Lionel Dyck?

[St0nesfan]

Does anyone know the story behind Lionel Dyck? His name has been popping up as
the mediator between the MDC and ZANU-PF regarding a possible transition
government. I know he's an ex-army officer but that's about it. Did he serve in
the Rhodesian armed forces? Zimbo armed forces? Is he pro-ZANU-PF? And is he
not owner of a land mine removal company? Many thanks! Cheers!

[zakanaka]

Are you looking for something like this message that was sent to Tsvangirai
in early January?

Tsvangirai, beware of Zanu PF's Trojan horse Dyke

source: http://www.dailynews.co.zw/daily/2003/January/January2/9254.html

By Paul Taylor

The remarks in this article are directed specifically towards the MDC
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

My cynical father once told me always to remember Cicero's statement that
politicians are not born but excreted. I don't want you to take the line
personally. I am sure you will admit, looking at the situation in which
Zimbabwe finds itself, that Cicero had a point.

But, for two reasons, I am prepared to believe that you are a better man
than the average politician. The first reason is that people who know you
well believe you are genuinely committed to the creation of an intensive
human rights culture and a fully participatory democracy. Of course, we
shall have to see.

The second reason is that it would be arrogant in the extreme of me not to
support the verdict of the majority of voters, who did you the honour of
electing you President of Zimbabwe.

There is no getting away from this fundamental fact: You were elected. That
the election was comprehensively rigged by Zanu PF to cheat you of office
and to cheat our people of their sovereignty is neither here nor there. You
know it; I know it; the voters know it; the people who rigged the
proceedings know it; and President Mugabe knows it better than anyone else.

And because he pretends otherwise, there is a terrifying void at the heart
of our constitutional life. Each and every citizen is aware of the gaping
wound that has been inflicted on the legitimacy of the State.

The people who have to defend the indefensible can no longer rely on
propaganda and pantomime to maintain the lie that Robert Mugabe is our
elected President. They have to use harsher and cruder laws and greater
levels of violence aimed at ordinary citizens to force them to accept it.
Until the crisis of legitimacy ends, the trend will continue.

Mugabe is prepared to go to his grave - and take Zimbabwe with him -
clinging to the fiction of legitimacy. His younger, smarter supporters
realise that the game is up. When he goes they will have to face the nation,
and the international community. These people are understandably nervous
about that. Slobodan Milosevic is at The Hague.

They intend to neutralise you, Tsvangirai. They might yet use violence, but
as a last resort. Should anything happen to you the country will go into a
meltdown. Nonetheless, please check your cars' brakes and tyres regularly.
You are all the more dangerous in the eyes of dangerous men now that the
treason trial gambit has backfired so spectacularly. You have shown you will
not be intimidated. The machinations of Zanu PF propagandists and State
security agents have transformed you into a symbol of Zimbabwean democracy.

A Zimbabwean stand-off has developed. In one part of Harare the
democratically elected president awaits trial, and across town, behind
barbed wire and guards with automatic weapons, an unelected president rules.

Zanu PF ministers may be stupidly selfish, but they are cunning. They are
coming under increasing pressure, due to the rapid implosion of the country,
to do something to break the logjam. Something had to give.

Someone had to come knocking at your door. So the security establishment
looked for a soldier they could trust, whom you might think you could trust
too.

It was Lionel Dyke.

To which one well-informed observer of our politics asked me: "Lionel Who?"

This ex-soldier and clearer of minefields features in the Catholic Church
report on Gukurahundi, Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace from time
to time. I am sure that by his lights he is an honourable man. But is he a
heavyweight figure, a credible mediator in crucial negotiations where the
entire future of the nation is at stake?

I would have to say not on your Nellie, Mr President. I say this on the
basis of reports of things Dyke has said himself about Gukurahundi.

A sample of his remarks: "You often have to be cruel to be kind. Had an
operation like (the 5 Brigade's) not taken place, that battle could have
gone on for years and years as a festering sore. And I believe the Matabele
understand that sort of harsh treatment far better than the treatment I
myself was giving them, when we would just hunt and kill a man if he was
armed. The fact is that when 5 Brigade went in, they did brutally deal with
the problem. If you were a dissident sympathiser, you died. And it brought
peace very, very quickly."

Really? He was talking about 20 000 dead people and a type of violence which
has now become the ruination of the entire country.

Whatever his strengths, Dyke cannot be accused of having a sophisticated
understanding of civil society or the complex
crucible in which our country's future is being forged. He may enjoy the
confidence of Emmerson Mnangagwa, but this does not mean he enjoys the
confidence of many other stakeholders. He has wandered into a minefield that
he cannot clear.

But peace cannot come at just any price. If you were to allow Mugabe to step
down and Zanu PF to hold on to power for another two years, while the
international community relaxed its pressure, what guarantee is there that
we will ever see the tenacious and resilient opportunists in Zanu PF and the
soldiers marching out of civilian affairs?

Tsvangirai, you have the people's mandate to take the initiative and clear
up this mess. It is time to set out the basis on which you are prepared to
allow the orderly withdrawal from power of Robert Mugabe and his cohorts.
This should be done publicly and clearly and it should stipulate the
mediators you are prepared to accept, a timetable for negotiation, and the
mechanisms you wish to implement towards a peaceful transition.

It is time for Zanu PF to realise its day is done and no amount of
wriggling, squirming or dirty tricks will prolong it any further. The
country is falling apart. The country and indeed the world are ready to
listen.

And please, don't talk to men like Dyke behind closed doors again.

"St0nesfan" <st0n...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030125021640...@mb-ct.aol.com...

[milesra...@gmail.com]

He was 5 Brigade commander during Gukhuruhundi , I heard he had been surprised trying on Molly Gibb's underwear at a party at Government House way back in the 60's when he was Sir Humphrey Gibbs' ADC. So a killer and a cross dresser....go figure.

[kkcall...@gmail.com]

Would you trust Lionel Dyck further than you could kick a bulldozer with your bare feet ?

Ask genuine Rhodesian Intel officers. (Excluding flower farmers.)