NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF: Two Harare
South farmers have been summoned to Chivhu Magistrate's Court in relation to
the Featherstone / Chivhu abduction of farmers and workers, on false charges
of throwing sticks and stones at a policeman, pointing a weapon at a
policeman and inciting others to throw sticks and stones
at policemen.
At least 36 farmers in the Karoi area have successfully sought
orders through the Magistrate's Court to evict illegal occupiers from their
farms. The Messenger of Court was originally denied police protection to
serve the notices, but is expected to serve a batch today. The crux
will be when the evictions fall due (seven days notice). If the war
vets do not vacate within the stipulated time period, the police are obliged
to act, or face charges of contempt.
At Laughing Hills Farm in Karoi, an altercation about firewood
led to the owner being struck four times over the head by war vet Stephen
Gariya, using a bamboo pole.
The owner of Deerwood Farm in Karoi was threatened in a letter
from war vets that if he attempted to plant tobacco, he would receive the
same treatment as Marshall Roper.
National Parks have been deployed to the Save Conservancy and
have apprehended 26 poachers.
Some 900 permanent structures have been built on Debsham Ranch
and at every dipping, 30-40 snares are being removed from cattle.
REGIONAL REPORTS
Mashonaland
Central: Centenary: War vets have started pegging on
Kilkerran Farm and have been "officially" allocated plots at Mt Parnis and
Mavhuradonha Farms. Mvurwi: There was an attempted work stoppage by
three ZANU PF members on Hariana Farm. The manager refused to comply on
the grounds that he had no authority to call a work
stoppage. Tsatsi: Subsequent to a visit to Ramahori Farm by government
evaluators, the farm owner was prevented from removing moveable assests by
war vets. This situation has been resolved and the owner is now moving his
property. Glendale: There has been a work stoppage on Wiseacre
Farm. Harare West/Nyabira: War vets have been given instructions to
stop land preparation on various farms in the area.
Mashonaland East: Marondera: The
assistant DA went to Chipesa and Monte Cristo farms accompanied by local war
vet leaders and Support Unit details to tell the war vets that they could
stay on the farm but they are not to disrupt farming. War vet Chingosho
on Monte Carlo has ignored this and has threatened to attack the farmer if he
enters "their" section of the farm. Beatrice: On Enslendeale Farm at
the Magombo Dairy retail stall, a woman arrived, went into the shed and
refused to leave. Police attended after she had left, but are
investigating. There is an increase in snaring of cattle on Kerry,
Cavan and Stirling farms. The owners organised for their labour to go with a
number of policemen and clear out some of the snares. Whilst clearing these
out, they discovered a war vet camp of about 30 huts in a remote area of the
farm. Some of them are occupied, some are empty. There was also some army
equipment lying around. The police are investigating. Harare South: On
Stoneridge Farm, land preparation is proceeding. There are still about 10 -15
illegal occupiers in the base camp but they are quiet at the moment. War vet
Chitsindi was due to appear in court yesterday on a charge of public
violence. On Monday afternoon on Albion Farm, war vet Muradzikwa and
others threatened to return back to the farm, having been previously removed.
Two farmers have been summoned to Chivhu Magistrate's Court in relation to
the Featherstone / Chivhu abduction of farmers and workers, on false charges
of throwing sticks and stones at a policeman, pointing a weapon at a
policeman and inciting others to throw sticks and stones at
policemen. Wedza: The situation is deteriorating on Collace Farm. There
was a fire started last night again about three quarters of the farm has now
been burnt. There are about 80 resident invaders snaring and cutting wood.
On Skoonveld a total of 6 head of cattle are missing or have died
from slashing. The culprits are believed to be criminals recently released
from custody. On Chakadenga Farm, a driver was told to stop ridging -
he refused and carried on ridging with no consequence. A rifle shot was
heard on Nelson Farm, but there was no follow up and two more cows were
slaughtered on Poltimore Farm. Macheke/Virginia: There was a group
of about 8 invaders at the gate of Nyagadzi Farm this morning. This was a
result of two workers throwing the war vets out of the local beerhall
recently. The invaders left but returned with reinforcements. The police have
said that they will attend. On Castledene Pines, the invaders have
instructed the farm labour to all move into the main farm village so that
they can occupy the second farm village.
