Key ResponsibilitiesAttend to walk in customers and visitors, directing them accordingly as per their request.Execute clerical receptionist duties such as typing, filing, photocopying, collating etc.Manage the switchboard and answer, screen and forward all incoming phone calls to appropriate parties;Receive and sort daily mail/deliveries/couriers and sign for all incoming packages; arrange pick up for out-going package;Coordinate office deliveries and receive invoices for payment processing;Monitor stock for office Stationery, Kitchen supplies, drinking water and any other office equipment required for office use and ensure timely requisition of the same;Manage front desk operations while monitoring cleanliness and maintaining proper organization for a professional image;Manage the office cleaning by ensuring that the office is cleaned on time, the kitchen and the bathroom are well cleaned and kept tidy;Reconcile monthly petty cash in liaison with the Senior Finance Officer;Coordinate all the travel logistics with the driver within the organization;Develop a tracker system for motor vehicle fueling service and maintenance;Coordinate planning for meetings, preparation of meeting venue, and support organization of events; Manage office access for all the staff members and clients;Develop and maintain the office electronic and hard copy filing system.Liaise with the Procurement and Logistics Officer for the procurement of goods and services. Qualifications At least a Diploma in Front Office Management, Business / Office Administration / Public Relations or any other related field. Experience Minimum of 3 years’ experience in front office administration, or related fields;Computer skills including the ability to operate emails, spreadsheet and Word processing programs at a highly proficient level. Functional Skills Customer relations skills;Time management skills, Organization and planning skills; Communication skillsAnalytical skills How To Apply Interested candidates are invited to send their up-to-date CV with their contact details, copies of academic and professional certificates, details of current and expected remuneration, the names of three professional referees and a cover letter demonstrating how you meet our requirements to hr@kenyacic.org.The subject of the email should be the position being applied for. Closing date for applications Monday, 5 th June 2023. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Kenya Climate Innovation Center is an equal opportunity employer.N.B: 1.Dont Miss Out On Your Next Job. Let’s Have Your CV. . NB: 2. Advance & Grow In Your Career?. Check Out Best short Courses For You.
Gap Recruitment Services Limited is a leading recruitment firm in Kenya where International and local companies find just the right fit talent. Job Objective. Our client is a newly established laundry service provider based in Nairobi. They seek to hire a Housekeeping Supervisor to oversee all duties performed by the housekeeping staff. The housekeeping supervisors responsibilities include assigning tasks to the housekeeping staff, identifying and reporting cases of tardiness, and monitoring cleaning supplies. The successful candidate should be able to develop and implement strategies to improve the functioning of the housekeeping department and have excellent management skills and be able to ensure that housekeeping operations run efficiently. Roles & Responsibilities. Assigning housekeeping tasks to staff and inspecting work to ensure that the prescribed standards of cleanliness are met. Scheduling staff shifts and organizing replacements as required. Investigating and addressing complaints regarding poor housekeeping service. Providing training to the housekeeping staff. Regularly taking inventory of cleaning supplies and ordering stock as needed. Issuing cleaning supplies and equipment to housekeeping staff as needed. Screening housekeeping applicants and recommending promotions, transfers, and dismissals. Performing various cleaning duties in instances of staff shortages. Requirements Minimum Qualifications. Diploma or Degree in Hospitality /accommodation or hotel management. Hospitality experience of at least 2 years in a busy environment. Previous experience in the House keeping department Competencies & Interpersonal Skills Excellent customer service skills Good communication and listening skills. Ability to work well and remain calm under pressure. High standards of personal hygiene and personal grooming. Ability to multitask. Ability to understand complex situations and provide relevant and timely resolutions
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Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia. Educated at Kutama College and the University of Fort Hare, he worked as a schoolteacher in Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Ghana. Angered by white minority rule of his homeland within the British Empire, Mugabe embraced Marxism and joined African nationalists calling for an independent state controlled by the black majority. After making anti-government comments, he was convicted of sedition and imprisoned between 1964 and 1974. On release, he fled to Mozambique, established his leadership of ZANU, and oversaw its role in the Rhodesian Bush War, fighting Ian Smith‘s predominately white government. He reluctantly participated in peace talks in the United Kingdom that resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement, putting an end to the war. In the 1980 general election, Mugabe led ZANU-PF to victory, becoming Prime Minister when the country, now renamed Zimbabwe, gained internationally recognised independence later that year. Mugabe’s administration expanded healthcare and education and—despite his professed desire for a socialist society—adhered largely to mainstream economic policies.
Mugabe’s calls for racial reconciliation failed to stem growing white emigration, while relations with Joshua Nkomo‘s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) also deteriorated. In the Gukurahundi of 1982–1987, Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade crushed ZAPU-linked opposition in Matabeleland in a campaign that killed at least 20,000 people, mostly Ndebele civilians. Internationally, he sent troops into the Second Congo War and chaired the Non-Aligned Movement (1986–89), the Organisation of African Unity (1997–98), and the African Union (2015–16). Pursuing decolonisation, Mugabe emphasised the redistribution of land controlled by white farmers to landless blacks, initially on a “willing seller–willing buyer” basis. Frustrated at the slow rate of redistribution, from 2000 he encouraged black Zimbabweans to violently seize white-owned farms. Food production was severely impacted, leading to famine, economic decline, and foreign sanctions. Opposition to Mugabe grew, but he was re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2013 through campaigns dominated by violence, electoral fraud, and nationalistic appeals to his rural Shona voter base. In 2017, members of his party ousted him in a coup, replacing him with former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on 21 February 1924 at the Kutama Mission village in Southern Rhodesia’s Zvimba District.[2] His father, Gabriel Matibiri, was a carpenter while his mother Bona was a Christian catechist for the village children.[3] They had been trained in their professions by the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic religious order which had established the mission.[4] Bona and Gabriel had six children: Miteri (Michael), Raphael, Robert, Dhonandhe (Donald), Sabina, and Bridgette.[5] They belonged to the Zezuru clan, one of the smallest branches of the Shona tribe.[6] Mugabe’s paternal grandfather was Chief Constantine Karigamombe, alias “Matibiri”, a powerful figure who served King Lobengula in the 19th century.[7] Through his father, he claimed membership of the chieftaincy family that has provided the hereditary rulers of Zvimba for generations.[8]
The Jesuits were strict disciplinarians and under their influence Mugabe developed an intense self-discipline,[4] while also becoming a devout Catholic.[9] Mugabe excelled at school,[10] where he was a secretive and solitary child,[11] preferring to read, rather than playing sports or socialising with other children.[12] He was taunted by many of the other children, who regarded him as a coward and a mother’s boy.[13]
In about 1930 Gabriel had an argument with one of the Jesuits, and as a result the Mugabe family was expelled from the mission village by its French leader, Father Jean-Baptiste Loubière.[14] The family settled in a village about 11 kilometres (7 miles) away; the children were permitted to remain at the mission primary school, living with relatives in Kutama during term-time and returning to their parental home on weekends.[10] Around the same time, Robert’s older brother Raphael died, likely of diarrhoea.[10] In early 1934, Robert’s other older brother, Michael, also died, after consuming poisoned maize.[15] Later that year, Gabriel left his family in search of employment in Bulawayo.[16] He subsequently abandoned Bona and their six children and established a relationship with another woman, with whom he had three further offspring.[17]
Loubière died shortly after and was replaced by an Irishman, Father Jerome O’Hea, who welcomed the return of the Mugabe family to Kutama.[10] In contrast to the racism that permeated Southern Rhodesian society, under O’Hea’s leadership the Kutama Mission preached an ethos of racial equality.[18] O’Hea nurtured the young Mugabe; shortly before his death in 1970 he described the latter as having “an exceptional mind and an exceptional heart”.[19] As well as helping provide Mugabe with a Christian education, O’Hea taught him about the Irish War of Independence, in which Irish revolutionaries had overthrown the British imperial regime.[20] After completing six years of elementary education, in 1941 Mugabe was offered a place on a teacher training course at Kutama College. Mugabe’s mother could not afford the tuition fees, which were paid in part by his grandfather and in part by O’Hea.[21] As part of this education, Mugabe began teaching at his old school, earning £2 per month, which he used to support his family.[22] In 1944, Gabriel returned to Kutama with his three new children, but died shortly after, leaving Robert to take financial responsibility for both his three siblings and three half-siblings.[22] Having attained a teaching diploma, Mugabe left Kutama in 1945.[23]
University education and teaching career: 1945–1960
During the following years, Mugabe taught at various schools around Southern Rhodesia,[24] among them the Dadaya Mission school in Shabani.[25] There is no evidence that Mugabe was involved in political activity at the time, and he did not participate in the country’s 1948 general strike.[26] In 1949 he won a scholarship to study at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.[27] There he joined the African National Congress youth league (ANCYL)[28] and attended African nationalist meetings, where he met a number of Jewish South African communists who introduced him to Marxist ideas.[29] He later related that despite this exposure to Marxism, his biggest influence at the time were the actions of Mahatma Gandhi during the Indian independence movement.[30] In 1952, he left the university with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and English literature.[31] In later years he described his time at Fort Hare as the “turning point” in his life.[32]
Mugabe was inspired by the example set by Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah.
Mugabe returned to Southern Rhodesia in 1952,[33] by which time—he later related— he was “completely hostile to the [colonialist] system”.[34] Here, his first job was as a teacher at the Driefontein Roman Catholic Mission School near Umvuma.[28] In 1953 he relocated to the Highfield Government School in Salisbury‘s Harari township and in 1954 to the Mambo Township Government School in Gwelo.[35] Meanwhile, he gained a Bachelor of Education degree by correspondence from the University of South Africa,[36] and ordered a number of Marxist tracts—among them Karl Marx‘s Capital and Friedrich Engels‘ The Condition of the Working Class in England—from a London mail-order company.[37] Despite his growing interest in politics, he was not active in any political movement.[34] He joined a number of inter-racial groups, such as the Capricorn Africa Society, through which he mixed with both black and white Rhodesians.[38]Guy Clutton-Brock, who knew Mugabe through this group, later noted that he was “an extraordinary young man” who could be “a bit of a cold fish at times” but “could talk about Elvis Presley or Bing Crosby as easily as politics”.[39]
From 1955 to 1958, Mugabe lived in neighbouring Northern Rhodesia, where he worked at Chalimbana Teacher Training College in Lusaka.[36] There he continued his education by working on a second degree by correspondence, this time a Bachelor of Administration from the University of London International Programmes through distance and learning. [36] In Northern Rhodesia, he was taken in for a time by the family of Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom Mugabe inspired to join the liberation movement and who would later go on to be President of Zimbabwe.[40] In 1958, Mugabe moved to Ghana to work at St Mary’s Teacher Training College in Takoradi.[41] He taught at Apowa Secondary School, also at Takoradi, after obtaining his local certification at Achimota College (1958–1960), where he met his first wife, Sally Hayfron.[42] According to Mugabe, “I went [to Ghana] as an adventurist. I wanted to see what it would be like in an independent African state”.[43] Ghana had been the first African state to gain independence from European colonial powers and under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah underwent a range of African nationalist reforms; Mugabe revelled in this environment.[44] In tandem with his teaching, Mugabe attended the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute in Winneba.[45] Mugabe later claimed that it was in Ghana that he finally embraced Marxism.[46] He also began a relationship there with Hayfron who worked at the college and shared his political interests.[47]
Revolutionary activity
Early political career: 1960–1963
While Mugabe was teaching abroad, an anti-colonialist African nationalist movement was established in Southern Rhodesia. It was first led by Joshua Nkomo‘s Southern Rhodesia African National Congress, founded in September 1957 and then banned by the colonial government in February 1959.[48] SRANC was replaced by the more radically oriented National Democratic Party (NDP), founded in January 1960.[49] In May 1960, Mugabe returned to Southern Rhodesia, bringing Hayfron with him.[50] The pair had planned for their visit to be short, however Mugabe’s friend, the African nationalist Leopold Takawira, urged them to stay.[51]
Joshua Nkomo became one of the leading figures of resistance to white minority rule in Southern Rhodesia.
In July 1960, Takawira and two other NDP officials were arrested; in protest, Mugabe joined a demonstration of 7,000 people who planned to march from Highfield to the Prime Minister’s office in Salisbury. The demonstration was stopped by riot police outside Stoddart Hall in Harare township.[52] By midday the next day, the crowd had grown to 40,000 and a makeshift platform had been erected for speakers. Having become a much-respected figure through his profession, his possession of three degrees, and his travels abroad, Mugabe was among those invited to speak to the crowd.[53] Following this event, Mugabe decided to devote himself full-time to activism, resigning his teaching post in Ghana (after having served two years of the four-year teaching contract).[54] He chaired the first NDP congress, held in October 1960, assisted by Chitepo on the procedural aspects. Mugabe was elected the party’s publicity secretary.[55] Mugabe consciously injected emotionalism into the NDP’s African nationalism, hoping to broaden its support among the wider population by appealing to traditional cultural values.[56] He helped to form the NDP Youth Wing and encouraged the incorporation of ancestral prayers, traditional costume, and female ululation into its meetings.[57] In February 1961 he married Hayfron in a Roman Catholic ceremony conducted in Salisbury; she had converted to Catholicism to make this possible.[58]
The British government held a Salisbury conference in 1961 to determine Southern Rhodesia’s future. Nkomo led an NDP delegation, which hoped that the British would support the creation of an independent state governed by the black majority. Representatives of the country’s white minority—who then controlled Southern Rhodesia’s government—were opposed to this, promoting continued white minority rule.[59] Following negotiations, Nkomo agreed to a proposal which would allow the black population representation through 15 of the 65 seats in the country’s parliament. Mugabe and others in the NDP were furious at Nkomo’s compromise.[60] Following the conference, Southern Rhodesia’s African nationalist movement fell into disarray.[61] Mugabe spoke at a number of NDP rallies before the party was banned by the government in December 1961.[62] Many of its members re-grouped as the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) several days later,[63] with Mugabe appointed as ZAPU’s publicity secretary and general secretary.[64]
Racial violence was growing in the country, with aggrieved black Africans targeting the white community.[65] Mugabe deemed such conflict a necessary tactic in the overthrow of British colonial dominance and white minority rule. This contrasted with Nkomo’s view that African nationalists should focus on international diplomacy to encourage the British government to grant their demands.[65] Nine months after it had been founded, ZAPU was also banned by the government,[63] and in September 1962 Mugabe and other senior party officials were arrested and restricted to their home districts for three months.[63] Both Mugabe and his wife were in trouble with the law; he had been charged with making subversive statements in a public speech and awarded bail before his trial.[66] Hayfron had been sentenced to two years imprisonment—suspended for 15 months—for a speech in which she declared that the British Queen Elizabeth II “can go to hell”.[67]
Europeans must realise that unless the legitimate demands of African nationalism are recognised, then racial conflict is inevitable.
The rise of African nationalism generated a white backlash in Southern Rhodesia, with the right-wing Rhodesian Front winning the December 1962 general election. The new government sought to preserve white minority rule by tightening security and establishing full independence from the United Kingdom.[69] Mugabe met with colleagues at his house in Salisbury’s Highbury district, where he argued that as political demonstrations were simply being banned, it was time to move towards armed resistance.[70] Both he and others rejected Nkomo’s proposal that they establish a government-in-exile in Dar es Salaam.[71] He and Hayfron skipped bail to attend a ZAPU meeting in the Tanganyikan city.[72] There, the party leadership met Tanganyika’s president, Julius Nyerere, who also dismissed the idea of a government-in-exile and urged ZAPU to organise their resistance to white minority rule within Southern Rhodesia itself.[73]
In August, Hayfron gave birth to Mugabe’s son, whom they named Nhamodzenyika, a Shona term meaning “suffering country”.[74] Mugabe insisted that she take their son back to Ghana, while he decided to return to Southern Rhodesia.[75] There, African nationalists opposed to Nkomo’s leadership had established a new party, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), in August; Ndabaningi Sithole became the group’s president, while appointing Mugabe to be the group’s secretary-general in absentia.[76] Nkomo responded by forming his own group, the People’s Caretaker Council, which was widely referred to as “ZAPU” after its predecessor.[77] ZAPU and ZANU violently opposed one another and soon gang warfare broke out between their rival memberships.[78][79]
Imprisonment: 1963–1975
Mugabe was arrested on his return to Southern Rhodesia in December 1963.[80] His trial lasted from January to March 1964, during which he refused to retract the subversive statements that he had publicly made.[81] In March 1964 he was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment.[78] Mugabe was first imprisoned at Salisbury Maximum Security Prison, before being moved to the Wha Wha detention centre and then the Sikombela detention centre in Que Que.[82] At the latter, he organised study classes for the inmates, teaching them basic literacy, maths, and English.[83] Sympathetic black warders smuggled messages from Mugabe and other members of the ZANU executive committee to activists outside the prison.[84] At the executive’s bidding, ZANU activist Herbert Chitepo had organised a small guerrilla force in Lusaka. In April 1966 the group carried out a failed attempt to destroy power pylons at Sinoia, and shortly after attacked a white-owned farm near Hartley, killing its inhabitants.[85] The government responded by returning the members of the ZANU executive, including Mugabe, to Salisbury Prison in 1966.[86] There, forty prisoners were divided among four communal cells, with many sleeping on the concrete floor due to overcrowding;[87] Mugabe shared his cell with Sithole, Enos Nkala, and Edgar Tekere.[88] He remained there for eight years, devoting his time to reading and studying.[88] During this period he gained several further degrees from the University of London: a masters in economics, a bachelor of administration, and two law degrees.[89]
While Mugabe was imprisoned, Ian Smith became leader of Rhodesia.
