The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
Back to Index
Back to the Top
Back to Index

From The Sunday Telegraph [UK]

300 whites evacuated from Zimbabwe farms
By Philip Sherwell and Brian Latham in Harare
(Filed: 12/08/2001)

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/08/12/wzim12.xml

ABOUT 300 white Zimbabwean women and children were evacuated yesterday from a besieged farming district by convoy and airlift as looting and violence reached new heights.

 

Their husbands in Doma on the high veld 100 miles north of Harare decided on the move after armed and drunken government mobs systematically ransacked farms in the district.

The evacuation fuelled fears that the terror offensive will be extended across the country as President Robert Mugabe begins his campaign for re-election. The vote should be held by next April, although Mr Mugabe could postpone the elections by declaring a state of emergency.

From early morning, scores of four-wheel-drive vehicles, pick-up trucks and cars arrived in Chinhoyi, a provincial centre. Most of the vehicles travelled on to the Lomagundi College, a private school close to town, where temporary accommodation was provided for the women and children.

Light aircraft landed on some farms to fly families to Harare after police and Mugabe supporters blocked roads out of Doma and turned back vehicles. White landowners and farm managers have remained behind, although there is little they can do to stop the rampage.

An aerial view of a homestead in the Doma region showing looters sharing the spoils [bottom]

At least 16 homesteads in the Doma area have been looted and a farmer was briefly abducted on Friday. "It is absolute anarchy - there is no law at all," said one farmer. "All the wives and children have been evacuated until sanity returns, if it ever will."

The president used a Heroes' Day rally honouring guerrillas who died during Zimbabwe's independence bush war to accuse white farmers of organised attacks against squatters.

However, Colin Cloete, the newly-elected farmers' union president, said the violence was a deliberate attempt to provoke landowners.

Roy Bennett, a senior opposition MP, said the campaign of violence and intimidation was spreading across the country. "This is a ploy to destabilise the white minority and undermine their confidence in Zimbabwe," he said.

Back to the Top
Back to Index
From The Sunday Telegraph [UK]
12.08.01
 
We will not tolerate racism, except in Zimbabwe
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=005437088047370&rtmo=rQhESQEX&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/8/12/do02.html

By Simon Heffer

News: 300 whites evacuated from Zimbabwe farms

A JEWISH friend and I had a stimulating dinner with Jack Straw shortly before he became Home Secretary. He was proposing a law to punish nutters who denied that the Nazis had murdered several million Jews. My friend took him to task, pointing out, quite sensibly, that such people inevitably arrange their own punishment, and one far more damning than any law can prescribe. Mr Straw was, however, implacable. He argued that the absence of such a law was an incitement to racism. I did not then, and I do not now, believe he was motivated by a cynical desire to ingratiate himself with an important minority. I think he is a man affronted by the fundamental inhumanity of racial prejudice.

There are few more flagrant examples of such inhumanity now than in Zimbabwe. There, a mob inspired by the Marxist tyrant Robert Mugabe beats, robs and murders people purely because of the colour of their skins. Whites are forced to live outside the protection of a rule of law. As Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Mr Straw must now shape our country's response to this state-sponsored racist terrorism. He does not yet appear to be doing so in a way that should make him, or any of the rest of us, proud to be British.

There are 50,000 whites in Zimbabwe. Almost all have British passports or are entitled to one by reason of descent. The country is our former colony. It is a member of the Commonwealth, an organisation presided over by the British Head of State. Any one of these reasons ought to be enough to prompt Mr Straw into action about the flagrant abuses of human rights there: but apparently none of them are.

Mr Straw might argue that he is simply continuing the hands-off policy of Robin Cook, the preposterous, posturing poltroon he succeeded in June. That is no excuse. A man of Mr Straw's moral integrity should see at once the imperative for intervention in Zimbabwe. What is happening is on nothing like the scale of the Nazi persecution he so rightly wishes should never be forgotten. However, when one reads of the anti-white pogrom by Mr Mugabe's thugs, one sees at once that the loathsome principle is the same.

The Commonwealth, which even before this inglorious episode had already marked itself out as a footling, hypocritical and pointless organisation, continues to tolerate Mr Mugabe's depravities. The Harare Declaration of 1985 stipulates that nations engaging in the sort of oppressive, anti-democratic behaviour that Mr Mugabe has made routine should be expelled from the club. Expulsion might mean nothing in practice, but would at least show what supposedly civilised people think of this savage. However, Zimbabwe stays in, making continued mockery of the Commonwealth ideal by doing so.

In an exercise of repellent vanity, Mr Cook happily defended the dispatch of crack British troops to another former African colony, Sierra Leone, where nothing like the same level of British interests was at stake. For that matter, the lives of British servicemen were put at risk in Kosovo two years ago where no discernible British interest was at stake. Yet no one would dare suggest that the protection of British subjects, and the upholding of the explicit principles of the very fine and wonderful Commonwealth, ought to merit a disciplinary excursion by the SAS to Harare. Why not?

There seem to be two problems, common to the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth. The first is that the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, has counselled restraint in dealing with Mr Mugabe, and Mr Mbeki cannot be gainsaid. This is dangerous nonsense. Had Mr Mbeki been a more successful head of state himself, his opinions might merit respect. As it is, he would be better advised to concentrate on sorting out his own problems.

The second, and more insidious problem, is of post-imperial guilt. The officials of the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth cannot grasp that some black people are as capable of executing acts of racial prejudice as some white people. Racism by blacks against whites, such as that which is having such murderous consequences in Zimbabwe, therefore cannot, in their view, exist. Protesting against it or fighting it, even if it could be proved, would bring none of the kudos associated with grandstanding about "real" racism - i.e. a bit of good old-fashioned whites beating up blacks, while white liberals compete with each other for who can take the most Pecksniffian line in sanctimony.

At heart, these people probably believe that the white farmers - and their women and children, for that matter - deserve all they get. Have they not exploited black people for generations? Beat them, starved them, kept them in squalor, denied them opportunities, forced them out of the democratic system? Well, no, actually: that has been Mr Mugabe's prerogative.

Zimbabwe is our disgrace. The decolonisation in 1979-1980 was grotesquely badly handled. Mr Mugabe won power by rigging an election and the British, then as now, were too cowardly to argue the toss. It shames a country that claimed to have an "ethical" foreign policy that it tolerates Mr Mugabe's tyranny. Is Mr Straw happy about this?

Apart from some fatuous remarks about Europe Mr Straw has been quiet since assuming his new office. We should take this as a sign of grace, that he is reading himself in to his awesome new portfolio. What is happening in Zimbabwe now, however, means he cannot remain silent much longer if he is to retain his reputation as a defender of humane and democratic principles. He must lead the move to have Zimbabwe expelled from the Commonwealth. And he must warn Mr Mugabe that any further attacks on British subjects will be punished quickly and severely.

Only a few in Zimbabwe would be sad to see the back of the wicked, deranged criminal who rules them. The sum of human happiness would be increased. And Mr Straw would establish himself as the Viscount Palmerston of his age. So why are we waiting?
Back to the Top
Back to Index
More from Sunday Times
 
 
August 12 2001 AFRICA
Line

STN122302 STN122303 ©
A haunted man: so troubled is Mugabe by his dead henchman that he lays a dinner place for his spirit. His wife, Grace, is confined
Photograph: Howard Burditt

Paranoid Mugabe dines with a ghost

RW Johnson, Harare

Mugabe eats supper with spirit of dead rival

THE residents of Harare tend to hurry past the long, forbidding walls of Robert Mugabe's presidential palace, protected as they are by electrified wire and armed sentries with bayonets fixed and the muzzles of their automatic weapons pointing at every passer-by.

