Catch up

Thank you to all who have stayed in touch while I have been out of the country and out of contact with the Blog news.

I have done a copy paste to catch you all up with what has been going on in Zimbabwe.
ALSO GO TO lINKS AND READ CATHY'S LETTERS

I am reluctant to put all our news down and the work being done inside the country for fear of work being stopped. Let me say though that the children are being fed and cared for to the best of everyone's ability. The financial situation has reached crisis point . Now 10 o"s have been knocked off the end of the currency value what was $100,000,000,00.00 is now $1 HOW DO YOU WORK THAT OUT. !!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME SUE

News Briefs
Thursday, 31 July 2008 07:28
BY STAFF REPORTERS

Abductions of opposition continues

HARARE - Violence against Zimbabwean opposition members continued last
week even as power-sharing talks got under way between the ruling Zanu (PF)
and MDC, sources said on July 25.

Soldiers and suspected Zanu (PF) militia abducted two MDC drivers in
the Buhera South constituency of eastern Manicaland province this week who
had gone there to transport victims of earlier political violence to
hospitals for medical care.

Provincial MDC spokesman, Pishai Muchauraya, that local activists
sought assistance from the ZRP, but police officers told them that their
hands were tied in the matter.

MDC officials said they were trying to establish the identities of 60
individuals whose bodies remained unclaimed at a Harare hospital and who are
believed to be opposition members slain in post-election violence. Though
the hospital occasionally receives unidentified bodies, MDC officials said
they fear some of the bodies now in the mortuary could be those of activists
who went missing in the approach to and the aftermath of the June 27 run-off
election.

MDC Home Affairs Secretary Sam Sipepa Nkomo said it had not been easy
to make identifications as some bodies have been mutilated or badly
burned. - VOA

Forced to drink Chinese-manufactured herbicide

MDC activists forced to drink poison

CHIWESHE - Soldiers and Zanu (PF) militia forced MDC activists to
drink Paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide used for weed control.

Hilton Chironga suffered horrific facial injuries, described as
corrosive burns, caused by the Chinese herbicide when he, together with his
mother, his sister and a neighbour were forced to drink it at a militia base
at Tetra farm.

Shingi Nyoni, an investigator into human rights abuses, told us
Hilton's brother Gibson was shot dead by the militia the same day he was
forced to consume poison. Two other people died in the same attack.

'Hilton and his mother are currently admitted at a hospital in Harare.
One other person identified as Madamombe died from the poison. To date he
only takes liquids, milk and soup and is in constant pain,' Nyoni said.

Paraquat is highly toxic if swallowed and as little as one teaspoonful
of the active ingredient is fatal. Death occurs up to 30 days after
ingestion.

Apart from forcing people to drink the herbicide, the militia and
soldiers inflicted serious injuries on others by dipping their knobkerries
and sticks into Paraquat, before beating their victims.

'To make matters worse, most of these victims are not getting any help
from the government to deal with their injuries. They need specialized
medicines and doses for their wounds and treatment,' Nyoni said. - SW Radio
Africa

More MDC activists abducted, tortured

MANICALAND - Two MDC activists, Witness Maambire, the then Chief
Election agent to Samuel Muzerengwa (MDC senator for Buhera) and a friend,
were abducted at gun point by Colonel Morgan Mzilikazi at Chapanduka
Business Centre on July 24. The MP elected for the area, Naison Nemadziwa,
had to run into the mountains for his safety.

The three had gone to fetch 17 MDC activists who were tortured on July
17. When they parked at Chapanduka Business Centre, Colonel Morgan
Mzilikazi and a number of armed militia came to the MDC truck and abducted
Witness Maambire and his colleague at gunpoint.

It is not clear whether Witness Maambire and his colleague were taken
to a torture camp at Jori or other torture camps around Buhera. The
whereabouts and safety of the MP are also not known. The injured 17 people
are also still in Buhera.

Meanwhile, in Buhera South, Wilson Jori (65) from Ward 28, Chief
Nyashanu, was fined eight goats and 18 chickens for being an MDC sympathiser
before being severely assaulted and tortured after he was forced to attend a
Zanu (PF) rally on July 17.

