Posted on 12/17/2002 12:27:57 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Zimbabwe's commercial farmers have fallen victim to a renewed campaign of mindless violence with the killing of hundreds of cattle by workers egged on by supporters of President Robert Mugabe.
On one farm several hundred head of cattle were recently driven into a dam to drown while others were penned into paddocks, in searing heat, to starve to death.
Cattle were sent to their excruciating end by a group of about hysterical 20 farm workers, encouraged by government supporters, at Forrester Estates, in the Mvurwi district about 60 miles north-east of Harare.
"It was terrible," said Fanie Ferreira, 43, who recently quit as a sub-manager on the estate. "The noise they made was . . . you can't describe it. It was frightening.
"It took about an hour for the last one to die. Some just drowned, some slipped on the mud and then couldn't get up. The next day we pulled the corpses out of the dam and burned them."
Days earlier cattle were locked into pens and the crazed gang refused to allow management to feed or water the animals at a time of extreme heat in a dry spell late last month.
Forrester Estates is owned by Heinrich von Pezold, a German, and has had a measure of protection from a trade agreement between the Zimbabwe and German governments following the seizure of more than 90 per cent of white-owned farmland since early 2000.
Despite court orders setting aside all seizure notices, two sections of the 20,000-acre estate were closed down by Mugabe supporters.
Police were unable to say if anyone was arrested in connection with the cattle deaths at a time when a beef shortage is imminent and almost half the population is on the brink of starvation.
A spokesman for the Commercial Farmers' Union said farmers were still being prevented from growing crops, or were being chased off their properties.
Fewer than 600 commercial farmers are either living on their farms, or trying to grow crops from about 4,500 before Mr Mugabe launched his violent seizures of white-owned farms.
The World Food Programme, which is now feeding more than two million Zimbabweans, said last week the worst is still to come and that, in mid to late January, Zimbabwe could be staring famine in the face for the first time in its history.
Drought last year caused some of the food deficit but the WFP largely blames the disruption of commercial agriculture.
A monster rules.
67 rallies canceled: Zimbabwe opposition members attacked, murdered*** For two years, Zimbabwe has been gripped by political violence as the increasingly unpopular President Robert Mugabe, 77, seeks to extend his 21-year control of the government.
White-owned farms have been seized, thousands of farm laborers have been chased from their homes and the independent media and judiciary have come under repeated attack from the government.
Violence has intensified ahead of elections scheduled for March 9-10, when Mugabe will face a stiff challenge from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist. Human rights groups say the chances of a free and fair election are remote.
Recently the government passed laws giving the authorities sweeping powers of search, seizure and arrest, with 20-year jail terms for anyone inciting Mugabe's overthrow.
"To date we have had 67 rallies canceled either by the police or by ZANU-PF violence since the (laws were) passed three weeks ago," said Jongwe. "We will contest this election under the most severe circumstances but we have been stretched to the limit."***
Mugabe is evil. He should be met and destroyed, with overwhelming force. South Africa is evil for not facing him down. Thabo Mbeki is as evil as Mugabe, because he's allowing all of this to take place. Tony Blair, Jean Chretien, John Howard, and the rest of the Commonwealth also share much of the blame, for not trying to stop this madness.
South Africa is another hell on earth in the making. It's well on its way to becoming the next Zimbabwe. None of these countries should receive a dime of aid, let them die in the mess they created and perhaps eventually, the people will rise up and throw the dictators out. I doubt it though, Africa is pretty much a lost cause.
It was a civilized nation called Zimbabwe just a few years ago.
Mugabe was going crazy, but the people were working to elect Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. More than half of the people who went to vote wanted to vote for the MDC, but Mugabe blatantly stole the election. Blacks who supported the MDC waited in lines for three days, demanding their right to vote at stations that had run out of ballots (because they were in heavily MDC areas, Mugabe didn't supply enough ballots). They knew they might be attacked by the police, and many were. They knew just how evil Mugabe was.
They love democracy as much as any American; there is a strong democratic tradition in Zimbabwe.
But the people were completely DISARMED and therefore at the mercy of a dictator. Disarmed citizens aren't citizens, they're subjects (no offense intended to British FReepers). It's not too late to save them. If someone--anyone--would invade and toss out Mugabe, the world would be a happier place.