Few know what happens within those walls, for the president is secretive to the point of paranoia. He ensures that his movements remain unpredictable even to the elite Presidential Guard and the much-feared secret police of his Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

Mugabe, 77, who has torn up the rule of law, orchestrated a reign of terror and brought his country's once-strong economy close to collapse, is seldom seen in public now. His swollen neck and face are apparent evidence of steroid treatment; the talk is of prostate cancer.

But inside the palace a terrifying dialogue is going on. For the president believes himself to be haunted by the ghost of a man many believe to have been a victim of his rise to power: Josiah Tongogara, the charismatic guerrilla leader of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla).

Tongogara was widely expected to become president in 1980, with Mugabe as prime minister, but no sooner had Zanu won the independence election than Tongogara was killed in a car crash. As the African tradition of the politically convenient crash has become entrenched, so doubts have grown that the death was really an accident. Mugabe had made it clear that he wanted "total power" - and with the popular and comparatively moderate Tongogara as president, he would not have had that.

The Sunday Times has learnt that staff at the presidential palace are seriously alarmed at the state to which Mugabe has been reduced by Tongogara's "ghost". It is said to be tormenting him with accusations that his mismanagement has destroyed the revolution for which they fought together.

In the tradition of the Shona, the Bantu-speaking people who comprise three-quarters of Zimbabwe's population, the spirits of the dead have easy contact with the living and have the power to "possess" an individual. Normally they are benevolent and protect him - but if angered they can bring sickness. Mugabe believes he is dealing with an ngozi or aggrieved spirit, a far more dangerous proposition.

The ngozi is the spirit of someone who died violently or in extreme anger or bitterness. It never finds rest until full retribution has been made; it continues to haunt until fully placated, when at last it is allowed to join the rest of the spirit world.

Accordingly, Mugabe is trying his best to soothe the ghost. An extra place is set at dinner for Tongogara and food is served for him.

Presidential staff are alarmed because Mugabe has been "seeing" Tongogara for more than six months. "What we're all really worried about," said one source, "is that he might lose it altogether, like he did after Sally [his first wife] died."

The president has sought the help of nyangas (witchdoctors) far and wide, but nobody seems able to help except the Rain Goddess at Sengwa and the Oracle of Mlimo at Njelele. Since the former is Ndebele and the latter Tonga - both persecuted minority groups - neither is willing to come to his aid.

He has also sought help from the Serbian Dr Vlad Rankovic, the government psychiatrist, who is not believed to be sympathetic to the "haunting" theory behind the president's evident anxiety attacks and has prescribed anti-depressants.

Mugabe, though a nominal Catholic, appears not to have sought the assistance of the church. As he ages, he seems to have returned increasingly to traditional Shona beliefs and has seldom been seen in church since his marriage to Grace, his young second wife.

His anxiety increased considerably in the weeks approaching last June's eclipse, a foretelling of evil in Shona belief. The deaths of Border Gezi, his youth minister and favourite, Moven Mahachi, the defence minister, and Hitler Hunzvi, the war veterans' leader, also unsettled him. Although he ordained a media campaign insisting that the eclipse was not a harbinger of evil, "it was the president who most needed convincing", one source said.

Awkward questions are still being asked about the car accident in which Mahachi died two months ago. There are reports that Mahachi, concerned at the destabilisation of Zimbabwe, had talked to some army leaders about the circumstances in which the military might intervene, and that news of these unwelcome conversations had reached hardline Mugabe supporters.

Grace Mugabe is believed to date the deterioration in her husband's psychological state from the parliamentary elections last year, in which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won nearly half the seats and gave notice of a determined challenge in the presidential election, now only eight months away.

<<<photo snipped>>>

Rule of the gun: as Mugabe sickens, police confront opposition supporters in Msvingo

The stress of the approaching contest should not be underestimated: Morgan Tsvangirai, the formidable MDC leader, is trying to take it all away from him. Mugabe's response has become more and more frenzied.

He has threatened the MDC, torn up the law book and launched ever more vicious attacks on white farmers. Yesterday the wives of 11 farmers arrested for resisting "war vets" were beaten in front of their husbands after they tried to take food to the men's prison cells.

Mugabe is even suspicious of his wife. Not long after the elections he decided that Grace had been planning to abscond, taking their two children with her; opinion is divided as to whether she really had been planning to leave or not.

Their relationship has still not recovered from the tremendous row and Grace has been largely confined to the presidential palace ever since. Certainly, the CIO operatives who accompany her every time she goes out to the shops or to functions have been left in little doubt that their role as bodyguards is secondary to that of ensuring that she does not leave.

There is little sympathy for her, though: "She's had her fun - and now the bill is coming in. Tough," said one source.

It is in the fevered atmosphere of the presidential palace that Mugabe will soon decide whether to declare martial law in the face of looming sanctions by America and the European Union. He could then imprison the whole MDC leadership and dispense with the presidential election altogether.

"He could lock us all up, but he'd have to be crazy to do it," said Tsvangirai, who has been thrown in jail once before by Mugabe. "The more he departs from constitutional rule, the more he will hasten the crisis for himself."

Tsvangirai's calculations relate to a rational political world, however. Mugabe's relate to the terrible need to stop the tormenting sight and voice of Tongogara's shadow.

From the Sunday Times (UK)
 
August 12 2001 AFRICA
Line

Mugabe eats supper with spirit of dead rival

R W Johnson, Harare


Paranoid president

ROBERT MUGABE, Zimbabwe's embattled president, believes he is haunted by the ghost of a former rival who berates him for mismanaging the country, aides have said.

For six months, Mugabe has been "seeing" Josiah Tongogara, a former guerrilla leader who was expected to become president in 1980, but died in a car crash. Mugabe is said to be tormented by his accusations that the revolution for which they fought has been destroyed.

Staff at the presidential palace say that in an effort to placate Tongogara, Mugabe sets an extra place at dinner each night and orders food to be served for him.

He has sought help from witchdoctors, a rain goddess and an oracle. Dr Vlad Rankovic, a government psychiatrist, has prescribed anti-depressants to help Mugabe, 77, overcome his anxiety. The president's wife, Grace, is understood to believe his psychological deterioration began after parliamentary elections last year, when Mugabe's supporters resorted to violence to help him secure a narrow victory over the Movement for Democratic Change.

Mugabe is said to have become convinced shortly afterwards that she was going to run away with their two children. She has since been largely confined to the presidential palace.

Mugabe's distress deepened before an eclipse in June - a portent of evil in traditional tribal culture. He has also been disturbed by the recent deaths of Hitler Hunzvi, leader of the "war veterans" who have occupied white farms, and two ministers killed in road accidents.

As attacks on white farmers intensified in the north of the country yesterday and 50 families fled properties near Chinhoyi after looting by pro-government militants, Mugabe was pressed by advisers to declare martial law, imprison his opponents and call off a presidential election due by next April.

He warned whites not to organise themselves against landless blacks, saying any attacks could "ricochet". In a rambling speech, he also condemned the US Senate for passing a bill last week aimed at funding democratic change in Zimbabwe.

"They feel repulsed that we seek to correct the imbalances of the sinful slave past," Mugabe said. "Our crime is that we are black and in America blacks are a condemned race."

Back to the Top
Back to Index
From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 12 August
The whites are not the main target of the thugs

By David Coltart

David Coltart, a Zimbabwe opposition leader, reveals Mugabe's plan


Zimbabwe is dangerous for everyone, but particularly for anyone who dares to
criticise Robert Mugabe's reign of terror. Like thousands of Zimbabweans, I
know from personal experience what those dangers are. Just before the
election here in June last year, I published an article which pointed out
some of the horrific abuses of power committed by Mugabe's government.
Within two weeks of the article being published, my polling agent Patrick
Nabanyama was abducted. He has never been seen again. The men responsible
are employed by Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF. Fourteen months later, they walk freely
on the streets of Bulawayo. They continue to assist Mr Mugabe in his
campaign of brutal violence and intimidation.


