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LIFT ALL SANCTIONS SAYS SADC Zimbabwe the Truth

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ZIMBABWSponsored supplement Sponsored supplement LIFT ALL SANCTIONS SAYS SADC ZImbAbwe The TruTh 50 n New African May 2007 ZImbAbwe The TruTh Opposite: Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of one of the two factions of the MDC, in hospital after he and his colleagues had been assaulted by the police on 11 March Above: Constable Vusani Moyo in hospital. She is one of two policewomen who house was petrol-bombed at the Marimba Police Camp by suspected MDC activists on the night of 14 March. Her colleague, Constable Pretty Rushwaya, also received severe facial burns During the liberation war, the Selous Scouts, the most brutal arm of the Rhodesian security system, terrorised and destroyed black people and their villages. Its black battalion, which took active part in the destruction of their own people, was always led by white officers. Plus ça change When truth takes a holiday Since 11 March when – quotable quotes by MDC stalwarts some Zimbabwean talking about MDC violence that the opposition leaders, Western media refuses to report; and including Morgan welshman Ncube, secretary-general Tsvangirai (leader of of Mutambara’s MDC and once a close one of the two factions ally of Tsvangirai, detailing life in the of the country’s main MDC and why the party had to split opposition Movement because of Tsvangirai’s dictatorial for Democratic Change tendencies. Peter Mavunga, a – MDC – party), were assaulted by the UK-based Zimbabwean journalist, police, Western media reporting of comments on the British media’s the country and pronouncements by “froth and bubble” about Zimbabwe; Western governments have been so the US State Department admits in shrill that the truth has been lost in the an official report that the American thick envelope of hype. government is working for regime In the process, despite oft- change in Zimbabwe; and, to close this repeated claims by the Western section, a write-up on how Britain, media of objectivity and balance, the US and their allies have failed to get Zimbabwean government’s side of the Zimbabwe censured in the human story has been buried, caricatured, or, rights forums of the world. at best, ignored. On the economic front, It is in this context that I went Dr Tafataona Mahoso, head of looking for the truth in Zimbabwe. And Zimbabwe’s Media and Information how better to find it than allowing the Commission, gives an insight into the key figures in the country to speak history of Western economic sanctions for themselves. On the following 70 and how it affects Zimbabwe’s pages, we have Morgan Tsvangirai economy; I, (Baffour Ankomah), giving his version of what led to then take an indepth look at the the police assault on him and other punitive Zimbabwe Democracy and party leaders; George charamba, Economic Recovery Act passed by the a government spokesman, putting US Congress in 2001 which imposed the government’s side of the economic sanctions on Zimbabwe; story; Godwin T. Matanga, deputy and Dr Gideon Gono, governor of commissioner for police, telling the the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, (the police’s side of the story; and a BBc central bank), explains how Western anonymous eyewitness from the MDC sanctions are killing Zimbabwe’s side confirming that they fought with economy. the police on 11 March. We also have I went to Zimbabwe at the Prof Arthur Mumtabara, leader of invitation of the Zimbabwe the other faction of the MDC, giving his government, because it wanted reactions to the decisions of the SADC to tell its side of the story. But the summit in Tanzania. articles collated here were written Also on the menu is an eye- independently by their named opening analysis by David coltart, the authors, and in fact most had already MDC’s white member of parliament, been published. I have compiled telling how violence is endemic in them here so readers can gain a Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC; Trudy good understanding of what is really Stevenson, another MDC member happening in Zimbabwe. Welcome to of parliament, describing how it Zimbabwe: The Truth. feels to be on the wrong side of the MDC leadership; the MDc on MDc Baffour Ankomah May 2007 New African n 53.
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