Operator:    Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the TransAfrica Forum Conference Call.  At this time all lines are in a listen-only mode.  However, we will be conducting a question and answer session after the presentation, and instructions will be provided at that time.  Additionally, please note that this conference call is being recorded.  With that, we’ll now turn the conference over to Sylvia Hill.  Please go ahead.

Sylvia Hill:    Welcome to TransAfrica Forum and our audio press briefing on Zimbabwe and their 2008 election.  I am Sylvia Hill and I'm Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of TransAfrica Forum.  The panel for today’s briefing includes William Lucy, Executive Director of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, who will join us shortly; Roxanne Lawson, Director of African Policy for TransAfrica; Imani Countess, Senior Director for Public Affairs, TransAfrica; and Briggs Bomba, Policy Analyst for African Action and a citizen of Zimbabwe.

Joining us from Southern Africa are two Black students; McDonald Lewanika is the Coordinator of the Student Solidarity Trust and the National Sports person for crisis in Zimbabwe coalition, a civic coalition of more than 35 states, labor, women, student, youth, and other group in Zimbabwe; Clever Bere is the President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union and a board member of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network.  For the last decade this network and its alumni has been a support front of Zimbabwe’s social movement.  It is the coalition of non-governmental organizations formed to coordinate activities pertaining to election.  The major focus of the network is to promote democratic processes and general and free and fair election in particular.

For 30 years TransAfrica Forum has worked for the liberation of Southern Africa.  In addition, we have worked on global dashboard (phon) issues as well as other areas in the continent.  We’re still a long side of people of South Africa and struggle to end the party.  And then the 1970’s and 80’s TransAfrica’s Student Solidarity with the people with Zimbabwe as they fought against Colombian rule and tyranny.  At that time, community organizations, trade unions and others worked together to forge a democracy that benefited all the Zimbabwe’s people.

TransAfrica worked to educate the US population about the efforts -- aspirations of the people of Southern Africa and demanded that US policy promote the needs of all the people of Zimbabwe.  Since then the dream of a new Zimbabwe has been heard.  Human rights abuses are rampant in Zimbabwe and the dream of democracy has been betrayed (phon).  In order to fully understand the situation facing the citizens of Zimbabwe, in March TransAfrica Forum along with Africa Action sent a staff delegation to examine the election condition.  The results of those findings are in a report we are releasing today.  Since March, TransAfrica has continued to closely monitor the situation working closely with our partners in the region some of whom you will hear from, today.

Our format today will be remarks from each panel and then a period for questions from journalists and editors.  We begin with Imani Countess from TransAfrica who was part of the staff delegation to Zimbabwe.  Ms. Countess will give us an overview of the situation in Zimbabwe today and introduce you to the new report.

Imani Countess:    Thank you, Sylvia.  And to those on the call and to seat span in the room, thank you very much for joining us this morning for this audio press briefing regarding the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe.  I am delighted to be a part of the process to share information regarding the on the ground situation with Mr. Lucy, colleague from civil society in Zimbabwe as well as my coauthor of the 2008 Zimbabwe Election, A Dream Deferred, Briggs Bomba of Africa Action and Roxanne Lawson.

Today we, African union, will likely make a public statement regarding the need for a negotiated settlement in Zimbabwe.  The African parliament has already offered its preliminary opinion regarding the June 27th Presidential Runoff in which they call for a new election.  The Southern Africa Development Community acknowledges that the runoff was not representative of the Zimbabwean people.  The leaders of Southern Africa have pressed for negotiations and a transitional arrangement.  As the political discourse means to hoard negotiation and transitional arrangement, it is critical to address the question on whose term; on whose terms will the arrangements rest?  As the pressure for dialog continues to mount, we know that the tendency will be toward a settlement based upon the interest of the political party.  Our strong message; civil society has a critical role to play.

