NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS- HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY. ........................................................................ PANORAMA Five Days in May RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 15:06:03 ........................................................................ Woman: He's on the back of your car! Man: Close the window! FERGAL KEANE: In Zimbabwe the terror escalates. Woman He's getting matches. Hurry up. KEANE: The opposition is attacked. Man: Please help. Help. Help! Zanu-PF! Help me. He wants to burn the car! He wants to burn us! KEANE: But Zimbabwe's President isn't threatened with regime change. He's honoured as a hero in Africa. His national cricket squad is welcomed at Lords. With the first test underway there was a crackdown at home. Robert Mugabe wants to hide this terror from the world. But for five days in May Panorama went undercover in Zimbabwe to expose the terror, the world ignores. Day One Cricket Commentator: Trescothic just taking the pace off the board. The results only rolls away. KEANE: In Zimbabwe a Member of Parliament watches the cricket test broadcast live from London. Job Sikhala sits in the comfortable surroundings of Harare cricket club. But this is a city ruled by fear, and Job Sikhala is a marked man. He's an MP for the opposition. JOB SIKHALA Opposition MP The people of this country are living under fear; fear of arrest, fear of attack and fear of torture. I am being followed every time, every day. They want to know where I sleep, where I eat. It hampers my freedom, but I am always feeling insecure wherever I am, because I always fear that my life is in danger. KEANE: Job represents the Movement for Democratic Change – the MDC. SIKHALA: There is a suspicious vehicle that is behind that white mini bus. It belongs to the police, to the Central Intelligence Organisation. I am seeing it through my rear view mirror here. KEANE: Job Sikhala could have a bit part to play in his country's future if he can survive the attentions of the police. Like every Zimbabwean who agreed to be filmed, he knew he was taking a big risk by speaking out. At home he's guarded by local volunteers, but they can't stop the secret police. Last January he was arrested and taken to this station. JOB SIKHALA: It was a small room but there was blood around it and they told me that if you will not tell us what we want from you, this is the blood of other people who have died here. Then, after that, they brought some electric gadget which they used some electric wires. They connected them on my toes of both legs. Then after that they put another electric wire around my genitals both they stick in the balls. Electric current was also applied on my tongue and also on my left ear. KEANE: The secret police interrogated this Member of Parliament about his political activities. SIKHALA: In between this exercise of systematic torture, they interrogated myself of several questions. On the MDC political setup, the security structural setup, where the houses of some of the MDC members were, and what were the plans for the MDC to overthrow the government. There was some point when I lost consciousness and for about a period, I don’t know how long it was. But I heard a distant voice the time when I was regaining consciousness, somebody saying: "Hey we have killed him. Why don’t we simply go and throw him in the dump?" One of my tormentors came and urinated on me and they told me: "Mop up all this urine, and you have to do it by swimming around it until it is finally mopped." I tried to swim around the urine but unfortunately I was not able to mop it up because I was naked. How can human flesh mop up a wet floor? January 2003 KEANE: Job was eventually released and taken to hospital where I was smuggled in to meet him last January. The last time I was able to visit the country. SIKHALA: The world must know that the kind of life the people of Zimbabwe are living under is terrible. KEANE: Do you think it's reaching the end game? SIKHALA: This is the time bomb for the people of this country. KEANE: But the torture would have dramatic consequences in an unlikely place. Zimbabwe cricket star, Andy Flower, read about what happened in a local paper. It was a moment of awakening which would lead to his exile from Zimbabwe. At a crucial World Cup game he wore a black armband to mourn the death of democracy. You didn't have to take this stand. Why on earth did you put yourself at risk in this way? ANDY FLOWER Zimbabwe Cricket Captain, 2003-03 It was an MP called Job Sikhala that was thrown into jail and tortured and it got a little third page article in one of the papers in Harare. And I thought this is bloody ridiculous that this sort of thing is