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COMPASSION RESPONSE NETWORK CIRCULAR No 29
A Turning Point in Zimbabwe
Inside Zanu-PF
An extraordinary story appeared in the Washington Post on 5/July/08, revealing the development of a campaign of torture, murder and displacement that arose following the Zimbabwe elections of 29/March/08. The article draws upon the previously undisclosed details of the campaign strategy developed at the ruling party Zanu-PF meetings of President Robert Mugabe and his top advisors. The Washington Post was provided with the written record from notes made at the meetings, which have been corroborated by at least three witnesses at the internal debates. These witnesses have requested to remain anonymous.
On 30/March, the day after the elections, Robert Mugabe called a meeting of the top security officials of Zanu-PF, and announced to them that he had lost the presidential vote held on the previous day. He said he planned to relinquish power through a televised speech to be given to the nation the next day.
Zimbabwe’s military chief, Gen Constantine Chiwenga then responded that the choice was not Mugabe’s alone to make. Chiwenga was head of a powerful ruling elite within Zanu-PF, who had much wealth and power to lose if there was a change of government. Other leaders within this elite mentioned in the Washington Post article included Solomon Mujuru, the former guerrilla commander who had once headed Zimbabwe’s military, and former security chief Emerson Mnangagwa. This ruling elite seemed to hold decisive influence over the President, and declared that they were not prepared to relinquish their authority simply because of the results of a democratic vote by the people. They masterminded a campaign of political violence that rarely debated the vast humanitarian consequences upon the people of such ruthless activity.
During an 8/April military planning meeting a plan was devised that was given the acronym CIBD: Coercion, Intimidation, Beating, Displacement. In the three months since the 29/March elections to the 27/June presidential run-off, ruling party militias under the guidance of 200 senior army officers launched a campaign of intolerance and elimination against supporters of the opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change. During that period, more than 80 opposition supporters were dead, hundreds were missing, thousands were brutally injured and hundreds of thousands were displaced and homeless.
Immediately the Mugabe supporters began erecting 2,000 party compounds across the country that would serve as bases for the party militias. The violence of the campaign stepped up dramatically on 5/May in a remote farming village of Chaona, 65 miles north of the capital Harare. The village had voted for opposition leader Tsvangarai in the election’s first round after decades of voting for Mugabe. Then 200 Mugabe supporters rampaged through the streets, leaving seven people dead, and many tortured in the most vicious and gruesome manner. Such an escalation in the violence suggested that soldiers trained in torture and professional killers were behind these events.
These militias then worked their way south through the districts of Chiweshe, Mashonaland, Matabeleland and Masvingo, where most had switched to vote against Robert Mugabe on 29/March. They caused killings, murder, torture and displacement on a vast scale in their wake. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai officially withdrew from the presidential run-off poll two days before it was to be held on 27/June, citing the intensive level of violence against his party officials and members.
In the two weeks since the 27/June presidential run-off election, numerous reports suggest than Zanu-PF led militias have intensified their reign of terror, political violence and torture against opposition supporters. A report from SW Radio Africa, of 8/July, confirms that a refugee centre in the town of Gokwe was attacked by armed groups and youth militia over the weekend. Sources said that at least 32 civilian victims are being detained at the Gokwe hospital with serious burns and axe wounds as a result of torture and that there are three confirmed deaths. The report stated also that 14 people who were abducted during a militia raid on a refugee centre in Ruwa were still missing.
Announcements from government held media talk of the intensive "violence" allegedly created by opposition supporters, and the need to purge the country of all white influence, especially in the farming and business sectors. In the meantime, the humanitarian disaster has grown to a massive scale. Most foreign NGO groups are not yet permitted admittance, and the media, in its focus upon continuing to justify continued militia activity, is ignoring the extreme humanitarian crisis or rather blaming it upon the allegedly "violent" tactics of the opposition party. The economy has collapsed. Record inflation halves the value of the Zim dollar from week to week. Common items such as bread or petrol are difficult to get. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and millions have crossed the borders to escape. Most farms remain unproductive, and millions are close to the point of famine. Amnesty International declares that the level of genocide conducted in Zimbabwe in recent months and still continuing, registers as 9 on a genocide scale of 1 to 10, one step short of a Rwanda scale genocide.
Many commentators suggest that Zimbabwe is on the verge of civil war, genocide and tragedy of unspeakable proportions.
Two Messages
I now wish to share with you two messages that I have personally received, seemingly from subjective realms. They have been the result of much deep meditation upon the Zimbabwean situation, and a commitment to identify unconditionally with the Zimbabwean people. I do not claim that these messages represent prophetic truth. Indeed, I am not sure of the nature of the source of these messages, whether they come truly from some spiritual messenger, or perhaps they are fanciful thoughts of my imagination.
