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Washington Post
By Peter Baker

The Herald

FIFTEEN ambassadors of the European Union accredited to Zimbabwe and the Head of Delegation of the European Commission are this week visiting EU-funded projects in Manicaland Province.

The visit, which is organised by the delegation of the EC, is taking the ambassadors to Rusape, Nyanga and Mutare, where several EU-funded projects are under implementation.

In a statement this week, the head of the EC in Zimbabwe, Mr Xavier Marchal, said the visit would cover a food distribution operation organised by the World Food Programme with EU funding in Rusape and a tour of an agricultural project funded by ECHO, the humanitarian department of the EC.

The ambassadors will also visit the Sangano Dairy Project. The dairy project, funded by the EU since 2001, involves the establishment of milk processing centre and improvement of the farmers’ dairy herd and on farm production through training. The project is part of the Micro Project Programme (MPP) covering the whole country.

They will also visit the NATPHARM regional storage centre in Mutare. This is part of an EU health support programme, which mainly deals with the procurement of vital and essential medicines, vaccines, hospital equipment and spare parts to be used by public health institutions.

However, eyebrows have been raised after the EC statement revealed that the ambassadors would hold a meeting at the Mutare office of the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF), a project whose objective they say is to encourage a democratic environment in Zimbabwe and the respect of people’s rights. But most Zimbabweans know the LRF as a group of anti-Zimbabwe lawyers formerly headed by MDC secretary for legal affairs Mr David Coltart.

The EU imposed illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe after being drawn into the bilateral dispute between Harare and London.

Daily Telegraph (UK)

Harare - Owners of property next to President Robert Mugabe’s retirement mansion have received written warning that their houses will be confiscated by the state. The move represents the first time Zimbabwe’s elite, both black and white, have suffered at first hand. Millions of Zimbabweans were affected by last year’s “clearances” of urban shantytowns and much of the rural population hit by Mr Mugabe’s war on white farmers. But, until now, many members of the aristocracy have escaped unscathed - and even set up home in close proximity to his putative retirement home. Mr Mugabe, 82 next month, has nearly completed a huge luxury residence which will cost more than £6 million. It is probably the largest private dwelling in Africa. The three floors amount to approximately four acres and include a ballroom, media complex and 24 bedrooms. The Chinese-styled palace overlooks dams and a newly-planted 50-acre garden protected by a 12ft wall. The interior includes a Moroccan-style public room plastered by north African craftsmen. Original Chinese decorations have been used in several other public rooms. The palace is overlooked by scores of luxury residences, some still under construction in a special estate, Borrowdale Brooke, about 18 miles north of Harare. The first 15 homeowners at Borrowdale had warning letters on Wednesday from the valuation department of the Local Government Ministry. “This serves to advise you that your property falls in a designated security area in terms of general notice of 255 of 2004, and we will be in contact with you soon with a view to inspecting your house for valuation purposes.”

Newsweek
By Joshua Hammer

Inside the hidden links between American big-game hunters and Zimbabwe’s Mugabe dictatorship

Jocelyn Chiwenga is not a woman to be taken lightly. The wife of Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, commander-in-chief of Zimbabwe’s armed forces, Mrs. Chiwenga has earned a reputation in her own right as a vicious enforcer for President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF. In April 2002 she reportedly showed up at a farm outside Harare, the capital, with an armed gang and ordered the farm’s white owner to turn over his property to her or be killed, according to documents filed in a Zimbabwean court. One year later, Chiwenga accosted Gugulethu Moyo, an attorney for a pro-opposition newspaper, and beat her so severely that she had to seek medical attention. “Your paper wants to encourage anarchy in this country,” Chiwenga reportedly shouted as she punched and slapped the 28-year-old lawyer on a Harare street. “Chiwenga is as close to the center of power as you get,” says David Coltart, a parliamentarian of the Movement for Democratic Change, the country’s main opposition party. She also knows how to use her power. About three years ago, Chiwenga won an auction for a coveted lease on a 220-squ