Anti-war left-wingers talk about the importance of Zim's "national sovereignty" and how important it is to let the UN tell us what we can and cannot do in the same breath. Countries that are not democracies should not have sovereignty, we should not be afraid to go after dictators terrorizing their own people.
GUN RIGHTS MUST COME FIRST! Any compromise with gun confiscators is objectively pro-fascist, anti-individual, and anti-democratic. The people trying to disarm Africans are racists who believe Africans are incapable of taking care of their own affairs. Black Africans have less of a cultural block against democracy as white Germans did after WWII.
If America won't stand up for democracy against a mass-murdering Lenin-like terrorist, what do we stand for? We can't even make a few speeches at the UN, and have Colin Powell put a little pressure on SA? What the hell is wrong with this administration?
They should not receive a dime of aid; they should receive a hundred thousand assault rifles. And by "they," I don't mean the governments.
Africa is not a lost cause, Zim is salvageable. And if SA starts to falter, the same thing will happen there. The question is whether we allow them to completely fail, and allow their faith in democracy to be destroyed, or whether we will save them.
Meanwhile, America's options for dealing with Zimbabwe's president-by-fraud range from the unattractive to the whimsical to the potentially catastrophic. Choosing the best course of action from this menu is tricky enough. Getting other countries to follow in kind implies another set of challenges.
Thanks principally to Mr. Mugabe's land expropriation policy, 12 million Zimbabweans are facing the threat of starvation in Zimbabwe, according to the World Food Program. If this hunger-dictator scenario seems too familiar (think Somalia), it's because Africa has seen much too much of it. With visions of dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets of a far-away country still fresh in the collective memory, sending in forces to halt the hunger in Zimbabwe is an unlikely policy. So, if America isn't going to literally wage war on hunger and those that perpetuate it, the Bush administration must weigh its other options.
Mr. Mugabe's seizures of white-owned land represent the most destructive and self-serving approach to dealing with the country's colonial legacy. Rather than attempt a negotiated settlement with white farmers, such as phasing out ownership or immediate forfeiture of some land, Mr. Mugabe has sought to seize virtually all of the thousands of white-owned commercial farms. And, when the best land is taken, it's not given to the people. Instead, it goes to Mr. Mugabe's family and Cabinet members. When ordinary Zimbabweans have been given land, they have received minimal or no assistance in managing it. Meanwhile, white landowners are banned from farming the land they have owned for years.
So, eventual famine was virtually a foregone conclusion in Zimbabwe. Joblessness has reached 60 percent, and homelessness is rampant. And, the hunger has prompted an exodus. At least 1 million Zimbabweans are estimated to be living in neighboring South Africa, about 600,000 in Britain and many more are working or studying elsewhere in Africa, and in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States. About half of the nation's 60,000 whites are estimated to have emigrated since the seizure orders began.
The Bush administration could cut all aid to Zimbabwe in official protest of Mr. Mugabe's reckless endangerment of his own people, in the hope that the people will rise up against the government. But starving people aren't effective revolutionaries, and cutting food aid could lend fraudulent credibility to Mr. Mugabe's hate-mongering, racist tirades against the United States in Zimbabwe and beyond.
America's food aid, on the other hand, is surely lengthening the lifespan of Mr. Mugabe's rule. That negative impact could be tempered, though, by ensuring food is distributed by private organizations, rather than Mr. Mugabe's cabal. That has been the Bush administration's approach, but Mr. Mugabe may be gearing up to counter this distribution system. Three weeks ago, Zimbabweans calling themselves war veterans detained, interrogated and robbed a delegation from the U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe that had been assessing the condition of displaced workers. The Zimbabweans escorting the delegation were beaten. Amazingly, Mr. Mugabe's response was to summon the U.S. ambassador, Joseph Sullivan, for an explanation of why embassy employees had traveled outside the capital without permission.
"[W]e have not and need not apologize for normal activities in fulfillment of our diplomatic and humanitarian mission," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Bruce Wharton, adding that the administrations had no plans to reduce its presence. "We make a clear distinction between the government and the people of Zimbabwe. We will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to all Zimbabweans who need it." Meanwhile, Mark Bellamy, a State Department official, said recently that America was willing to take "very intrusive interventionist measures" to ensure food aid was delivered.
