Back to Index
Back to the Top
Back to Index
 
 
 
Mugabe Vanquishes Judge but Not yet Judiciary - HARARE, March 4 (Reuters)
Zimbabwean Govt. Warns War Veterans on Lawlessness - HARARE, Mar 5, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX)
Zimbabwe Police Launch Hunt for Farmer's Killers - HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters)
Mugabe Faces European Critics, Avoids "Arrest" - BRUSSELS, March 5 (Reuters)
Top Black Lawyers Earmarked for the Bench - Harare, Mar 05, 2001 (Zimbabwe Standard

Mugabe Vanquishes Judge but Not yet Judiciary

HARARE, March 4 (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe has managed to get rid of white Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, but he has not broken the independent spirit of Zimbabwe's judiciary, political analysts and legal experts say.

Gubbay's four Supreme Court colleagues and many of the 24 High Court judges have a record of fearless and independent action and are likely to continue to measure Mugabe against the constitution and protection of human rights.

As a result the former guerrilla leader, hoping to extend his 21-year rule in elections due within 14 months despite discontent over the collapsing economy and alleged corruption, is likely to pursue his unprecedented war against the judiciary, media and opposition.

"We should be able to continue enjoying an independent judiciary if the executive stops tampering with judges. Many of them are quite professional," said Lovemore Madhuku, a constitutional law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe made an uncharacteristic climbdown on Friday, avoiding a constitutional crisis by giving Gubbay room to leave office with some dignity through retirement.

The government backed down from a bid to kick Gubbay out in humiliating fashion, instead signing a compromise deal including the withdrawal of all allegations of bias against him.

GUBBAY ON IMMEDIATE LEAVE

Gubbay and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in a joint statement he would go on pre-retirement leave immediately and would retire 10 months early at the end of June.

For two days Gubbay, 69, had defied an order to take early retirement from March 1 while the government insisted he was retired and that it could appoint a successor.

"The government made some concessions in terms of both style and substance," said political analyst Emmanuel Magade, a law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

"Instead of running him out of his chambers, they talked him out, and the substance is that by that route, they just managed to avoid a crisis of having two men, each claiming to be the chief justice," he told Reuters.

Political and legal experts say by defying the government and forcing it to negotiate, Gubbay dramatised the predicament of the judiciary, claimed the moral high ground and possibly slowed Mugabe's campaign to drive other judges off the bench.

The settlement acknowledged the independence of the courts and that "any action by any party to undermine or interfere with that independence is contrary to the interests of the people of Zimbabwe."

Analysts said the judiciary would be irreparably damaged only if Mugabe pursued plans to get rid of at least a quarter of the country's 24 High Court judges and the remaining four judges in the Supreme Court.

Both the supreme and high courts are racially mixed.

FIGHT'S NOT OVER YET

Magade said the government was unlikely to totally abandon its programme to intimidate the judiciary, the media and the opposition ahead of the elections.

"To the extent that this is a political programme ahead of elections, it might not all go away."

Mugabe's black war-veteran supporters, who are spearheading his election campaign against unprecedented opposition from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), are threatening to oust more judges despite the government's agreement with Gubbay.

"We will continue fighting them. If they want us to use violence, then we are going to do that," war veterans' leader Chenjerai Hunzvi told the Sunday Standard.

But Sternford Moyo, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, said the deal with Gubbay had given the nation an opportunity to defend the independence of the judiciary.

"What is important is what is going to happen from now. People must stand up to defend their institutions, and the legal process. I believe the government was persuaded to change its stance because it realised it had a weaker case."

The government had charged that it wanted Gubbay and the other Supreme Court judges out because they had a colonial "Rhodesian mentality" favouring Zimbabwe's minority white community and the opposition.

Gubbay, who has challenged Mugabe's use of decrees to bypass the constitution on several issues, raised the temperature in December when his court ruled against the president's controversial land-seizure programme.

The Supreme Court and some lower courts had also during 2000 ordered the government to evict militants from Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party who invaded hundreds of white-owned farms in support of his drive to appropriate land for blacks.

Zimbabwean Govt. Warns War Veterans on Lawlessness

HARARE, Mar 5, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Zimbabwean Vice President Joseph Msika Sunday warned war veterans from taking the law into their own hands by purging government officials suspected of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a party which he said is trying to take the country back to colonialism, The Daily News reported on Monday.

Msika's warning came less than a month after he made a blistering attack on the war veterans for closing and besieging almost all government offices of Matabeleland Province.

He described the war veterans' actions as unruly behavior, which is not befitting for former freedom fighters.

Addressing more than 2,000 former freedom fighters in Bulawayo, the country's second largest city, Msika said: "When we fought the war, we had discipline. Some of the things you are doing now, leave a lot of question marks. Do not destroy institutions of the government when you are part of the government."

Msika further pointed out that the MDC is a "dangerous movement " which should not be allowed to exist.

He added the government and his ruling party will not go back on the land reform program and will not cooperate with white commercial farmers for allegedly spurning the government's hand of reconciliation.

"Whites can not tell us about human rights and fairness when they are still clinging to our land. We will take back our land and then we will start talking about the rule of law," the vice president added.

Zimbabwe Police Launch Hunt for Farmer's Killers

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police launched a manhunt Monday for gunmen who killed the mother of a farmer slain last year at the start of a government campaign to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks.

Chief Superintendent Wayne Bvudzijena said police were searching for a gang of men who had shot dead 68-year-old Gloria Olds Sunday at her farm near Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, and fled in her truck.

"There is a massive manhunt going on right now. We have also invited experts to analyze evidence at the scene," Bvudzijena told reporters.

He added: "It appeared to be a plain robbery in which the suspects were targeting motor vehicles at the Olds property."

Police have made no arrests so far in the cases of seven white farmers murdered last year.

Police officials in Bulawayo told Reuters they had recovered Olds's Toyota Hilux truck abandoned in Pumula, a sprawling township on the western outskirts of the city.

"We got the car, but we have not made any arrests yet," said a police officer.

Bvudzijena said the police investigation into Olds's murder had been delayed Sunday after her surviving son, David, drove from Bulawayo and locked himself in the house with a firearm and his mother's body.

He refused entry to anyone for several hours, including neighboring farmers and the police. The body was later moved to a city mortuary.

Gloria Olds was found dead Sunday on the farm in the Nyamandlovu district where she lived alone.

Farmers, who rushed to the murder scene, reported that she had been shot 15 times in a dawn ambush as she opened a gate to her farmhouse and that 30 empty cartridges had been recovered.

Olds's three dogs were also shot dead, they said.

Her other son, Martin, was the second of five white farmers killed last year in a land-grab sanctioned by President Robert Mugabe and spearheaded by veterans of the former Rhodesia's 1970s liberation war.

Martin Olds was killed when more than 100 war veterans surrounded his home and opened fire. His wife and two children later sought political asylum in Britain.

Two more white farmers were killed last year in apparent robberies.

UNEASY TRUCE ON FARMS

The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), grouping 4,500 mainly white farmers, condemned Olds's murder, saying the government must move fast to restore law and order in the country.

The Olds family was unavailable for comment Monday. Friends said they were busy organizing Gloria's funeral.

Sunday's shooting came two days after a war veteran threatened white Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay with "war" if he refused to obey a government order to take early retirement.

Gubbay agreed the following day to go on leave immediately and to retire 10 months early on July 1, clearing the way for Mugabe to appoint a new head of the judiciary.

Mugabe, ministers and war veterans had criticized Gubbay and other white judges for decisions favoring white farmers.

Self-styled war veterans, many too young to have served in the liberation war which led to Rhodesia's independence from Britain in 1980, have occupied hundreds of white-owned farms.

Some farmers have abandoned their lands near Harare and Bulawayo in the face of threats and violence from war veterans.

Others have continued to farm in an uneasy cooperation with war veterans who have kept at least a token presence on many farms earmarked for redistribution to landless black peasants.

Mugabe Faces European Critics, Avoids "Arrest"

BRUSSELS, March 5 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe confronted European critics of his human rights record on Monday during a one-day trip to Belgium which included a bid to "arrest" him by a gay rights campaigner.

Mugabe, rapped by the West over his drive to seize white-owned farms and his intimidation of Zimbabwe's independent media and judiciary, is a special hate figure for homosexuals, whom he has branded as "dogs."

The veteran African leader steered well clear of reporters during his visit but his bodyguards had to intervene when Peter Tatchell, a prominent British gay rights campaigner, tried to make a citizen's arrest of their president.

Tatchell yelled "Arrest Mugabe, arrest the torturer" as Mugabe left the Hilton Hotel in Brussels.

In the ensuing scuffle, Tatchell was pushed to the ground. He said he had been punched by a Zimbabwean bodyguard.

"I am OK, I fell down," he told reporters.

"I said the president should be arrested for the crime of torture under the 1984 United Nations' Convention on Torture of which Belgium is a signatory," Tatchell said.

Tatchell and two other members of their group OutRage also tried to effect a citizen's arrest last October during a private visit by Mugabe to Britain.

MUGABE SAYS JOURNALISTS SAFE

In his talks with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and other officials, Mugabe defended his human rights record and also pledged to support the fragile peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony.

