22 dead from measles in Zimbabwe
From CNN, in its entirety:
Harare, Zimbabwe — Twenty-two people, mainly children below the age of 5, have died of measles in Zimbabwe, the country’s state media reported.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said two weeks ago it was “deeply frustrated” by the measles outbreak, which came after it sponsored a vaccination program in the African nation.
WHO’s head in Zimbabwe, Dr. Custodia Mandlhate, told journalists in Harare the outbreak has totaled more than 340 suspected cases this year, and “this is not acceptable.” She said the outbreak came about “mainly because of people who have denied their children vaccination.”
The Herald on Tuesday reported the 22 victims had not been vaccinated, quoting health officials in the troubled country. Ninety cases have been confirmed nationwide, Zimbabwe’s Health and Child Welfare Minister Henry Madzorera told the newspaper.
“This is an unwarranted loss of lives given the fact that measles is a preventable disease,” he said, according to the state-owned Herald. “In Zimbabwe, outbreaks of measles were rare because of sustained high vaccination coverage among all children. It is therefore important for parents to realize that vaccinating their children protects the individual children” from the disease and its complications,” he said.
The outbreak has hit five districts in Zimbabwe, Madzorera said.
It is likely to further strain Zimbabwe’s health system, which last year linked nearly 5,000 deaths to a cholera epidemic. In the past three months, five people have died from cholera, but the WHO said the situation will not be as bad as last year.
From Morgan Freeman and Amnesty International, a new video on the power of words.
Words. They can do anything. They can call in a dog at night. They can bring comfort to an old friend. They can say “Happy Birthday” to a girl whose balloons are slowing sinking.
But sometimes, words can get you in trouble. Like the human rights activist in Zimbabwe who was kidnapped for standing up to government corruption. Or the journalist in China sentenced to 10 years in prison for sending an e-mail. Or the thousands of men and women in Iran who were beaten, arrested and tortured just for demanding a fair election.
Now we need your words to demand justice, to take a stand, to offer hope to people around the world who are silenced for simply speaking their minds. Write a letter and speak out today. Your words can lead to their freedom.
Words. They can do anything.
Please pass it on and get as many people involved as you can. Remember how privileged we are to be able to use our words without fear of persecution.
From Morgan Freeman and Amnesty International, a new video on the power of words.
Words. They can do anything. They can call in a dog at night. They can bring comfort to an old friend. They can say “Happy Birthday” to a girl whose balloons are slowing sinking.
But sometimes, words can get you in trouble. Like the human rights activist in Zimbabwe who was kidnapped for standing up to government corruption. Or the journalist in China sentenced to 10 years in prison for sending an e-mail. Or the thousands of men and women in Iran who were beaten, arrested and tortured just for demanding a fair election.
Now we need your words to demand justice, to take a stand, to offer hope to people around the world who are silenced for simply speaking their minds. Write a letter and speak out today. Your words can lead to their freedom.
Words. They can do anything.
Please pass it on and get as many people involved as you can. Remember how privileged we are to be able to use our words without fear of persecution.
A seven-year-old boy cries after the destruction of his family home at Porta Farm, Harare, Zimbabwe, June 2005. © Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
From the Amnesty International blog, in its entirety:
Seven hundred thousand people. That is the number of people forcibly evicted from their homes and business over a three month period in 2005. This is the equivalent of bulldozing the entire city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Seem incomprehensible? Seem reprehensible? Think something should be done about it? We think so too.
Between May and July 2005, the government of Zimbabwe orchestrated Operation Murambatsvina; a slum clearance program touted by officials as necessary to decrease rising urban populations by requiring people to return to rural areas. In reality, the purpose was to disperse members of political opposition parties and disrupt their ability to organize. Houses and informal businesses were bulldozed, leaving people with nowhere to live and no way to earn a living.
Currently, thousands of informal traders continue to face forcible eviction as the government targets vendor stalls in Harare for demolition. Unemployment in Zimbabwe remains near 90%. These market stalls provide goods at a price affordable by the populace and generate necessary income for those unable to work in the formal sector. The mayor of Harare defended these actions by claiming the stalls were a health hazard and violated city regulations.
As we continue a week commemorating World Habitat Day, Amnesty International calls upon the government of Zimbabwe to cease the harassment of informal traders, discontinue the egregious practice of forcible evictions which violate Zimbabwe’s obligations under the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and provide restitution to those it has previously displaced. Join Amnesty International in its effort to assure that Human Rights Live Here.
Zimbabwe Says China Is Giving It Loans
How morally bankrupt do you have to be to make deals with The World’s Worst Dictator? Ask the Chinese government.
From the NY Times:
JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, said Tuesday that an official he had appointed had secured lines of credit worth $950 million from China, President Robert Mugabe’s longtime ally.
Mr. Mugabe’s party has mocked Mr. Tsvangirai for failing to bring home much aid from his three-week tour of the United States and Europe. Zimbabwe’s government — a virtually bankrupt contraption led by Mr. Mugabe and his rival, Mr. Tsvangirai — needs an estimated $8 billion to rebuild the country’s ruined economy.
The West has been leery of giving the government a large infusion of money until Mr. Mugabe stops the human rights abuses that have been a fixture of his 29 years in power. China, however, has maintained its close relationship with Zimbabwe as it has extended its financial ties to other nations in Africa.
Miners in the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe in 2006, the year the fields were discovered.
From The NY Times:
JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe’s military, controlled by President Robert Mugabe’s political party, violently took over diamond fields in Zimbabwe last year and has used the illicit revenues to buy the loyalty of restive soldiers and enrich party leaders, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released Friday.
The party, ZANU-PF, has used the money from diamonds — smuggled out of the country or illegally sold through the Reserve Bank — to reinforce its hold over the security forces, which seemed to be slipping last year as the value of soldiers’ pay collapsed with soaring inflation, Human Rights Watch researchers said.
Read more about this issue here.
Zimbabwe: End Repression in Marange Diamond Fields
Zimbabwe is one of the world’s biggest human rights catastrophes. While reading this, keep in mind that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe regularly spends in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in government funds to throw lavish birthday parties, and was ranked the Worst Dictator in the World by Parade Magazine. He beat out Kim Jong-Il (North Korea) and Omar al-Bashir (Sudan). From Human Rights Watch, here’s just one example of why he’s such a horror:
(Johannesburg) - Zimbabwe’s armed forces are engaging in the forced labor of children and adults, and are torturing and beating local villagers on the diamond fields of Marange district in eastern Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The military, which remains under the control of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the former ruling party, killed more than 200 people in a violent takeover of the diamond fields in late 2008…
One local miner said of the massacre: “Soldiers in helicopters started firing live ammunition and tear gas at us. We all stopped digging and began to run toward the hills to hide. I noticed that there were many uniformed soldiers on foot pursuing us. From my syndicate, 14 miners were shot and killed that morning.”
While Zimbabwe’s new power-sharing government, formed in February 2009, now lobbies the world for development aid, millions of dollars in potential government revenue are being siphoned off through illegal diamond mining, smuggling of gemstones outside the country, and corruption. The new government could generate substantial amounts of revenue from the diamonds to fund a significant portion of Zimbabwe’s economic recovery program if the diamond industry were legally regulated and operated with greater transparency and accountability…
