MDC - 1st ANNIVERSARY RALLY - TOMORROW
with President Morgan Tsvangirai, Vice President Gibson Sibanda, National & Provincial Executive & Members of Parliament

RUFARO STADIUM, Saturday 30 September, Gates open 9am

Don't forget your Red Card and Whistle if you have them.

Chinja Maitiro!  Isenzo Guqula!

 

Zimbabwe - Concerned Citizens' Initiative (Bulawayo)

VIGIL TODAY FOR PATRICK NABANYAMA - 1:00 pm lunchtime

The second vigil for PATRICK NABANYAMA is on today at the Large City Hall steps.  The gathering will start at 1:00 pm lunchtime.  Please encourage everyone to attend - tomorrow, and every suceeding Friday.

 

MDC women in Manchester are having a meeting on Saturday 30 September 2000 at Imex Business Centre in Longsight opposite Longsight Flea Market.  All women and sympathisers to the Zimbabwean struggle are welcome.  The meeting starts at 2 pm.  For more information, contact Mrs Correen Butler on 0161 224 7362.

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 29 September

CFU threatens govt with further court action

THE CFU has threatened to take further court action against the government over non-payment of more than $1,7 billion in compensation for 210 farms surrendered voluntarily to the government by farmers, the Zimbabwe Independent has established. The CFU’s regional chairman for Matabeleland, Mac Crawford, told the Independent last week that his organisation had not included the 210 farms in its current litigation, filed with the High Court, to challenge the compulsory land acquisition because negotiations were still in progress. "The CFU is still negotiating with the government over the issue but if the issue fails to be resolved amicably, definitely we have to seek redress from the courts of law as a last resort," said Crawford.

Crawford said the CFU was waiting for the subsequent disbursement of funds allocated for land redistribution in the recently tabled $35,5 billion supplementary budget. Crawford said each farm had been valued at between $8 million to $9 million. "The government received these farms from farmers on a willing-seller willing-buyer basis but we are surprised that the government is going ahead to resettle landless people without compensating the farmers for their properties," said Crawford. The CFU Matabeleland chief executive officer, Ben Zietsman, said the transfers could have been effected under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act. He said agreements of sale were signed suggesting that the government consented to the willing buyer, willing seller basis.

Meanwhile, fresh farm invasions continued unabated in both Matabeleland North and South despite stern warnings by controversial Matabeleland North governor Obert Mpofu that his party supporters should desist from invading new land. Addressing a land acquisition committee meeting in Bulawayo last weekend Mpofu said fresh invasions would not be tolerated. He said those who invaded farms after the election should move off while those who invaded farms before June should stay put.

A police spokesman confirmed that fresh farm invasions occurred at Roaxland Farm in Queenspark 10 kilometres outside Bulawayo, and on a number of unspecified farms in Inyathi District over the weekend. An official of the Inyathi Farmers Association confirmed the invasions but would not name the farms for fear of reprisals against the owners. Unconfirmed reports say the Police Support Unit descended heavily on invaders on 10 farms in Nyamandlovu driving out most invaders. However, when contacted police spokesman Inspector Mthokozisi Manzini-Moyo said he was not aware of the police action. A CFU official said invaders have been driven out on 24 farms in other parts of the country.

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 29 September

 

Gold mine’s grisly secret – Fresh evidence of Midlands atrocities emerges

 

NEW evidence has emerged of atrocities committed by security forces in the Midlands during the mid-1980s. Hundreds of people, mostly Zapu affiliates, are thought to have perished at the hands of CIO agents who disposed of the bodies at Turtle Mine in Silobela. Being thrown from moving vehicles killed some. Others were shot or garroted with specially-made rope. Their bodies were doused in paraffin and thrown down shafts at the abandoned gold mine. New evidence gathered by the Zimbabwe Independent, following an investigation involving security agents who operated in the province, shows that in 1983 the government launched an operation in the Kwekwe area designed to eliminate PF Zapu supporters. Many of the affected families that the Independent interviewed still have no idea what exactly transpired when their loved ones disappeared.

 

In 1983 the intelligence network was tasked with devising an operation that would remove Zapu activists, the Independent has been told. There were strong fears that following the 1981-82 insurrections at Entumbane, Connemara and Ntabazinduna, Zanu PF, which had failed to win a single seat in the Midlands in 1980, was vulnerable to a Zapu coup. "Operation Nyamavhuvhu" was the code name of the campaign, which began in December 1983. "Plainclothes officers from various stations throughout the country were summoned and we met in Kwekwe for a week-long briefing at the First Mutual Centre," one of the officers involved said. The former Midlands Provincial Intelligence Officer (PIO), Rogers Matongo, and the former Bulawayo PIO, the late Chitava who once operated as Matongo’s deputy in the Midlands, gave them operational instructions when they gathered in Kwekwe in August 1983 for the briefing, the Independent was told. Matongo, formerly a Rhodesian police officer before he joined the liberation war in 1977, was famous in CIO circles for the interrogation of white Airforce of Zimbabwe officers suspected of involvement in the sabotage of British-made Hawk aircraft at Thornhill.

