wegian girl studying in London who was interested in the similarities between Zimbabwe and Burma. Fortunately we had Vigil supporter Chipo Chaya, who is herself a student here, to help them. Our new front table collapsed because of the crush.
Another visitor was Patrick Durlat of Refugees International based in Washington. He is going to countries around Zimbabwe later this week to investigate the refugee situation at border crossings. He is coming through London on his return and we invited him to report back to the Vigil.
We learnt today from an insider that staff at the Embassy have not been paid for eight months. Our source said people were making do by doing odd jobs. We suspect they are doing more than this. There are plenty of ways that diplomats, being able to pass freely through border controls, can make a good living and we are told by another source that there is certainly no shortage of mbanje in Luton, where there are many Zimbabweans.
As one of our supporters said “it is not so much an axis of evil as an axis of petty crime”. He was referring to the story told to us by a man who passed by the Vigil today. He said he had just been released from prison in Latvia where he had met a Cameroonian who was serving 20 years for dealing in counterfeit US dollars emanating from North Korea. The Cameroonian said the money had been given to him by Zimbabwean diplomats in Abu Dhabi and Canada. We intend to hand over five names to the American police.
For this week’s Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR THE RECORD: 95 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
– Saturday, 13th October, 2 – 6 pm. Zimbabwe Vigil’s 5th Anniversary followed by a social event at RampART Creative Centre and Social Space, 15-17 Rampart Street, London E1 2LA.