Zimbabwe’s civil society represents a creative and dynamic human resource.  The movement for democratic change was in fact an outgrowth of Zimbabwe’s civil society.  And as the Country’s formal and informal communities, human rights, faith-based, legal, trade union, and community organization; they will continue to represent an important and necessary check on the government.  Additionally, as we identify in our report, the mandate of the transitional authority must be clearly spelt out.  The authority must be time-limited; the main task must be to create an environment that allows for free and fair election and for the unhindered transfer of power to the winning party.  Key to this; a democratic constitution, a new constitution, democratization and professionalization of the state institutions, most importantly the security forces, the judiciary and the electoral commission as well as addressing the socio-economic collapse principally by stabilizing the Zimbabwe dollar, curbing inflation, stemming corruption, solving food shortages, and restoring industrial and agricultural productivity.  Thank you.

Sylvia Hill:    Thank you.  We will now hear from Roxanne Lawson, Director of African Policy for TransAfrica.

Roxanne Lawson:    Thank you all for joining us.  TransAfrica Forum, as my colleagues have stated, is unequivocally behind the people of Zimbabwe.  We are concerned to some extent with the stance of the US government in the last couple of months.  We understand that the US is exploring a more comprehensive sanction.  In the past sanctions have targeted and hurt the people of Zimbabwe.  We hope that with the US government on bailing (phon) a big sanction that they will be targeted for the quolalite (phon).  Right now the economic situation in Zimbabwe is dire, extensions undercut, they already dire economic crisis in Zimbabwe and hurt the people of Zimbabwe, they will actually not do it the US government one (phon).  We welcome the US government in pushing UN member state to the United Nations to explore arms and bargo (phon) as the political violence ruptures us in Zimbabwe we know that the sale of arms both from UN member organization is actually part of the problem in Zimbabwe, and so we support the US’ stance in not, so we do wish the next government would follow more closely the leadership of civil society in Zimbabwe who are quite clear in what they're calling for.  They are asking for the US to follow the backing of the SADC, which is the Southern African Development Community as well as the African Union and to work with them and through them to help resolve the crisis.

That said; any economic sanctions that happen in Zimbabwe should happen under the blessing of SADC and the AU.  They should follow their mandate and that the United States government should work with Zimbabweans to both support food aid and the -- into that economic crisis as well as a restoration of peace in Zimbabwe.  We hope the US government will support indigenous African democracy, governance and leadership roles of Zimbabweans first and foremost as they have their resolutions to the Zimbabwean crisis.  The United States government not push for resolution that supports US foreign policy agenda in Southern Africa and instead push for resolution that support Zimbabwean’s agenda for a free and fair election in Zimbabwe.

We also support the call of Zimbabwean civil society for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, some kind of mechanism that will actually address the imbalances of power that exist in Zimbabwe now.  We are also critical, as my colleagues have stated, of the notion to the government and national unity, we've heard from our partners in civil society in Zimbabwe and we ourselves at TransAfrica Forum strongly believe that a government national unity given Zimbabwean’s history with two failed governments in national unity will not resolve the crisis but instead will give even more power to the ruling elites in Zimbabwe.  At TransAfrica Forum, we call on the people of international community for the United States, United Nations, SADC, and the African Union to hear the voices of Zimbabwean civil society, to respect their rights for democracy, and to support those processes.  Thank you.

Sylvia Hill:    Thank you, Roxanne Lawson.  We will now hear from Clever Bere who is with the Zimbabwe National Students Union and a board member of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network.  Clever.

Clever Bere:    Okay.  Yeah, I come (phon).  I think when we discuss Zimbabwean politics today that we need to be cognizant of the fact that on the 29th of March election, now we (technical difficulty) a fairly free election and also proceed (phon) I believe now declaration (technical difficulty) and to some of folks (technical difficulty) next leader of this country.  So, whenever we discuss opportunity to deal with the transitional authority we (technical difficulty) the Government of National Unity and a good (technical difficulty).  People should be mindful to say that President (technical difficulty) was mandated by the people of Zimbabwe to lead them in this (technical difficulty) a political green belt (phon) (technical difficulty) generalizing such an institution (technical difficulty) creating a platform for a new democracy driven (phon) constitution and that making (technical difficulty) democratic institution (technical difficulty).  Well, they (technical difficulty) President (technical difficulty)…

Sylvia Hill:    Clever?

