The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.

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ZIMBABWE CONSERVATION TASK FORCE



HALGLEN ANIMAL CONSERVANCY

Contrary to the Government's statement that the land seizures are now over, the very few white farmers and game ranchers who have so far managed to hold on to their properties are now under pressure to give up their land. Justice for Agriculture has issued a warning to those farmers who were not previously gazetted for land resettlement, that operation "clean sweep" is about to take place whereby high-ranking government officials want the remaining farmers and their workers off their land.

40 kilometres north-east of Bulawayo are two game farms adjoining each other are known as the "Halglen Animal Conservancy". This 4 500 hectare conservancy, which is completely unsuitable for agriculture, is one of the very few places in Zimbabwe which still has wildlife and the owners have gone to enormous expense to protect the 3 200 animals there. The properties are properly fenced and adequate watering points have been positioned throughout. In addition to this, 12 trained scouts patrol and protect these animals 24 hours a day from poachers.

The owners of Halglen are now under pressure to give up the conservancy and sacrifice 3 200 wild animals to untrained and undisciplined people. The records show that on most of the other game ranches and conservancies that have been resettled, the wildlife has been wiped out in a very short space of time. On many game farms where the wildlife was previously abundant, there is literally nothing left. The game has been indiscriminately poached and slaughtered by the settlers and in addition to this, they have been selling hunts to unscrupulous hunters from South Africa and Botswana who are capitalizing of the chaotic situation here in flagrant defiance of the laws laid down by National Parks, Zatso and the Zimbabwe Tourist Authority. Because of this the country has lost millions of dollars in foreign currency.

Unless we have a change of government, it seems we are powerless to stop this tragedy which is unfolding daily. There is very little wildlife left here now and we need to save these 3 200 animals from being slaughtered by a handful of greedy, misguided individuals who will, no doubt, hunt them for personal gain as they have already done countrywide. WE NEED HELP!

Johnny Rodrigues
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force
Phone        09 2634 336479
Fax             09 2634 335114
Mobile        09 263 11 603213


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JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE

PR COMMUNIQUE - September 15, 2003

Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com

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To Farm or Not to Farm.

"Formerly, all people were hunter-gatherers; referred to by Hobbe's as
having a 'nasty, brutish and short' lifestyle.

Today's affluent First World citizens do not actually do the work of
raising food themselves - food production (by remote agribusiness) means
less physical work, more comfort, freedom from starvation, and a longer
expected lifetime.

It still took until 8 500 B.C. for food production to be adopted in the
Fertile Crescent in place of hunter-gathering.

Over the last 10 000 years there has been a shift from hunting-gathering to
food production. There are five main contributing factors to this shift:

*The decline in the availability of wild foods.

*Depletion of wild game.

*Cumulative development of technologies for collecting, processing and
storing wild foods - and later domesticated foods. The basis of commercial
agriculture.

*The two way link between the rise in human population density and the rise
in food production. Which came first - the food or the population?

*The much denser population of food producers (previously hunter-gatherers)
enabled them to displace or kill hunter gatherers by sheer numbers."

-from Professor Jared Diamond's book about "The Fates of Human Societies."-

The Professor Diamond's title 'To farm or not to farm' creates more
questions than answers for Zimbabweans today:

1.  Is Zimbabwean agricultural practice reverting to 8 000 B.C - more
physical work, less comfort, shorter life and exposure to starvation?

2.  Do we have an unprecedented example of hunter-gatherers displacing and
killing food producers, rather than the other way round? - trend reversal
within the 10 000 year norm?

3.  Has a frightened little group of surviving food producers, decided to
"work with" the hunter gatherers in the hope that they will survive this
catastrophic but probably brief reversal - blissfully ignoring the well
chronicled lifestyle trends of mankind since 8 500 B.C?

4.  Given that Zimbabwean life expectancy is now down to 33, is this a
master plan of the leadership of hunter-gatherers with the minority group
of food producers?

5.  What is their next step, when all the animals and plants (wild and
domesticated) are fully depleted - will they then turn to food producing
communities, (with security of tenure) in America or Europe, and say:
"nobody ever told us!"

