Bitterness and unease in bankrupt Zimbabwe

Courtesy BBC

After 30 years in power, Zimbabwe’s veteran leader Robert Mugabe said this week he was ready to stand for another term as president. BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding finds Mr Mugabe’s party in angry mood, and others – the white minority and the former opposition MDC party – full of foreboding.

The law intends to redistribute more wealth to the black population

It has been a grey, drizzly week here.

In the wealthier suburbs of Harare, Zimbabwe’s shrinking white population is once again feeling nervous.

Pat, who runs a small hairdressing salon, and whose family has lived here for four generations, is finally planning to leave.

They don’t want us “whiteys” here any more she says. The writing is on the wall.

Pat has been spooked by a new law, introduced this week, which is supposed to correct the enduring economic legacies of colonialism, and give black Zimbabweans a controlling stake in almost all companies.

The main focus is Zimbabwe’s rich mines and its industry.

But the indigenisation law also seeks to prevent white people from owning things like hairdressing and beauty salons.

In a few years, says Pat, we will be like an extinct species. They will come for our houses next.

The reaction may well be extreme.

Many white Zimbabweans have been slow to acknowledge the debt they owe to the black majority here. Economic empowerment is clearly necessary.

But after a decade of economic chaos, horrific violence, and the brutal seizure of white-owned farms, it is easy to understand why so many Zimbabweans – of all colours – are hair-trigger tuned to expect the very worst.

Bitter words

Our children are dying because of sanctions Saviour Kasukuwere, Zanu PF

Saviour Kasukuwere does not exactly try to smooth the waters.

“You people,” he almost spat at me, as I sat in his office on the ninth floor of the squat grey building that houses President Mugabe’s Zanu PF Party.

Mr Kasukuwere used to be a member of Mr Mugabe’s notorious state security.

He is a hardliner and a rising star.

“You British, you could learn a lot about democracy from us,” he says with a thin smile.

Mr Kasukuwere, a tall, heavy-set man, was at primary school when his country won full independence from Britain 30 years ago.

Unlike Mr Mugabe’s generation, he did not fight and suffer for freedom. But, full of passionate intensity, he seems to wallow in his bitterness.

In his eyes, and words, everything can still be blamed on what he calls the “genocidal” West.

Zanu PF’s current preoccupation is with what it calls “Western sanctions”.

The state media makes it sound like some overwhelming economic blockade.

“Our children are dying because of sanctions,” says Mr Kasukuwere.

But as diplomats and economists here point out, the reality is less extreme.

The European Union is currently imposing a travel ban on 198 individuals. Thirty-five companies are also frozen out.

“This is about Mrs Mugabe not being able to shop in Paris,” one diplomat put it. “Zimbabwe can’t borrow money, not because of sanctions, but because it owes $6bn, and can’t pay it back because it systematically wrecked its own economy.”

Train smash

Within Zimbabwe’s unity government, sanctions are a poisonous issue – one of many.

The unity government, formed after bitterly disputed elections, has survived a year now – President Mugabe’s Zanu PF sharing, or at least pretending to share power with its enemy, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

“It’s a train smash, warfare every day,” one MDC minister told me.

But the government has survived and on some issues is clearly making progress.

The MDC is hoping now to water down the new indigenisation law in order not to scare away foreign investors and potentially plunge the economy back into chaos.

The 2008 elections saw MDC supporters beaten and killed

Both parties are now gearing up for new elections – possibly next year. It is the only way to settle Zimbabwe’s political deadlock once and for all.

The sanctions issue and the indigenisation law, are key campaign themes for Zanu PF.

If the MDC tries to question either of them – it is accused of being a stooge for colonial Western interests.

The MDC can probably handle that sort of criticism. It has got a strong support base, and at least one recent opinion poll showed it would crush Mr Mugabe and his party at the polls.

Any credit for the economic stability achieved here during the past year, seems to have gone to the MDC.

But the party is not nearly as well organised or ruthless as Zanu PF.

We are floundering, one MDC insider told me dejectedly. And of course, past experience in Zimbabwe shows that elections here are won by intimidation, not popularity.