"President Mugabe denied rumours that he was planning to expel all foreign journalists from Zimbabwe," Verhofstadt's spokesman Alain Gerlache told Reuters.

He said Mugabe had also given assurances to Belgium about the freedom of Zimbabwe's judiciary, noting last week's decision to reinstate Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay until July 1 and the withdrawal of allegations of bias against him.

For two days, Gubbay, 69, had defied a government order to take early retirement from March 1 while the government insisted he had retired and that it would appoint a successor.

Mugabe's supporters have threatened to chase some white judges out of courtrooms and to invade the homes of those seen as opposed to the government.

Gerlache said Verhofstadt and Foreign Minister Louis Michel had urged Mugabe to protect the life and property of white farmers, who include a small number of Belgians, in Zimbabwe.

But he said Mugabe had reiterated the official line that some farmland should be redistributed to black Zimbabweans.

European Commissioner for Development Poul Nielson raised the EU's worries about human rights in Zimbabwe over a lunch meeting with Mugabe. The two sides agreed to launch a formal "political dialogue" over the concerns, EU officials said.

ZIMBABWE COULD PULL OUT TROOPS

Belgium invited Mugabe mainly to discuss the latest efforts to cement peace in Democratic Congo, Zimbabwe's vast, mineral- rich neighbour. Zimbabwe is a key ally of Congo President Joseph Kabila.

Belgian officials quoted Mugabe as saying he was ready to withdraw Zimbabwean troops from Congo in the right conditions.

"He fears a political and military vacuum if the troops pull out," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Koen Vervaeke, adding that Mugabe had stressed the need for dialogue between all parties to the Congolese conflict.

Belgian Foreign Minister Michel also held talks on Monday with Ketumile Masire, the former Botswanan president who is now mediator in the Congolese conflict. Masire told Michel he would return to Kinshasa, the Congo capital, later this month.

Hopes for peace in Congo have risen since Kabila succeeded his slain father as leader in January. Rwanda and Uganda, which back the rebels, have begun withdrawing their troops.

Protester Tries to "Arrest" Mugabe in Belgium

BRUSSELS, March 5 (Reuters) - A prominent British gay rights campaigner tried to make a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe on Monday over his human rights record, but was knocked to the ground by the president's bodyguards.

Mugabe, who is on a one-day visit to Belgium for talks about the central African peace process, is a hate figure for many homosexuals, whom he has branded as "dogs."

Peter Tatchell of the British gay rights group Outrage yelled "Arrest Mugabe, arrest the torturer" as the veteran African leader left the Hilton Hotel in Brussels.

In the ensuing scuffle, Tatchell was pushed to the ground.

"I am OK, I fell down," he told reporters afterwards.

"I said the president should be arrested for the crime of torture under the 1984 United Nations' Convention on Torture of which Belgium is a signatory," Tatchell said.

He accused the Belgian police of allowing Mugabe's security guards to physicallly assault him.

Tatchell and two other members of the Outrage group tried to effect a citizen's arrest in October during a private visit by Mugabe to Britain.

After the incident on Monday in Brusssels, Mugabe held talks with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Foreign Minister Louis Michel about the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a former Belgian colony.

Zimbabwe is a key ally of the DRC's President Joseph Kabila, who is struggling to put an end to Africa's biggest war.

Separately, European Development Commissioner Poul Nielson pressed the concerns of the European Union about human rights in Zimbabwe during a lunchtime meeting with Mugabe.

"It was a frank and very open discussion," Commission spokesman Reijo Kemppinen told Reuters.

He said the two sides had agreed to open a "political dialogue" to examine the EU's concerns, which include freedom of the press and of the judiciary in Zimbabwe and also Mugabe's drive to seize white-owned farms without compensation.

Zimbabwe last week averted a constitutional crisis by reinstating Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay until July 1 and withdrawing allegations of bias against him.

For two days, Gubbay, 69, had defied a government order to take early retirement from March 1 while the government insisted he had retired and that would appoint a successor.

President Robert Mugabe's supporters have threatened to chase some white judges out of courtrooms and to invade the homes of those seen as opposed to the government.

Top Black Lawyers Earmarked for the Bench

Harare, Mar 05, 2001 (Zimbabwe Standard/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX)-- The government has approached several senior black lawyers to sit on the High Court and Supreme Court benches to replace judges earmarked for retirement, The Standard has learnt.

According to sources, the minister of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, held a series of meetings with black lawyers last week, in an attempt to induce them into taking up the offers.

The highly placed sources said most of the senior lawyers were considering the offer but first wanted to see how the impasse between the judiciary and executive would be resolved.

Amongst the senior lawyers that are for consideration on the bench are: Aston Musunga, Simplious Chihambakwe, George Chikumbirike and William Chirambasukwa.

Contacted for comment on the issue, Aston Musunga denied ever being approached by Chinamasa: "It is only a rumour. I was never approached to take up the post at the bench. Of course with the years of my experience in law, I qualify, but I have not been approached."

When contacted for comment on Friday, Chihambakwe's secretary said he was in a meeting, and was to contact the paper when he was free, which he never did.

Contacted for comment on Thursday, Chinamasa said: "I don't want to discuss the matter with the press. We shall be making a statement on the issue".

The High Court judges being targeted are Michael Gillespie, Mohamed Adam, Fergus Blackie and George Smith. The justices from the supreme court are Wilson Sandura, Simba Muchechetere, Nicholas McNally, Ahmed Ebrahim, while Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay has said he will retire in July.

The government had initially tried to push Gubbay out of office, but the Chief Justice stood his ground and vowed that he would not be pushed from office unceremoniously.

Such was the hostility against Gubbay and the judiciary that government ministers, war veterans and Zanu PF supporters had developed the habit of making derogatory statements against the judiciary without fear.

But on Friday the government was forced to swallow its pride: "All public statements, pronouncements and other language used by the minister or any other members of government or Zimbabwe, whether privileged or not, impugning, demeaning or putting in question the good name, reputation, honour and integrity of the Chief Justice, either in his official or personal capacity, have been withdrawn without reservation.

"It is agreed that no further statements of this nature will be made," said a Chinamasa.

Even the minister of state information and publicity, Jonathan Moyo, was uncharacteristically humble: "We need to give each and all of them (judges) the respect they deserve and for this reason we pay tribute to the Chief Justice and the contribution he has made to the development of the judiciary of Zimbabwe."

Back to the Top
Back to Index
  • Door to door checks in Vic Falls
  • Justice ministers meet - NYTimes
  • Football club terror - Times
  • Defence Minister accused of death threats, election fraud - DNews
  • 'Sore' Tatchell says he'll do it again - BBC
  • How to undermine the rule of law - DTel
  • Zim ready to withdraw troops - WSJ

From a reader, 6 March

CIO agents yesterday went door to door in Victoria Falls compiling a list of the names and addresses of all white residents, and checked gun licenses and ammunition bought compared to what had been issued on firearms licences. The reason given was "for National Security".
 
From The New York Times, 6 March

Justice ministers meet

South Africa - Justice Minister Penuell Maduna met with Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister of Zimbabwe, to discuss the Zimbabwe government's attacks on its judiciary. The meeting came a week after President Thabo Mbeki voiced concerns for Zimbabwe's judges, who have been threatened and assailed by officials and their supporters in Zimbabwe for ordering black squatters to end occupations of white-owned farms.
From The Times (UK), 7 March

Celebration turns to terror as veterans gatecrash football club

The football club chairman was toasting his team's success at being top of the league when the most feared man in Zimbabwe burst in on the celebration party in Harare. Flanked by 20 of his war veterans, Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi sat drinking beer in the clubhouse while his men smashed chairs and threw tables and bottles, injuring players and women supporters, including the chairman's wife. No one was arrested, even though three police officers witnessed the attack.
 
Eric Rosen had the misfortune to be in a property dispute with a prominent Zanu (PF) supporter over his efforts to transform a decaying football ground into the most impressive stadium in Zimbabwe. Mr Rosen has pumped money so successfully into his team, Motor Action, that they are top of the Premier League and have yet to lose a match this season. On the eve of their last game, however, the war veterans appeared in the clubhouse demanding to know where was the portrait of President Mugabe.
 
"One of the veterans struck me and produced their own portrait, which they stuck on the wall," Mr Rosen said. "They made me sit down, then stand up and salute it, like a puppet jumping to their orders. Then they told me to dance and sing their songs and finally ordered me to kiss the picture. What could I do? They were holding knives and bottles and I could see that some of them had guns stuffed in their trouser belts." He was accused of being a racist. Yet, of his 35 players, 32 are black and the other three are of mixed race. Mr Rosen's grandfather was a German Jew who fled to Africa and married a black woman from Bulawayo. "Their real warning was not to continue my legal battle over debts the club faced from a man who they said had asked them to take a hand in this matter."
 
When the veterans left, they helped themselves to beer, took a marquee tent and vowed to return. The next day they did, with Mr Hunzvi, as Mr Rosen and his triumphant team were celebrating their latest win. The chairman of the war veterans invited Mr Rosen to join him at a table in the corner to discuss his grievance. "We were chatting and drinking and I thought I was getting somewhere, when suddenly all hell let loose, tables and anything they could get hold of flying through the air," Mr Rosen said. Mr Rosen's wife, Lizzy, was slashed across the cheek. His son Sydney, 26, has stitches on one side of his skull, where he was knifed, and on the other, where he was hit by a bottle. Two players were taken to hospital as well.
 