While imprisoned, Mugabe learned that his son had died of encephalitis at the age of three. Mugabe was grief-stricken and requested a leave of absence to visit his wife in Ghana. He never forgave the prison authorities for refusing this request.[90] Claims have also circulated among those who knew him at the time that Mugabe was subjected to both physical and mental torture during his imprisonment.[91] According to Father Emmanuel Ribeiro, who was Mugabe’s priest during his imprisonment, Mugabe got through the experience “partly through the strength of his spirituality” but also because his “real strength was study and helping others to learn”.[92]
While Mugabe was imprisoned, in August 1964, the Rhodesian Front government—now under the leadership of Ian Smith—banned ZANU and ZAPU and arrested all remaining leaders of the country’s African nationalist movement.[93] Smith’s government made a unilateral declaration of independence from the United Kingdom in November 1965, renaming Southern Rhodesia as Rhodesia; the UK refused to recognise the legitimacy of this and imposed economic sanctions on the country.[94]
In 1972, the African nationalists launched a guerrilla war against Smith’s government.[95] Among the revolutionaries, it was known as the “Second Chimurenga”.[96] Paramilitary groups based themselves in neighbouring Tanzania and Zambia; many of their fighters were inadequately armed and trained.[97] ZANU’s military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), consisted largely of Shona. It was based in neighbouring Mozambique and gained funds from the People’s Republic of China. ZAPU’s military wing, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), was instead funded by the Soviet Union, was based in Zambia, and consisted largely of Ndebele.[98]
Mugabe and other senior ZANU members had growing doubts about Sithole’s leadership, deeming him increasingly irritable and irrational.[99] In October 1968 Sithole had tried to smuggle a message out of the prison commanding ZANU activists to assassinate Smith. His plan was discovered and he was put on trial in January 1969; desperate to avoid a death sentence, he declared that he renounced violence and his previous ideological commitments.[100] Mugabe denounced Sithole’s “treachery” in rejecting ZANU’s cause, and the executive removed him as ZANU President in a vote of no confidence, selecting Mugabe as his successor.[101] In November 1974, the ZANU executive voted to suspend Sithole’s membership of the organisation.[102]
Fearing that the guerrilla war would spread south, the South African government pressured Rhodesia to advance the process of détente with the politically moderate black governments of Zambia and Tanzania. As part of these negotiations, Smith’s government agreed to release a number of black revolutionaries who had been indefinitely detained.[103] After almost eleven years of imprisonment, Mugabe was released in November 1974.[104] He moved in with his sister Sabina at her home in Highfield township.[105] He was intent on joining the ZANU forces and taking part in the guerrilla war,[106] recognising that to secure dominance of ZANU he would have to take command of ZANLA.[107] This was complicated by internal violence within the paramilitary group, predominately between members of the Manyika and Karange groups of Shona.[108]
In March 1975, Mugabe resolved to leave Rhodesia for Mozambique, ambitious to take control of ZANU’s guerrilla campaign.[109] After his friend Maurice Nyagumbo was arrested, he feared the same fate but was hidden from the authorities by Ribeiro. Ribeiro and a sympathetic nun then assisted him and Edgar Tekere in smuggling themselves into Mozambique.[110] Mugabe remained in exile there for two years.[111] Mozambique’s Marxist President Samora Machel was sceptical of Mugabe’s leadership abilities and was unsure whether to recognise him as ZANU’s legitimate leader. Machel gave him a house in Quelimane and kept him under partial house arrest, with Mugabe requiring permission to travel.[112] It would be almost a year before Machel accepted Mugabe’s leadership of ZANU.[107]
Mugabe travelled to various ZANLA camps in Mozambique to build support among its officers.[113] By mid-1976, he had secured the allegiance of ZANLA’s military commanders and established himself as the most prominent guerrilla leader battling Smith’s regime.[107] In August 1977, he was officially declared ZANU President at a meeting of the party’s central committee held in Chimoio.[114] During the war, Mugabe remained suspicious of many of ZANLA’s commanders and had a number of them imprisoned.[115] In 1977 he imprisoned his former second-in-command, Wilfred Mhanda, for suspected disloyalty.[115] After Josiah Tongogara was killed in a car accident in 1979, there were suggestions made that Mugabe may have had some involvement in it; these rumours were never substantiated.[116]
Mugabe remained aloof from the day-to-day military operations of ZANLA, which he entrusted to Tongogara.[107] In January 1976, ZANLA launched its first major infiltration from Mozambique, with nearly 1000 guerrillas crossing the border to attack white-owned farms and stores.[117] In response, Smith’s government enlisted all men under the age of 35, expanding the Rhodesian army by 50%.[117] ZANLA’s attacks forced large numbers of white landowners to abandon their farms; their now-unemployed black workers joined ZANLA by the thousands.[118] By 1979, ZANLA were in a position to attack a number of Rhodesian cities.[119] Over the course of the war, at least 30,000 people were killed.[120] As a proportion of their wider population, the whites had higher number of fatalities,[120] and by the latter part of the decade the guerrillas were winning.[121]
Mugabe in a meeting with Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu in 1976
Mugabe focused on the propaganda war, making regular speeches and radio broadcasts.[107] In these, he presented himself as a Marxist-Leninist, speaking warmly of Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries like Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro.[115] Despite his Marxist views, Mugabe’s meetings with Soviet representatives were unproductive, for they insisted on Nkomo’s leadership of the revolutionary struggle.[122] His relationship with the People’s Republic of China was far warmer, as the Chinese Marxist government supplied ZANLA with armaments without any conditions.[123] He also sought support from Western nations, visiting Western embassies in Mozambique,[124] and travelled to both Western states like Italy and Switzerland and Marxist-governed states like the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba.[125]
Mugabe called for the overthrow of Rhodesia’s predominately white government, the execution of Smith and his “criminal gang”, the expropriation of white-owned land, and the transformation of Rhodesia into a one-party Marxist state.[126] He repeatedly called for violence against the country’s white minority,[127] referring to white Rhodesians as “blood-sucking exploiters”, “sadistic killers”, and “hard-core racists”.[115] In one typical example, taken from a 1978 radio address, Mugabe declared: “Let us hammer [the white man] to defeat. Let us blow up his citadel. Let us give him no time to rest. Let us chase him in every corner. Let us rid our home of this settler vermin”.[127] For Mugabe, armed struggle was an essential part of the establishment of a new state.[128] In contrast to other black nationalist leaders like Nkomo, Mugabe opposed a negotiated settlement with Smith’s government.[128] In October 1976 ZANU nevertheless established a joint-platform with ZAPU known as the Patriotic Front.[129] In September 1978 Mugabe met with Nkomo in Lusaka. He was angry with the latter’s secret attempts to negotiate with Smith.[130]
Lancaster House Agreement: 1979
The beginning of the end for Smith came when South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster concluded that white minority rule was unsustainable in a country where blacks outnumbered whites 22:1.[131] Under pressure from Vorster, Smith accepted in principle that white minority rule could not be maintained forever. He oversaw the 1979 general election which resulted in Abel Muzorewa, a politically moderate black bishop, being elected Prime Minister of the reconstituted Zimbabwe Rhodesia. Both ZANU and ZAPU had boycotted the election, which did not receive international recognition.[132] At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1979, held in Lusaka, the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher surprised delegates by announcing that the UK would officially recognise the country’s independence if it transitioned to democratic majority rule.[133]
Lancaster House in London’s St James’s district
The negotiations took place at Lancaster House in London and were led by the Conservative Party politician Peter Carington.[134] Mugabe refused to attend these London peace talks,[135] opposing the idea of a negotiated rather than military solution to the Rhodesian War.[136] Machel insisted that he must, threatening to end Mozambican support for the ZANU-PF if he did not.[137] Mugabe arrived in London in September 1979.[138] There, he and Nkomo presented themselves as part of the “Patriotic Front” but established separate headquarters in the city.[139] At the conference the pair were divided in their attitude; Nkomo wanted to present himself as a moderate while Mugabe played up to his image as a Marxist revolutionary, with Carington exploiting this division.[140] Throughout the negotiations, Mugabe did not trust the British and believed that they were manipulating events to their own advantage.[141]
The ensuing Lancaster House Agreement called for all participants in the Rhodesian Bush War to agree to a ceasefire, with a British governor, Christopher Soames, arriving in Rhodesia to oversee an election in which the various factions could compete as political parties.[142] It outlined a plan for a transition to formal independence as a sovereign republic under black-majority rule, also maintaining that Rhodesia would be renamed Zimbabwe, a name adopted from the Iron Age archaeological site of Great Zimbabwe.[143] The agreement also ensured that the country’s white minority retained many of its economic and political privileges,[144] with 20 seats to be reserved for whites in the new Parliament.[145] By insisting on the need for a democratic black majority government, Carington was able to convince Mugabe to compromise on the other main issue of the conference, that of land ownership.[146] Mugabe agreed to the protection of the white community’s privately owned property on the condition that the UK and U.S governments provide financial assistance allowing the Zimbabwean government to purchase much land for redistribution among blacks.[147] Mugabe was opposed to the idea of a ceasefire, but under pressure from Machel he agreed to it.[148] Mugabe signed the agreement, but felt cheated,[148] remaining disappointed that he had never achieved a military victory over the Rhodesian forces.[149]
Electoral campaign: 1980
Returning to Salisbury in January 1980, Mugabe was greeted by a supportive crowd.[150] He settled into a house in Mount Pleasant, a wealthy white-dominated suburb.[151] Machel had cautioned Mugabe not to alienate Rhodesia’s white minority, warning him that any white flight after the election would cause economic damage as it had in Mozambique.[152] Accordingly, during his electoral campaign, Mugabe avoided the use of Marxist and revolutionary rhetoric.[153] Mugabe insisted that in the election, ZANU would stand as a separate party to ZAPU, and refused Nkomo’s request for a meeting.[154] He formed ZANU into a political party, known as Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF).[155] Predictions were made that ZANU–PF would win the election on the basis of the country’s ethnic divisions; Mugabe was Shona, a community that made up around 70% of the country’s population, while Nkomo was Ndebele, a tribal group who made up only around 20%.[156] For many in the white community and in the British government, this outcome was a terrifying prospect due to Mugabe’s avowed Marxist beliefs and the inflammatory comments that he had made about whites during the guerrilla war.[127]
During the campaign, Mugabe survived two assassination attempts.[157] In the first, which took place on 6 February, a grenade was thrown at his Mount Pleasant home, where it exploded against a garden wall.[157] In the second, on 10 February, a roadside bomb exploded near his motorcade as he left a Fort Victoria rally. Mugabe himself was unharmed.[157] Mugabe accused the Rhodesian security forces of being responsible for these attacks.[158] In an attempt to quell the possibility that Rhodesia’s security forces would launch a coup to prevent the election, Mugabe met with Peter Walls, the commander of Rhodesia’s armed forces, and asked him to remain in his position in the event of a ZANU–PF victory. At the time Walls refused.[159]
The electoral campaign was marred by widespread voter intimidation, perpetrated by Nkomo’s ZAPU, Abel Muzorewa‘s United African National Council (UANC), and Mugabe’s ZANU–PF.[160] Commenting on ZANU–PF’s activities in eastern Rhodesia, Nkomo complained that “the word intimidation is mild. People are being terrorised. It is terror.”[161] Reacting to ZANU–PF’s acts of voter intimidation, Mugabe was called before Soames at Government House. Mugabe regarded the meeting as a British attempt to thwart his electoral campaign.[162] Under the terms of the negotiation, Soames had the power to disqualify any political party guilty of voter intimidation.[158] Rhodesia’s security services, Nkomo, Muzorewa, and some of his own advisers all called on Soames to disqualify ZANU–PF. After deliberation, Soames disagreed, believing that ZANU–PF were sure to win the election and that disqualifying them would wreck any chance of an orderly transition of power.[158]
In the February election, ZANU–PF secured 63% of the national vote, gaining 57 of the 80 parliamentary seats allocated for black parties and providing them with an absolute majority.[163] ZAPU had gained 20 seats, and UANC had three.[156] Mugabe was elected MP for the Salisbury constituency of Highfield.[164] Attempting to calm panic and prevent white flight, Mugabe appeared on television and called for national unity, stability, and law and order, insisting that the pensions of white civil servants would be guaranteed and that private property would be protected.[165]
Prime Minister of Zimbabwe: 1980–1987
Statues atop the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Heroes’ Acre; the monument was designed by North Korean architects who reported directly to Mugabe.[166]
Southern Rhodesia gained internationally recognised independence on 18 April 1980. Mugabe took the oath of office as the newly minted country’s first Prime Minister shortly after midnight.[167][168] He gave a speech at Salisbury’s Rufaro Stadium announcing that Rhodesia would be renamed “Zimbabwe” and pledged racial reconciliation.[169] Soames aided Mugabe in bringing about an orderly transition of power; for this Mugabe remained grateful, describing Soames as a good friend.[170] Mugabe unsuccessfully urged Soames to remain in Zimbabwe for several more years,[171] and also failed to convince the UK to assume a two-year “guiding role” for his government because most ZANU–PF members lacked experience in governing.[172] ZANU–PF’s absolute parliamentary majority allowed them to rule alone, but Mugabe created a government of national unity by inviting members of rival parties to join his cabinet.[173] Mugabe moved into the Premier’s residence in Salisbury, which he left furnished in the same style as Smith had left it.[174]
Across the country, statues of Cecil Rhodes were removed and squares and roads named after prominent colonial figures were renamed after black nationalists.[175] In 1982 Salisbury was renamed Harare.[176] Mugabe employed North Korean architects to design Heroes’ Acre, a monument and complex in western Harare to commemorate the struggle against minority rule.[177] Zimbabwe also received much aid from Western countries, whose governments hoped that a stable and prosperous Zimbabwe would aid the transition of South Africa away from apartheid and minority rule.[178] The United States provided Zimbabwe with a $25 million three-year aid package.[178] The UK financed a land reform program,[179] and provided military advisers to aid the integration of the guerrilla armies and old Rhodesian security forces into a new Zimbabwean military.[180] Members of both ZANLA and ZIPRA were integrated into the army; though, there remained a strong rivalry between the two groups.[181] As Prime Minister, Mugabe retained Walls as the head of the armed forces.[182]
Mugabe’s government continued to make regular pronouncements about converting Zimbabwe into a socialist society, but did not take concrete steps in that direction.[183] In contrast to Mugabe’s talk of socialism, his government’s budgetary policies were conservative, operating within a capitalist framework and emphasising the need for foreign investment.[175] In office, Mugabe sought a gradual transformation away from capitalism and tried to build upon existing state institutions.[170] From 1980 to 1990, the country’s economy grew by an average of 2.7% a year, but this was outstripped by population growth and real income declined.[184] The unemployment rate rose, reaching 26% in 1990.[184] The government ran a budget deficit year-on-year that averaged at 10% of the country’s gross domestic product.[184] Under Mugabe’s leadership, there was a massive expansion in education and health spending.[184] In 1980, Zimbabwe had just 177 secondary schools, by 2000 this number had risen to 1,548.[184] During that period, the adult literacy rate rose from 62% to 82%, one of the highest levels in Africa.[184] Levels of child immunisation were raised from 25% of the population to 92%.[184]
A new leadership elite were formed, who often expressed their newfound status through purchasing large houses and expensive cars, sending their children to private schools, and obtaining farms and businesses.[185] To contain their excesses, in 1984 Mugabe drew up a “leadership code” which prohibited any senior figures from obtaining more than one salary or owning over 50-acres of agricultural land.[185] There were exceptions, with Mugabe giving permission to General Solomon Mujuru to expand his business empire, resulting in his becoming one of the Zimbabwe’s wealthiest people.[186] Growing corruption among the socio-economic elite generated resentment among the wider population, much of which was living in poverty.[187]
Mugabe departing Andrews Air Force Base after a state visit to the United States in 1983
ZANU–PF also began establishing its own business empire, founding the M&S Syndicate in 1980 and the Zidoo Holdings in 1981.[186] By 1992, the party had fixed assets and businesses worth an estimated Z$500 million (US$75 million).[186] In 1980, ZANU–PF used Nigerian funds to set up the Mass Media Trust, through which they bought out a South African company that owned most of Zimbabwe’s newspapers.[188] The white editors of these newspapers were sacked and replaced by government appointees.[189] These media outlets subsequently became a source of the party’s propaganda.[189]
At independence, 39% of Zimbabwe’s land was under the ownership of around 6000 white large-scale commercial farmers, while 4% was owned by black small-scale commercial farmers, and 41% was ‘communal land’ where 4 million people lived, often in overcrowded conditions.[190] The Lancaster House agreement ensured that until 1990, the sale of land could only take place on a “willing seller-willing buyer” basis. The only permitted exceptions were if the land was “underutilised” or needed for a public purpose, in which case the government could compulsorily purchase it while fully compensating the owner.[191] This meant that Mugabe’s government was largely restricted to purchasing land which was of poor quality.[191] Its target was to resettle 18,000 black families on 2.5 million acres of white-owned land over three years. This would cost £30 million (US$60 million), half of which was to be provided by the UK government as per the Lancaster House Agreement.[190]
In 1986, Mugabe became chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a position that he retained until 1989.[192] As the leader of one of the Front Line States, the countries bordering apartheid South Africa, he gained credibility within the anti-apartheid movement.[192]
Race relations
The wrongs of the past must now stand forgiven and forgotten. If ever we look to the past, let us do so for the lesson the past has taught us, namely that oppression and racism are inequalities that must never find scope in our political and social system. It could never be a correct justification that just because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had power, the blacks must oppress them today because they have power. An evil remains an evil whether practised by white against black or black against white.