 

Minister of state security at the time, Emmerson Mnangagwa, says he has no recollection of the operation. "I have not heard anything about that," he said. The Independent asked for an interview with Matongo, who refused, referring our inquiries to the CIO director-general, retired Brigadier General Elisha Muzonzini who was the former head of the army’s military intelligence. "I have no information to give. I would not be in a position to discuss issues that relate to the organisation," Matongo said. "I left the organisation and I will not be able to discuss the matter with you. I can only refer you to the DG," he added.

 

According to intelligence sources, over 100 plainclothes officers that had gathered in August 1983 in Kwekwe were informed that they were to be dispatched to Lower Gweru, Silobela, Zhombe, and Nkayi to identify pro-Zapu elements with the assistance of the local Zanu PF leadership who were to accommodate them during the period. "The instructions were that we were supposed to stay with Zanu PF officials," the source said. "Zanu PF officials would be able to identify the people that were to be later targeted for elimination," he said. "We were not supposed to arrest or interrogate but just to gather information," he said. "What particularly hurts me to the present day are the circumstances surrounding the deaths of these people, and that the majority of families do not know what exactly happened to their relatives," the officer said. "The files containing information on the victims and the operation may never be found now, yet the top hierarchy knows full well what happened to them."

 

The officer said that the majority of his colleagues that participated are having hallucinations and have since been withdrawn from the intelligence service without any known monetary assistance. "I am talking of drivers and the assassins, but some are normal and still going about their usual business," the officer added. "We went out in groups of five each with a reasonable allowance of $50 per week. Some of the Zanu PF officials that we were supposed to stay with had no food and we ended up staying at business centres because Zanu PF structures were dysfunctional," he said. The operative said Ferret squads of CIO personnel in Nissan Patrols and Land Rovers would come about twice a week bringing them food and collecting confidential material about their Zapu targets. "We identified PF Zapu supporters, especially executive members and those suspected of collaborating with them," the officer said, adding that: "We knew something would happen to them, but never realised what it was and that there was ever going to be a follow up."

 

The officer told the Independent that some of those included in the hit lists were innocent because the overzealous officers dreaded the idea of returning to their superiors with no relevant information. When the operation was completed at the end of 1983, another team, comprising the Police Internal Security Intelligence (PISI) unit, the CIO and the army was then dispatched in January 1984 with a view to reacting to information gathered by the Operation Nyamavhuvhu team, eliminating the people listed. The intelligence network was supposed to monitor the movements of their victims, track them and kidnap them without leaving any possible trace. "This explains why the majority of families still do not know what happened to their relatives. It was done in a swift and systematic manner that was not supposed to leave any trace," the officer said.

 

One intriguing incident that he remembers well was the abduction of the prominent Zhombe businessman, Obert Nyathi, whose death is still a mysterious subject amongst his relatives. "Nyathi was tracked from his business centre. His movements had been monitored all day long. They followed him on his way home and force-marched him into the back of a cream Land Rover. He was shot along the Gwenzi road and dumped in the back of the Land Rover," the official said. "When they got to the Gwenzi River, it was flooded and they failed to cross. People would come asking for a lift. They only managed to cross when it subsided around 7am the following morning and drove along Stevenson Road, then into Silobela Road to Turtle Mine, where paraffin was poured over him together with other victims before being set alight," he said.

 

Some victims were dumped in the flooded Gwenzi and Shangani rivers but this was not the preferred method of disposal because their bodies were sometimes found decomposing on the banks when the rivers subsided. Occasionally victims were pushed from moving vehicles or shot. Others were garroted using a thick specially-designed rope around their necks. "Once the rope is thrown right round the throat, it is speedily tightened and in most cases our victims soiled their clothes and went into a state of frenzy, twisting and having blood oozing out their ears and nose," the officer said. The rope strangulation method was abandoned after the intelligence officers complained that it was "nasty" and took a while before the deceased died. If the throttling method was to be applied, the victim was supposed to have a sack tied over his head to avoid direct eye contact. The other elimination methods was to shoot the victim in the back to avoid direct eye contact.

 

The names of the officers that carried out the dirty work were supplied to the Independent and in keeping with the wishes of the source, will not be disclosed. Four of the officers involved have since been withdrawn from the CIO. One of the officers who developed convulsions and began having "strange spirits speaking through him" was retired and is now in Mutoko, while others are in Mberengwa West and Mutare. The officer, who accompanied the Independent to the disused Turtle Mine said that there were over seven CIO and army officers stationed at the mine. Other intelligence officers who worked with the elimination squad were stationed at Silobela resettlement area at Parker commercial farm, near Mutimurefu Secondary School. "What particularly hurts me was we were used for nothing, spilling human blood which should never have been my vocation," the officer said. "Special reports were made to the police about the disappearances, but there was never a follow up because the officers in charge knew the nature of the operation and what was supposed to be done."

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