You Are My Witnesses: Thugs Attack Mothers Union Meeting

Ruth Gledhill – Times Online – WBLG: Zimbabwe: The devil came late today.

Ruth Bakare, wife of the interim bishop of Harare, was the main speaker at a Mother’s Union meeting at an Anglican church in Zimbabwe. Over 3200 women had arrived for the day’s activities and Mrs. Bakare was partway through her talk, which included commentary on a text from Isaiah, “You are my witnesses.” The Mother’s Union is one of those Anglican bodies that evokes images of ladies drinking tea and enjoying a nice day out with educational speakers and fun activities. Not a rout with bully boys (and one bully girl) intent on breaking the meeting up. Part of the context is political, and part of it is that the thugs were apparently there on behalf of the deposed former bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, who’s a major ally of Robert Mugabe’s.

Half way through my address I saw a truck with riot police drive into the yard towards the crowd in a rather aggressive way. I asked Vimbai whether I should continue and she advised me to ignore them. So I did.

And just as I said in my address: “What have we not seen” (or witnessed in today’s Zimbabwe), the second truckload of police arrived, and a policeman came to the front of the tent where I was and requested us to leave immediately. The women started saying a last prayer, and many were shedding tears. Then they began to disperse one by one, with some older ladies on walking sticks trotting behind.

The Bishop and I took our time leaving and followed other women who were driving out of the gate. Most of the women had gathered just outside the church grounds by the gate and were now singing hymns on top of their voices. When our car went out of the gate, it was like a “triumphant exit from Jerusalem”, the way the women responded – was it joy or anger?

Certainly they sounded happy and confident and some were saying, “The devil came late today. After all we had nearly finished our day.” When they saw me moved to tears at their singing and cheering us, they called to me “Musatye” (don’t be afraid”), and indeed I was not, carried by so much joy and love and hope.

I knew that what we are going through is only for a while. “We shall overcome!”

Please Don’t Send Lawyers, Guns and Money

Rift Over Zimbabwe Unity Plan – New York Times

But on Wednesday, The Herald, the state-run newspaper often used as a mouthpiece for Mr. Mugabe and the ruling party, described the country’s political dynamics as “so distorted that holding a free and fair election runoff in the immediate term is literally impossible.”

Swiftly disavowing that position, Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told the BBC on Wednesday that the editorial had not been sanctioned by the government, and that the ruling party, ZANU-PF, was still gearing up for a runoff.

Hey, here’s a handy definition of electioneering, ZANU-PF style:

 Gearing up for a runoff: waiting for the arms shipment to evade the ever-widening sanctions.

The ruling ZANU-PF better lawyer up as well, as the MDC’s own election lawyers are a pretty tough bunch (as they’d have to be). And Zim needs someone to pony up the funds as well, as their finances are on the “print more money” model of economics. They probably don’t have the forex (foreign exchange) to pay for this, either.

It’s actually somewhat heartening to note that there might be fractures appearing within party ranks; a monolithic dictatorship is only strong as long as it’s in one piece.

Rezko and…Rove???

GOP heavyweights reportedly tried to oust Fitzgerald — chicagotribune.com
In a bombshell disclosure before testimony began this morning in the Antoin “Tony” Rezko trial, a federal prosecutor said a former Rezko confidant was prepared to say that another friend of Rezko was attempting to pull strings with White House political director Karl Rove to fire U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald and kill his investigation into Rezko.