Personal email -
Just to let you know what happened at our gate last night. B had a good time singing in The African Sanctus at the Harare Festival of Arts in the
Park and got free tickets to go to The Magic Flute last night.
I came home
at 11pm and Jane, the maid, opened the gate and I came in safely. B's pal,
C, is here from Ireland for 2 weeks and he had been playing flute and had
been with us.
B and C went for coffee and came in at 11.30pm. I opened the
garage door and B had her key and opened the gate. C was on the outside of
the gate and B inside. All the street lights were out in the area-as usual,
so my gate was dark.
I heard a noise like a tree branch breaking, as a car
passed on the road. C yelled that his rear wind up window behind the driver
had been hit by a stone. The window was shattered and there was glass all
over the interior of the car. We brought the car in and sorted it out.
It
was not typical of an attempted a carjack as they did not slow down or stop
or return. It took C 25 mins to give Highlands cops his name etc and they
told him to go there today to write a statement and sign it!
Today I rang
the neighbourhood watch who are always more help than the cops C will
pretend that it must have been a attempted car theft to get the cops to take
any notice-if they think it is ZANU-PF they will not attend to the incident.
Today I rang a pal, known to some of you, who is heavily involved in MDC He
advised me that this public holiday W/E there will be attacks on Whites and
the stoning was just one of the reported incidents. They cannot inform
people as the press is against Whites. The targeted areas will be the
better Northern suburbs like the bowling Alley in Borrowdale, the Kegs etc.
The press, like the Herald, gives no indication of attacks and the public is
not made aware of any of these incidents.
On Thursday 20 of these thugs
arrived at the Sports Cafe (frequented by Whites in Chisipite) and they
caused havoc-do not know details and the cafe has been shut down. I am just
grateful that C and B were not in the car, or hit by the stone.
B is flying out by British Airways on 7th May. BA will no longer keep crews
in Zim, so the night flight has been changed to a day flight -leaving here
at 2.30pm, a sit in the plane in Lusaka while crews change there, and on to
Gatwick at 12.45am, with a free night at a Gatwick hotel. The BA crew was
bus-jacked at gun point a few weeks ago and lost everything and the plane
could not take off for a day- while the Brits issued new documentation for
them.
Nil in the press about this.
We still carry on hoping that peace and
sanity will prevail !
HARARE, May 1 (AFP) - Self-styled war veterans carried out a
fresh wave of attacks on farmworkers in Zimbabwe over the weekend,
the most brutal of which was in the northeastern Mvuri area, farming
officials said Monday.
David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU),
said about 200 veterans beat up workers on four different farms near
Mvuri, accusing them of supporting the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
He could not yet give details but a farmer in the area, who did
not want to be named for fear of reprisals, confirmed to AFP that
two farms had been attacked on Sunday.
Workers were rounded up by the veterans and forced to chant
slogans supporting the ruling ZANU-PF party, before being beaten
with sticks and whips, he said. He could not give details of the
other two attacks.
CFU president Tim Henwood said Monday he had received a number
of reports of other attacks on farmworkers, including in the Karoi
area, north-west of Harare.
"It's happening all over," Henwood told AFP. "It's a very bad
thing. The farmworkers are taking a hell of a knock."
Farmworker Sophie Murima told AFP by telephone from Karoi that
she and her husband had been beaten by ZANU-PF supporters on
Friday.
"We had been to a MDC meeting where they gave us tickets to join
(the party)," Murima said. "The ZANU-PF supporters came to the farm
demanding the tickets. They beat us on the back and buttocks. It was
very painful."
She said she was scared that the violence would grow worse ahead
of the upcoming general election, due to be announced by President
Robert Mugabe later this week.
"I don't know whether I'll vote or not," she said. "I am very
scared."
The latest attacks come despite a weekend peace-for-land deal
struck between the CFU and leader of the Zimbabwean war veterans,
Chenjerai Hunzvi, who has organised the invasions of more than 1,000
white-owned farms.
