• "17 yrs old and fighting"
• "Stories like these"
• Mugabe's men gave us marijuana
• Mugabe's iron fist
• UK cracks down on Mugabe
• UK urged to send troops to Zimbabwe
• Standard ‘banned’ as terror campaign spreads
• Mugabe minder in envoy’s sex scandal
• Chihuri orders cops to vote Mugabe
• Zanu PF fails to stop Tsvangirai, Obasanjo meeting
• Relief supplies arrive in Zim
• Moyo’s rude awakening
• Zanu PF concerned about violent campaign
• ZCC deplores terror campaign
• Mugabe in hunt for 'four hidden correspondents'
• Letter to Australian Foreign Affairs Minister
• UK slams Mugabe, urges sanctions
• 'Smart' sanctions may not be enough to free Zimbabwe from tyranny
• Britain ready to take Mugabe to task with possible sanctions <
• LAND ACQUISITION AND INHUMANE TREATMENT OF CATTLE
  Firearms Seizure

Attachments

The Gaddafi factor
In September, the Guardian (UK) wrote:

Gadaffi, who has despaired of his efforts to play a leadership role in the Arab word, has begun to use his financial muscle to make interventions right across black Africa.   He has made Zimbabwe a special case, first advancing Mugabe a loan of $100 million and then making a special trip to the OAU summit in Lusaka, the first such summit he had attended since 1977, to give all-out support to Mugabe's land-grabbing and anti-white policies.

Since then, the association between the two has resulted in:
         Gaddafi’s promise to Mugabe of $586 million in fuel supplies
        A $900,000 election contribution to the funds of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party.
        Gaddafi calling on Zimbabwe’s Muslims to wage a jihad against the whites
¨       After his visit, Gaddafi leaving behind two bodyguards for Mugabe and four specialist coordinators,   experienced in the training and a handling of death squads
¨       Mugabe recruiting Libyan bodyguards and highly trained intelligence officers to beef up his personal security
¨       Gaddafi buying/being given 20 houses in Zimbabwe likely to be used as safe-houses for death squads. The houses are strategically scattered; four in Harare and one in every regional town or centre of any size.
¨       The establishment of a Libyan Embassy in one of the homes of Mugabe’s wife, Grace
¨       The instigation of a joint plan calling for the targeted assassination of MDC politicians, troublesome journalists and the like.
¨       The allocation of at least a dozen (now thought to be nearer 25) large-scale farms to Libyans as part of an ‘economic cooperation package’  but thought also to be involved in the training of young militia
¨       LIBYA acquiring a substantial stake in the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim)
¨       HUNDREDS of Libyan troops, part of Col. Gaddafi’s elite forces who are known for their terror tactics being sent to Zimbabwe and housed in secret locations scattered across the country
with, it is believed, assassination squads moving into Harare.
¨       Zimbabwe's passport office ordered to produce 10,000 passports, which will be issued to Libyan nationals, according to officials in the registrar general's office.  Unofficial estimates now say that about 15 000 Libyans have had their Zimbabwean passports processed.


Tampering with the voters rolls
¨       A deadline of January 6 imposed for residents of foreign descent to obtain proof they have renounced any claim to foreign citizenship. The stringent legislation - which will strip the newly stateless of their votes - was rushed through Parliament and signed into law last July
¨       In the last three months, an estimated 100,000 foreigners have been brought in to Zimbabwe to take up citizenship, holding up and ahead of, resident Zimbabweans wishing to register in order to be able to vote
¨       once the ‘aliens’ have acquired local passports, they will be allowed to register to vote in 2002’s presidential election, boosting the ruling party
¨       a crack-down and refusal to register anyone who has a parent born outside the country even if they are themselves Zimbabwe born
¨       people spending nights at the Registrar-General's Office, with most saying every excuse is found so that they fail to get passports, births, deaths certificates or national identity cards.
¨       Only known Zanu-PF voters being told exactly how and where to register
¨       An estimated 2.8 million dispossessed black farm workers unable to vote because they now do not live in a specific area and cannot produce the utilities bills etc., as proof of residence
¨       On December 4^th, a high court judgement ordered the government to relax the stringent proof or residency rule likely to disenfranchise further millions of people
¨       Government over-ruling this judgement
¨       The likelihood that tens of thousands will arrive at polling booths only to be told they are not registered
¨       postal ballots accepted only from staff at diplomatic missions and soldiers posted abroad.
¨       The new rules bar Zimbabweans living in other countries from returning home to cast ballots.
¨       Zimbabweans of Indian descent, hundreds of thousands with links to Malawi and Mozambique, people with Greek ancestry, are among millions facing statelessness
Fate of the black farm workers
¨       Most of the dispossessed farm labourers have nowhere to go and can be seen by the side of dusty roads seeking shelter from the bitter winter nights.
¨       lawyers for farm workers increasingly worried over the fate of tens of thousands of workers and their families, who have effectively disappeared and no one knows where they have gone.
¨       Pro-government militants, blocking off country towns and huge swaths of the countryside, making it difficult for workers' advocates and aid agencies to count how many people have been displaced by the violence.