Unless we have foreign peacekeepers to protect us, it will be another bloodbath Senior MDC official

In 2008, Zanu PF orchestrated a campaign of terror – killing and beating MDC supporters – in order to hold on to power.

Now at the age of 86, after 30 years in office, President Mugabe has announced he is planning to run for yet another term.

Elections could be held next year, he says.

Mr Mugabe controls the police and the army, and under the current constitution, most of the electoral infrastructure.

Will he play fair this time?

We are heading towards another big fight, a senior MDC official told me anxiously.

Unless we have foreign peacekeepers to protect us, it will be another bloodbath.

Sandra Bullock wins worst actress award at Razzies

Sandra Bullock turned up at the Golden Raspberry Awards on Saturday to pick up the worst actress prize just one day before she is expected to win an Oscar.

Bullock, who won the Razzie for the comedy All About Steve, arrived with a trailer filled with DVDs of the film to give to the audience.

“Something tells me you all didn’t watch the film because I wouldn’t be here if you really, really watched it and understood what I was trying to say,” she said.

Bullock is hotly tipped to be named best actress for her role in American football drama The Blind Side at the Academy Awards on Sunday.

Panning

The Razzie awards are held in Los Angeles just ahead of the Oscars to celebrate the direst films of the year. The last big star to turn up and claim her award was Halle Berry in 2005.

Bullock received a standing ovation when she arrived on the Razzies stage with the DVDs.

Bullock co-produced the comedy All About Steve, which made a profit

“Everyone gets a copy and this is the deal I’m going to make,” she told the cheering crowd.

“I will show up next year if you promise to watch the movie and really consider if it was truly the worst performance. If you’re willing to watch, I’ll come back next year and give back the Razzie.”

In All About Steve, Bullock plays Mary Horowitz, a socially awkward crossword compiler who turns stalker when she meets a local TV cameraman.

During the film she joins a group of protesters, gets hit by a tornado and falls down a mine shaft where she meets a deaf girl at the bottom – all while wearing a pair of shiny red boots.

Bullock also co-produced the film, which made a profit at the box office. Critics, however, gave it a panning.

In other prizes, the worst picture of 2009 went to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen while John Travolta’s film Battlefield Earth was named worst picture of the decade.

One of Battlefield Earth’s screenwriters, JD Shapiro, also turned up to accept the award.

He said: “I especially want to thank the dozens and dozens of people who went to see the movie.”

He then quoted a review from the New York Times which said: “Battlefield Earth is about the extinction of the human race, and after seeing this movie I’m all for it.”

The Jonas Brothers were named worst actors for their 3D concert movie, while Bullock and Bradley Cooper won worst screen couple – also for All About Steve.

The Razzies were set up by copywriter and publicist John Wilson as the antithesis to the Oscars, and are voted for by members of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, which is open to anyone.

Asked about Bullock’s performance at the Razzies, Wilson laughed: “It was much better than the one you’re about to see on the DVD.”

Australia charges a man over Indian boy’s death

Gurshan Singh disappeared from a house in Melbourne

Police in Australia’s south-eastern state of Victoria have charged a man with manslaughter in relation to the death of a three-year-old Indian boy.

Dhillon Gursewak, 23, lived in the same house in the Melbourne area where the boy was staying during his holiday. He is not said to be a relative.

He is accused of criminal negligence, Australian media reported.

Gurshan Singh’s body was found on Thursday by the side of a road about 30km (19 miles) away from the house.

His parents had reported him missing.

There have been a number of racist attacks on Indians in the past year.

Australian officials have warned against jumping to conclusions.

Police have been treating the incident as a possible homicide. No cause of death has yet been established and the boy’s body is said to have shown no signs of injury.

Racism charges

Gurshan Singh, who was visiting from Punjab in northern India, disappeared from a house in the north of Melbourne early on Thursday afternoon.

About six hours after his disappearance, a council worker found a body at the side of a road which police said matched the boy’s description.

Attacks on the Indian community have provoked street protests

The boy, whose mother was studying in Australia, had been in the country for about six weeks.