Yesterday Mr Rosen was summoned to the Zanu (PF) headquarters to explain himself - proof, if it were needed, that the country's most popular sport is no longer safe from the war veterans. The most powerful figure in Zimbabwe's Football Association is Leo Mugabe, a nephew of the President.
From The Daily News, 6 March

Mahachi requests case postponement

The High Court yesterday postponed to tomorrow, at the request of Moven Mahachi, the hearing in which Remus Makuwaza of the MDC is challenging Mahachi's election victory in Makoni West in parliamentary elections last June. Mahachi said he wished to travel to the DRC today on urgent business, which he did not disclose. Ali Ebrahim, Mahachi's lawyer said: "The minister has to travel to the DRC today for urgent business. Can the court postpone the matter to Wednesday.?" Makuwaza's lawyer, Advocate Pearson Nherere, agreed that the matter be postponed to allow the minister to travel to the DRC. Justice Paddington Garwe granted the request.
 
Zimbabwe has about 12 000 troops in the DRC helping President Joseph Kabila's regime against the rebels supported by Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. Makuwaza wants the court to nullify last June's parliamentary election results and disqualify Mahachi, citing massive intimidation and violence perpetrated on MDC supporters by Zanu PF followers in the constituency during the run-up to the election. Mahachi polled 11 138 votes against Makuwaza's 7 356 votes.
 
In his affidavit, Makuwaza said on 31 May last year, Mahachi held a rally at Mukamba business centre where three people who had been asked to surrender their MDC membership cards attended. "Mahachi said they would die for nothing, that they were lucky to be alive and that the late Tichaona Chiminya had been fooling them to follow the MDC," Makuwaza said. Chiminya, who was Tsvangirai's driver and Talent Mabika, an MDC supporter were allegedly burnt to death by Joseph Mwale, a CIO operative and Kainos "Tom Kitsiyatota" Zimunya, a war veteran, on 15 April last year.
 
Nherere told Garwe that Mwale and Zimunya were served with the petition and are expected to testify. At a Zanu PF meeting in June last year, Makuwaza said, Mahachi threatened to kill those who did not surrender their MDC T-shirts. Makuwaza said: "Mahachi said 'if you do not surrender MDC T-shirts and cards we will move door to door killing you like what we did to Chiminya. Mind you I am the Minister of Defence. Therefore, I am capable of killing." Mahachi allegedly told people at the rally that Zanu PF had computers capable of identifying which party people had voted for and if they voted for the MDC, action would be taken against them.
 
From BBC News, 6 March

Tatchell defends Mugabe 'arrest'

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell says he is prepared to repeat his attempted citizen's arrest on Zimbabwe's president. Mr Tatchell was beaten by Mr Mugabe's bodyguards after he approached the president outside his Brussels hotel room on Monday to arrest him for breaking international human rights. The fracas took place as Mr Mugabe was arriving for a meeting with the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt.
 
Mr Tatchell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he would attempt a further citizen's arrest if the opportunity arose, but felt it was the duty of foreign governments to arrest the Zimbabwean leader under international agreements. He said: "The Belgian government should have met its responsibility to arrest the Zimbabwean leader as set out in international agreements against torture. It is in their law they should have applied it," he said. "I will have another go if the opportunity arises, but I do think it is incumbent on governments like Britain, Belgium and the French government to implement the law they have pledged to up-hold." He also said he was feeling "very, very, very sore" after the incident on Monday, but his pain "was of no real consequence compared to the far, far greater brutality that is meted out to the people of Zimbabwe by the Mugabe regime".
 
Mr Mugabe was due to meet French president Jacques Chirac on Tuesday amid calls for the meeting to be cancelled. Tory MP Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) said: "It is an absolute disgrace that these European leaders should be meeting this man who is responsible for heinous crimes in his own country. "He has been inciting his own terrorists to maim and kill in pursuit of the illegal seizure of farms. If this had been a South African white prime minister the United Nations would have been in permanent session."
 
Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude said Mr Mugabe should be "read the riot act" by President Chirac. He told the Today programme: "It is all right for Mugabe to be met by heads of state and government in other places as long as they take the opportunity to do what we would do, which is read him the riot act." Mr Mugabe has attracted protests from gay rights activists for several years, since branding homosexuals "worse than pigs or dogs".
 
Mr Tatchell previously attempted a citizen's arrest on him in London. Peter Tatchell has a long record as an activist for gay rights since he left his native Australia in 1971 to avoid the draft for the Vietnam war. In recent years he has made British politicians and churchmen the focus of his crusade, claiming they are guilty of "hypocrisy and homophobia". His protests have included releasing helium-filled condoms in Westminster Abbey, and "outing" 10 bishops who he claimed were gay. In 1998 he was fined £18.60 under an obscure ecclesiastical law for disrupting the Archbishop of Canterbury while he was preaching his Easter Day service.
 
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 6 March

How Mugabe undermined the rule of law

Imagine that Tony Blair was planning a spot of ballot-rigging to guarantee a Labour victory - or perhaps even some trumped-up charge to have William Hague disqualified from standing at all. Imagine, too, that the Prime Minister wanted to swap Lord Woolf for a compliant, Labour-supporting Lord Chief Justice before the country went to the polls. With his own man in place, he could then ensure that any irritating little electoral challenges were decided in his favour. Unthinkable, of course.
 
But let us suspend our disbelief. If you were a prime minister or president, how would you set about creating the judiciary of your choice? Under the constitution, you have no power to sack a judge. Instead, you can try to undermine the present Chief Justice, even though you appointed him yourself, in the hope that he will eventually throw in the towel. First, your government interprets his judgments as narrowly as possibly. For example, if a judge decides that a prisoner can receive uncensored correspondence, you allow that inmate alone to receive unopened letters, and no other prisoner. Next, you allow court rulings to be enforced by a politicised police force, knowing that senior officers will defy any orders they deem "political", which means contrary to the interests of your party.
 
Then, you let your security people loose. They tell the Chief Justice that his personal safety cannot be guaranteed and your supporters invade his court. After that, your government besmirches his good name. By then, your Chief Justice has had enough. He agrees to take four months' gardening leave, to be followed by early retirement. Finally, your Justice Minister decides that an acting Chief Justice should move in while his predecessor is still in post. Provoked beyond endurance, the Chief Justice defiantly refuses to budge. So you make a strategic retreat. You allow him to keep his pay, his car and his staff while on leave. You give him another few months to find a suitable home for himself and his sick wife. In exchange, the Chief Justice promises that he "will raise no objection to the appointment of an acting Chief Justice during his leave".
 
That was all you ever wanted. The way is then clear for your new Chief Justice to arrange for the sacking or sidelining of all remaining independently-minded judges. All these events have taken place in Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe has been leader since independence in 1980. Last week, his Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, secured the early retirement of the Chief Justice, Anthony Gubbay, 68. President Mugabe's overriding aim is to ensure he is returned to office in the presidential elections that must be held by March next year.
 
"If, in order to win the election, they need chaos, or if they need compliant judges, they will do whatever is necessary to bring about that result," says Adrian de Bourbon, the senior counsel acting for Mr Justice Gubbay. During the lead-up to the election, Mr de Bourbon, also chairman of the Zimbabwe Bar Council, expects court challenges to nominations or voter registration. A compliant judiciary would "make sure those decisions go in favour of their candidate," he says. His views are shared by opposition politicians in Zimbabwe. David Coltart, MP, legal affairs spokesman for the MDC, is worried that, once the dust has settled, the government will do everything in its power to rid itself of the remaining troublesome judges. "It is a tragedy that the Chief Justice felt he was unable to hold out until his 70th birthday," he says.
 
From a personal point of view, the judge's decision was understandable. He now has a bodyguard and his wife's medical needs will be met. On Friday morning, before Mr Justice Gubbay signed the deal agreeing to an acting Chief Justice, he could be seen pacing about the white-painted veranda that runs round the inside of the court building. By late afternoon, when I met him in his surprisingly gloomy study, he struck me as relieved and relaxed. For him, the war was over. Could he have fought on? Sadly, he was unable to reply: by talking to a British newspaper, he would have risked confirming the prejudices of his critics, such as Christopher Mushohwe, MP, who told parliament last week: "The Chief Justice has a neo-colonial attitude and he thinks and behaves as if he is the last British Governor of Zimbabwe."
 
Meanwhile, brave lawyers continue to debate the finer points of constitutional challege while the rule of law crumbles all around them. The country's economy, too, has all but broken down; few can afford even to buy a daily paper ($20). The new Chief Justice is expected to be Judge Godfrey Chidyausiku, president of the High Court and a former minister loyal to President Mugabe. If he convenes a tribunal with power to dismiss other judges for "misconduct", a compliant rump could find Morgan Tsvangirai, opposition leader, guilty of incitement and stop him from running for president. That would open the way for President Mugabe to win re-election while still portraying his regime to supportive foreign governments as "democratic".
 