Clever Bere:    Pardon?

Sylvia Hill:    We can’t understand you.  You're having – we’re having some difficulty.

Roxanne Lawson:    So we’re going to come right back to you.  So, hold on.

Sylvia Hill:    Thank you.  I'm going to now move to Briggs.  You go ahead (phon).

Briggs Bomba:    Okay, thanks.  So as my colleagues have said, we are seeing the continuation of the political standoff in Zimbabwe.  The election, way largely expected to resolve is dimwit that has been in place in the last ten years, but as we saw with, you know, illegitimate election, we ended up being a one-man election, that standoff continues.  But I would not talk at length about the intent now, issues that they were ever addressed.  I'm going to make a note of some of the positive developments that we have seen on the democratic front in Africa in the last ten years especially with increased monitoring and observation of elections by the AU and SADC.

In 2004, the Southern African Development Community came up with prints within guidelines for democratic elections which way meant to advance democratic elections and the democratic agenda in the region in general.  And because of this development, it has now become feasible for the opposition to, you know, win in elections in the region.  But I think the key question that we are seeing now is how to translate an electoral victory into political power, because that’s the question that we are confronted with in Zimbabwe, where you have a victorious proposition that is confronted by an obdurate regime or a stubborn regime and as we saw it become a question of the ballot, vessels, the bullet which is decidedly enormity.  So I think the matters that have been mentioned here; the need to strengthen democratic institutions in Africa particularly, you know, independent electoral commissions and independent judiciary so that there's a recourse in the case of violations of electoral, the need to professionalize the security forces, and in the case of Zimbabwe, which also applies to Namibia and South Africa to a lesser extent.  There’s an important point to make there that a way you have liberation movement or former liberation movement in the power whose former undoing way integrated into the security forces and with the police, the prison services, the secret services, that’s a much more daunting task because you tend to have this part as an element.  We've seen this war veteran component of the security forces and a fail to impartially discharge their duty.  So, it’s key for the democratic agenda on the continent to ensure that you have the democratization or the professionalization of these forces.

And the other point relates to the role of the international community.  I think in Zimbabwe we are seeing that the role that particularly western intervention can play is undermined to a large extent by a number of factors and one of it being outside cases of hypocrisy way in the past you have had dictators like Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia being embraced, you know, in the wake of completely fraudulent elections and now voices that speak a democratic language after embracing such situations ring hollow in the case of Zimbabwe.  And I think this is one of the reasons why you -- it’s difficult to have effective western intervention in Zimbabwe and now they echoes the sentiments from my colleagues that any intervention that particularly the US and the UK can play must be directed or must be channeled through the Southern African Development Community and through the African Union so that there's a broader brain (phon) and that it’s also very important taking into consideration how Mugabe has skillfully planned propaganda which has prevented the Zimbabwean question as a case of, you know, a democratic agenda which has an imperial interest.  So it’s very difficult – it’s very important to not to give fuel to Mugabe’s one -- much nations (phon) in propaganda on that level.

Sylvia Hill:    Thank you very much.  We have not been able to find McDonald, next we’d hear by phone (phon).  So, what I’d like to do now is move to questions with the press.

Operator:    Thank you.  Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct the question and answer session as follows.  To ask a question, you simply press the one on your touchtone phone at this time, a question request can also be withdrawn by pressing the pound key.  Once again though, if you do have a question, please press one on your phone at this time.  Questions will be answered in the order that they are received, and we’ll wait a moment now for the first question to come in.

We have a question from Mukoma Ngugi.  Please go ahead.

Mukoma Wa Ngugi:    Yes.  My question pertains to the role of the African-American community, and I'm wondering that if somebody from TransAfrica Forum or Africa Action can comment on what should be the role of the African-American community in the US?

