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In solidarity with a resolution, passed by the Law Society of Zimbabwe on the 13th June 2007, to close all law offices throughout Zimbabwe and to not attend court on the 27th June 2007, in protest against the recent attacks on and arrest of members of the legal profession, lawyers in Bulawayo were requested by the Law Society to gather at the High Court in Bulawayo at lunch time on Wednesday the 27th June 2007 and to march to the offices of the Governor of Bulawayo to present a petition. I participated in the march and this is my first hand account.

When I arrived at the steps of the High Court I observed that there was a detachment of riot police standing on the steps. When I walked across to them I was advised that the march had been declared illegal and that I could not remain on the steps of the High Court. There were two other lawyers present and they advised me that other colleagues who had already been dispersed by the riot police had moved off down Herbert Chitepo Street towards the Governor’s office and were trying to regroup a block away. I then walked down Herbert Chitepo Street with these 2 lawyers and we found the rest of our colleagues regrouped a block away from the High Court.

Approximately 15 of us then commenced our march to the Governor’s office but soon after starting to march we came under the close attention of Police vehicles including at least one Landrover from the “Law and Order” department of CID. These vehicles trailed us as we walked the 3 blocks to the Governor’s office. On approaching the Governor’s office we noticed a substantial contingent of riot police stationed outside the gate.

By the Financial Gazette
21 June 2007
Njabulo Ncube
Harare

BIG brother is watching.

This aptly describes the jittery mood within the media and telecommunications sectors in Zimbabwe following the passing by Parliament last Wednesday of the controversial Interception of Communications Bill, despite opposition to some of its provisions by opposition legislators and free speech advocates.

The passage of the Bill, which allows government to monitor e-mails, telephone calls, the Internet and ordinary mail, has drawn widespread criticism.

Under the Bill, service providers will be compelled to install the enabling equipment on behalf of the government.

The new law empowers the chief of Defence Intelligence, the director-general of the Central Intelligence Organisation, the police commissioner and the commissioner general of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to intercept telephonic, e-mail and postal messages.

A monitoring centre or agency, which will be the sole facility through which authorised interception shall be effected, will be established.

Contributing to the debate during the Bill’s reading stages, Bulawayo South Member of Parliament David Coltart said the judiciary, and not the Attorney-General, should be empowered to review the exercise of the powers of the Transport and Communications Minister in the issuing of warrants for the interception of any communication. Coltart stressed that the decision on the right to grant a warrant should be the preserve of the judiciary and not the Executive.

In separate interviews this week, stakeholders in the communications field condemned the new law — which they referred to as the “spying bill” — saying it was the latest demonstration of government’s paranoia and extension of a drive to stifle freedom of expression.

MISA-Zimbabwe national director Rashweat Mukundu, said the passing of the Bill marks yet another sad chapter in the country’s long history of free speech violations, as it will have serious implications on citizens’ fundamental right to freely express themselves without hindrance.

Voice of America
By Peta Thornycroft
Southern Africa
15 June 2007

Zimbabwe this week passed a new law allowing the government to monitor telephones, mail and the Internet. For VOA, Peta Thornycroft reports that the Zimbabwe government justifies this new law by saying it is necessary to protect national security.
President Robert Mugabe regularly tells his country that Zimbabwe’s sovereignty is under threat, which is the reason he uses when he puts the army and police on alert. He says the main opposition political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is a “puppet” of the west, and that its leaders take their orders from Washington and London.

The new law, the Interception of Communications Act, sailed through both houses of parliament, where the ruling ZANU-PF has a large majority.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change legal secretary David Coltart said the new law was what he described as “typically fascist legislation.” He said this law gives enormous powers to “a tiny coterie of people” to intercept e-mails and all other communications.

Coltart said the law was “not subject to review in any way by any independent authority.” He said he had no doubt it will be abused to “interfere with legitimate democratic activities”

Transport and Communications Minister Chris Mushohwe said similar legislation existed in the west. He said Zimbabwe needed the legislation to prevent crime and guard national security. Few Zimbabweans have access to telecommunications, and those that do have long believed that the government was already monitoring phone calls and e-mail.