Fear of opposition
¨       On January 4^th, despite orders from Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court that Harare’s mayoral and council elections must go ahead, Mugabe hinted at postponing these elections indefinitely
¨       On January 6^th, Government announced it will amend the Urban Councils Act in order to abolish the posts of executive mayor.   The amendment will see the introduction of chief executives appointed by a board with members chosen by the minister of local government, public works and national housing.
¨       There will be no further mayoral elections anywhere



Redeployment of troops
¨       July: despite UN requests, Zimbabwe refuses to withdraw troops from the Congo (DRC)
¨       November 21^st, Mugabe recalls thousands of soldiers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help him fight a crucial presidential.  All Zimbabwean soldiers barred from taking leave until after the conclusion of the presidential election.
¨       November 29^th, Mugabe deploys troops in the opposition’s stronghold in north-western Zimbabwe.
¨       December 9^th -hundreds of starving villagers who are not members of the ruling party in Lupane have been denied food aid by the war veterans and vigilante groups. The worst affected are the children and the elderly. The war veterans, most of them former Zipra guerrillas who were themselves victims of the same party and government in the 80s, have made sure that only members of Zanu PF obtain food relief. About 100 000 people are in urgent need of drought relief food in Lupane and Nkayi districts but food is not reaching them
¨       December 16^th, in a move described as a crackdown on "terrorism", the Zimbabwean government has moved army units into Matabeleland province bringing fears of a repeat of the “gukurahunde” staged in the 1980’s when at least 20,000 are estimated to have been killed by  Zanla armed forces (North Korean trained Fifth Brigade).
¨       state-sponsored terror squads, responsible for the violence in Mashonaland during the parliamentary bye-elections, transfer their activities to the rural areas of Matabeleland North - specifically the Lupane and Nkayi districts. Vigilante groups comprising war veterans and Zanu PF supporters roam villages looking for members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). They have vowed to turn Lupane and Nkayi into "no go" areas for the MDC whose meetings have already been banned in Lupane. Indoctrination camps for MDC abductees have been set up in these areas



Military training of school children
¨       December 27^th: The opposition leader said the government was operating an unofficial militia. "They are operating under the guise of national service, and about 1,000 of them have been let loose to terrorise MDC supporters in the towns and rural areas."
¨       December 28^th: 1 000 national service officers were recruited by the government after one of Mugabe's militant cabinet ministers, Border Gezi died in a car crash in April. A training camp was established in his memory and the first 1 000 graduates went into service 6 weeks ago
¨       December 29^th: Zimbabwe's national service officers have been accused by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change of political violence and terror over Christmas. Sekai Holland, an senior MDC official, brought three severely injured supporters to hospital in Harare on Wednesday after, she claimed, a rural government clinic refused to treat them. Some had their hamstrings and tendons cut, others have been chopped all over their bodies.
¨       December 29^th: the first man attacked by national service officers, MDC activist Laban Chiweta, died in hospital from injuries sustained on December 6. Three other opposition activists were killed a few days before Christmas, allegedly by war veterans and national servicemen, bringing the number of MDC supporters killed since the June 2000 election to 90.
¨       January 1^st:  Graduates from the Border Gezi Training Camp, being trained ostensibly under a national youth service training program, descended on Kuwadzana township. They randomly beat up and harassed the residents - then proceeded to Mabvuku where they did the same thing. This group of about 100 youths beat up people accusing them of being MDC
¨       January 4^th: The ruling Zanu PF party, through the deployment of war veterans, has turned several schools in remote rural areas into makeshift military barracks to train youths to campaign against the opposition in the run-up to the March presidential election. The veterans are using sticks as guns in the military drills. The recruits, some allegedly forced to join the militias, undergo 10-day training sessions. On Monday, recent graduates from training centres terrorised western townships of Harare, smashing windows, looking for food and taking clothing from washlines in the name of Zanu PF. Residents complained that police stood idly by while youths damaged their property for about two-and-a-half hours. Armed with sticks, stones and other weapons, they looted grocery shops, flea markets and vegetable stalls. More than 70 houses were destroyed in the chaos.