6.  Do those American and European food producers and tax payers, have the
right to choose who they will 'give' their surplus to, and 'how' it will be
done? Or will our local hunter-gatherers and food producers (now born-again
hunter-gatherers) know best?

"Not to Farm."

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JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE

LEGAL COMMUNIQUE: CORRECTION/ADDENDUM - September 15, 2003

Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com

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Our Legal Communiqué of Friday 12 September 2003 drew farmers' attention to
the further listings for Compulsory Acquisition in the Herald of that day.
Please be advised that Lot 110 had an additional 22 farms listed over and
above the original 19 listed under Section 5 Preliminary Notice dated
Friday 5 September 2003.  Friday 12th's listing (41 farms) under Lot 110
was a Preliminary Notice to acquire under Section 3 (not Section 5) of the
Land Acquisition Act.  Those farmers listed under Section 3 under Lot 110
should contact this office for clarification as to the implication of
Section 3 of the Act.

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JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM

Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com

Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the subject line.

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Letter 1: Freedom

Sir,

The Freedom Charter put out by the Crisis Coalition has expressed fully the
need for the following freedoms:

..of association;
..of assembly;
..of expression;
..of movement;
..of choice;
..of belief and worship;
..of conscience;

Additionally

..the right to food security;
..equality of all citizens before the law, regardless of gender, class,
race, nationality or political opinion;

A group of farmers (from Matabeleland) appears to be exercising its rights
to a few of these fundamental freedoms. It is disturbing to see the press
report that some leaders in Agriculture (and Professor Chikowore), have
castigated these Matabele Zimbabweans for claiming their freedom of
association and choice. On top of that it has been referred to as a
Political stand, rather than an inherent right or basic freedom.

Do the people making these claims (CFU President and the Honourable
Minister of Agriculture?) understand the purpose of the Crisis Coalition
and the Freedom Charter? The Freedom Charter would seem the opposite of
Political.

"Chooser of Freedoms."

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Letter 2: Isn't it an amazing thing!

Dear fellow farmers and ex farmers

Isn't it an amazing thing!

Just when

· our government is in the process of implementing Operation Cleansweep,
· a new constitution is being prepared which enshrines property rights and
the current regime is trying to form an interim government and re-designate
all farms so that they can legally nationalise the farms prior to the new
constitution being put in place
· ZESA has increased rates on export oriented businesses to such a level
that it makes the remaining export produce farms unviable,
· inflation sits at 399,5% officially for August but much higher in real
terms,
· Daily News has just been taken off the streets for being "illegal" and so
removes our main form of public information of the current economic and
political environment

our leadership in Matabeleland find it necessary to withdraw from CFU
because of a lack of trust between the leadership.

For over forty years the debate about trust between the leadership in
Matabeleland and the rest of the country has raged from time to time. Over
the past years our very brave men have put aside personal differences in
order to stand united as a Union to fight matters of importance to the
farmers and our nation.

While this internal power struggle rages, our homes burn and our people
starve.

We are a democratic union. We have to accept the decision of the majority
and work within the framework of our Constitution. We need to put aside our
personal fears and aspirations in the interests of our farming "family" and
do what is good for our people.....

and we have to work together as a team.

United we stand and divided we fall.

I pray that our leadership is able to put aside their conflicts soon and
work for the community they profess to lead.

Jean Simon

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All letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for Agriculture.

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ABC Australia

Commonwealth urged to reverse Zimbabwe CHOGM decision
South Africa has strongly criticised the Commonwealth's decision not to
invite Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to the Heads of Government meeting
in Nigeria in December.

South Africa says Australia and other key nations should allow Zimbabwe to
take part.

South Africa is calling on the Commonwealth to reverse its decision.

A spokesman for South African President Thabo Mbeki, Bheki Khumalo, says
Zimbabwe should be included in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
(CHOGM).

"We are very disappointed because we don't think that excluding Zimbabwe
from CHOGM in Nigeria will achieve anything," he said.

"We would have hoped that Zimbabwe would have been invited to attend the
meeting."

Zimbabwe was suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth last year when
it failed to contain political violence and intimidation.
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15 September 2003

U.S. "Deeply Troubled" By Government Action Against Independent Press in
Zimbabwe
Calls on Mugabe Government to allow newspapers to publish

"The United States is deeply troubled by the September 12 raid by armed
members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police on the offices of the Daily News and
Daily News on Sunday newspapers, and by the Government of Zimbabwe's
decision to prevent those newspapers from publishing."

