This could get interesting.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-215934,00.html
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-215934,00.html
Libya buys Zimbabwe
- Thread starter C.R.Sam
- Start date
David Scott
New member
I wonder how much wound up in Mugabe's Swiss bank account.
Where are those that said nothing like this would happen after Rhodesia became Zimbabwe? The idjets that thought Mugabe was (an maybe still do) the greatest thing since clean socks and his goverrnment would be fair and honest and compassionat and etc, etc.
Where have the people of Zimbabwe shown any improvement in their lives? Not counting those in the government of course.
Where have the people of Zimbabwe shown any improvement in their lives? Not counting those in the government of course.
For the record:
Mugabe pawns nation's assets in deal with Libya
By Daniel McGrory
ROBERT MUGABE is believed to have mortgaged most of his country’s most valuable assets to Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, in exchange for hundreds of millions of pounds in loans to keep Zimbabwe from complete collapse.
Desperate to cling to power in next month’s elections, President Mugabe is said to have handed over state-owned farms, hotels and oil refineries in a secret deal with Colonel Gaddafi. As part of the exchange, the Libyan dictator is funding Mr Mugabe’s security forces.
The partnership began last year when Colonel Gaddafi gave Zimbabwe a loan of about £70 million to ease the country’s fuel shortage.
Since then the Libyan leader has extended another £400 million of credit so that Zimbabwe’s fuel supply does not run dry, which could have provoked violent unrest during the run-up to the crucial elections.
Mr Mugabe began by surrendering a majority stake in Noczim, the state-owned energy company. Colonel Gaddafi was also given a controlling interest in the oil pipeline that runs from Beira in Mozambique to Zimbabwe, along with two of Zimbabwe’s biggest oil refineries, and shares in the country’s railways.
The Libyan leader is also believed to have asked for a share in state-owned hotels at Victoria Falls, the country’s main tourist attraction, and the Sheraton Hotel in the capital, Harare. There are reports that the Colonel also gave a £1.3 million “gift” last year to Zanu (PF) despite a law banning parties from taking foreign donations.
As the debt grew, Colonel Gaddafi visited Zimbabwe with a huge entourage in a 150-vehicle motorcade in July last year to barter for more. He was handed the deeds to several of Zimbabwe’s most profitable tobacco farms that had been seized from their white owners in the Karoi region in the northwest of the country, and at least twenty houses in Harare, including the pink marble palace that Mr Mugabe was building for his second wife, Grace.
Disparaging locals call it “Graceland” and there are suggestions that the property, in the residential neighbourhood of Borrowdale, will become Libya’s Embassy.
Senior aides of Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), say that they will challenge these loan deals in court if necessary.
One source said: “Nobody knows what Mugabe has given away but our contention is that it is not his to give. We will do all we can to get back what is Zimbabwe’s right, no matter what private arrangement he made.”
Mr Mugabe keeps his spending habits a secret, particularly the money that goes to his security apparatus. It is known that he has recently increased spending on the Armed Forces, from 9 per cent of the national budget to 12 per cent. Much of that went on pay rises for senior officers.
This does not include the money used to fund his feared secret service, the CIO, the so-called war veterans who have led the takeover of white-owned farms, and the recently formed youth militias.
Libyan officers are reported to be in Zimbabwe helping to train these youth groups at some of the farms that have been handed to Colonel Gaddafi, whose generosity is said to have extended to delivering 29 Cherokee Jeeps for these militias.
Mr Mugabe is also alleged to have given 10,000 Zimbabwean passports to Libyan nationals, making it easier for them to travel abroad. And up to 1,500 Libyans are said to have been given homes, work permits and jobs in Zimbabwe.
Many observers admit that Mr Mugabe’s obsessive secrecy makes it impossible to get an accurate picture of Zimbabwe’s economy. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund pulled out in 1999. The foreign debt, however, is estimated to be £560 million.
The World Market Research Centre estimates that Zimbabwe’s total debt in 2001 was 125 per cent of the country’s GDP. Inflation has risen to 116 per cent, the value of the currency has fallen by 85 per cent, unemployment is above 60 per cent and food has become scarce.
The national railway announced this week that it had no money to pay pensions, the electricity authority is six months behind in payments owed to South Africa and the sole steelmaker has stopped operating.
The Zimbabwean leader has also turned for loans to China, which in July 2001 gave him about £2.5 million. Chinese engineers helped to build his mansion at Kutama, which is about 50 miles from Harare and reached by the Robert Mugabe Highway.
