Exclusive: secret film reveals how Mugabe stole an election

• The Guardian,
• Saturday July 5, 2008
• Article history

Link to this video

A film that graphically shows how Robert Mugabe's supporters rigged Zimbabwe's election has been smuggled out of the country by a prison officer. It is believed to be the first footage of actual ballot-rigging and comes as Zimbabwe's president faces growing international pressure.

Shepherd Yuda, 36, fled the country this week with his wife and children. He said that he hoped the film, which was made for the Guardian, would help draw further attention to the violence and corruption in Zimbabwe. Much of the footage was shot inside the country's notorious jail system. Yuda, who has worked in the prison service for 13 years, was motivated by the intensifying violence directed towards the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the murder, two months ago, of his uncle, a MDC activist. Initially he intended to chronicle secretly what life was like inside Zimbabwe's jails but he found himself present when a war veteran and Mugabe supporter organised the vote-rigging by getting prison officers to fill in their postal ballots in his presence. Using a hidden camera, Yuda filmed for six days prior to last Friday's run-off election in which Mugabe claimed victory with 90% of the vote. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, had earlier said his party would not be participating in the run-off because of intimidation. "I had never seen that kind of violence before," said Yuda, of the run-up to the election. "How can a government that claimed to be democratically elected kill its people, murder its people, torture its people?"

The film, made for Guardian Films, shows how Yuda and his colleagues at Harare central jail had to fill in their ballots in front of Zanu-PF activists. Yuda also obtained footage of Zanu-PF rallies where voters were told they should pretend to be illiterate so that an official could fill in their ballot for them on behalf of Mugabe. He was able to film the MDC's general secretary, Tendai Biti, in leg irons in jail. Biti, now on bail, faces treason charges which carry the death penalty. Having completed filming, Yuda left Zimbabwe with his family for a new life and is now at a secret destination. "I don't regret doing this, although it is a painful decision I have taken," he said. "We can live without the memories of seeing dead bodies in the prison, dead bodies in the street, dead bodies in my family. "I've lost my uncle. My father was also beaten by Zanu-PF. I am praying to God: please God deal with Zanu-PF ruthlessly."

Mugabe has now been sworn in for a sixth term as Zimbabwe's president, a process which Tsvangirai described as "a complete joke". More than 130,000 voters spoiled their ballot papers in the election. International pressure is mounting against Mugabe. It emerged yesterday that a US draft resolution to the UN will call for sanctions against Mugabe and demand that his government immediately begin talks with the MDC. If adopted by the Security Council, the resolution would freeze the financial assets of Mugabe and 11 other Zimbabwean officials and ban them from travelling.
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Film of Zimbabwe 'Vote-Rigging'

The film alleges there was no secrecy in votes for Robert Mugabe

New evidence of vote-rigging in last month's presidential election in Zimbabwe has emerged in the form of a secret film made by a prison guard.
The guard, Shepherd Yuda, filmed the vote-rigging at his jail in a production for Guardian Films. Prison officers, including Mr Yuda, who has now fled Zimbabwe, were forced to vote for President Robert Mugabe by superior officers. The officers organised a postal ballot and stood over them as they cast votes. Mr Yuda decided to speak out after the murder of his uncle, an opposition activist, two months ago. He knew he and his family would have to leave Zimbabwe as a result.

"This election: I have never seen that type of violence," he says in the film. The impact has left a lot of orphans; it has left a lot of people displaced. You cannot expect that from your government." He secretly filmed a war veteran, Superintendent Shambira, watching as prison officers voted. Supt Shambira ensured they marked their ballots for Robert Mugabe, and not the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai. Supt Shambira then logged each vote against an identification number. There was no secrecy. All those voting knew Supt Shambira had the power to condemn them as MDC supporters. Mr Yuda says he had no choice but to vote for Robert Mugabe. Mr Yuda also spoke to voters on the streets of Harare. "They're standing right in front of you when you cast your vote," one voter told Mr Yuda. "They watch." The voter went on: "Shambira definitely sees you vote - there's no way of hiding it. I was thinking I could vote when he wasn't looking, but he was watching like a hawk."