Mugabe initially emphasised racial reconciliation and he was keen to build a good relationship with white Zimbabweans.[194] He hoped to avoid a white exodus and tried to allay fears that he would nationalise white-owned property.[195] He appointed two white ministers—David Smith and Denis Norman—to his government,[196] met with white leaders in agriculture, industry, mining, and commerce,[197] and impressed senior figures in the outgoing administration like Smith and Ken Flower with his apparent sincerity.[198] With the end of the war, petrol rationing, and economic sanctions, life for white Zimbabweans improved during the early years of Mugabe’s rule.[199] In the economic boom that followed, the white minority—which controlled considerable property and dominated commerce, industry, and banking—were the country’s main beneficiaries.[179]
Nevertheless, many white Zimbabweans complained that they were the victims of racial discrimination.[200] Many whites remained uneasy about living under the government of a black Marxist and they also feared that their children would be unable to secure jobs.[179] There was a growing exodus to South Africa, and in 1980, 17,000 whites—approximately a tenth of the white Zimbabwean population—emigrated.[180] Mugabe’s government had pledged support for the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid forces within South Africa, but did not allow them to use Zimbabwe as a base for their military operations.[178] To protest apartheid and white minority rule in South Africa, Mugabe’s government banned Zimbabwe from engaging South Africa in any sporting competitions.[178] In turn, South Africa tried to destabilise Zimbabwe by blocking trade routes into the country and supporting anti-Mugabe militants among the country’s white minority.[201]
Mugabe in the Netherlands, 1982
In December 1981, a bomb struck ZANU–PF headquarters, killing seven and injuring 124.[202] Mugabe blamed South African-backed white militants.[203] He criticised “reactionary and counter-revolutionary elements” in the white community, stating that despite the fact that they had faced no punishment for their past actions, they rejected racial reconciliation and “are acting in collusion with South Africa to harm our racial relations, to destroy our unity, to sabotage our economy, and to overthrow the popularly elected government I lead”.[203] Increasingly he criticised not only the militants but the entire white community for holding a monopoly on “Zimbabwe’s economic power”.[204] This was a view echoed by many government ministers and the government-controlled media.[200] One of these ministers, Tekere, was involved in an incident in which he and seven armed men stormed a white-owned farmhouse, killing an elderly farmer; they alleged that in doing so they were foiling a coup attempt. Tekere was acquitted of murder; however, Mugabe dropped him from his cabinet.[205]
Racial mistrust and suspicion continued to grow.[206] In December 1981, the elderly white MP Wally Stuttaford was accused of being a South African agent, arrested, and tortured, generating anger among whites.[207] In July 1982, South African-backed white militants destroyed 13 aircraft at Thornhill. A number of white military officers were accused of complicity, arrested, and tortured. They were put on trial but cleared by judges, after which they were immediately re-arrested.[208] Their case generated an international outcry, which Mugabe criticised, stating that the case only gained such attention because the accused were white.[209] His defence of torture and contempt for legal procedures damaged his international standing.[210] White flight continued to grow, and within three years of Mugabe’s premiership half of all white Zimbabweans had emigrated.[211] In the 1985 election, Smith’s Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe won 15 of the 20 seats allocated for white Zimbabweans.[212] Mugabe was outraged by this result,[213] lambasting white Zimbabweans for not repenting “in any way” by continuing to support Smith and other white politicians who had committed “horrors against the people of Zimbabwe”.[212]
The flag of ZAPU, which was largely eliminated by ZANU-PF in the Gukurahundi
Under the new constitution, Zimbabwe’s presidency was a ceremonial role with no governmental power; the first President was Canaan Banana.[214] Mugabe had previously offered the position to Nkomo, who had turned it down in favour of becoming Minister of Home Affairs.[215] While working together, there remained an aura of resentment and suspicion between Mugabe and Nkomo.[216] Mugabe gave ZAPU four cabinet seats, but Nkomo demanded more.[217] In contrast, some ZANU–PF figures argued that ZAPU should not have any seats in government, suggesting that Zimbabwe be converted into a one-party state.[218] Tekere and Enos Nkala were particularly adamant that there should be a crackdown on ZAPU.[218] After Nkala called for ZAPU to be violently crushed during a rally in Entumbane, street clashes between the two parties broke out in the city.[219]
In January 1981, Mugabe demoted Nkomo in a cabinet reshuffle; the latter warned that this would anger ZAPU supporters.[220] In February, violence between ZAPU and ZANU–PF supporters broke out among the battalion stationed at Ntabazinduna, soon spreading to other army bases, resulting in 300 deaths.[221] An arms cache featuring land mines and anti-aircraft missiles were then discovered at Ascot Farm, which was part-owned by Nkomo. Mugabe cited this as evidence that ZAPU were plotting a coup, an allegation that Nkomo denied.[222] Likening Nkomo to “a cobra in the house”, Mugabe sacked him from the government, and ZAPU-owned businesses, farms, and properties were seized.[223]
Members of both ZANLA and ZIPRA had deserted their positions and engaged in banditry.[218] In Matabeleland, ZIPRA deserters who came to be known as “dissenters” engaged in robbery, holding up buses, and attacking farm houses, creating an environment of growing lawlessness.[224] These dissidents received support from South Africa through its Operation Mute, by which it hoped to further destabilise Zimbabwe.[225] The government often conflated ZIPRA with the dissenters,[226] although Nkomo denounced the dissidents and their South African supporters.[227] Mugabe authorised the police and army to crack down on the Matabeleland dissenters, declaring that state officers would be granted legal immunity for any “extra-legal” actions they may perform while doing so.[227] During 1982 he had established the Fifth Brigade, an elite armed force trained by the North Koreans; membership was drawn largely from Shona-speaking ZANLA soldiers and were answerable directly to Mugabe.[228] In January 1983, the Fifth Brigade were deployed in the region, overseeing a campaign of beatings, arson, public executions, and massacres of those accused of being sympathetic to the dissidents.[229] The scale of the violence was greater than that witnessed in the Rhodesian War.[230] Interrogation centres were established where people were tortured.[231] Mugabe acknowledged that civilians would be persecuted in the violence, claiming that “we can’t tell who is a dissident and who is not.”[232] The ensuing events became known as the “Gukurahundi”, a Shona word meaning “wind that sweeps away the chaff before the rains”.[233]
The Gukurahundi took place in Zimbabwe’s western provinces of Matabeleland (highlighted).
In 1984 the Gukurahundi spread to Matabeleland South, an area then in its third year of drought. The Fifth Brigade closed all stores, halted all deliveries, and imposed a curfew, exacerbating starvation for a period of two months.[234] The Bishop of Bulawayo accused Mugabe of overseeing a project of systematic starvation.[231] When a Roman Catholic delegation provided Mugabe with a dossier listing atrocities committed by the Fifth Brigade, Mugabe refuted all its allegations and accused the clergy of being disloyal to Zimbabwe.[235] He had the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe suppressed.[236] In 1985, an Amnesty International report on the Gukurahundi was dismissed by Mugabe as “a heap of lies”.[237] Over the course of four years, approximately 10,000 civilians had been killed, and many others had been beaten and tortured.[238]Genocide Watch later estimated that approximately 20,000 had been killed[239] and classified the events as genocide.[240]
Margaret Thatcher‘s UK government was aware of the killings but remained silent on the matter, cautious not to anger Mugabe and threaten the safety of white Zimbabweans.[241] The United States also did not raise strong objections, with President Ronald Reagan welcoming Mugabe to the White House in September 1983.[242] In October 1983, Mugabe attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in New Delhi, where no participating states mentioned the Gukurahundi.[242] In 2000, Mugabe acknowledged that the mass killings had happened, stating that it was “an act of madness … it was wrong and both sides were to blame”.[243] His biographer Martin Meredith argued that Mugabe and his ZANU–PF were solely to blame for the massacres.[243] Various Mugabe biographers have seen the Gukurahundi as a deliberate attempt to eliminate ZAPU and its support base to advance his desire for a ZANU–PF one-party state.[244]
There was further violence in the build-up to the 1985 election, with ZAPU supporters facing harassment from ZANU–PF Youth League brigades.[245] Despite this intimidation, ZAPU won all 15 of the parliamentary seats in Matabeleland.[245] Mugabe then appointed Enos Nkala as the new police minister. Nkala subsequently detained over 100 ZAPU officials, including five of its MPs and the Mayor of Bulawayo, banned the party from holding rallies or meetings, closed all of their offices, and dissolved all of the district councils that they controlled.[246] To avoid further violence, in December 1987 Nkomo signed a Unity Accord in which ZAPU was officially disbanded and its leadership merged into ZANU–PF.[247] The merger between the two parties left ZANU–PF with 99 of the 100 seats in parliament,[248] and established Zimbabwe as a de facto one-party state.[242]
President of Zimbabwe
Constitutional and economic reform: 1987–1995
In late 1987, Zimbabwe’s parliament amended the constitution.[249] On 30 December it declared Mugabe to be executive president, a new position that combined the roles of head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.[250] This position gave him the power to dissolve parliament, declare martial law, and run for an unlimited number of terms.[251] According to Meredith, Mugabe now had “a virtual stranglehold on government machinery and unlimited opportunities to exercise patronage”.[251] The constitutional amendments also abolished the twenty parliamentary seats reserved for white representatives,[252] and left parliament less relevant and independent.[253]
In the build-up to the 1990 election, parliamentary reforms increased the number of seats to 120; of these, twenty were to be appointed by the President and ten by the Council of Chiefs.[254] This measure made it more difficult for any opposition to Mugabe to gain a parliamentary majority.[255] The main opposition party in that election were the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), launched in April 1989 by Tekere;[256] although a longstanding friend of Mugabe, Tekere accused him of betraying the revolution and establishing a dictatorship.[257] ZANU–PF propaganda made threats against those considering voting ZUM in the election; one television advert featured images of a car crash with the statement “This is one way to die. Another is to vote ZUM. Don’t commit suicide, vote ZANU-PF and live.”[258] In the election, Mugabe was re-elected President with nearly 80% of the vote, while ZANU–PF secured 116 of the 119 available parliamentary seats.[259]
Mugabe had long hoped to convert Zimbabwe into a one-party state, but in 1990 he officially “postponed” these plans as both Mozambique and many Eastern Bloc states transitioned from one-party states to multi-party republics.[260] Following the collapse of the Marxist-Leninist regimes in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, in 1991 ZANU–PF removed references to “Marxism-Leninism” and “scientific socialism” in its material; Mugabe maintained that “socialism remains our sworn ideology”.[261] That year, Mugabe pledged himself to free market economics and accepted a structural adjustment programme provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).[262] This economic reform package called for Zimbabwe to privatise state assets and reduce import tariffs;[184] Mugabe’s government implemented some but not all of its recommendations.[262] The reforms encouraged employers to cut their wages, generating growing opposition from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.[263]
By 1990, 52,000 black families had been settled on 6.5 million acres. This was insufficient to deal with the country’s overcrowding problem, which was being exacerbated by the growth in the black population.[264] That year, Zimbabwe’s parliament passed an amendment allowing the government to expropriate land at a fixed price while denying land-owners the right of appeal to the courts.[265] The government hoped that by doing so it could settle 110,000 black families on 13 million acres, which would require the expropriation of approximately half of all white-owned land.[265] Zimbabwe’s Commercial Farmers Union argued that the proposed measures would wreck the country’s economy, urging the government to instead settle landless blacks on the half-a-million acres of land that was either unproductive or state-owned.[266]
Concerns about the proposed measure—particularly its denial of the right to appeal—were voiced by the UK, US, and Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.[265] The US, UK, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank threatened that if Zimbabwe implemented the law, it would forfeit foreign aid packages.[267] Responding to the criticisms, the government removed the ban on court appeals from the bill, which was then passed as law.[268] Over the following few years, hundreds of thousands of acres of largely white-owned land were expropriated.[269] In April 1994, a newspaper investigation found that not all of this was redistributed to landless blacks; much of the expropriated land was being leased to ministers and senior officials such as Witness Mangwede, who was leased a 3000-acre farm in Hwedza.[270] Responding to this scandal, in 1994 the UK government—which had supplied £44 million for land redistribution—halted its payments.[271]
In January 1992, Mugabe’s wife died.[272] In April 1995, Horizon magazine revealed that Mugabe had secretly been having an affair with his secretary Grace Marufu since 1987 and that she had borne him a son and a daughter.[273] His secret revealed, Mugabe decided to hold a much-publicised wedding. 12,000 people were invited to the August 1996 ceremony, which took place in Kutama and was orchestrated by the head of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Harare, Patrick Chakaipa.[274] The ceremony was controversial among the Catholic community because of the adulterous nature of Mugabe and Marufu’s relationship.[275] To house his family, Mugabe then built a new mansion at Borrowdale.[276] In the 1995 parliamentary election—which saw a low turnout of 31.7%—ZANU–PF gained 147 out of 150 seats.[263] Following the election, Mugabe expanded his cabinet from 29 to 42 ministers while the government adopted a 133% pay rise for MPs.[277]
Economic decline: 1995–2000
By the mid-1990s Mugabe had become an irascible and petulant dictator, brooking no opposition, contemptuous of the law and human rights, surrounded by sycophantic ministers and indifferent to the incompetence and corruption around him. His record of economic management was lamentable. He had failed to satisfy popular expectations in education, health, land reform, and employment. And he had alienated the entire white community. Yet all the while Mugabe continued to believe in his own greatness. Isolated and remote from ordinary reality, possessing no close friends and showing clear signs of paranoia, he listened only to an inner circle of conspiratorial aides and colleagues. Whatever difficulties occurred he attributed to old enemies—Britain, the West, the old Rhodesian network—all bent, he believed, on destroying his “revolution”.
Over the course of the 1990s, Zimbabwe’s economy steadily deteriorated.[279] By 2000, living standards had declined from 1980; life expectancy was reduced, average wages were lower, and unemployment had trebled.[280] By 1998, unemployment was almost at 50%.[279] As of 2009, three to four million Zimbabweans—the greater part of the nation’s skilled workforce—had left the country.[281] In 1997 there were growing demands for pensions from those who had fought for the guerrilla armies in the revolutionary war, and in August 1997 Mugabe put together a pension package that would cost the county Z$4.2 billion.[282] To finance this pension scheme, Mugabe’s government proposed new taxes, but a general strike was called in protest in December 1997; amid protest from ZANU–PF itself, Mugabe’s government abandoned the taxes.[283] In January 1998, riots about lack of access to food broke out in Harare; the army was deployed to restore order, with at least ten killed and hundreds injured.[284]
Mugabe increasingly blamed the country’s economic problems on Western nations and the white Zimbabwean minority, who still controlled most of its commercial agriculture, mines, and manufacturing industry.[285] He called on supporters “to strike fear in the hearts of the white man, our real enemy”,[280] and accused his black opponents of being dupes of the whites.[286] Amid growing internal opposition to his government, he remained determined to stay in power.[280] He revived the regular use of revolutionary rhetoric and sought to re-assert his credentials as an important revolutionary leader.[287]
Mugabe also developed a growing preoccupation with homosexuality, lambasting it as an “un-African” import from Europe.[288] He described gay people as being “guilty of sub-human behaviour”, and of being “worse than dogs and pigs”.[289] This attitude may have stemmed in part from his strong conservative values, but it was strengthened by the fact that several ministers in the British government were gay. Mugabe began to believe that there was a “gay mafia” and that all of his critics were homosexuals.[290] Critics also accused Mugabe of using homophobia to distract attention from the country’s problems.[288] In August 1995, he was due to open a human rights-themed Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare but refused to do so until a stall run by the group Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe was evicted.[291]
In 1996, Mugabe was appointed chair of the defence arm of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).[292] Without consulting parliament, in August 1998 he ordered Zimbabwean troops into the Democratic Republic of the Congo to side with President Laurent Kabila in the Second Congo War.[293] He initially committed 3000 troops to the operation; this gradually rose to 11,000.[293] He also persuaded Angola and Namibia to commit troops to the conflict.[293] Involvement in the war cost Zimbabwe an approximate US$1 million a day, contributing to its economic problems.[293] Opinion polls demonstrated that it was unpopular among Zimbabwe’s population.[294] However, several Zimbabwean businesses profited, having been given mining and timber concessions and preferential trade terms in minerals from Kabila’s government.[293]
In January 1999, 23 military officers were arrested for plotting a coup against Mugabe. The government sought to hide this, but it was reported by journalists from The Standard. The military subsequently illegally arrested the journalists and tortured them.[295] This brought international condemnation, with the EU and seven donor nations issuing protest notes.[296] Lawyers and human rights activists protested outside parliament until they were dispersed by riot police,[296] and the country’s Supreme Court judges issued a letter condemning the military’s actions.[297] In response, Mugabe publicly defended the use of extra-legal arrest and torture.[298]
British prime minister Tony Blair, with whom Mugabe had a particularly antagonistic relationship
In 1997, Tony Blair was elected Prime Minister of the UK after 18 years of Conservative rule. His Labour government expressed reticence toward restarting the land resettlement payments promised by the Lancaster House Agreement, with minister Clare Short rejecting the idea that the UK had any moral obligation to fund land redistribution.[299] This attitude fuelled anti-imperialist sentiment across Africa.[300] In October 1999, Mugabe visited Britain and in London, the human rights activist Peter Tatchell attempted to place him under citizen’s arrest.[301] Mugabe believed that the British government had deliberately engineered the incident to embarrass him.[302] It further damaged Anglo-Zimbabwean relations,[302] with Mugabe expressing scorn for what he called “Blair and company”.[303] In May 2000, the UK froze all development aid to Zimbabwe.[304] In December 1999, the IMF terminated financial support for Zimbabwe, citing economic mismanagement and widespread corruption as impediments to reform.[305]
To meet growing demand for constitutional reform, in April 1999 Mugabe’s government appointed a 400-member Constitutional Commission to draft a new constitution which could be put to a referendum.[306] The National Constitutional Assembly—a pro-reform pressure group established in 1997—expressed concern that this commission was not independent of the government, noting that Mugabe had the power to amend or reject the draft.[307] The NCA called for the draft constitution to be rejected, and in a February 2000 referendum it was, with 53% against to 44% in favour; turnout was under 25%.[308] It was ZANU–PF’s first major electoral defeat in twenty years.[309] Mugabe was furious, and blamed the white minority for orchestrating his defeat, referring to them as “enemies of Zimbabwe”.[310]
Morgan Tsvangirai led the MDC to growing success in opposing Mugabe’s regime in the 2000 parliamentary election.