Military About-Turn
¨       September 6^th: middle and junior-ranking officers of the spy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)  recommended that President Robert Mugabe should retire before next year's presidential election to enhance Zanu PF's chances of winning the ballot
¨       November 15^th: The Zimbabwe National Army has offered farms and land to all serving soldiers in exchange for support and loyalty to President Mugabe in next year's election.
¨       November 24^th: Zimbabwe’s commissioner of police has ordered a white farmer to leave his land and home, because he is moving in.  Augustine Chihuri and his wife arrived at Woodlands Farm, Shamva, one of the richest agricultural areas in the country, and introduced himself to Mike Butler, the farm owner. Mr Chihuri told Mr Butler that he and his wife would be arriving soon to take up residence in the homestead
¨       December 20^th: Zimbabwean army generals urged President Mugabe to quit and anoint a successor on the eve of the governing party’s Victoria Falls conference, to enhance Zanu PF’s chances in next year’s presidential election. Authoritative sources said the top generals, under the umbrella of the Joint Operation Command (JOC), met Mugabe in one of their regular briefings. The JOC comprises General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Constantine Chiwenga, Zimbabwe National Army, Air Marshall Perence Shiri of the Airforce, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Elisha Muzonzini, Director-General : Central Intelligence Organisation.
¨       December 23^rd: Contrary to expectations that the Zimbabwe government's land resettlement exercise would benefit landless peasants, Joseph Made, the agriculture minister, has allocated prime farms to top army, government and Zanu PF officials.  
¨       January 6^th: Mugabe, has doubled the pay of the country’s security forces as part of a campaign for victory in March elections, which he hopes will keep him in power for five more years. All police, soldiers and war veterans received the increases on New Year’s Day, putting their salaries and allowances well ahead of those of other public-sector workers in a crumbling economy, which is effectively bankrolled by Colonel Muammar Gadaffi of Libya, who has given Mugabe a £250m credit for oil imports
¨       January 10^th: An hour before election dates were announced Zimbabwe's military leaders  declared they would only support a leader who fought minority white rule in the 1970s. This is seen as a warning that they would not support a government led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Flanked by all of Zimbabwe's security chiefs, General Vitalis Zvinavashe said: "Any change designed to reverse the gains of this revolution will not be supported."
¨       Until now, the military has strenuously denied accusations that it supports Zanu-PF, maintaining that it will loyally serve the government of the day - whoever wins elections.

Refusal to abide by judicial or parliamentary decisions
¨       January 8^th: Zimbabwe's ruling party suffered a shock defeat in parliament on Tuesday when it introduced a controversial electoral amendment bill that critics allege is designed to boost President Robert Mugabe's re-election bid in March. With a number of Zanu PF deputies absent from parliament after a three-week break, the governing party lost the vote 22 to 36 but vowed to reintroduce the bill on Wednesday.
¨       Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said that under parliamentary regulations a defeated bill can only be reintroduced in the next session of parliament later in the year.
¨       January 10^th:  Zimbabwe's parliament has approved two of the three controversial measures which President Robert Mugabe wants to use in his re-election campaign.  

-       The security bill stipulates ‘engendering hostility towards the president is an offence;  police have new powers to disperse public gatherings; carrying identity cards is compulsory.   The first clause would effectively prevent the opposition from campaigning. 

-       The election bill stipulates ‘voters must prove 12-month residency;  ex-patriate workers are denied the right to vote; foreign and independent local monitors barred;  election posters or pamphlets require prior permission. The opposition had defeated the amendments to the electoral law on Tuesday.    Bills rejected by MPs are not normally allowed to be resubmitted to the same parliamentary session.

¨       The security bill was passed by acclamation and not by formal vote, and the election bill was passed by 62 votes to 49.
¨       A third bill introducing tight controls on the media has not been passed by parliament. January 18^th. (This has more than likely been the result of international pressure, thus proving that international pressure is beginning to have an effect)

Election date
¨       January 10^th:  Elections will be held on March 9^th and 10^th 2002.   BBC correspondents say Mr Mugabe's election chances are unlikely to be affected by any decision to expel the country from the Commonwealth, as CHOGM does not meet until the beginning of March.


Growing links to terror groups and Osama Bin Laden
There have been many articles reflecting these links … too many to list.   However this one  paints a picture of where ZANU PF is heading.

October 2001:  Those who have been following Zimbabwe's 18-month crisis will be familiar with the aborted listing in June 2000 of a diamond mining company on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Oryx Diamonds had been due to float its shares on the AIM, in a deal with linked it with Petra Diamonds, a South African-based mining exploration company, in a bid to raise finance for the exploitation of a Congo diamond mining concession granted - in dubious circumstances - by the then President of the DRC, Laurent Kabila.

