COUNTRY PROFILE: ZIMBABWE!

Country profile: Zimbabwe

The fortunes of Zimbabwe have for more than two decades been tied to President Robert Mugabe, who wrested control from a small white community and put the country on a stable course.
Now, he presides over a nation whose economy is in tatters, where poverty and unemployment are endemic and political strife and repression commonplace.

OVERVIEW
FACTS LEADERS MEDIA

Zimbabwe is home to the Victoria Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world, the stone enclosures of Great Zimbabwe - remnants of a past empire - and to herds of elephant and other game roaming vast stretches of wilderness.
AT-A-GLANCE
Politics: President Robert Mugabe, in office since 1980, has been accused of resorting to heavy-handed methods to remain in power.
Economy: Economy in crisis, with rampant inflation, "de-industrialisation" and shortages of food and fuel. Agricultural production is shrinking.
International: Faces increasing international isolation over human rights abuses and restrictions on freedom. For years it was a major tobacco producer and a potential bread basket for surrounding countries.
But the forced seizure of almost all white-owned commercial farms, with the stated aim of benefiting landless black Zimbabweans, led to sharp falls in production and precipitated the collapse of the agriculture-based economy. The country has endured rampant inflation and critical food and fuel shortages.
Many Zimbabweans survive on grain handouts. Others have voted with their feet; hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans, including much-needed professionals, have emigrated.
Aid agencies and critics partly blame food shortages on the land reform programme. The government blames a long-running drought, and Mr Mugabe has accused Britain and its allies of sabotaging the economy in revenge for the redistribution programme.
The government's urban slum demolition drive in 2005 drew more international condemnation. The president said it was an effort to boost law and order and development; critics accused him of destroying slums housing opposition supporters.
Either way, the razing of "illegal structures" left some 700,000 people without jobs or homes, according to UN estimates.
The former Rhodesia has a history of conflict, with white settlers dispossessing the resident population, guerrilla armies forcing the white government to submit to elections, and the post-independence leadership committing atrocities in southern areas where it lacked the support of the Matabele people.
Zimbabwe has had a rocky relationship with the Commonwealth - it was suspended after President Mugabe's controversial re-election in 2002 and later announced that it was pulling out for good.

FACTS
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Population: 12.9 million (UN, 2005)
Capital: Harare
Area: 390,759 sq km (150,873 sq miles)
Major language: English (official), Shona, Sindebele
Major religions: Christianity, indigenous beliefs
Life expectancy: 37 years (men), 37 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 Zimbabwe dollar = 100 cents
Main exports: Tobacco, cotton, agricultural products, gold, minerals
GNI per capita: US $340 (World Bank, 2006)
Internet domain: .zw
International dialling code: +263

LEADERS
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President: Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe played a key role in ending white rule in Rhodesia and he and his Zanu-PF party have dominated Zimbabwe's politics since independence in 1980.

President Mugabe has defended the seizures of white-owned farmsThe main challenge to the octogenarian leader's authority has come from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The MDC says its members have been killed, tortured and harassed by Zanu-PF supporters. The president has accused the party of being a tool of Western powers.
Mr Mugabe was declared the winner of the 2002 presidential elections, considered seriously flawed by the opposition and foreign observers. He received a boost in 2005 when Zanu-PF won more than two-thirds of the votes in parliamentary elections, said by the MDC to be fraudulent.
The size of the win enabled the president to change the constitution, paving the way for the creation of an upper house of parliament, the Senate.
Ideologically, Mr Mugabe belongs to the African liberationist tradition of the 1960s - strong and ruthless leadership, anti-Western, suspicious of capitalism and deeply intolerant of dissent and opposition.
His economic policies are widely seen as being geared to short-term political expediency and the maintenance of power for himself. Mr Mugabe has defended his land reform programme, saying the issue is the "core social question of our time".
Foreign minister: Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
Finance minister: Herbert Murerwa

MEDIA
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All broadcasters transmitting from Zimbabwean soil and the main newspapers are state-controlled and toe the government line.
The private press, relatively vigorous in its criticism of the government, has come under severe pressure. A leading privately-owned daily, the Daily News, is subject to a publication ban. The paper and the government had waged war in the courts.
A weekly newspaper, The Zimbabwean, is produced in London and is distributed in Zimbabwe as an international publication, and among Zimbabweans living abroad.
Restrictive media laws, condemned by the EU, the US and media rights organisations, criminalise the publication of inaccurate information. Journalists who fail to register with a government body risk imprisonment.
State-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) operates the country's only TV and radio stations. ZBC formerly had two TV channels; its second network was leased to private station Joy TV which closed in 2002. Some of its programmes were said to have ruffled government feathers.
Radio is the main source of information for many Zimbabweans. Although there are no private stations, the country is targeted by overseas-based operations. The Voice of the People, set up by former ZBC staff with funding from the Soros Foundation and a Dutch NGO, operates using a leased shortwave transmitter in Madagascar.
Another station, the UK-based SW Radio Africa, aims to give listeners in Zimbabwe "unbiased information". The station's signal was jammed in March 2005, a period coinciding with the run-up to parliamentary elections.
From the US, the government-funded Voice of America (VOA) operates Studio 7, a twice-daily service for listeners in Zimbabwe which aims to be a source of "objective and balanced news".
The press
The Herald - government-owned daily
The Chronicle - Bulawayo-based, government-owned daily
The Financial Gazette - private, business weekly
The Standard - private, weekly
Zimbabwe Independent - private weekly
The Daily Mirror - private
Television
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) - state-run
Radio
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) - state-run, operates four networks
SW Radio Africa - studio in London, broadcasts via mediumwave (AM) transmitter based outside Zimbabwe
Voice of the People - studio in Harare, broadcasts to Zimbabwe from hired shortwave transmitter on Madagascar
Studio 7 - based in Washington DC, operated by VOA
News agency/internet
Zimbabwe Inter-Africa News Agency - state-owned
ZimOnline - private, online news

BBC NEWS REPORT.