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Naphtali Associates & 4WardEver UK
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'No Go' in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Negotiations Break Down
originally published: 29th July 2008

Negotiations between Robert Mugabe's party and the Zimbabwe opposition to end the political crisis have ended in deadlock.

The opposition MDC has said that the only offer forthcoming from Mugabe's Zanu-PF was that Morgan Tsvangirai should be made vice-president - with no executive powers. An MDC official told the Reuters news agency: "The talks have reached a deadlock and cannot be moved forward. "Apparently, the Zanu-PF negotiators were only mandated to negotiate around the vice presidency and nothing else."

Senior negotiators from the two parties started the talks last Thursday, with the objective of finding a solution to Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis, including the possibility of forming a unity government.

Read full report >
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Poli-Tricks and Just-Ice

Zimbabwe Vote Rigging
originally published: 4th July 2008
all credits: Sky News

Secret footage showing how Robert Mugabe's supporters rigged Zimbawe's elections has been uncovered.

A prison guard working in Harare central jail used a hidden camera to capture images of people being forced to fill in their ballot papers in front of Zanu-PF officials. Having passed the video to The Guardian newspaper, Shepherd Yuda, 36, then fled the country with his wife and children.

He hoped the footage would help draw further attention to the violence and corruption in Zimbabwe - to which he lost his uncle, who was an opposition supporter, two months ago. Using a hidden camera, Yuda filmed the days running up to the run-off election in which Mugabe claimed victory with 90% of the vote.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement of Democratic Change (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?" Yuda filmed prison officers having to fill out of their forms in front of Zanu-PF supporters. He also shot 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. He said of leaving the country: "I don't regret doing this, although it is a painful decision I have taken. "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."

Read other items from this source >

Free Zimbabwe on Global Pulse >
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Investigator Blasts U.S. Justice System
30th June 2003

After a two-week fact-finding tour of U.S. prison and detention facilities, a U.N. human rights investigator has blasted the administration of President George W. Bush for a rash of shortcomings in the country's flawed justice system and continued violations of the rule of law.

Unleashing a stinging barrage of attacks, Professor Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary and arbitrary executions, singles out the existence of racism in the application of the death penalty in the United States, and the lack of transparency in the deaths of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility housing suspected terrorists.

Full Report >
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Rise Festival 'Down-graded'

Mayor of London cuts anti-racism from Rise festival
received: 19th May 2008
all credits: NAAR

The National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) has been informed by the Greater London Authority that anti-racism will no longer be a central element of the annual 'Rise: London united against racism festival' due to take place in July. A free anti-racist music festival has been held in London by the trade unions since 1996. Since 2001 this was supported by the Mayor of London, the trade unions and the National Assembly Against Racism - Britain's broadest anti-racist coalition. It was Europe's largest anti-racist music festival.

The festival has consistently attracted major international and homegrown talent to perform for fees far less than the would commercially command because of the anti racist message. In 2005, the festival, with artists including artists Lemar , Billy Bragg and Suggs , was part of a series of events helping celebrate London's unity in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings of 7 July that year.

This year the central anti-racist message of the festival has been dropped by Boris Johnson's administration. Initial publicity for the festival confirms this dropping the message 'London united against racism' - indeed not mentioning racism at all.

A spokesperson for NAAR said:

"We were contacted by the Greater London Authority last week and told anti-racism will no longer be the central message of the Rise festival. This is confirmed by initial publicity which drops the message "London united against racism" and all reference to opposing racism."

"Support for the festival from performers and communities has always been based on this anti-racist message so the change is sure to be highly controversial. The sincerity of Boris Johnson's claimed commitment to opposing racism in his election campaign is shown to be false by the fact that one of his first decisions is to abandon Europe's biggest anti-racist festival."

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Capital Punishment News

Focus on the Death Penalty
A collection of recent news from around the world


Zambia: Inmates Plead for Deliverance
20th May 2008
The common prayer of those on Zambia’s jam-packed death row is for divine intervention to end their hell on earth and let the waiting hangman carry out his job speedily, according to a recently released inmate. "It is so painful to be in suspense, we would pray to be hanged," Churchill Malama, 33, recounted to IPS. Malama spent three years on death row in the Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison, located in the central town of Kabwe. His death sentence for murder was overturned by the Supreme Court last March.
Read More >

Georgia ends lull in US executions
7th May 2008
The state of Georgia has executed the first person to be put to death in the United States since a Supreme Court ruling last month that ended a seven-month moratorium on capital punishment. William Earl Lynd, 53, was killed by lethal injection at 7.50pm yesterday, hours after his appeal for a stay of execution failed in the Supreme Court.
Lynd had been convicted of kidnapping his girlfriend and shooting her dead in 1988, after a row over a trip to Florida.
Read More >

Broadcast of execution forces Japan to debate death penalty
6th May 2008
The broadcast today of the execution of a man more than 50 years ago is the first time most Japanese have been confronted by the grim reality of their country's use of the death penalty. Campaigners hope the documentary, aired by Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, will strengthen calls for Japan to fall into line with every other developed country except the US and abolish capital punishment.
Read More >

What now for Mumia?
28th April 2008
On 27 March, a US federal appeals court overturned Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence, but not his conviction for murder. His lead counsel Robert R. Bryan gives his reaction to the ruling and the next steps in America's most high-profile capital case.
As widely reported in the media, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued its long-awaited decision on March 27, 2008. Mumia and I had legal conferences that day, and have been in frequent meetings since.
Read More >

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