Mbare vendors beaten and forced to welcome Equatorial Guinea President at airport

By Tererai Karimakwenda
28 August 2007

The government forced people to go to the airport to welcome Nguema, Obiang Teodoro Nguema, the dictator from Equatorial Guinea who arrived on Tuesday to open the Agricultural show. We received reports that in order to have crowds of loyal supporters of Mugabe present as a welcoming party, three buses were sent to Mbare Msika to load a "rent-a-crowd". People were told to board the buses for a trip to the airport, and those who refused were beaten by the police and youth militia. We were not able to confirm whether there were any serious injuries or arrests.
A banquet welcoming Nguema was used by Mugabe as a platform to push his agenda that Zimbabwe’s problems are due to sanctions imposed by the West.

Journalist Angus Shaw told us that at the banquet Mugabe spoke about the sanctions passionately. He said the idea being promoted is that the shortages of basic food items that are now making life extremely difficult for many Zimbabweans are a result of the agenda promoted by the opposition and civil organisations. Shaw said state run television and radio broadcasts are being flooded with reports about non-existent sanctions. Broadcasts are also pointing to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as a supporter of these ‘sanctions,’ claiming he has been travelling the world lobbying foreign governments to isolate the Mugabe regime through economic restrictions.

Shaw said the shortages have become so severe that many people are beginning to buy into the propaganda.