Cathy Buckle's Letter From Zimbabwe

Dear Family and Friends,

Feelings of despair and disbelief persist a week after Zimbabwe's elections. I still have a faint pink stain on the sides and under the nail of the little finger of my left hand. This is a remnant of the ink which was used to mark me as having voted and when I look at the stain now, I can hardly believe how quickly elation and hope were replaced with anger and betrayal as the results were announced. Every day since the elections the state have crowed about peace, democracy and political maturity but they have said nothing about 3 million Zimbabweans living outside the country who were not allowed to vote or a tenth of the voters inside the country who were turned away when they got to polling stations on the 31stMarch. Every news bulletin begins with a countdown of how many days are left before the 25th anniversary of independence and democracy in the country but then the reports that follow do not tell of the 257 unarmed women of WOZA who were arrested for praying nor why such an act was indicative of, in their words, "a mature democracy". In the week that followed the election result, the huge sense of disappointment has been almost too much to bear. The MDC took many days to find their voices and when they did it was to say they had evidence showing massive electoral fraud and figures which displayed huge numerical discrepancies in more than 30 constituencies. The government of course dispute the claims and the bulk of the South African observers had already made their claims of peace and freedom and so nothing has changed, we have heard all this before, been there, done that and got the T shirt. None of this gives ordinary Zimbabweans hope. Neither the outrage of the MDC nor the arrogant crowing of Zanu PF has done a thing to actually help ordinary Zimbabweans this week. It hasn't put medicines back in hospitals, kids back in schools, food on our tables or clothes on our backs. In the last seven days since the elections the prices of basic goods have increased bybetween 50 and 100%. Margarine, sugar and cooking oil have disappeared from the shelves and petrol queues have started again. Across the country many thousands of people made so many sacrifices this last fortnight, giving so much and showing such courage as they worked for democracy and now the feeling of betrayal is palpable. Along with millions of others, I watched the funeral of Pope John Paul the second this week and his life long call to oppressed people to not be afraid is most apt for Zimbabweans struggling to see hope and light this week. Love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle 9th April 2005 http://africantears.netfirms.com/ Mybooks "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:orders@africabookcentre.com ; http://www.africabookcentre.com/ ; http://www.amazon.co.uk/; in Australia and New Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au ; Africa: http://www.kalahari.net/ http://www.exclusivebooks.com/