This week riot police interrupted a stage play, called “The Good President” at a theater in the country’s second largest city, Bulawayo, saying it was a political gathering and that police permission was needed before it could go ahead.
Most opposition political meetings and rallies are presently banned in Zimbabwe.

By Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

Zimbabwe’s House of Assembly on 13 June 2007 passed the controversial Interception of Communications Bill without amendments despite opposition to some of its provisions by opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislators.
MISA Zimbabwe National Director Rashweat Mukundu said the passing of the bill marks yet another sad and retrogressive chapter in the country’s unfolding crisis as it has serious implications on the citizens’ fundamental right to freely express themselves without any hindrance in the form of the envisaged spying law.

Section 20 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and the freedom to receive and impart ideas without interference with one’s correspondence.
“By passing this bill, let alone without any amendments, the House of Assembly has regrettably and sadly contributed yet another devastating blow to the country’s deepening human rights and political crisis, which is being duly recorded by historians and will be judged accordingly by posterity,” said Mukundu.

“The future viability and development of the telecommunications sector will also be seriously compromised by this draconian law, considering that Internet service providers will have to bear high costs as they will be expected to install the enabling spying equipment in a country that is experiencing acute foreign currency shortages.”

Under the bill, service providers will be compelled to install the enabling equipment on behalf of the government while empowering the chief of defence intelligence, the director-general of the Central Intelligence Organisation, the commissioner of police and the commissioner general of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to intercept telephonic, e-mail and cell phone messages.

The bill, which seeks to empower the government to spy on telephone and e-mail messages, was presented to Parliament on 26 July 2006.
It also proposes to establish a monitoring centre or agency which shall be the sole facility through which authorised interception shall be effected.

By Reuters

Published: June 13, 2007, 4:44 PM PDT

The lower house of Zimbabwe’s parliament passed a bill on Wednesday allowing the government to monitor phones, mail and the Internet to protect national security.

While conceding the country needed to protect itself against terrorism, opposition members said they feared the bill would pave the way for President Robert Mugabe’s government to curtail freedom of speech and breach privacy.
The Interception of Communications bill sailed through the lower house without amendments and will now be sent to the upper house, where it is expected to face little opposition. Mugabe’s ruling party has a majority in both houses.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislator David Coltart called the proposed law a “fascist piece of legislation” that Mugabe’s government could use in an ongoing crackdown on political dissent.

“I recognize the need for legislation of this nature, especially after the emergence of al Qaeda and international terrorism,” Coltart said. “The objection is what checks are there to stop the abuse of this law.”

Published in the Washington Post by Michael Gerson

A nation is dying, its leader a tyrant, its neighbors indifferent

Thursday, June 14, 2007

WASHINGTON - When I talked earlier this week with David Coltart, a
Zimbabwean member of parliament and human rights lawyer, his office in
Bulawayo had been without power for five hours. The central business
district of Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, he said, was “a ghost town,”
with “hardly anyone on the streets” and “signs everywhere of total economic
collapse.”
Four days previously the price for a liter of gasoline had been 55,000
Zimbabwean dollars; that morning gas stations were advertising 85,000
dollars. Inflation, by conservative estimates, gallops at 3,700 percent.

Perhaps 31/2 million people — about one-fourth of the population — have
left the country, in a massive drain of youth and ambition. “Land reform”
has been a land grab for ruling party elites, who are proving that
intimidation and brutality are powerless to make the corn grow. Orphans,
many with the signs of childhood malnutrition, have begun coming to Mr.
Coltart’s parliamentary office for help.

Zimbabweans have discovered with horror that their founding father, Robert
Mugabe, is an abusive parent, as if George Washington had grown mad with
power, expropriated Monticello and given Jefferson a good, instructive
beating.

With elections for president and parliament set for next year, Mr. Mugabe
can hardly run on his record. So he has kicked off the campaign season by
attempting to destroy his opposition and rig the election in his favor. In
early March, his police crushed a protest rally and began arresting and
torturing political opponents. In response to international criticism, Mr.
Mugabe coolly replied, “We hope they have learned their lesson. If they have
not, then they will get similar treatment.” Constitutional changes are
moving forward that will allow Mr. Mugabe to handpick his successor. Next
week parliament will debate measures that permit the interception of e-mails
and the suppression of democratic groups, with the excuse of fighting
“foreign terrorism.”