When Helen left Zimbabwe and traveled across the world to a new life in Hong Kong, the last person she would have chosen to follow her was the man she blamed unequivocally for the ruin of her homeland: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Her peace of mind was shattered when a report surfaced earlier this month that the 85-year-old president, whose 30-year stranglehold on power may be loosening, has bought a home in the city worth US$5 million.
“It has all come as a huge shock,” said the businesswoman, who like other Zimbabwean expatriates living in Hong Kong asked for her identity to be disguised for fear of recriminations against family members back home.
“People here simply don’t appreciate the extent of the suffering this man has caused,” she said.
News of the reported purchase came exactly a month after Mugabe’s wife Grace was involved in an alleged assault on a photographer working for Britain’s Sunday Times who took pictures of her shopping, and weeks after it emerged that his daughter Bona was at university in Hong Kong.
Two weeks ago, two photographers working for the same paper were allegedly assaulted by two men and a woman understood to be bodyguards outside the house the Mugabes have reportedly bought.
“As soon as I saw the story about Grace Mugabe being involved in the assault case, I knew the rest of the family would follow because there aren’t many places in the world left for them to go. Most other countries have banned them,” Helen said.
Now Helen and others in a 500-strong community of white Zimbabweans living in Hong Kong, some of whom fled the country because of Mugabe’s regime, fear that they will soon find themselves living in uncomfortable proximity to a man they view as the world’s least-desirable neighbor.
For Helen, the arrival of the Mugabes is a dose of poison for a city she regards as her home.
“The Hong Kong government should send these people away now. It should follow the examples of other Western governments and refuse to let members of the Mugabe regime in,” she said.
Another Zimbabwean living in Hong Kong asked: “What steps have the Hong Kong monetary authorities and the transferring bank taken to ascertain the source of the funds for the house purchase?”
“This could have very serious implications for both Hong Kong and the individual bank concerned — remember the issues with the Macau banks and North Korea. With the current financial crisis, the last thing Hong Kong needs is to be identified as a money-laundering center,” the Zimbabwean said.
White Zimbabweans are vociferous critics of Mugabe, having been among those who lost most under his regime. But there is no reason to think ordinary Hong Kongers will react with as anywhere near as much concern to the idea of the Mugabe family moving to the city.
If anything, the Mugabes have reason to be heartened by the reception they have received so far. While protests demanding Bona Mugabe’s return have raged in Zimbabwe, there have been no protests by students in Hong Kong, no discernible outcry from pro-democracy legislators and no obvious disquiet among residents at the prospect of having the Mugabe family for neighbors.
The Hong Kong government has shown no inclination to get involved and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing, when asked about the reported house purchase, said: “Hong Kong is a free port and even Falun Gong practitioners can buy property there, am I right?”
The issue most likely to have a short-term bearing on the Mugabes ability to move comfortably and freely in and out of Hong Kong are the dual police investigations.
Department of Justice officials are deciding whether to prosecute Mugabe’s wife Grace for punching photographer Richard Jones, 42, on a busy shopping street.
Police are also investigating an alleged assault on two photographers outside the home the Mugabes have reportedly bought. White Zimbabwean expatriates are taking a keen interest in the cases.
“The Hong Kong law protects our freedoms and our rights in a way the law in our home country didn’t under Mugabe,” an accountant who left Harare 10 years ago said.
“If there is sufficient evidence that these offences were committed, the assailants must be prosecuted. Otherwise, Hong Kong may find itself being taken down the same road as Zimbabwe,” the accountant said.
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
FORUM: The Solomon Islands’ move to bar Taiwan, the US and others from the Pacific Islands Forum has sparked criticism that Beijing’s influence was behind the decision Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feletei Teo said his country might pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners — including China, the US and Taiwan — from attending. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting is to be held in Honiara in September. On Thursday last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering. Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work with Pacific leaders and contribute to discussions around
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
RSS