Among the prisoners is Tendai Biti, a prominent opposition MP and human-rights lawyer. Mr Yuda filmed him having his leg-irons removed for a court hearing. Mr Biti, who is awaiting trial on treason charges, was released on bail, but could still face execution.

Mr Mugabe won the run-off election after the opposition pulled out

"You know, I was so touched: for a man of his status to be reduced to such levels, to be put in a criminal institution," Mr Yuda says in the film. "It's very, very sad." Mr Yuda also captured conversations between prison guards in the run-up to the 27 June run-off election, as tension was increasing. "In my area, there's a lot of tension," one guard tells him. "Zanu-PF (ruling party) thugs came to my house as soon as I left for work today. They abducted my wife. They took her to the base." These "bases" are springing up in private houses all over Harare. Previously they were a feature of rural Zimbabwe; now they have reached the capital. Ordinary people are abducted and compelled to attend Zanu-PF re-education rallies. "I am forced to go and guard these bases all through the night, after my shift here," another prison officer says. "They cordon off the whole street: it becomes a no-go area. These people are killers, the thugs that Zanu-PF are using." And another guard says the rest of the world should do more to help Zimbabwe. "It's in the hands of the international community now," he says. "[South African President] Thabo Mbeki has betrayed us. He didn't want to come down hard on Mugabe. Instead, he kept going on and on about pan-Africanism."

On election day itself, Mr Yuda films a woman who is so fearful that she has pretended to have voted. She colours her little finger with a pink marker, hoping to simulate the ink used to identify those who have already cast their ballots. The day after Robert Mugabe's election, Shepherd Yuda and his family began packing, preparing to leave Zimbabwe. Their lives would have been in danger if they had stayed. They can only begin to think about returning once Mr Mugabe has gone.
By Alix Kroeger
BBC News
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A Fearful Day in Zimbabwe

Election Day in Zimbabwe - Courtesy of NY Times
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Congolese Politician Goes Before International Court

Jean-Pierre Bemba, a senator and former militia leader accused of war crimes, appeared in court in The Hague on Friday.
THE HAGUE July 5th. (NY Times)— When Jean-Pierre Bemba, a rich and powerful Congolese politician, visited his family in Brussels in late May, he had no inkling that he would be grabbed by the Belgian police, thrown in jail and put before an international tribunal. His arrest warrant had been kept secret by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. On Friday, Mr. Bemba, a former vice president and still a sitting senator in Congo, made his first appearance in court. Mr. Bemba, once a rebel leader, has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a 2002-2003 campaign by his forces fighting to Congo’s north in the Central African Republic. Mr. Bemba, who lost Congo’s pivotal presidential election in 2006, is the most senior suspect now in the custody of the court, which holds three other Congolese accused of large-scale human rights violations.

The prosecution is expected to focus on sexual violence, charging that Mr. Bemba’s fighters gang-raped women of all ages in public places, infecting many of them with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Prosecutors contend that the fighters also tortured and pillaged, leaving victims dead, wounded or traumatized. Human rights groups have long said that Mr. Bemba’s militiamen were aiding the Central African Republic’s president at the time, Ange-Félix Patassé, whose forces terrorized civilians in retribution for a coup attempt. During the short hearing on Friday, Mr. Bemba was not asked to enter a plea, but he has denied the charges. He waved to his wife in the court’s public gallery and was asked by the court only to confirm his identity and the conditions of his detention. “The conditions are not the best, not what I had hoped for,” said Mr. Bemba, who gave his occupation as “senator.”