His death came as Australia was making efforts to improve relations with India, a major export market, after a series of alleged race attacks.

The latest known attack was in January when Nitin Garg, 21, was stabbed to death as he walked to work at a burger restaurant.

Australia’s foreign minister had earlier acknowledged that some of the attacks, which prompted street protests last year, were racially motivated.

Earlier, senior officials and police had denied this.

Last month, thousands of Australians visited Indian restaurants for a Vindaloos Against Violence campaign, aimed at showing solidarity with the 450,000-strong community.

Robbers raid Berlin hotel poker tournament

Armed robbers have stormed a luxury hotel in central Berlin where a poker tournament was taking place, German police say.

One report said the gang – armed with assault rifles and hand grenades – made off with the tournament jackpot of 800,000 euros ($1.1m; £726,000).

Several people were injured in the ensuing panic, although none of them seriously.

About 1,000 poker players are taking part in the five-day tournament.

“Several masked, armed individuals entered the Grand Hyatt Hotel and fled with a haul of money,” police spokeswoman Heidi Vogt said.

She declined to say how much had been taken but Berlin’s Tageszeitung newspaper reported on its website that the gang had taken 800,000 euros.

‘Panic’

Participant Tobias Reinkemeier said there was panic when the robbers broke in.

There was panic at the Grand Hyatt Hotel when the gang burst in

“They screamed ‘armed robbery’,” he said.

“We didn’t know what was going on. Then there was panic and everyone jumped underneath tables before they tried to escape through the emergency exit.”

The attack happened at about 1430 local time (1330GMT).

Four robbers entered from Potsdamer Platz while two others kept watch, Tageszeitung reported.

Images of the chaotic scenes were broadcast by the private n-tv television station.

Officials said most of the injuries were caused by panic.

The tournament – organised by the European Poker Tour (EPT) – resumed about four hours after the attack, German media reported.

‘Dozens killed’ in Nigeria clashes

Dozens of people have been reported killed in clashes near the central Nigerian city of Jos.

Witnesses said corpses were piled up in the village of Dogo-Nahawa, a few kilometres (miles) south of Jos.

A doctor at a hospital in Jos told Reuters news agency that victims had been cut by machetes and burnt.

In January hundreds of people were killed in sectarian riots in the city, which lies between the mainly Muslim north and the more Christian south.

Ethnic and religious riots also broke out in 2008, killing hundreds.

A resident of Dogo-Nahawa said attackers entered the village overnight, firing guns.

“The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes,” Peter Jang told Reuters.

Pakistan officers suspended over UK boy kidnap

Four police officers in Pakistan have been suspended over the handling of the kidnap of a five-year-old British boy.

Sahil Saeed, from Oldham, was snatched by armed robbers on Wednesday while visiting relatives with his father.

But the police did not initially respond to the family’s emergency call to “Rescue 15”, the Pakistani equivalent of 999.

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik met Sahil’s father and said he planned to “make an example of” the captors.

Sahil was taken from his grandmother’s home in the Punjab city of Jhelum as he prepared to take a taxi to the airport for his return flight to the UK.

The attackers are said to have demanded a £100,000 ransom for his return.

‘Pray for him’

On Saturday, Sahil’s mother Akila Naqqas pleaded for his safe return, saying she would forgive his son’s captors if they released him.

Sahil Saeed was taken by robbers after a raid on his grandmother’s home

She also said Sahil had never been apart from either herself or her husband.

“It’s just a nightmare. I’m not sleeping at all,” she said. “It’s worse at night when I have no-one to comfort me.

“All we can do is just pray for him.”

It is understood several men, including a taxi driver, have been arrested in Pakistan.

The interior minister visited Sahil ‘s father Raja Saeed in Jhelum on Sunday.

Mr Malik told him the police believed the kidnappers were people close to the family, and that they were closing in on the culprits.

“We have certain leads that I would not like to discuss,” he said. “But a warning to those abductors – leave the boy because we are very near to you.”

He also said the kidnap was “humiliating” for Pakistan and the captors would be made an “example off”.