Mashonaland West North: Karoi / Tengwe:
At least 36 farmers in the Karoi area have successfully sought orders through
the Magistrate's Court to evict illegal occupiers from their farms. The
Messenger of Court was originally denied police protection to serve the
notices, but is expected to serve a batch today. The crux will be when
the evictions fall due (seven days notice). If the war vets do
not vacate within the stipulated time period, the police are obliged to act,
or face charges of contempt. The following events are a summary from 26th
September - 3rd October: There have been recent aggressive work
stoppages on Donaldson, Nyramanda and Coldoma. On Collingwood Farm,
poachers fired four shots with a .303 at a farm guard. The guard
returned fire with a shotgun, so the poachers set the veld alight in
retribution. At Laughing Hills Farm, an altercation about firewood led
to the owner being struck four times over the head by war vet Stephen Gariya,
using a bamboo pole. On Easter Parade Farm, a cow was killed by
spear. The owner of Deerwood Farm was threatened in a letter from
war vets that if he attempted to plant tobacco, he would receive the same
treatment as Marshall Roper. The community have assisted, but
the Officer-in-Charge of Tengwe has offered minimal assistance. On
Shangrila Farm, war vets have occupied labour housing. On Helwyn Farm,
a farm guard shot six dogs belonging to poachers and recovered four
spears.
Mashonaland West
(South):
Government valuators have still not been to a single farm in
the province. Meanwhile some of the conceded farms continue to be
stripped. Farmers have still not received any letters from the Governor
to enable them to get seasonal finance. Norton: There have been new
invasions on Windsor and Serui Source farms. Chegutu / Suri Suri:
On Damvuri the owner has been forced to dismantle all his internal fencing
due to the level of theft. Snaring of wildlife continues on a large
scale. On San Fernando police have still not removed approximately 80
cattle which have been moved on illegally.
Masvingo: Masvingo East and Central: The
situation of stock theft, tree-cutting, poaching and veld fires is out of
control on several farms in the area. More than half of Dromore Farm was
burnt out over the weekend and calves have been slaughtered at night for
meat. The whole of Southwill Estates was burnt out over the
weekend. On Yettom and Marah Farms, war vet "Kid Muzenda" has chased
all but two farm labourers from the village. Chiredzi Area: The number
of invaders has increased in the area and there are widespread reports of
fires. Gutu/Chatsworth Area: On Grasslands Farm, twenty cows and two
calves have been slaughtered in the last two weeks and farm implements were
deliberately burnt by illegal invaders. Save Conservancy Area:
National Parks Officials were deployed last week onto Mukasi, Mukwasi, Angus,
Makore and Levanga and have apprehended 26 poachers.
Matabeleland: Nyamandhlovu: There are
several fires in the area. A Tyre Treads pick-up has been active in ferrying
people onto Edwaleni Farm, resulting in some 70 extra invaders arriving. On
Enyekene Farm a war vet was arrested for poaching and the court case is
pending. Invaders who were evicted by police from Caustin Block
eviction have started returning. A hunting client, who was being
evacuated from Caustin due to threats at the safari camp, was seriously
injured in a road accident entering Bulawayo. Inyathi: On Pollards Farm
at Bubi invaders put a boom across the road and refused the owner entry until
police intervened. Fairburns Farm is totally overrun, with major tree
cutting and land preparation by invaders. The army removed about half
of the invaders from Mancott Farm. Insiza: Lorry loads of people are
being ferried onto Debsham Ranches over the weekends from Amazon Ranch in
Filabusi. The Ranch now has some 900 permanent structures built. One cow was
slaughtered this week. At every dipping, 30-40 snares are being removed from
cattle. Wholesale slaughter of game continues. On Ensangu Ranch,
the numbers of invaders are increasing every weekend, with people being
bussed in by vehicles from town. Wire, water and wood, theft and gates
deliberately being left open has made normal ranching difficult. On
Wessels Block, a group of 45 warvets, Agritex and government officials
arrived on this unlisted property to peg and settle it. By the end of the day
everyone moved off after deciding that there was not enough water on the
property and that they did not wish to depend on the three
boreholes.
For
comments and feedback, contact Malcolm Vowles (Deputy Director - Admin
& Projects) on Harare 309800 - 18 or e-mail ddap@cfu.co.zw ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----
Mugabe defies court to shut
radio station
FROM MICHAEL HARTNACK IN HARARE
SPECIAL powers were invoked by
President Mugabe yesterday to curb newly-launched independent
broadcasting. He spurned a High Court injunction and seized the
transmitter of Zimbabwe's first private radio station.
The midnight raid came a day after Simba Makoni, Mr Mugabe's new
Minister of Finance, linked chances of restoring vital international aid
to reviving the country's reputation for law and order. "We are living
from hand to mouth," Dr Makoni said, admitting that foreign exchange
reserves had sunk to dangerous levels.
Jonathan Moyo, Mr Mugabe's Minister of State for Information and the
man who masterminded the ruling Zanu (PF) party's narrowly successful
campaign in June parliamentary elections, said he had evidence that the
British Government had been involved in the launch of Capitol Radio and
demanded that it "declare its interest".