Under the agreement, the veterans of the bloody war against
white-minority rule, which ended with Mugabe coming to power at
independence in 1980, agreed that farmers would return to their
farms and resume activities.
The illegal occupants would stay peacefully at the properties
until allocated land by government.
Massacre general in charge of raids
BY MICHAEL DYNES IN HARARE
ZIMBABWE'S illegal farm invasions have been
masterminded by Commander Perence Shiri, the former
head of the notorious Fifth Brigade, which carried out a
series of civilian massacres in Matabeleland in 1983-87,
army officers said yesterday.
Commander Shiri, who is head of the Zimbabwe Air Force,
has been allocated a substantial budget and members of the
defence forces, including 700 from the army and 500 from
the air force, to plan, execute and maintain the occupations,
ostensibly carried out by members of the war veterans'
association.
The role of Commander Shiri was revealed by officers
angered by the military's association with terror tactics
employed by the so-called veterans, and Zimbabwe's deep
involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. The allegation came as the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change announced the cancellation of
political rallies because of fears that the police will do little
or nothing to protect its members from the violence which
so far has claimed the lives of 14 farmers, farmworkers
and opposition supporters.
The government-sponsored land seizure campaign is also
reported to have received extensive support from
Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation, the
monolithic spying agency which is answerable only to
President Mugabe, and paid for from the presidential
budget, which is not subject to public audit.
The disclosure helps to explain how a ramshackle group of
so-called war veterans has been able to transport thousands
of activists to more than 1,000 white-owned commercial
farms across the country and provide them with the food,
shelter and hard cash needed to sustain their assault on
white farmers and their black labour forces.
The allegations coincide with evidence that the occupations
were planned long before the ruling Zanu (PF) party lost
the February constitutional referendum, which would have
given President Mugabe the power to seize land without
compensation.
A letter written by the war veterans' association, and
delivered to the British High Commission in Harare on
January 13, more than a month before the referendum, said
that Britain's failure to buy out Zimbabwe's white
commercial farmers would result in "another bloodbath".
The letter predicted: "The small encounters of axes and
shovels and knives, as we envisage them, will not be fought
anywhere else but in the commercial farms, against those
who are refusing to let our land go. These will be clashes
against commercial farmers, and which, if Her Majesty's
Government does not take heed, will later be interpreted as
racial."
Asked why the British High Commission had failed to warn
that death threats had been made against white farmers, a
spokesman said: "We thought it was nothing new." But the
letter is being seen as evidence that Mr Mugabe knew that
support for the ruling party was collapsing, and that he was
preparing an assault on white commercial farms in a bid to
bolster his flagging popularity, long before the "land crisis"
erupted.
During a Zanu rally in Harare on Saturday, Chenjerai
"Hitler" Hunzvi, the leader of the war veterans' association,
said: "We are here to ensure that Zanu's reign shall never
be interrupted by sellouts."
GOING FOR BROKE
Editorial Comment
Mugabe's strategy shift demands an international response
The struggle for control of Zimbabwe has entered a
disturbing new stage. Until the past few days, the illegal
occupation of white-owned farms by so-called "war
veterans", openly encouraged by President Robert Mugabe,
had been designed to create a political issue advantageous to
the Government. The controversy might allow Zanu-PF to
maintain a parliamentary majority following elections which,
if not exactly free and fair, were not entirely bogus. It is now
clear that black opponents of Mr Mugabe, notably the
Movement for Democratic Change, are the real targets of his
anger. The plight of the farmers is just part of a wider plan to
postpone elections indefinitely or hold them in an atmosphere
that renders only one outcome possible.
All the elements of one-man rule are being put into place in
Zimbabwe. The President's own party is increasingly
irrelevant as Mr Mugabe relies instead on armed squatters
and elements of the notorious Fifth Brigade, which committed
atrocities across Matabeleland in the 1980s, to act as his
private campaign force. All those who might be inclined to
back the Opposition are threatened with violent retribution.
