07 April 2008, 04:32
404WJJefferyZIM - White Farm Invasions Begin April 6?
This was posted as a breaking Associated Press story today, April 6- I have not seen this news anywhere else but it is discouraging:
link to articleWhite farmers in Zimbabwe say militants loyal to President Robert Mugabe's ruling party have forced three cattle ranchers off their land.
A fourth is holding out with about 50 militants threatening to break down his farm gates.
The land grabs, revealed Sunday, come as Mugabe and his party confront massive elections losses and an expected presidential runoff.
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since his guerrilla army helped overthrow white minority rule in 1980.
His popularity has been battered by an economic collapse following the often-violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms since 2000.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
07 April 2008, 04:41
KathiZimbabwe's war veterans set their sets on white farms
The Times
April 7, 2008
Catherine Philp in Harare
Militant supporters of Robert Mugabe descended on some of Zimbabwe's last
white-owned farms yesterday in an orchestrated campaign of intimidation
designed to keep him in power.
The invasions, which sparked memories of the farm seizures that ultimately
brought the economy to its knees, got under way as the ruling party and
opposition both launched legal battles over the release of election results.
Lawyers for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) appeared in court to
press for the immediate release of presidential poll results, more than a
week after the election. Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF), meanwhile, hit back
with a demand that results be withheld and a recount taken.
MDC leaders reacted with disbelief at the Zanu (PF) petition, questioning
how the party could dispute results yet to be released. Zanu (PF) has
already demanded a recount of 16 seats it lost in the parliamentary
contest - enough to overturn the majority won by the opposition in its shock
victory.
The MDC believes that its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidential
contest outright with more than 50 per cent, but on Friday Zanu (PF) paved
the way for a second round run-off, when it endorsed Mr Mugabe for the
fight. Fears that Mr. Mugabe would launch a “dirty war†of violence and
intimidation ahead of the vote materialised in southern Masvingo province on
Saturday when drunken war veterans invaded six white-owned farms, ordering
the farmers to leave.
A thousand veterans marched through Harare on Saturday in a show of force
for Mr Mugabe, vowing to defend the country against a new “white invasionâ€.
State media last week began a campaign claiming ousted white farmers were
returning in droves following Mr Mugabe's apparent defeat. The feared mob of
former bush guerrillas led the bloody takeover of white-owned farms
beginning in 2000.
In Masvingo state-run television filmed as livestock and farm machinery were
looted and ranchers forced off the land. Attackers also forced owners and
staff to flee Paynanda Lodge, a game lodge. Police later intervened and
persuaded them to leave, a sign that rank-and-file security forces may not
be prepared to carry out Mr Mugabe's will.
Senior security officials, many of whom are now the owners of confiscated
farms, have backed Mr Mugabe's bid to cling to power, fearful of their own
future should the regime fall. But ordinary police and soldiers have seen
their real incomes plummet as hyperinflation, now at an unofficial 250,000
per cent, takes grip, and may be less willing to shore up the regime.
In the northern town of Centenary veterans were reportedly still laying
siege to two white-owned farms. Hendrik Olivier, the head of the Commercial
Farmers' Union, said: “I've got one farmer and his wife with two children
and people banging on windows, ululating and telling them to vacate.â€
In Harare the streets were almost deserted as MDC lawyers returned to the
High Court to file an urgent suit seeking the immediate release of
presidential election results, eight days after the polls. On Saturday a
first attempt to file the case was thwarted when riot police barred the
lawyers.
Foreign governments have joined the opposition clamour for the results to be
released, as fears grow that the electoral commission is using the delay to
massage the figures on Mr Mugabe's orders. The judge, after hearing
petitions from the MDC and the Electoral Commission, said that she would
issue her ruling today. But the state-run Sunday Mail, Zanu (PF)'s
mouthpiece, announced yesterday that its officials would be seeking a
recount of the presidential polls, claiming “miscalculations in the
compilation of the resultâ€.
The public posting of results from individual stations after the polls shut
closed some of the better-worn avenues for vote rigging used by Zanu (PF) in
the past. The MDC furiously rejected the recount demand, and retracted its
willingness to take part in a second round run-off, fearful that the
Government was plotting a campaign of terror to steal the vote.
Nelson Chamisa, the opposition spokesman, told reporters that the opposition
had been contacted by sympathetic police alleging ballot-tampering efforts
by the ruling party. Under current election law, any run-off must be held
within three weeks of the original vote, but diplomats are fearful that Mr
Mugabe plans to use special powers to delay the poll for up to three months,
buying time to cow his opponents.
Mugabe's land grab
— 4,000 white-owned farms have been taken over since 2000
— 18 white farmers have been killed since the farm invasions began
— In 2007 one of the last remaining white farmers was strangled by intruders
in what campaigners called a “political hitâ€
— An estimated 400 white farmers remain in Zimbabwe
— 44 per cent of land seized was being cultivated in 2005 and the remainder
was lying fallow
— Maize production fell by 74 per cent between 1999 and 2004
Sources: Agencies; Times archive
08 April 2008, 00:15
HughiamWhen I was there in 02, I asked a farmer who lost some 100,000 acres, why he didn't fight. He told me, with several explatives, that sooner or later, he'd have to sleep and when he did, he would be killed. Either by the "vets" or his own staff who, under penalty of death or torture would be coerced into killing him by the vets.
His response was so out of the realm of what I was capalbe of understanding at that time. He told me the U.S. had turned its back on them, and then downplayed the truth in the media.
I was shocked at how little I knew about how the real world "worked". And many of us still don't know how tight Mugabe's fist was around the thoats of the people. When I was done learning my lesson, I remember feeling very embarrased and like a scolded child.
Until Mugabe is out of power, and the vets lose govt backing, the take overs can and do happen.
Shortly before I got there, it was sometime in August of 02, I was at teh Afton House watching TV and the announcment that Mugabe had made it illegal for whites to own land in Zim was broadcasted on the BBC.
It showed footage of a farmer packing up everything they could onto large trucks. The "vets" were climbing the gates of the farm as this guy and his family and remaining staff hurried to get the hell out of there. Now this farm was generations old and extremely fertile. As they opened the gate to leave, the vets poured through the compound and looted the whole place. In short order, the windows were removed, the piping, electrcal wiring, everything was ripped out, or destroyed and crowd was jumping around chanting and laughing.
Even now, five years later I still remember how hollow it made me feel. Luckily, this guy and his family were making their way to Mozambique as they had been offered land their to farm.
Hugh
You can also bet that the politician's will muck it up!! 