The station went on air after the Supreme Court ruled last month that
the state broadcasting corporation's 80-year-old monopoly violated
constitutional rights of free expression. On Wednesday armed
paramilitaries besieged the studio on the 16th floor of Harare's five-star
Monomatapa Crowne Plaza Hotel, threatening broadcasters with arrest.
Assistant Commissioner Liberman Ndlovu, whose men broke down doors and
impounded the station's equipment, told Anthony Brooks, attorney for
Capitol, that he had orders to ignore an urgent injunction granted by Mr
Justice Ishmael Chatikobo prohibiting any official interference with the
station.
Mr Brooks said that he would seek to have those responsible committed
for contempt by the High Court before seeking a further Supreme Court
ruling against use of the Presidential Temporary Powers Act to try to
restrict private access to the airwaves.
Defending new regulations promulgated in an extraordinary government
gazette, Professor Moyo said: "A broadcasting jungle . . . exposes the
nation to all kinds of risks."
The new regulations impose a five-year jail sentence and £300,000 fine
on any private broadcaster failing to observe stringent controls,
including dedication of airtime to government spokesmen and to people with
hearing problems.
"Broadcasting for the deaf cannot in any way be reasonable," Mr Brooks
said, describing the regulations as a move to prolong suppression of free
speech. Police also searched houses of those linked to Capitol Radio while
Professor Moyo vowed to close down a second private station making test
transmissions.
Mr Makoni, who will shortly present his first budget, said that he
believed Zimbabwe was winning back international confidence by clamping
down on "war veterans" camped on white-owned farms. He could not clarify
Mr Mugabe's declared aim of seizing over 3,000 farms before the start of
the rains. This has paralysed bank finance for this season's crops.
Experts predict famine as production collapses.
Most member states of the 15-nation European Union (EU) have
imposed arms embargoes on Zimbabwe over what they perceive as the government's
deteriorating human rights record, it was established this week.
The news comes in the wake of reports that Zimbabwe faces
renewed pressure at a joint meeting of parliamentarians from the EU and the
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region which opens in Brussels next
week.
It is understood that some EU parliamentarians led by Mrs
Glenys Kinnock, the wife of former British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, are
lobbying for tougher action against Zimbabwe because they argue that the
government's human rights record has deteriorated since the last major ACPEU
meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, earlier this year.
At that meeting, Kinnock and other EU MPs, notably Niranjan
Deve, Tom Howitt, Jim Callahan and Juan van Hecke, wanted economic sanctions to
be imposed immediately on Zimbabwe over its torture of journalists and violence
on commercial farms.
Their bid was, however, foiled by delegates from mainly ACP
countries.
Instead of giving up, the EU legislators and international
organisations had raised the tempo of their campaign in recent months to have
tougher action imposed on the government to force it to return Zimbabwe to the
rule of law.
They had successfully prevailed over mostly EU countries to
exert greater pressure on Zimbabwe, which has triggered the unannounced arms
embargoes.
Although EU resident representative in Zimbabwe Asger
Pilegaard said the EU had not taken an official position to halt arms sales to
Zimbabwe as a group, this newspaper established this week that most EU states
had downgraded Zimbabwe to the status of a rogue state, a position that
automatically attracts arms sanctions.
Pilegaard said there was nothing to stop individual EU
member states from avoiding arms sales to Zimbabwe, although he said he was not
aware whether this had happened.
"Individual member states can take their own positions on
such issues and you can talk to them directly. The EU has not, however, taken a
common position on that. I am also not aware of the respective positions of the
member states, though I read that Britain had stopped arms sales to Zimbabwe,"
he said.
He said he would rather not get involved in the whole issue
after the Financial Gazette asked him to verify the respective positions taken
by the individual EU states.
The Financial Gazette has since confirmed in interviews with
several Harare-based Western diplomats that most EU states have halted arms
sales to Zimbabwe.
Some diplomats said although their countries had not sold
arms to Zimbabwe for a long time, they would not do so if they were approached
now.
The diplomats, who were not eager to have their names and
those of their countries published for diplomatic reasons, said their
governments would no longer sell arms to Zimbabwe as long as the government
tolerated and promoted violence on commercial farms and against political
opponents.
"I must be frank with you and say Zimbabwe has not
approached us to buy arms in a very long time, but our policy is that if the
human rights situation in a country deteriorates and that country approaches us
for arms, we turn it down," one said.
"The same position would apply to Zimbabwe if it were to
come to us for weapons because the government here has steadfastly refused to
listen to numerous calls to return the country to the rule of law," the diplomat
added.
Another envoy, who said his country had sold helicopters,
aircraft spares and guns to Zimbabwe in the past, said President Robert Mugabe's
government would find it difficult to convince his government to allow companies
in his country to export arms to Harare.