Oryx Diamonds has very strong links with members of the Zimbabwean military, and senior members of Zanu PF.

The listing never went ahead owing to strong protests from groups fighting against the use of "blood-diamonds" to finance Africa's wars, and, it was reported at the time, because of direct intervention by the British government. BBC TV's Ten O'clock News on 31 October (?) carried a special report on the ongoing international investigations being conducted into the financing of Osama Bin Laden's global network. The report suggested that one of the men involved in this aborted Oryx Diamonds share flotation was a known front-man for Osama Bin Laden's past financial operations.

SUDAN
Recent months have seen the sudden warming in relations with another state frequently linked with terrorism, Sudan. Zimbabwe has confirmed that it is negotiating to obtain oil from Sudan. 

From The Independent (UK), 28 December
We'll ignore the death threats to fight this despot

Basildon Peta


President Robert Mugabe has never had much of an ear for views divergent from his own. In 2001, the Zimbabwean leader's intolerance of the media reached its most extreme level since he took the helm of this impoverished country at the end of white rule in 1980. The year opened with a resounding warning to the media: the bombing of a printing press owned by Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News, on 28 January. The year closed with the introduction of a despicable media law, intended to lead to the closure of all independent publications in Zimbabwe.

The new Access to Information Bill, due to be passed by Parliament on 8 January, bans foreign journalists from working in Zimbabwe and obliges local journalists to apply for licences every year. The Bill vests sweeping powers in Mr Mugabe's chief propagandist, the information minister Jonathan Moyo, who will personally select who works in the Zimbabwean media. Mr Moyo's hatred of every basic tenet of democracy is now on public record and his vituperative outbursts against proponents of freedom have become depressingly predictable. Last week, he described Tony Blair as a "boyish leader" and an "ignoramus" who should at "best be in charge of a kindergarten school".

Anyone who thought the destruction of The Daily News’s printing press was as bad as it was going to get, was naive. Five days before the bombing, the 77-year-old president's Government had vowed to implement all measures necessary to silence the media, saying it had become "a threat to the security of the nation". It soon passed a Bill that banned private radio and television stations and entrenched the state's monopoly control over the audio visual media. The Civic Society activist Mike Auret Jr, who had dared to set up a private radio station, immediately went into hiding and has not been heard from since. His broadcasting equipment was seized by the police and the army, and the makeshift studios of Capital Radio completely destroyed.

During the year, at least 24 journalists working for the private media were brutally assaulted by Mr Mugabe's supporters when they tried to report on farm occupations by the ruling party's militants. Commercial farms have now effectively become no-go areas for independent journalists as word has spread that we are enemies of the regime. In one of the assaults, Collin Chiwanza of The Daily News only escaped death by hiding in the bush for two days. Prominent professionals, such as The Daily News's editor, Geoffrey Nyarota, virtually ran their newspapers from prison cells as the Zimbabwe police regularly arrested newsroom chiefs from the non-Government media. At least Mr Nyarota was recognised abroad; he won four international journalism awards in 2001.

There were other arrests. Mark Chavunduka, editor of The Standard, was detained over an accurate report carried in his paper that Mr Mugabe had been sued in a New York court by families of 36 opposition supporters murdered by the Government in the run-up to the June 2000 parliamentary elections. A New York District Judge later ruled against Mr Mugabe, saying he was liable for the deaths. Three foreign correspondents, including David Blair of The Daily Telegraph and Joseph Winter of the BBC, were, with varying degrees of force, shown the door, never to return. An expose by The Daily News that the police had aided the looting of white farms caused the arrests of six of its journalists in June. In virtually all of the 30-plus arrests of reporters and newspaper managers, the police could not produce formal evidence to pursue the charges in court.    It all confirmed that the detentions and intimidation were purely intended to break our morale.

In August, The Standard revealed the existence of a hit list of journalists to be harmed or killed by the Government. Topping that hit list was myself, The Independent's correspondent in Zimbabwe, and the only black journalist writing for the British media. Prior to its publication, I had received numerous death threats. Packets of bullets were left on my doorstep on three occasions, with notes stating that I would be dead before the 2002 presidential election in March. In November, Mr Mugabe's Government formally labelled me and five other journalists working for the foreign media as "terrorists". It went on to approve the Public Order and Security Bill (POSB), which imposes death and life sentences on anyone accused of assisting terrorism.

