We’re definitely keeping an eye on it

“We’re definitely keeping an eye on it.”Kazuo Sumi, a Japanese activist, said one Thai demonstrator had threatened to commit suicide Monday, when the conference ends, if the ADB did not meet their demands.”We did not plan for this violence, but we knew we had to reach our goal, in front of the Westin Hotel,” said Dawan Bhanhasbee, 35.Like many of the protesters, Dawan lives in the Klong Dan area outside Bangkok, the capital, where the Manila-based development bank is funding a mammoth wastewater treatment plant. Nearby villagers say the project will ruin their homes.The ADB claims that millions will be served by the plant, which will treat waste from heavy industries, and villagers will benefit from cleaner waters they fish and use for farming.Along with 38 non-governmental groups, they demand that the bank stop funding the project and cease making loans that increase indebtedness of poor nations and hurt farmers.Myoung-ho Shin, an ADB vice president, gave them a letter that said the ADB would study their demands over the next three weeks and wanted to meet their leaders in June. Protest leaders said that was a stall tactic and wanted a better answer by Monday.On Saturday, finance ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, China and South Korea agreed to set up arrangements that would protect each other’s currencies to fend off future economic crises.Details remain to be filled in, but the plan stops well short of the proposal by Japan in 1997 to create an Asian monetary fund, which was shot down by Washington, fearing it would rival the International Monetary Fund.The more modest proposal, seen by Asian officials as part of a long process to give the region more cohesion and international clout, received cautious backing Sunday from Edwin M. Truman, the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for international affairs.”We have long supported regional cooperation, in this region and others,” Truman told a news conference “We think this is a fine idea. But the nature of financial arrangements depends on the details.”.

In the bleak, remote landscape of Matobo, people know what happens to those who are in two minds about supporting Zimbabwe’s ruling party They starve to death or are beaten, raped and tortured. This is what happened in the southwest of Zimbabwe in the 1980s. Then, at least 10,000 people died so that Zanu-PF could assert its power. In the bleak, remote landscape of Matobo, people know what happens to those who are in two minds about supporting Zimbabwe’s ruling party They starve to death or are beaten, raped and tortured. This is what happened in the southwest of Zimbabwe in the 1980s.

Then, at least 10,000 people died so that Zanu-PF could assert its power.
So, Lovemore Muthe Moyo knows he faces a formidable challenge, standing as the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s (MDC) candi- date in Matobo in the parliamentary elections due to be held this summer. Not only is his personal safety threatened by the ruthless ruling party but the minds of his future potential constituents are filled with fear.”We do not want to think of what happened here. I myself witnessed beatings, rapes and brothers being made to fight one another. Those memories, we suppress them because they bring forth a lot of unanswered questions and suspicions,” said the 35-year-old financial adviser.In the centre of Matobo district lies Bhalagwe concentration camp, occupied as late as 1987 as part of Robert Mugabe’s campaign to crush the rival liberation movement, Zapu.

Local people have demolished some of the camp buildings where the worst atrocities were committed on thousands of people, but several are still standing, like grim monuments to fear. There are unmarked graves containing an untold number of bodies.Now, says the MDC, President Mugabe is unleashing the same intimidation tactics he used in Matobo and the rest of Matabeleland on the country as a whole – murders, beatings and “re-education camps”. Eighteen people have died since February and hundreds have been beaten – not just white farmers, their staff and MDC supporters, but also teachers and other influential figures in rural areas.According to Gibson Sibanda, vice president of the MDC, there are strong parallels between the 1980s massacres in Matabeleland, known in the language of its Ndebele people as the Gukaruhundu (the spring rain that washes away the chaff of the winter season) and Zanu-PF’s current intimidation, aimed at securing power for another five years.”They are saying they will bring back the Gukaruhundu and the tactics are exactly the same. They attack and kill, they ransack places to find party cards and campaign material – just as they did against Zapu,” he said.There are differences between Zapu and the MDC Zapu had its own armed liberation movement, Zipra. Together with Zanu’s military wing, Zanla, it fought a long war to end white rule in 1980. Zipra’s main base was in Matabeleland, the kingdom of the Ndebele people.