Weekly anb05178.txt #8

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 17-05-2001      PART #8/8

* Zimbabwe. Government stops repayment of all foreign debts  -  The 
government has stopped repayments of all foreign loans, including those 
owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and is using the little 
foreign currency that trickles into Zimbabwe to meet payments for fuel and 
electricity imports, authoritative financial sources said this week. The 
government owes more than US $4.5 billion to several multilateral 
institutions and Western countries. These include the African Development 
Bank, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, the United States of 
America, Britain, France Germany and Finland. The government's domestic 
debt stands at more than $123 billion. While in the past year the 
government had struggled to meet its debt obligations, with repayments to 
some creditors being halted last year, it had maintained payments to the 
IMF. Top foreign and local financial officials this week said Harare had 
now virtually frozen all debt servicing in yet another sign of its rapidly 
deteriorating economic and foreign currency crises. Defaulting on IMF debt 
is the last step that is taken only by the most financially desperate of 
governments. Nations strive to keep a clean record with the IMF because 
international investors and donors first consider the Bretton Woods 
institution's credit rating on a country before doing business with 
it.   (Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe, 10 May 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Paiement de la dette suspendu  -  Le Zimbabwe a suspendu le 
paiement de ses dettes contractées avec des pays occidentaux et les 
institutions financières, d'un montant total de 4,5 milliards de dollars. 
Il a même interrompu la restitution des prêts concédés par le FMI, une 
mesure jamais adoptée dans le passé. Selon des observateurs indépendants, 
ce gel du remboursement des dettes est un très grave signal de crise, 
confirmant l'existence d'une situation qui se détériore rapidement. La 
croissance de l'économie du Zimbabwe en 2001 devrait encore être négative; 
on prévoit une chute de 10%, après une perte de 6 points l'année 
passée.   (Misna, Italie, 11 mai 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Pas de financement extérieur des partis  -  Le Zimbabwe qui 
accuse la Grande-Bretagne et d'autres pays européens de s'immiscer dans ses 
affaires internes, a promulgué une loi interdisant aux partis politiques de 
recevoir des financements de source étrangère. La loi sur le financement 
des partis politiques, adoptée le 11 mai, rend illégale la sollicitation et 
l'acceptation par les formations politiques de financements étrangers, et 
prévoit de lourdes pénalités, notamment la suspension. Le gouvernement 
accuse les pays européens de financer des partis d'opposition afin de faire 
tomber le président Mugabe.   (PANA, Sénégal, 12 mai 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Canada suspends aid to Zimbabwe  -  Canada has suspended new 
development aid to Zimbabwe in protest over the deteriorating political 
situation in that country. Foreign Minister John Manley says his country is 
particularly upset about a recent incident in which a senior Canadian aid 
official and the country's high commissioner were involved in a scuffle 
with militants in Zimbabwe. Ottawa protested that incident but now Mr 
Manley says there was no relevant response from Harare and so Canada is 
immediately suspending new aid development in Zimbabwe. "We regret that the 
lack of rule of law, which has long affected the people of Zimbabwe, is now 
having a direct impact on Canadian citizens. This means we must re-examine 
our aid relations with Zimbabwe," Mr Manley said in a statement. Credit 
from the Canadian Export Development Corporation has been halted and the 
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has also suspended a 
mining development deal and will not begin any new programmes in the 
country. Canada is also barring soldiers from Zimbabwe from the 
peace-keeping training it offers. With these moves the Canadian Government 
is saying it is very concerned about what is happening in Zimbabwe. Junior 
Foreign Minister David Kilgour says withdrawing aid is a painful thing for 
Canada to do. But the breakdown of the rule of law in the country, he says, 
has spawned a situation that Canadians simply cannot accept.   (BBC News, 
UK, 12 May 2001)

* Zimbabwe. MDC forced into hiding  -  Zimbabwe's beleaguered opposition 
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has been forced to take much of its 
political activity "underground" to avoid the violence of a government 
widening its net of repression and terror to attack diplomats and aid 
workers. There have been assaults on the press and the judiciary by a 
government desperate to cling to power at any price. Now its tyranny has 
extended to diplomats, aid workers and private companies. The MDC 
president, Morgan Tsvangirai, told The Independent the party had scaled 
down public shows of strength such as political rallies, because of the 
risk of sparking violence between its supporters and those of President 
Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party. "We have gone quiet to organise 
ourselves on the ground," Mr Tsvangirai said. The party has initiated a 
"whispering campaign" of one-to-one political education - a strategy 
reminiscent of underground movements in totalitarian regimes holding 
rallies only when there seems no danger to supporters. A jittery diplomatic 
corps met the government last week to express concern for the safety of 
staff after veterans threatened to raid foreign missions and agencies that 
they believe support the MDC.   (The Independent, UK, 14 May 2001)

