Friends:

A very interesting release from the IMF in Washington with regard to Zimbabwe's arrears on its debt.

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Press Release No. 05/151  June 27, 2005International Monetary Fund  700 19th Street, NWWashington, D.C. 20431 USA

Statement by the IMF Staff Mission in Zimbabwe  A staff mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited Zimbabwe  during June 13-25, 2005 in the context of the 2005 Article IV Consultation  discussions and ahead of the Fund Executive Board's consideration of the  issue of Zimbabwe's compulsory withdrawal from the IMF1. It made the  following statement:"We had cordial meetings with Zimbabwe's economic team led by Finance  ...   more »

Friends:

A touching and frightening first-person account of an arrest for selling clothes in Zimbabwe.

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Hi,

I was arrested yesterday for selling second hand clothing.

At about 4:30 pm yesterday I was called to the gate, someone wanted to see  me, there were 4 police officers standing in front of the suitcases holding  the second hand clothes,

cop " who gave you permission to sell these things?" 

me " I did, they are mine" 

Cop " do you have a license?" 

me "no, do I need one as these are my clothes?" 

cop " if you don't have a license ...   more »

Friends:

Cathy Buckle's weekly column, and a good lesson in basic economics.

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Dear Family and Friends,

There has been a nation wide shortage of petrol and diesel in the country  ever since the March elections which has now got so bad that it has bought  almost everything to a complete standstill. Petrol stations are either  completely dry and deserted or they are places where rumours of deliveries  are rife and unmoving queues of driverless vehicles snake away into the  distance. There may not be fuel for the everyday things like commuter  buses and delivery trucks but there is still diesel ...   more »

Here is Trudy Stevenson's excellent round up of the stats on the destruction going on inside Zimbabwe.

Jack Shepherd

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This Sunday 26 June the Catholic Church is calling all its churches to pray for the nation and to reflect on its Pastoral Letter, the Cry of the Poor, about Operation Murambatsvina.

I would like all Christians of whatever denomination to make a special point of attending church this weekend to pray for the victims of this ungodly operation, and to find ways of assisting those who are suffering through no fault of their own.

Statistics to hand indicate that as ...   more »

Friends:

This is one of the most difficult emails to read that I have sent to you. Yet those of you who have lived in developing states will recognize the shock, fear, outrage, sorrow in it, and the hope that Debi Jeans conveys. Please delete it if you are having a rough day. If you can, try to read all the way through it and maybe respond to Debi Jeans directly.

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"Education is the most powerful weapon
  which you can use to change the world."
  - Nelson Mandela -

One of the most tragic, inspiring and life-changing things ...   more »

Friends:

Another step in shutting down Zimbabwe to communications either inward or outward. Keep in mind that the country has no independent news sources at all EXCEPT outside TV news beamed in through these dishes, and random web servers.

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DSTV owners in trouble in Zimbabwe!DSTV owners in trouble in Zimbabwe!

Satellite television owners raided in blitz Police in Zimbabwe yesterday raided home owners with access to digital satellite television services in Bulawayo demanding to know the source of their subscription funds. The subscriptions are paid in foreign currency to the service provider. The police, who were accompanied by Reserve Bank ...   more »

Attached below is an excellent nationwide account of the forced dislocations taking place inside Zimbabwe.

I am sure that those of you who have been in this country, and know its people, join me in outrage and sorry at what is happening.

The following comes from somewhere inside Zimbabwe. You may want to receive the emails, but be warned that they are long and NETGO files 2-3 editions daily. It takes some sorting out.

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Independent, UK

Zimbabwe undercover: how Mugabe is burning opponents out of their homes

Our reporter watches covertly as the urban poor are driven into the  countryside ...   more »

These eye-witness accounts are compelling and offer a good way to double-check our own reporting. (See, for example, the front page of the NYTimes of 11 June 05.)

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Thursday 9 June 4.45 pm

I went out to Hatcliffe Extension this morning, accompanied by 3 friends, and met Fr William Guri (sorry, not Duri as I wrote initially) at New Stands. We spotted a couple of lorries from the distance, but could not see a heavy police presence. People were very subdued, sitting on or beside their belongings which appeared packed and ready to go. They reported that they had been ...   more »

Here is Cathy Buckle's weekly email from Zimbabwe. This week she describes the contrast between the luxuries surrounding President Mugabe's address to parliament, and the continuing destruction of homes in Harare and Bulawayo.

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Dear Family and Friends, 

On a clear and bright winter day this week, President Mugabe and his wife  Grace emerged from a spotless and sparkling open topped black Rolls Royce  outside Parliament buildings in Harare. Crowded at the fencing nearby were  scores of women who ululated fanatically whenever they caught a glimpse of  the President. They were all wearing skirts, dresses or head scarves which  have President ...   more »

A very strong eye-witness account of the violence in Harare.

Jack

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3:15 pm Friday 3 June as I write this a K6 jet of the Zimbabwe airforce has been circling the Western townships of Kambuzuma & Kwadazana for the past 30 minutes. It has made over 10 circled flights. At 3:20 pm it seems to have returned to its airbase.

