LONDON - We gathered as news broke of a police raid on an MDC house in Harare looking for weapons. We have been there before. Zanu (PF) was predictably trying to produce a red herring before the SADC Troika meeting in Harare on Thursday. It knows any pretext will work with SADC. (Pictured: The rain held off for another successful vigil)The Vigil remains convinced there will be no solution in Zimbabwe until South Africa acts. There is little evidence that this is on the cards at present. But as the situation worsens and the World Cup approaches perhaps this will change.
A telling confession of deception came from the MDC itself at a news conference addressed by Tendai Biti on Thursday. He admitted that the party had been telling lies about so-called progress made by the coalition government. One of the most alarming comments in this statement is that there is a resurgence of violence in most areas across the country.
We in the UK have rather more mundane problems to deal with. The Vigil was interested to see that a Zimbabwean asylum seeker has been jailed for 3 years by Leeds Crown Court for his part in a fraud which cost banks about 1 million. We recognised his name Sonny Chibuwe because he wrote an article attacking the Vigil and Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR) which was published on the Zimeye website on 21st June.
On the basis of no evidence whatsoever he blamed us for the booing of Morgan Tsvangirai at Southwark Cathedral when the Prime Minister called on the diaspora to return home because all was now well. The Vigil and ROHR did not orchestrate anything; our presence there was to draw attention to human rights failings in Zimbabwe. The judge in the Chibuwe case said the sentence meant Chibuwe was now liable for deportation. We know recommendations like this sometimes fall by the wayside so we are sending a copy of this piece to the UK Border Agency to book his ticket. After all, in his article, Chibuwe supported enthusiastically the Prime Ministers call for people to return home to start rebuilding Zimbabwe. He can start with the banks.
All in all we at the Vigil had both good and bad developments. First the bad: the Water Board has taken over most of our space to repair their sewers so Zimbabwe House doesnt get cholera. Now the good news: despite all threats the rain held off. We were very vulnerable because we couldnt have put up our tarpaulin. Another good thing was a new placard brought by Francesca Toft quoting the Kenyan Prime Minister Odingas comment: In Zimbabwe Mr Mugabe is not part of the solution to the political problem; he himself is the problem. Francescas parents, Sue and Alfred, organised a service for Zimbabwe at St Marys, Speldhurst, Kent, borrowing one of the Vigil drums. Sue led the prayers including one that Mugabe should see the error of his ways.
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