Yet the words themselves seem to me good, and provide positive direction in a situation in which it is so easy to despair. They suggest a pathway for positive and perhaps transformative action.
The first message I received on Tuesday 24/June/08, then three days before the scheduled run-off presidential election day:
"The peoples of Zimbabwe are my beloved children. I have heard their cries, and I have sent forth My Spirit to purify and heal their nation. And My Spirit has established in Zimbabwe, a shield of protection against any who would walk in the ways of unrighteousness. Any who violate My shield of protection will meet My wrath.The time of torture, murder and intimidation has passed. Now has come the time for emergence. Let the people build their homes upon the rock. For at a time appointed, I will send forth a mighty storm to purify and heal the nation of Zimbabwe. Then may the people be grateful that they have built their homes upon the rock, for at that time, all else will be swept away."
The second message I received on Monday, 9/July/08, twelve days after the run-off presidential election day.
And the Spirit came upon me, and I saw the nation of Zimbabwe as a parched desert. And the people were suffering greatly and from the depths of their heart they prayed to Almighty God for rain. And God has heard their cry and He has sent forth His Spirit to heal the people’s sorrows. And the Spirit appears as vast thunderclouds that cover the sky from horizon to horizon, for the blessings from on High are so great.Yet no rain comes and still the people thirst and suffer, and they ask of the Lord, "Why have you forsaken us?" Then from out of the ethers, the prophetic words are heard by the people, "My people, rejoice, for in your humbleness, let the people dance." And in the midst of their great sorrow, the people listen, and they begin to dance, for their heart understands that God’s Spirit is sweeping the nation. They dance in their souls, because they become aware of the Spirit of God that is sweeping the nation, and their tears are turned to joy. And to the people of Zimbabwe, a gentle and sweet rain begins to fall, renewing all things and transforming the desert to bloom and bare testimony to God’s glory.
An Interpretation
"I have heard their cries"
The Zimbabwean economy started to severely crash about five years ago, and the suffering of the people has been getting progressively worse ever since. Dissent of any kind has always been savagely repressed. But in the elections of 29/March/08, the Zimbabwean people made a clear statement that they have had enough. They voted for change, though even then there were harsh threats against any who would vote for an opposition party.
"I have sent forth My Spirit to purify and heal their nation."
This is in response to the intensity of invocation of the people. Through God’s great Love and Mercy, when the people truly pray for change, then God always responds in measure.
"The time of torture, murder and intimidation has passed. Now has come the time for emergence."
The purification and healing is happening in two distinct stages. The first stage is a time of bringing all the ugliness to the surface, where it can be seen for what it is, and then can be rejected by the people. It has been important for the people to clearly understand how repressive the Robert Mugabe government really has been. This first message was received just before the presidential run-off election, suggesting that the day of the presidential run-off election (June/27) must mark the end of the "time of torture, murder and intimidation".
"And My Spirit has established in Zimbabwe, a shield of protection against any who would walk in the ways of unrighteousness. Any who violate My shield of protection will meet My wrath."
The question must be asked, "In what manner shall the shield of protection be established? How shall God’s wrath act in cases of any violation or acts of unrighteousness such as continued intimidation, murder and torture?"
The shield of protection and God’s wrath will have both spiritual and physical aspects. The physical aspects invariably manifest through human actions, in response to spiritual touching of people’s hearts. Human activity to establish a shield of protection to protect the people can be either external or internal. Let us first consider the possibility of external protection, from the international community.
The Security Council of the United Nations has failed to act because of vetos by both Russia and China. I think this is right, because any international response must be led by African nations. The main African alliance to consider the Zimbabwe crisis is the African Union which met in Egypt on 30/June to consider the Zimbabwe situation. The meeting ignored appeals to get directly involved in Zimbabwe's political conflict and stopped short of directly criticising Robert Mugabe thus giving tacit approval. The international situation continues to evolve, but from such an inauspicious beginning, the people of Zimbabwe cannot expect any substantial help from the international community.
Any shield of protection for the people must therefore be constructed from within that nation. An example of how this will happen occurred in the village of Kodzwa where 200 families live. When 25 ruling party militia members attempted to enter the village on 28/May, whistles of villager sentries blew, which was a pre-arranged signal for women, children and the elderly to flee to a neighbouring village. The two rival factions fought vigorously throughout the night, the villagers eventually emerging triumphant. Such victories by the local people against army-trained militias have in the past been rare.