This morning at 7:45am I witnessed the mass movement of armed riot police moving west wards along the main Bulawayo road towards the western townships.

There must have been 500+ or so police and plain clothes police, moving in marked ...   more »

I'm sending this to people I think may recognize some of the road markers and neighborhoods destroyed last week.

Is this making sense to anyone?

Jack

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Well I suppose nothing should surprise us after all but I have to say this  past 2 weeks has been something else.

I stood in D's office and watched the clouds of smoke over Mbare as the  destruction went on and had to pinch myself to remind myself that this was  the peoples government and not some foreign invasion which certainly was  what it looked like. Then the new Chinese jets flew over and and made the  illusion that we were under attack by some foreign force complete.

Then driving back the once thriving People's market on the Enterprise Road  with all its soapstone carvings and welded artifacts was being loaded by a  front end loader onto a truck the carvings smashed. This was a legal market  established by the City Fathers many many years ago. Why? this is the  question on everybody's lips. And who ordered it all? And why so vicious?

Pat Walsh's letter about Hatcliffe is a document that everybody should read.  Our local tomato and Avo supplier is now operating behind closed doors and C  knows where to go to to get the stuff. A cannot get his apples to his  biggest market, the vendors in Mbare, because there are no vendors in Mbare.

On my way back from Kent on Monday the Tongogara settlement was smoking.  This was a Zanu PF militant takeover of a farm which was squatted on in  2001. The little store called the 4th Chimurenga Store was no more and so  the regime is destroying its own. I have to say that I did not understand  the land grab as it made no sense but this is just madness and who knows  why this is going on.

Here is Cathy Buckle's weekly column. A stunning ending well worth the read.

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Dear Family and Friends,  For the last five years the Zimbabwe government have insisted that there  has not been a breakdown of law and order in the country. As the critics  talked of anarchy, a partisan police force and widespread lawlessness, the  government repeatedly disputed the claims saying they were all lies,  damned racist, colonialist lies. It is ironic that now, as Zimbabwe's  horizons are obscured by the smoke from a thousand fires, the police and  government say they are simply "restoring order" to Zimbabwe. Hello, did ...   more »

Friends:

This is a very tough read that brought tears to my eyes, which have seen a lot. But it does give an eye witness account of what took place last week in Harare and its impact on those people who always seem to be 'in the way" of tyranny.

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This letter is written by Sister Patricia Walsh of the Dominican Order of  the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe. Hatcliffe Extension

Family and Friends thank you for your telephone calls, your e-mails And all  your support and encouragement in these dreadful days and hours - it is A  great help.

The ...   more »

Here is Eddie Cross' weekly email , this about the destruction going on inside Zimbabwe.

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The Destruction of the Informal Sector.

In the past week the government of Zimbabwe has taken steps to destroy much  of what has become known throughout Africa as the informal sector. This  consists of about 3 million small-scale business enterprises - none of whom  are registered or pay direct taxes but which play a major part in the  nations economy.

There are 800 000 small scale peasant farmers and their families, but it is  in the cities where this kind of economic activity has thrived ...   more »

The lead piece is very worrisome. Mugabe is asset-stripping the country to pay for food and fuel.

Zim Online

Thirsty Harare offers Dubai firm mining concessions  Wed 1 June 2005

HARARE - The Zimbabwe government has offered a Dubai-based firm  lucrative mining concessions in return for a US$100 million loan facility to  import desperately needed fuel and food, sources disclosed yesterday.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono, tasked by  President Robert Mugabe to raise hard cash for fuel imports was leading the  negotiations with the Arab financier, Al Shams Building Trading Materials  LLC, according to the sources.

Energy ...   more »

I apologize for sending such a long postl, but I found comparing the eye-witness accounts inside Zimbabwe with the IRIN, Globe&Mail and Time Mag accounts here very interesting. It's worth the read.

The turmolil and destruction of businesses and homes, especially in the Mbare market area, is disheartening.

Jack Shepherd

Click on the link below to see pictures of the destruction in Hatcliffe  Extension

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/hatcliffe

Zim Online

Soldiers burn evicted residents' property, police ransank suburb  Tue 31 May 2005

MUTARE - Soldiers in Zimbabwe's eastern Mutare city yesterday  prevented homeless residents, whose makeshift dwellings were destroyed by  the government, from ...   more »

zimonline 

Police to use live ammo, army rolls into suburbs
  Sat 28 May 2005

HARARE ­ Armoured troop carriers yesterday patrolled several Harare suburbs  as the army was summoned to help suppress swelling public anger against an  ongoing government onslaught against informal traders and homeless people.  As soldiers descended on suburbs such as Glen Norah, Glen View and Mbare,  where police fought running battles with informal traders in the last week,  sources told ZimOnline that the police - who have led the evictions - were  under orders to use live ammunition against civilians attempting to resist   more »

Here is Cathy Buckle's weekly column. It details the plight of local Zimbabweans after the police clearing of their produce stalls, the bulldozing of their homes. Just at the time when one asks, "What could possibly happen next?", comes this despicable tragedy. I almost wrote "indescribable" -- except that Cathy Buckle describes it well, and in detail here.    more »