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2006-12-13 Africa Subsaharan

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Posted by Fred 2006-12-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 who will care about passports when the refugees en mass start crossing into Kenya and Zambia.

Posted by john">john 2006-12-13 12:34|| http://john-smokegetsinmyeyes.blogspot.com/]">[http://john-smokegetsinmyeyes.blogspot.com/] 2006-12-13 12:34|| Front Page Top

#2 John sadly to say it doesn't only affect the "masses" in Zimbabwe - it affects us too - recently applied for a renewal of my daughter's Zim Passport (February 2006) in Ottawa - we are still awaiting for it's return - looks as if we have a rather long wait. How do I explain to the Officials in the Immigration Department here in Canada, this disgusting turn of events - Omg! I shudder to think!

Please see below further turn of events:

Passports Office Closes

Financial Gazette (Harare)

December 7, 2006
Posted to the web December 7, 2006

Stanley Kwenda
Harare

THE Registrar-General (RG) has abruptly shut down the passport office,
turning away thousands of people that had hoped to be issued with a passport
ahead of the holidays.

Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede yesterday sent a circular to all passport
offices throughout the country instructing them to immediately suspend
operations.

"We were just told to stop whatever we were doing and order members of the
public out of the building as we were not supposed to accept any more
applications for passports until further notice," said workers at the
Makombe Building, which houses the main passport office in Harare.

Other officials added that they had been instructed that only applications
coming from the RG's office and carrying his signature would now be
processed.

"It is now only the prerogative of the RG to process passports. Only special
cases whose merits will be determined by the RG will be considered," said
the sources.

A high-ranking official in the RG's office confirmed that they had stopped
processing passports with immediate effect, but would not give any further
details.

"It's true, we have closed the office to the public. We are no longer
processing any passports until further notice. Something is being done by
the government at this office but I can not tell you, you will have to phone
Mr Mudede," said the official who refused to be named.

Mudede was not reachable for comment.

Further enquiries by this newspaper at the RG's Market Square office
revealed that an order had been sent out reading in part: "With immediate
effect, no more passport forms will be issued as per the Registrar-General's
instruction." Officials at Market Square said the closure could have been
necessitated by the need to clear a backlog of more than two years.

The office says it will only issue emergency travel documents (ETDs), but
also at Mudede's discretion.

The RG's office faces serious problems in the production of passports, the
main one being a chronic shortage of the special materials used for
passports due to shortages of foreign currency to pay suppliers. The RG's
office has also struggled to maintain sufficient supplies of the new plastic
identification cards due to a shortage of materials, which are also
imported.

The demand for passports has been increasing sharply as Zimbabweans seek to
escape the deepening economic crisis.

What can I say!!!

Posted by rpg7 2006-12-13 15:02|| 2006-12-13 15:02|| Front Page Top

#3 Well it won't bother this guy...

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe said on Wednesday it was not considering the extradition of former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was found guilty of genocide following a trial in absentia in his homeland.

Mengistu, who has lived in exile in Zimbabwe since he was ousted in 1991, was convicted on Tuesday in a 12-year trial that focused on the killings of thousands of political opponents during his military government's 17-year rule. "Mengistu applied for asylum and we granted him ... the position remains the same," Paul Mangwana, Zimbabwe's acting information and publicity minister, told Reuters. "We have no control over the judiciary process in other countries but we are also a sovereign state and as I am talking now that position we made has not changed," Mangwana said.

President Robert Mugabe's government, which regards the former Ethiopian ruler as a friend of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, routinely refuses to discuss Mengistu and has largely shielded him from the media. When asked whether Zimbabwe could change its position if requested to extradite Mengistu, Mangwana said: "If there are any other changes it will be announced, but as of now he remains our guest and we will continue to accommodate him."

Zimbabwe's main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change, said Mengistu's stay in the southern African nation should be ended. It noted that many Zimbabweans were unaware the former Ethiopian leader was living in their midst.

Once dubbed the "Butcher of Addis," Mengistu, along with his family, lives in a government villa in Harare's plush Gunhill district, surrounded by a high security wall and guarded around the clock by an army and police unit.

Posted by tu3031 2006-12-13 16:25|| 2006-12-13 16:25|| Front Page Top

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