going on and all it merits is a third page article. You know.. there should be a huge outcry about this, and we, as citizens of the country, should not be accepting it. KEANE: The fact that a black player, Henry Olonga joined Andy infuriated the Zimbabwean Government and ensured the protest got worldwide attention. Henry is also exiled in Britain now, making his living as a cricket commentator. He says he was standing up for a new Africa where human rights would be respected. HENRY OLONGA Zimbabwe Test Cricketer, 1994-2003 I can't believe that kind of thing happens in Zimbabwe and no one causes a furore about it. If that would have happened in England, head would roll. But this is Africa, you see, and the problem is people look at Africa and think oh they've got a different way of doing things in Africa, you know.. and I'm… bollocks to me, I'm like… hey, there are some serious things happening. KEANE: Did you unsafe at any stage? FLOWER: Yes, we did feel unsafe after that, yes. KEANE: So it would not have been possible for you, do you think, realistically, to stay on in Zimbabwe? FLOWER: I think it would have been pretty uncomfortable to stay on, especially the way things are going, yeah. KEANE: Banned from entering Zimbabwe as a journalist, I put in a call to the man who inspired that protest. SIKHALA: Yes, I'm now fine. KEANE: How do you feel about the cricket tour that's taking place at the moment? Do you feel it's right for Zimbabwe to be touring in England? SIKHALA: The people of Zimbabwe can agree to be honest with you my brother are not worried about cricket or not. They are worried by the next meal, but you must understand that we had cricket players such as Andy Flower and Henry Olonga who have expressed their public political opinion about what they are seeing in this county. They have called a duty to the democratic cause of our people in this country, but the only thing that the people of Zimbabwe are worried about is that the patron of our cricket team is Robert Mugabe who is the oppressor of all people in this country. Day Two CRICKET COMMENTATOR : A spin out there with Ray Price who has already picked up one victim. A nice breeze blowing and a very good time to say good afternoon to Henry. HENRY OLONGA: Good afternoon Richie, good afternoon viewers. KEANE: For Hengry Olonga, Robert Mugabe wasn't always the oppressor. He used to be proud of his President. COMMENTATOR: Zimbabwe finally getting a break through with the dismissal of Bucher. OLONGA: I had always held the leadership of Zimbabwe in high esteem. I wouldn't say I thought they were Gods but I certainly respected them and felt that they'd done a great job by not only liberating the country but giving everyone equal opportunity that prior to independence believed in segregation. So for me, the leadership, the ministers and the President were my heroes. March 1980 KEANE: Robert Mugabe had become President in 1980 after a bitter guerrilla war ended a century of white settler domination. A Marxist he was initially feared by the West. Yet at independence he held out the promise of a country in which black and white could live together. ROBERT MUGABE President of Zimbabwe Yesterday I fought you as an enemy. Today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest, loyalty, rights and duties as myself. If yesterday you hated me, today you cannot avoid the love that binds you to me and me to you. KEANE: That Zimbabwe was a prosperous place. Whites were allowed to stay on their land. There were ominous warnings of the other Mugabe. In Matabeleland he crushed a dissident revolt and killed thousands. But what the world mostly saw was a state which had all the trappings of a Westminster style democracy. As a journalist who went to live there remembers. ANDREW MELDRUM Zimbabwe Correspondent, The Guardian 1980-present Robert Mugabe was viewed incredibly positively at that time. As I arrived he was nominated for a Nobel Peace prize. He had implemented the policy of racial reconciliation, he had already improved minimum wages for black Zimbabweans. He had opened up the schools, the health care, so there was a great… he had implemented policies which dramatically improved the lot of the average Zimbabwean and he had done it without really targeting or seeking retribution of whites and so it really seemed fantastic. KEANE: But it's a measure of what's changed that Andrew Meldrum is now regarded as an enemy of the state. Last month he was forcibly ejected from the country. 