Mr Justice Gubbay might have been more willing to carry on until after the presidential elections if the legal profession had been more vocal in its support. Leading lawyers in Britain have been lobbying behind the scenes and a number of senior judges from around the world have sent private messages of support, but many are unwilling to speak publicly. Now, only a few courageous judges are left in Zimbabwe to hold the government to account and the rule of law hangs by a thread.
 
From The Wall Street Journal, 5 March

Zimbabwe Ready To Pull Troops Out Of Congo - Officials

Brussels - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday said that his country was ready to withdraw its forces from Congo but expressed fears that such a move would lead to instability, Belgian officials said. Mugabe discussed peace efforts in the troubled Congo with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. "He was ready to withdraw from the Congo, but...feared a risk of creating a vacuum," Belgian government spokesman Michel Malherbe said. Mugabe had talked with Verhofstadt, Belgian Foreign Minister Luis Michel, as well as European Union Development Commissioner Poul Nielson.
 
Michel later told reporters he agreed with Mugabe's assessment, adding that guaranteeing security in areas after the departure of Zimbabwean troops was a prime task for the United Nations. Michel brushed aside criticism of his meeting with Mugabe, who is accused of muzzling opposition at home. "What is important is the role played by the President of Zimbabwe in the Congo (where) the situation remains uncertain," Michel added. At the meeting , Verhofstadt expressed his concern about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe, and the treatment in particular of foreign correspondents and white farmers. With its economy collapsing and the ruling party's popularity plunging, the government in recent months has intensified its crackdown on the private media, the opposition and the independent judiciary.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
 
Security Report
 
Wednesday 7th March 2001
 
Elderly Nyamandlovu widow murdered
 
The murder of 72 year old Gloria Olds in the Nyamandlovu district of Matabeleland at first light on Sunday 4th February has been extensively covered in the local and international media. The reports have generally been accompanied by an expression of outrage.
 
At her routine time of 06:30 hrs on Sunday 4th March, Mrs Olds, who lived alone, was about to open her security gates when two gunmen opened fire at short range with AK 47 assault rifles.  The gunmen then shot the gate padlock open to gain access.  One gunman shot the three dogs in the yard while the other emptied his magazine into Mrs Old's body.  Farmers involved in the follow up describe the modus operandi as "clinical".  The gunmen then entered the house, walking past cash on a table and a weapon by the bedside and later escaped in Mrs Old's vehicle.  They took only her handbag and a few items of clothing.  The body of Mrs Olds was discovered by her son, David, about three hours later.  In his distraught state and with vivid recollections of the murder of his brother, Martin, on 18th April last year, David initially prevented police from approaching the scene and fired warning shots to keep them away. 
 
Despite determined search efforts by the community, the suspects were not apprehended.  The vehicle was later recovered on the outskirts of Pumula Township in Bulawayo, from where the tracks of the assailants led to the main road. 
 
Police are investigating.
 
It is not clear whether this incident is the start of a new phase of political violence, but members are urged to be alert to this possibility and to remain vigilant. 
Back to the Top
Back to Index
This message is forwarded at the request of Albert Weidemann, 077733 85981.
Please redistribute it as widely as possible to all interested persons.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After speaking with Charing Cross Police events room on 020 7321 7524 this morning 7th March at 09.20am and notifying of the details. We will have to change the times only as per the new schedule.

Please send out the message.

SOLIDARITY

DEMONSTRATION - FREE ZIMBABWE

1. Commonwealth Offices, Marlborough House, Pallmall, London. Monday 19th March 2001 starts 11.00am - 14. 00hrs.

2. Zimbabwe High Commission, 429 Strand, London

Tuesday 20th march starts 1 1.00am - 14.00hrs and should continue for the rest of the week.

Come with placards, come as farmers, come as individuals,

come as political activists. Be there united in one voice, for the freedom to express your views without fear of intimidation, reprisal, or persecution.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE: THROUGH CONTRIBUTION.

Sincerely

Albert Weidemann


Back to the Top
Back to Index
Tony Blair says the behaviour of the Zimbabwean government towards its own people is disgraceful.

He said the British Government is keeping in close touch with its own citizens in the region and would continue to put pressure on the Zimbabwean regime.

He was responding to Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell.

Mr Cambpell asked how long the Zimbabwean government could expect to enjoy membership of the Commonwealth when it intimidated judges, expelled independent journalists and harassed its political opponents.

Mr Blair said: "You are absolutely right. It is of course disgraceful the behaviour that the government of Zimbabwe has exhibited towards its own citizens.

"All the way through, however, we have to judge what is right and best, giving account to the views of those who are opposed to the regime, but have to live in Zimbabwe as opposed to live on the benches opposite.

"It is for that reason that we have taken measures, that I think are sensible and right, in terms of reducing our aid programme, in terms of reducing or cutting our military training advice to the Zimbabwean regime.

"We will continue to put pressure on them, through every single forum we can, including in respect of the Commonwealth.

"But the important thing for people in Zimbabwe is actually to get change."

Earlier this week Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe and senior Labour MPs in Britain attacked the French and Belgium governments for agreeing to meet the African state's president, Robert Mugabe during his European tour.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
Zimbabwe's state media has applauded the attack by President Robert Mugabe's bodyguards on Peter Tatchell.

The largest government newspaper, The Herald, said the attack on the human rights protester in Brussels was a good signal that restores national pride.

Mr Tatchell had attempted a citizen's arrest of Mugabe.

Mr Tatchell "should be thankful the President's security men did not shoot him down like a dog," The Herald said. "The severe beating meted out of Tatchell is a good signal that restores national pride."

The state media called Mr Mugabe's trip to Belgium and France a diplomatic triumph after human rights groups criticised the European countries for allowing him to visit.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's main opposition party has accused the government of delaying an impeachment investigation into human rights violations by President Robert Mugabe.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe had objected to Mr Mugabe being received by Belgian leaders and President Jacques Chirac of France on grounds he ordered political violence and condoned violations of constitutional rights.

The MDC said the trip gave a "veneer of respectability" to Mr Mugabe's brutal regime.

But state radio said a campaign to isolate Mr Mugabe orchestrated by Britain, the former colonial power, failed and Mr Mugabe had held successful talks on peace efforts to end civil war in Congo, where Zimbabwe has 11,000 troops backing the government against rebels.

The opposition has accused the ruling party of stalling on a motion it placed before the Parliament in October calling for the impeachment of Mr Mugabe and his removal from office for human rights violations that breached his presidential oath to uphold the constitution.

The Parliament set up a 12-member committee to investigate, but not one meeting of the panel has been called since then by its ruling party chairman, said Welshman Ncube, a senior opposition official.

"We are determined to press on with the impeachment. The MDC will decide on a next course of action" if the ruling party continued stalling, he said.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
Farm Invasions and Security Report
Monday 5th March 2001


Every attempt is made to provide a comprehensive report of ongoing
activities in relation to farm invasions, but many incidents are unreported
due to communications constraints, fear of reprisals and a general weariness
on the part of farmers.  Farmers names and in some cases, farm names, are
omitted to minimise the risk of reprisal.

NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF:
  a.. The owner of Harmony Farm was barricaded out of his home yesterday by
an aggressive group of invaders and still not been allowed to return to his
home.
  b.. Three farm labourers were apprehended by war vets for stealing their
regrowth maize on Dawmill.  It was stated by the Police and the DA that if
this type of conflict continues, everyone will be removed from the farm and
the banana plantation destroyed.
  c.. On Colandra, the DA said Police should have moved the squatters off
the farm, but Police say the DA has not issued instructions to do so.
  d.. Invaders have started building houses in a harrowed land on Fels Farm.
  e.. In Mwenezi, pegging, planting, cutting of trees and movement of cattle
continue.
  f.. Minister Border Gezi and Provincial Governor attended a meeting in the
Save Conservancy on Friday 22nd March 2001.  The meeting appeared to be very
positive.  Veterinary issue was discussed and the realigning and maintaining
of the fences.
  g.. Chiredzi; planting of maize, movement of cattle, new plots, cutting of
trees and clearing of lands are all ongoing.  Poaching and snaring is rife.
There were no reports received from Matabeleland & Midlands.

REGIONAL REPORTS:

Mashonaland Central
Glendale - The owner of Harmony Farm was barricaded out of his home
yesterday by an aggressive group of invaders as a result of an ongoing
dispute.  Police responded but failed to resolve the issue and as of today,
the owner has still not been allowed to return to his home.
Shamva - Three farm labourers were apprehended by war vets for stealing
their regrowth maize last week on Dawmill.  The following day, no vehicles
were allowed to leave the farm and negotiations took place between Police,
the Zanu PF District Representative and war vet leaders.  During these
negotiations it was stated that if this type of conflict continues, everyone
will be removed from the farm and that the banana plantation will be
destroyed.  The situation has been stable since then.

Mashonaland West North  - Nothing to report.

Mashonaland West South
General - The region remains reasonably calm due to the fact that alot of it
has been inaccessible due to the heavy rain.

