Israeli-made vehicles on alert during mass action

Targets of same water cannons: Palestinians and Zimbabweans 
 
(Zimbabwe's Israeli connections are going from the sublime -- ex-Israeli
agent Ben-Menashe -- to the fascistic.)

The Zimbabwe Independent, 21 March

Israeli-made vehicles on alert during mass action


Loughty Dube


The Zimbabwe Republic Police's new crowd control equipment rolled into
action this week as government prepared for any eventuality during the
two-day stayaway. The Israeli-made armoured vehicles armed with water
cannons were sighted in Chitungwiza on Tuesday and were still parked at
Chitungwiza police station on Wednesday morning. Last year the police
vehemently denied having purchased the vehicles when the Standard broke the
story. Farai Mutsaka, a reporter with the Standard, was arrested and charged
with "abuse of journalistic privilege" and publishing "false news" for
writing that the police had bought the equipment. However, Israeli company
Beit-Alfa Trailer Company (Bat) confirmed after the publication of the story
that its Jet Pulse Water Cannon System was currently in "active use" in
Zimbabwe. The crowd control vehicles were however not called into action
this week as they are only effective in controlling large crowds.


On Tuesday two Zimbabwe national army armoured vehicles with mounted
machine-guns patrolled Chitungwiza, Mufakose and Kuwadzana. Police who have
complained of lack of manpower, maintained a heavy presence in the
high-density areas with some of them wielding new whips which were liberally
tested on the public. Meanwhile, riot police and the army took turns to
assault Bulawayo residents in unprovoked attacks in the city's populous
high-density suburbs of Makokoba and Mpopoma during the two-day mass
stayaway. Two truck-loads of riot police, some heavily armed with AK 47
rifles, sent vendors and commuters fleeing in all directions at the Renkini
bus terminus as they indiscriminately attacked any grouping of more than
three people. The riot police travelling in armoured trucks brought business
at the terminus to a standstill as they descended on anyone in sight. They
beat up commuters with baton sticks while some people were booted. Across
the city in Mpopoma armed soldiers patrolled the township where they
randomly attacked residents. A news crew from the Zimbabwe Independent
touring the townships on Wednesday witnessed soldiers assaulting a group of
youths they found seated outside a shopping complex in Mpopoma. Police
spokesman for Bulawayo Smile Dube said he had not received any reports of
police assaults on civilians. "It is not the business of the police to go
about beating up innocent civilians but if there are any aggrieved people
they should come forward and report the allegations at any police station in
the city and the cases will be investigated," said Dube.

Daily News, 22 March


Witness concedes to defence


Court Reporter


A state witness in the ongoing treason trial of three MDC leaders conceded
yesterday Ari Ben-Menashe, the key prosecution witness, took abnormally long
to report the alleged plot by the opposition party's leaders to assassinate
President Mugabe. Air Vice-Marshal Robert Mhlanga, of the Airforce of
Zimbabwe, told the High Court, during cross-examination by defence lawyer
Advocate Eric Matinenga, that the space of time between the meeting where
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president, allegedly announced the plot and the
day he reported the conspiracy was "not appropriate" in the circumstances.

Tsvangirai met Ben-Menashe and his colleagues in London on 22 October and 3
November 2001. Ben-Menashe telephoned Mhlanga on 20 November 2001 with
claims of a plot by Tsvangirai and two other top MDC officials to kill
Mugabe and depose the Zanu PF government. Matinenga queried why Ben-Menashe
would take that long to report "a matter of such a serious nature".

Ben-Menashe got in contact with Mhlanga three months earlier, ostensibly
selling military aircraft. Mhlanga said Ben-Menashe offered to bring
evidence three days after he telephoned from his Canada base reporting the
conspiracy which, he said, involved the MDC and unnamed ex-Rhodesian
soldiers. The evidence Ben-Menashe had promised turned out to be a miniature
cassette, a diskette and a transcript which Mhlanga said was so poor he
could not decipher. "I could not make head or tail of the discussion on the
tape," Mhlanga said. "The transcript, I just browsed through. What I relied
on was what he was saying, as opposed to the tape and the document. I did
not get any wiser from the two documents." Asked by assessor Misheck
Nyandoro how he was able to pick out Tsvangirai's voice from the audio-tape,
Mhlanga said: "I would like to believe Mr Tsvangirai is a prominent
politician. You can recognise his voice when he is talking with a minimum
margin of error." Nyandoro asked Mhlanga whether he did not suspect the
assassination plot was "another commodity" Ben-Menashe was trying to sell,
to which the airforce official said he had no reason to doubt Ben-Menashe's
story. Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general, and Renson
Gasela, the party's shadow minister of agriculture, have pleaded not guilty.

The trial continues on Monday.