Zimbabwe Eye Witness
Report
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 5:15
AM
Subject: Fwd: [rhodesia] Zimbabwe Eye Witness
Report
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 7:55 PM
Subject: held hostage
R, the following is to be distributed as
widely as possible, I am
sending to the Times as well
hope all is well with you and M
best k
This weekend, myself and a Zimbabwean friend
decided to go for the weekend to a friends farm in
Centenary (about 140km north from Harare).We knew trouble had been
brewing, but we were told that this particular farm was fine for the
moment. As we set out from Harare on Saturday morning, a log-jam
of traffic on the way into the centre stalled our progress, a
rally was planned and the police were searching all vehicles.
Eventually we got on the road, winding our way through
spectacular country. I have been in Zim before but only
for a few weeks this time. Some distance from Harare,turning of the
main road was a car Ginny recognised, we hooted and the
car now on a dust track stopped. The elderly, bearded farmer, looked
behind him nervously, and then broke into a smile of recognition. he
told us later that his hand had been on his pistol as we came
along side him.
We went for drinks at the farmstead, his
wife is close to a breakdown. He told us that the war
veterans (or as I now call them terrorists - an apt description) had
come up to him in the last few days and said straight to
his face that they were going to kill him. After
expressing our support for these two lonely people, we carried on.
Our friends in Centenary are working for a farmer, as a tobacco
manager and his wife. War vets had put up a roadblock
but they waved us through. Previously I had been under orders,from
my friend, not to talk to any vet should we be stopped
at a roadblock, being British is not popular with the
terrorists. We were glad to see our friends, and although we tried
not to talk of politics, the ever present chatter on the
farm-based radio network kept us focussed. We went
into town to get some beers, at the local store I saw my
friend talking to an African wearing a cowboy hat. On his return
I asked who the said gentleman was "a Vet" was his reply, I
commented that he looked quite a reasonable bloke. 'No
he's the Vet!', replied my friend.
That night, back at the farm
compound, a single person, our friends brother turned up
for our braai. Eating outside we could see the farm a mile
away that was under siege. The panicked radio messages were
coming in thick and fast. The vets had entered the
homestead and demanded to search the place .They removed
all the farmers personal weapons and left to join the drumming and
dancing on the lawn. All that evening tense negotiations occurred,
the guns were first given back and then reclaimed by the vets. The
vets demanded that the farmer leave to go to the police and obtain
the original gun certificates, but they must not tell the police
why. The wife of the farmer heading the negotiations
with the war veterans, was crying on the radio, begging
for her husband to return home. Planned for the next morning was a
meeting to be held by the vets and ZANU-PF, all farmers and
their workers were ordered to attend, the workers first and the
farmers later. The expectation was that the guns would be shown to
the crowd, which would then be worked up, and the
farmers would then be brow beaten and possibly assaulted.
At 4.30am, Sunday, the panic resumed - should the farmers go
and what retribution would follow if they did not go ? In the
morning we first learned by the farmer's radio network of the
execution of one of their colleagues in Mazoe and the abduction of
others(we now assume these two to be dead as well).
Anarchy, and fear are just so palpable in this situation.
My friends on the verge of packing up and going decided to visit
their grandparents, on a homestead, 20 km away. At least it would be
outside of the immediate problem area. When we arrived,
these old folks in their 70's could not have been more
hospitable to me an outsider, a Scot just visiting. We sat and
watched the test (SA v Australia) the old grandfather is
no longer a farmer having sold up last year, but he and his wife are
allowed by the new owner to stay on in the farmhouse. We were seven
persons, ourselves, the old folks, their two adult grandsons and the
wife of one of them. a pleasant lunch, we caught the BBC on
satellite and heard of the impending chaos in Mazoe and
the murders. As we were near finished lunch, we heard
the sound a tractor and trailer coming nearer, they were on
and walking beside the tractor, approximately 30 or so of them, some
carrying sticks, some police batons and one carrying a drum. We all
tried to remain calm, my friend jumped up to go and lock her
car, but in chorus we all said that it would best to sit
and finish our lunch while trying not to look over at
them. They were now out on the lawn, yards from the windows,
sitting, squatting, picking lemons of the tree. Our farm
manager friend, the eldest grandson, first called the farmers
network to appraise them of the situation, and then
bravely went out to parley (he is 25 years old). In the
ensuing tension the cricket was accidentally turned off, the
old grandfather calmly finishing his lunch said ' why has the
cricket been turned off, I'm not letting these bastards
spoil my viewing'. Our friend returned , they were demanding food,
tea ,bread etc. The grandson had explained that this was not a farm
any longer and there was no land to peg except for the
lawn. An hour later at 2.30pm, our friend asked the vets leader for
permission for us to leave for Harare. They had to stay to protect
their grandparents. We hugged these good people good-bye, I
asked the old grandfather if there was anything we could do for
them in Harare, he said 'let the world know what is
happening here'.
These farming people have showed
amazing restraint and dignity in the face of this
organised provocation. A 56 year old farmer died within hours of his
farm being invaded from a heart attack.
It is now 6.30pm,Sunday 16
April. We have phoned our captive friends and they say that the vets
are camped on the lawn and the drums are beating, no doubt drink and
drugs will figure later as they did in the previous
evening.
This is worse than the war, the vets have confiscated
hand-held radios and are listening into the farmers
network. The vets are organised and deploying psychological warfare.
The farmers have no back up and are being increasingly
isolated.
The Police will stand aside at the first sign of
trouble and are anyway too busy bussing the vets around
and providing the food and the daily wage given by Mugabe and
ZANU-PF. The conflagration could start any day. My nerves are
jangling after a weekend of this, this has been happening to farmers
for months and is set to get worse, they have nobody to turn to,
including Britain. Some idly day dream of British troops coming in
and making easy work of these vets, this won't happen. Maybe the EU
and UK may impose sanctions in a few months time, maybe
longer.
The western world must react now, total
sanctions that failed in 1965, must work this time, the country must
be strangled until it is time for a new birth. Plans must be
made to get white farmers and others out of here. Mugabe must be
indicted for these murders and the atrocities in Matabeland. We
made the mistake in the past of trying to negotiate and
pander to Idi Amin, you can't hold a dialogue with the insane. Cook
should hand over Zimbabwean matters to Hain, ironically
now respected here, get tough, the tough here have more than done
their bit.
On the way back we hit a dove and killed it
instantly, a symbol of peace now lies crushed on the road.
Write to your MP, demand action, these people here are part of
our heritage and culture, it is time to support
them.
K. F.