Jori said Zanu (PF) militias forced people to attend a ' victory
celebration meeting'. It was during the meeting that the militias demanded
the goats and chickens from all MDC sympathisers and later beat them
severely on their back and buttocks using electrtric cables, wire, logs and
sjambocks, 'to be certain that they have rejoined Zanu (PF).'

Among the militias were Peter Madangure, Musi Chikobvore, Benson
Mandizha, Tungamirai Matanga, Peter Chatikobo, Kuda Murove, Muchuru Mazenge,
Akira Munamati and Zanu (PF) losing chancellor candidate, Boas Chimombe.

Jori has since been living in agony without medication.

There are more than 20 MDC activists who have deeper wounds and are
developing maggots as the Zanu (PF) militias are denying them freedom to
travel to seek treatment.

US steps up pressure on Mugabe junta
BY STAFF REPORTER

HARARE - The U.S. government has widened its targeted sanctions list
to include seventeen companies linked to President Robert Mugabe's regime
and one individual alleged to be helping the Mugabe regime pillage mineral
wealth in the DRC.

A statement sent to The Zimbabwean from the US state department of the
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) says 17 entities,
including several Zimbabwean parastatals, and one individual whose support
for Robert Mugabe's regime contributes to the undermining of democratic
processes and institutions in Zimbabwe have been designated.

"In light of the continued intransigence of the brutal Mugabe regime,
the U.S. is imposing further sanctions against this regime and its
supporters," said OFAC Director, Adam J. Szubin. "These actions send a clear
warning to those who would protect Mugabe and his assets at the expense of
the Zimbabwean people."

The designations include a number of Zimbabwean parastatals and
entities that are owned or controlled by the Government of Zimbabwe. Mugabe,
his senior officials, and regime cronies have used these entities to
illegally siphon revenue and foreign exchange from the Zimbabwean people,
Szubin said.

The US Treasury's designations include the Minerals Marketing
Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), the sole marketing and export agent for all
minerals, except gold and silver, mined in Zimbabwe; the Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation (ZMDC), involved in investment in the mining
industry in Zimbabwe, and in planning, coordinating and implementing mining
projects on behalf of the Government of Zimbabwe; the Zimbabwe Iron and
Steel Company (ZISCO), Zimbabwe's largest steel works; the Agricultural
Development Bank of Zimbabwe (Agribank), a commercial bank owned by the
Government of Zimbabwe; the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe
Ltd, a state-owned enterprise that owns a large number of companies
operating in the industrial sector, including the chemical, clothing and
textiles, mineral processing, and motor and transport sectors; the
Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe, a financing entity; Zimre
Holdings Limited, an investment and reinsurance entity; ZB Financial
Holdings Limited, a holding company for a group of companies involved in
commercial and merchant banking; and four major subsidiaries of ZB Financial
Holdings Limited: ZB Bank Limited (Zimbank), ZB Holdings Limited,
Intermarket Holdings Limited, and Scotfin Limited.

Also designated is Thamer Bin Saeed Ahmed Al-Shanfari, an Omani
national with close ties to Mugabe and his top officials, as well as his
company, Oryx Natural Resources, which Al-Shanfari uses to enable Mugabe and
his senior officials to maintain access to, and derive personal benefit
from, various mining ventures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

OFAC has also designated Operation Sovereign Legitimacy (OSLEG), an
enterprise that is a commercial arm of the Zimbabwean army representing its
interests in the DRC and elsewhere, and which is controlled by various
senior officials in Zimbabwe. The activities of OSLEG and Al-Shanfari's Oryx
Natural Resources, benefiting Mugabe and his regime's senior officials, have
been widely documented by various non-governmental and human rights
organizations.

OFAC said it had also designated the following companies that are
owned or controlled by a number of Specially Designated Nationals: Divine
Homes, a property company whose Chairman is David Chapfika, Zimbabwe's
Deputy Minister of Agriculture; COMOIL (Pvt) Ltd., a petroleum importing
company, owned by Saviour Kasukuwere, Zimbabwe's Deputy Minister of Youth
Development and Employment Creation; and Famba Safaris, a registered
Zimbabwean safari operator, whose Director and major shareholder is Webster
Shamu, Minister of State for Policy Implementation.

"As a result of Treasury's action, any assets of the individual and
entities designated today that are within U.S. jurisdiction must be frozen,"
Szubin said. "Additionally, U.S. persons are prohibited from conducting
financial or commercial transactions with the individual or entities."