Greatly surprised that the Herald printed this. Heads will roll. It shows how inept the government really is, how badly they have messed up the basic humna rights of the people of Zimbabwe. The right of shelter, clean water, health, education, the list goes on.

Rights of shelter, clean water, bla, bla, bla. Who said these COMMODITIES are "rights"?

Under capitalism, or versions of the same, these objects you call "rights" are commodified objects, period. And, Zimbabwe is a capitalist economy.

Only a delusional neo-con would fail to comprehend why these commodities are scarce; yet, Africans, in general fear the West---why, I know not and care not.

I NOW SAY THE WEST IS KILLING ZIMBABWEANS BY AND THROUGH THE PROCEDURALLY FLAWED SANCTIONS imposed on Zimbabwe under the watch of an 'African', namely KOFI ANNAN, the Ghanain, if a Ghanain he still is.

Accordingly, no one should be surprised by the depth and expanse of human suffering in Zimbabwe.

When has the West cared about the welfare of Africans? I'll tell you when: it, through its royal, and government backed slave dealers, took care of slave cargoes, human commodities, African commodified bodies.

Cheers.

In the capatalist country of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweeden, Danemark etc it is the human right of any individual to have residence, water, electricity, safety, due process, etc. You being a clever chap should know this. In the Zimbabwe constitution there are these rights. In fact it is a human right of mankind. If you do not want to be part of the human race so be it. I do comprehend why they are scarce,it is because of the inept corrupt dictator that rules the country. That is precisely why he will never reliquish power, he is afraid! Not to worry his come uppance will be soon

Sanctions?! Do you mean travel sanctions imposed on the ZANU PF ministers? Or do you mean the arms embargo? Or the ones on those 4 companies, one of which I believe makes army uniforms?

Which santions do you mean? And which do you want removed?

AWT did you ever find out how to get the full feed of comments on the forum. I still can get 9 or 10 per subject. Please advise.

Good question, I'm having the same problem myself, so no idea. If you reply to a thread at the top it seems to delete the threads at the bottom, and just show the top 10 or so, and if you reply at the bottom you dont get to see it. I tried contacting allafrica about it, but there email server was down. Will try again. Any ideas yourself? Is everyone else having this problem?

AWT - Glad to hear that I am not the only one. I have sent a couple of e-mails to allAfrica.com about the problem but have had absolutely no response.

It also doesnt always show the Newspaper that published the article, or how many posts are on each thread... have you noticed this also?

I am having the same problems. I do not see the source (newspaper)anymore in the list nor do I see the number of posts anymore. At my work it's the same but at a friends computer I still see the source and the number of posts but the number of posts is not correct when I count them.

slightly off topic but just recieved this info of interrest:- ZIMBABWE: Conjuring up a state of emergency 02 Dec 2008 19:42:49 GMT Source: IRIN Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone. HARARE, 2 December 2008 (IRIN) - There are growing suspicions that the looting by soldiers in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, may be an elaborate ruse to allow President Robert Mugabe to declare a state of emergency, suspending the constitution and, with it, all civil liberties.

In the past few days soldiers - including members of the Presidential Guard - have looted shops and robbed informal foreign currency dealers after they were unable to withdraw their wages from banks because of acute cash shortages brought about by Zimbabwe's official annual inflation rate of 231 million percent.

Former Home Affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa told IRIN that the wave of street demonstrations and clashes with the police on 1 December should not be taken at face value, as it could be a government "project" to conjure up the conditions for a crackdown on opposition parties, civil society and the general population.

Dabengwa was head of intelligence services in the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) during the liberation war, but in 1982, two years after independence, he was charged with treason, along with former ZIPRA commander Lookout Masuku and four others.

They were acquitted in 1983, but Dabengwa was re-detained under emergency regulations, while Masuku died in 1986, apparently from cryptococcal meningitis, although the circumstances of his death remain suspicious.

ZIPRA was the armed wing of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which drew its support mainly from the Ndebele-speaking regions of southern Zimbabwe. While Dabengwa and Masuku were in detention, Mugabe launched Operation Gukurahundi, also known as the Matabeleland Massacres, in which killed about 20,000 civilians were killed.

After his release, Dabengwa resurrected his political career and served as home affairs minister from 1992 to 2000, but resigned from Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party in 2007 and threw his weight behind Simba Makoni's presidential bid in the 2008 elections.

"I do hope the demonstrations by the soldiers are genuine, and that it is not a ruse to come up with an excuse to crack down against the people, or even worse," Dabengwa said.

A managed riot?

"You can't rule out what they [ZANU-PF] might do. They have so many problems ... such as cholera and money shortages. They want to rule a country where they have total control over the people. Anything is possible - they face so many problems that I don't rule out any move to contain the situation," Dabengwa said.

On 2 December the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that since August, 483 people were known to have died from cholera, an easily treatable waterborne disease, and the situation could get worse.

Colonel Simon Tsatsi told the media the looting by mobs of soldiers was an act of indiscipline. "Whatever is happening is not the official position of the army. It's probably just a small number of undisciplined soldiers."

