Violence rises on Zimbabwe farms

Daily Telegraph (UK) via ZWNEWS ^ | October 20, 2001 | Peta Thornycroft in Harare

[Clive]

author/source:Daily Telegraph (UK)
published:Sat 20-Oct-2001
posted on this site:Sat 20-Oct-2001

Article Type : News

Almost 700 farms invaded since the Abuja meeting in Nigeria in September

On 15 October on a farm east of Marondera, Zanu PF thugs cut open this pregnant cow from rectum to stomach while still alive. Her intestines were removed, her right eye was gouged out, and she was left to die. A message was received that the farmworkers are next if they do not vacate the farm. The farm is not listed for resettlement. (photo from ZWNEWS)

By Peta Thornycroft in Harare

Violence on Zimbabwe's mainly white-owned farms is dramatically worse since President Mugabe signed the Abuja Agreement, according to a survey of commercial farmers. Almost 700 farms have been invaded since the meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers in Abuja, Nigeria, last month. Mr Mugabe agreed then to stop the invasions and return his land reform campaign to the rule of law. However, David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers' Union, gave a chilling account of developments in the agricultural sector, which provides nearly half Zimbabwe's foreign currency. Nearly a third of Zimbabwe's population has applied for food aid.

Of the farmers surveyed, 51 per cent had been invaded, Mr Hasluck said. More than 800 violent incidents, including assaults on farmers and their workers, had been recorded. Mr Hasluck predicted at least a 40 per cent loss of production this season, costing £142 million for the tobacco industry alone. Commercial farmers were growing only enough of the staple food, maize, for their workers and for stock feeds. Mr Hasluck said 75,000 people had been forced from their farm homes in the past few months. They were replaced by 104,000 "settlers", who so far had made no preparations to grow crops when the rains fall next month. In the past 10 days, four of Mr Mugabe's most loyal cabinet ministers have been touring white-owned farms and speaking to farmers and new "settlers". They have repeatedly told white farmers that they have "no rights over land". These meetings were no more than "political rallies", according to a CFU official.

[Clive]

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[Clive]

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[headsonpikes]

Any sign of King Khadaffy yet?

He may be an improvement over Muthuggee.

[thtr]

State sponsored terrorism!

[tsomer]

Note to self:

Next year, when the bleeding hearts rattle a tin cup for "famine relief" under my nose, remember this and decline to contribute.

It will happen.

[junta]

Thanks Clive. We here are busy bombing some sh**hole in Asia right now but when it is done our homegrown Left and its racial and ethnic components will take up yet again America's version of "Land Reform." Keep us informed.

[BansheeBill]

Thanks Clive.
It just keep getting worse and worse.

[backhoe]

I will have a link to this in my next DUBOB update- the world would rather not look here, but we must....

[t-shirt]

Please Pray for the farmers.

[Arleigh]

Of the farmers surveyed, 51 per cent had been invaded, Mr Hasluck said. More than 800 violent incidents, including assaults on farmers and their workers, had been recorded.

If whites were doing this to blacks, we would be seeing this on TV every single night and the UN would long ago have been sent in.

[Cuttnhorse]

You are exactly right. The west has invested so much political capital promoting black rule in Africa, no one will condemn Mugabe for this. It has been going on for years and where's the outrage?

[Red Jones]

bump

[blam]

Hasn't gone away, huh?

[Cuttnhorse]

The article fails to mention the hundreds of white farmers who have been murdered in the past several years. I didn't notice much press about this at the goofy racism summit in South Africa this year either.

[Brian Allen]

The words "savage" and "barbarian" and "primitive" and "uncivilized" did not back their way into the English language just to annoy the envy motivated and hatred-and-rage-engined practitioners of rascism, bigotry and of that defining form of tyranny we call "political correctness!"

[blam]

". I didn't notice much press about this at the goofy racism summit in South Africa this year either."

It would be racist to question a 'government of color.'

[bubbafree]

Do you mean all that Anti-Apartheid pressure didn't result in a kinder and gentler Africa?

I'm shocked!