Imani Countess:    I feel that the African-American community, the African Diaspora, in general, has a very important role to play for a number of reasons.  First is historical; as Sylvia mentioned, many African-American’s and members of the Diaspora were very supportive of the liberation movement, and have continued to support Zimbabwe’s transition.  Within United States, African-American’s in particular have a level of both legitimacy because of that history and also a level of influence that quite frankly is not necessarily affected by the hypocrisy that Briggs mentioned in terms of the history of US policy toward Southern Africa in particular.  And it’s very important that we use both that legitimacy and that authority to support what the people on the ground have been calling for.  For many – to be quite frank, for many members of our community however, this has been very challenging.  Because of Mugabe’s history, because of the continued perception of him as a hero of the liberation movement and because of the rudderick (phon) that he has used over the past decade or more, there are many in our community that has been somewhat confused and to a degree paralyzed, not wanting on one hand to sort of ally with the west and its harsh condemnation of the regime and not quite frankly feeling comfortable with some of the changes within the opposition and some of the policies of the opposition party.

What we've been saying for the past several years is that we have to stand with the people of Zimbabwe.  And that means understanding at this point in time that Mugabe does not represent what he once was.  It’s very painful for a number of us, but it’s a part of our responsibility, and solidarity activists primarily concerned with participating in and supporting Zimbabwe’s economic and political development.

Sylvia Hill:    Thank you.  Next question?

Operator:    No additional questions as yet.  So, I’ll just issue a final reminder to anyone who may have a question.  If you do have a question, please press one on your phone and we will take your questions.  One moment please.

We have a follow-up question from Mr. Ngugi.

Mukoma Wa Ngugi:    Yes.  There has been a response from ZANU-PF to TransAfrica or Africa Action, you know, like basically on your stand towards Mugabe; have you felt any sort of response?

Operator:    Do we have a response to that question?

Imani Countess:    We have a response.  As we've mentioned, we traveled to Zimbabwe in March for the election.  I had an opportunity to speak with a member of ZANU-PF, one of their political strategists, who at that time was mainly interested in sharing with us the fact that ZANU-PF was determined to use all of the measures at its disposal to ensure victory.  This of course was in reference to the lead up toward the runoff.  In terms of response to our call for transitional authority, I think the fact that we have put this message out actually since April.  The fact that we now see the discourse within the political arena shifting from an exclusive focus on runoff, an exclusive focus on Government of National Unity to a discussion of transitional arrangement and transitional authority is one indicator of success, obviously not just the result of Africa Action and TransAfrica and the calls that we have made, but the fact that our message actually reflects what’s coming out of Zimbabwe and Southern Africa.  I think that’s very key, the shift in the discourse over the past several months.

Sylvia Hill:    Is there another question?

Operator:    It would appear that we have no further questions.

Sylvia Hill:    I have a question actually.  Could one of you talk a bit about the demand for the transitional parties of Zimbabwe and what you see have some of the challenges within the context of that policy?

Briggs Bomba:    So the first major challenge is that you are dealing with a situation where there is acute political polarization unlike the situation we had in Kenya.  Where ZANU-PF stands into it, where the MDC stands, you know, it’s sort of as different as night and day.  But at the same time, you are also dealing with an objective balance of forces on the ground which make a negotiated settlement on the way forward (phon).  By that I mean that when you look at ZANU-PF, on its own it does not have any capacity to pull Zimbabwe out of the abyss, it is – it needs the international allies like the MDC as -- to, you know, arrest economic decay and end the isolation that the country is in right now and only -- at the end at the MDC, because it did not perceive the strategy of mass mobilization and solely relying now on international pressure, it does not have again the capacity to tilt to -- or live to the tipping point and, you know, so it will have to rely on some form of cooperation from ZANU-PF to forward.

So, I think the conditions on the ground, I'm not aware -- we now take all solutions, so I think objectively the conditions really demand, you know, a negotiated settlement.  The key thing then is to ensure that that settlement as our colleagues have already mentioned, is only intended to complete the unfinished business of the democratic struggle in the last ten years, by ensuring that you create an enabling environment not only for a free and fair election but also for, you know, the transfer of power of whoever is winning there.  So a -- the challenges that are going to be faced there, that the residual strength that ZANU-PF will retain, because in a negotiated settlement you don’t lose everything.