J. Adam Ereli, State Department deputy spokesman, made that point in a
September 15 statement, which called those actions "unwarranted
infringements on press freedoms," which stand as "the latest incidents in a
pattern of intimidation and violence directed against the independent media.

"We call on the Government of Zimbabwe." Ereli noted, "to permit the Daily
News and Daily News on Sunday to resume publishing at once and to cease
intimidation and harassment of the independent media."

Following is the text of the State Department statement:

(begin text)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
September 15, 2003

STATEMENT BY J. ADAM ERELI, DEPUTY SPOKESMAN

Zimbabwe: Raid and Closure of Independent Newspapers

The United States is deeply troubled by the September 12 raid by armed
members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police on the offices of the Daily News and
Daily News on Sunday newspapers, and by the Government of Zimbabwe's
decision to prevent those newspapers from publishing.

These actions are unwarranted infringements on press freedoms. They are the
latest incidents in a pattern of intimidation and violence directed against
the independent media. Editors and staff of the Daily News have been
arrested and harassed on numerous occasions, and the Daily News's printing
press was bombed in January 2001. As the country's largest circulation
independent newspapers, their closures deprive Zimbabweans of access to
information beyond the government's tightly controlled news outlets.

The raid and closures follow a September 11 Supreme Court ruling compelling
the Daily News' publisher to register under the provisions of the
controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and
reinforce widespread concerns that the Act could be used to restrict the
operations of the independent media.

We call on the Government of Zimbabwe to permit the Daily News and Daily
News on Sunday to resume publishing at once and to cease intimidation and
harassment of the independent media. We will follow closely the Zimbabwean
government's treatment of the Daily News and its publisher.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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Reuters

Straw slams Zimbabwe for censorship
Mon 15 September, 2003 21:29 BST

HARARE (Reuters) - The publishers of Zimbabwe's sole privately owned daily
say its top editor has quit after authorities shut the paper down, but vow
to fight a closure that Britain has branded an attempt to stifle democracy.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF
party could not justify the closure.

"The outside world will see it for what it is -- an attempt to stifle
independent scrutiny and silence democratic voices in Zimbabwe.

"We will continue to support all those in Zimbabwe working for a return to a
democratically-elected and accountable government which respects human
rights and the rule of law."

Police shut down the Daily News last week after the Supreme Court ruled its
publisher, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), was operating illegally
because it had not registered with a media commission created by Robert
Mugabe's government.

ANZ lawyer Gugulethu Moyo said the newspaper group had applied for
registration and had asked the police to reopen its offices, but the company
said the paper's top editor had quit.

"I can confirm that (editor-in-chief Francis Mdlongwa) has resigned. It is
not connected to the closure of paper. I had known he wanted to resign long
before this," ANZ Chief Executive Sam Sipepa Nkomo told Reuters.

Moyo and Nkomo said the paper would file a challenge with the High Court if
the police failed to approve their registration request.
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Telegraph

Nigeria delivers summit ultimatum to Mugabe
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor, and Andrew Chadwick in Harare
(Filed: 16/09/2003)


Nigeria has bluntly told President Robert Mugabe that he will be excluded
from the next Commonwealth summit unless he agrees to share power with the
Zimbabwean opposition, a senior Commonwealth official said yesterday.

Tony Blair and several other leaders have made clear they will boycott the
meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, in December if Mr Mugabe attends.

President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the summit host, has decided to
sacrifice solidarity among African countries to avoid a deep white-black
split within the Commonwealth. A well-placed diplomatic source said he sent
an envoy to Harare during the summer to "explain the decision".

Mr Mugabe was told that he could attend only if he made "substantial
progress" towards forming a government of national unity with the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change.

However, there is little sign that repeated South African attempts to
mediate such a political deal will yield results any time soon. Rather than
easing the political repression of the opposition, Zimbabwean police have
effectively shut down the country's only independent daily newspaper, the
Daily News.

Remi Oyo, a spokesman for Mr Obasanjo, said yesterday: "No invitation has
yet been sent to Zimbabwe and Pakistan, but consultations are going on."