How is Mr Mugabe able to get away with it? His government survives not just
because it flouts the rule of law and uses violence to intimidate or remove
opposition, but also because it manages to maintain a facade of legitimacy.
That facade appears to be enough to ensure that neither other African states
nor the countries of the Western world are prepared to take the steps
required to end Mr Mugabe's violent dictatorship. The necessary action is of
course not criticism for human rights violations from the American
government or European Union governments. Mr Mugabe not only cares nothing
for such criticism: he actually believes it helps him. He is after the
support of black Africans, not Western whites. The more he can portray his
regime as the "victims" of white racism and colonialism, the more likely he
believes he is to get that support.


That is why he was perfectly happy for coverage of Zimbabwe in Western
newspapers to centre last week on the patently unjust detention of some 20
white farmers and the random beatings of white women in Chinhoyi. Those
shocking events were deliberately designed by Mr Mugabe to capture headlines
in the way that they have. It suits him to have the violence his thugs
continuously commit against thousands of black Zimbabweans pass unnoticed.
If all the world sees is his attacks on whites, that makes him look like a
"liberator", the leader in a struggle against colonialism.


Presidential elections have to be held in just over six months and the
Constitution does not permit any extension. Mr Mugabe knows that despite
Zanu PF's by-election "victory" two weeks ago, he does not have sufficient
support to win the Presidential election. He also knows he does not have the
ability to manipulate the electoral process throughout the country in the
way he can in by-elections. What Mr Mugabe needs is a pretext to impose a
State of Emergency, which would enable him to crush the democratic
opposition. That is why Gloria Olds, a grandmother, was gratuitously
murdered earlier this year, and why her body had an entire AK47 magazine of
bullets pumped into it as she lay dead. It is also why farmers have been
under siege for days, have had their homes ransacked and the law applied
selectively against them. That is why white women were assaulted last week.
All those acts have been coldly and cynically calculated to provoke a
violent white reaction.


Mr Mugabe desperately needs a few white farmers to lose their tempers and
gun down several "war veterans". Miraculously, not a single "war veteran"
has been intentionally killed by a white since those actions began 17 months
ago. So Mr Mugabe has stepped up his campaign to provoke them. All his
attempts to silence the opposition this year have failed - if anything the
opposition is gathering momentum. Mr Mugabe and his cronies now recognise
that without the imposition of a State of Emergency, they will not be able
to stem this momentum. If whites can be provoked into fighting back and
shedding blood in the process then Mr Mugabe believes he will have what he
needs: the pretext to crush, not the whites, but the Movement for Democratic
Change and its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.


What can outside politicians do to stop Mr Mugabe destroying his own
country? Whilst the West has cut off aid to Zimbabwe, that has not hurt the
super rich Zanu PF hierarchy. Mr Mugabe is quite prepared to sacrifice the
Zimbabwean economy to stay in power. He takes great trouble, however, to
ensure that his ruling clique does not suffer. His political allies earn
rich dividends from the extortionately high-priced fuel and their access to
foreign exchange. They have their hands on the Treasury, so a large portion
of taxes end up in their private bank accounts. More than that, they have
all been bribed with proceeds from the war in the Congo.


Without the support of the majority of his cabinet Mr Mugabe will not
survive. What will make these people move against him? Not the imposition of
blanket sanctions, and not the cancellation of cricket tours or sports
links. The only thing which will hurt is sanctions targeted at the people
who order its violence. The dictatorship will persist only so long as
relative moderates - men such as Finance Minister Simba Makoni and Health
Minister Timothy Stamps - believe that they can remain in a cabinet
responsible for atrocities without risking any of the privileges Mr Mugabe
hands them. If travel bans were imposed by Western countries on these
ministers, and their children, many of whom study and work in Europe and
America, then they would consider whether it is worth their while to
buttress Mr Mugabe. If the foreign assets of the entire ruling corrupt elite
were identified and threatened with seizure, then that would also give them
some pause for thought. Finally, if Europe started investigations in terms
of the International Convention against Torture against those responsible
for torture, as defined in the Convention, those planning more of it might
reconsider.


Politicians in the powerful countries of the world - George W Bush, Tony
Blair, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroder, etc - do not face being beaten up
or killed if they take the only action against Mr Mugabe that has a chance
of dislodging him. They risk nothing by imposing sanctions specifically
targeted against the cronies who are profiting from Mr Mugabe's rape of
Zimbabwe. They might, however, save the country and the great mass of its
people from utter destruction. I hope they can muster sufficient bravery to
take the necessary steps - and before it is too late.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=88372

Mugabe defends his land reforms as more farmers flee angry mobs
By Anne Penketh
13 August 2001

The Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, yesterday brushed off suggestions
that he was forcing white farmers out of the country as more terrified
families packed up their belongings after their property was looted and
attacked by mobs of black squatters.

Mr Mugabe, speaking on the sidelines of a southern African summit in
Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, defended his controversial land reform
programme, saying: "We are not kicking the white settlers out but we are
being humane and humanitarian."

The white farming community sees it differently however. About 300 farmers
and their families have fled from about 100 raided farms in the tense
Chinhoyi area, 75 miles north-west of Harare, since last week. One farming
official was quoted as saying: "It's totally out of hand. We are evacuating
women and children and the elderly and the sick."

The upsurge in anti-white sentiment was fuelled by clashes between a group
of white farmers and the squatters who invaded their land – with Mr Mugabe's
blessing – last Monday. No squatters were arrested, but 21 white farmers
were detained on assault charges and are still in jail awaiting the outcome
of a bail hearing.

Three policemen have been suspended from duty in Chinhoyi, apparently after
they allowed the farmers to receive food and blankets from their families.
Normal regulations allow prisoners "only the barest items" in jail to
prevent suicide attempts.

But a police spokesman said that the officers "went in the middle of the
night to give them further items of clothing. This is very unprocedural. Why
should they [the white farmers] receive special treatment?"

Mr Mugabe defended his land-reform programme, which has had a disastrous
effect on the country's economy – normally sustained by the tobacco crop –
and race relations. "We are not kicking out the British altogether," he
said, "although they usually kick us out of their own country."

The reform plan calls for the confiscation of most of the mainly white
commercial farmers' land without compensation for redistribution to landless
blacks.

Mr Mugabe argued that the farmers were using only 30 per cent of their land
and his government was taking the 70 per cent that was not utilised.

The white farmers were "absentee landlords sitting in the House of Lords and
other places and farming by remote control", he alleged.The Zimbabwean
President also reacted with his habitual defiance at the weekend to an
American threat to invoke economic sanctions against Harare in an attempt to
change policy. He declared on Saturday that sanctions would not deter him
from his land reform drive.

The Financial Gazette reported in Harare last week that Mr Mugabe was
preparing to declare martial law to shore up his regime, using the adoption
of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act by the US Congress as a
pretext.

The South African President, Thabo Mbeki, rejected the sanctions approach,
saying he would continue with his "quiet diplomacy" to resolve the dispute,
despite acknowledging he had so far failed to make any headway with Mr
Mugabe.

Mr Mugabe's land grab, and the increase in attacks on the white community,
is widely seen as part of a political strategy aimed at keeping him in power
in presidential elections next year. He has also launched an intimidation
campaign against the media and the judiciary.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
>From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 12 August


Families flee from terror of mob rule in Zimbabwe


As President Robert Mugabe marked Zimbabwe's Heroes' Day with his latest
tirade against his country's beleaguered whites and the old colonial power
of Britain, he would have been delighted by the scenes of ethnic cleansing
on the lush veld north of Harare. In convoys of cars and trucks, white women
and children were evacuated from the agricultural heartland district of Doma
as mobs of rampaging Mugabe supporters looted farms. When self-styled war
veterans and police blocked the roads south from the town of Mhangura, some
farmers called in small planes to airlift their loved ones to safety in
Harare. By the end of the day, about 300 women and children had fled, mostly
to the provincial centre of Chinhoyi. Their husbands have stayed behind,
although they are largely powerless to stop the latest and most serious
offensive. One of the women who escaped from Doma yesterday described the
evacuation to The Telegraph. She is too scared to be identified and asked
for false names to be used for her family. Kim and Joe lived there with
their two sons, aged 10 and seven, on a 80-hectare tobacco farm which he
managed. Last night, Kim and her boys were staying with friends in Chinhoyi
after being forced to abandon her home.


