Agmates

Email received from White Zimbabwean Farmer under siege:

Below is an incredible email that from a white farming family in Zimbabwe who’s farm was being invaded. The email was forwarded onto me by an Agmate who is a Zimbabwean who was driven off his land and out of the country to Australia in 2000.

I have since been in phone contact with this family in Zimbabwe. It is a tragedy that this sort of thing can happen to fellow farmers no matter where they live in the world. It amazes me that the world leaders can sit by and watch this happen again.

5 Apr 2008 19:00:05 +0200

Subject: Last White farmers under siege, instigated by Mugabe

Dear Family and Friends,

Well never thought I would have to do this email do not know if it may be my last from our farm “Name Removed”.

At 3.30pm today a lorry load of so called Mugabe brain washed “war-vets” arrived at our gate to take over our
land, equipment and pedigree cattle. This crazy action is occurring in a country where there is very little food being produced!

It is now 6 pm and they have been singing their war songs at our gate for three hours, the atmosphere is violent and more and more of them have arrived.

We managed to get our daughter Andy and her young son “Little Bill” into town and for now it is just Bill and myself, plus our dogs remaining in the house on the farm.

They have said that our labour will not work tomorrow . They have demanded that Bill must kill them a sheep, which Bill has flatly refused to do, so no doubt they will simply kill one for themselves.

None of our paid labour will even attempt to come to work tomorrow either!

George Barry who lives south of us is also under siege at the same time as us, so this siege of the last remaining whites is an orchestrated plan. The Brysons and Dobbericks are in the same boat. They have already taken over (Name Removed) Guest Lodge.

Andy is at Bills sisters in Masvingo town and her husband Kevin is expected back from Bulawayo tonight.

Emma’s telephone no. is Zw code (Removed) ; Andy is on (Removed) Our Phone Landline is (Removed)
Cell Phone Nos. (Removed)

Please pass this email on to as many folk as you would like to , this illegal action must become “known” thru out the world .

If you know of anyone in the Media, please ensure that they become aware /are alerted to this evil tyrant’s actions to keep power at all costs.

We have to let the world know what is happening.

Well done to Zesa (telephone company). As they load shedded us and I phoned my friend in the Zesa Faults and he phoned Harare and they have switched us back on.

So for now please keep all of us in your prayers and we will send a follow up tomorrow if we are able.

Our love to you all.
(Name Removed) from (Name of Farm Removed).

End: The names have been changed to protect the identity of the Zimbabwe Farmers involved who are fearful of retribution. Names of places and telephone numbers have been removed or changed to protect those involved.
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Update: 10th April 2008

I phone the couple above “Bill & Jane” today. They told me that they were safe at the minute but were very fearful. They suggested that I contact Trevor Grifford the President of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) in capital of Zimbabwe Harare. I called Trevor and spoke at length to him.

He told me that it was a very delicate situation. Just last night (the 9th) there had been 2 farms that had been invaded and ransacked. He told me that as a result of the political standoff the country was virtually without a government. Trevor told me:

“He and fellow CFU staff has spent a frantic week trying to help fellow farmers cope with their invasions. At least 60 white farming families and 2 Black farming families had been driven from their land in seven areas. In one of the worst affected, Centenary, a prime tobacco-growing area north of Harare, 15 farms were invaded by gangs of war veterans. They were mostly far too young to have fought in the independence struggle but were armed with sticks and machetes and fueled with alcohol as they forced the owners to flee.

Earlier in the week a mob of 30 men wearing Zanu-PF T-shirts arrived at the gate of Grifford’s own farm, also at Chipinge, to take it over. Late that night he received a telephone call from a man calling himself “son of the soil” who told him that from now on they would be managing the farm and he was never to return.

Gifford is used to invasions having endured several before. He has seen his coffee, macada-mia and avocado plantations damaged or destroyed, so there was not much more left for the militants to take away last week. But he remained determined not to lose it all without a fight - the farm has been in the family since his great-grandfather, Alfred Samuel Gifford, founded it in 1894.

Trevor said “What Zimbabwe white farmers wanted was to live in peace and work their farms. There is more than enough good farming land here in Zimbabwe for everybody. We are just hoping for an African solution to an African problem”

He was very hopeful that an urgent meeting on Saturday (12th April) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would be able to formulate a regional solution to the worsening situation. See More of the story’s of farm invasions and violence against white farmers HERE

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Update 15th April - No2

Alongside the refusal of Zimbabwe’s neighbours to take a strong line at their emergency weekend summit, the judgment has effectively bought time for the violence to escalate. Read the Times online report HERE

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Update: 15th April 2008 - No 3

White Farmers in Zimbabwe are totally powerless. Some of the remaining white farmers are 6th generation Zimbabweans. They are being discriminated against and treated as 2nd class citizens. Here’s a summary of what has happen to them since 2000.

- 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 hit”

- 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

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