Violence in Zimbabwe

Terrible things are afoot in Zimbabwe, and have been since the March 29th election. Mugabe's farcical poll on June 27th and rushed reinstatement has done nothing to slow the terror.

Sokwanele provides some insight into what is happening on the ground. Their election violence map tracks post-election incidents, but only those that have been confirmed and verified - it represents the tip of the iceberg.

I'm not sure how to embed their map, so here's a screenshot from today:


Sokwanele also has a Flickr photostream. There are disturbing images of post-election violence.

Here are some photos from their set:





There are others I can't bring myself to repost: raw flesh and open wounds, huge deep red holes in buttocks and bodies from extensive beatings; axe wounds; burn wounds. And these are only the victims who are close enough to 'civilization' for their injuries to be recorded.

The government and its thugs are indiscriminate: they attack MDC activists (first photo above), white people (often elderly: the lady pictured above is 74), and ordinary citizens who appear poor weak and defenceless: anyone who is suspected of not being a whole-hearted supporter of the government, or anyone who seems easy prey.

It makes me sick and sad. Zimbabwe today is an example of unbelievable courage and extreme depravity.

Gold Mines

... just before I go back to bed, saw this story on Google News:

Thousands trapped deep inside gold mine in South Africa
More than 3000 miners were trapped a mile and a half underground in a South African goldmine after the lift shaft was shattered by falling equipment. ...

This is why we only went down to level eight the last time (Peter's first time) we visited Dalny Mine in early 2004. Dalny is Zimbabwe's deepest gold mine: 40+ levels / 1 mile down - shallower than many of the big mines in South Africa. We had to be able to climb out in case the mine experienced one of the unfortunate but increasingly frequent ZESA outages...

I hope all the miners get out okay. The Elandsrand mine is 2.2 km (~1.5 miles) deep, there's limited oxygen, and deep mines get really HOT at lower levels. There were parts of Dalny where the miners set to work wearing only gumboots and safety helmets. Really! While the miners were generally delighted to have visitors, females - including the occasional lady geologist - were not made welcome in those areas.

And part of me wonders what the heck the Elandsrand management were thinking with a mine that deep having only a single personnel-ready lift shaft.

“They are still in good condition but are angry, hungry, frustrated and want to get out of there,” Mr Boqwana said.

Indeed.