"At 7pm on Friday, a neighbour called and told us we had better start
packing," she said. "He had heard from one of his workers that our farm
would be the next one targeted. We thought we'd be okay for the night, but
our neighbour called us again an hour later and told us to get out
immediately as the mobs were on their way. We took what we could carry and
drove into Mhangura to stay with friends." The next morning, Kim and the two
boys said a subdued farewell to Joe. With Kim at the wheel of their pick-up
truck, they joined a convoy of nine other vehicles carrying women and
children south along the main road towards Chinhoyi. The group was
accompanied by a few men to provide security.


Ten miles out of town, they found the road blocked by war veterans, forcing
them to take a detour down mud tracks through farms. Later they were again
stopped, this time by the police, but managed to talk themselves through and
they finally reached Chinhoyi in the late morning. "The worst thing was
leaving our husbands behind. I would have preferred to stay with him, but we
had to think of the boys. My youngest has been crying. He doesn't understand
why we had to leave his dad and he's worried about who will feed the dogs."
Kim admits that she has no idea when they will be able to go home. "It's
impossible to plan for the future in Zimbabwe today if you are white," she
said. "Mugabe has totally lost it and will do anything to keep in power. But
my Christian faith gives me hope."


Kim's convoy was the last to make it through by road. With mobs and the
police blocking the roads, farmers sent in planes to at least five farms.
Another four farms were looted on Friday night by drunken mobs armed with
axes, sticks, stones and knives. "Most of the men have stayed on the farms,
to see if they can stop their equipment been looted," said a farmer who also
did not wish to be named. Jan Botes, the local farmers' union chairman,
described the situation as desperate. "We've advised everyone to evacuate
the area and that women and children should leave first. It's got worse
because now criminals are taking advantage of the chaos." In his Heroes' Day
speech in Harare, Mr Mugabe praised the veterans of the guerrilla war
against white rule. He strongly attacked Britain and criticised America for
threatening to impose sanctions and accused white farmers of attacking
people who are squatting on their land. The latest crisis began when 21
white farmers were arrested after clashes with squatters when some went to
help a besieged neighbour.


>From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 12 August

The whites are not the main target of the thugs


By David Coltart


David Coltart, a Zimbabwe opposition leader, reveals Mugabe's plan


Zimbabwe is dangerous for everyone, but particularly for anyone who dares to
criticise Robert Mugabe's reign of terror. Like thousands of Zimbabweans, I
know from personal experience what those dangers are. Just before the
election here in June last year, I published an article which pointed out
some of the horrific abuses of power committed by Mugabe's government.
Within two weeks of the article being published, my polling agent Patrick
Nabanyama was abducted. He has never been seen again. The men responsible
are employed by Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF. Fourteen months later, they walk freely
on the streets of Bulawayo. They continue to assist Mr Mugabe in his
campaign of brutal violence and intimidation.


How is Mr Mugabe able to get away with it? His government survives not just
because it flouts the rule of law and uses violence to intimidate or remove
opposition, but also because it manages to maintain a facade of legitimacy.
That facade appears to be enough to ensure that neither other African states
nor the countries of the Western world are prepared to take the steps
required to end Mr Mugabe's violent dictatorship. The necessary action is of
course not criticism for human rights violations from the American
government or European Union governments. Mr Mugabe not only cares nothing
for such criticism: he actually believes it helps him. He is after the
support of black Africans, not Western whites. The more he can portray his
regime as the "victims" of white racism and colonialism, the more likely he
believes he is to get that support.


That is why he was perfectly happy for coverage of Zimbabwe in Western
newspapers to centre last week on the patently unjust detention of some 20
white farmers and the random beatings of white women in Chinhoyi. Those
shocking events were deliberately designed by Mr Mugabe to capture headlines
in the way that they have. It suits him to have the violence his thugs
continuously commit against thousands of black Zimbabweans pass unnoticed.
If all the world sees is his attacks on whites, that makes him look like a
"liberator", the leader in a struggle against colonialism.


Presidential elections have to be held in just over six months and the
Constitution does not permit any extension. Mr Mugabe knows that despite
Zanu PF's by-election "victory" two weeks ago, he does not have sufficient
support to win the Presidential election. He also knows he does not have the
ability to manipulate the electoral process throughout the country in the
way he can in by-elections. What Mr Mugabe needs is a pretext to impose a
State of Emergency, which would enable him to crush the democratic
opposition. That is why Gloria Olds, a grandmother, was gratuitously
murdered earlier this year, and why her body had an entire AK47 magazine of
bullets pumped into it as she lay dead. It is also why farmers have been
under siege for days, have had their homes ransacked and the law applied
selectively against them. That is why white women were assaulted last week.
All those acts have been coldly and cynically calculated to provoke a
violent white reaction.


Mr Mugabe desperately needs a few white farmers to lose their tempers and
gun down several "war veterans". Miraculously, not a single "war veteran"
has been intentionally killed by a white since those actions began 17 months
ago. So Mr Mugabe has stepped up his campaign to provoke them. All his
attempts to silence the opposition this year have failed - if anything the
opposition is gathering momentum. Mr Mugabe and his cronies now recognise
that without the imposition of a State of Emergency, they will not be able
to stem this momentum. If whites can be provoked into fighting back and
shedding blood in the process then Mr Mugabe believes he will have what he
needs: the pretext to crush, not the whites, but the Movement for Democratic
Change and its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.


What can outside politicians do to stop Mr Mugabe destroying his own
country? Whilst the West has cut off aid to Zimbabwe, that has not hurt the
super rich Zanu PF hierarchy. Mr Mugabe is quite prepared to sacrifice the
Zimbabwean economy to stay in power. He takes great trouble, however, to
ensure that his ruling clique does not suffer. His political allies earn
rich dividends from the extortionately high-priced fuel and their access to
foreign exchange. They have their hands on the Treasury, so a large portion
of taxes end up in their private bank accounts. More than that, they have
all been bribed with proceeds from the war in the Congo.


Without the support of the majority of his cabinet Mr Mugabe will not
survive. What will make these people move against him? Not the imposition of
blanket sanctions, and not the cancellation of cricket tours or sports
links. The only thing which will hurt is sanctions targeted at the people
who order its violence. The dictatorship will persist only so long as
relative moderates - men such as Finance Minister Simba Makoni and Health
Minister Timothy Stamps - believe that they can remain in a cabinet
responsible for atrocities without risking any of the privileges Mr Mugabe
hands them. If travel bans were imposed by Western countries on these
ministers, and their children, many of whom study and work in Europe and
America, then they would consider whether it is worth their while to
buttress Mr Mugabe. If the foreign assets of the entire ruling corrupt elite
were identified and threatened with seizure, then that would also give them
some pause for thought. Finally, if Europe started investigations in terms
of the International Convention against Torture against those responsible
for torture, as defined in the Convention, those planning more of it might
reconsider.


Politicians in the powerful countries of the world - George W Bush, Tony
Blair, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroder, etc - do not face being beaten up
or killed if they take the only action against Mr Mugabe that has a chance
of dislodging him. They risk nothing by imposing sanctions specifically
targeted against the cronies who are profiting from Mr Mugabe's rape of
Zimbabwe. They might, however, save the country and the great mass of its
people from utter destruction. I hope they can muster sufficient bravery to
take the necessary steps - and before it is too late.