So, it means that residual strength is going to limit the extent of transformation that the country can achieve, and this in a sense is said for Zimbabwe, because the country is at a point where you would need that outgoing transformation, in terms of political culture, in terms of economic practices, in terms of, you know, the whole bloody (phon) politics.  So – but that’s going to be limited through a settlement.  And secondly, the question of justice; in a negotiated settlement, ZANU-PF will necessarily buy its own immunity through that settlement.  And this is a difficult point because with what we saw since March 29, the brutal tax on members of the opposition, people having their property destroyed and all of that, they have growing demand for justice to be done, you know, or for prosecution of people who are perpetrating some of these acts on the ground.  So, that’s going to be difficult and it cannot be fulfilled in a negotiated settlement.  So I think those are really going to be the key challenges.  But as colleagues have mentioned, if this settlement allows for the opening up of space, it will ensure that in the future Zimbabwe has a solid foundation upon which it can be with that democratic, you know, dispensation.

Sylvia Hill:    One of the difficulties – another kind of difficulty is the policy arena that is both governmental playing (phon) but also media play an important part.  And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the impact of the kind of demonization of Mugabe as that of – as -- versus the kind of atmosphere that you're trying to create in terms of influencing on the ground changes there.

Roxanne Lawson:    So I think as my colleagues have said, the media both in Zimbabwe and here across international community have played a really, I think, damaging role in what Zimbabwe people are looking for and actually a free and fair election and a constitution and supports them and a government that actually gives them demands of the revolution.  And the international community, the government has been quick to side not with actually civil society or even the reports to with democratic (phon) change, but rather with its own international objectives, so by demonizing Mr. Mugabe, by calling him a stud, by now understanding actually unpacking the political system that supports him.  He is one individual, he runs a country, or best (phon) he has into quite recently, and is trying to continue to do so, but he is supported by an economic and political system which I think the international media has actually been really short to be able to unpack.  I think for also (phon) in international media we have a “good guy and a bad guy” and Mr. Mugabe has played our resident bad guy, that’s actually much the detriment of Zimbabwean.  We hear some of society calling for a new constitution, calling for electoral reform; all of those things actually will not be done just by replacing the government leader with another person.

I think also the media in Zimbabwe, because it’s neither – it’s not a fair media, most of the media is controlled by government, the media that actually is allowed to flourish kind of underground is very polarized because they’ve been objected to the worst kind of governmental abuses.  I think those kind of things, as my colleague talked about, need to be part of reconciliation process in Zimbabwe.  We've heard some of society and I wish they were able to be on the phone with us, talk over the last couple of days, about the need for national contract, for national conversation that goes beyond political parties and includes average Zimbabweans who are very very involved in their political processes who feel that they need to have their voices as a part of reconciliation, and that’s one of the things that need to happen; the media plays a large role in that.  The media actually can support the sharing of information across Zimbabwe which is a vast country and the need for people to be able to come together to have their voices heard not just verbally but actually have them in print, and the creation of this national contract which should be something that the international and domestic Zimbabwean media both support and publish.  I think all of those things are really quite important for Zimbabwe.  We know that democracy is made strong by having a free and transparent media, and one of the things that Zimbabwe has been calling for is the ability to actually know what’s going on in their country and a free media will support that.

Sylvia Hill:    So all three of you traveled to the area.  Would you like to talk a little bit more about what civil society is doing?

Briggs Bomba:    I think one of the key things to note about Zimbabwe is that you have a very vibrant civic society.  The reason why there’s been so much attention on Zimbabwe in the last, you know, seven or so years is not necessarily because that, you know, you have international players who are paying attention to Mugabe, but you have only a vibrant civic society on the ground that has been playing a key role in documenting, you know, abuses and making sure that they are, you know, sent out to the various corners of the world, you know, as quickly as possible, so which in some cases where you have had even worst abuses than are having in Zimbabwe, but you do not have this vibrant civic society, you know, some of those have been able to go unnoticed.

