CHIHURI REWARDS ALLEGED KILLER POLICE

HARARE – Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri has promoted Inspector Mawone, the alleged killer of a female police recruit during training in November last year, to the position of Chief Inspector.It was not possible over the weekend to ascertain the first name of Mawone, an instructor at Harare’s Morris Depot police training school.

Sources in the police force say, however, that he has also since been drafted into a team of police officers due for deployment on a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Kosovo in August.

Mawone was accused last year of viciously assaulting police recruit Pamela Mudzingwa resulting in her death. Mudzingwa was 26 years old. Those who witnessed the assault said the attack was so savage that the recruit soiled her pants before she lapsed into unconsciousness.

Mudzingwa was rushed to the Morris Depot clinic from where she was referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Mawone, who was not formally charged with murder or assault, was later “exonerated” on the basis of a postmortem report which claimed the death was caused by a low sugar level in the blood of the deceased.

Mudzingwa’s relatives insisted the postmortem was falsified to protect the police instructor. There were claims that Deputy Commissioner Barbara Mandizha ordered police details from Harare’s Homicide section not to prefer any charges against Mawone, who is said to be related to her. Mandizha is said a powerful force in the police force.

Vicious assaults on police recruits by their trainers were captured in a recent video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W96la5p9N18) which was clandestinely short and leaked to the press by sources close to the incidents.

“Mawone’s promotion and deployment for peacekeeping duties is a reward for the ‘good job’ he is doing,” one of the police sources said.

“It is highly unlikely that one can be deployed for UN duties when the police command is not satisfied with one’s performance.” It is the ambition of all police officers in Zimbabwe’s police force to take part in the lucrative UN missions.

Those successfully deployed for such duties are paid US$130 per day for the entire one year duration of their mission. Civil servants in Zimbabwe currently earn $100 per month across the board.

Zimbabwe’s police force has conveniently used UN deployments to reward “loyal” officers. Over the past years, loyalty within the police force has been measured in terms of open support for President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

- TheZimbabweTimes

TSVANGIRAI BOOED BY ZIM EXILES

London - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was booed and shouted down by Zimbabwean exiles during a speech in London on Saturday when he called for them to return home to help rebuild the shattered country.

Tsvangirai told an estimated crowd of 1 000 people in Southwark Cathedral that he had one message, that "Zimbabweans must come home".

His appeal was greeted by boos and chants of "Mugabe must go", referring to 85-year-old President Robert Mugabe.

When Tsvangirai could not make himself heard above the crowd, he left the pulpit for two minutes before returning to face questions.

He added: "I did not say 'pack your bags tomorrow', I said 'you should now start thinking about coming home'."

Some exiles asked Tsvangirai what the four-month-old power-sharing government of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change and Mugabe's Zanu-PF was doing to help Zimbabweans who had been "traumatised" by violence.

He said: "If there is anyone who has been traumatised, it is me."

After answering several more questions briefly, he was ushered away by security guards amid a hail of fresh boos.

London is the latest stop on a tour which has taken him to Washington, Berlin, Stockholm and Brussels as he drums up support for the 'new' Zimbabwe - albeit one that still has Mugabe as president.

Tsvangirai and his party have been accussed of toeing the ZANU PF line by failing to exercise its power government as evidenced by the party's failure to stop the continued indiscriminate attacks on white commercial farmers, the harassment of journalists and human rights activists alike.

Farm invasions are persisting while corruption is still the order of the day.

- AFP and Simba Nembaware