David Coltart is the Movement for Democratic Change's Shadow Minister of
Justice.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
"How Zanu PF sees it" ....... are they kidding anyone but themselves???? 
 
HARD FACTS ON ZIMBABWE-08 August 2001
http://www.zanupfpub.co.zw/releases.html   

White Farmers assault resettled indigenous farmers

 On Monday some twenty-two white commercial farmers ganged up and brutally
 attacked some resettled farmers at Liston Shield Farm in Chinhoyi, Mashonaland 
West province west of Harare. 

The attack was so racial and cruel. They used logs,sticks and batons. This is a move 
by the white farmers to resist and frustrate the ongoing fast-track land reform programme.

Several defenceless resettled farmers were seriously injured, mostly in the head and they
 were admitted at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital. The attacked farmers were caught unaware.
 Some casualties sustained fructured ribs and varying degrees of head and body injuries. 
One resettled farmer lost an ear and another had an arm broken. The attacking of the 
resettled farmers by the white commercial farmers in their endeavour to resist the government
 fast-track resettlement programme is aclear sign of lack of co-operation by the white farmers 
on their side and as well as a sign of racism being perpetrated by the whites themselves.

Some angry resettled farmers were obliged to retaliate and they attacked several white farmers
 in the area resulting in clashes which were cooled by the intervention of police, who moved in 
quickly to restore order and tranquility. 

The attack comes barely a month after another white farmer fatally ran over a resettled farmer, 
Febian Mapenzauswa in Odzi near Mutare.The farmer has since appeared in court to answer
 charges on murder but has not yet been prosecuted. What these white farmers are doing is 
provoking a war on the farms. They have been working in collaboration with the opposition,
 through their organisation CFU to undermine and derail the land reform programme since it 
started. At least 22 white farmers were arrested and are expected to appear in court soon
 over the attacks.


Back to the Top
Back to Index
The Last Word

Peter Lovemore
Each evening on Radio One, at approximately five minutes before the hour of
six o’ clock, those of us who happen to be listening are subjected to the
unctuous tones of the now-famous and no longer amusing Standard Chartered
Bank Financial Highlights report. No offence to the bank in question, which
I support, incidentally, as an account holder, for if it was not them it
would be another of our rapidly proliferating financial sector companies. No
offence to the owner of the voice, either, which belongs to a man I happen
to like.

The Voice
“The Zimbabwe dollar,” says the urbane voice, “was quoted firm at fifty five
to the US dollar, whilst remaining steady at seven point three zero eight to
the SA Rand.” Firm? Steady? Sorry, which dollar was it you were talking
about Mr. Voice? Surely not our own over-produced, worthless denomination
which grows weaker and more worthless by the day and which people tote about
in large bags, even sacks, as they trot from one transaction to the next in
their daily lives?

Then again, you will hear most days that “the rate fluctuated during the day
as the dollar came under pressure, before firming once again to a mid-rate
of 55.” The script hasn’t been rewritten since Simba the Technocrat took
over the tattered reins of the finance portfolio a year ago. I mean, come
on, who is fooling who here? Pray, inform this fiscally ignorant writer.
Neither the US dollar, nor the SA rand have traded at anywhere near those
sort of rates for six months or more. It’s all so reminiscent of the
paradise constructed after World War II by the creators of the Gulag in the
late and unlamented Soviet Union or, if one is seeking a more contemporary
example, the sinister atmosphere engendered by the regime in Pyongyang,
capital of the ailing Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The shop is open and the smiling attendants at the counter, who generally
outnumber their customers by a dozen to one, are surrounded by brightly
coloured signs depicting all the goods and services suppose-dly available.
But the shelves are bare and there is no stock. Ah truly, Jo Stalin and Dear
Leader Kim Il Sung would have admired the handiwork of this government.

Bland Deception
What kind of country is it that we live in which can support this sort of
bland deception on a daily basis, not merely on the radio but in every organ
of the press, government-owned or inde- pendent? Even the most simple-minded
among us knows that that the real rates are four to fives time greater than
the so-called “official” rates of exchange.

And if you want real proof then just try applying to the local branch of
your bank for even the most piddling amount of currency at fifty-five or
seven point whatever to one. They will tell you exactly what they’ve been
telling me for the past eight weeks. Sorry, we have no foreign exchange.

They do, of course, but not at the “official” rates, and certainly not for
small fry like you and me who might want a thousand rand or two hundred US
dollars. And who could blame any bank for not selling you something for
fifty-five dollars which everybody knows now costs more like two hundred and
fifty dollars from sundry other holders of the stuff, or multi-national
service organisations, such as airlines, which quote customers at the “real”
rates.

Long Wait
For two months or more I have waited impatiently for my bank to respond to
an application made well over two months ago for US$500 for the only male
among my many off-spring who, next week, travels with 50 of his classmates
on an educational tour to the pyramids of Egypt and the vineyards —oops,
sorry, cathedrals — of Italy. Having accepted my application, I have all
along fully, but naively I now realise, expected at least some of this
insignificant amount to be forthcoming from them. Otherwise, why do they
insist on going through with this little pantomime, accompanied as it has
been by regular assurances that by next week “we may well be able to satisfy
your requirement”?

In the meantime, I have torn the few remaining strands of what was once a
verdant growth of hair from my frustrated head. And now, almost as if in
pursuit of a certificate of insanity, I make a point, whenever I can, of
listening to the SCBFH on Radio One each weekday evening at 5.55pm,
whereupon, at the point where The Voice mentions the day’s exchange rates, I
burst into a sort of high-pitched, keening giggle — and then tear a few more
strands out by their painful roots!

Most foreign countries have a visa requirement and the most important part
of the application form concerns the means by which the applicant will fund
and support him/herself whilst in the country of destination. If travellers
che- ques are no longer forthcoming, which they are not in almost 90% of
cases, how then are travellers from Zimbabwe, be they genuine tourists,
asylum-seekers or busi-nesspeople doing their best to keep this sinking ship
afloat, supposed to pass the ‘means test’?

According to a document recently received via my e-mail server, I must be
suffering from the affliction known obscurely as “lethologica”, which
describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want. There
is, I feel, a single, unhyphenated, printable word to describe the state of
the country which we now inhabit. It’s just that I’m damned if I can think
of it right now!
Back to the Top
Back to Index
ZimInd

Features

Muckraker


PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki seems to be as exasperated with President Mugabe as
everybody else. He told the BBC this week that he didn’t know why his
efforts to persuade Mugabe to moderate his actions had not been effective.

We do. Mugabe has a hearing disability. To make matters worse, he translates
all warnings as messages of support. At least Mbeki’s latest signal cannot
be misunderstood.

Land distribution in Zimbabwe must be handled “differently”, he said. That
means “without violence, without conflict, within the context of the law,
bearing in mind the interests of all Zimbabweans, both black and white”.

Nothing could be clearer. “Differently” means different from the current
policy of violence and lawlessness. And “within the context of the law”
doesn’t include the current attempts to legitimise blanket seizures.

Finally, “bearing in mind the interests of all Zimbabweans, black and white”
cannot include the current torrent of racist vitriol emanating from
government spokesman or the wholesale dispossession of all white farmers.

It is doubtful whether Mugabe will take much notice of the latest
intervention from the south. But at least the state media will no longer be
able to persist with any credibility in claiming that the region stands as
one behind our leader!

Under the heading “Airzim enjoys roaring business”, the Herald on Monday
carried a picture of a group of travellers posing “soon after arrival”.

In fact they were Zimbabwe’s Supermodel team returning from Malawi in 1999,
not tourists. And David Mwenga’s claim that the national “airliner” is
enjoying “roaring business since the eclipse” is rather misleading.

Apart from British Airways and SAA, Air Zimbabwe is now the only airline
left flying into Harare. Of course business is good. It should be when you
have no competition!