Both the POSB and Access to Information Bill forced a December Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group meeting to put Zimbabwe on its agenda - the first step towards suspending the country from the 54-nation grouping. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's economy virtually collapsed with foreign currency reserves drying up and multilateral donor agencies withdrawing from the country. Inflation, which was below 50 per cent at the start of the year, soared to 103 per cent in December. The unemployment rate rose to 60 per cent; key manufacturing firms folded. The Chief Justice, Anthony Gubbay, was fired and Mr Mugabe appointed a loyalist to take charge of the Supreme Court. About 110 opposition supporters were killed in 2001 and many more casualties are expected as Zimbabwe approaches the March presidential election.

But for many of us in the media, despite all the enormous risks we now face, it's "Aluta Continua'' against Mr Mugabe's tyrannical and despotic rule. How could it not be? He is wrong.

Party cards run out as Mugabe enforces loyalty

By Basildon Peta in Harare

20 January 2002

Funerals are important in African society, so when Elizabeth Mujaji heard last week that her brother-in-law had died in the Chikombe area of rural Zimbabwe, she made plans to travel from Harare to attend the ceremony.

First, however, she needed to buy a membership card from Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe's ruling political party. President Robert Mugabe's "war veterans" and youth militias have set up illegal roadblocks between most of Zimbabwe's towns, where they assault anyone failing to produce a Zanu-PF card and send them back to where they came from to get one.

But the main party headquarters in Harare had run out of cards. Mrs Mujaji (not her real name) then sent her three sons into Harare's townships to try to buy one for her, but all returned empty-handed, forcing her to give up her plan to get to yesterday's funeral.

On Friday, an elderly, white, farm manager whose area has been closed off by militia checkpoints explained why he had acquired a party card. Without one, he said, "you are humiliated. We were made to kneel in the road, beg to be let through and sing slogans." He asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Without the vital card, rural Zimbabweans are finding it impossible not only to travel but to get medical treatment, seeds and other agricultural aid for peasants, or school places for their children. People hoping to be assigned property confiscated from white farmers under Mr Mugabe's controversial land policies have no hope of succeeding unless they produce proof of Zanu-PF membership.

In some of the areas worst affected by political violence, such as Gutu and Zaka, traditional headmen and chiefs are asking shopkeepers to sell goods only to those who can show Zanu-PF cards. Those who sell to "opposition renegades" risk having their premises burnt down.

Last week Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said Zimbabwe was already engaged in a "low-intensity civil war".

Such forms of intimidation, affecting almost every aspect of daily life, are commonplace in the more remote parts of Zimbabwe, where most of the country's 12.5 million people live. As the March presidential election approaches they are spreading to the towns, creating far more public concern than the controversial bills now going through parliament which will muzzle the press and make criticism of Mr Mugabe a crime.

"At this rate Zanu-PF cards are now an equivalent of the water that we drink and the air that we breathe," said a business executive who was humiliated at an illegal roadblock when he failed to produce a card while driving his children to a boarding school.

Apart from acquiring a Zanu-PF card, Zimbabweans are also finding it prudent to learn party slogans and liberation war songs from the 1970s. Many who have been unable to chant these on demand have been beaten up.

The rush to acquire cards has cut supplies to vanishing point. Officials at Zanu-PF headquarters said that while they were doing their best to print more to meet demand, they could not cope. A "parallel market" has sprung up in which cards are changing hands for up to nine times the official price: while the party is supposed to charge Z$34 (about 45p), unscrupulous Zanu-PF officials are charging up to Z$300 (about £3.70).

Although many Zimbabweans are buying the cards purely for convenience and are unlikely to vote for Mr Mugabe at the 9 and 10 March presidential election, their money will boost the coffers of a ruling party that also enjoys the use of state funds.

REPORT ON PROCEEDINGS ON GWALIA AND GEMINI FARMS BEATRICE

I am sending this to the press as a last resort as it patently clear to me from my dealings with numerous authorities within Zimbabwe over the last 10 days that the rule of law and order is long dead in our beloved country. I would like it publicised as widely as possible nationally, regionally and internationally. It is a very short summary of what has been a long, agonising and protracted and unsuccessful battle to get the forces of law and order within the country to even recognise their responsibility, let alone to act.

I am a farmer living in Beatrice, who owns 2 farms, Gemini Farm and Gwalia farm. Contrary to Governments often espoused policy BOTH farms have been designated. Gwalia farm (twice) has received a Section 8, and Gemini the Section 7. My father and mother were resident on Gwalia, but my father died in May 2001. For security reasons my mother moved to Gemini to stay with me. Gwalia has 13 workers, and Gemini 20 workers. There are however some 100 dependants. Whilst after my fathers death the Gwalia workers were clearly surplus to requirement I kept them on given the harsh economic times we were experiencing, in the hope that following elections some degree of normality would return; a fundamental mistake on my part as they are primarily responsible for my predicament. My family have been resident in Beatrice since 1930, and I have been resident there all my life (47 years). We have throughout the years experienced a very good working relationship with the locals and our workers.