However, a retired senior army officer, who declined to be identified, told IRIN: "No Zimbabwean soldier goes to loot shops and then returns to the barracks as if its business as usual. My suspicions are that these events are being managed for a specific purpose, which is likely to involve allegations of trying to wage a war against the government."

Zimbabwe's government has made repeated accusations against Botswana, southern Africa's most vocal critic of Mugabe's rule, that it was providing training bases for militia aligned to Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Botswana has repeatedly denied the accusation.

"Already, there are 15 MDC activists who have been held incommunicado since October 30. When you link that to the charges made against Botswana, then you can soon expect to have soldiers who will 'own up' to having been somehow involved in training 'MDC bandits', and trying to recruit some serving soldiers to stage a mutiny," the retired army officer said.

"Not all the soldiers may be aware of the kind of trap they are being led into. Only a few soldiers would be privy to the plan and would mislead other soldiers. It should be noted with suspicion that some of the looting soldiers tried to align themselves to the MDC by waving the open palm [hand signal], which is used by that party."

The retired officer said "If the process is a managed one, then it should fizzle out quickly - before the end of the week - because there is a danger that it can spin out of control.

"If Mugabe fails to secure the signature of the MDC in a power-sharing deal, he would have to resort to rule under a state of emergency, where he would suspend the constitution and rule by decree," he said.

"More than at any other time, Mugabe would want to create an environment which would enable him to declare a state of emergency. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. ZANU-PF is facing a split, after the colleagues from PF-ZAPU said they were pulling out of the unity accord signed in 1987 after the end of the Gukurahundi genocide."

A convention to revive ZAPU will be held on December 13 and 14, and will coincide with the ZANU-PF's annual people's conference.

Nkomo agreed to merge ZAPU into ZANU to form ZANU-PF in 1987, a decision that did not enjoy complete support of the party's members.

Can you please tell us what are these procedurally flawed sanctions that Kofi Annan passed under his tenure as Secretary General of the UN. I am sure everyone is very interrested to know what your version is. This is your chance to give a properly informed contribution to this forum. Best Regards, Cheers,salutations

He cant! He's making it up! He'll come back and try and incorrectly try to correct your grammer and spelling, because thats all the substance he has. None whatsoever.

Well if he declines to comment we will have to name him shallow law. One wonders where these types are educated, obviously not in any meaningful sysytem of education as they have no depth of character to debate anything meaningful.

There is no depth of character... all this talk about grammatical correctness is simply a charade to hide his lack of substance behind

"When has the West cared about the welfare of Africans? I'll tell you when: it, through its royal, and government backed slave dealers, took care of slave cargoes, human commodities, African commodified bodies"

Geez... are we still living in the 1700's? I think you could feed half of africa with that chip on your shoulder.

Why do you so easily forget the hundreds of millions of aid donated by the west to Africa? If they didnt care, why bother?

I was right ab initio: the MT fifth colunists, tails, echoes, and shadows are n out under the African sun: bring it on!

Now, I got you exactly where I wanted you from jump street, ab initio.

Do you contend the sanctions imposed by the Annan led UN were procedurally properly vetted? If so, then Steven Wonder can read normal texts.

Moreover, only an idiot would stammer the silly proposition that rights in a capitalist economy are "free." Nothing is free in a capitalist economy, because everything is monetized, where "everything" means a service or product. Hence, money talks, crap walks.

As for the grand obscurantist, who can't write, this is for you: I don't correspond with folks who can't write PROPER ENGLISH. Get it? And, if you keep chasing my tail, I'll drown your ungrammatical and conceptually empty 'brain' in an ocean of words that would take, metaphorically speaking, the skin from your skeleton, as they put in Kenya.

Hence, dude: back off!

Aaaaaaw is poor widdle Shallow Head (thats you) getting a little testy?

You have shown us all that you have no substance to your posts as you continually avoid questions, and continue to post threads that have no significance to the post you are replying too.

You continue to talk about fifth columnists, where no one knows what you mean. Whats the point?!

Your posts are full of prose that doesnt even make sense or sit togther correctly, and then, rather ironically, you pretend that your grammer is so perfect and that you wont talk with others who arent grammatically correct. Maybe you should fix your own, and start using words correctly in context before you critisise others.

So please tell us, exactly what sanctions are you referring to that Annan lead. Should be a pretty simple question for you, but you dont seem to be able to answer it. Why? Because you have been blinded by BS Mugabe propoganda.

You say nothing is free in a capitalist economy... what about the freedom of speech? The freedom to hold campaign rallies? The free to vote without fear for your life? So many more things.

Moreover, only an idiot would stammer the silly proposition that rights in a capitalist economy are not "free."

So why would I back off? You're an easy target with your pathetic attempt at the English. Remember its all about getting your point understood, not being a pompous twat trying to out do people. Remember that.

So I am right, Shallow Law it is. Nothing meaningful! What are the sanctions imposed by the United Nations, what were the sanctions imposed by Annan. Pray do tell and stop with the threats,jingoistic ideologues. It impresses no-one. Answer the question!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jallohlaw uriduzvi

Still trying to figure out what language Jallohlaw is speaking. He kinda of loses me after "Dude."