- Dear Family and Friends,
- The events of this last week in Zimbabwe are almost
beyond belief and in order to paint an accurate picture this letter will
be long and I apologise in advance.
-
- According to world relief agencies including the World
Food Programme, the UN and Oxfam, 1 million Zimbabweans will be in urgent
need of food aid within the next month. Our government, having acknowledged
the crisis and held out the begging bowl, announced this week that they
would not allow anyone but themselves to distribute the food as it comes
in.
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- The Government have banned all foreign aid agencies from
distributing humanitarian food aid. Our Minister of Information said: "We
will not allow strangers to roam around our country interfering."
He said foreign aid agencies were: "planning to smuggle election
monitors into Zimbabwe using the guise of food aid to decampaign the present
government." Can there be anyone now who believes that the Zimbabwean
government actually cares for her own people?
-
- It is criminal that 1 million people face starvation
because our government has prevented farmers from growing food and have
allowed people calling themselves 'war veterans' to rule supreme for the
last 20 months. I can hardly bear to think how people who do not support
the ruling party will survive. How can any government refuse to allow
donors to distribute the food they have collected?
-
- To compound this imminent crisis is the even more devastating
announcement this week that, using the Presidential Powers Act, the Land
Acquisition Act has again been amended. Farmers who have been served with
a section 8 letter informing them of the seizure of their land, have been
told to immediately cease all farming operations and have 90 days to get
off their farms and out of their homes.
-
-
- The starvation we face now will be compounded a hundred
fold in 2002 and 2003. I say this not because I believe only whites can
farm but because the people squatting on farms simply do not have the
experience or capital needed to grow more than enough food for just themselves.
The mere fact that they cannot even plough the land they have invaded
and, as I write, are waiting for the government to give them seed, demonstrates
this fact very clearly. More worrying is the evidence that many of the
men squatting on farms are being paid to do so and are not farmers at
all but political pawns. I gave proof of this in my book African Tears
and told how an American TV crew actually filmed the 'war veterans' receiving
their weekly pay for squatting on my farm.
-
- In an article I wrote for this weeks Zimbabwe Independent
I tell how this is still the case and that "war veterans" presently
creating hell on farms near Marondera are wearing orange overalls with
the initials of the Harare Municipality embroidered on the pockets. The
Commercial Farmers Union have described the amendment as "potentially
devastating" and with 25% of farmers immediately impacted and more
about to be so, they have "estimated that 85% of CFU members are
affected ... farmers who have succeeded in planting crops...now face huge
additional risks...."
-
- In a telephone interview with South African television
this week, our Minister of Agriculture, Dr Joseph Made clarified the position
on the payment of compensation to farmers evicted from their properties.
Again he said that it was up to the British to pay for the land. He said
that the Zimbabwe government would pay for "improvements" (i.e.
the buildings, fencing, dams, etc) but could only afford to pay 25% now
and the balance over 5 years. Worse though, Dr Made has now classified
the payment as being only for improvements that were "required"
or "relevant". Asked by the interviewer what a farmer should
do if the government did not find a specific improvement "relevant",
Dr Made said the farmer should "dismantle and remove it."
-
- While farmers have been frantically trying to decide
what on earth to do now, both with themselves and their families but also
with nearly a quarter of a million people who work for them, the country
has seen burning, looting and beating in Bulawayo. An abducted war veteran
was found murdered. Two terrified young men stood in front of a TV camera
and "confessed" but there was a huge wave of arrests. As I write
more than 16 people are in police cells - all are active members of the
official opposition mdc party, one is an MP. Many have been denied their
rights to legal counsel, many have been held for for more than 48 hours
without being charged, all have been denied bail.
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- War veterans in towns across the country have denounced
the murder of their compatriot and police have stood by and watched as
government supporters have burnt down a number of houses, looted property
and beaten people. Photographs came through to me this morning of a man
whipped on his arms, hands, back, legs and feet. The bleeding under the
skin, bruising and blistering is horrific and the look in the mans' eyes
is of utter desperation. He has no one to turn to for help. Neither has
a Magistrate in Gokwe who this week convicted two government supporters.
He found them guilty of robbery and sentenced them to 8 months.
-
- That night the Magistrate was attacked by a mob in his
home. His windows were smashed, furniture trashed and he fled bruised and
terrified into the night. The Magistrate is unable to return to either
his home or workplace and is in hiding.
-
- I will end with a story of two incredibly brave farmers
who I sat and had tea with with one afternoon this week. They are a couple
in their 70's who survived the most terrifying experience recently. A
mob of 40 "war veterans" got into their house at night by breaking
down the back door. While this elderly couple hid in their bedroom the
"war veterans" smashed the windows, climbed onto the roof and
broke a hole in the asbestos with a steel pole. They looted the contents
of the fridge and deep freeze, stole tools from the garage, cutlery from
the kitchen and then smashed glasses and plates. They put the plug into
the sink, turned the taps on and flooded the lounge, dining room and pantry.
They smashed the bedroom window where the couple were hiding and tried
to set the curtains alight. For three hours 40 men roared and shouted and
destroyed. The police were called at 7pm and did not arrive until after
10pm. The following morning three men were arrested - they were found
with 2 of the 25 geese that the mob had stolen. This couple are not leaving.
They have been terrorized repeatedly in the last 20 months but are not
leaving. This is their home and they are not leaving.
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- For months I have been wearing a small yellow ribbon
on my shirt in silent protest at the lawlessness that has become the only
face of Zimbabwe. This week I wear it for farmers, for an elderly couple,
for 16 men in gaol, for a man with a bleeding back and legs and for a magistrate
in Gokwe. We are all alone, powerless and frightened of where/how and
when this will stop.
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- Until next week,
-
- Cathy >
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