Dzamara haunts Mugabe

Missing journalist-cum-human rights activist, Itai Dzamara and the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s have returned to haunt President Robert Mugabe, as a United States Senator last week asked the country's government to block multilateral institutions from lending money to Zimbabwe until the Zanu-PF leader has acknowledged the atrocities, shown a willingness to reform and prosecuted the perpetrators.

The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, chaired by Bob Corker, in a letter to Treasury secretary Jacob Lew on January 28, said President Barack Obama's administration must vote against any lending to Zimbabwe by international financial institutions until there is "tangible progress on reforms".

Corker's letter comes in the wake of reports that Mugabe's government was "very close" to signing a deal that would see the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African Development Bank allowing for clearance of Zimbabwe's $1,9 billion in arrears to those institutions.