Fortunately, African countries are beginning to voice clear condemnation of Mr. Mugabe's thuggish policies. In Brussels late last month, legislators from Ghana, Botswana and Mozambique harshly criticized Mr. Mugabe. Sadly, South Africa and other countries spoke out in support of Zimbabwe and were able to scuttle a planned meeting between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (EU) in Brussels, after EU officials said Zimbabwe was barred from participating in the meeting.
U.S. diplomacy should vigorously encourage greater momentum for these condemnations. And, if the administration can continue distributing food without Mr. Mugabe's control, it should continue to do so. Hopefully, Mr. Mugabe won't take away Zimbabweans' last hope. It is an outrage that this former breadbasket of Africa should turn into a starvation field. [End]
Zimbabwe -- Nothing but destruction to show for land grab***The drought was, in the scheme of things, a sideshow, as Zimbabwe has weathered worse before. But what of the doughty, overcrowded communal farmers who are capable of producing 800,000 tons of maize in a year? The communal farmers are weakened by inflation, which will hit 200% by year end, and by shortages of inputs. They are also hungry, and their families are diminished by HIV AIDS. They have no access to dams or irrigation, and prospects for decent rain this season, are dim.
Mugabe's new farmers in Mashonaland West are largely businessmen or politicians who bark orders down the phone to managers from their suburban homes in the city. In the Mazowe Valley last week, west of Harare, is first lady Grace Mugabe's farm, which she wrenched from a frightened old couple. She is growing a few hectares of maize, government tractors were ploughing for her last weekend at a dirt cheap price, and Mugabe's sister, Sabina, is trying her hand at seed maize on one of several farms she has taken. But none of them will in the foreseeable future produce enough food, or enough foreign currency to import what was grown before.***
No, see my post #8. The MAJORITY of Zimbabweans wanted to throw out Mugabe and elect the MDC reformers, but Mugabe brutally stole the election. Most Zimbabweans are not savages--Mugabe and his gangs are, but most of them are not.
At the annual congress of his ruling Zanu (PF) party, Mr Mugabe said that the Government could "acquire" service stations and storage facilities, compensate the companies to which they belonged and dispense the fuel. There are five multinational oil firms with a presence in Zimbabwe - BP, Shell, Mobil, Total and Caltex - and their assets there are worth millions of pounds.
Lawyers said that such a move would be illegal. One lawyer, who did not wish to be identified, said: "It would be patently unconstitutional. Besides, most of the international oil companies are covered by bilateral treaties from this kind of nationalisation."
The President's remarks came two weeks after the Government said that it was drafting a new policy within its so-called indigenisation programme to allocate fuel supplies to the 24 "independent" companies licensed to retail fuel, nearly all of which are owned by senior Zanu (PF) officials.
Fuel reserves in the country have reached their lowest levels in three years, since leading oil companies cut off supplies to the state-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) when the Government failed to pay arrears for imports.
In the past week the queues of drivers have lengthened and more service stations have been putting up "no fuel" signs. Vehicles abandoned at the roadside for lack of fuel have become commonplace.
In Chinhoyi, the venue of the conference, fuel was available only for party officials. A journalist was told at a Mobil service station that he could buy petrol only if he could prove that he was a delegate.
Mr Mugabe said that the oil companies were making huge profits while the Government made losses from importing fuel via Noczim, which sells it on - for just 3p a litre, making Zimbabwean fuel among the world's cheapest - to the multinationals to distribute.
Economists say that total state control over fuel distribution would condemn the industry to the same failure affecting much of the country's agriculture, transport, mining, telecommunications, railways and power industries.
"Mugabe's thinking is that taps make water," a Western diplomat said. "If he goes ahead (with the takeover of multinational service stations), the country will dry up far quicker than it is doing already." [End]
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Africa is a lost cause. It's hard to say it but the evidence is overwhelming. Before we go after the monsters of Africa, I believe we should eliminate the monsters threatening the future of civilization. Those monsters include the Saudi royal family using American money to fund the killing of Americans.
The only way to win the clash of civilizations is to spread our values faster and better than the bad civilizations spread theirs.
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