"I have been receiving daily reports of violence in the
commercial farming sector from the farmers' union and I immediately forward
these to my foreign ministry. There is nothing good to report on Zimbabwe at the
moment and the country is making headlines for all the wrong reasons," he said,
noting that no new arms would be sold to Zimbabwe.
Diplomats from several other EU countries said international
human rights organisations had lobbied their governments to impose arms
sanctions on Zimbabwe.
They said arms embargoes were their official policy against
countries with deteriorating human rights records.
"Our fear is that bad governments will use the arms against
their own citizens. This is just a policy of most EU states but some of the arms
are manufactured by private companies who are eager for profits and who can
still smuggle weapons to pariah countries. The policy is never full-proof," a
diplomat said.
Britain was the first Western power to halt arms sales to
Zimbabwe in May after the killing of several white farmers and opposition
supporters by rampaging war veterans who are still occupying more than 1 000
commercial farms across the country.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook announced at the time
his government was also suspending planned supplies of British-made Land Rovers
to the Zimbabwean police.
The Financial Gazette established in interviews this week
that most EU states had emulated Britain's embargo.
This had forced Zimbabwe to deliberately avoid the EU for
arms purchases and instead to resort to its traditional allies in Asia ¾ mainly
China and North Korea ¾ for sustained supplies of ammunition, guns, some spare
parts and military wares to keep its machinery in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo well oiled.
Defence Minister Moven Mahachi could not be reached for
comment yesterday.
Armed Zimbabwe police shut independent radio
station By David Blair in Harare
ZIMBABWE'S
first independent radio station was closed by armed police
yesterday. President Mugabe's critics condemned the action as
"utterly paranoid".
Capital Radio's studio in Harare was searched and stripped of all
equipment by officers at 2am, despite a High Court judge's order
cancelling their search warrant. Fearing arrest, Gerry Jackson, the
presenter, and Michael Auret, the director, were forced to go into
hiding. The home of David Coltart, another director, was also raided
and searched.
Capital had been broadcasting since Sunday, after a Supreme Court
declaration last month struck down the monopoly enjoyed by the
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Prof Jonathan Moyo, the
Information Minister, accused the station, which has been
transmitting light music, of being "a threat to our national
security". He said it was in breach of new regulations that came
into effect on Wednesday.
These regulations force all independent broadcasters to allow an
hour every week for the government to "explain and advance its
policies". The leader of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists called
them "utterly unacceptable" and said the government's aim was to
make it impossible for private radio or television stations to
operate.
The police operation began on Wednesday afternoon when 10
officers, four carrying AK-47 assault rifles, massed outside
Capital's studio at the Monomatapa Hotel. Almost simultaneously,
armed police visited the homes of Ms Jackson and Mr Auret in Harare
and of Mr Coltart in Bulawayo.
Jonathan Samkange, Capital's lawyer, obtained an order from a
judge preventing the search. During a tense stand-off in a gloomy
corridor of the hotel, Mr Samkange said that the senior police
officer had replied: "I do not care about any court order." Four
hours later, police raided the studio. They had already searched Mr
Coltart's home and at 10am they raided the house in Harare of Brian
Latham, a former director who has now disposed of his stake in
Capital.
Another confrontation became likely yesterday when Capital
obtained a High Court ruling upholding its right to broadcast and
ordering the police to return the equipment they removed. There is
confusion over whether the government will abide by the
ruling.
HARARE: The British government could be linked to Zimbabwe's first
independent radio station, which was taken off air Wednesday night after
police raided and confiscated its equipment, cabinet ministers said
Thursday.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo
said officers from the British High Commission in Harare tried to stop the
police from raiding the studios of the radio station Wednesday.
"The British High Commissioner (ambassador) and some officers
associated with that commission started contacting our senior police
officers, trying to stop them from doing a lawful act, making all kinds of
suggestions and threats at that high level," Moyo told a news conference.
"We really take exception to that. It's the clearest example of an
attempt to somehow compromise not only our national security, but
certainly our sovereignty," he said.
Nkomo said the questioning of the police by the British government
representatives "makes me conclude that they have an interest in this ...
radio, and its up to them to deny it."
"Simply the way they have behaved, they implicated themselves and we
wonder why," Nkomo said.
He warned the British embassy staff to "keep away from our police
officers. They have a duty to perform, to guarantee the security of the
nation".
Police swooped on Capital Radio on Wednesday shortly after the
government published new broadcasting regulations, after a Supreme Court
ruling last month ended the monopoly of the state-run Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).
Capital Radio only began broadcasting late Friday, one week after
winning a Supreme Court case that broke the government's monopoly on the
airwaves. (AFP)
