Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc.

Kaangayan, Kalambuan, Kalinaw ... sa Mindanaw, sa Pilipinas, sa Kalibutan

Letter from Africa
Posted 17 March 2007

Dear Action Asia members,

Colleagues in Africa have been sharing the current dire situation in Zimbabwe. As peace workers in the Asia region I encourage us all to show our solidarity with them and sign on to the email list below and follow calls for action and support.

The email below is from Richard Smith. Some of you met him at the Action Asia Peace Builder’s Forum. He is a South African working hard to support the people of Zimbabwe.

Emma
Secretariat – Action Asia

Greetings all!

	Richard at the Peace Forum at Balay Mindanaw last October 2006. Photo: Bobby Timonera

I am writing about a dire situation developing here in Southern Africa. The crisis in Zimbabwe has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. The police and army are out in full force in Harare, and in several other reported incidents across the country police and soldiers have dealt extremely violently with protests. People are being shot, beaten extremely brutally, and even killed. All of this on the back of years of intimidation by the state using rape and other forms of thuggery to subdue and scare people.

A man called Gift Tandare was shot dead on his way to a prayer meeting on Sunday. He left his wife and three children. The prayer meeting was organized by the Save Zimbabwe campaign, or what some people call the Free Zimbabwe campaign. At an all night vigil in preparation for his funeral 2 mourners were also shot. These are just examples of the escalating severity with which the state is responding to any resistance.

These latest protests are primarily in expression of a deep dissatisfaction with the drop in their standards of living and the fact that most people have too little money and little or no food. And they are still being told how to think and how to behave. There are thousands of people organizing themselves, and a growing regional and international solidarity movement.

At the same time the country has become extremely militarized and there is every possibility that in the midst of the mayhem of repression and resistance an attempt to gain power using the military will be on the minds of many.  

I urge you to sign up to the Google group which is linked at the bottom of this email. I attach and paste below the statement issued by the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum. Sipho Theys, who some people will know, does a great deal of the organizing work. Sign up and add to the number of ways we can put pressure on those with power to support change.

The googlegroup provides information and updates, on the context of Zimbabwe, and its international relations, and on the actions aimed at preventing violence and organising for social transformation.

Richard Smith
Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum - South Africa