Mr. Bemba, 45, is a scion of a prominent Congolese family with a large business empire. He is still an important opposition figure with a considerable following, even though before being arrested he had spent the past year in Portugal. He had fled Congo amid clashes between his forces and the government. At home, his angry supporters have denounced the court in The Hague. In Brussels, Congolese immigrants have protested his arrest on the streets, wearing T-shirts adorned with Mr. Bemba’s photograph. This week the office of the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, had a serious setback in another case linked to Congo.

On Wednesday, judges ordered the release of another Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, just as his trial was about to begin. It was to have been the very first trial since the permanent criminal court was created in 2002. Judges ruled that mishandling of the evidence by the prosecutor’s office meant that Mr. Lubanga could not receive a fair trial. The prosecution has appealed the decision, and Mr. Lubanga will have to stay in the court’s prison in The Hague while the appeal is considered. The Lubanga episode has prompted surprise and discomfort in the large legal community of this city. It also cast a shadow over this week’s marking of the 10th anniversary of the Rome Statute, which created the court.
By MARLISE SIMONS
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Vatican Votes To Elevate Father Damien To Sainthood

July 2nd: - The Congregation of the Causes of Saints at the Vatican has voted to canonize Father Damien of Molokai to sainthood. After the verification of two medical miracles, after decades of investigation into the life and works of Damien De Veuster, the Consisterie at the Vatican has at long last voted to elevate the Martyr of Molokai to its Pantheon of Saints. The measure now awaits the signature of Pope Benedict XVI. "People are very excited because they know he was a great person and role model, and that is the most important thing of the sanctification, he finally can be the role model we need," Damien historian Hilde Eynikel told KITV from Belgium.

The search is now on for a relic of Father Damien, which will be presented to the pope at the sanctification. A relic can be something touched by the saint, worn by the saint, or an actual body part of the saint. The diocese in Brussels is now looking into the retrieval of such a relic from Damien's tomb in Leuven, Belgium.

Damien's grave in Kalaupapa contains only his right hand, which was re-interred following his beatification in 1995. The canonization will take place in Rome, possibly at the end of next year, with celebrations in Belgium and Hawaii. The pope will probably not travel to Hawaii. Cardinal Daneels of Belgium may be in attendance. Supporters of the sainthood effort are overjoyed that now the world will know what Hawaii has known for 100 years -- that Father Damien of Molokai is a saint.

He was born Joseph De Veuster in Tremeloo, Belgium, in 1840. De Veuster's older brother, Pamphile, was set to travel to the "Sandwich Islands," but was too sick to go. Instead, De Veuster traveled to Hawaii in his brother's place. The Roman Catholic priest arrived in Hawaii in 1864 and took the name Damien. He served the leprosy patients at the Molokai colony at Kalaupapa for 12 years before he succumbed to Hansen's disease at age 49. His body was exhumed from his Molokai grave in 1936 when his remains were sent to Belgium, for reburial. In 1995, a relic of his right hand was given back to the Hawaii Diocese and returned to his Molokai grave.
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Undeterred by Criticism, Mugabe Joins Peers at African Union Meeting

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, center, was escorted past journalists by his security detail in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt. (European Pressphoto Agency)
SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt: July 1st. (NY Times) — Unabashed by critics and challenging his peers to prove their own democratic credentials, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe went to an African Union meeting here on Monday, displaying his victory in a one-candidate election that his neighbors said did not “represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe.” The trip, his first formal act after being inaugurated Sunday to a sixth term, showed his determination to take his seat among African leaders despite international criticism. The rebukes included a pronouncement from southern African election monitors that last Friday’s presidential runoff was not free, fair or credible. The African Union’s own election observers concluded Monday that the vote “fell short” of the organization’s standards. But African leaders showed little appetite for public confrontation with Mr. Mugabe. Mr. Mugabe, 84, once hailed as a liberation hero, slumped in an armchair in a cavernous conference hall at this Red Sea resort, using a headset to follow speeches that, in part, demanded negotiations to end his absolute power.

