These photos and information were sent to us by Trevor Gifford the President of the Commercial farmers Union in Zimbabwe.
The story is told best by the Harare Tribune reporter Tererai Kamrimakwenda and is presented in his article below.
Warning - Graphic Photos. We have been sent worse photos of Zimbabwe Citizens, black & White after beatins, torture & killings - but they are too horrific to publish.
The life of a farmer in contemporary Zimbabwe
By Tererai Karimakwenda (swradioafrica)
On the same afternoon that Robert Mugabe picked up a bible and swore to serve the people of Zimbabwe for another 5 years, ZANU-PF thugs descended on a commercial farm in the Chegutu area near Harare (Location), savagely beat up three farmers and abducted them.
They were Ben Freeth, who along with his in-laws Mike and Angela Campbell are challenging the Zimbabwe government’s land policy, at the SADC Tribunal in Namibia.
Earlier that day the same gang had brutally assaulted another farmer in the area, Frank Trott on Twyford Farm. He is part of the group of farmers who joined in with the Campbell case in Namibia. There are 14 of them in the Chegutu area alone.
John Worsley Worswick of Justice for Agriculture said the beatings were severe and Campbell suffered a broken collar bone, broken fingers and serious concussion. His wife Angela has an arm broken in two places, while one of Freeth’s eyes is so badly damaged it is causing the doctors great concern.
The three were found around midnight, after being dumped by the gang. Worswick said they had been beaten for a prolonged period of time during which they were forced to sign papers, promising that they would withdraw the Campbell case from the courts in Windhoek.
Worswick said: “Now obviously it has no force or effect on the case because they were forced to sign under extreme duress.”
Worswick said Freeth and the Campbells were attacked and abducted by ZANU-PF thugs led by Gilbert Moyo, who is notorious in the area for his violent attacks on farms. He arrived at their Mt Carmel farm on Sunday, with an armed gang that took the three into the house and beat them before forcing them onto a truck.
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The Campbells’ son Daniel tried to rescue them at some point, but was forced to stand down after at least 40 shots were fired by the heavily armed gang. Moyo’s name has been provided to the police in connection with several other cases of assault in the Chegutu area, yet he has never been arrested or investigated.
The farmers were targeted specifically because of the SADC case. The attack came just a day after the SADC Observer Mission to the runoff election concluded that the atmosphere was not conducive to holding free and fair elections.
Several other farmers in Chegutu who attached their cases to Campbell’s in Windhoek were also targeted, despite the fact that the Tribunal issued an interim order last year, that said the Zimbabwe government would not evict them or interfere with their operations, until their case is heard.
According to Worswick, the government wants to take Campbell’s Mt. Carmel Farm and he has fought eviction through the courts. But the government passed new laws stipulating that the Zimbabwe courts could no longer hear land cases, effectively taking away the farmers’ rights to challenge the illegal acquisition of their properties. This is why Campbell took his case to the regional courts in Namibia with the hope that he would finally get justice there.
Mhlanga added that Zimbabwe is essentially the key to economic stability in the region, and voiced concerns that military intervention and a growing belief that civil war is imminent, will only further dissuade foreign investors in the region and in Africa as a whole.
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Have Your say! Are you outraged by events in Zimbabwe?
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Tags: Trevor Gifford, Zimbabwe
Where are the so called democratic governments of the world that stand by and allow Mugabe’s maniacs to inflict such shocking injuries on people, who’s only crime is that they wish to continue farming in the country they love.
This needs fixing quick before Africa has another blood-bath.
G’day Monty,
Mate you are so right. It is incredible to me that the world, the UN and neighboring African Nations can stand by and watch the lunatic destroy Zimbabwe.
Every time this happens, be if Rwanda, Darfur, Kosevo world leaders postulate that atrocities by despot dictators against whole populations cannot be allowed to happen.
Mugabe has only one desire - to hold power and is willing to maim, kill and destroy whoever and whatever to hold onto that power.
He long ago relinquished the title of ‘Freedom Fighter’. He is now a contemptible maniac despot that needs to be gotten rid of my the world wide community.
I hope all readers remember this is the same Mugabe that Malcolm Fraser so proudly used in his ‘82 re-election campaign, as having brought peace and prosperity to the country after ridding it of the “racist white regime”.
NO Africans will ever condemn another, because they all do the same and do not want the limelight on their own corrupt, incompetent, and cruelly violent regimes.
South Africa has and is killing more farmers than ever were in Zimbabwe, but we in the west will continue to pretend that it is not happening.
The sooner we all admit that we do not need any of these nations as friends, and tell them to get off their rear ends and grow some food for themselves, the better the whole world will be. Allowing more from these broken and corrupt countries into Australia does NOT solve the problem.
I have to agree with you in general, but I have just arrived back home in Australia after spending the last 2 month in Zimbabwe, some of which was with my ‘Rhodesian’ grandparents. Allowing more people from these broken countries into Australia does not solve the problem I agree, but those that are getting into Australia are one of 2 strains. 1) hard working, decent people lucky or smart enough to have invested outside Zimbabwe and same as you or me have the right to live anywhere they choose or 2) corrupt, indecent, unworthy individuals who have aquired passports and paperwork through the not so discreet African channels fuelled by bribary and corruption.
My grandparents are from the first strain and like any decent person with morals would never stoop to (or have the means to)the level of some of the elite scum. Consequently they are “stuck”, due to absolute lack of personal finance, age and the list goes on. This resulting from their once ample savings, courtesy of a lifetime of hard but honest farming, evaporating due to millions of percent out-of-this-world inflation (2 days ago the rate was $26 billion zim to $1Aus).
