Special Correspondent

LAST week The Patriot carried a report detailing the structure of the civil society organisations which are founded and funded by the United States government for purposes of promoting agendas of regime change against nationalist and progressive governments. The report also pointed out that the United States government gives money to local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its four core institutions of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the Solidarity Centre, and the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). The NED and its core institutions fund a network of local NGOs which are formed by the United States Embassy and the USAID office in Harare and get handed over to the NED family for operational control and management. Seventy percent of the money allocated to the NED is distributed to the local NGOs through the four core institutions while 30 percent is distributed directly by NED to its intended beneficiaries. NED’s website shows that recently the following amounts were given out to the following organisations to promote the ongoing US efforts to remove President Mugabe from power: l American Centre for International Labour Solidarity — US$500000 to promote regime change through the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. l Centre for International Private Enterprise — US$226 890 to promote regime change through business groups. l Centre for Research and Development — US$30 819 for mobilising women, youths and traditional leaders in the diamond-rich Manicaland Province against the ZANU PF Party through 20 one-day workshops to train a total of 800 participants. l Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe — US$39984 for the training of local government and traditional leaders to promote American interests in Zimbabwe. l Combined Harare Residents Association — US$30 000 for mobilising the urban youths. l Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition — US$57 750 for the administration and coordination of all regime change institutions in Zimbabwe. l Mass Public Opinion Institute — US$44975 for researching into the impact of economic sanctions and the political benefits accruing to the United States therefrom. l National Constitutional Assembly — US$51 670 for workshops, marches (read demonstrations) and trainings themed ‘Change: What Type of Change for Zimbabwe’. l Savanna Trust — US$45 515 for mobilising community theatre groups to produce plays that seek to turn ‘marginalised communities’ against ZANU PF. l Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe — US$47 000 for organising youth in tertiary institutions and communities throughout Zimbabwe to campaign for change. l Students Solidarity Trust — US$34 700 for promoting regime change through the education system and targeting students, parents, teachers and elected officials. l Youth Agenda Trust — US$43 070 for agitating the youth in ‘marginalised communities’ to be active in programmes promoting the regime change agenda. l Youth Forum — US$41 547 for mobilising the youth of Masvingo Province against ZANU PF through trainings, group discussions, visits to Parliament and local councils by the youth. l Zimbabwe Community Development Trust — US$55 000 for agitating activism in communities that have been affected by ‘politically motivated violence’. l Zimbabwe Election Support Network — US$50 000 for carrying out programmes that will create a political environment that ensures a victory for the MDC in the next election. l Zimbabwe Human Rights Association — US$55 390 for coming up with programmes that will use the GPA (Global Political Agreement) to promote the regime change agenda. l Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights — US$92 191 for legal assistance to agents of regime change who get caught and to develop youth in secondary schools to participate in programmes that enhance the regime change agenda. l Zimbabwe Peace Project — US$30 000 for buying scanners to preserve over 25 000 incident reports which will be used to try ZANU PF officials locally and at The Hague after the regime change agenda has succeeded. The money will also be used to train field staff and national office staff on how incident reports should be prepared. Source:www.ned. org