The June 2000 parliamentary elections were Zimbabwe’s most important since 1980.[311] Sixteen parties took part, and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)—led by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai—was particularly successful.[311] During the election campaign, MDC activists were regularly harassed and in some cases killed.[312] The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum documented 27 murders, 27 rapes, 2466 assaults, and 617 abductions, with 10,000 people displaced by violence; the majority, but not all, of these actions were carried out by ZANU–PF supporters.[313] Observers from the European Union (EU) ruled that the election was neither free nor fair.[314] The vote produced 48% and 62 parliamentary seats for ZANU-PF and 47% and 57 parliamentary seats for the MDC.[315] For the first time, ZANU–PF were denied the two-thirds parliamentary majority required to push through constitutional change.[311] ZANU–PF had relied heavily on their support base in rural Shona-speaking areas, and retained only one urban constituency.[316]
In February 2000, land invasions began as armed gangs attacked and occupied white-owned farms.[317] The government referred to the attackers as “war veterans” but the majority were unemployed youth too young to have fought in the Rhodesian War.[317] Mugabe claimed that the attacks were a spontaneous uprising against white land owners, although the government had paid Z$20 million to Chenjerai Hunzvi‘s War Veterans Association to lead the land invasion campaign and ZANU–PF officials, police, and military figures were all involved in facilitating it.[318] Some of Mugabe’s colleagues described the invasions as retribution for the white community’s alleged involvement in securing the success of the ‘no’ vote in the recent referendum.[319] Mugabe justified the seizures by the fact that this land had been seized by white settlers from the indigenous African population in the 1890s.[320] He portrayed the invasions as a struggle against colonialism and alleged that the UK was trying to overthrow his government.[321] In May 2000, he issued a decree under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act which empowered the government to seize farms without providing compensation, insisting that it was the British government that should make these payments.[322]
In March 2000, Zimbabwe’s High Court ruled that the land invasions were illegal; they nevertheless continued,[323] and Mugabe began vilifying Zimbabwe’s judiciary.[324] After the Supreme Court also backed this decision, the government called on its judges to resign, successfully pressuring Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay to do so.[325] ZANU–PF member Godfrey Chidyausiku was appointed to replace him, while the number of Supreme Court judges was expanded from five to eight; the three additional seats went to pro-Mugabe figures. The first act of the new Supreme Court was to reverse the previous declaration that the land seizures were illegal.[326] In November 2001, Mugabe issued a presidential decree permitting the expropriation of virtually all white-owned farms in Zimbabwe without compensation.[327] The farm seizures were often violent; by 2006 a reported sixty white farmers had been killed, with many of their employees experiencing intimidation and torture.[328] A large number of the seized farms remained empty, while many of those redistributed to black peasant-farmers were unable to engage in production for the market because of their lack of access to fertiliser.[329]
The courts can do whatever they want, but no judicial decision will stand in our way … My own position is that we should not even be defending our position in the courts. This country is our country and this land is our land … They think because they are white they have a divine right to our resources. Not here. The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans, Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans.
The farm invasions severely impacted agricultural development.[331] Zimbabwe had produced over two million tons of maize in 2000; by 2008 this had declined to approximately 450,000.[328] By October 2003, Human Rights Watch reported that half of the country’s population were food insecure, lacking enough food to meet basic needs.[332] By 2009, 75% of Zimbabwe’s population were relying on food aid, the highest proportion of any country at that time.[332] Zimbabwe faced continuing economic decline. In 2000, the country’s GDP was US$7.4 billion; by 2005 this had declined to US$3.4 billion.[333]Hyperinflation resulted in economic crisis.[329] By 2007, Zimbabwe had the highest inflation rate in the world, at 7600%.[333] By 2008, inflation exceeded 100,000% and a loaf of bread cost a third of the average daily wage.[334] Increasing numbers of Zimbabweans relied on remittances from relatives abroad.[332]
Other sectors of society were negatively affected too. By 2005, an estimated 80% of Zimbabwe’s population were unemployed,[335] and by 2008 only 20% of children were in schooling.[335] The breakdown of water supplies and sewage systems resulted in a cholera outbreak in late 2008, with over 98,000 cholera cases in Zimbabwe between August 2008 and mid-July 2009.[336] The ruined economy also impacted the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country; by 2008 the HIV/AIDS rate for individuals aged between 15 and 49 was 15.3%.[337] In 2007, the World Health Organization declared the average life expectancy in Zimbabwe to be 34 for women and 36 for men, down from 63 and 54 respectively in 1997.[333] The country’s lucrative tourist industry was decimated,[338] and there was a rise in poaching, including of endangered species.[338] Mugabe directly exacerbated this problem when he ordered the killing of 100 elephants to provide meat for an April 2007 feast.[338]
In October 2000, the MDC’s MPs attempted to impeach Mugabe, but were thwarted by the Speaker of the House, Mugabe loyalist Emmerson Mnangagwa.[339] ZANU–PF increasingly equated itself with Zimbabwean patriotism,[340] with MDC supporters being portrayed as traitors and enemies of Zimbabwe.[341] The party presented itself as being on the progressive side of history, with the MDC representing a counter-revolutionary force that seeks to undermine the achievements of the ZANU–PF revolution and of decolonisation itself.[342] Mugabe claimed that the build-up to the 2002 presidential election represented “the third Chimurenga” and that it would set Zimbabwe free from its colonial heritage.[343] In the build-up to the election, the government changed the electoral rules and regulations to improve Mugabe’s chances of victory.[344] New security legislation was introduced making it illegal to criticise the president.[344] The defence force commander, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, stated that the military would not recognise any election result other than a Mugabe victory.[345] The EU withdrew its observers from the country, stating that the vote was neither free nor fair.[345] The election resulted in Mugabe securing 56% of the vote to Tsvangirai’s 42%.[346] In the aftermath of the election Mugabe declared that the state-owned Grain Marketing Board had the sole right to import and distribute grain, with the state distributors giving food to ZANU–PF supporters while withholding it from those suspected of backing the MDC.[347] In 2005, Mugabe instituted Operation Murambatsvina (“Operation Drive Out the Rubbish”), a project of forced slum clearance; a UN report estimated that 700,000 were left homeless. Since the inhabitants of the shantytowns overwhelmingly voted MDC, many alleged that the bulldozing was politically motivated.[348]
Mugabe in 2008
Mugabe’s actions brought strong criticism. The Zimbabwe Council of Churches accused him of plunging the country into “a de facto state of warfare” to stay in power.[349] Several Southern African states remonstrated with him at a summit in Harare in September 2001.[350] In 2002, the Commonwealth expelled Zimbabwe from among its ranks; Mugabe blamed this on anti-black racism,[351] a view echoed by South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki.[352] Mbeki favoured a policy of “quiet diplomacy” in dealing with Mugabe,[353] and prevented the African Union (AU) from introducing sanctions against him.[354] The Africa-Europe Summit, scheduled to take place in Lisbon in April 2003, was deferred repeatedly because African leaders refused to attend while Mugabe was banned; it eventually took place in 2007 with Mugabe in attendance.[355] In 2004, the EU imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe.[351] It extended these sanctions in 2008,[351] with the US government introducing further sanctions this same year.[356] The US and UK introduced a resolution at the UN Security Council calling for an arms embargo of Zimbabwe alongside an asset freeze and travel ban of Mugabe and other government figures; it was vetoed by Russia and China.[356] In 2009, the SADC demanded that Western states lift their targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his government.[352] ZANU–PF presented the sanctions as a form of Western neo-colonialism and blamed the West for Zimbabwe’s economic problems.[357] According to Carren Pindiriri of the University of Zimbabwe, sanctions did not negatively affect employment and poverty in the country.[358]
British prime minister Tony Blair allegedly planned regime change in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s as pressure intensified for Mugabe to step down.[359] British General Charles Guthrie, the Chief of the Defence Staff, revealed in 2007 that he and Blair had discussed the invasion of Zimbabwe.[360] However, Guthrie advised against military action: “Hold hard, you’ll make it worse.”[360] In 2013, South African President Thabo Mbeki said that Blair had also pressured South Africa to join in a “regime change scheme, even to the point of using military force” in Zimbabwe.[359] Mbeki refused because he felt that “Mugabe is part of the solution to this problem.”[359] However, a spokesman for Blair said that “he never asked anyone to plan or take part in any such military intervention.”[359]
In March 2008, the parliamentary and presidential elections were held. In the former, ZANU–PF secured 97 seats to the MDC’s 99 and the rival MDC – Ncube‘s 9.[361][362] In May, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced the presidential vote results, confirming that Tsvangirai secured 47.9%, to Mugabe’s 43.2%. As neither candidate secured 50%, a run-off vote was scheduled.[363] Mugabe saw his defeat as an unacceptable personal humiliation.[364] He deemed it a victory for his Western, and in particular British, detractors, whom he believed were working with Tsvangirai to end his political career.[364] ZANU–PF claimed that the MDC had rigged the election.[365]
Mugabe in 2011
After the election, Mugabe’s government deployed its “war veterans” in a violent campaign against Tsvangirai supporters.[366] Between March and June 2008, at least 153 MDC supporters were killed.[367] There were reports of women affiliated with the MDC being subjected to gang rape by Mugabe supporters.[367] Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans were internally displaced by the violence.[367] These actions brought international condemnation of Mugabe’s government.[citation needed] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed concern about the violence,[368] which was also unanimously condemned by the UN Security Council, which declared that a free and fair election was “impossible”.[368] 40 senior African leaders—among them Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, and Jerry Rawlings—signed an open letter calling for an end to the violence.[369]
In response to the violence, Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off.[214] In the second round, Mugabe was pronounced victor with 85.5% of the vote, and immediately re-inaugurated as president.[370][371] The SADC oversaw the establishment of a power-sharing agreement; brokered by Mbeke, it was signed in September 2008.[372] Under the agreement, Mugabe remained President while Tsvangirai became Prime Minister and the MDC’s Arthur Mutambara became Vice Prime Minister.[citation needed] The cabinet was equally divided among MDC and ZANU–PF members.[citation needed] ZANU–PF nevertheless displayed unwillingness to share power,[373] and were anxious to prevent any sweeping political changes.[374] Under the power-sharing agreement, a number of limited reforms were passed.[375] In early 2009, Mugabe’s government declared that—to combat rampant inflation—it would recognise US dollars as legal tender and would pay government employees in this currency.[336] This helped to stabilise prices.[336] ZANU–PF blocked many of the proposed reforms and a new constitution was passed in March 2013.[375]
Later years: 2013–2017
Mugabe and his wife in 2013
Declaring that he would “fight like a wounded animal” for re-election,[364] Mugabe approached the 2013 elections believing that it would be his last.[376] He hoped that a decisive electoral victory would secure his legacy, signal his triumph over his Western critics, and irreparably damage Tsvangirai’s credibility.[376] The opposition parties believed that this election was their best chance for ousting Mugabe.[377] They portrayed him as a feeble old man who was being told what to do by the military;[378] at least one academic observer argued that this was untrue.[378]
In contrast to 2008, there was no organised dissent against Mugabe within ZANU–PF.[379] The party elite decided to avoid the violence that had marred the 2008 election so as not to undermine its credibility,[375] particularly in the eyes of the SADC, thus allowing Zimbabwe’s government to consolidate its rule without interference.[375] Mugabe called upon supporters to avoid violence,[375] and attended far fewer rallies than in past elections, in part because of his advanced age and in part to ensure that those rallies he did attend were larger.[380] The ZANU–PF offered gifts, including food and clothing, to many members of the electorate to encourage them to vote for the party.[381]
ZANU–PF won a landslide victory, with 61% of the presidential vote and over two-thirds of parliamentary seats.[382] The elections were not considered free and fair; there were widespread stories of vote rigging and many voters might have been fearful of the violence that had surrounded the 2008 election.[382] During the campaign, many MDC supporters had remained quiet about their views out of fear of reprisals.[383] The MDC was also negatively impacted by its time in the coalition government, with perceptions that it had been just as corrupt as ZANU–PF.[384] ZANU–PF had also capitalised on its appeals to African race, land, and liberation, while the MDC was often associated with white farmers, Western nations, and perceived Western values such as LGBT rights.[385]
Mugabe meeting Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2016
In February 2014, Mugabe underwent a cataract operation in Singapore; on return he celebrated his ninetieth birthday at a Marondera football stadium.[386] In December 2014, Mugabe fired his vice-president, Joice Mujuru, accusing her of plotting his overthrow.[387] In January 2015, Mugabe was elected as the Chairperson of the African Union (AU).[388] In November 2015, he announced his intention to run for re-election as Zimbabwe’s president in 2018, at the age of 94, and was accepted as the ZANU–PF candidate.[389] In February 2016, Mugabe said he had no plans for retirement and would remain in power “until God says ‘come'”.[390] In February 2017, right after his 93rd birthday, Mugabe stated he would not retire nor pick a successor, even though he said he would let his party choose a successor if it saw fit.[391][392] In May 2017, Mugabe took a weeklong trip to Cancún, Mexico, ostensibly to attend a three-day conference on disaster risk reduction, eliciting criticism of wasteful spending from opposition figures.[393][394] He made three medical trips to Singapore in 2017, and Grace Mugabe called on him to name a successor.[395]
In October 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) appointed Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador; this attracted criticism from both the Zimbabwean opposition and various foreign governments given the poor state of the Zimbabwean health system.[396] Responding to the outcry, WHO revoked Mugabe’s appointment a day later.[397] In response, foreign minister Walter Mzembi said the United Nations system should be reformed.[398]
On 6 November 2017, Mugabe sacked his first vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa. This fueled speculation that he intended to name Grace his successor. Grace was very unpopular with the ZANU–PF old guard. On 15 November 2017, the Zimbabwe National Army placed Mugabe under house arrest at his Blue Roof mansion as part of what it described as an action against “criminals” in Mugabe’s circle.[399][400][401]
On 19 November, he was sacked as leader of ZANU–PF, and Mnangagwa was appointed in his place.[402] The party also gave Mugabe an ultimatum: resign by noon the following day, or it would introduce an impeachment resolution against him. In a nationally televised speech that night, Mugabe refused to say that he would resign.[403] In response, ZANU–PF deputies introduced an impeachment resolution on 21 November 2017, which was seconded by the MDC–T.[404] The constitution stipulated that removing a president from office required a two-thirds majority of both the House of Assembly and Senate in a joint sitting. However, with both major parties supporting the motion and controlling all but six seats in both houses between them (all but four in the lower house and all but two in the upper house), Mugabe’s impeachment and removal appeared all but certain.
As per the constitution, both chambers met in joint session to debate the resolution. Hours after the debate began, the Speaker of the House of Assembly read a letter from Mugabe announcing that he had resigned, effective immediately.[405] Mugabe and his wife had negotiated a deal before his resignation, under which he and his kin were exempted from prosecution, his business interests would remain untouched, and he would receive a payment of at least $10 million.[406][407] In July 2018, the Zimbabwe Supreme Court ruled that Mugabe had resigned voluntarily, despite some of the ex-president’s subsequent comments.[408]
Post-presidency
Late in December 2017, according to a government gazette, Mugabe was given full diplomatic status and, out of public funds, a five-bedroom house, up to 23 staff members, and personal vehicles. He further was permitted to keep the business interests and other wealth which he had amassed while in power, and he received an additional payment of about ten million dollars.[409]
On 15 March 2018, in his first interview since removal from the presidency, Mugabe insisted that he had been ousted in a “coup d’état” which must be undone. He stated that he would not work with Mnangagwa and termed Mnangagwa’s presidency “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.[410] In a lawsuit brought by two political parties, the Liberal Democrats and the Revolutionary Freedom Fighters, and others, the court found that the resignation was legal, and that Mnangagwa, as vice-president, duly took over the presidency.[408]
The state media reported that Mugabe had backed the National Political Front, which was formed by Ambrose Mutinhiri, a former high-ranking ZANU-PF politician who resigned in protest against Mugabe’s removal from the presidency. The NPF posted a picture of Mutinhiri posing with Mugabe[411] and issued a press release in which it said that the former president had praised the decision.[412]
On the eve of the 29 July 2018 general election, the first in 38 years in which he would not be a candidate, Mugabe held a surprise press conference, in which he stated that he would not vote for President Mnangagwa and ZANU–PF, the party he founded. Instead, he intended to vote for Nelson Chamisa, the candidate for his long-time rivals, the MDC.[413][414][415][416]
Illness, death and funeral: 2019
Mugabe was unable to walk, according to Emmerson Mnangagwa in November 2018, and had been receiving treatment in Singapore for the previous two months.[417] He was hospitalised there in April 2019, making the last of several trips to the country for medical treatment, as he had done late in his presidency and following his resignation.[418][419][420] He died at Gleneagles Hospital on 6 September 2019 at about 10:40 am, aged 95 (Singapore Standard Time), according to a senior Zimbabwean diplomat.[421] Although the cause of death was not officially disclosed,[422] Mnangagwa, his successor, told ZANU–PF supporters in New York City that Mugabe had advanced cancer and his chemotherapy treatment had ceased to be effective.[423][424]
On 11 September 2019, his body was flown back to the Harare airport in Zimbabwe,[425][426] where 1,000 had gathered to wait for the body and listen to a speech from Mnangagwa.[427] Mugabe’s body was then driven to the family residence in Borrowdale for a private wake attended by his friends and family, but not Mnangagwa.[427] The Associated Press reported that no supporters had gathered along the procession route, but 500 mourners gathered in his birthplace of Zvimba.[427] On 13 September 2019, it was announced that the Mugabe family had accepted the Mnangagwa government’s request to have Mugabe buried at Heroes Acre Cemetery and to have his burial be delayed for 30 days.[428][429] The Mugabe family had initially rejected the government’s burial plan and intended for him to be buried in Zvimba on either 16 or 17 September, a day later than the government’s proposal.[427][430][431][432]
On 26 September 2019, Nick Mangwana stated that Mugabe would be buried in his home town of Kutama “to respect the wishes of families of deceased heroes”.[436] The burial took place on 28 September in a courtyard of his family home.[437]
Ideology
Mugabeism as a form of populist reason is a multifaceted phenomenon requiring a multi-pronged approach to decipher its various meanings. At one level it represents pan-African memory and patriotism and at another level it manifests itself as a form of radical left-nationalism dedicated to resolving intractable national and agrarian questions. Yet, to others, it is nothing but a symbol of crisis, chaos and tyranny emanating from the exhaustion of nationalism.