Mashonaland East
Beatrice - On Goldilands, the owners name has been painted over on his farm
sign post.  A resident squatter on the Chirama Farm, has been harassing the
farm owner.  Update on Colandra, the DA said the police should have moved
the squatters off the farm and police say the DA has not issued instructions
for them to do so.
Macheke / Virginia - There has been no progress in the recovery of a Toyota
farm truck which was hi-jacked on 25th February.   The owner of Exeter farm
was prevented from doing land preparation as the resident squatters have
advised him that the farm belongs to the War Veterans' Association and the
current farm owner will be off the farm by June this year.  The DA Murehwa
has agreed to come and sort the problem out.
Wedza - Three new invaders moved from Collace to Fels Estate and have
started building houses in a harrowed land.

Masvingo
Masvingo East & Central - Situation remains the same.
Mwenezi - Pegging, planting, cutting of trees and movement of cattle
continue.
Save Conservancy - Mukasi Ranch, one game scout was beaten up last week and
subsequent to that the workshop on this property was broken into and two
radio chargers were stolen and a battery.  Angus Ranch, shots were fired on
this property and a shotgun cartridge recovered.  Minister Border Gezi and
Provincial Governor attended a meeting in the Save Conservancy on Friday 2nd
March 2001.  Meeting appeared to be very positive.  Veterinary issue was
also discussed and the realigning and maintaining of the fences.
Chiredzi - Planting of maize continues in all areas.  Movement of cattle
also continues.  A lot of new plots are being made and cutting of trees and
clearing of lands are ongoing.  Poaching and snaring is rife.
Gutu / Chatsworth - Ploughing on Clare farm continues.  Anniversary
celebrations predicted to commence on Felixburg Farm did not commence over
the weekend, but were moved to the resettlement area and held at Chavore
School.

Manicaland  - Nothing to report.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

Malcolm Vowles, Deputy Director (Admin & Projects) 04 309800-18
ddap@cfu.co.zw
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----



Back to the Top
Back to Index
From IOL


War veterans kidnap Zim cricket star's father

March 06 2001 at 08:10PM



By Basildon Peta

Harare - Self-styled war veterans on Tuesday allegedly kidnapped commercial
farmer Dennis Streak, father of Zimbabwean cricketer Heath Streak, and kept
him for several hours before releasing him.

A group of 20 veterans allegedly stormed Streak's Robin Farm in Matabeleland
and demanded to see farm manager Timothy Ndlovu, a strong campaigner for the
opposition MDC.

Robin Farm is near Silver Streams Farm, where Gloria Olds was killed by
gunmen on Saturday in what the Commercial Farmers' Union called a political
murder.

Earlier beaten up Ndlovu's wife
She was the mother of another farmer, Martin Olds, who was allegedly killed
by war veterans at the start of the farm invasions last year.

On Tuesday, the war veterans, who had earlier allegedly beaten up Ndlovu's
wife, said they wanted to kill the farm manager because of his links with
the MDC. They asked Streak to produce Ndlovu, but the farmer said he did not
know where he was.

The war veterans then allegedly bundled Streak into a truck and forced him
to drive around with them, ostensibly to find Ndlovu.

When they failed to find him after several hours, they allegedly returned
Streak to his farm and released him unharmed.

The chairperson of the Matabeleland region of the CFU, Mark Crawford, said
the war veterans had earlier stormed two farms near Olds's farm and issued
the owners with a 12-hour ultimatum to vacate their properties or face dire
consequences.

He said the two farmers refused to vacate their properties by the deadline
of early on Thursday morning. - Independent Foreign Service





Back to the Top
Back to Index
 
 
Yves Boucall / Reuters Mr Mugabe's bodyguards punched and slapped Mr Tatchell, leaving him in the gutter, from where he was helped (right) by the reporter Leyla LintonTUESDAY MARCH 06 2001 Mugabe bodyguards beat Tatchell BY MARTIN FLETCHER, EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENTPETER TATCHELL, the militant gay campaigner, tried one publicity stunt too many yesterday when he attempted to perform a citizen’s arrest on Robert Mugabe in Brussels. He was beaten up by the President’s bodyguards in a display of the sort of violence and intimidation with which Mr Mugabe increasingly rules Zimbabwe.

Mr Tatchell, who tried to arrest Mr Mugabe in London in 1999, made his latest attempt as the President walked through the Hilton Hotel lobby after lunching with Poul Nielson, the European Commissioner for Development. He moved towards Mr Mugabe, shouting “I arrest you for torture”, but was bundled into a corner by several of the bodyguards ringing the President.

He was kept there until Mr Mugabe had gone out through the revolving door. Mr Tatchell then pursued him outside shouting “torturer” and “murderer”. This time he was pinned against a wall, slapped and punched around the head. The bodyguards also threatened to find him and kill him.

Mr Mugabe, looking shaken, was hurried into the silver BMW waiting to take him to a meeting with the Belgian Prime Minister.

As his motorcade moved off, Mr Tatchell ran in front of the car, but was grabbed and punched by another bodyguard who left him lying in the gutter. He ended up with a bruised head and black eye, but said: “I hope this showed President Mugabe that he can’t swan around the capitals of the world without being challenged.”

The Brussels police said they had no plans to take the matter further.

TUESDAY MARCH 06 2001
 
From The Times [UK]
Mugabe bodyguards beat Tatchell
BY MARTIN FLETCHER, EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT
PETER TATCHELL, the militant gay campaigner, tried one publicity stunt too many yesterday when he attempted to perform a citizen’s arrest on Robert Mugabe in Brussels. He was beaten up by the President’s bodyguards in a display of the sort of violence and intimidation with which Mr Mugabe increasingly rules Zimbabwe.

Mr Tatchell, who tried to arrest Mr Mugabe in London in 1999, made his latest attempt as the President walked through the Hilton Hotel lobby after lunching with Poul Nielson, the European Commissioner for Development. He moved towards Mr Mugabe, shouting “I arrest you for torture”, but was bundled into a corner by several of the bodyguards ringing the President.

He was kept there until Mr Mugabe had gone out through the revolving door. Mr Tatchell then pursued him outside shouting “torturer” and “murderer”. This time he was pinned against a wall, slapped and punched around the head. The bodyguards also threatened to find him and kill him.

Mr Mugabe, looking shaken, was hurried into the silver BMW waiting to take him to a meeting with the Belgian Prime Minister.

As his motorcade moved off, Mr Tatchell ran in front of the car, but was grabbed and punched by another bodyguard who left him lying in the gutter. He ended up with a bruised head and black eye, but said: “I hope this showed President Mugabe that he can’t swan around the capitals of the world without being challenged.”

The Brussels police said they had no plans to take the matter further.


Back to the Top
Back to Index
 
Tuesday, 6 March, 2001, 20:40 GMT -BBC
Mugabe: 'Excellent meeting' in Paris
Robert Mugabe and Jacques Chirac
Chirac received Mugabe despite international criticism
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has described his meeting with French President Jacques Chirac as "excellent".

The two men meet at the Elysee palace in Paris, in a meeting which attracted widespread international criticism following Mr Mugabe controversial land reform programme.


It was an excellent meeting, very good, very friendly

Robert Mugabe
Mr Mugabe arrived in Paris from Brussels, where there was an angry confrontation with British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who tried to carry out a citizen's arrest on Mr Mugabe.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he expected Mr Chirac "to underline international concern at what is happening in Zimbabwe".

The British press spoke more bluntly, with The Daily Telegraph saying:

"Rather than being welcomed at the Elysee, Mr Mugabe deserves to be treated as a pariah."

No details have emerged about the meeting, which lasted for an hour, but Mr Mugabe left in a good mood.

"It was an excellent meeting, very good, very friendly," he said.

Reassurance

In Belgium on Monday, a meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt covered the recent expulsion of foreign journalists from Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwean Government pressure on the judiciary.

Judge Anthony Gubbay
Justice Gubbay: Faced strong pressure to retire
"President Mugabe denied rumours that he was planning to expel all foreign journalists from Zimbabwe," Mr Verhofstadt's spokesman Alain Gerlache told Reuters news agency.

He also said Mr Mugabe had reassured Belgium about the freedom of Zimbabwe's judiciary, mentioning last week's decision to "reinstate" Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay until 1 July.

Judge Gubbay had originally been instructed by the government to quit his office by the end of February - the extension to July came as part of a deal whereby he would take the intervening period as leave, after he had been threatened by a government supporter who forced his way into his office.

Another purpose of Mr Mugabe's Brussels visit was to discuss the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo - a former Belgian colony where Zimbabwean troops are playing a key role in defending the government of President Joseph Kabila against Rwandan-backed rebels.

Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koen Vervaeke said Mr Mugabe had stressed the need for dialogue between all parties to the Congo conflict, but fears "a political and military vacuum if the troops pull out".

Tatchell scuffle

Mr Tatchell used the opportunity of Mr Mugabe's presence in Brussels to attempt a citizen's arrest.

He approached the president outside his hotel, shouting "arrest Mugabe, arrest the torturer".

Peter Tatchell
Tatchell: Attempted citizen's arrest
A scuffle followed during which the gay rights campaigner said he had been punched by a bodyguard and had fallen to the ground, but was not badly hurt.

"I said the president should be arrested for the crime of torture under the 1984 United Nations' Convention on Torture of which Belgium is a signatory," Mr Tatchell said.

Mr Mugabe has attracted protests from gay rights activists for several years, since branding homosexuals "worse than pigs or dogs".

Mr Tatchell previously attempted a citizen's arrest on him in London.