But the “roaring business” doesn’t appear to have extended to hoteliers who
are asking where all the thousands of tourists reported to be flooding into
the country since the eclipse have gone to. They’re certainly not staying at
the hotels, they say!

The French embassy has issued a press release saying how much it welcomes
the decision by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair authorities this year
to focus on Senegal in particular and Francophone Africa in general. The
embassy is launching a book called Fools, Thieves and Other Dreamers at the
fair which has been published with the help of the UZ’s French department.

They didn’t say whether the Minister of Information would be present at the
launch of Fools, Thieves and Other Dreamers but they did say it contained a
contemporary parable about “leadership, commitment and the erosion of trust”
. It also examines “the harshness of a society living on the economic edge”.

Another contribution called The Fool’s Gallery “offers us the dream world of
khat into which people can and will escape when life flounders all around
them”.

Visitors to the Book Fair who might be under the impression that the French
embassy is handing out Somali narcotic leaves which can be chewed in the
safety of the National Gallery should be warned that the usual penalties
will apply. For Zimbabweans there is no escape!

A number of Zanu PF propagandists posing as “journalists” have been giving
us their views of the Bindura by-election outcome in the state media.

None of them have offered anything in the way of useful analysis except to
say that the result is a “turning point” in Zanu PF’s fortunes and that the
party’s victory signalled “the mode of future elections”.

It certainly does. It signals more intimidation, violence and vote- rigging.

One of the worst examples of partisan reporting last week came from the
Herald’s Tim Chigodo who had this to say:
“The people’s message was loud and clear as demonstrated by the occupation
of farms by war veterans and the landless peasants. They wanted their party
to give them back the land stolen from their forefathers and have it
distributed equally.”

If that sort of uncritical and compliant journalism doesn’t shock you, how
about this treatment of the opposition:
“The opposition has exposed itself as a foreign-sponsored party intent on
controlling the economy and depriving black Zimbabweans (of) an equal share
of their rich natural resources.”

Almost as bad was the Sunday Mail’s Phillip Magwaza who saw the outcome in
Biblical terms:
“When a rainbow appeared in the rain- drenched horizon for the Biblical Noah
in his ark, this was a harbinger for an end to the flood that had swept the
Earth.”

The Bindura outcome heralded a similar era for Zanu PF, Magwaza gushed:
“The general populace seems to have begun to realise that the MDC has
nothing to offer except cheap rhetoric and criticism of Zanu PF.”

Criticism of Zanu PF is evidently not something we will see much of from
these correspondents! The electoral bribes masquerading as “projects”, the
registration of over 4 000 land invaders on a supplementary voters’ roll,
the threats of violence and death made against political opponents — none of
these things seemed to matter to these dedicated praise-singers.

We can understand government journalists having to sing for their supper.
Magwaza for instance pretended that Zanu PF had won in Masvingo’s mayoral
poll to bolster his argument that the party was on a winning streak!

But do they seriously suppose Mugabe is going to rule forever; that Zanu PF
will remain supreme despite the widespread disaffection that is evident in
every part of the country as the economy descends deeper into the abyss?

Shouldn’t journalists be the first to question the “truths” they are told by
their rulers? Do they really think that the MDC wants to restore colonial
rule or that food production can be maintained by resettling people on land
without infrastructure, training or implements? Isn’t scepticism the first
qualification of an effective reporter?

Not at the Herald and Sunday Mail it seems.

The Zimbabwe Mirror has been quick to defend the media ethics committee
which Jonathan Moyo has appointed to advise him on ways of dealing with what
he calls unprofessional conduct by journalists.

This should come as no surprise. One of the things Moyo has objected to is
the investigation by the Daily News of Mirror proprietor Ibbo Mandaza’s
property portfolio. Moyo regards the investigation as intrusive and
unacceptable although we are not sure what it’s got to do with him.

Clearly, the Mirror — once again — has a conflict of interest here. It is
taking an editorial position in favour of a committee designed to restrict
media scrutiny of prominent personalities when its proprietor is claiming to
be a victim of newspapers inquiring into his assets.

The media should not object to the committee’s work if it has nothing to
hide is the Mirror’s rather ironic viewpoint. It is wrong to prejudge the
committee’s work, the paper claims.

But isn’t this a committee tailored to produce a specific outcome? Is it not
packed with individuals who are known supporters of Zanu PF’s agenda or who
cannot be relied upon to defend media freedom?

Did Moyo not provide as examples of why he proposes to “protect privacy”
newspaper reports that the two vice-presidents were dissatisfied with his
own performance as a minister and media criticism of Lands minister Joseph
Made’s maladroit record?

Is it okay, as far as the Mirror is concerned, that Made’s wife Pat has been
appointed to the committee when Made has been identified by Moyo as a victim
of what he regards as unwarranted media criticism? Does that pose no ethical
problem?

As for Pat Made, did she not stop for one second to consider whether she was
doing the right thing as IPS bureau chief in joining a panel that is
designed to shield her husband, among others from legitimate press scrutiny?
What sort of ethics is that?

Under the heading “Signpost goes missing” the Herald carried a funny little
AFP piece this week about a town in Scotland called “Lost”. Visitors not
only like to be photographed beneath the sign but thieves like it as well.

They have taken it several times and the authorities are appealing for them
to return it.

“We’re hoping someone will help us find Lost”, a spokesperson said.
Harare readers must have felt a little lost themselves. Here is a capital
with nearly all its street signs stolen and the Herald runs an article on a
small town in Scotland with one missing sign! Is this what the French call a
divertissement or just another sign of the Cloud Cuckoo Land our rulers have
led us into?

That includes a silly report in the Herald this week that Australian
aboriginal leaders want President Mugabe to address them and offer Zimbabwe’
s support for land reclamation at the Commonwealth summit in Brisbane.

Why didn’t the report name a single Australian aborigine or the organisation
they represent? Doesn’t elementary journalism require some reference to who
these purported “leaders” are?

Let’s have the names to prove this letter didn’t originate in the President’
s Office. Or is the government’s public relations slush fund about to
produce an aboriginal Coltrane Chimurenga and Violet Plummer in time for the
Chogm summit?

The City of Harare’s publication Harare Highlights has appeared again after
a temporary suspension caused by “unforeseen logistical problems”.

While the city’s public relations team admits to “a dip in the quality of
service offered up to early this year”, it is anxious to reassure us that
the situation has “vastly improved”.

Bolstering this claim they say the operating overdraft facility is paid up
in full, relations with suppliers are now “cordial”, and government is
paying all outstanding arrears.

Problems persisting are the drying up of donor funds, failure by ratepayers
to be upto-date on payments, “in herited corruption and general
maladministration”, “apathetic work attitude by government employees”,
“rampant vandalism of council property by residents”, “unprecedented heavy
continuous rains which affected roads, sewage reticulation, and grass
cutting”, and “poor refuse collection contracts”.

Can you imagine a greater abdication of responsibility than a city council
admitting “inherited corruption and maladministration” and not doing
anything about it? Who is responsible for “poor refuse collection contracts”
?

It is as bad as blaming long grass on heavy rains!

The city pledges to downsize staff and deal “firmly” with incompetence,
inefficiency and corruption, but what are the results so far? Zanu PF’s
municipal union is firmly in the driving seat.

And instead of blaming residents for “rampant vandalism”, why doesn’t the
council attend to elementary maintenance of roads and pavements? The corner
of Tongogara and Prince Edward offers a spectacle of broken cement,
uncollected rubbish, unregulated and unhygenic cooked mealie vending, and
long grass which the council has left unattended for months.

Instead of spending money making idle promises, the council should attend to
routine maintenance and law-enforcement. Why isn’t it doing so?

Back to the Top
Back to Index
from CNN
 Mugabe warns white farmers not to retaliate
August 11, 2001 Posted: 3:04 PM EDT (1904 GMT)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said on Saturday the threat of sanctions would not deter his controversial land reform drive and warned white farmers against attacking militants illegally occupying their properties.
 