Mugabe pawns nation's assets in deal with Libya
By Daniel McGrory
ROBERT MUGABE is believed to have mortgaged most of his country’s most valuable assets to Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, in exchange for hundreds of millions of pounds in loans to keep Zimbabwe from complete collapse.
Desperate to cling to power in next month’s elections, President Mugabe is said to have handed over state-owned farms, hotels and oil refineries in a secret deal with Colonel Gaddafi. As part of the exchange, the Libyan dictator is funding Mr Mugabe’s security forces.
The partnership began last year when Colonel Gaddafi gave Zimbabwe a loan of about £70 million to ease the country’s fuel shortage.
Since then the Libyan leader has extended another £400 million of credit so that Zimbabwe’s fuel supply does not run dry, which could have provoked violent unrest during the run-up to the crucial elections.
Mr Mugabe began by surrendering a majority stake in Noczim, the state-owned energy company. Colonel Gaddafi was also given a controlling interest in the oil pipeline that runs from Beira in Mozambique to Zimbabwe, along with two of Zimbabwe’s biggest oil refineries, and shares in the country’s railways.
The Libyan leader is also believed to have asked for a share in state-owned hotels at Victoria Falls, the country’s main tourist attraction, and the Sheraton Hotel in the capital, Harare. There are reports that the Colonel also gave a £1.3 million “gift” last year to Zanu (PF) despite a law banning parties from taking foreign donations.
As the debt grew, Colonel Gaddafi visited Zimbabwe with a huge entourage in a 150-vehicle motorcade in July last year to barter for more. He was handed the deeds to several of Zimbabwe’s most profitable tobacco farms that had been seized from their white owners in the Karoi region in the northwest of the country, and at least twenty houses in Harare, including the pink marble palace that Mr Mugabe was building for his second wife, Grace.
Disparaging locals call it “Graceland” and there are suggestions that the property, in the residential neighbourhood of Borrowdale, will become Libya’s Embassy.
Senior aides of Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), say that they will challenge these loan deals in court if necessary.
One source said: “Nobody knows what Mugabe has given away but our contention is that it is not his to give. We will do all we can to get back what is Zimbabwe’s right, no matter what private arrangement he made.”
Mr Mugabe keeps his spending habits a secret, particularly the money that goes to his security apparatus. It is known that he has recently increased spending on the Armed Forces, from 9 per cent of the national budget to 12 per cent. Much of that went on pay rises for senior officers.
This does not include the money used to fund his feared secret service, the CIO, the so-called war veterans who have led the takeover of white-owned farms, and the recently formed youth militias.
Libyan officers are reported to be in Zimbabwe helping to train these youth groups at some of the farms that have been handed to Colonel Gaddafi, whose generosity is said to have extended to delivering 29 Cherokee Jeeps for these militias.
Mr Mugabe is also alleged to have given 10,000 Zimbabwean passports to Libyan nationals, making it easier for them to travel abroad. And up to 1,500 Libyans are said to have been given homes, work permits and jobs in Zimbabwe.
Many observers admit that Mr Mugabe’s obsessive secrecy makes it impossible to get an accurate picture of Zimbabwe’s economy. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund pulled out in 1999. The foreign debt, however, is estimated to be £560 million.
The World Market Research Centre estimates that Zimbabwe’s total debt in 2001 was 125 per cent of the country’s GDP. Inflation has risen to 116 per cent, the value of the currency has fallen by 85 per cent, unemployment is above 60 per cent and food has become scarce.
The national railway announced this week that it had no money to pay pensions, the electricity authority is six months behind in payments owed to South Africa and the sole steelmaker has stopped operating.
The Zimbabwean leader has also turned for loans to China, which in July 2001 gave him about £2.5 million. Chinese engineers helped to build his mansion at Kutama, which is about 50 miles from Harare and reached by the Robert Mugabe Highway.
And to think that hole was once Rhodesia. 
Anyone have a quick link to the history of that nation? I could use a little brushing up on its downward spiral since Mugabe came to power...especially since I think it is, as Sam said, about to get rather interesting.
Should we start a poll? Vote on just howMugabe will die?
Mike
Anyone have a quick link to the history of that nation? I could use a little brushing up on its downward spiral since Mugabe came to power...especially since I think it is, as Sam said, about to get rather interesting.
Should we start a poll? Vote on just howMugabe will die?
Mike