16th May, 2003 MELDRUM: I'm declared a prohibited immigrant. I'm being deported now. I'm going directly to the airport. This is not the action of a government that is confident in its own legitimacy and it is afraid of a free press, and it is afraid of independent and critical reporting. (bundled into vehicle and driven away) KEANE: The police simply ignored a Zimbabwean High Court order forbidding the deportation. They can do that in Zimbabwe. As far as the law is concerned, it's now simply a matter of breaking it up as they go along. Andrew Meldrum is continuing to report Zimbabwe from exile in London. Like many of the people on this small protest against the cricket test, he's wondering how long the Mugabe regime will survive. MELDRUM: Many of Robert Mugabe's supporters who supported him in the 1980s are now quite bitter and disillusioned about him, and they are the ones who are the most committed to trying to bring about the end of his rule. They feel that they have been badly let down and they want to see democracy. And if that means a different party, or a different government, why then they will go for that. KEANE: Here in Harare people have gone for the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change. In urban areas the MDC consistently tops the polls, even winning control of city hall. They voted in this man, Elias Mudzuri, as Mayor. Now one of the MDC's most prominent figures, Elias Mudzuri was one a supporter of Robert Mugabe. ELIAS MUDZURI Mayor of Harare It was the most exciting thing. We admired Mugabe seriously, I admired him seriously, and it took a long time for me to stop admiring him. KEANE: Elias Mudzuri would like to be able to lead the kind of protests seen outside Lords, but it's impossible. In January, before the cricket World Cup, the Mayor of Harare was arrested at a demonstration. The city's top official was held in a police cell for three days. ELIAS MUDZURI: The government has tended to behave like the previous colonial regime which said anyone opposing it was a terrorist. Unless they make sure that you are a part of them, then you become a terrorist. KEANE: He's even under threat when he's doing nothing more than the routine business of local government. This is what the police did when the Mayor held a public meeting to discuss water shortages. MUDZURI: There is no democracy anymore in Zimbabwe. This is the nature of the government. It has become a police state. The police are given direction to do something, they will do it. KEANE: Now Harare's Mayor travels with bodyguards to protect him from the government. But President Mugabe is for now taking a different approach. In May he fired the Mayor. MUDZURI: All of the mayoral benefits are discontinued forthwith. I have been to the bank, there is no pay. Day Three KEANE: The stress on Elias Mudzuri and his family is immense. He is now ill with high blood pressure. Early morning at Lords and Henry Olonga is making a phone call home. Exiled from his team and country, Henry has also left family behind in Zimbabwe. This is the club in Harare where he once played, and this is his brother Victor. Henry wants to know if the government might want to track him down. HENRY: Hey Victor, VICTOR: Yeah, what's happened? HENRY: Do people at home know about the test by the way? Do they know that I'm doing commentary? Do they care? VICTOR OLONGO: Most just ask where you are because they don’t really know. So I'm sure by now they know you're in the UK. I think they know you're in the UK. Not that I think there would be any security threat or anything like that. Even if.. they can't even afford to fly out to find you. There's no aviation fuel as well. There's a shortages of all kinds of fuel. So it's the last of your worries about somebody trying to track you down man. You know.. KEANE: Victor Olonga doesn't share his brother's political views. He's captain of the national rugby team. He sees Robert Mugabe as the champion of black Africans. He's still indignant over the protest staged by Henry and Andy Flower. VICTOR: Who makes two people the judge of everybody else. Let me tell you the basic principle where this whole thing comes down to… stems down to, okay. Like it, loath it, hate me, whatever you think about me, it just comes to the fact that African black people can dare kick the white men off the land. You see? Can dare do to them what they've done to us. KEANE: By making the white farmers his target, Robert Mugabe cast himself as the authentic defender of African nationalism. He called these farm invasions "a war of liberation". 