Crisis Leaves Zimbabweans Hungry, Beaten

Election Results Still Hidden, Opposition Claims Brutal Crackdown, World Slow To Help

(CBS)  This story was written by CBS News' Sarah Carter, reporting from Cape Town, South Africa.

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The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change says Zimbabwe is a war zone. The MDC claims 10 of its supporters have been killed by President Robert Mugabe's henchmen, more than 500 attacked, 400 arrested and more than 3,000 families displaced.

Several MDC supporters in hiding described to CBS News seeing camps set up by military officers and members of youth militias. The claims are confirmed by a report released on Saturday by Human Rights Watch, which said "torture camps" had been set up in rural areas.

Three weeks after the March 29 election, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has not released the results of the presidential race. The MDC has lost repeated appeals to the High Court to force the commission to announce the results. Instead, the commission has begun recounting votes in 23 districts, where Mugabe's ZANU PF party claims there were counting irregularities.

Government soldiers went into the electoral centre last week and removed the ballot boxes. No independent observers were allowed to remain with the boxes or given any information about a possible recount. There has been no further information on the location or security of the ballot boxes since.

Help From A Neighbor:

Across the border in South Africa, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has decided to circumvent President Mbeki and deal directly with the players in the Zimbabwe crisis. The move came after Mbeki said there was no crisis in Zimbabwe, following a meeting eight days ago with his long-time ally Mugabe.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said his party had decided to dump Mbeki as chief mediator in the crisis. Tsvangirai has asked the Southern African Development Community to recall Mbeki as the organization's negotiator.

Last week the ANC took the unusual step of criticizing the country's president, saying in a statement that Mbeki, seen at left, needed "to observe a neutral position in this matter."

Tsvangirai, who left Zimbabwe 10 days after the election, says it's too dangerous for him to return to Zimbabwe. He has been traveling from his new base in Johannesburg garnering support from the continent's leaders. Monday he met in Nigeria with President Umaru Yar'Adua and former President Olusegun Obasanjo before flying to Accra, Ghana to attend the twelfth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Humanitarian Appeal:

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon planned to discuss the Zimbabwe crisis at the conference. Tsvangirai met Ban Tuesday and pressed him to issue a firm statement demanding the release of the election results.

While the political situation is volatile, the humanitarian crisis is reaching dire levels.

Activists claim food is being denied to opposition supporters. Prior to last month's election, more than 3 million people in Zimbabwe were being fed by the World Food Program, according to MDC Secretary-General Tendayi Biti, seen at left. With government soldiers now handing out much of the food aid, basic food supplies have become scarce and unaffordable.

In a bid to gain favor Mugabe printed trillions of Zimbabwean dollars to fund what's reported to be a 700 percent pay-rise for civil servants - this, in a country with a 100,000 percent inflation rate that economists project could grow to five-times that by May.

What little money the Zimbabwean government has cobbled together seems to be going, not to food aid, but to arms.

Deadly Cargo:

The International Transport Worker's Federation (ITF) said Monday it was organizing unions across Africa to prevent the unloading of a Chinese ship carrying weapons destined for Zimbabwe.

The ship left the South African port of Durban on Friday after the country's high court ruled it could be offloaded in Durban, but barred its cargo from being transported to the boarder with Zimbabwe.

A South African newspaper published a list of the ship's inventory, which includes 3 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 1,500 rocket propelled grenades and more than 3,000 mortar rounds. It's reported the ship is now heading towards Luanda, Angola where it will send its contents by land to the Zimbabwean Ministry of Defense.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Bush administration was intervening with governments in the region to prevent the ship's cargo from reaching Zimbabwe.

Jendayi Frazer, the top American diplomat for Africa, was to meet leaders in southern Africa this week to voice U.S. concerns over the deadly payload.

U.S. intelligence agencies were tracking the vessel, according to the AP report, and American diplomats were under instructions to press officials in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Angola not to let it dock.

[milesbrown49]

Africa is rich in resorces. Oil, Diamonds, Gold, Silver, Platium, Ruber. Africa is laced with fertile land and water flows advidly through the continent. Why are people calling Africa poor. Africa is not poor, Africa is being raped and robbed!!

[milesbrown49]

Why doesn''t anyone see that Mugabe is a good man who is in the way of those forces who want control of all the resources of the planet. Everytime a black leader rises above the oppression and leads his country out of the hands of the oppressor, they demonize him. They say he''s a tyrant while munipulating the circumstances with their powers. Wake up everyone and relize that Mugabe is a great man. Mandela steped down because of what he called "the forces who want to keep controll" were wearing him down. Rise above this and reach for change!!!!

[milesbrown49]

Keithle1: Another fact to introduce to your aimless point is; the caucasian race doesn''t repoduce naturally that way in abundance. You would have to open up a lot of labs and doctors offices and then you would have to get rid of the republicans so you can get afordable healthcare to the people so they can get the fertility treatments.

[milesbrown49]

To Keithle1: Who said; Who do you think has sent about $700 billion in aid to Africa over the years? The world''''s poor countries?

The answer is the same people who stole many more billions in diamonds from Africa!!!

[tucano2]

It doesn''t help that a PRChina ship loaded with arms and ammunition is trying to land these.

[libsrweak]

A South African newspaper published a list of the ship''s inventory, which includes 3 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 1,500 rocket propelled grenades and more than 3,000 mortar rounds. It''s reported the ship is now heading towards Luanda, Angola where it will send its contents by land to the Zimbabwean Ministry of Defense.

**************

I guess this is what happens when we get our hands tied with liberal political correctness...

we all know what this shipment is for..but we cannot be proactive and we have to be reactive..gotta wait till it actually ends up killing people.

may africa help them from the liberals, the UN and the EU

[krisd999-2009]

It''s so nice of the UN to provide the food so Mugabe can dedicate his whole budget to his military and his Swiss bank account. The UN aid has done such a nice job everywhere in Africa, it''s one more great accomplishment. 700% pay increase seems kind of stingy with the cost of living going up at 100,000%. That''s just for his own supporters, what is everyone else getting. Socialism is great, ain''t it? How is our American socialist banking system working out? The Social Security pyramid scheme is collapsing with much smaller increases than the 15%+ yearly increase of dollars. I wonder how long before currency and price controls and hoarding legislation comes out of Washington DC.

[ricknuber]

panhandlpete:

Your post was completely ignorant.

1. Zimbabwe was not dependent on foreign aid until around 1998, after the right-wing Zanu-PF government bankrupted the nation with ideologically-driven policies, without any grounding in economic reality. Sound familiar?

2. Zimbabwe has vast natural resources, i.e. gold, silver, platinum, and arable land. Much of their mining sector was owned by Australian and Canadian mining firms, up until Mugabe''s "look East" doctrine saw them sold out to China.

[rushlimpdrug]

Hey africa, have mo bebeys,
we send you money,
kill mo africans,
we send mo money,
send us some africans,
we send you mo money.

Need anything else?

[pierson98]

Best of luck, citizens of Zimbabwe, but ... we''ve got problems of our own here.