On 4th January 2002 whilst returning from Johannesburg I received a phone call that my family were surrounded by war vets who were seeking to evict us. I responded immediately. We were given 30 minutes to evacuate the farm under threat of death. The head vet, a rabid man known as Marewa, reporting to the Head honcho for the Beatrice area, Zhou, stated clearly that he knew I had arms, but that he was also armed, and failure to comply would mean death. He further stated that I could phone the police if I liked, but that I would find that they would not react. The police had in fact already been alerted by radio, and sure enough they would not react, claiming lack of transport. When  provided with  transport by the local community,  they still refused to react. We eventually left the farm with three suitcases and meagre belongings.  


We stayed in Harare for 2 days with friends. On the 3rd day I arranged a meeting with the Inspector of Beatrice police to attempt to negotiate a strategy to get back onto the farm. He stated that I should return the following day and he would arrange a meeting with both the labour and the WV. The following day we went to Gemini and Gwalia and held the meetings. He explained to them that I was entitled to return to the farm until the acquisition process had been completed. The workers were concerned about their terminal benefits in the event of acquisition, as the WV were representing my forced departure as me having run away .Despite my assurances that they would receive all their dues,  they remained concerned. We agreed to meet on Saturday 12th January 2002 with the WV to reach an agreement. It must be noted that terminal gratuities are agreed through the collective bargaining process between the NEC and ALB, and are clearly laid out in the labour regulations. They also only become payable on termination. At this time no notice had been given, so any payment of terminal benefits was premature.

On Saturday we met on Gemini with the WV and the police. The WV stated that there was no possibility of me returning to the farm. The police, in a complete about turn, agreed. I was instructed to pay the workers their dues, and given the undertaking that once this had been done I could remove all my livestock and household contents. The WV however refused to recognise my right to remove my movable assets, claiming that these were being acquired. I agreed to return on Tuesday 15th January 2002 with the proposed payment schedule, which I did. The proposal I tabled exceeded the amount that the workers were actually due by 5 times, and in my view was generous in the extreme. The Inspector undertook to discuss the proposal with the WV and workers and revert, which he never did.

On Thursday 17th January 2002 morning I phoned the Inspector to confirm the position. He stated that he had not yet discussed the issue but that I should pay out the workers on Saturday anyway. I agreed. However, an hour later he phoned me to say that he had a group of workers in his office together with their attorney, a Mr Herbert Kawadza, with a court order authorising the sale of my property to recover the alleged amount owing. I was astonished. We had agreed on the process, and I had held up my end of the bargain to the letter. I stated that it was not possible that the workers could have a court order, as nothing had been served on me. The Inspector remained adamant. I agreed to immediately proceed to Beatrice police station to discuss the issue, which I did with my lawyer. To date I have still never seen my copy of the court application.


On arrival we found that the workers and their lawyer had left. We examined the document, and as expected it was NOT a court order. It was an application to the court by the Gwalia workers, in which I was given until 12th February to respond. (CFU has copy) My lawyer went to great pains to explain this to the Inspector. However he was extremely reluctant to recognise the truth, and continued to represent the affidavit as a court order. His attitude in this regard was fundamental to the whole organised theft of over Z$ 40 million of property, as he had lent an air of legitimacy to the issue. This resulted in the workers together with the war vets auctioning 230 head of my cattle on Thursday afternoon. We appealed to the police without any success. Z$ 12 million worth of cattle were sold for some Z$ 4 million. The cattle were moved off the farm, many in commercial transport. We again appealed to the police, again with no success. The matter was taken to the district police in Chivu, who also refused to act. The workers and war vets pocketed the sale proceeds which amounted to many multiples of what they were claiming was due to them.


Now desperate, I went to see the Zanu PF Chairman for Mashonaland East, Mr Kaukonde. He concurred that this was theft, and was amazed that the police would not react. He arranged for me to meet the Provincial Administrator, Mr Chingosho,  in Marondera. I drove to Marondera and met with the PA. He initially was reluctant to get involved, but eventually stated that there was a task force currently in Featherstone, consisting of the DA, the National Chairman for the War Vets, Mr Nyaruwata, and senior police officers from Chivu, who could be diverted to attend to the matter. I drove to Featherstone, and eventually found them. I briefed the task force, but they were unable to assist on the same day.


