Zimbabwe Denies Harassing Opposition

June 6 (EIRNS)—Contrary to press reports, Zimbabwe authorities claim that MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was not arrested and detained by security agents June 4, according to the pro-government Zimbabwe Herald.

The Herald reports that Tsvangirai was part of a three-car caravan that was stopped at a routine roadblock, and it was found that one of the cars, which had South African plates, did not have the proper documentation. The vehicle's driver was asked to go to the nearest police station, but Tsvangirai's car and the other two cars were allowed to continue. Instead, they followed the problem vehicle to the police station. The police said that the false story was spread all over the Western press, that Tsvangirai had been prevented from campaigning, because he had been arrested.

The Herald also reports the claim that U.S. and U.K. diplomats were arrested, in a different light. The diplomats were also in three vehicles. When approached by police, the vehicles sped away, and when finally stopped at a roadblock, the occupants initially refused to talk to the police. The Herald reports that the vehicles were released after the occupants finally talked to police (although they didn't reveal the purpose of their visit to the area—the British press reports which had said they were arrested, claimed they were monitoring the area for government violence in the election campaign). The police said that if they had identified themselves, there wouldn't have been any problem.

The police, according to the Herald, said on June 4 that they have roadblocks all over the country, meant to curtail the movement of weapons being used in political violence. Routine searches at police roadblocks resulted in the arrest of three suspected MDC supporters who were carrying weapons suspected to have been used or destined for use in acts of political violence.

World Medical Association Rejects Attack on Zimbabwe

June 9 (EIRNS)—The World Medical Association passed a resolution May 17, "calling on all physicians to maintain the highest ethical standards," after listening to a report from Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZIMA) president Dr. Paul Chimedza, according to a May 17 WMA release. The resolution foiled efforts by the anti-government Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) to seek punitive actions against ZIMA, and thus, to augment ongoing efforts by the Anglo-Dutch financier cartel to turn Zimbabwe into a pariah state. The ZADHR had called on the WMA to take punitive action against the ZIMA for withholding medical treatment from victims of violence, and to put Zimbabwe on the world agenda for allegedly sponsoring post-election violence, according to yesterday's Zimbabwe Sunday Times.

In his address to the WMA Council meeting in Divonne-les-Bains, France, Chimedza said the "ZIMA was against all forms of violence perpetrated by whichever political party," and "the ZIMA would welcome a visit from a WMA delegation to see what was happening in the country," according to the WMA release. The ZADHR had written to the WMA claiming that Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr. David Parirenyatwa and senior ZIMA members were participating in and encouraging politically motivated violence. The Cambridge, Mass.-based Physicians for Human Rights organization is reporting the claims of ZADHR as true, and cites a British Guardian claim that Parirenyatwa was seen "brandishing a Kalashnikov rifle, and threatened to kill citizens if they did not vote for President Robert Mugabe in a second round of voting." ZADHR also sent their claims to the British Medical Association, according to the Sunday Times.

Upon receiving the ZADHR claims, the WMA summoned the ZIMA leadership to France to respond to the allegations. Chimedza reported to the WMA that the period before the March 29 election and the election itself had been very peaceful, and said, according to the Sunday Times "that the post-election violence experienced in different parts of Zimbabwe had not only affected opposition MDC members but had also seen Zanu-PF supporters being brutalised at the hands of the opposition." Chimedza challenged the ZADHR to produce evidence to support their claims, but nothing was forthcoming.

Because of the economic hardship that the financial warfare against Zimbabwe has inflicted on the population, ZIMA had been giving free treatment to the disadvantaged, and refurbished some medical facilities, reported the Sunday Times. But in what is being seen as a reaction to the ZIMA victory at the WMA meeting, the European Commission in Zimbabwe late last week terminated Chimedza's HIV/AIDS consultancy contract. The Commission's chargé d'affaires Sandra Goffin said in a letter: "We would like to inform you that we are terminating the above contract with immediate effect. No more services will be required from you. Please submit your final statement of account as per services rendered as of May 29, 2008."

