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.
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 Mugabe's face printed on the fabric and so wherever we looked the President's face looked back. In his speech to mark the opening of Parliament, the President defended the countrywide destruction of squatter camps, informal housing and street vending stalls and markets. The President said this was a "vigorous clean up campaign to restore order" in urban areas. Half an hour later the President and his wife left in their convertible Rolls preceded and proceeded by shiny limousines containing men wearing dark glasses, ear pieces and black suits, and trucks filled with soldiers in yellow berets. The large chested women in their portrait decorated clothes left and that was the end of that view of Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, in the same week, same country and same town, a very different picture was being seen. I quote from the report by opposition MP Trudy Stevenson: "This afternoon police set fire to furniture and other belongings of those Hatcliffe Extension residents who had not yet managed to leave - despite the fact that there were not enough police lorries to ferry all the people away to Caledonia Farm by the time they started burning. My suspicion is that they simply got tired, and decided to finish quickly by burning out everyone remaining - babies, sick, elderly, crippled, etc. included. As I write, I have no idea how many people have lost everything they possessed, nor do I know what has happened to those people. It was reported that they were told by the police that they had taken too long to leave, and now they would have to go in the lorries simply in the clothes they were wearing, nothing else - no food, no clothes, no furniture."
In another report, the chairman of the Harare Residents Association writes: "If you take a drive to the north tonight you will see on the side of the roads out towards Domboshawa, as many as 10 000 people just camping in the open."
For three weeks now we have been surrounded by horror in Zimbabwe. Ordinary people have become helpless pawns, at the mercy of state officials who bundle them into lorries and take them away. It is happening in towns all over the country. Since the closure of Short Wave Radio Africa 11 days ago, there has been no way for ordinary people to tell the world of the hell that is overtaking them. Night after night we despairingly search along the short wave frequencies hoping to hear what was our only voice but it is gone. We can find only religious channels or Chinese ones but our Zimbabwean voices are lost and we despair. If you are an exiled Zimbabwean or simply someone who cares please help give us back our voice. Until next week, the website is www.swradioafrica.com. With love, cathy Copyright cathy buckle 11th June 2005