Asha-Rose Migiro, the UN deputy secretary general, told the African leaders here that they had reached a “moment of truth. We are facing an extremely grave crisis,” Ms. Migiro said. “This is the single greatest challenge to regional stability in southern Africa, not only because of its terrible humanitarian and security consequences, but because of the dangerous political precedent it sets. Only dialogue between the Zimbabwean parties, supported by the African Union and other regional actors, can restore peace and stability to the country,” she said. That call for discussions was echoed in South Africa, the main regional power broker. Its Foreign Ministry urged Mr. Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to “enter into negotiations which will lead to the formation of a transitional government that can extricate Zimbabwe from its current political challenges.” According to the official tally of Friday’s election, Mr. Mugabe won some 85 percent of the ballot. But his opponent, Mr. Tsvangirai, pulled out of the race days before the voting, citing widespread violence and intimidation. Mr. Tsvangirai took refuge in the Dutch Embassy in Harare five days before the election. Even in the closing stages of his campaign, Mr. Mugabe served notice that he “was prepared to face any of his African Union counterparts disparaging Zimbabwe’s electoral conduct because some of their countries had worse” election records, the state-run newspaper The Herald reported Monday.

In a statement on Monday, Mr. Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, urged the meeting participants here to reject the results of the runoff and to appoint “up to three African envoys to work full time on the crisis until it is resolved.” At present, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is the sole mediator in the crisis. The statement repeated Mr. Tsvangirai’s claim that Mr. Mbeki was “too partial” toward Mr. Mugabe. One of the few African voices raised publicly against Mr. Mugabe on Monday was that of Raila Odinga, the prime minister of Kenya, where elections last December set off bloody confrontations until a power-sharing deal was brokered. Some have depicted that deal as a potential model for Zimbabwe. Speaking in Nairobi, Mr. Odinga urged the African Union to suspend Mr. Mugabe until new elections could be held.

Mr. Tsvangirai won 48 percent of the vote to Mr. Mugabe’s 43 percent in the first round of the presidential election on March 29. In parliamentary elections on the same day, the opposition party won control of the lower house. Each man wants any negotiations to be based on his own electoral arithmetic — Mr. Tsvangirai’s from March 29 and Mr. Mugabe’s from Friday. “Sooner or later, as diverse political parties, we shall start serious talks,” Mr. Mugabe said in a speech after his inauguration, The Associated Press reported. The African Union meeting was supposed to address developmental issues, but has come under the shadow of the Zimbabwean crisis. For Mr. Mugabe, his unchallenged presence among fellow African leaders offers what his aides depict as legitimacy.

Thokozani Khupe, the vice president of Mr. Tsvangirai’s political party, said in an interview here on Monday that the opposition wanted the establishment of a “transitional authority” based on the outcome of the March 29 vote, a formula that would give Mr. Tsvangirai the upper hand. “Zimbabwe is burning,” Ms. Khupe said. “It is on fire. It is important that the African leaders save it before it burns beyond recognition.” The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Monday that the United States might introduce a Security Council resolution this week to impose formal sanctions against members of the Mugabe government. Given that Mr. Mugabe flouted last week’s statement from the Council calling for an end to the violence surrounding the elections, the Council has to act in some manner, the ambassador said. “I’m pretty confident that the Council cannot remain silent on this issue,” Mr. Khalilzad told reporters. Although the 15-member Council passed a unanimous statement condemning the violence in Zimbabwe a week ago, an attempt to declare the runoff illegitimate on Friday sank after South Africa, one of the Council members, led the opposition to further criticism, saying Africans should resolve the issue. Mr. Khalilzad expressed confidence that the United States could muster the nine votes needed to push the sanctions through, but predicted that doing so would involve “tough” negotiations. “We are looking for focused sanctions on the regime itself,” he said. “Those who would oppose such action would have a lot to explain.”
By KENNEDY ABWAO and Alan Cowell
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