Back to the Top
Back to Index
 
 
Tuesday, 6 March, 2001, 07:27 GMT
Mugabe defends rights record
Robert Mugabe and Guy Verhofstad
Mugabe and Verhofstad: Congo on the agenda
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has used a visit to Brussels to defend his human rights record.

But there was an angry confrontation with British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who tried to carry out a citizen's arrest on Mr Mugabe.

A meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt covered the recent expulsion of foreign journalists from Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwean Government pressure on the judiciary.

"President Mugabe denied rumours that he was planning to expel all foreign journalists from Zimbabwe," Mr Verhofstadt's spokesman Alain Gerlache told Reuters news agency.

He also said Mr Mugabe had reassured Belgium about the freedom of Zimbabwe's judiciary, mentioning last week's decision to "reinstate" Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay until 1 July.

Judge Anthony Gubbay
Justice Gubbay: On leave until retirement in July
Judge Gubbay had originally been instructed by the government to quit his office by the end of February - the extension to July came as part of a deal whereby he would take the intervening period as leave, after he had been threatened by a government supporter who forced his way into his office.

On Tuesday, Mr Mugabe is due to meet French President Jacques Chirac.

Tatchell scuffle

Mr Tatchell used the opportunity of Mr Mugabe's presence in Brussels to attempt a citizen's arrest.

He approached the president outside his hotel, shouting "arrest Mugabe, arrest the torturer".

Peter Tatchell
Tatchell: Attempted citizen's arrest
A scuffle followed during which the gay rights campaigner said he had been punched by a bodyguard and had fallen to the ground, but was not badly hurt.

"I said the president should be arrested for the crime of torture under the 1984 United Nations' Convention on Torture of which Belgium is a signatory," Mr Tatchell said.

Mr Mugabe has attracted protests from gay rights activists for several years, since branding homosexuals "worse than pigs or dogs".

Mr Tatchell previously attempted a citizen's arrest on him in London.

Congo peace process

One purpose of Mr Mugabe's Brussels visit was to discuss the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo - a former Belgian colony where Zimbabwean troops are playing a key role in defending the government of President Joseph Kabila against Rwandan-backed rebels.

Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koen Vervaeke said Mr Mugabe had stressed the need for dialogue between all parties to the Congo conflict, but fears "a political and military vacuum if the troops pull out".

Rwanda and Uganda, which support opponents of the Kinshasa Government, began withdrawing troops last week following UN Security Council approval of a peacekeeping plan.

Zimbabwe, along with fellow Kabila allies Angola and Namibia, has not yet begun withdrawing troops.

Back to the Top
Back to Index
 

Upset over latest Zimbabwe farm death
Kathy Olds at the funeral oif her husband
Kathy Olds has sought asylum in the UK
The widow of a white farmer shot dead during land rights protests last year has said she is devastated at the news of the killing of her mother-in-law on her farm in Zimbabwe.

Gloria Olds, 68, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on her farm near Bulawayo, where she had lived alone since her son, Martin, was killed last year.

She was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds on Sunday.

Mr Olds's widow, Kathy, who fled to Britain with her two children after her husband's murder, is now being comforted by friends. She has sought political asylum in Britain.

"Kathy has had just a year to get over Martin's death and now she has to face this. She is devastated," a close friend told PA news agency.

Relatives are blaming self-styled war veterans for the shooting, but police are treating the incident as murder and armed robbery.

Violence

Mrs Olds is the eighth white farmer amongst more that 30 Zimbabweans who have died in politically related violence in the past year.

Her son, Martin, was the second white farmer killed when squatters began taking over white-owned land with the encouragement of President Robert Mugabe.

The murder of Gloria Olds comes as the government's campaign to seize white-owned farms for redistribution is being stepped up.

Last week, the government succeeded in forcing the country's chief justice, Anthony Gubbay, to agree to take early retirement after he had ruled against the forcible seizure of white-owned farms.

David Coltart, a friend of the Olds family and an opposition MP, has said he believes the murder is political.

"I have no doubt that (the latest killing) is politically motivated and is designed to provoke farmers into reacting, to give the government grounds to clamp down further and intimidate the farming community," he said.

Back to the Top
Back to Index
  • Mugabe men beat up Tatchell - Guardian
  • MEP's protest - Times
  • Riot squad terror in Chitungwiza - DNews
  • Murder was 'purely political' - Times
  • Rwanda demands action on Hutu militias - Star

From The Guardian (UK), 6 March

Mugabe men beat up Tatchell

Second attempt at 'citizen's arrest' ends in assault at hotel

Brussels/Paris - The gay and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was savagely beaten by bodyguards protecting President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as he tried to make a citizen's arrest yesterday of the African leader during an official visit to meet a senior European Union commissioner. As Mr Tatchell attempted his citizen's arrest he was repulsed forcefully and left lying semi-conscious in the gutter after receiving at least three blows to the head.

In the lobby of the Hilton hotel in Brussels, Mr Tatchell managed to push past several of Mr Mugabe's burly minders and demanded that the African leader be arrested under the 1984 UN Convention against torture but was swiftly bundled into a corner. After the attack, a dazed Mr Tatchell, who attempted a similar citizen's arrest of Mr Mugabe in London in October 1999, claimed that one of the bodyguards had issued him with a death threat saying: "We will find you and kill you."

"People who I believe were President Mugabe's agents attacked me and punched me around the face even though I was no physical threat to Mr Mugabe," said Mr Tatchell, his nose bloodied and his face bruised. The Belgian police allowed the Zimbabwean agents to have a free go and to beat me with impunity and yet President Mugabe is complicit in the use of torture which is a crime under international and Belgian law." Mr Tatchell suspects Mr Mugabe ordered the torture of two Zimbabwean journalists.

Moments before the attack Mr Mugabe had finished off a lunch of smoked salmon and chicken with wild mushrooms in the company of the EU's development commissioner, Poul Nielson, who has been severely criticised by Zimbabwe's democratic opposition for agreeing to meet Mr Mugabe at all. For one bizarre moment Mr Mugabe and his large en tourage were trapped in the revolving door of the Hilton as they hastened to beat a retreat from Mr Tatchell's approach, allowing him to exit the hotel by a different door and attempt a second "arrest". But the campaigner was viciously beaten by a man who refused to identify himself but who later got into one of Mr Mugabe's limousines and left Mr Tatchell lying in the gutter almost under the wheels of one of the waiting BMWs. Mr Mugabe laughed and joked with one of his minders in the back of his limousine as Mr Tatchell was beaten.

Mr Nielson later claimed he was unaware of the incident but said he was unrepentant about lunching with Mr Mugabe, who stands accused of orchestrating a campaign of violence and intimidation against the Zimbabwean media, judiciary and white farmers. "I think it's a big mistake not to listen to what he has to say. It's not a government we are relating to, it's a nation," Mr Nielson argued, adding that Mr Mugabe had agreed to enter into a critical dialogue with the EU. He later told the European Parliament, however, that if Mr Mugabe did not act soon the EU would consider suspending its £6m a year aid programme to Harare.

Tory MEP Nirj Deva was one of several deputies to subject Mr Nielson to hostile questioning. "He (Mugabe) has to be told there is a line in the sand across which he cannot walk. Would you have discussed matters with Stalin and Hitler?" he asked the Dane. Morgan Tsvangirai, the main opposition leader in Zimbabwe, also condemned the meeting. "I think it is a slap in the face for Zimbabweans," he told BBC Radio 4. "To me and the majority of Zimbabweans that is endorsing and condoning his actions." Mr Mugabe later held talks with Belgium's prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, discussing the nascent peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony, where Zimbabwean troops are stationed. Mr Mugabe is due in France today where he will meet President Jacques Chirac.

From The Times (UK), 6 March

MEPs protest over Mugabe meeting

Brussels/Paris - Belgium's Prime Minister and a European commissioner caused international outrage by meeting President Mugabe of Zimbabwe in Brussels yesterday, before a further controversial meeting with President Chirac today. Mr Mugabe, who is waging a campaign of intimidation against Zimbabwe's judges, journalists, political opposition and white farmers, spent five hours in Brussels, meeting first Poul Nielson, the European Development Commissioner, and later Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian Prime Minister.

He ignored all questions from journalists, including one about Sunday's murder of the 68-year-old white Zimbabwean farmer Gloria Olds. When he caught the train to Paris he left Mr Nielson facing outraged MEPs in the European Parliament. The commissioner insisted that he had expressed the EU's concerns about events in Zimbabwe, and that Mr Mugabe had agreed on the need for "political consultations" to discuss those concerns. He said he believed that dialogue was necessary to "build confidence" between the EU and Zimbabwe, but declined to elaborate further on their lunch because he believed that "professional diplomacy" was more important than transparency in this case.

"Would we have a dialogue with Hitler and Stalin too?", Nirj Deva, a British Conservative who had demanded that Mr Nielson cancel the meeting, said. For the EU to extol human rights, then consort with Mr Mugabe would make it "the laughing stock of the world", he said. Michael Gahler, a German Christian Democrat who monitored Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections last year, said Mr Nielson's "professional diplomacy" was useless as Mr Mugabe "doesn't listen to his own people, let alone anyone else. . . The only language he understands is language which says if we don't get immediate change our aid programmes will be suspended."

