Mugabe loyalists disrupt meeting

There has been pandemonium at the Harare Conference Centre where the first All-Stakeholders Conference on the New Constitution opened this morning.  

Reports from people in the centre have come in and apparently when Lovemore Moyo, Speaker of the House, started his opening address Zand PF youth and “war vets” began shouting, demanding the adoption of the Kariba Draft as the only draft and proceeded to spray the delegates with bottles of water. The MDC supporters in attendance responded in kind and the riot police had to be brought in to quell the situation.

The last message we’ve received was that approximately 60 Zanu PF supporters were removed from the conference.

Registration for the conference started yesterday and by 9pm around 2000 delegate hopefuls had still not been registered. There were problems with the number of cameras needed to take the photos of the delegates. Eventually authorities were simply stamping the registration forms. However, the Zanu PF delegates were whisked through the registration process and have also been accommodated in the capital, courtesy of the State.

There was a heavy presence of CIO at the registration site, with operatives openly photographing those attempting to participate in the conference. Once again they are resorting to attempts at intimidating anyone interested in joining the national debate on the constitution.

There has been a marked indifference from the South African press and public in the controversial constitutional debate raging in Zimbabwe. At a time when South Africa is meant to be acting as a watchdog to the implementation of the GPA this lack of concern is another nail in the coffin for the people of this troubled state. We challenge the SA press to get involved and truly respond to the call of neighbours in distress. We’ve been told, for example, that some SA film crews in Harare who didn’t bother to attend the opening!

Update – 13.40: There has been no statement yet if the conference will continue. Zanu PF rural women have taken over the floor, dancing and toy-toying. None of the dignitaries have arrived: i.e. Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai or Arthur Mutambara. We’ve been told the former opposition parties want to continue. One spectator commented on the irony that Zimbabwe’s terrible troubles started ten years ago over the same issue – the constitution and Zanu PF’s unwillingness to allow the people to have a say in it.- This is Zimbabwe Blog