The judiciary is to be ignored; the trade union movement
subject to intense harassment. What remains of an
independent domestic press is under attack. As The Times
reports today, the international media are receiving the same
treatment. Mr Mugabe may or may not choose to announce
an election date this week. Even if that ballot actually occurs
it will not be in conditions remotely compatible with
democracy.
This shift in strategy should have implications for the
international community. It has made some sense for
Zimbabwe's neighbours, led by South Africa, and friends,
notably Britain, to act with caution. Diplomats' main ambition
has been to avoid inflaming tension and to ensure that the
parliamentary poll is held on time and in a reasonably
equitable fashion. The Foreign Office has been urged to
adopt a flexible attitude towards land reform in the hope of
defusing the only question that might allow Mr Mugabe to
avert his electorate's eyes from the economic collapse and
endemic corruption that are the realities of his leadership.
The Commonwealth, too, has settled on a "softly, softly"
stance in the attempt to promote dialogue and reconciliation.
If the events of the past week continue, such an approach
will soon be unsustainable. Mr Mugabe has reintroduced
colonial-era legislation to restrict the formal activities of his
opponents and is intent on using his own resources to make
conventional campaigning impossible. His administration
announced on Saturday that it would begin to seize land from
whites without compensation. This will have a catastrophic
impact on Zimbabwe's economy within a few months, but Mr
Mugabe would rather encounter that disaster later than
permit a legitimate election now.
Britain should consider withdrawing its remaining military
contacts with Mr Mugabe's regime. The Commonwealth
should seek to put election observers in place immediately. A
fraudulent contest must lead to Zimbabwe's automatic
suspension. The primary outside power with real influence,
though, remains South Africa. It provides Zimbabwe with
virtually all fuel and power and is its main trading partner.
President Thabo Mbeki decided ten days ago to offer Mr
Mugabe public support in the belief that he could then extract
private concessions. That assumption has lost all credibility. It
is time for Mr Mbeki to make it clear that South Africa will
not tolerate elections conducted by terror nor subsidise what
is fast becoming a dictatorship.
Subject: Black
& White
20/4/2000
Because most of the western media has chosen to highlight the
WHITE/BLACK issue in Zimbabwe, over the real problems of an
obsolete and dangerous government willing to sacrifice its
nation to stay in power, it seems that a few of my BLACK
friends abroad, feel that, what is now happening to the
WHITES, is deserved for the years of oppression meted out
by colonisation.
To them I say: "Please
come and live here, if you dare"
Stand up for
the 30,00 BLACK farm workers who are also under siege and
haven't been paid for the last 2 months and look unlikely ever to be
able to feed their families again because they have
incurred the wrath of the 'so called' war veterans -and you will
soon see how quickly your head will be smashed in.
Try and join a legal peace march with other BLACK protesters and see
how quickly your legs will be broken, as the police join
in. Put an opposition party sticker on your BLACK car and see
how quickly it goes up in flames, probably with you in
it.
You still think it is only a WHITE/BLACK
thing?
As I write this hundreds of people have
been beaten and 6 people have died through violence -all
opposition -2 WHITE and 4 BLACK.
I can show you a picture of a
WHITE farmer who after being beaten and went to a police station
for help, only to be dragged out by his persecutors and
shot at point blank range between the eyes.
Unfortunately I can't show you a picture of 2 BLACK opposition
members whose car was petrol bombed, while the police
stood by and watched, because their bodies were burnt
beyond recognition.
You still think it is only
a WHITE/BLACK thing?
Terror is terror no matter
what colour it is.
All these people are Zimbabwean, just as you
are American, British or whatever. If you believe like, Mugabe
pretends to believe, that Africa belongs only to BLACK
Africans, then come over to your spiritual homes and feel the wrath
of our leader's anger if you decide to disagree with anything he
says or does. He will soon tell you and not only the
WHITES, where you belong. The informed, educated urbanities
absolutely rejected his undemocratic proposed
constitution so he recently called the BLACK people of Mbare
(formerly Harare) 'totemless' -basically meaning: they don't
belong here.