23rd April 2003 ROBERT MUGABE President of Zimbabwe The majority of people are a happy lot in spite of the hardships they are going through, and that's just one fact that now the land is their own. Now they are sovereign over their resources, and the white man has been displaced by the black man, and this is what it should have been, even 1980. KEANE: But thousands of black farm workers lost their homes and jobs. Still Robert Mugabe's supporters portrayed him as the victim. VICTOR OLONGA Zimbabwe Rugby Captain I think the government is going through a tough time. I will support my government because I think my government has supported me. KEANE: But in this shanty area, we found people bitterly critical of Robert Mugabe. Despite the risk, Tonderai Ndira, a shopkeeper, was willing to appear on camera. His business has been destroyed by inflation, now running at nearly 300%. Economic collapse fuels the political crisis and a shopkeeper becomes an activist for the opposition. Unemployment here is now up to 70%. TONDERAI NDIRA Opposition Activist Things are getting worse, especially economic situation, also the Zimbabwean dollar has been getting down each and every minute, so things are getting bad. KEANE: For those with the money, vital supplies like fuel can be bought on the black-market. The most visible sign of economic collapse are the petrol queues. We filmed these covertly. The government has run out of money to import fuel. MUDZURI: I have got some reliable source who has told me that fuel will be coming here, and I'm almost empty in my tank, so I really have no choice. KEANE: There are also fewer and fewer commuter buses running. For the mass of Zimbabweans the minibus taxi is their lifeline, the only way of getting to work. But the drivers have the same problem as everybody else. DRIVER: The fuel crisis gives us lots of trouble. After sleeping in a petrol queue for 2-3 days in Harare, our Bulawayo employers think we're loafing or chasing prostitutes. When I get to Bulawayo, I'll spend the night in a petrol queue. My wife now lives alone. I can't spend time with her or my kid. KEANE: Public services are collapsing. This street sweeping was organised by the opposition. But simply gathering as a group, these women are breaking the law. Tonderai the shopkeeper is one of the organisers. He's been arrested 17 times. Even a civic action like this can be attacked by the police. It is the Mugabe regime selectively the law in Zimbabwe. Sometimes if they arrest us they say: "We don’t want to hear anything that has been organised by you or your party in the constituency." So they are trying to cut off all the activities done by the opposition. JOB SIKHALA Opposition MP I never thought that I will one day queue for bread in my own country, that I will queue for salt, even queue for cooking oil, and even I can't talk of petrol, that is I nearly failed to come for this interview. I had to go to the black market to go and by five litres of petrol for 20,000 Zimbabwean dollars. To see the magnitude of the suffering in the country is very difficult. Day Four KEANE: In cricket, Zimbabwe have lost the first test. And in London, two exiles meet up to talk about home. ANDY FLOWER Zimbabwe Cricket Captain, 2000-03 One thing that people do forget sometimes, it's the people of Zimbabwe, it's the average person in Zimbabwe, those are the people that are suffering. The story is not so much that black armband stuff in the World Cup. The story is really the people that are suffering in Zimbabwe and what's happening to them, the injustices that are going on there. HENRY OLONGA Zimbabwe Test Cricketer, 1994-2003 How much can people take and when are they going to stand up and say: "We've had enough." KEANE: They are trying. These scenes would have been unimaginable five years ago. The MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is the first serious threat to Robert Mugabe's rule. A former trade unionist, he challenged Mugabe for the Presidency. But the President's grip on power was stronger than many predicted. He used the full might of the state to ensure victory. Mugabe portrayed himself as the true African, the opposition as colonial lackeys. 23rd April 2003 ROBERT MUGABE President of Zimbabwe They're just shadows of some other people. They have been put together by Britain. Their acts, you know.. are a product of British thinking. And how do you work with an opposition which is not itself. And opposition which really is a kind of agency for a country outside or a nation outside. KEANE: Britain wasn't always so despised. Robert Mugabe once spoke warmly of the British legacy. But when Tony Blair criticised the farm invasions, Britain became the great enemy, and British criticism of election fraud infuriates Mugabe supporters. VICTOR OLONGA Zimbabwe Rugby Captain Now are you telling me my government stole votes, like the US government stole votes. You're telling me my government kill people like the Coalition killed Iraqis. Now you're telling me what they do, they stole – like the British have stolen land. What is the difference? You know? You're talking about being honest and straightforward. You tell me now, tell me the difference with what you've said and what I've said. Is it a lie? Am I wrong? JOB SIKHALA Opposition MP All dictators find scapegoats in blaming their former colonial masters. What has Britain to do with raping of women using a rifle? What has Tony Blair have anything to do with (stabbing?) your own people? What has Tony Blair have anything to do with the stealing of national ??. What has Tony Blair have anything to do with the torture of an elected Member of Parliament? Should we blame Tony Blair for my torture? Why? Is he the one who has used these instruments of torture? So it's basically the ?? of dictators in Africa. KEANE: Many African nations still support the Mugabe government, but by May, the same month as the cricket test, even they were getting worried. