"The Zimbabwe Situation" news page
Hi everyone,
I promised in my last message to send out some links
regarding immigration
to and asylum in the UK. (Some people have already
e-mailed me asking for
the information.) The link to the Immigration and
Nationality Directorate
Web site was passed to me by someone in the UK. I
had a look through some
pertinent parts of the site and, unless I'm missing
something (which is
entirely possible), the major problem for some people
who are considering
emigrating might only be a financial one (as if that's
not enough).
The home page is at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind ,
from where you can
find a link to a site map with links to the rest of the
site. The asylum
section at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/asylum/asylum_home.html
(that's
an underscore between "asylum" and "home") covers various aspects of
the
asylum process, as well as listing information about the 35 countries
from
which most asylum applications come. Zimbabwe isn't listed, but the
documents on each country seem to be just briefing documents, not
definitive statements on how asylum applications from those countries are
treated.
There is also a page at
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/to_the_uk/to_the_uk_14.html
(again, those
are underscores, not spaces) that details how Commonwealth
citizens who
have UK-born ancestors may have access to live in the UK. Might
not be new
information for some people, but it was for me. What I'd like to
know is
how those Rhodesian "rebels" and their descendents who stayed in
Rhodesia
after UDI are treated. Anybody know?
A couple of quotes that
struck me in some recent news articles I read. From
Hitler Hunzvi we have;
"We want to warn them (farmers) that if they
continue saying they are
offering so many farms to the government, they
will be offering themselves
for six feet down." So co-operation,
negotiation and compromise is now a
capital offence in Zimbabwe? (Remember,
he's now a sitting member of the
government, as opposed to his unofficial
government role before the
elections.) I also saw him quoted somewhere else
as saying that all whites
should leave Zimbabwe (not that he's the only one
to have said that). This
is the same man who claims he's not racist!
Another quote from a news
article quoting some government minister who is
involved in land
redistribution; "Msika said the government rejected
suggestions by some
foreign governments that financial assistance should
bypass government
channels. He denied charges that previous phases of the
land reform program
had benefited government officials." Hmm, so ZANU-PF
says that Britain
should compensate their "settlers" for "giving" them
"stolen" land, since
ZANU-PF has said that they will only pay for
improvements to the land.
However, that money has to pass through Mugabe's
sticky hands, not go
directly to the farmers who lose their land. Right!
I know the "who was
there first" debate is old (maybe Mugabe should go back
to Tanzania, where I
belive his family is from), but despite whatever side
of that debate you're
on I can't see how you can say that unoccupied,
unused land was stolen from
anybody. Even if it was, the improvements made
to the land over the last
century do not simply include the farm house and
barns sitting on the
property. What about the other improvements to the
country -- like cities,
schools, hospitals, medicine, an actual economy and
all of the other evil
things that the bad white men brought with them? Hmm.
Over the last week
I've had some unsettling reports from farmers in
Matabeleland about a new
list of farms to be seized, drawn up by Obert
Mpofu, the governor of
Matabeleland. Apparently the list has now been
published (after being little
more than a rumour) in The Chronicle, a
newspaper in Bulawayo. I wrote to
the CFU last week to try and get details,
but they have not answered me. The
details are sketchy, but it continues to
be very stressful for the farmers
in that area, not knowing what is going
to happen tomorrow or if you are
even going to have your farm or be alive
tomorrow. If anyone has any more
details that they can send to me,
including a copy of the list, I would very
much appreciate it.
That's it from me for now. Back to your regularly
scheduled programming.
Craig
Craig
Zimbabwe
Crisis Mailing List
zimcrisis@niner.net
http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
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Brief list of helpful sites on the
issue:
- Zimbabwe Crisis mailing list archives -- http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
-
Comprehensive news updates -- https://www.zimbabwesituation.com
-
Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans --
http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
-
Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for
Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe
Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
-
BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
ironhorse@intonet.co.uk
Z I M N E W S
19 July 2000
We have received a number of emails in support of the Glendale
farmers
who yesterday closed down their farming operations in protest at
the
continuing anarchy in the rural areas.
Please
express your support for the action of these farmers, who are
risking a
lot, not least their lives, by sending your emails to us and
we will
forward them to the CFU, the Glendale farmers, and the relevant
authorities. Short messages will be best.
Anonymity will be
preserved.
Respond to the address I put above,
please!!!!