On the way back I went to the farm. My workers on Gemini stated that the cattle on Gemini had been forcibly removed by armed war vets and the Gwalia workers, and taken to Gwalia. They were intending to auction them on Monday. Over the weekend  the CFU contacted the Assistant Commissioner, Mutanga, and the WV leadership. I was in constant contact with Mr Cloete, I also phoned the police hot line without success.


On Saturday I went to Gwalia to assess the situation on the ground which was highly volatile. There were several armed men with a very hostile attitude. I discovered that the cattle were bound for abattoirs, and I contacted all abattoirs and cattle transport companies to inform them that the cattle were stolen, and were not to be slaughtered. The cattle are branded with a H on their left flank, and have a triangle cut on their left ear. One of the armed men shot at me with a shotgun, at which time I decided to leave.


I received assurance on Sunday evening that a senior officer had been allocated to stop the sale on Monday until the situation could be properly evaluated. On Monday I received confirmation from the Inspector in Beatrice that the sale had been stopped. However, despite these blatant lies, the auction proceeded on Monday. I am informed that half way through the auction the proceedings were stopped, and the WV moved all the cattle to Joyce mine, which serves as the WV base. They have not been seen since, but I am informed that they have been sold from Joyce to various buyers.



On Tuesday 22nd January I requested the SPCA to go into Gwalia to recover my domestic animals. Mrs Harrison kindly complied but was met with very hostile workers and WV, and failed to remove anything. She states that this is the first time she has been unsuccessful, and that the police escort she was given was of no use at all.


The bottom line here is that the workers, together with the WV have stolen and illegally sold over Z$ 40 million of property. They have done this with the full co-operation of the police, who were fully aware that no court order existed. They are preventing me from moving 1000 pigs which are now in a sorry state. They have impounded the movable plant and machinery, and the household contents, effectively leaving me destitue.


The district is controlled by a war vet named Zhou, who clearly does not take his instructions from the politicians, the forces of law and order, or his own leadership, but reports direct to the top. There exists complete anarchy. Farmers have been threatened with death if they talk to the media.


Fundamental to the whole scene is the complete impotence, ignorance, arrogance and sheer cowardice of the police in general, but the Officer in Charge of Beatrice in particular, who is without doubt an accomplice before, during and after the fact to the whole sorry mess, and is not fit to wear the uniform.


I intend to proceed legally against the workers, the police, the state, the lawyer who is responsible for lending an air of legality to the situation, and all buyers who knowingly purchased stolen cattle, in the hope that in the unlikely event that law and order ever returns to Zimbabwe some compensation may be forthcoming. We have lost in a week what has been built up over 3 generations. If there is a God, may those responsible fry in hell.