Anglo-Dutch Plan To Force Out Mbeki and Destroy the ANC

June 6 (EIRNS)—Widespread calls for the removal of South African President Thabo Mbeki—from the British and U.S. press (Washington Post and New York Times), the South African labor movement, the South African Communist Party, and factional opponents of Mbeki in the ruling African National Congress (ANC)—were followed by a declaration by a British-connected South African journalist, that not only should Mbeki be dumped, but that he should be replaced by someone who is not presently a leading ANC contender.

The call was put forward by William Gumede, a South African journalist who does work for the Intelligence Unit of the London Economist, and is also a senior associate and Oppenheimer fellow at St. Anthony's College, Oxford. If the British plan he is advancing comes to fruition, the Anglo-Dutch financial cartel will not only succeed in destroying Mbeki's plans for the development of Africa, but, by destroying the ANC, will also eliminate any institutional capability in South Africa to resist Anglo-Dutch plans to grab all of Africa, as the world monetary system collapses.

Referring to the economic and political crisis in South Africa, Gumede claims that, "this is nothing but a national emergency, which calls for extraordinary steps. Parliament must be dissolved. Next year's general election must be brought forward to give the government a new mandate. Mbeki must step down as president immediately. The ANC must call a special national conference to make the leadership decision.... Because this is a national emergency, the ANC leadership must offer the job of South African president to ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, to ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa or to ANC national executive committee member Cyril Ramaphosa." He claims, "In sheer desperation, many want Zuma [who became president of the ANC last December, replacing Mbeki] to take over [as President] as quickly as possible. But, he maintains, "the opposition in and outside the ANC against Zuma is intense." He says that, "Zuma can remain the party's president," while "Motlanthe, Phosa and Ramaphosa represent a clear generational change—and a clean break from the two factions [Mbeki and Zuma] currently paralysing the government and ANC."

The proposal that the next South African President should be neither Mbeki nor Zuma, but someone from outside the then-leadership of the ANC, was publicized in 2007 by former ANC parliamentarian Andrew Feinstein, now living in London, in a book he wrote with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, After the Party: A Personal and Political Journey Inside the ANC, and was strongly hinted at in Gumede's own book, Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC, praised by the Economist.

In 2001, EIR reported that Mbeki had accused two of those named by Gumede—Ramaphosa and Phosa—and a third, Tokyo Sexwale, of plotting to overthrow him. At the time, Nelson Mandela demurred on pressing charges, fearing that the action would be too divisive for the ANC.

Kenya's Odinga Exposes Himself as Anglo-Dutch Agent

June 6 (EIRNS)—Former Kenyan opposition leader and presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, who became prime minister after two months of violence following a compromised election last December, revealed himself to be an Anglo-Dutch agent on June 4, at a World Economic Forum event in Capetown, South Africa.

According to reports from the conference, Odinga used precisely the code words used by the Anglo-Dutch to shift the blame for the abysmal economic conditions that their policies have created in Africa, onto the Africans themselves. Odinga said that the poor post-independence economic performance of African countries was because of bad governance. He didn't clarify whether he meant that governments were opposed to the free-trade policies that will send all of Africa into a worse-than-colonial Dark Age.

He called Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe a dictator, and criticized African leaders for not denouncing him. The Mugabe government has been attacked for resisting free-trade policies, among other things. Odinga sat next to Tendai Biti, the second in command of the Zimbabwe opposition party MDC. Mugabe has charged that the MDC is a reincarnation of the Rhodesian Front, with which the racist minority government of Ian Smith ran Rhodesia, with the complicity of the British.

At the conference, Odinga admitted that the two months of violence cost 1,500 lives, displaced 350,000 people. He said the violence probably was necessary. That Anglo-Dutch-manipulated violence, and intense pressure against the Kenyan government in media around the world, was used to force through a fragile power-sharing arrangement in Kenya, which created for Odinga the position of prime minister.