Zimbabwe was suspended "from the councils" of the Commonwealth in March last
yearafter international election observers issued a damning report on the
intimidation that surrounded Mr Mugabe's re-election.

The decision was taken by leaders from South Africa, Nigeria and Australia.
But the group split in March, at the end of the initial one-year suspension.

Mr Obasanjo and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa argued in favour of
rehabilitating Mr Mugabe but they were blocked by powerful protests from
Australia's prime minister, John Howard.

Despite Mr Mugabe's absence from the Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting (CHOGM), the question of Zimbabwe will dominate the summit as it
decides whether to continue the suspension.

A spokesman for Mr Howard said he had received assurances from Mr Obasanjo
and the Commonwealth secretary-general, Don McKinnon, that Mr Mugabe would
not attend the Abuja summit.

"We consider that in the absence of any progress in addressing the concerns
which led to its suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth,
Zimbabwe's suspension should stand," the spokesman said.

Australia is leading the fight for tighter sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Britain has largely stayed out of the limelight in the hope of denying Mr
Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party the "colonial" card.

The Foreign Office hoped that African leaders would exert pressure on Mr
Mugabe but these hopes have been sorely disappointed.

Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the MDC, said: "We heartily welcome the
move by the Commonwealth. It is an unequivocal demonstration that until
Mugabe restores democracy and the rule of law he is not welcome at forums
such as CHOGM.

"In the 18 months since Zimbabwe's suspension Mugabe has made no effort to
stop the political violence he has unleashed on the people of this country.
He has made no effort to restore the rule of law, disband the militia or
introduce a transparent and fair electoral system."

Zimbabwean police yesterday prevented the Daily News from resuming
operations, keeping the newspaper off the streets for the third day running.

Police raided the newspaper's offices on Friday after the supreme court
ordered the newspaper to register with the government-appointed Media and
Information Commission.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday: "The closure of the Daily
News is a clear attack on the free and independent press in Zimbabwe."
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Zim govt, Daily News stand-off deepens
Ryan Truscott
Posted Tue, 16 Sep 2003

The stand-off between the Zimbabwe government and the country's only
independent daily newspaper, a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe
which was shut down last week, deepened on Monday amid legal wrangling, a
lawyer said.

The Daily News, which was declared illegal by the Supreme Court last week
for not registering with a government media commission, was shut down in a
police raid on Friday, when the paper's central Harare offices and its
printing presses were sealed off.

The Daily News applied to register with the state-run commission early on
Monday after not appearing on newsstands for three days.

But by late afternoon the newspaper was still out of business, and company
lawyers prepared to make an urgent application to the courts to allow
workers back into their offices.

"They (police) claim to be enforcing the Supreme Court order," Gugulethu
Moyo, a director and legal adviser at the paper, told AFP.

"There was no order to the effect that we should be shut out of our
offices," she said. "We will take action for loss of revenue."

The ruling against the Daily News came after it had challenged the
constitutionality of having to register with the state-appointed Media and
Information Commission (MIC).

The supreme court threw out the application and told the paper it had to
register before challenging the law.

Under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA),
signed into force by Mugabe shortly after his disputed re-election last
year, all newspapers, reporters, media houses and outlets must be
registered.

Earlier on Monday Moyo told AFP that the media commission had accepted their
application.

But the state-run Herald, usually seen as a government mouthpiece, said on
Monday, quoting an unnamed lawyer, that the Daily News was "approaching the
MIC with dirty hands", and warned that the process might take up to two
years.

"If they apply now for registration, they are approaching the Media and
Information Commission with dirty hands and it does not follow that they
will be automatically registered.

The Herald also speculated that the Daily News risked having its equipment
confiscated by the state under the media law, which allows the government to
seize assets of a media house that operates illegally.

Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Daily News, Sam Nkomo, was due to
appear in court Monday facing charges of running an illegal paper.

But hiscourt appearance was delayed because the state had not prepared its
case against him, Moyo said.

"The state is not yet ready to proceed against him," she said. "They said
they'd call us when they're ready."

The Daily News is a fierce critic of Mugabe's government. It has been banned
from circulating in the rural strongholds of his ruling Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).