The Commission appeared embarrassed and defensive about the visit. It omitted to announce the meeting in advance, stonewalled journalists' inquiries and arranged no press conference afterwards. The Belgian Government acknowledged the awkwardness of Mr Verhofstadt, a human rights champion, receiving Mr Mugabe. But it was necessary because Zimbabwe could play a key role in bringing peace to Belgium's war-torn former colony of the DRC. A spokesman said Mr Verhofstadt and Louis Michel, Belgium's Foreign Minister, also raised three specific issues at the request of Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary. They were the "unacceptable" treatment of Zimbabwe's white farmers, the intimidation of judges culminating in last week's ousting of the chief justice, and the harassment of journalists.

The spokesman said Mr Mugabe replied that the problems with the Supreme Court were now over, and that the recent expulsion of a BBC correspondent was for administrative, not political, reasons. In Harare Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition MDC party, said it was "a slap in the face for the French Government or any government in Europe to be accommodating him. . . Mugabe is beating up people in the townships left, right and centre. People are being murdered, culprits are being allowed to go scot free, and yet these issues go unnoticed." Donald Anderson, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, accused the French and Belgian Governments of a "crass error of judgment". Francis Maude, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, called for Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.

Efforts by France to take a leading role in settlement of the Congo civil war and restore its influence in south-central Africa will be at the heart of the talks between M Chirac and Mr Mugabe. French officials said that M Chirac would remind Mr Mugabe of international anger over his Government's human rights record. But the French are grateful to Mr Mugabe for using his armed forces to support the new administration of Joseph Kabila in the DRC.

From The Daily News, 5 March

Riot squad unleashes terror in Chitungwiza

Hundreds of armed riot police descended on St Mary's suburb in Chitungwiza on Saturday and beat up hundreds of residents who had gathered at Huruyadzo shopping centre for the official opening of a marketplace by MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai, according to his spokesman, was forced to abandon the function to avoid an escalation of police brutality in the event that MDC party youths fought back in defence.

Learnmore Jongwe, the MDC's secretary for information and publicity, yesterday said: "Our president cancelled the meeting in order to avoid clashes between the police and our youths. The St Mary's MP, Job Sikhala, has implemented good developmental work for his constituency. He wanted the vendors to have a decent place to sell their goods, but we have a government that unlawfully sends the police to beat up innocent people and disrupt the official opening of the sheltered marketplace. This is unacceptable." Jongwe said the marketplace would now be officially opened at a date to be determined.

Earlier, thousands of residents braved the heavy downpour to witness the official opening of the marketplace. They converged at the venue well before 10am. By 11am, a large crowd had already gathered at the shopping centre for the meeting, scheduled for 12 noon. About 60 armed riot police were also present. By 1pm the crowd had swelled to more than 3 000 people. Then suddenly 10 police Puma vehicles carrying more armed riot police arrived at the centre. Shortly after this more riot squad officers arrived in 20 Land-Rover Defender vehicles, some of them with police dogs. One of the police officers declared: "We are under instructions from our superiors not to allow Tsvangirai to address rallies in Chitungwiza. We will make sure this will not happen."

Then all hell broke loose as the wanton beatings began. Without any warning or provocation, the riot police charged into the crowd, attacking the residents with baton sticks. As the crowd fled in all directions, the police stormed into a nearby supermarket beating shoppers and revellers at the centre. Businesspersons at the centre immediately closed their premises fearing destruction of their properties. "These people are dangerous. Look at what they are doing. What crime did we commit here? The government accuses MDC MPs of not working hard and when we do something for the people they harass us," said Sikhala before fleeing for his life.

The riot squad then separated into groups of 10 as they patrolled the streets of St Mary's beating anyone on sight. The beatings in the streets continued for about three hours. The riot squad also unleashed their terror on unsuspecting commuters as they disembarked from buses, accusing them of travelling to St Mary's to witness the MDC event. "I was not even aware of the MDC event. I was attacked by the police as I disembarked from a commuter omnibus. They ignored my protestations that I was coming from Mbare Musika where I had gone to order vegetables," said Jairos Masonga.

Residents told The Daily News that some of them found mysterious letters under their doors when they woke up on Saturday morning. The letters advised the residents to visit the Criminal Investigation Department at Harare Central Police Station for unspecified reasons. Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told The Sunday Mail MDC meetings were banned in Chitungwiza after the opposition party's members allegedly disarmed a policeman at one of their rallies. But Jongwe said he was not aware of the ban on MDC meetings or the incident in which a policeman was reportedly disarmed. Jongwe said: "Bvudzijena's allegations are nonsensical. The truth of the situation is that the police officers are taking instructions from Zanu PF and war veterans to harass opposition supporters. He should behave like a professional policemen and tell his officers to respect human rights."

Police and army brutalities in St Mary's have become a weekly occurrence, with Sikhala and his pregnant wife falling victim to the terror tactics twice in the last two months. Some MDC youths have fled into the bush as members of the police, the CIO and the army harass them because of their political affiliation. Others are reportedly still missing after they were allegedly taken away from their homes in the dead of the night by people believed to be CIO agents acting in collusion with the police.

From The Times (UK), 6 March

Radio links give white farms only hope of safety

Nyamandlovu - Anxious radio messages flew between farmhouses yesterday after the murder of Gloria Olds dealt a fresh blow to the morale of the beleaguered white community in Zimbabwe. The 45 white-owned farms around Nyamandhlovu, 350 miles south-west of Harare, have been among the worst hit by the land invasions. All but a handful have been occupied by squatters who have been responsible for countless acts of theft, vandalism and assault. Farmers are close to breaking point after months of harassment and say that tensions are higher now than during the guerrilla war against white rule in the Seventies.

Nyamandhlovu is the only farming community to have endured the murder of a mother and son. Martin Olds, 43, was killed by 70 gunmen on April 18 last year, the second landowner to be murdered since the start of the occupations last February. His mother, Gloria, 68, lived alone on the neighbouring farm and was shot dead on Sunday. Her death has shocked the community. All farmers are linked by a radio network, and roll-call messages are transmitted every day at 7pm and 7am. If anyone fails to reply, their neighbours assume the worst and rush to the rescue. Wives and children are never left alone and anxious ears are always alert for an emergency radio message.

Wally Herbst, 51, who lives on Porter Farm, 10 miles from where Mrs Olds was killed, said: "It's much worse than during the war because we haven't the support of anybody. If someone shoots at your house, the police won't react. The only people who will help are neighbours." Eight miles down a bumpy track is Mr Herbst's nearest neighbour. The Wood family have lived at Glen Curragh Farm since 1896 and now share their land with about 15 squatters, who vandalise fences and issue blood-curdling threats. After the murder of Mrs Olds, Mike Wood, 62, joined other farmers in tracking the killers. The victim's pick-up truck, which was stolen by the culprits, was found in Bulawayo yesterday and taken to the police.

Mr Wood said: "Nobody must have any illusions. This was not a murder and robbery. It was purely political and designed to intimidate the farmers and force us out." Mrs Olds recently angered a prominent supporter of the ruling Zanu-PF party. She rented a property to him and had demanded money after months of non-payment. But landowners suspect that the guiding hand behind all the violence is Obert Mpofu, the provincial governor, who publicly blamed white farmers for his defeat in parliamentary elections last June. The wave of violence is believed to be his revenge and the objective is clear: to force terrified white farmers off their land.

From The Star (SA), 6 March

Kagame demands Kabila acts on Hutu militia

Rwanda's president said on Sunday that he would complete withdrawal of his troops from the DRC as soon as DRC President Joseph Kabila secured the border between their countries. Major-General Paul Kagame, whose tiny but militarily powerful nation was the scene of a ghastly 1994 genocide that cost 800 000 lives, said he believed Kabila, unlike his late father, Laurent Kabila, wanted to work for peace in the war-torn region. He said the Hutu militia and Rwandan Hutu ex-soldiers, who fled to the DRC in 1994 when Kagame's advancing rebel army ended the mass slaughter, were still actively fighting alongside Kabila's forces in a many-sided war in the DRC.

Rwanda and Uganda have deployed troops in the DRC to secure their borders against Hutu militia and rebels threatening their governments. "Our stay in the Congo directly hinges on the security concerns created by the government in the Congo and that government's active support for the militia," said Kagame in a telephone interview from the Rwandan capital. "He (Kabila) should have the courage to deal with the problem created by his late father. He should dismantle the militia network in the Congo, and Rwanda would have no reason for staying in that country," he added. "Once the militia are dealt with, once Kabila moves on them, Rwanda would pack up and leave. That decision, well within Kabila's power, would end the war and bring peace to the Congo."

Kagame said it would be naive for him to withdraw Rwandan troops before Kabila acted. "Our presence in the Congo is a mere reaction to a problem imposed on us, a problem of national security, a problem that constantly threatens to repeat the events of 1994," he said. Kagame spoke four days after Rwanda pulled 3 000 troops back from the key south-eastern Congolese town of Pweto, clearing the way for UN observers to deploy and marking the most significant step towards ending= the war. Kagame said the Pweto pullback was Rwanda's goodwill gesture towards ending the conflict, which erupted in 1998, and he urged Kabila to open dialogue with the armed and political opposition. "We plan to work for peace in Congo. We hope Kabila can support these efforts by opening up dialogue with the opposition and the armed groups fighting his government. This would put the whole peace plan into an irreversible action," he said.