Mugabe embraced African nationalism and anti-colonialism during the 1960s.[439]Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni characterised “Mugabeism” as a populist movement that was “marked by ideological simplicity, emptiness, vagueness, imprecision, and multi-class character”,[440] further noting that it was “a broad church”.[441] He also characterised it as a form of “left-nationalism”,[442] which consistently railed against imperialism and colonialism.[443] He also argued that it was a form of nativism,[444] which was permeated by a strong “cult of victimisation” in which a binary view was propagated where Africa was a “victim” and the West was its “tormentor”.[445] He suggested that it had been influenced by a wide range of ideologies, among them forms of Marxism like Stalinism and Maoism, as well as African nationalist ideologies like Nkrumaism, Ujamaa, Garveyism, Négritude, Pan-Africanism, and African neo-traditionalism.[440] Mugabeism sought to deal with the problem of white settler racism by engaging in a project of anti-white racism that sought to deny white Zimbabweans citizenship by constantly referring to them as “amabhunu/Boers”, thus enabling their removal from their land.[446]
ZANU–PF claimed that it was influenced by Marxism–Leninism; Onslow and Redding stated that in contrast to the Marxist emphasis on the urban proletariat as the main force of socio-economic change, Mugabe’s party accorded that role to the rural peasantry.[342] As a result of this pro-rural view, they argued, Mugabe and the ZANU–PF demonstrated an anti-urban bias.[342] The English academic Claire Palley met Mugabe in 1962, later noting that “he struck me as not so much a doctrinaire Marxist but an old-fashioned African nationalist”,[447] while Tekere claimed that for Mugabe, Marxism-Leninism was “just rhetoric” with “no genuine vision or belief behind it”.[448] Carington noted that while Mugabe used Marxist rhetoric during the Lancaster House negotiations, “of course he didn’t actually practise what he preached, did he? Once in office he became a capitalist”.[449] Mugabe has stated that “socialism has to be much more Christian than capitalism“.[450] The Zimbabwean scholar George Shire described Mugabe’s policies as being “broadly-speaking” social-democratic.[451]
During the 1980s, Mugabe indicated his desire to transform Zimbabwe from a multi-party state into a one-party state.[452] In 1984 he stated that “the one-party state is more in keeping with African tradition. It makes for greater unity for the people. It puts all opinions under one umbrella, whether these opinions are radical or reactionary”.[452] The political scientist Sue Onslow and historian Sean Redding stated that Zimbabwe’s situation was “more complex than pure venial dictatorship”, but that it was an “ideo-dictatorship”.[287] Mugabe openly admired Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania, praising him just before he was overthrown in December 1989.[453]
Ndlovu-Gatsheni argued that since the mid-1990s, Mugabe’s rhetoric and speeches came to be dominated by three main themes: an obsession with a perceived British threat to re-colonise Zimbabwe, to transfer the land controlled by white farmers to the black population, and issues of belonging and patriotism.[454] References to the Rhodesian Bush War featured prominently in his speeches.[376] The scholar of African studies Abiodun Alao noted that Mugabe was determined to “take advantage of the past in order to secure a firm grip on national security”.[455]
David Blair stated that “Mugabe’s collected writings amount to nothing more than crude Marxism, couched in the ponderous English of the mission school”, remarking that they were heavily informed by Karl Marx, Mao Zedong, and Frantz Fanon, and displayed little originality.[115] Blair noted that Mugabe’s writings called for “command economics in a peasant society, mixed with anti-colonial nationalism”, and that in this he held “the same opinions as almost every other African guerrilla leader” of that period.[115] Mugabe argued that following the overthrow of European colonial regimes, Western countries continued to keep African countries in a state of subservience because they desired the continent’s natural resources while preventing it from industrialising.[456]
Mugabe measured a little over 1.70 metres (5 ft 7 in),[457] and exhibited what his biographer David Blair described as “curious, effeminate mannerisms”.[457] Mugabe took great care with his appearance, typically wearing a three-piece suit,[457] and insisted that members of his cabinet dressed in a similar Anglophile fashion.[458] On taking power in 1980, Mugabe’s hallmark was his wide-rimmed glasses,[173] and he was also known for his tiny moustache.[457] Unlike a number of other African leaders, Mugabe did not seek to mythologise his childhood.[459] He avoided smoking and drinking,[34] and—according to his first biographers, David Smith and Colin Simpson—had “enormous affection for children”.[460] During his early life he had an operation on his genitals which generated rumours that he had only one testicle or half a penis; such rumours were used by opponents to ridicule him and by supporters to bolster the claim that he was willing to make severe sacrifices for the revolutionary cause.[461]
Mugabe spoke English fluently with an adopted English accent when pronouncing certain words.[457] He was also a fan of the English game of cricket, stating that “cricket civilizes people and creates good gentlemen”.[457] David Blair noted that this cultivation of British traits suggested that Mugabe respected and perhaps admired Britain while at the same time resenting and loathing the country.[6]Heidi Holland suggested that these Anglophile traits arose in early life, as Mugabe—who had long experienced the anti-black racism of Rhodesian society—”grasped Englishness as an antidote” to the “self-loathing” induced by societal racism.[462]
The academic Blessing-Miles Tendi stated that Mugabe was “an extremely complex figure, not easily captured by conventional categories”.[463] Similarly, David Blair described him as an “exceptionally complex personality”.[6] Smith and Simpson noted that the Zimbabwean leader had been “a serious young man, something of a loner, diligent, hard-working, a voracious reader who used every minute of his time, not much given to laughter: but above all, single-minded”.[464] Blair commented that Mugabe’s “self-discipline, intelligence and appetite for hard work were remarkable”,[457] adding that his “prime characteristics” were “ruthlessness and resilience”.[115] Blair argued that Mugabe shared many character traits with Ian Smith, stating that they were both “proud, brave, stubborn, charismatic, deluded fantasists”.[465]
With his poor childhood development record, even minor criticism would be experienced as a wound by Mugabe. He is a person who cannot tolerate difference. Being profoundly doubtful about himself, he is oversensitive to the idea that he is not as good as everyone else. People are either with him or against him. Differences of opinion are provocative and hurtful to Mugabe, who may think that compromise reduces him.
Meredith described Mugabe as having a “soft-spoken demeanour, … broad intellect, and … articulate manner”, all of which disguised his “hardened and single-minded ambition”.[106] Ndlovu-Gatsheni characterised him as “one of the most charismatic African leaders”, highlighting that he was “very eloquent” and was able to make “fine speeches”.[442]Jonathan Moyo, who briefly served as Mugabe’s information minister before falling out with him, stated that the President could “express himself well, that is his great strength”.[467] Tendi stated that Mugabe had a natural wittiness, but often hid this behind “an outwardly pensive and austere manner and his penchant for ceremony and tradition”.[468] Heidi Holland suggested that due to his “dysfunctional” upbringing, Mugabe had a “fragile self-image”,[469] describing him as “a man cut off from his feelings, devoid of ordinary warmth and humanity”.[470] According to her, Mugabe had a “marked emotional immaturity”,[471] and was homophobic,[472] as well as racist and xenophobic.[473]
According to Meredith, Mugabe presented himself as “articulate, thoughtful, and conciliatory” after his 1980 election victory.[170] Blair noted that at this period of his career, Mugabe displayed “genuine magnanimity and moral courage” despite his “intense personal reasons for feeling bitterness and hatred” toward the members of the former regime.[459] Following his dealing with Mugabe during the 1979 negotiations, Michael Pallister, head of the British Foreign Office, described Mugabe as having “a very sharp, sometimes rather aggressive, and unpleasant manner”.[126] The British diplomat Peter Longworth stated that in private, Mugabe was “very charming and very articulate and he’s not devoid of humour. It’s very difficult to relate the man you meet with the man ranting on television”.[457] Norman stated that “I always found him personable and honourable in his dealings. He also had a warm side to him which I saw quite clearly sometimes”.[474]
Colin Legum, a journalist with The Observer, argued that Mugabe had a “paranoidal personality”, in that while he did not suffer from clinical paranoia, he did behave in a paranoid fashion when placed under severe and sustained pressure.[6] Mugabe biographer Andrew Norman suggested that the leader may have suffered from antisocial personality disorder.[475] Several Mugabe biographers have observed that he had an obsession with accruing power.[476] According to Meredith, “power for Mugabe was not a means to an end, but the end itself.”[477] Conversely, Onslow and Redding suggested that Mugabe’s craving for power stemmed from “ideological and personal reasons” and his belief in the illegitimacy of his political opposition.[342]Denis Norman, a white politician who served in Mugabe’s cabinet for many years, commented that “Mugabe isn’t a flashy man driven by wealth but he does enjoy power. That’s always been his motivation”.[478]
According to Holland, Mugabe’s first wife, Sally Hayfron, was Mugabe’s “confidante and only real friend”,[479] being “one of the few people who could challenge Mugabe’s ideas without offending him”.[480] Their only son, Michael Nhamodzenyika Mugabe, born 27 September 1963, died on 26 December 1966 from cerebral malaria in Ghana where Sally was working while Mugabe was in prison. Sally Mugabe was a trained teacher who asserted her position as an independent political activist and campaigner.[481]
Mugabe called on Zimbabwe’s media to refer to his wife as “Amai” (“Mother of the Nation”),[482] although many Zimbabweans resented the fact that she was a foreigner.[483] She was appointed as the head of ZANU–PF’s women’s league,[482] and was involved in a number of charitable operations, and was widely regarded as corrupt in these dealings.[484] During Mugabe’s premiership she suffered from renal failure, and initially had to travel to Britain for dialysis until Soames arranged for a dialysis machine to be sent to Zimbabwe.[485]
While married to Hayfron, in 1987 Mugabe began an extra-marital affair with his secretary, Grace Marufu; she was 41 years his junior and at the time was married to Stanley Goreraza. In 1988 she bore Mugabe a daughter, Bona, and in 1990 a son, Robert.[486] The relationship was kept secret from the Zimbabwean public; Hayfron was aware of it.[482] According to her niece Patricia Bekele, with whom she was particularly close, Hayfron was not happy that Mugabe had an affair with Marufu but “she did what she used to tell me to do: ‘Talk to your pillow if you have problems in your marriage. Never, ever, humiliate your husband.’ Her motto was to carry on in gracious style”.[487] Hayfron died in 1992 from a chronic kidney ailment.[488]
Following Hayfron’s death in 1992, Mugabe and Marufu were married in a large Catholic ceremony in August 1996.[489] As First Lady of Zimbabwe, Grace gained a reputation for indulging her love of luxury, with a particular interest in shopping, clothes, and jewellery.[490] These lavish shopping sprees led to her receiving the nickname “Gucci Grace”.[491] She too developed a reputation for corruption.[276] In 1997, Grace Mugabe gave birth to the couple’s third child, Chatunga Bellarmine.[492]Robert Mugabe Jr. and his younger brother, Chatunga, are known for posting their lavish lifestyle on social media, which has drawn accusations from opposition politician Tendai Biti that they are wasting Zimbabwean taxpayers’ money.[493]
Public image and legacy
The story of Robert Mugabe is a microcosm of what bedevils African democracy and economic recovery at the beginning of the 21st century. It is a classic case of a genuine hero—the guerrilla idol who conquered the country’s former leader and his white supremacist regime—turning into a peevish autocrat whose standard response to those suggesting he steps down is to tell them to get lost. It is also the story of activists who try to make a better society but bear the indelible scars of the old system. Mugabe’s political education came from the autocrat Ian Smith, who had learnt his formative lessons from imperious British colonisers.
By the twenty-first century, Mugabe was regarded as one of the world’s most controversial political leaders.[495] According to The Black Scholar journal, “depending on who you listen to…Mugabe is either one of the world’s great tyrants or a fearless nationalist who has incurred the wrath of the West.”[496] He has been widely described as a “dictator”, a “tyrant”, and a “threat”,[497] and has been referred to as one of Africa’s “most brutal” leaders.[498] At the same time he continued to be regarded as a hero in many Third World countries and received a warm reception when travelling throughout Africa.[499] For many in Southern Africa, he remained one of the “grand old men” of the African liberation movement.[352]
According to Ndlovu-Gatsheni, within ZANU–PF, Mugabe was regarded as a “demi-god” who was feared and rarely challenged.[500] Within the ZANU movement, a cult of personality began to be developed around Mugabe during the Bush War and was consolidated after 1980.[501] Mugabe had a considerable following within Zimbabwe,[380] with David Blair noting that “it would be wrong to imply that he lacked genuine popularity” in the country.[263] Holland believed that the “great majority” of Zimbabwe’s population supported him “enthusiastically” during the first twenty years of his regime.[502] His strongholds of support were Zimbabwe’s Shona-dominated regions of Mashonaland, Manicaland, and Masvingo, while he remained far less popular in the non-Shona areas of Matabeleland and Bulawayo,[263] and among the Zimbabwean diaspora living abroad.[281]
At the time of his 1980 election victory, Mugabe was internationally acclaimed as a revolutionary hero who was embracing racial reconciliation,[193] and for the first decade of his governance he was widely regarded as “one of post-colonial Africa’s most progressive leaders”.[503] David Blair argued that while Mugabe did exhibit a “conciliatory phase” between March 1980 and February 1982, his rule was otherwise “dominated by a ruthless quest to crush his opponents and remain in office at whatever cost”.[504] In 2011, the scholar Blessing-Miles Tendi stated that “Mugabe is often presented in the international media as the epitome of the popular leader gone awry: the independence struggle hero who seemed initially a progressive egalitarian, but has gradually been corrupted through his attachment to power during a long and increasingly repressive spell in office.”[505] Tendi argued that this was a misleading assessment, because Mugabe had displayed repressive tendencies from his early years in office, namely through the repression of ZAPU in Matabeleland.[239] Abiodun Alao concurred, suggesting that Mugabe’s approach had not changed over the course of his leadership, but merely that international attention had intensified in the twenty-first century.[498] For many Africans, Mugabe exposed the double standards of Western countries; the latter had turned a blind eye to the massacre of over 20,000 black Ndebele civilians in the Gukarakundi but strongly censured the Zimbabwean government when a small number of white farmers were killed during the land seizures.[499]
Example of foreign criticism: a demonstration against Mugabe’s regime next to the Zimbabwe embassy in London (mid-2006)
During the guerrilla war, Ian Smith referred to Mugabe as “the apostle of Satan”.[506] George Shire expressed the view that there was “a strong racist animus” against Mugabe within Zimbabwe, and that this had typically been overlooked by Western media representations of the country.[451] Mugabe himself was accused of racism; John Sentamu, the Uganda-born Archbishop of York in the United Kingdom, called Mugabe “the worst kind of racist dictator”, for having “targeted the whites for their apparent riches”.[507][508][509][510]Desmond Tutu stated that Mugabe became “increasingly insecure, he’s hitting out. One just wants to weep. It’s very sad.”[511] South African President Nelson Mandela was also critical of Mugabe, referring to him as a politician who “despise[s] the very people who put [him] in power and think[s] it’s a privilege to be there for eternity”.[511]
A 2005 article from the New American titled “Democide in Zimbabwe” says that Mugabe reduced the population of Zimbabwe by millions in just a few years.[514]
In 1994, Mugabe received an honorary knighthood from the British state; this was stripped from him at the advice of the UK government in 2008.[515] Mugabe held several honorary degrees and doctorates from international universities, awarded to him in the 1980s; at least three of these have since been revoked. In June 2007, he became the first international figure ever to be stripped of an honorary degree by a British university, when the University of Edinburgh withdrew the degree awarded to him in 1984.[516][517] On 12 June 2008, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Board of Trustees voted to revoke the law degree awarded to Mugabe in 1986, the first time one of its honorary degrees has been revoked.[518] In the month after being deposed, but before he died, many of the public references to Mugabe – street names, for example – had been removed from public places.[519]
ABOUT THE COMPANY Marriott International is an American multinational diversified hospitality company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities JOB SUMMARY Inspect grooming and attire of staff, and rectify any deficiencies. Communicate with guests, other employees, and/or departments to ensure guest needs are met. Ensure staff is working together as a team. Monitor dining rooms for seating availability, service, safety, and well being of guests. Complete work orders for maintenance repairs. Complete scheduled inventories of supplies, food, and liquor. Check stock and requisition necessary supplies. Obtain assigned bank and ensure accuracy of contracted monies, obtaining change required for expected business level, and keeping bank secure at all times. Communicate last call at designated closing time. Assist management in hiring, training, scheduling, evaluating, counseling, disciplining, and motivating and coaching employees. Develop and maintain positive working relationships with others, and support team to reach common goals. Follow all company and safety and security policies and procedures; report accidents, injuries, and unsafe work conditions to manager; and complete safety training and certifications. Ensure uniform and personal appearance are clean and professional, maintain confidentiality of proprietary information, and protect company assets. Welcome and acknowledge all guests according to company standards, anticipate and address guests’ service needs, and thank guests with genuine appreciation. Speak with others using clear and professional language, and answer telephones using appropriate etiquette. Ensure adherence to quality expectations and standards. Read and visually verify information in a variety of formats (e.g., small print). Visually inspect tools, equipment, or machines (e.g., to identify defects). Stand, sit, or walk for an extended period of time or for an entire work shift. Move, lift, carry, push, pull, and place objects weighing less than or equal to 50 pounds without assistance. Grasp, turn, and manipulate objects of varying size and weight, requiring fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Move through narrow, confined, or elevated spaces. Move up and down stairs and/or service ramps. Reach overhead and below the knees, including bending, twisting, pulling, and stooping. Perform other reasonable job duties as requested by Supervisors. RESPONSIBILITIES REQUIRED SKILLS Leadership skills, Food and beverage, Kitchen management, Quality control and supervision, Restaurant management
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ETA’s motto was Bietan jarrai (“Keep up on both”), referring to the two figures in its symbol, a snake (representing politics) wrapped around an axe (representing armed struggle).[13][14][15] Between 1968 and 2010, ETA killed 829 people (including 340 civilians) and injured more than 22,000.[16][17][18][19] ETA was classified as a terrorist group by Spain, France,[20] the United Kingdom,[21] the United States,[22] Canada,[23] and the European Union.[24] This convention was followed by a plurality of domestic and international media, which also referred to the group as terrorists.[25][26][27][28] As of 2019 there were more than 260 imprisoned former members of the group in Spain, France, and other countries.[29]
ETA declared ceasefires in 1989, 1996, 1998 and 2006. On 5 September 2010, ETA declared a new ceasefire[30] that remained in force, and on 20 October 2011, ETA announced a “definitive cessation of its armed activity”.[31] On 24 November 2012, it was reported that the group was ready to negotiate a “definitive end” to its operations and disband completely.[32] The group announced on 7 April 2017 that it had given up all its weapons and explosives.[33] On 2 May 2018, ETA made public a letter dated 16 April 2018 according to which it had “completely dissolved all its structures and ended its political initiative”.[34]
ETA changed its internal structure on several occasions, commonly for security reasons. The group used to have a very hierarchical organization with a leading figure at the top, delegating into three substructures: the logistical, military and political sections. Reports from Spanish and French police point towards significant changes in ETA’s structures in its later years. ETA divided the three substructures into a total of eleven. The change was a response to captures, and possible infiltration, by the different law enforcement agencies. ETA intended to disperse its members and reduce the effects of detentions.
