Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe Criticizes US,
Britain In UN Speech
News Cover Magazine (March 17, 2007)

In an interview with The Associated Press during his visit
to New York, Mr. Mugabe said people in his country are
not hungry, they just cannot eat their favorite food.
He told the AP, Zimbabweans are “very, very happy.”

CLICK HERE to read the full report related to this article.
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