The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
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From ZWNEWS, 6 May
Land for the poor
The following is a partial list of farms illegally seized by senior government and Zanu PF officials and others in recent weeks:
Joseph Msika - part of Umguza Block; Simon Muzenda - Chindito Farm, Gutu; Obert Mpofu, part of Umguza Block; Sabina Mugabe - farm of murdered Terry Ford; Elliot Manyika - Duiker Flats; Shuvai Mahofa - Lothian Farm and others, Gutu; Samuel Mumbengegwi - Irvine Farm, Gutu; Augustine Chihuri - Woodlands Farm; Sydney Sekeremayi - Maganga Estate; Swithun Mombeshora - unnamed farm, Mashonaland West; Nicholas Goche – unnamed farm; Edward Chindori-Chininga – unnamed farm, Mashonaland Central; Saviour Kasukuwere – part of Pimento Farm, Mashonaland Central; Joseph Chinotimba – part of Pimento Farm, Mashonaland Central; Solomon Mujuru - Alamein Farm; Ambrose Mutinhiri - Waltondale Farm, Marondera West; Dick Mafiosi (Mashonaland Central ZPF youth chairman) – part of Pimento Farm, Mashonaland Central.
Relations between Australia and Zimbabwe took a further dive today, with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer branding the Mugabe government racist after the shooting of an Australian farmer.
President Robert Mugabe's government encouraged violence towards farmers and the campaign to remove them would likely be violent and vicious, Mr Downer said.
"Just about all farms in Zimbabwe which are owned by whites are marked for seizure and our expectation is that the government in Zimbabwe is just going to continue to run a violent and vicious campaign until those white farmers leave the farms," Mr Downer told reporters in Melbourne.
"And, of course, that is racism at its worst, and it is something we abhor."
Mr Downer was responding to questions about farmer Sheryl Jones, 46, formerly from Wagga Wagga in NSW, who was today in a stable condition in intensive care after being shot twice at the weekend by bandits.
The shooting occurred during what appeared to be a robbery at her farm at Headland, about 150 kilometres east of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.
Australia condemned the shooting, saying it showed the support of the Mugabe government for violence and intimidation.
"We utterly condemn those people who have shot this Australian woman - she's a farmer," he said.
"It is just part and parcel of ongoing violence and intimidation
on farms in Zimbabwe and it just underlines to Australians how appalling the regime in Zimbabwe is and its support for and encouragement of intimidation and violence on farms.
"Our hearts go out to the woman and her family and we just hope that she will be able to make a recovery."
The Australian High Commissioner in Zimbabwe, Jonathan Brown, had visited Ms Jones in hospital in Harare, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said.
"Consular officers in Canberra are providing assistance to her family," she told AAP.
Ms Jones' mobile telephone and handbag containing farm wages were taken by her attackers.
Police were investigating and the motive for the shooting was unclear, Reuters reported from Harare.
The farm had been earmarked for seizure by the government in its program to redistribute land to black Zimbabweans.
Ten white farmers have died since February 2000 in militant invasions of hundreds of farms in support of a state drive to forcibly acquire white-owned land for redistribution to landless blacks.
Mr Mugabe sees his success in the March elections, which many observers described as fraudulent, as justification for continuing the acquisition program.
By Karen Polglaze and Lisa Walker
It is a risky business reporting the news in Zimbabwe these days.
Journalists run a gauntlet of arrests, beatings and threats.
Their crime was trusting an old man who claimed that his wife had been beheaded by ruling party supporters in front of his two daughters - and reporting it as fact.
But investigations by the Daily News revealed that the old man was a super conman.
Example
Unfortunately, the paper had already published the story which, finding a life of its own, also grabbed the headlines in the Western press.
A front-page apology to Zanu-PF by the Daily News failed to save reporters Lloyd Mudiwa and Collin Chiwanza from being arrested last week. A day later, the Guardian's correspondent, Andrew Meldrum, was picked up at his home.
"The incident should stand as a salutary example to all journalists and media organisations that they carry the burden of an exceptional public responsibility to report accurately and fairly as messengers of society," said the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ).
"MMPZ, however, condemns the repressive media laws under which three journalists perceived to have been responsible for writing and perpetuating the story have now been arrested, charged and detained.
"A civilised democracy cannot enact laws that single out media workers for special punishment, since this represents an unconstitutional curtailment of an individual's fundamental right to freedom of expression - even if what is said is false."
Government boycott
But now, thanks to the conman, Zimbabwe's Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, has found good reason to hound journalists.
Following the beheading story, Mr Moyo, the man behind the new media law, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, has ordered all government departments to stop advertising in the Daily News.
Mr Moyo also warned of sterner action against journalists writing "lies".
The media law requires journalists and newspapers to get an annually renewable "licence", at the discretion of the ministry.
Correspondents also face up to two year's jail for writing "lies".
I feel the law is designed to silence independent voices more effectively than the bombs which last year blew up printing presses of the private Daily News.
Arrests
Deeply worrying is that journalists deemed to be writing stories critical of President Mugabe will lose their licences or be sent to jail.
Although charges against Lloyd Mudiwa, Collin Chiwanza and Andrew Meldrum have been dropped, the episode has reinforced the fears of many journalists working in Zimbabwe.
Over the past month, seven other reporters have been picked up by police.
Peta Thornycroft a correspondent for the London-based Daily Telegraph was charged under the law and held for days.
Dumisani Muleya and Iden Wetherall of the weekly Zimbabwe Independent have also found themselves on the wrong side of the new media law.
Undaunted
Despite the threats against them, journalists here remain resolved to tell it like it is.
While accepting that they ought to check their sources more carefully, they say the arrests will not deter them from exposing the wrongs and excesses of the government.
I personally have been threatened on several occasions. But who has not?
No-one appears to be safe - either in the private or the state-run media.
The other day, a state television crew pleaded to be spared as soldiers pounced on cameramen covering a pro-democracy march.
But to no avail.
Taking a cue from more experienced colleagues, I watched the demonstration from a distance.
Mutual help
Some of my journalist friends have had to flee the country. One left after an attack by soldiers.
For those remaining behind, life and our work must go on.
Even if some officials won't speak to me because I report for the BBC.
I also feel sorry for some of my colleagues who work for the state-controlled media.
It can't be easy for them, passing on what many listeners and readers see as lies.
But as journalists, we try to help each other as much as possible.
I have had to cover some assignments under the cover and protection of state media journalists.
But I have often returned the favour and protected them from pro-opposition supporters.
Supporters of the ruling party seem to trust only journalists from the government media while the opposition supporters will only talk to the independent press.
But I will continue to write and report.
Hopefully this won't deny me a licence to practice as a journalist in my country.