The paper has also been the target of two bomb attacks in recent years, and
several of its journalists, including the former editor-in-chief Geoffrey
Nyarota, have been arrested several times since the paper was launched in
1999.

Condemnation of the paper's forced closure continued on Monday from local
civic and human rights groups.

In a statement the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said the Supreme Court
ruling against the Daily News "resulted in the biggest assault on the right
of freedom of expression in the history of our independence".

Local media watchdog, the Media Monitoring Project, said in a statement that
the closure of the Daily News represented the "climax of the Zanu-PF led
government campaign to muzzle alternative opinion using the ill-fated Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act".

And the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) urged the
media commission to "stop pandering to the whims of politicians and allow
papers ... to register".

"The forced closure of the Daily News ... is yet another clumsy assault by
the government on free media in Zimbabwe," IJAZ said in a statement.


AFP

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The Herald

Moyo slams SA journalists

Herald Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S High Commissioner to South Africa Cde Simon Khaya Moyo has
described some journalists in that country as "racist fronts’’ whose
negative reporting on Zimbabwe was "nauseating."

Addressing members of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists in Gwanda at the
weekend, Cde Khaya Moyo said most of the journalists now had a tendency of
creating stories about Zimbabwe even when there was nothing to write about.

"The South African media’s obsession with Zimbabwe is truly nauseating. Even
if there is no story on Zimbabwe, one must be manufactured.

"It is fascinating that even some editors cannot extricate themselves from
their past racist enclave. Such journalists can only be described as racist
fronts,’’ said Cde Khaya Moyo.

Attacks by the media in South Africa, he said, were now being extended to
all regional leaders who stand by Zimbabwe on its land issue.

He said what was disappointing was the fact that the same journalists who
used to fight Zimbabwe during the liberation struggle wanted to turn into
preachers of democracy.

"The same journalists who apparently were supporters of apartheid and the
former Rhodesia establishment have now taken the front seats as champions of
democracy.

"One can count them on one’s fingers as their false articles appear in
various newspapers everyday,’’ he said.

Since the launch of the land reform programme in 2000, the media in South
Africa has been on a mission to vilify the Government.
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The Herald

Government gazettes Appropriation Act

Herald Reporter
The Government yesterday gazetted the Appropriation (Supplementary) Act,
which allows the State to withdraw from the Consolidated Revenue Fund $619
billion for a supplementary budget to finance shortfalls arising from the
2003 original budget.

The original budget for 2003 was $784 billion.

The supplementary budget and the Appropriation (Supplementary) Bill were
approved by Parliament last month.

Votes that were approved were for the Office of the President and Cabinet
$8,1 billion; Parliament of Zimbabwe $2 billion; Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare $35,2 billion and Defence $47,1 billion.

Parliament also approved the votes for Finance and Economic Development
$104,4 billion; Vote of Credit $6 billion; Audit Department $371,6 million;
Industry and International Trade $1,7 million; Rural Resources and Water
Development $8,3 billion; Lands Agriculture and Rural Resettlement $73,7
billion.

Mines and Mining Development got $1,4 billion; Environment and Tourism $1,2
billion; Transport and Communications $16,4 billion; Foreign Affairs $29
billion; Local Government, Public Works and National Housing $5,4 billion;
Health and Child Welfare $48,4 billion.

Education, Sport and Culture was allocated $153 billion; Higher and Tertiary
Education $13,1 billion; Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation
$4 billion; Home Affairs $45 billion and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs $13,1 billion.

Small and Medium Enterprises Development was given $265 million and Energy
and Power Development $282,2 million.

The supplementary budget was necessitated by several factors that included
rising inflation and the need to meet salaries for the civil service
following the completion of the job evaluation exercise.

Total expenditure envisaged in the revised 2003 budget is $1 442,3 billion
up from $770,3 billion in the original budget.

The total expenditure of $1 442,3 and a total revenue of $1 141,3 billion
will result in a budget deficit of $301 billion (7,3 percent of the Gross
Domestic Product) against the original $230 billion (11,5 percent of Gross
Domestic Product)

The budget deficit of $301 billion will be financed from the non-banking
sector that would contribute $45 billion, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe up to
a statutory limit of $61 billion and the banking system financing the
balance of $195 million.
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