Non-Zimbabweans long for change in Zimbabwe

SA civic leader will deliver his demands to the African Union. More than 25000 people around the world will refuse to eat today in protest at South Africa’s support for Robert Mugabe’s regime. And the South African who will deliver their petition to African Union leaders today has already lost 6kg, in the middle of a 21-day hunger strike. The foreign protesters — from countries including the US, Afghanistan and even Mongolia — are to answer a call by civil society leader Kumi Naidoo, made on global activist website Avaaz.org just three days ago. The former head of global citizens action group Civicus, Naidoo has kicked off three months of rolling hunger strikes for several demands to be met on the Zimbabwe crisis. They are headed by a demand for an end to “quiet diplomacy” by the South African government, and the “blatant bias” of mediator Thabo Mbeki towards the Mugabe regime. Although Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai joined the unity government this week — with Mugabe at its head and still in charge of the country’s brutal security forces — one senior MDC official told the Sunday Times it represented “a defeat of democracy ”. The Avaaz website reveals that most fasting protesters are in Spain, with 2864 participants, while three times more Australians will protest than South Africans, with 1811 Aussies consuming nothing but water today. Emma Finch, of the UK, said: “This is a small gesture on my part, but the small acts of many can make a difference.” Australian Dan Cudmore told Naidoo: “Kumi, I will be fasting for only one day; your effort of 21 days is incredible. ” Naidoo said he would present a petition on their behalf to African Union leaders meeting in Ethiopia today. However, he had to give blood samples and be cleared by a doctor on Friday morning before boarding a flight to Addis Ababa, having experienced fatigue and a loss of concentration after 10 days of the strike. Earlier this week, Naidoo was arrested with seven others as he tried to deliver a similar memorandum to SADC leaders at the presidential guest house in Pretoria — including demands for an end to abductions in Zimbabwe; and urgent intervention by the UN. In an interview with the Sunday Times at his Yeoville flat, Naidoo said the entire campaign was sparked by a 14-year-old boy, “Sibusiso”, whom he visited in Zimbabwe in December while filming a documentary on starvation and disease there. “This boy was so smart and articulate, he could have been a doctor, a lawyer, anything, so it was a particular shock to hear him say that he had eaten nothing at all for 11 days,” said Naidoo. “Then he said: ‘I hope I get something to eat on Christmas day’. To eat nothing ourselves seemed like the only way to stand in solidarity with him, and millions like him.” Naidoo added: “Later, we visited the town mortuary, which has a maximum capacity of 40 corpses, but which had held an average of 200 bodies for the past 18 months... Now, we are all wanting to say to South Africa’s leaders and SADC: stop this criminal humanitarian disaster.” Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is among those who will perform weekly one-day fasts in solidarity, while Nomboniso Gasa, chairman of the SA Gender Commission, will take over the hunger strike from Naidoo on February 11. For a week after the handover, Naidoo will allow himself juice and fruit, but will continue to refuse solids. He said: “If I collapse before the 21 days is up, I will accept treatment from an intravenous drip.” Naidoo completed a 10-day hunger strike as a student living in exile in the UK in 1988, in support of a school for exiled ANC children in Tanzania “My experience from then was the most excruciating pain for the first few days, but then I was fine up till seven days,” he said. “The worst part was the day I started to eat again! “This has been similar. I get headaches... I don’t get many hunger pangs, but the other day my neighbour burnt some toast: it smelled fantastic to me!” — philpr@sundaytimes.co.za People who will refuse to eat today in solidarity with Zimbabwe’s starving masses, and in protest at South Africa’s support for Robert Mugabe, include: # 2269 Canadians # 2057 Germans # 2773 Americans # 661 South Africans # 1797 Britons # 59 Thais # 1020 Brazilians # 2297 French # 326 Chileans # 116 Poles # 2 Mongolians # 385 Swedes # 789 Mexicans # 3022 Spaniards # 22 Zimbabweans