The leading committee comprised 7 to 11 individuals, and ETA’s internal documentation referred to it as Zuba, an abbreviation of Zuzendaritza Batzordea (directorial committee). There was another committee named Zuba-hits that functioned as an advisory committee. The eleven different substructures were: logistics, politics, international relations with fraternal organisations, military operations, reserves, prisoner support, expropriation, information, recruitment, negotiation, and treasury.[35]
ETA’s armed operations were organized in different taldes (groups or commandos), generally composed of three to five members, whose objective was to conduct attacks in a specific geographic zone.[citation needed] The taldes were coordinated by the cúpula militar (“military cupola“). To supply the taldes, support groups maintained safe houses and zulos (small rooms concealed in forests, garrets or underground, used to store arms, explosives or, sometimes, kidnapped people; the Basque word zulo literally means “hole”). The small cellars used to hide the people kidnapped are named by ETA and ETA’s supporters “people’s jails”.[36] The most common commandos were itinerant, not linked to any specific area, and thus were more difficult to capture.[37]
Among its members, ETA distinguished between legales/legalak (“legal ones”), those members who did not have police records and lived apparently normal lives; liberados (“liberated”) members known to the police that were on ETA’s payroll and working full-time for ETA; and apoyos (“supports”) who just gave occasional help and logistics support to the group when required.[38]
There were also imprisoned members of the group, serving time scattered across Spain and France, that sometimes still had significant influence inside the organisation; and finally the quemados (“burnt out”), members freed after having been imprisoned or those that were suspected by the group of being under police vigilance. In the past, there was also the figure of the deportees, expelled by the French government to remote countries where they lived freely. ETA’s internal bulletin was named Zutabe (“Column”), replacing the earlier one (1962) Zutik (“Standing”).
ETA also promoted the kale borroka (“street fight”), that is, violent acts against public transportation, political parties’ offices or cultural buildings, destruction of private property of politicians, police, military, bank offices, journalists, council members, and anyone voicing criticism against ETA. Tactics included threats, graffiti of political mottoes, and rioting, usually using Molotov cocktails. These groups were mostly made up of young people, who were directed through youth organisations (such as Jarrai, Haika and Segi). Many members of ETA started their collaboration with the group as participants in the kale borroka.
The former political party Batasuna, disbanded in 2003, pursued the same political goals as ETA and did not condemn ETA’s use of violence. Formerly known as Euskal Herritarrok and “Herri Batasuna“, it was banned by the Spanish Supreme Court as an anti-democratic organisation following the Political Parties Law (Ley de Partidos Políticos[39]). It generally received 10% to 20% of the vote in the Basque Autonomous Community.[40][41]
Batasuna’s political status was controversial. It was considered to be the political wing of ETA.[42][43] Moreover, after the investigations on the nature of the relationship between Batasuna and ETA by Judge Baltasar Garzón, who suspended the activities of the political organisation and ordered police to shut down its headquarters, the Supreme Court of Spain finally declared Batasuna illegal on 18 March 2003. The court considered proven that Batasuna had links with ETA and that it constituted in fact part of ETA’s structure. In 2003, the Constitutional Tribunal upheld the legality of the law.[44]
However, the party itself denied being the political wing of ETA,[citation needed] although double membership – simultaneous or alternative – between Batasuna and ETA was often recorded, such as with the cases of prominent Batasuna leaders like Josu Ternera, Arnaldo Otegi, Jon Salaberria and others.[45][46]
The Spanish Cortes (the Spanish Parliament) began the process of declaring the party illegal in August 2002 by issuing a bill entitled the Ley de Partidos Políticos which bars political parties that use violence to achieve political goals, promote hatred against different groups or seek to destroy the democratic system. The bill passed the Cortes with a 304 to 16 vote.[47] Many within the Basque nationalistic movement strongly disputed the Law, which they considered too draconian or even unconstitutional; alleging that any party could be made illegal almost by choice, simply for not clearly stating their opposition to an attack.
Defenders of the law argued that the Ley de Partidos did not necessarily require responses to individual acts of violence, but rather a declaration of principles explicitly rejecting violence as a means of achieving political goals. Defenders also argued that the ban of a political party is subject to judicial process, with all the guarantees of the State of Law. Batasuna had failed to produce such a statement. As of February 2008 other political parties linked to organizations such as Partido Comunista de España (reconstituted) have also been declared illegal, and Acción Nacionalista Vasca and Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK/PCTV, Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista/Partido Comunista de las Tierras Vascas) was declared illegal in September 2008.
A new party called Aukera Guztiak(All the Options) was formed expressly for the elections to the Basque Parliament of April 2005. Its supporters claimed no heritage from Batasuna, asserting that they aimed to allow Basque citizens to freely express their political ideas, even those of independence. On the matter of political violence, Aukera Guztiak stated their right not to condemn some kinds of violence more than others if they did not see fit (in this regard, the Basque National Liberation Movement (MLNV) regards present police actions as violence, torture and state terrorism). Nevertheless, most of their members and certainly most of their leadership were former Batasuna supporters or affiliates. The Spanish Supreme Court unanimously considered the party to be a successor to Batasuna and declared a ban on it.
After Aukera Guztiak had been banned, and less than two weeks before the election, another political group appeared born from an earlier schism from Herri Batasuna, the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK/PCTV, Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista/Partido Comunista de las Tierras Vascas), a formerly unknown political party which had no representation in the Autonomous Basque Parliament. EHAK announced that they would apply the votes they obtained to sustain the political programme of the now-banned Aukera Guztiak platform.
This move left no time for the Spanish courts to investigate EHAK in compliance with the Ley de Partidos before the elections were held. The bulk of Batasuna supporters voted in this election for PCTV. It obtained 9 seats of 75 (12.44% of votes) in the Basque Parliament.[48] The election of EHAK representatives eventually allowed the programme of the now-illegal Batasuna to continue being represented without having condemned violence as required by the Ley de Partidos.
In February 2011, Sortu, a party described as “the new Batasuna”,[49] was launched. Unlike predecessor parties, Sortu explicitly rejects politically motivated violence, including that of ETA.[49] However, on 23 March 2011, the Spanish Supreme Court banned Sortu from registering as a political party on the grounds that it was linked to ETA.[50]
Graffiti in Pasaia (2003). “ETA, the people with you” on the left, and Batasuna using several nationalist symbols asking for “Independence!”
The Spanish transition to democracy from 1975 on and ETA’s progressive radicalisation had resulted in a steady loss of support, which became especially apparent at the time of their 1997 kidnapping and countdown assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco. Their loss of sympathisers had been reflected in an erosion of support for the political parties identified with them. In the 1998 Basque parliament elections Euskal Herritarrok, formerly Batasuna, polled 17.7% of the votes.[51] However, by 2001 the party’s support had fallen to 10.0%.[52] There were also concerns that Spain’s “judicial offensive” against alleged ETA supporters (two Basque political parties and one NGO were banned in September 2008) constituted a threat to human rights. Strong evidence was seen that a legal network had grown so wide as to lead to the arrest of numerous innocent people. According to Amnesty International, torture was still “persistent”, though not “systematic”. Inroads could be undermined by judicial short-cuts and abuses of human rights.[53]
The Euskobarometro, the survey carried out by the Universidad del País Vasco (University of the Basque Country), asking about the views of ETA within the Basque population, obtained these results in May 2009:[54] 64% rejected ETA totally, 13% identified themselves as former ETA sympathisers who no longer support the group. Another 10% agreed with ETA’s ends, but not their means. 3% said that their attitude towards ETA was mainly one of fear, 3% expressed indifference and 3% were undecided or did not answer. About 3% gave ETA “justified, with criticism” support (supporting the group but criticising some of their actions) and only 1% gave ETA total support. Even within Batasuna voters, at least 48% rejected ETA’s violence.
A poll taken by the Basque Autonomous Government in December 2006 during ETA’s “permanent” ceasefire[55][56] showed that 88% of the Basques thought that all political parties needed to launch a dialogue, including a debate on the political framework for the Basque Country (86%). 69% support the idea of ratifying the results of this hypothetical multiparty dialogue through a referendum. This poll also reveals that the hope of a peaceful resolution to the issue of the constitutional status of the Basque region has fallen to 78% (from 90% in April).
These polls did not cover Navarre, where support for Basque nationalist electoral options is weaker (around 25% of the population); or the Northern Basque Country, where support is even weaker (around 15% of the population).
ETA grew out of a student group called Ekin, founded in the early 1950s, which published a magazine and undertook direct action.[57] ETA was founded on 31 July 1959 as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (“Basque Homeland and Liberty”[8] or “Basque Country and Freedom”[9]) by students frustrated by the moderate stance of the Basque Nationalist Party.[58] (Originally, the name for the organisation used the word Aberri instead of Euskadi, creating the acronym ATA. However, in some Basque dialects, ata means duck, so the name was changed.)[59]
ETA held their first assembly in Bayonne, France, in 1962, during which a “declaration of principles” was formulated and following which a structure of activist cells was developed.[60] Subsequently, Marxist and third-worldist perspectives developed within ETA, becoming the basis for a political programme set out in Federico Krutwig’s 1963 book Vasconia, which is considered to be the defining text of the movement. In contrast to previous Basque nationalist platforms, Krutwig’s vision was anti-religious and based upon language and culture rather than race.[60] ETA’s third and fourth assemblies, held in 1964 and 1965, adopted an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist position, seeing nationalism and the class struggle as intrinsically connected.[60]
Memorial plate at the place of the assassination of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco
Some sources attributed the 1960 bombing of the Amara station in Donostia-San Sebastian (which killed a 22-month-old child) to ETA,[61][62] but statistics published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior have always showed that ETA’s first victim was killed in 1968.[63] The 1960 attack was claimed by the Portuguese and Galician left-wing group Directorio Revolucionario Ibérico de Liberación (DRIL) (together with four other very similar bombings committed that same day across Spain, all of them attributed to DRIL[64]), and the attribution to ETA has been considered to be unfounded by researchers.[62][64][65][66] Police documents dating from 1961, released in 2013, show that the DRIL was indeed the author of the bombing.[67] A more recent study by the Memorial de Víctimas del Terrorismo based on the analysis of police diligences at the time reached the same conclusion, naming Guillermo Santoro, member of DRIL, as the author of the attack.[68]
ETA’s first killing occurred on 7 June 1968, when Guardia Civil member José Pardines Arcay was shot dead after he tried to halt ETA member Txabi Etxebarrieta during a routine road check. Etxebarrieta was chased down and killed as he tried to flee.[69] This led to retaliation in the form of the first planned ETA assassination: that of Melitón Manzanas, chief of the secret police in San Sebastián and associated with a long record of tortures inflicted on detainees in his custody.[70] In December 1970, several members of ETA were condemned to death in the Burgos trials (Proceso de Burgos), but international pressure resulted in their sentences being commuted (a process which, however, had by that time already been applied to some other members of ETA).
In early December 1970, ETA kidnapped the German consul in San Sebastian, Eugen Beilh, to exchange him for the Burgos defendants. He was released unharmed on 24 December.[71]
Nationalists who refused to follow the tenets of Marxism–Leninism and who sought to create a united front appeared as ETA-V, but lacked the support to challenge ETA.[72]
The most significant assassination performed by ETA during Franco’s dictatorship was Operación Ogro, the December 1973 bomb assassination in Madrid of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco’s chosen successor and president of the government (a position roughly equivalent to being a prime minister). The assassination had been planned for months and was executed by placing a bomb in a tunnel dug below the street where Carrero Blanco’s car passed every day. The bomb blew up beneath the politician’s car and left a massive crater in the road.[58]
For some in the Spanish opposition, Carrero Blanco’s assassination, i.e., the elimination of Franco’s chosen successor was an instrumental step for the subsequent re-establishment of democracy.[73] The government responded with new anti-terrorism laws which gave police greater powers and empowered military tribunals to pass death sentences against those found guilty. However, the last use of capital punishment in Spain when two ETA members were executed in September 1975, eight weeks before Franco’s death, sparked massive domestic and international protests against the Spanish government.
Both ETA(m) and ETA(pm) refused offers of amnesty, and instead pursued and intensified their violent struggle. The years 1978–1980 were to prove ETA’s most deadly, with 68, 76, and 98 fatalities, respectively.
During the Franco dictatorship, ETA was able to take advantage of tolerance by the French government, which allowed its members to move freely through French territory, believing that in this manner they were contributing to the end of Franco’s regime. There is much controversy over the degree to which this policy of “sanctuary” continued even after the transition to democracy, but it is generally agreed that after 1983 the French authorities started to collaborate with the Spanish government against ETA.[74]
In the 1980s, ETA(pm) accepted the Spanish government’s offer of individual pardons to all ETA prisoners, even those who had committed violent crimes, who publicly abandoned the policy of violence. This caused a new division in ETA(pm) between the seventh and eighth assemblies. ETA VII accepted this partial amnesty granted by the now democratic Spanish government and integrated into the political party Euskadiko Ezkerra (“Left of the Basque Country”).[75]
ETA VIII, after a brief period of independent activity, eventually integrated into ETA(m). With no factions existing anymore, ETA(m) reclaimed the original name of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna.