At a rally to commemorate Zimbabwe's national war heroes, Mugabe accused the West of pushing for sanctions against him in a bid to protect the interest of whites, whom he says own the bulk of Zimbabwe's prime land as a result of colonialism.
 
"When the British...brutalized and traumatized us (during colonialization), the so-called democratic world would not lift a finger or even raise an eyebrow for we were dubbed...a race of no rights," a visibly angry Mugabe told thousands of supporters.
 
"And now you have this talk of sanctions...just what is our crime? Our crime is that we are black and in America the blacks are a condemned race.
 
The U.S. Senate last week approved and passed on to Congress the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, threatening targeted sanctions unless Zimbabwe ends attacks on the opposition and protects the media and the judiciary.
 
On Thursday Zimbabwe's Financial Gazette quoted government sources as saying Harare would consider declaring a state of emergency if sanctions were imposed.
 
Zimbabwe is in deep political and economic crisis after a violent campaign last year led by independence war veterans to seize white-owned farms and crush the opposition.
 
The veterans and their supporters say the farm occupations are a show of support for Mugabe's drive to seize 8.3 million hectares (20.7 million acres) of the 12 million hectares he says are in the hands of 4,500 whites for redistribution to blacks.
 
The government says white farmers are responsible for the latest surge of violence, which led to the arrest on Monday of over 20 landowners in Chinhoyi, 120 km northwest of Harare.
 
 
Mugabe warned white farmers to "desist immediately from continuing these kinds of attacks."   
A Zimbabwe court on Friday denied bail to the farmers, who were charged with inciting public violence after clashes with pro-Mugabe supporters occupying their properties.
 
Farming authorities said the situation remained volatile in Chinhoyi after at least 40 white families fled their farms when pro-government militants went on a rampage of assault, looting and arson in retaliation for Monday's skirmishes.
 
On Saturday Mugabe warned farmers to: "desist immediately from continuing these kinds of organized attacks."
 
"They will of course ricochet, and mind you acts of this nature have the ability to...bounce back and when they bounce back and hit them they should not cry foul," he said to applause from his supporters.
 
Mugabe also accused white farmers, working with the opposition, of lobbying the U.S. and Europe to slap sanctions on Zimbabwe.
 
Back to the Top
Back to Index
ZimInd

Comment


EVENTS in Chinhoyi this week indicate that violence and lawlessness remain
the ruling party’s chief instruments in seizing land. Although official
statements suggest that government now has the legal means to take land as
and when it wishes, and that the rule of law is being adhered to, evidence
on the farms and in places like Chinhoyi point to an escalation of
politically-driven attacks on white farmers and their workers.

In Chinhoyi police arrested 21 farmers who had gone to the rescue of a
besieged colleague who police had declined to assist — except by the offer
of a constable on a bicycle — and then stood by as Zanu PF youths assaulted
the families of the men who had brought them food and blankets.

The magistrate hearing the state’s concocted charge of violence against the
men resorted to the legally dubious device of keeping them incarcerated for
their own safety — an admission of failure by the state to maintain order.

Following incitement by Col Muammar Gaddafi during his recent visit to
Chinhoyi and Zanu PF officials, mobs of party supporters went on the rampage
in the town this week attacking whites.

None of this could have happened without the government’s encouragement and
direction and it shows only too clearly how a policy of rural terror is
being used to force farmers off the land so it can more easily be taken by
the state.

When the government embarked on fast-track seizures last year it assured the
international community it only wanted to share the land. Of the 12 million
hectares under commercial ownership, only five million would be taken it
said. Further, farmers with only one property would have it replaced by
another.

None of that has happened. Very simply it was a lie. The state has now, in
an orgy of violence and lawlessness and without any programme to speak of,
simply seized virtually all commercial farms by force.

Despite arming itself with a number of questionable constitutional
amendments and laws, it still feels the need to forcibly evict white farmers
by unleashing mobs of ruling party supporters which have in many cases been
responsible for instigating violence, kidnapping and extortion.

Rarely have the police arrested those responsible for these crimes. As in
the Bindura by-election they have instead arrested the victims of crime.

The anxiety of the Chinhoyi farmers is understandable. Last weekend, Kwekwe
farmer Ralph Corbett (76) was viciously assaulted by an axe-wielding land
invader and fatally injured.

The government is currently on a campaign to assure the international
community that, whatever the excesses of the past, it has now embarked on a
policy that involves following the law and discouraging violence.
Information minister Jonathan Moyo has been in the forefront of this new
thrust reacting indignantly to suggestions that there is lawlessness and
instead blaming the opposition and white farmers for assaults.

Only a blind person would fall for this. Documented instances of violence in
Bindura show armed Zanu PF thugs were almost exclusively responsible for
vicious attacks on opposition supporters.

Moyo’s cabinet colleagues are anyway on record as having recently said that
violence is “inevitable in any revolution”. Some have actually warned
opposition supporters that they could be killed for backing the MDC.

Commentators in the state media parrot the same refrain that violence is
inevitable as they whip up racial resentment.

How does Moyo and other ministers explain the fact that the police have done
next to nothing to apprehend the killers of farmers and MDC members? The
alleged CIO killer of Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya was recently
reported to have visited Roy Bennett’s farm in Chimanimani to coordinate
state attempts to dispossess the outspoken MP.

At the end of the day there can be little doubt that the state is behind the
wave of lawlessness and violence sweeping the country. President Mugabe has
repeatedly shown his contempt for the law. Leading Zanu PF officials are
guilty of incitement. So are elements in the state media. And the police
have ignored their responsibilities under the Police Act and allowed
themselves to be suborned by local politicians.

It would be impossible for farm occupations to proceed without the
logistical support of government departments. That includes the arming of
farm invaders. And Jospeh Chinotimba would never have been able to carry out
a campaign of extortion in the business sector without the tacit approval of
the state for his bogus trade union.

In the circumstances any attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of
international observers — not to mention Zimbabweans themselves who know
only too well what is going on — is unlikely to succeed.

This is a regime committed to the retention of power by violent means.
As Senator Bill Frist said in support of the Zimbabwe Democracy Bill last
week, Mugabe’s “continued support for the invasions of farms and businesses
are nothing but a cover for his assault on democracy and the rule of law and
his mismanagement of the economy”.

Isn’t that what everybody now accepts to be the case?
Back to the Top
Back to Index
from Zim Independent

Chinotimba a fake

Brian Hungwe
CONTROVERSIAL Harare war veterans’ leader Joseph Chinotimba is a fake war
veteran who only crossed into Mozambique in 1979 a few weeks before the
ceasefire and was registered as a refugee.

Chinotimba’s colleagues in the war veterans’ association told the Zimbabwe
Independent this week that they had no knowledge of Chinotimba’s war record
and challenged him to come clean on the contribution he made to the
struggle. His liberation war credentials have of late been put under the
spotlight after information emerged that he was in fact a refugee.

Wilfred Mhanda, the former commander of Mgagao military camp in Tanzania
whose liberation war name was Dzinashe Machingura, said that he could not
trace Chinotimba’s war record.

He said that the only information he had gathered was that Chino-timba
crossed into Mozambique in late 1979 where he joined scores of other
refugees.

“We would have known him if he was a war veteran. He crossed into Mozambique
in 1979 towards the ceasefire. Chinotimba is not a war veteran. Where did he
train and who trained him? Other people’s war records are clear, why not
his?” Mhanda asked.

He criticised the media for not thoroughly investigating the background of
some so-called liberation war veterans.

“You are just told someone is a war veteran and you swallow that hook, line
and sinker. It is terrible journalism,” Mhanda said.

“They are being projected as war heroes everyday. Chinotimba’s war veteran
status is a creation of the press.”

Zanu PF Harare province secretary for security Mike Moyo told the
Independent yesterday that no one in the association had clear information
on Chinotimba’s war record.