Such locally trained groups seem the only way for the rural people of Zimbabwe to protect their women, children and elderly. They are now beginning to receive substantial armaments from sympathetic neighbouring countries, and they are beginning to organise. A movement is developing to win back huge areas of regional Zimbabwe back to the control of local villagers. This is I think the way that the shield of protection will become established upon the physical level.
There seems no other alternative than for at least low level civil war to emerge in rural Zimbabwe. The ruling Zanu-PF party in the two weeks since the 27/June presidential run-off election, continues its campaign of intimidation, torture and displacement. At least 20 more people have died, refugees camps are being raided, and tortures are continuing. How else other that arming themselves can the local people ensure the safety of the people they love?
The local militias are arming and organising quickly. The initial struggle must be to liberate all rural areas as well as the refugee camps, which have become the homes for hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Then and only then will the shield of protection become effectively established upon the physical level, and real negotiations can commence with the Robert Mugabe government of Harare to establish a transitional government of Zimbabwe, with Robert Mugabe as nominal president but holding no real power. Power of the transitional government must be vested in opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai as interim Prime Minister, who presides over the drafting of a new national Constitution, and invites an international peace keeping force to restore order in Zimbabwe, and prepare for new national elections that will be genuinely free and fair.
"Let the people build their homes upon the rock. For at a time appointed, I will send forth a mighty storm to purify and heal the nation of Zimbabwe. Then may the people be grateful that they have built their homes upon the rock, for at that time, all else will be swept away."
This is an assurance that despite the suffering of the people, change for the better is on the way, and the days of the Robert Mugabe government are numbered. To build one’s home upon the rock is a metaphor for the spiritual injunction; "Seek first My kingdom and My righteousness."
We come now to an interpretation of the second message.
"And the Spirit appears as vast thunderclouds that cover the sky from horizon to horizon, for the blessings from on High are so great."
For many weeks now I have been acutely aware of the overshadowing of Spirit upon the people of Zimbabwe. The intensity of the cry for help coming from the people is awesome, and so in direct response the intensity of the overshadowing Spirit is equally awesome.
Yet no rain comes and still the people thirst and suffer, and they ask of the Lord, "Why have you forsaken us?"
The common people are so intensely aware of their desperate physical situation and of their suffering, that most are not consciously yet aware of the overshadowing clouds of Spirit. There is a great need for world servers to draw the people’s attention to what is happening on subjective levels, and to assist in the anchoring on Earth of these spiritual energies through establishing right relations upon Earth.
"Then from out of the ethers, the prophetic words are heard by the people, "My people, rejoice, for in your humbleness, let the people dance." And in the midst of their great sorrow, the people listen, and they begin to dance, for their heart understands that God’s Spirit is sweeping the nation. They dance in their souls, because they become aware of the Spirit of God that is sweeping the nation, and their tears are turned to joy.
It will be interesting to see how this message works out in practice. I think the first priority of the people is to help establish the shield of protection. Only then, when they have assured a measure of physical safety for themselves, can they feel the freedom to collectively attune to the overshadowing Spirit, and respond through the dance.
I have not heard of any prior situation of the people collectively becoming liberated through the dance. I sense that this is a sign that the avataric force, or the Christ force is about to impact en masse among the people. Indeed, the Christ force seems the only thing that can turn the situation completely around in Zimbabwe. At the moment this Christ force is being held back, in the thunderclouds of the heavens. It needs a catalyst to bring it down to Earth. It needs a collective invocation of the people to bring it down to Earth. In the past the invocation of the Zimbabwean people has been intense, but largely subconscious. When that invocation becomes conscious and intelligently directed, then the Christ force will become truly anchored in the people’s hearts. Then shall the people go about establishing right relations with joy in their hearts and thanksgiving for the wonderful blessings from realms of Spirit.
Time is Short
Time is indeed short. The moment of greatest danger has arrived. There is perhaps just another week or two before the country becomes immersed in civil war. Full scale genocide then becomes a possibility, of Mugabe followers taking a path of vengeance against all opposition supporters. There is an urgency for all men and women of goodwill to now invoke divine intercession of the Christ force. When the Christ force falls upon the nation, then it will no longer be possible for acts of unrighteousness to be committed against the people. Those who plot to violate such basic human rights will be given two choices; to turn around and go their way, or to become transformed through the spiritual potencies. When the Christ force truly anchors upon Earth, then the ruling Zanu-PF party will begin to self-destruct and the way will be opened for the lifting up of a transitional government that will in due time supervise new free and fair elections under international monitors.
Time is short. Let us collectively pray for an anchoring of the Christ force in Zimbabwe by Friday July/18, the day of the Cancer Full Moon.
Yours in love and light,
David Keane,
Secretary, Compassion Response Network