During the 1980s a “dirty war” ensued using the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL, “Antiterrorist Liberation Groups”), a paramilitary group which billed themselves as counter-terrorist, active between 1983 and 1987. The GAL’s stated mission was to avenge every ETA killing with another killing of ETA exiles in the French department of Pyrénées Atlantiques.[74] GAL committed 27 assassinations (all but one in France), plus several kidnappings and torture, not only of ETA members but of civilians supposedly related to those, some of whom turned out to have nothing to do with ETA.[76] GAL activities were a follow-up of similar dirty war actions by death squads, actively supported by members of Spanish security forces and secret services, using names such as Batallón Vasco Español active from 1975 to 1981. They were responsible for the killing of about 48 people.[76]
One consequence of GAL’s activities in France was the decision in 1984 by interior minister Pierre Joxe to permit the extradition of ETA suspects to Spain. Reaching this decision had taken 25 years and was critical in curbing ETA’s capabilities by denial of previously safe territory in France.[77][74]
The airing of the state-sponsored “dirty war” scheme and the imprisonment of officials responsible for GAL in the early 1990s led to a political scandal in Spain. The group’s connections with the state were unveiled by the Spanish journal El Mundo, with an investigative series leading to the GAL plot being discovered and a national trial initiated. As a consequence, the group’s attacks since the revelation have generally been dubbed state terrorism.[78]
In 1997 the Spanish Audiencia Nacional court finished its trial, which resulted in convictions and imprisonment of several individuals related to the GAL, including civil servants and politicians up to the highest levels of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) government, such as former Homeland Minister José Barrionuevo. Premier Felipe González was quoted as saying that the constitutional state has to defend itself “even in the sewers” (El Estado de derecho también se defiende en las cloacas), something which, for some, indicated at least his knowledge of the scheme. However, his involvement with the GAL could never be proven.
These events marked the end of the armed “counter-terrorist” period in Spain and no major cases of foul play on the part of the Spanish government after 1987 (when GAL ceased to operate) have been proven in courts.
According to the radical nationalist group, Euskal Memoria, between 1960 and 2010 there were 465 deaths in the Basque Country due to (primarily Spanish) state violence.[79] This figure is considerably higher than those given elsewhere, which are usually between 250 and 300.[80] Critics of ETA cite only 56 members of that organisation killed by state forces since 1975.[81]
ETA members and supporters routinely claim torture at the hands of Spanish police forces.[82] While these claims are hard to verify, some convictions were based on confessions while prisoners were held incommunicado and without access to a lawyer of their choice, for a maximum of five days. These confessions were routinely repudiated by the defendants during trials as having been extracted under torture. There were some successful prosecutions of proven tortures during the “dirty war” period of the mid-1980s, although the penalties have been considered by Amnesty International as unjustifiably light and lenient with co-conspirators and enablers.[83][84]
In this regard, Amnesty International showed concern for the continuous disregard of the recommendations issued by the agency to prevent the alleged abuses from possibly taking place.[85] Also in this regard, ETA’s manuals were found instructing its members and supporters to claim routinely that they had been tortured while detained.[82] Unai Romano’s case was very controversial: pictures of him with a symmetrically swollen face of uncertain aetiology were published after his incommunicado period leading to claims of police abuse and torture. Martxelo Otamendi, the ex-director of the Basque newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria, decided to bring charges in September 2008 against the Spanish Government in the European Court of Human Rights for “not inspecting properly” cases tainted by torture.[needs update]
As a result of ETA’s violence, threats and killings of journalists, Reporters Without Borders included Spain in all six editions of its annual watchlist on press freedom up to 2006.[86] Thus, the NGO included ETA in its watchlist “Predators of Press Freedom”.[87]
ETA performed their first car bomb assassination in Madrid in September 1985, resulting in one death (American citizen Eugene Kent Brown, employee of Johnson & Johnson) and sixteen injuries; the Plaza República Dominicana bombing in July 1986 killed 12 members of the Guardia Civil and injured 50; on 19 June 1987, the Hipercor bombing was an attack in a shopping centre in Barcelona, killing 21 and injuring 45; in the last case, entire families were killed. The horror caused then was so striking that ETA felt compelled to issue a communiqué stating that they had given warning of the Hipercor bomb, but that the police had declined to evacuate the area. The police said that the warning came only a few minutes before the bomb exploded.[88]
In 1986 Gesto por la Paz (known in English as Association for Peace in the Basque Country) was founded; they began to convene silent demonstrations in communities throughout the Basque Country the day after any violent killing, whether by ETA or by GAL. These were the first systematic demonstrations in the Basque Country against political violence. Also in 1986, in Ordizia, ETA gunned down María Dolores Katarain, known as “Yoyes”, while she was walking with her infant son. Yoyes was a former member of ETA who had abandoned the armed struggle and rejoined civil society: they accused her of “desertion” because of her taking advantage of the Spanish reinsertion policy which granted amnesty to those prisoners who publicly renounced political violence (see below).
On 12 January 1988, all Basque political parties except ETA-affiliated Herri Batasuna signed the Ajuria-Enea pact with the intent of ending ETA’s violence. Weeks later on 28 January, ETA announced a 60-day “ceasefire”, later prolonged several times. Negotiations known as the Mesa de Argel (“Algiers Table”) took place between the ETA representative Eugenio Etxebeste (“Antxon”) and the then PSOE government of Spain, but no successful conclusion was reached, and ETA eventually resumed the use of violence.
During this period, the Spanish government had a policy referred to as “reinsertion“, under which imprisoned ETA members whom the government believed had genuinely abandoned violence could be freed and allowed to rejoin society. Claiming a need to prevent ETA from coercively impeding this reinsertion, the PSOE government decided that imprisoned ETA members, who previously had all been imprisoned within the Basque Country, would instead be dispersed to prisons throughout Spain, some as far from their families as in the Salto del Negro prison in the Canary Islands. France has taken a similar approach.
In the event, the only clear effect of this policy was to incite social protest, especially from nationalists and families of the prisoners, claiming cruelty of separating family members from the insurgents. Much of the protest against this policy runs under the slogan “Euskal Presoak – Euskal Herrira” (“Basque prisoners to the Basque Country”; by “Basque prisoners” only ETA members are meant). It has to be noted that almost in any Spanish jail there is a group of ETA prisoners, as the number of ETA prisoners makes it difficult to disperse them.
Gestoras pro Amnistía/Amnistiaren Aldeko Batzordeak (“Pro-Amnesty Managing Assemblies”, currently illegal), later Askatasuna (“Freedom”) and Senideak (“The Family Members”), provided support for prisoners and families. The Basque Government and several Nationalist town halls granted money on humanitarian reasons for relatives to visit prisoners. The long road trips have caused accidental deaths that are protested against by Nationalist Prisoner’s Family supporters.
During the ETA ceasefire of the late 1990s, the PSOE government brought the prisoners on the islands and in Africa back to the mainland.[89] Since the end of the ceasefire, ETA prisoners have not been sent back to overseas prisons. Some Basque authorities have established grants for the expenses of visiting families.
Another Spanish “counter-terrorist” law puts suspected terrorist cases under the central tribunal Audiencia Nacional in Madrid, due to the threats by the group over the Basque courts. Under Article 509 suspected terrorists are subject to being held incommunicado for up to thirteen days, during which they have no contact with the outside world other than through the court-appointed lawyer, including informing their family of their arrest, consultation with private lawyers or examination by a physician other than the coroners. In comparison, the habeas corpus term for other suspects is three days.
In 1992, ETA’s three top leaders—”military” leader Francisco Mujika Garmendia (“Pakito”), political leader José Luis Alvarez Santacristina (“Txelis”) and logistical leader José María Arregi Erostarbe (“Fiti”), often referred to collectively as the “cúpula” of ETA or as the Artapalo collective[90]—were arrested in the northern Basque town of Bidart, which led to changes in ETA’s leadership and direction.
After a two-month truce, ETA adopted even more radical positions. The principal consequence of the change appears to have been the creation of the “Y Groups“, formed by young militants of ETA parallel groups (generally minors), dedicated to so-called “kale borroka”—street struggle—and whose activities included burning buses, street lamps, benches, ATMs, and garbage containers, and throwing Molotov cocktails. The appearance of these groups was attributed by many to the supposed weakness of ETA, which obliged them to resort to minors to maintain or augment their impact on society after arrests of leading militants, including the “cupola”. ETA also began to menace leaders of other parties besides rival Basque nationalist parties.
In 1995, the armed group again launched a peace proposal. The so-called “Democratic Alternative” replaced the earlier KAS Alternative as a minimum proposal for the establishment of Euskal Herria. The Democratic Alternative offered the cessation of all armed ETA activity if the Spanish government would recognize the Basque people as having sovereignty over Basque territory, the right to self-determination, and that it freed all ETA members in prison. The Spanish government ultimately rejected this peace offer as it would go against the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Changing the constitution was not considered.
Also in 1995 was a failed ETA car bombing attempt directed against José María Aznar, a conservative politician who was the leader of the then-opposition Partido Popular (PP) and was shortly after elected to the presidency of the government; there was also an abortive attempt in Majorca on the life of King Juan Carlos I. Still, the act with the largest social impact came the following year. On 10 July 1997, PP council member Miguel Ángel Blanco was kidnapped in the Basque town of Ermua, with the separatist group threatening to assassinate him unless the Spanish government met ETA’s demand of starting to bring all ETA’s inmates to prisons of the Basque Country within two days after the kidnapping.
This demand was not met by the Spanish government and after three days Miguel Ángel Blanco was found shot dead when the deadline expired. More than six million people took out to the streets to demand his liberation, with massive demonstrations occurring as much in the Basque regions as elsewhere in Spain, chanting cries of “Assassins” and “Basques yes, ETA no”. This response came to be known as the “Spirit of Ermua”.
Later acts of violence included the 6 November 2001 car bomb in Madrid which injured 65 people, and attacks on football stadiums and tourist destinations throughout Spain.
The 11 September 2001 attacks in the US appeared to have dealt a hard blow to ETA, owing to the worldwide toughening of “anti-terrorist” measures (such as the freezing of bank accounts), the increase in international policy coordination, and the end of the toleration some countries had, up until then, extended to ETA. Additionally, in 2002 the Basque nationalist youth movement, Jarrai, was outlawed and the law of parties was changed outlawing Herri Batasuna, the “political arm” of ETA (although even before the change in law, Batasuna had been largely paralysed and under judicial investigation by judge Baltasar Garzón).
With ever-increasing frequency, attempted ETA actions were frustrated by Spanish security forces.
On 24 December 2003, in San Sebastián and in Hernani, National Police arrested two ETA members who had left dynamite in a railroad car prepared to explode in Chamartín Station in Madrid. On 1 March 2004, in a place between Alcalá de Henares and Madrid, a light truck with 536 kg of explosives was discovered by the Guardia Civil.
ETA was initially blamed for the 2004 Madrid bombings by the outgoing government[91] and large sections of the press.[92] However, the group denied responsibility and Islamic fundamentalists from Morocco were eventually convicted. The judicial investigation currently states that there is no relationship between ETA and the Madrid bombings.[93]
2006 ceasefire declaration and subsequent discontinuation[edit]
In the context of negotiation with the Spanish government, ETA declared what it described as a “truce” several times since its creation.
On 22 March 2006, ETA sent a DVD message to the Basque Network Euskal Irrati-Telebista[94] and the journals Gara[95] and Berria with a communiqué from the group announcing what it called a “permanent ceasefire” that was broadcast over Spanish TV.
Talks with the group were then officially opened by Spanish Presidente del GobiernoJosé Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
These took place all over 2006, not free from incidents such as an ETA cell stealing some 300 handguns, ammunition and spare parts in France in October 2006.[96] or a series of warnings made by ETA such as the one of 23 September, when masked ETA militants declared that the group would “keep taking up arms” until achieving “independence and socialism in the Basque country”,[97] which were regarded by some as a way to increase pressure on the talks, by others as a tactic to reinforce ETA’s position in the negotiations.
Finally, on 30 December 2006 ETA detonated a van bomb after three confusing warning calls, in a parking building at the Madrid Barajas international airport. The explosion caused the collapse of the building and killed two Ecuadorian immigrants who were napping inside their cars in the parking building.[98] At 6:00 pm, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero released a statement stating that the “peace process” had been discontinued.[99]
In January 2008, ETA stated that its call for independence is similar to that of the Kosovo status and Scotland.[100] In the week of 8 September 2008, two Basque political parties were banned by a Spanish court for their secretive links to ETA. In another case in the same week, 21 people were convicted whose work on behalf of ETA prisoners actually belied secretive links to the armed separatists themselves.[citation needed] ETA reacted to these actions by placing three major car bombs in less than 24 hours in northern Spain.
In April 2009 Jurdan Martitegi was arrested, making him the fourth consecutive ETA military chief to be captured within a single year, an unprecedented police record, further weakening the group.[101] Violence surged in the middle of 2009, with several ETA attacks leaving three people dead and dozens injured around Spain. Amnesty International condemned these attacks as well as ETA’s “grave human rights abuses”.[102]
The Basque newspaper Gara published an article that suggested that ETA member Jon Anza could have been killed and buried by Spanish police in April 2009.[103] The central prosecutor in the French town of Bayonne, Anne Kayanakis, announced, as the official version, that the autopsy carried out on the body of Jon Anza – a suspected member of the armed Basque group ETA, missing since April 2009 – revealed no signs of having been beaten, wounded or shot, which should rule out any suspicions that he died from unnatural causes.[104] Nevertheless, that very magistrate denied the demand of the family asking for the presence of a family doctor during the autopsy. After this, Jon Anza’s family members asked for a second autopsy to be carried out.[105]
In December 2009, Spain raised its terror alert after warning that ETA could be planning major attacks or high-profile kidnappings during Spain’s European Union presidency. The next day, after being asked by the opposition, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said that warning was part of a strategy.
On 5 September 2010, ETA declared a new ceasefire, its third after two previous ceasefires were ended by the group. A spokesperson speaking on a video announcing the ceasefire said the group wished to use “peaceful, democratic means” to achieve its aims, though it was not specified whether the ceasefire was considered permanent by the group. ETA claimed that it had decided to initiate a ceasefire several months before the announcement. In the part of the video, the spokesperson said that the group was “prepared today as yesterday to agree to the minimum democratic conditions necessary to put in motion a democratic process if the Spanish government is willing”.[30]
The announcement was met with a mixed reaction; Basque nationalist politicians responded positively and said that the Spanish and international governments should do the same, while the Spanish interior counsellor of Basque, Rodolfo Ares, said that the committee did not go far enough. He said that he considered ETA’s statement “absolutely insufficient” because it did not commit to a complete termination of what Ares considered “terrorist activity” by the group.[30]
2011 permanent ceasefire and cessation of armed activity[edit]
On 10 January 2011, ETA declared that their September 2010 ceasefire would be permanent and verifiable by international observers.[106] Observers urged caution, pointing out that ETA had broken permanent ceasefires in the past,[106] whereas Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (who left office in December 2011) demanded that ETA declare that it had given up violence once and for all.[106] After the declaration, Spanish press started speculating of a possible Real IRA-type split within ETA, with hardliners forming a new more violent offshoot led by “Dienteputo”.[107][108][109]
They all signed a final declaration that was supported also by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair,[110] the former US president and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter, and the former US senator and former US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George J. Mitchell.[111] The meeting did not include Spanish or French government representatives.[112] The day after the ceasefire, in a contribution piece to The New York Times, Tony Blair indicated that lessons in dealing with paramilitary separatist groups can be learned from how the Spanish administration handled ETA. Blair wrote, “governments must firmly defend themselves, their principles and their people against terrorists. This requires good police and intelligence work as well as political determination. [However], firm security pressure on terrorists must be coupled with offering them a way out when they realize that they cannot win by violence. Terrorist groups are rarely defeated by military means alone”.[113] Blair also suggested that Spain would need to discuss weapon decommissioning, peace strategies, reparations for victims, and security with ETA, as Britain discussed with the Provisional IRA.[113]
ETA had declared ceasefires many times before, most significantly in 1999 and 2006, but the Spanish government and media outlets expressed particularly hopeful opinions regarding the permanence of this proclamation. Spanish premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero described the move as “a victory for democracy, law and reason”.[31] Additionally, the effort of security and intelligence forces in Spain and France are cited by politicians as the primary instruments responsible for the weakening of ETA.[114] The optimism may come as a surprise considering ETA’s failure to renounce the independence movement, which has been one of the Spanish government’s requirements.[115]
Less optimistically, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the centre-right People’s Party expressed the need to push for the full dissolution of ETA.[115] The People’s Party has emphasized the obligation of the state to refuse negotiations with separatist movements since former Prime Minister José María Aznar was in office. Aznar was responsible for banning media outlets seen as subversive to the state and Batasuna, the political party of ETA.[116] Additionally, in preparation for his party’s manifesto, on 30 October 2011, Rajoy declared that the People’s Party would not negotiate with ETA under threats of violence nor announcements of the group’s termination, but would instead focus party efforts on remembering and honouring victims of separatist violence.[117]
This event may not alter the goals of the Basque separatist movement but will change the method of the fight for a more autonomous state.[according to whom?] Negotiations with the newly elected administration may prove difficult with the return to the centre-right People’s Party, which is replacing Socialist control, due to pressure from within the party to refuse all ETA negotiations.[118]
In September 2016, French police stated that they did not believe ETA had made progress in giving up arms.[119] In March 2017, well-known French-Basque activist Jean-Noël Etxeverry [fr] was quoted as having told Le Monde, “ETA has made us responsible for the disarmament of its arsenal, and by the afternoon of 8 April, ETA will be completely unarmed.”[120] On 7 April, the BBC reported that ETA would disarm “tomorrow”, including a photo of a stamped ETA letter attesting to this.[121] The French police found 3.5 tonnes of weapons on 8 April, the following day, at the caches handed over by ETA.[122]
In a letter to online newspaper El Diario, published on 2 May 2018, ETA formally announced that it had “completely dissolved all its structures and ended its political initiative” on 16 April 2018.[124][125]
A leading leftwing Basque nationalist politician and former ETA member, Arnaldo Otegi, the general coordinator of the Basque coalition party EH Bildu, has said the violence ETA used in its quest for independence “should never have happened” and it ought to have laid down its arms far earlier than it did. A full quote: ‘Today we want to make specific mention of the victims of ETA’s violence,” said Otegi. “We want to express to them our sorrow and pain for the suffering they endured. We feel their pain, and that sincere feeling leads us to affirm that it should never have happened, that no one could be satisfied with what happened, and that it should not have lasted as long as it did. We should have managed to reach [the abandonment of the armed campaign] sooner.’[126]
Flowers and a plate remember Ertzaina officer José “Txema” Agirre, shot dead by ETA gunmen in 1997 while protecting the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum (visible in the background)Repairs to the Balmaseda law courts after a bombing in 2006
ETA’s targets expanded from military or police-related personnel and their families to a wider array, which included the following:[clarification needed]
Fascist leaders, such as Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco’s successor was killed in a bombing on December 20, 1973.
