Zimbabwe democrat is stoned to death
By Joseph Winter in Harare
31 March 2000
A member of Zimbabwe's opposition party died yesterday after being stoned in
the build-up to parliamentary elections, prompting fears that the killing
could be the first of many.
Edwin Gomo, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
had been wounded last Sunday while on the back of a truck heading for an MDC
rally in the northern town of Bindura.Bindura is a stronghold of President
Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and as the truck arrived, like others before
and after, it was pelted with stones by a crowd of young men. One stone hit
Mr Gomo on the head.
A police spokesman said four people had been arrested but had not been asked
if they were members of Zanu-PF.
The incident was not an isolate one. Tensions have been running high between
Zanu-PF and the recently formed opposition over farm occupations staged by
war veterans at the direct urging of President Mugabe. Rival supporters have
clashed throughout the country, leaving scores of injuries and arrests on
both sides.
The MDC, which is supported by white farmers, said Zanu-PF had "unleashed a
wave of terror on the country" to justify Mr Mugabe declaring a state of
emergency.
Zimbabwe Workers Block Squatters
Thu 30 Mar 2000
CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (AP) — Black farm workers and ex-guerrillas observed an
uneasy truce Thursday in northern Zimbabwe after workers blocked an attempt
to storm and occupy a white-owned homestead in the heart of the nation's
grain belt.
The workers, aiming to protect their livelihoods, formed a cordon and forced
the would-be squatters to gather reinforcements from a nearby shanty
settlement.
But workers from neighboring farms joined the cordon, swelling its strength
to about 150 men, and told leaders of the outnumbered ex-guerrillas and
squatters — who were armed with axes, spears and clubs — to advance no
further, local security officials said.
Wednesday's standoff, one of several similar confrontations around the
country, marked a potentially explosive escalation in the political crisis
that began when squatters, led by veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war,
started occupying more than 700 white-owned farms last month.
The standoff near Chinhoyi, 70 miles northwest of Harare, ended with the
withdrawal of the would-be squatters by nightfall, a move negotiated by
police, said Clive Nicolle of the Commercial Farmers' Union which represents
landowners.
``The workers wanted to chase them away, and the police realized it could
become a fight,'' Nicolle said.
But in western Zimbabwe, 30 workers who resisted the occupation of their
employer's land were outnumbered Wednesday by a new group of squatters, the
union said. Squatters forced their way into buildings and searched cupboards
and a gun cabinet, removing 12 hunting rifles, in the Nkayi hunting and
safari district.
There were fears that tension between workers and squatters will worsen.
``Our employees have had a gut full of intimidation,'' said Nicolle, whose
family estates produce about one fourth of Zimbabwe's annual wheat
production and employs 1,260 men.
Two decades after the former British colony of Rhodesia won independence and
renamed itself Zimbabwe, stark landownership imbalances remain in the
southern African country.
Some 4,000 people, most of them descendants of British settlers, own about
one-third of the nation's productive land. Most black Zimbabweans are
impoverished and landless.
Zimbabwe's main labor federation accused the ruling elite of enriching
themselves and failing to implement land reform.
``The war veterans, the landless and the workers are one and the same, why
are they fighting against each other?'' said Isadore Zindoga, acting
secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. ``Only an
orderly process will ensure peace in our country. Once again, it is the
working class who are being shortchanged.''
The Chinhoyi estates lie adjacent to the tribal homeland of President Robert
Mugabe, who has refused to stop illegal occupations of privately owned white
land, arguing them to be a justified political protest.
Farmers accuse Mugabe of allowing squatters to remain on white farms as a
political ploy to shore up his ruling party's waning support ahead of
parliamentary elections expected to be called for May.
Caught in the middle are the nation's 700,000 black farm workers, who feel
they will lose their incomes if the squatters force out the white farmers
and the land is broken up into small holdings.