“The truth is that we do not know him. If he is not a bogus war veteran, he
should come out in the open and tell the nation where he was trained and the
people that trained him,” Moyo said.

“It is a very simple thing to do. For some of us, our records are there and
we are not ashamed to tell our history. As a public figure he should not
hide his history to the papers. It is something to be proud of,” he said.

“What is interesting about Chinotimba is that it’s only him who knows his
war history.”

Chinotimba declared that he was not going to speak to the independent press
“from today” when the Independent sought his comment yesterday.
“Why are you asking me silly questions?” he fumed.

“I don’t give such information to destroyers of my country. You want to go
to the British and supply that information. No, I don’t want.

“Go and get that information from my commanders,” he said.
Chinotimba refused to name his commanders or when he went for military
training.

“Why are you troubling me? I don’t want to speak to you,” Chinotimba said
before switching off his mobile phone.

Last week the Independent reported that General Solomon Mujuru had
questioned Chinotimba’s liberation war credentials during a politburo
meeting.

Zanu PF sources told the Independent that Mujuru had said he was not aware
of Chinotimba’s liberation war history.

Mujuru was the commander of the Zanla forces in Mozambique and was deputy to
the late national hero Josiah Tongogara who died in a car accident in 1979.

Mujuru wanted to know why Chinotimba was being feted by the ruling party
elite, getting Cherokees ahead of other senior party officials who were
using their own resources campaigning for the party.

Chinotimba now lives in a party house in Marlborough and is a recipient of
the once-off $50 000 gratuity and $4 000 monthly pensions awarded to war
veterans.

Refugess were not entitled to the benefits.

Chinotimba hit back at Mujuru last week saying he was not qualified to
comment on matters affecting war veterans and advised him to shut up because
he had done nothing to further the cause of war veterans.
Mike Moyo took a swipe at Chinotimba for challenging Mujuru.

“It makes us very angry,” Moyo said. “That shows he is not a war veteran.
Genuine war veterans have respect for their commanders. A person with little
knowledge is dangerous. I would advise him to keep quiet and listen to
advice.

“What Chinotimba does not know is that Mujuru is our commander for life.”
Mhanda said the liberation war history of war veterans was clear. He said it
was easy to trace “when they went to war, where they were trained, their
trainers and what they did afterwards”.

“You make them (media) heroes out of nothing and quote them everyday
portraying them as war veterans,” he said.

Chinotimba, he said, was one of thousands of refugees that were in
Mozambique when the ceasefire was signed. Together with the late war
veterans national chairman Chenjerai Hunzvi, he was at the forefront of farm
invasions that began in February last year.

Chinotimba dubbed himself the “commander of farm invasions”.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
Herald Tribune

Zimbabwe Anger Rises
   Henri E. Cauvin New York Times Service  Saturday, August 11, 2001

22 Whites Jailed After Farm Violence

CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe With the government vowing to step up its seizures of
white-owned farms and Western countries weighing punitive steps, tension has
flared across Zimbabwe in recent days, and this city north of the capital
has been one of the hottest flash points.
.
Clashes Monday night between white farmers and poor blacks who had occupied
a farm touched off the latest surge in tensions, and landed 22 white men,
all but one of them farmers, in jail here, charged with causing public
violence.
.
And Thursday, as more than 100 government loyalists chanted angrily near the
courthouse where the arrested men were to appear, dozens of white families
were fleeing their homesteads after confrontations with black squatters, the
Commercial Farmers Union reported.
.
At least four houses were looted and at least two white farmers were shot
at, said David Rockingham-Gill, the regional executive of the farmers union.
.
"Nothing has been worse than today, not in this province," Mr.
Rockingham-Gill said.
.
George Charamba, a spokesman for President Robert Mugabe, said the recent
increase in confrontations was driven by the white farmers in a ploy to win
sympathy in the United States and among the Commonwealth nations, which are
holding their foreign ministers' meeting next month. "What they want to do
is convince those ministers that there is lawlessness, that there is
violence, and what's more that they are victims of that violence," Mr.
Charamba said Thursday night in an interview.
.
But opponents of the president said that another wave of
government-sanctioned intimidation is under way in Zimbabwe as the
government finds itself under mounting international pressure and the
economy founders while the presidential election next year approaches.
.
"The weaker they feel, the more aggressive they become, and I think this
escalation in violence is a result of them feeling increasingly isolated
internationally," said David Coltart, a member of Parliament from the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change. "They're realizing that the net
is closing in terms of the Commonwealth, in terms of South Africa losing
patience. And they've decided that the only way out of this jam is to
provoke a hostile response from white farmers."
.
The confrontations come as the government has pledged to step up its program
of redistributing white-owned land to poor blacks. After saying for months
that the state planned to acquire about 5 million hectares (12 million
acres) of white-owned land, the agriculture minister, Joseph Made,
unexpectedly announced last week that the government now plans to take 8
million hectares and warned commercial farmers to avoid antagonizing the
black squatters occupying white farms.
.
The first clash erupted here Monday, when a group of white farmers came to
the aid of a colleague who they believed was being attacked by a black
squatter, the farmers union said.
.
In the melee, both blacks and whites apparently were hurt, and the sight of
the injured blacks in the state-owned media prompted a spate of revenge
attacks on whites around Chinhoyi this week by supporters of the governing
party .
.
While most of the people attacked and killed in Zimbabwe's political
violence over the last 18 months have been black, the targeting of whites
has stirred particular interest in the West. In the coming months Zimbabwe
could find itself even more isolated.
.
The Commonwealth heads of government are all but certain to address Zimbabwe
when they meet in October in Australia.
.
In the United States, the House of Representatives is expected to take up
legislation, recently passed by the Senate, that would freeze overseas
assets and restrict the travel of Mr. Mugabe and some of his closest aides
while setting strict conditions for resuming the international assistance
Zimbabwe desperately needs.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
International jurists to investigate Zim judiciary

Brian Hungwe
THE International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) will be coming to Zimbabwe in
October to investigate allegations of executive interference with the
operations of the judiciary, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.

During a visit to Geneva in April, Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa
agreed with ICJ secretary-general Louise Doswald-Beck to a fact-finding
mission between July and September and pledged all necessary assistance
during the mission.

ICJ legal officer Ian Seiderman told the Independent from Geneva on
Wednesday that the government wrote a letter to their permanent mission
advising them that the visit could go ahead.

Siederman said: “We are considering coming on a fact-finding mission and we
will be finalising on the exact dates when we are going to come, and it
might take place sometime early October.”

He said the letter from Zimbabwe was received by their permanent mission in
Geneva who advised them of the contents by telephone last week.

The ICJ mission is expected to meet President Mugabe, senior government
ministers, and representatives of the justice and legal fraternity.

The mission should comprise three eminent jurists drawn from ICJ’s global
network.

An ICJ press release in April said, if granted permission, the mission would
examine questions relating to the administration of justice, especially as
they relate to the independence of the judiciary, taking into account
historical root causes of recent events including demands for greater
judicial activism in ensuring social justice.

The ICJ previously expressed serious concerns over allegations of executive
intervention in judicial appointments and tenure.

This followed the forced removal from the bench of the former Chief Justice
Anthony Gubbay, and verbal attacks on members of the High Court and Supreme
Court benches by Chinamasa and Information minister Jonathan Moyo.

Supreme Court judges, Justice George Smith and Ali Ebrahim resisted
Chinamasa’s attempts to remove them. But other judges have more recen-tly
succumbed to pressure.

Sources within the judiciary told the Independent that the government had
been contemplating barring the ICJ from visiting, anticipating another
adverse report.

This follows a damning report presented by the International Bar Association
(IBA) earlier this year.

The government rejected the IBA report and made personal attacks on
members of the committee that had produced
it.

Back to the Top
Back to Index