So Zim -- civil society is playing a key role under very difficult conditions because they are operating in an economic environment where even if you're an activist you still have to think about how do you get, you know, your food, how do you get fuel, how do you get, you know, all of this, so they're operating under very difficult conditions, and at the same time they're also operating under a very restrictive legal environment.  But they’ve been able to do a lot especially in documenting, you know, abuses, gathering, organizing the people to meet and have this conversation, and more critically in putting forward suggestions on the direction in which the country should move.  One key example there is SADC, and AU to some extent through President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, their proposal has been to have dialog between the MDC and ZANU-PF.  But the voice that is coming from civil societies right now is that it must be a national dialog.  The crisis in Zimbabwe is not going to be solved by just fitting the MDC and ZANU-PF in a room and getting them to agree to a deal, you would need the inputs of civil society players, business, youth, women, student groups, labor, you need everyone on a national conference as a world (phon) moving forward.  So, I think we are seeing a really vibrant civic society on the ground.

Imani Countess:    I would just like to add to Briggs’ comment by noting the urgency of the situation.  The ongoing violence in Zimbabwe has been very well documented.  The economic decline has also been discussed.  I was in Zimbabwe last year and I thought that things were challenging.  In Zimbabwe in March, I could not understand how people were surviving; today things are even worse.  I received an email this morning from a colleague who said, we do not have enough money to buy food.  We – the food – the cost of basic commodities and food has soared to such a high level that they do not have the resources to purchase what they need in order to survive on a daily basis.  That email came from someone who is what we would consider here in United States, sort of upper middle class.  If the upper middle class in Zimbabwe is suffering, then we know that the burrow (phon) peasantry and poor are extremely challenged.  One of the privileges of traveling to Zimbabwe in March with, yes, speaking with civil society hearing their message, really looking at witnessing their courage to continue to do their work in the phase of extreme circumstances, but also just having conversation with ordinary people, taxi drivers, people on the street, friends, relatives and others who just talked about how they survive on a day-to-day basis, through extended family networks, through relying on remittances from overseas, borrowing skills (phon) for food, different food stuff for other food stuff, this daily struggle for survival is becoming much more difficult.  So the need for some sort of immediate settlement, if the people of Zimbabwe are to recover is absolutely great.

Sylvia Hill:    Roxanne.

Roxanne Lawson:    I want to echo what my colleagues have shared.  Civil society in Zimbabwe I think is one of the main reasons, a vibrant civil society that we haven’t actually had the outbreak of violence, that we see in other situations across the continents across the world after elections that have gone frustrated (phon) Zimbabwe did because civil society has called for not retaliation but for dialog because civil society has been very very key about supporting Zimbabwean people regardless of what political party they support or serve, I think that’s one of the main reasons that you haven’t seen Zimbabwe isn’t into other chaos and violence.

I want to echo my colleague’s call for as to really examine the dire economic situation in Zimbabwe.  Civil society is adamant, I mean, they're calling for free and fair election, but most importantly need a resolution to their economic crisis.  As Imani mentioned for average Zimbabweans right now Zimbabwe has put a cap because of the economic pressure that it’s facing of withdrawals from ATMs to $25 billion which sounds like a lot, so when you think of the fact that the price of cooking oil for a day is about $45 billion.  For most Zimbabweans the way in which they're living now is – they cannot survive I think for much longer and so we as international community, as civil society, as concerned citizens, need to make sure that we send in solidarity with Zimbabwean, that we find ways to support them, both through our governments and actually also person-to-person, I think that’s the most important thing that we think about that actually as we think about the political crisis.

Sylvia Hill:    Thank you.  I want to thank everyone for their participation in today press briefing together (phon) all panelists and the media who participated.  For a fully copy of the report on the Zimbabwe Election, A Dream Deferred, and a copy of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists letter, visit our transafricaforum.org website.  Thank you.

Operator:    Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the TransAfrica Forum conference call today.  We thank you for your participation and you many now disconnect your lines.  Have a good day.