Momentum towards peace has picked up sharply following January's slaying of Laurent Kabila by a bodyguard, which elevated his son Joseph to power. Joseph Kabila has reversed key policies of his father and authorised the start of a dialogue with political foes while inviting in UN peacekeepers without the precondition that foreign forces first leave Congolese territory. Rwanda and Uganda have intervened in the Congo twice over the past four years. First they backed Laurent Kabila in an eight-month blitz that overthrew dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in May, 1997. But differences soon emerged amid claims by both countries that Kabila was ignoring a promise to rein in the Hutu militia, who had set up bases to strike back at Kigali and Kampala.

Kagame ordered a second invasion of the Congo. But his advance was quickly checked by troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, who backed Kabila. The multi-national war has since been dubbed Africa's "World War One" because of the number of nations involved. Congolese rebels backed by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have since occupied the east, south-east and large parts of the north of the DRC. A peace deal to end the war was signed in Zambia in 1999, but Laurent Kabila refused to implement it, saying the three countries must first withdraw their troops.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
French President Jacques Chirac is facing protests over his decision to meet Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

The Tories' shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude telephoned the French ambassador in London to complain at Mr Chirac's "extraordinary lack of European solidarity".

Gay and human rights activist Peter Tatchell, who was knocked unconscious by Mr Mugabe's bodyguards, vowed to keep up his protests.

Mr Maude spoke to the French ambassador, Bernard Daniel, ahead of Mr Chirac's talks with Mr Mugabe.

"If this meeting is about rolling out the red carpet to extend French influence in central and southern Africa, then it is completely wrong and unethical," Mr Maude said afterwards.

"Under those circumstances, this meeting makes a mockery of the civilised values which time and time again, the EU has claimed to hold dear, and shows an extraordinary lack of European solidarity."

Mr Tatchell said that it was "outrageous" that Mr Mugabe was now being "feted" by Mr Chirac in Paris.

"Frankly, what was done to me was of no real consequence compared to the far, far greater brutality that is meted out to the people of Zimbabwe by the Mugabe regime," he told the BBC.

Back to the Top
Back to Index
Call Mugabe to account

Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2001

Mugabe may be invincible at home, but that is no excuse for foreign
accommodation of his gross misrule.

The mother of a murdered white farmer is gunned down outside her house. The
Chief Justice is forced out of office, leaving the rule of law hanging by a
thread. Foreign journalists are expelled. The economy is in free fall, with
the prospect of food shortages at the end of the year. In such
circumstances, Robert Mugabe chooses to undertake a tour of Europe.

Tomorrow, the president will meet his French counterpart in Paris. Jacques
Chirac has been cultivating his guest as things have gone from bad to worse
in Zimbabwe. The two men held talks last year, and in January Mr Mugabe was
one of the few English-speaking leaders invited to the Francophone summit in
Cameroon. Didier Ferrand, the French ambassador in Harare, pays regular
courtesy calls on the president and vice-president, and is covered by state
television doing so. Mr Ferrand has said that France is not concerned about
Zimbabwe's internal affairs.

French vanity and cynicism are breathtaking. Last June, European Union
observers condemned Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections as neither free nor
fair, and since then the situation has worsened. France's EU partner,
Britain, is nonsensically blamed for plotting to undermine Mr Mugabe. Yet Mr
Chirac and his envoy go out of their way to cultivate the president. The
economy, shrinking faster than any other in Africa, can have no attraction
for them. They simply cannot resist the temptation to cock a snook at world
opinion and dilute British influence in Africa. Perfides francais.

Rather than being welcomed at the Elysee, Mr Mugabe deserves to be treated
as a pariah. The British Government should follow the advice of Francis
Maude, the shadow foreign secretary, and urge Zimbabwe's expulsion from the
Commonwealth. Robin Cook might usefully ask Hubert Vedrine what game France
is playing in Zimbabwe; the Foreign Secretary and his French opposite number
were supposed to have agreed not to compete in Africa. On his forthcoming
visit to Harare, Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, ought to make
clear that the limits of tolerance have been reached. A country which
aspires to leadership of an African renaissance makes a mockery of that
ambition by ignoring thuggery on its doorstep.

Zimbabwe's president is one of the last African independence leaders still
in office. He shares with that generation a determination to cling to power
by whatever means. Latterly, this has taken the form of making the whites
and their foreign supporters scapegoats for his mistakes. It is expected
that Mr Mugabe will call a presidential election later this year and,
through intimidation, secure himself a further six-year term. Invincible he
may be at home, but that is no excuse for foreign accommodation with his
gross misrule.
Back to the Top
Back to Index
Farmers reach for their guns after woman of 68 shot

By Daniel McGrory
The Times, 6 March 2001

NOBODY around the devastated farming community of Nyamandhlovu went out
without a gun yesterday.

Armed volunteers scoured miles of bushland for the two gunmen who killed
Gloria Olds, 72, on Sunday. Farmers and their families barricaded inside
their homes kept a weapon close at hand, fearing that they could be next.

All those who drove to Silverstreams Farm to commiserate with David Olds,
whose brother, Martin, and now his mother have been murdered in less than a
year, carried a gun in their vehicles for protection.

Mrs Olds's surviving son was so maddened that for five hours he blasted away
at police, and anyone else who tried to reach the cattle farm, while his
mother's bulletriddled body lay in the dirt a few yards away. With
ammunition belts strapped round his body and with a small armoury at his
side, he swore to shoot anyone trying to enter the compound 50 miles north
of Bulawayo. It took the pleadings of the Presbyterian minister who buried
his brother to calm him.

Police chiefs condemned Mr Olds's behaviour, saying that his Rambo
impersonation, as one officer put it, had delayed their investigation at the
crime scene. A friend said: Grief took him over. He couldn't believe this
had happened again to his family just 11 months after Martin was shot dead.

Six weeks ago Mr Olds gave up his job in Harare and moved his wife and two
young daughters to Bulawayo so that he could help his mother to run her
dairy farm with its 1,200 head of cattle. He was very close to his mother
and the scene that greeted him would have made anyone reach for a gun, the
friend said.

Neighbours believe that Mrs Olds may have been killed because she refused to
give in to a gang who visited her a fortnight ago and demanded that she give
up her butchery business in town and surrender much of her land.

Police suggestions that Mrs Olds was the victim of a robbery were met with
disbelief. Why, then, was there a pile of banknotes left untouched on the
desk of her unlocked office? Her pistol was still by her bed and there was
an armoury of other weapons and ammunition in the house that the assailants
could easily have taken.

The pick-up truck stolen by the gunmen was found in a township on the
outskirts of Bulawayo last night.


--


Radio links the only hope for safety

By David Blair in Nyamandhlovu, Matabeleland
The Times, 6 March 2001

Anxious radio messages flew between farmhouses yesterday after the murder of
Gloria Olds dealt a fresh blow to the morale of the beleaguered white
community in Zimbabwe. The 45 white-owned farms around Nyamandhlovu, 350
miles south-west of Harare, have been among the worst hit by the land
invasions. All but a handful have been occupied by squatters who have been
responsible for countless acts of theft, vandalism and assault. Farmers are
close to breaking point after months of harassment and say that tensions are
higher now than during the guerrilla war against white rule in the
Seventies.

Nyamandhlovu is the only farming community to have endured the murder of a
mother and son. Martin Olds, 43, was killed by 70 gunmen on April 18 last
year, the second landowner to be murdered since the start of the occupations
last February. His mother, Gloria, 68, lived alone on the neighbouring farm
and was shot dead on Sunday. Her death has shocked the community. All
farmers are linked by a radio network, and roll-call messages are
transmitted every day at 7pm and 7am. If anyone fails to reply, their
neighbours assume the worst and rush to the rescue. Wives and children are
never left alone and anxious ears are always alert for an emergency radio
message.

Wally Herbst, 51, who lives on Porter Farm, 10 miles from where Mrs Olds was
killed, said: "It's much worse than during the war because we haven't the
support of anybody. If someone shoots at your house, the police won't react.
The only people who will help are neighbours." Eight miles down a bumpy
track is Mr Herbst's nearest neighbour. The Wood family have lived at Glen
Curragh Farm since 1896 and now share their land with about 15 squatters,
who vandalise fences and issue blood-curdling threats. After the murder of
Mrs Olds, Mike Wood, 62, joined other farmers in tracking the killers. The
victim's pick-up truck, which was stolen by the culprits, was found in
Bulawayo yesterday and taken to the police.

Mr Wood said: "Nobody must have any illusions. This was not a murder and
robbery. It was purely political and designed to intimidate the farmers and
force us out." Mrs Olds recently angered a prominent supporter of the ruling
ZANU-PF party. She rented a property to him and had demanded money after
months of non-payment. But landowners suspect that the guiding hand behind
all the violence is Obert Mpofu, the provincial governor, who publicly
blamed white farmers for his defeat in parliamentary elections last June.
The wave of violence is believed to be his revenge and the objective is
clear: to force terrified white farmers off their land.
Back to the Top
Back to Index