Africa's big men like their comforts, no matter where they are. Two days ago the skies above Lusaka were thick with circling presidential jets, waiting for permission to land. The big men, their wives and their retinues of heavily armed guards (each delegation restricted to six pistols) are in Lusaka for the annual summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Africa's answer to the United Nations. The leaders' club is supposedly the mark of unity among the African brotherhood, yet in its 38 years of existence the continent has been characterised by division and bloodshed.

The MDC is contesting the outcome of last June’s parliamentary elections in many constituencies that resulted in the victory of the ZANU (PF) candidate. Human rights abuses have been reported in all cases that have appeared before the High Court. The violence, which has mainly implicated ZANU (PF) supporters, but has also implicated some MDC supporters, is being used as a tool to intimidate people who had testified at the High Court. The intimidation continues to instill such fear that witnesses consider not testifying and in some cases have to be subpoenaed.

Lawyers representing ZANU (PF) parliamentary candidate for Seke, Mr. Phineas Chihota, in ZANU (PF)’s only election petition, finished inspecting the voters’ role on Monday, in a verification process ordered by Judge Vernanda Ziyambi last week. Chihota alleges that his supporters were barred from voting as their names did not appear on the voters’ roll despite having properly registered. He alleges that as a result, they were unduly turned away on the polling day. The petition is scheduled to resume on Monday, July 2, 2001.