* Zimbabwe. UK "spied" on Zimbabwe over Congo RDC  -  The official 
Zimbabwean press has accused Britain of using a spy network of 
environmentalists and journalists to discredit Zimbabwe's military 
involvement in Democratic Republic of Congo. The Zimbabwean army 
controversially deployed in Congo in 1998 in support of the late president 
Laurent Kabila's fight against rebel groups in the east of the country. Its 
continued presence at a time when the Zimbabwean economy is in crisis has 
aroused suspicion that it is protecting Zimbabwean economic interests in 
the country. Agents posing as environmentalists and journalists were 
gathering information on Zimbabwe's logging and mining interests after a UN 
panel "exonerated" Zimbabwe and its army of looting in the Congo, the 
state-owned Herald newspaper said. "A number of espionage teams are in the 
country and the Democratic Republic of Congo on a British mission to 
discredit Zimbabwe and the findings of the United Nations," the Herald 
reported. Britain denied the report. "There is no substance whatsoever to 
this story," a British foreign office spokesman said. The allegations are 
evidence of antagonism between Zimbabwe and the former colonial power, 
which worsened over illegal farm invasions last year. A UN Security Council 
fact-finding mission is scheduled to tour Congo and the region this month. 
It would visit Zimbabwe on May 21. A United Nations report, issued last 
month, said foreign interests, including those representing Rwanda, Uganda 
and Burundi, in Congo were systematically plundering the country of its 
rich natural assets while it was in a state of civil war. Meanwhile, a 
Danish chewing gum manufacturer in Harare said on 13 May it had halted 
production in Zimbabwe as a result of threats on its factory by 
militants.   (Financial Times, UK, 14 May 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Sanctions canadiennes  -  Le 13 mai, le gouvernement du 
Zimbabwe a trouvé "regrettable" la décision du Canada de lui imposer des 
sanctions: suspension de l'aide au développement, fin du financement des 
exportations, arrêt d'une aide à la protection de l'environnement, 
confirmation de l'interdiction de vente d'équipements militaires et fin de 
la formation des militaires zimbabwéens à des opérations de paix. Ottawa a 
décidé ces sanctions après que le directeur canadien de l'ONG Care 
International avait été enlevé par des "vétérans" de la guerre 
d'indépendance, en réalité une milice du parti du président Mugabe. 
L'ambassadeur canadien, qui avait tenté de venir en aide à son concitoyen, 
a été malmené par cette milice.   (La Libre Belgique, 15 mai 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Problems set aside for festival  -  Against all odds the third 
Harare International Festival of the Arts has just been hosted in 
Zimbabwe's capital city. The country is beset by problems - recently fuel 
queues have disappeared because there is now no fuel and "war veterans" 
have transferred the terror techniques they perfected in the rural areas to 
the cities, targeting white-owned businesses and NGO's in particular. Just 
down the road at the ruling Zanu-PF party headquarters, terrified company 
managers are being 're-educated' into handing over millions of dollars. Yet 
none of this disturbed the carnival atmosphere at the arts festival where 
black and white Zimbabweans mingled with those few tourists and artists 
willing to brave Robert Mugabe's third "chimurenga" or struggle. The 
festival opened with the music of Duke Ellington, and ended with two 
concerts - one by the most prominent protest singer still left in the 
country, Oliver Mutukudzi, and the other by gospel singers including 
Mechanic Manyeruke. Mr Manyeruke had himself been threatened by "war 
veterans" just a week earlier when he led a May Day rally in prayer. Many 
of the festival entries, especially the dance and music, were not in the 
least controversial, the political content was most evident in the theatre. 
The Amakhosi Theatre Group from Bulawayo, known for addressing national 
issues, presented a play about the land conflict entitled "Witnesses and 
Victims".   (BBC News, UK, 16 May 2001)

weekly anb0517.txt - #8/8
THE END


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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie 
(W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature) - Everytime somebody keep silent when 
faced with tyranny, someone else dies (Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for 
Literature) *
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