Subject: Nothing is sacred anymore

Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002

Dear Family and Friends,
Standing in line at the supermarket this week I was intrigued by the woman in front of me who was buying 36 bottles of spring/mineral water. I smiled at her and asked if she was travelling far. No, she replied, it is for the government meeting in the hotel over the road. Her bill for Z$1860.00 was to ensure pure water for our leaders while their subjects have nothing to eat. A few months ago I wrote a letter called 'You may not grow food' explaining how war veterans were preventing farmers from planting any crops saying that the land was now theirs. The fruits of their labours are now clear for us all to see. There is almost no maize meal in Zimbabwe now. I phoned our local distributor and visited all the supermarkets and wholesalers in Marondera this week to be told there is no maize meal and they did not know when they would next get a delivery. This is a desperate situation which the government is attempting to resolve by seizing all maize stocks still being held by farmers. These stocks were being held back by farmers to feed their employees and their livestock. Thousands more lives have now been put at risk and the implications for the livestock producers and consumers in the coming months is diabolical - eggs, milk, cheese, chicken, beef, pork, lamb etc etc. To make matters worse it has not rained for over 3 weeks in most parts of the country so the few crops in the ground are in a dire condition. Last night even the state run ZBC carried reports on the condition of our crops. Trying to explain why there was so little maize growing and why crops planted by the newly resettled farmers was in such a bad way they said: "Tillage power was inadequate.... water conservation practices were not adhered to ... army worm is rife because the settlers cannot afford pesticides...it is a disturbing situation..." Speaking to agronomists the ZBC reported that crops in parts of Mashonaland East and Central and Manicaland would recover if rains came in the next week but would have greatly reduced yields. In the Midlands and Matabeleland though, the agronomists said that many crops had "passed the permanent wilting stage." ZBC call this a 'disturbing situation', I would say it is gross political negligence. Aid agencies have received the first deliveries of food aid but the World Food Programme are already warning they may have to leave if the violence is not controlled. The Financial Gazette reports that relief workers with Christian Care were this week subjected to violent attacks by a gang of ruling party youths after not being able to produce Zanu pf membership cards. It is now unsafe to travel without a ruling party membership card and in an area near here this week a funeral procession was stopped at an unofficial road block. All the mourners were made to disembark and militants ordered that the coffin be opened saying they were looking for hidden weapons. It seems that nothing is sacred in Zimbabwe anymore.
The Access to Information Bill has still not been heard in the house, having been postponed three days in a row when the parliamentary legal committee continued to say they were not ready to present it. This has again given us another week of newspapers - when you can get them. The Daily News is completely unobtainable in at least a dozen towns now and in some places it is dangerous to be seen with it. Copies are secretly guarded and produced from under skirts and inside trouser legs in many areas making us wonder why we even need an access to information bill. Our independent journalists all deserve world recognition for their work and incredible bravery because when you do find a paper the news is absolutely damning. So too is the nightly 3 hour broadcast from radio Africa on short wave 6145 which has become almost our last life line. Hardly a night goes by now when I don't sit with tears in my eyes listening to the horrors being related by people all over Zimbabwe.
There are only 41 days now until our elections and with no sign of a single election observer yet I wonder if it won't be peace keepers we will end up asking for. I am going to close with a quote from a friend's piece in this week's Financial Gazette in the hope that it may prick a few consciences: " You have children too and if you love your children the way I love mine you would be in the forefront of fighting for a just and democratic society." I apologise for so few letters answered this week and thank you all for your messages of support. Please do have a look at http://africantears.netfirms.com for other reports and information. With love, cathy

LAND ACQUISITION AND INHUMANE TREATMENT OF CATTLE

I refer to letters, which I have previously written to the Provincial Land Committee, and lately, on the 24^th, to the Officer Commanding Masvingo Province (which I attach).

There are two area which are still of extreme concern at the moment:

(a)     Continual interference with commercial livestock on commercial farms which has been accompanied by vicious threats by organised Zanu PF youth to force cattle off, or to restrict, their rightful grazing land.

(b)    The eviction ultimatums being given by organised Zanu PF youth being given to legitimate farm owners to evacuate either their homesteads, or sheds, or outbuildings by a certain date. This is normally commenced by the beating of commercial farm workers, who are being banned from working for commercial farmers, as to do so “identifies them with the opposition MDC.”

On (a) there are also continual reports coming in of cattle also being hacked with either choppers or pangas, and the latest was carried out by a 12 year old boy on Quaggapan Ranch, in Mwenezi. The animal’s spinal cord was severed which paralysed the animal, which subsequently had to be put down. On this ranch alone 8 other similar cases have recently occurred.

There are a number of properties where grazing has been severely restricted and in many cases cattle forcibly kept out of paddocks because a settler has a small unfenced plot of maize in there. Many malicious compensation claims have been lodged when a “farmer’s cattle” have been accused of destroying a crop, which in reality would not have come to anything any way. I am sure you are well aware that as a result of the present dry spell, as things stand at the moment, no crops are going to be successfully reaped in this province this year. In the northern part of the province too much rain destroyed most of the crops early in the season.

We view this merely as just another form of political harassment, but which is seriously affecting the grazing capacities of our farms by their legitimate owners, and the health of their livestock.

I respectfully urge you to properly inform all parties involved that the farmer and his livestock still have every right, under the Constitution and Laws of Zimbabwe, to live on and to graze his cattle on his farm. This is until the lawful process of land acquisition has been completed.

There is obviously a lot of confusion being created by some irresponsible political rhetoric and I believe that in the interests of a democratic Zimbabwe that it is your duty as a committee to rectify the confused situation immediately.

From my observations, this particularly applies to both the Police and District Administration in the Gutu/Chatsworth areas, where there appears to be a series of private vendettas being continued against certain individuals. Or is it simply that they have not been properly informed?

With respect I did not know that “education” was so important that whole farm premises and farming operations are being ordered to be closed down in order for farm homesteads to be immediately used as schools and teacher’s housing. With this comes the threat to confine or remove cattle as well!

Finally I respectfully request you to inform all those concerned that the process of land reform as agreed by the Abuja Accord and the ZJRI, is now the only recognised government policy on land reform, and that it should be strictly adhered to.

After all, all I and my farmers wish is to be able to farm and produce food for the nation, in peace, and that our livestock may be able to graze freely and be treated humanely.