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa went on a mission to Harare. Many now believe the only hope of pushing for change lies through South Africa. ANDREW MELDRUM Zimbabwe Correspondent, The Guardian I think to put pressure on fellow African leaders, on particularly South African President Thabo Mbeki to build up as good relations with him as possible to try and encourage him to do what he's already started doing which is to try and bring Robert Mugabe to negotiate with the opposition in Zimbabwe, to get Robert Mugabe to agree to a transitional period which would then lead to a new round of truly free and fair elections. KEANE: But there are serious complications. To many in South Africa Robert Mugabe is standing up to bullying by the former colonial power. At the funeral of ANC legend Walter Sisulu, Zimbabwe's President was given a standing ovation. So South African President Thabo Mbeki is not about to impose economic sanctions that could bring down the regime. British attempts to get African nations to take a tougher line have been firmly rebuffed. Dr PALLO JORDAN Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee South African Parliament Diplomacy is about influencing the other party, not about yelling at him, hindering him or scolding him. We want to influence the way in which the Zimbabwe government behave. We are not going to attain that by shouting at them, wagging your finger at them, being rude to them. KEANE: Is it really a question of quiet diplomacy or are you just bystanders? JORDAN: (laughing) Well London has been very noisy, and so have many other places, but that hasn't changed anything either, has it. KEANE: I'm just asking you, do you feel comfortable with the position. JORDAN: The last statement the Foreign Secretary made when he was here in South Africa was that the Government of the United Kingdom supports the initiative of the South African Government, which would seem to me to indicate that after three years of hindering, shouting and making good headlines, it has come to the realisation of the government of the United Kingdom that in fact their way doesn't work. They way that might work is the manner in which the South African Government is going about it. JOB SIKHALA: Unfortunately there is serious betrayal by our own African brothers. There is no doubt about that. They have a role to play to see the people of Zimbabwe liberated. Thabo Mbeki is the great son of Africa, no one doubts that. During the apartheid era the whole world fought against that practice of which the regime here in Zimbabwe is more than the South African apartheid regime, it kills its own black people. Dr PALLO JORDAN South African MP We have to deal with the Zimbabwean government no matter what it's character. Now if the MDC or elements within it feel that we are going too far in that respect well so be it. But we have to do it. There is no other way around it. KEANE: The truth is, the opposition has given up hoping for help from South Africa or anywhere else. These demonstrations in May were a significant moment. For the first time the opposition publicly encouraged its supporters to take to the streets. Under pressure from its supporters for more radical action, the opposition leadership began to speak of "a final push". MORGAN TSVANGIRAI Opposition Leader Let's talk about the issue of mass action. I will ask you two questions. Stay away? Demonstration? Hold on… hold on. Those for stay away, hands up! Those for demonstration, hands up! Good, that's it! Agreed. Day Five KEANE: Archbishop Pius Ncube comes home from a foreign journey. He's been lobbying for aid. This is Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, and Archbishop Ncube is its most outspoken figure. Today he's heading to one of his rural parishes. Hunger is the main concern here. More than half the population depends on food aid. PIUS NCUBE Archbishop of Bulawayo They have no feeling for people, this government. People are starving here. Even if bread comes, they've no money for bread. If at all, sometimes once in two days, and once