Spanish military and police personnel, active duty or retired.[127] The barracks of the Guardia Civil also provide housing for their families, thus, attacks on the barracks have also resulted in deaths of relatives, including children. As the regional police (Ertzaintza in the Basque Country and Mossos d’Esquadra in Catalonia) took a greater role in combating ETA, they were added to their list of targets.
Businessmen (such as Javier Ybarra and Ignacio Uria Mendizabal):[128] these are mainly targeted in order to extort them for the so-called “revolutionary tax“. Refusal to pay has been punished with assassinations, kidnappings for ransom or bombings of their business.
Elected parliamentarians, city councillors and ex-councillors, politicians in general: most prominently Luis Carrero Blanco (killed in 1973). Dozens of politicians belonging to the People’s Party (PP) and Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) were assassinated or maimed. Some Basque nationalist politicians from the PNV party, such as Juan Mari Atutxa, also received threats. Hundreds of politicians in Spain required a constant bodyguard service. Bodyguards are contingent victims as well. In 2005 ETA announced that it would no longer “target” elected politicians.[129] Nonetheless, ETA killed ex-council member Isaías Carrasco in Mondragon/Arrasate on 7 March 2008.[130]
Judges and prosecutors.[131] Particularly threatened were the members of the Spanish anti-terrorist court: the Audiencia Nacional.
University professors who publicly expressed ideas that countered armed Basque separatism: such as Manuel Broseta or Francisco Tomás y Valiente. In the latter case, the shooting resulted in more than half a million people protesting against ETA.[132]
Journalists: some of these professionals began to be labelled by ETA as targets starting with the killing of journalist José Luis López de la Calle, assassinated in May 2000.
Economic targets: a wide array of private or public property considered valuable assets of Spain, especially railroads, tourist sites, industries, or malls.
Exceptionally, ETA also assassinated former ETA members such as María Dolores Katarain as a reprisal for having left the group.[133]
A number of ETA attacks by car bomb caused random civilian casualties, like ETA’s bloodiest attack, the bombing in 1987 of the subterranean parking lot of the Hipercor supermarket in Barcelona[134][135] which killed 21 civilians and left 45 seriously wounded, of whom 20 were left disabled; also the attack of Plaza de Callao in Madrid.[136]
Bombings (often with car bombs). When the bombs targeted individuals for assassination they were often surreptitiously rigged in the victim’s car. The detonating systems varied. They were rarely manually ignited but instead, for example, wired so the bomb would explode on the ignition or when the car went over a set speed limit. Sometimes the bomb was placed inside a stolen car with false plates, parked along the route of the objective, and the explosive remotely activated when the target passed by (e.g. V.I.P. cars, police patrols or military vehicles).
These bombs sometimes killed family members of ETA’s target victim and bystanders. When the bombs were large car-bombs seeking to produce large damage and terror, they were generally announced by one or more telephone calls made to newspapers speaking in the name of ETA. Charities (usually Detente Y Ayuda—DYA) were also used to announce the threat if the bomb was in a populated area. The type of explosives used in these attacks was initially Goma-2 or self-produced ammonal. After several successful robberies in France, ETA began using Titadyne.
Shells: hand-made mortars (the Jo ta ke model)[140] were occasionally used to attack military or police bases. Their lack of precision was probably the reason their use was discontinued.
Anonymous threats: often delivered in the Basque Country by placards or graffiti. Such threats forced many people into hiding or exile from the Basque Country and were used to prevent people from freely expressing political ideas other than Basque nationalist ones.
Extortion or blackmail: called by ETA a “revolutionary tax”, demanding money from a business owner in the Basque Country or elsewhere in Spain, under threats to him and his family, up to and including death threats. Occasionally, some French Basques were threatened in this manner, such as footballer Bixente Lizarazu.[141] ETA moves the extorted funds to accounts in Liechtenstein and other fiscal havens.[142] According to French judiciary sources, as of 2008 ETA exacted an estimated €900,000 a year in this manner.[143]
Kidnapping: often as a punishment for failing to pay the blackmail known as “revolutionary tax”, but was also used to try to force the government to free ETA prisoners under the threat of killing the kidnapped, as in the kidnapping and subsequent execution of Miguel Angel Blanco. ETA often hid the kidnapped in underground chambers without windows, called zulos, of very reduced dimensions for extended periods.[144][145] Also, people robbed of their vehicles would usually be tied up and abandoned in an isolated place to allow those who carjacked them to escape.
Robbery: ETA members also stole weapons, explosives, machines for license plates and vehicles.
With its attacks against what they considered “enemies of the Basque people”, ETA killed over 820 people since 1968, including more than 340 civilians.[146] It maimed hundreds more[19] and kidnapped dozens. ETA was opposed to Lemóniz Nuclear Power Plant.
Its ability to inflict violence had declined steadily since the group was at its strongest during the late 1970s and 1980 (when it killed 92 people in a single year).[146] After decreasing peaks in the fatal casualties in 1987 and 1991, 2000 was the last year when ETA killed more than 20 in a single year. After 2002, the yearly number of ETA’s fatal casualties was reduced to single digits.[146]
Similarly, over the 1990s and, especially, during the 2000s, fluid cooperation between the French and Spanish police, state-of-the-art tracking devices and techniques and, apparently, police infiltration[101] allowed increasingly repeating blows to ETA’s leadership and structure (between May 2008 and April 2009 no less than four consecutive “military chiefs” were arrested[101]).
ETA operated mainly in Spain, particularly in the Basque Country, Navarre, and (to a lesser degree) Madrid, Barcelona, and the tourist areas of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. To date, about 65% of ETA’s killings were committed in the Basque Country, followed by Madrid with roughly 15%. Navarre and Catalonia also registered significant numbers.[147]
Actions in France usually consisted of assaults on arsenals or military industries to steal weapons or explosives; these were usually stored in large quantities in hide-outs located in the French Basque Country rather than Spain. The French judge Laurence Le Vert was threatened by ETA and a plot arguably aiming to assassinate her was unveiled.[148] Only very rarely have ETA members engaged in shootings with the French Gendarmerie. This often occurred mainly when members of the group were confronted at checkpoints.
Despite this, on 1 December 2007 ETA killed two Spanish Civil Guards on counter-terrorist surveillance duties in Capbreton, Landes, France.[149] This was its first killing after it ended its 2006 declaration of “permanent ceasefire” and the first killing committed by ETA in France of a Spanish police agent since 1976, when they kidnapped, tortured and assassinated two Spanish inspectors in Hendaye.[150]
In 2007, police reports pointed out that, after the serious blows suffered by ETA and its political counterparts during the 2000s, its budget would have been adjusted to €2,000,000 annually.[151]
Although ETA used robbery as a means of financing its activities in its early days, it was accused both of arms trafficking and of benefiting economically from its political counterpart Batasuna.[citation needed]Extortion was ETA’s main source of funds.[152]
ETA was considered to form part of what is informally known as the Basque National Liberation Movement, a movement born much after ETA’s creation. This loose term refers to a range of political organizations that are ideologically similar, comprising several distinct organizations that promote a type of leftist Basque nationalism that is often referred to by the Basque-language term Ezker Abertzalea (Nationalist Left). Other groups typically considered to belong to this independentist movement are the political party Batasuna, the nationalist youth organization Segi, the labour union Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB), and Askatasuna among others. There are often strong interconnections between these groups, double or even triple membership are not infrequent.[46]
There are Basque nationalist parties with similar goals as those of ETA (namely, independence) but who openly reject their violent means. They are: EAJ-PNV, Eusko Alkartasuna, Aralar and, in the French Basque country, Abertzaleen Batasuna. Also, many left-wing parties, such as Ezker Batua, Batzarre and some sectors of the EAJ-PNV party, also support self-determination but are not in favour of independence.
Historically, members of ETA took refuge in France, particularly the French Basque Country. The leadership typically chose to live in France for security reasons, where police pressure was much less than in Spain.[153] Accordingly, ETA’s tactical approach had been to downplay the issue of independence of the French Basque country so as to get French acquiescence for their activities. The French government quietly tolerated the group, especially during Franco’s regime, when ETA members could face the death penalty in Spain. In the 1980s, the advent of the GAL still hindered counter-terrorist cooperation between France and Spain, with the French government considering ETA a Spanish domestic problem. At the time, ETA members often travelled between the two countries using the French sanctuary as a base of operations.[154]
With the disbanding of the GAL, the French government changed its position on the matter and in the 1990s initiated the ongoing period of active cooperation with the Spanish government against ETA, including fast-track transfers of detainees to Spanish tribunals that are regarded as fully compliant with European Union legislation on human rights and the legal representation of detainees. Virtually all of the highest ranks within ETA –including their successive “military”, “political” or finances chiefs – have been captured in French territory, from where they had been plotting their activities after having crossed the border from Spain.
In response to the new situation, ETA carried out attacks against French policemen and made threats to some French judges and prosecutors. This implied a change from the group’s previous low-profile in the French Basque Country, which successive ETA leaders had used to discreetly manage their activities in Spain.[153]
ETA considered its prisoners political prisoners. Until 2003,[155] ETA consequently forbade them to ask penal authorities for progression to tercer grado (a form of open prison that allows single-day or weekend furloughs) or parole. Before that date, those who did so were menaced and expelled from the group. Some were assassinated by ETA for leaving the group and going through reinsertion programs.[133]
The Spanish Government passed the Ley de Partidos Políticos. This is a law barring political parties that support violence and do not condemn terrorist actions or are involved with terrorist groups.[156] The law resulted in the banning of Herri Batasuna and its successor parties unless they explicitly condemned terrorist actions and, at times, imprisoning or trying some of its leaders who have been indicted for cooperation with ETA.
Judge Baltasar Garzón initiated a judicial procedure (coded as 18/98), aimed towards the support structure of ETA. This procedure started in 1998 with the preventive closure of the newspaper Egin (and its associated radio-station Egin Irratia), accused of being linked to ETA, and temporary imprisoning the editor of its “investigative unit”, Pepe Rei, under similar accusations. In August 1999 Judge Baltasar Garzón authorized the reopening of the newspaper and the radio, but they could not reopen due to economic difficulties.
Judicial procedure 18/98 has many ramifications, including the following:
A trial against a little-known organization called Xaki, acquitted in 2001 as the “international network” of ETA.
A trial against the youths’ movement Jarrai– Haika–Segi, accused of contributing to street violence in an organized form and connivance with ETA.
Another trial against Pepe Rei and his new investigation magazine Ardi Beltza (Black Sheep). The magazine was also closed down.
A trial against the political organization Ekin (Action), accused of promoting civil disobedience.
A trial against the organization Joxemi Zumalabe Fundazioa, which was once again accused of promoting civil disobedience.
A trial against Batasuna and the Herriko Tabernak (people’s taverns), accused of acting as a network of meeting centres for members and supporters of ETA. Batasuna was outlawed in all forms. Most taverns continue working normally as their ownership is not directly linked to Batasuna.
A trial against the league of Basque-language academies AEK. The case was dropped in 2001.
Another trial against Ekin, accusing Iker Casnova of managing the finances of ETA.
A trial against the association of Basque municipalities Udalbiltza.
The closing of the newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria in 2003 and the imprisonment and trial of its editor, Martxelo Otamendi, due to links with ETA accounting and fundraising, and other journalists (some of whom reported torture).[157]
In 2007, indicted members of the youth movements Haika, Segi and Jarrai were found guilty of a crime of connivance with terrorism.
In May 2008, leading ETA figures were arrested in Bordeaux, France. Francisco Javier López Peña, also known as ‘Thierry,’ had been on the run for twenty years before his arrest.[158] A final total of arrests brought in six people, including ETA members and supporters, including the ex-Mayor of Andoain, José Antonio Barandiarán, who is rumoured to have led police to ‘Thierry’.[159] The Spanish Interior Ministry claimed the relevance of the arrests would come in time with the investigation. Furthermore, the Interior Minister said that those members of ETA now arrested had ordered the latest attacks and that senior ETA member Francisco Javier López Peña was “not just another arrest because he is, in all probability, the man who has most political and military weight in the terrorist group.”[160]
After Lopez Pena’s arrest, along with the Basque referendum being put on hold, police work has been on the rise. On 22 July 2008, Spanish police dismantled the most active cell of ETA by detaining nine suspected members of the group. Interior MinisterAlfredo Perez Rubalcaba said about the arrests: “We can’t say this is the only ETA unit but it was the most active, most dynamic and of course the most wanted one.”[161] Four days later French police also arrested two suspects believed to be tied to the same active cell. The two suspects were: Asier Eceiza, considered a top aide to a senior ETA operative still sought by police, and Olga Comes, whom authorities have linked to the ETA suspects.[162]
The European Union[24] and the United States listed ETA as a terrorist group in their relevant watch lists. ETA has been a Proscribed Organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000 since 29 March 2001.[21] The Canadian Parliament listed ETA as a terrorist group in 2003.[163]
France and Spain have often shown co-operation in the fight against ETA, after France’s lack of co-operation during the Franco era. In late 2007, two Spanish guards were shot to death in France when on a joint operation with their French counterparts. Furthermore, in May 2008, the arrests of four people in Bordeaux led to a breakthrough against ETA, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.[164]
In 2008, as ETA activity increased, France increased its pressure on ETA by arresting more ETA suspects, including Unai Fano, María Lizarraga, and Esteban Murillo Zubiri in Bidarrain.[165] He had been wanted by the Spanish authorities since 2007 when a Europol arrest warrant was issued against him. French judicial authorities had already ordered that he be held in prison on remand.
Spain has also sought cooperation from the United Kingdom in dealing with ETA-IRA ties. In 2008, this came to light after Iñaki de Juana Chaos, whose release from prison was cancelled on appeal, had moved to Belfast. He was thought to be staying at an IRA safe house while being sought by the Spanish authorities. Interpol notified the judge, Eloy Velasco, that he was in either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.[166]
A republican mural in Belfast showing solidarity with the Basque nationalism.
ETA was known to have had ‘fraternal’ contacts with the Provisional Irish Republican Army; the two groups have both, at times, characterized their struggles as parallel. Links between the two groups go back to at least March 1974.[168][169] ETA purchased Strela 2 surface-to-air missiles from the IRA and in 2001 unsuccessfully attempted to shoot down a jet carrying the Spanish Prime Minister, José María Aznar.[170] It has also had links with other militant left-wing movements in Europe and other places throughout the world.
In the late 1960s, the Portuguese terrorist group LUAR, which was fighting the dictatorship, brokered the contacts that allowed ETA to purchase weapons in the former Czechoslovak Republic.[171] The partnership continued as LUAR would later assign part of the stolen passports on Portugal consulted in Rotterdam and Luxembourg, in 1971. These were used by ETA in the Ogro operation that resulted in the assassination of Prime Minister, AdmiralCarrero Blanco.[172] Later, in 1981, when Portugal and Spain were living already in full democracy, ETA exchanged weapons, explosives and provided logistical support to the Forças Populares 25 de Abril (FP-25), a Portuguese far-left terrorist group. In 1981, FP-25 received Gama 2 explosives and two dozen FireBird pistols in exchange for G3 machine guns. [173] Additionally, ETA came to harbor in the Basque Country, two FP-25 terrorists who needed to retreat.[172]
The Colombian government stated that there are contacts between ETA and the Colombian guerrillas FARC. The recent capture of FARC’s leaders’ computers, and leaked email exchanges between both groups, show that ETA members received training from FARC. Apparently, FARC asked for help from ETA to conduct future attacks in Spain,[174][175][176] but the Anncol news agency later denied it, clarifying that the Spanish capital Madrid had been confused with a city in northern Colombia also named Madrid.[175] Following a judicial investigation, it was reported that FARC and ETA had held meetings in Colombia, exchanging information about combat tactics and methods of activating explosives through mobile phones. The two organizations were said to have met at least three times. One of the meetings involved two ETA representatives and two FARC leaders, at a FARC camp, and lasted for a week in 2003. FARC also offered to hide ETA fugitives while requesting anti-air missiles, as well as asking ETA to supply medical experts who could work at FARC prison camps for more than a year. Besides, and more controversially, FARC also asked ETA to stage attacks and kidnappings on its behalf in Europe.[177]
Italian author and mafia specialist Roberto Saviano pointed to a relationship of the group with the Mafia. According to this view, ETA trafficked cocaine which it got via its FARC contacts, then traded it with the Mafia for guns.[178]
Several ex-militants were sent from France through Panama to reside in Cuba after an agreement of the Spanish government (under Felipe González) with Cuba.[179] The United States Department of State has no information on their activities on Cuban territory.[180]
Mapuche groups in the Argentine province of Neuquén have been accused of being trained by both ETA and FARC. Local Mapuches have classified the rumours as part of a plot by businessmen and other Argentines.[181] The United States diplomatic cables leak revealed by WikiLeaks showed the government of Michelle Bachelet had asked the United States aid in investigating a possible FARC-ETA-Mapuche link.[182]
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