Sunday, July 16, 2000 2:47 PM
Subject: deja vu
Dear family and
friends
Its been a tumultuous week in Zimbabwe which started last Sunday
when our
usually inactive police force shot teargas into a 40 000 strong
crowd at a
football match. Thirteen people were trampled to death and the
country is
up in arms at the outrageous reaction of the police to a few
bottles being
chucked on the field. Two days later the Minister of Home
Affairs resigned,
saying he was old and tired and that the tragedy at the
football match had
nothing to do with it. We've all waited with baited
breath for the
Commissioner of Police to follow suit but he is clearly a
man without
conscience and remains in place. The country was even more
outraged when
our President went on to accuse the opposition political
party of being
responsible for the tragedy; he said they'd taunted police
by showing the
open palm symbol of their party. And then, to add even
more insult to
injury, the President chose the funeral service of a
leading figure, to
start up his farm and land rhetoric again - where is
the shame of this man?
Our poor beautiful country seems to totter from
one calamity to another and
we wonder when anything will ever be right
again.
The situation on farms across the country has been
outrageous this week. On
both designated and non-designated farms, "war
vets" have been running
riot. Dozens of farms have received ultimatums
from squatters. Some have
been given 24 hours, others four days, to
vacate their properties;
squatters have refused to allow farm workers to
report for duty, have
stopped tobacco from being graded, refused to allow
maize to be harvested,
prevented tobacco seed beds from being irrigated.
Daily there have been
reports of cattle being stolen and slaughtered and
on game farms and safari
ranches, widespread poaching and intimidation -
scaring away the last few
tourists who are still brave enough to come to
Zimbabwe.
Mid week there were mumblings that something big was
going to happen this
weekend. By Thursday farmers were told that Mugabe
has put onto "Fast
Track" his programme of land re-distribution. (No
doubt before he allows
any opposition in Parliament, scheduled to sit
this week). By Friday the
details began to emerge, and the CFU sent out
urgent messages to us all to
brace for trouble over the weekend and
following days. It seems that
between 160 and 200 of the designated farms
are to be given to "landless
peasants" in the next few days. There is no
plan in place for what the
current owners of these farms are supposed to
do with crops still to be
harvested, tobacco sitting in sheds waiting to
be sold. Nothing is said
about all the workers and their families on
these 200 properties. Worst of
all though, as of 8pm last night, no one
has yet been told which farms are
part of this 200 - it could be any of
us and even the CFU leadership have
not been told. So we sit and wait for
a huge influx. Vice President Msika
announced yesterday this fast track
plan and said publicly that all "war
veterans" on other properties should
get off immediately. Aah, a spark of
hope, we think. Hours later war vet
leader Chenjerai Hunzvi (wearing an
outrageous pink shirt and looking
more manic than usual) appears on TV and
says that his comrades will not
get off any properties be they designated
or not, part of the 200 or not.
A very depressing sense of deja vu creeps
in; this must be the third or
fourth time that a senior Minister has told
them to get off and Hunzvi
has said they won't. A BBC reporter said that
Hunzvi "urged his comrades
not to listen to the government directive".
Hunzvi though, is now a part
of the government. By hook or by crook,
beating or burning, he won a
parliamentary seat in the recent elections so
it seems now, that he's
going to have a deep personal crisis and if someone
doesn't shut him up
soon, how on earth is he going to swear allegiance to
the country on
Tuesday when Parliament takes the oath?
On our own farm we've had
another quiet week. Our war vets have been busy
elsewhere. On the farm
next door to us, owned and operated by a black
Zimbabwean, the night
guard was beaten up by two men with rocks and pangas,
had his legs
slashes, his wrists tied and was dumped in the maize field.
The
storekeeper was dragged out of her house, had her face and legs
slashed
and was left unconscious. The attackers then broke into the store
and stole
cigarettes and a radio. They were tracked to the "war vets
headquarters"
across the road from us, but no arrests have been made yet.
We've spent the
week repairing fences and again every day we've closed
the gate on the main
road, and the people have opened it and pushed their
cattle in to graze.
This went on every day until Thursday when I blew a
fuse when about twenty
communal cattle got into the tiny field where my
dairy cows were grazing.
We pushed the intruders out and have now wired
the gate closed with rusty
barbed wire. So far nothing's happened, the
days ahead will tell. I'm sure
it would be tempting fate to say that the
worst of our problems are over.
Someone's been busy on one of the huts
that have been built below our
house; the walls have been plastered with
mud inside and out, a solid
wooden door's been hung - and locked -
whoever the builder is, he obviously
thinks he's here to
stay.
Enough for now. Hopefully by next week I'll have lots of
positive things to
say as Parliament will be in session and perhaps heads
will be starting to
roll!
Much love,
C.