In the eighties, Mbare was his party's fortress of
support. How things change when you're not wanted and
vindictive. Can you support the rascist
rhetoric of a man who one day hugs a WHITE tennis player because
he won a match for the country, and the next day calls
them "the enemies of the state". A man who spends all his
holidays shopping in London, never in Senegal or
Nigeria.
What of Chengerai 'Kill all the whites' Hunzwi -the
leader of the war veterans who recently hired a WHITE South
African lawyer to defend him on charges of corruption.
When we fight for human rights, it is not a selective fight to be
used only when it suits us. Mugabe has a
sinister agenda and is willing to manipulate any issue to
maintain power. If you choose to be used and soothed by his simplistic
and emotive lies and violent action without considering all the
facts of his corrupt rule and the options and mechanisms
available for peaceful co-existence, then you do not have my
respect as a human being or a friend.
The situation for us is too serious as there is a larger picture to
life in Africa and the consequences of 'spiteful
actions' are usually devastating.
History has warned us through
Idi Amin's expulsion of the Asians, that it doesn't end there
-the worse follows soon after.
In a population of 12 million,
50,000 BLACK war veterans chase out 50,000 WHITES -then what? Do
you believe that justice and equality will ensue, bliss will
prevail and our problems will be resolved? Then come to
paradise, if you dare.
I do not believe the is
one Zimbabwean, BLACK or WHITE who doesn't feel that
land reform needs to be addressed. I also don't have the aptitude
nor disposition here to explain how after 20 years of BLACK
rule, the government has chosen rather to plunder the
economy and enrich themselves and their cronies at the expense
of the people -while holding the land issue as a weapon to be
wielded on the eve of every election since independence.
Picture this, think with your conscious and don't let
preconceptions blur the issues here:
Not far
from here is a large farm. The WHITE farmer grows food and wheat
for the NATION on a large scale. His 200 or so workers are the
highest paid in the land. He has built them homes with 'bricks
and windows', electricity and running water. Their
toilets use a proper sewage system and he bought this farm in
1990 (ten years after independence) and is still paying for it.
Next to this farm is another large farm and is one of two owned by a
BLACK minister who was given a 100 year lease for this land
while paying a paltry annual rental of about US$25. He
is hardly there, knows nothing about farming and the land is
barren.
When the WHITE farm was attacked and invaded with the
endorsement and encouragement of the president, the farmer fled
for his life. The BLACK farm workers then demanded to
know why the invaders didn't take the neighbouring farm
as well especially as it was totally under-utilized (???). Some of
them were beaten for even daring to ask that question but the
workers resisted and after much bloodshed, repulsed the invaders
-twice. Finally the invaders came back with the police
(upholders of justice and keepers of law and order) who told the
workers not to intervene and leave. A supply of food to
feed a large city for 2 months now rots and the BLACK workers are
jobless and homeless while the land is carved up between those
who are loyal supporters of a regime that has out lived its
usefulness. And our leader feels that this is the only way of
correcting the imabalance of land distribution because
intimidaton and fear silences resistance and a land grab win
votes -how short sighted and demeaning.
In all
of your country's, generally speaking, 10% of the population owns
80% of the wealth. Why not ask for your leader's consent to grab
a gun and take it forcefully -if you think that's the
way forward for humanity and civilisation.
The law is there to protect its citizens and not
indiscriminately.
Politicians are elected to address issues of
governance and unite nations.
Not turn one against the other
when the people have shown their disapproval of their
rule. If this is democracy and it works for you, don't you think
we deserve it too.
I did not fight
discrimination and racism to endorse it when it suits me. Of
course I will never endorse crimes of the past and there are many
bitter issues that linger with us today need to be addressed
-but for Africa I tend to choose the pragmatic, honest
Mandela way to the self-serving, destructive Mugabe
way.
When our country lies in ashes and anarchy
prevails. I wonder if it will be gratifying to know -at
least the WHITES were fixed.
Chaz
38 Broadlands Road,
Emerald
Hill,
Harare.
Phone 308330
Fax
339645