in three days. I know people are spending four days without food. KEANE: This hunger in a land that once grew enough food to feed the region. This is a church-run feeding station. For many, the maize porridge – or mealy meal – supplied here is all that stand between them and starvation. But the population now struggling simply to eat, the Archbishop is pessimistic about political change. NCUBE: It is clear that Mugabe will not tolerate any other party ruling here except Zanu-PF and he has vowed saying that it will never, ever happen. They want to break the backbone of civil society, the educated people, so that they can just walk over everybody, and then there is so much apathy and the leadership is very, very weak, so most likely they are going to have their way, because there is not strong opposition. KEANE: But a collapsing economy could change that. By late May, the government had even run out of money to pay for the printing of bank notes. People queued to draw cash but it was being rationed. Job Sikhala was now being threatened repeatedly but he was still on the streets rallying support. It takes a lot of courage for these men to be seen publicly supporting their MP. For his followers, the consequences of protest can be fatal. This is one of Job Sikhala's constituency workers. KEANE: Tonderai Macharidza was seized from his home by police, driven to a police station and tortured. He is in too much pain to stand or sit. The room is full of torture victims. TONDERAI: What happened was they came to my home at 2 o'clock at night. About 25 policemen. My wife and I were sleeping. When I saw their lights through the window, I put on my clothes. As soon as I opened the door, they began to beat me hard. It was terrible. There aren't words to explain the kind of violence. They said: "If you are Tonderai, we have been looking for you. You're well known and today you're going to die." We were then removed on foot. I collapsed and they started pulling me by my trousers. When I finally arrived at the police station a woman officer, probably the one in charge, said: "This person has been badly hurt, so take him to the hospital." KEANE: Tonderai Macharidza died 24 hours after these images were recorded. Last Week Confronted with such terror, any protest seems extraordinarily brave. At the beginning of the month the opposition tried to stage mass demonstrations. Students in Harare took to the streets. TONDERAI NDIRA Opposition Activist We are prepared to die. It is just the same, we are still dying in Zimbabwe. We are dying by hunger, diseases, everything, so there is nothing to fear, nothing to scared, you know. ELIAS MUDZURI Mayor of Harare They might kill us. They might kill me. But they can't kill the dissenting voices, they are there. I am worried about my life but I've given myself to it and I will face it. The thing is, you can throw yourself in the fire but you would rather work as much as you can while you are still alive and show that the government… this government is not there for anybody. It's there for itself. KEANE: The state deployed all of its might to crush the opposition protests. Yet after three years of this terror, the world continues to do nothing. JOB SIKHALA Opposition MP There are thousands of people here been killed by this regime since 1980. It assumed office in this country. There are thousands of people here been raped, unaccountable, tortured and has disappeared from their own homes and their whereabouts are not even known. But the world is silent on this. KEANE: Robert Mugabe has avowed to crush all who oppose him. At this prayer service in Bulawayo they remember those killed by the state. Each cross signifies a life lost, victims of tyranny and apathy. The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai is now starting his second week in jail. Next week on Panorama, the story of the bloody gangland feud in Belfast that's spreading to English and Scottish towns. You can comment on this week's programme by logging on to: www.bbc.co.uk/panorama _________ CREDITS Reporter Fergal Keane Film Camera Dirk Nel Sound Recordist Jason Russell VT Editor Boyd Nagle Colourist Geoff Hockney Dubbing Mixer Rowan Jennings Production Co-ordinators Karen Sadler Rosa Rudknicka Web Producer Adam Flinter Film Research Kate Redman Research Amanda Vaughan-Barratt Graphic Design Key Yip Lam Liz Vinson Post Production Co-ordinator Ginny Williams Unit Manager Laura Govett Film Editors Jenny Roberts Roderick Longhurst Assistant Producers Richard Danbury Claire McFall Fran Baker Producer Thea Guest Deputy Editors Andrew Bell Sam Collyns Editor Mike Robinson 12 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Transcribed: 1-Stop Express Tel: 020 7724 7953 Fax: 020 7402 8434 E-mail: onestopexpress@hotmail.com