My grandmother is currently a “nobody”. Zimbabwe will not renew her passport as despite living there for 50 years she is white and South African born and Mugabe “wants the country rid of white filth”. Even to be issued with a passport from her country of birth it is a case of ‘not what you know but who you know’ and still after over 12 months just a work in progress.
It really is depressing when most of their family are in Auz (I am born and bred), they are relying on FOREX and supplies from us and the church and kind people who are able to physically get things through (that can be a mission as they are now trying to stop all imports via sanctions & consequently starve those remaining).
It is the elderly both black & white who are really suffering. We here are struggling to make headway with getting them out despite being able to support them fully (we already are) in our own country where we know they will be safe and we can pay for them to receive medical care etc. At the moment you must take your own bed sheets, anaesthetic, drugs….everything for your own surgery- very scary thought!
It is such a devastatingly, once self-sufficent, beautiful country (one of the most amazing in Africa) where the majority of residents, black & white, are anti Zanu-PF, they just don’t have the means or the nerve to do anything about it and the puppet Mugabe and his more dangerous counterparts have assured this. This is genocide, and yet we sit back and watch.
What an affront to the people that supported the Malcolm Frasers “spin” that we had to get rid of the despotic white Governments of Southern Rhodesia and other African countries.
Steve ,I wish to move that we nominate Mr Fraser to take a trip to “Zimbabwe” and make representations to his friend Robert Mugabe, to stop his murderous “ethnic cleansing” of Africa and practice real democracy.
My Prayers are with the suffering Zimbabwe farmers. Not for the despotic regimes that seem to rule at present. I am also sympathetic for my neighbours that saw the trend and left Rhodesia early to avoid this present suppression. They were and still are very good farmers by the best standards I know ,but there was no help even then.
Kavin J Smith
G’day Kevin,
Well said mate. I have a good mate who is one of those farmers forced out in 2000 when most white farmers left fearing for their lives.
Left the country and the farms that had been home to their families for generation to come to Australia and any country they could get too, to make a new life. They are the hardest working most decent people you’d ever meet.
Imagine if government back thugs were invading your home / farm, torturing and killing your staff and your family and you had to flee the country in 24 hours with no money and what you could carry in a suit case. - Horrendous.
Yet Malcolm Fraser and every other do good’er on the planet does nothing to help the people of Zimbabwe - black or white. We do indeed live in a world of hypocrites.
So, sorry for the damage caused by people like
Malcolm Fraser.
In Aussie we dislike him, and we would love to send him a one-way ticket to Zimbabwe.
He is such a Communist-Coward and always pushes his pathetic “Leftist Agenda”. We hate Malcolm
Fraser in Australia.
I hope we see the White population of Zimbabwe in Australia and we can continue the fight to exist.
Of course Malcolm Fraser is trying to make us all disappear, he is such a Communist!! One of those
red-bum-chums!!
I’ve sent this article to my Federal Member of Parliament. I also intend to send it to every Federal MP if I can. Perhaps if everyone does the same….?
Email is a wonderful tool. We just have to learn how to utilise it. Send this on to ten people and ask them to send it to all the Fed MPs as well as to ten more people and so on.
Just imagine what we could do with a few typed words and a tap on the SEND key!
G’day Val,
Great idea. You are sooo right about the power of email. People just don’t realize how powerful it is. It just has to go 6 levels deep and the message has reached a million people.
Here’s the numbers.
1 x 10 = 10
10 x 10 = 100
100 x 10 = 1,000
1,000 x 10 = 10,000
10,000 x 10 = 100,000
100,000 x 10 = 1,000,000
Hope you can start something for the persecuted people of Zimbabwe. Agmates has already sent it to over 5,000 subscribers.
We just hope that there are more people like you out there - who are outraged and that care enough to “type a few words and tap on the SEND key.”
Your a good person - well done.
I was in Zambia in 1980 when our organisation repatriated freedom fighters by train back to Zimbabwe.
I was still in Africa when Mugabe sent his North Korean trained troops into Matabeleland to murder around 10,000 of Joshua Nkomo’s tribe.
I remember when around 1982 [I was still in Africa] excess maize production in Zimbabwe was purchased by the WFP to feed the starving in Mozambique.
When Mugabe started his land reform by taking farms away from white farmers I said Zimbabwe will starve. Mugabe is a butcher and I am appalled when neighbouring African leaders openly and publicly support Mugabe.
I was appalled at his swearing in as President recently he said words to the effect so help me God. He has not only ruined his country but killed many of his country men and forced millions to flee out of Zimbabwe. Let us keep on praying that God will remove this evil dictator.
During Ian Smith’s UDI period I was amazed at how Rhodesia was able to be self sufficient. They made their own spares for vehicles.
Australians should take note because one day we will not be able to pay for our imports and politicians hot air will not be able to pay for them either. Forget free trade and global warming. We need to be self-sufficient. It is so sad that we used to have leaders but today all we get are wimps leading this country to ruin!
Don’t forget a lot of the problems in the world today are due to the USA and the CIA!
I am glad that there are you great people out there.
Reading and understanding what has and is happening in my country of birth “Rhodesia”. My parents, Cheries grandparents, are still living there, as Cherie has commented they basically live day to day not knowing what tomorrow will bring.
Thank God they sold and moved off their farm when they did. Beautiful land farmed and built up from nothing, now basically a weed farm.
Yes all that have commented, the western world don`t give a damn, as they did when we were left and ignored, sanctioned and would not listen to our Honorable Ian Smith. What he forecasted has now come to fruition.
When is the rest of the world going to listen? When one see`s photo`s of those farmers I get tears in my eye`s. I spent 5 years of my life in the army, for what, so that the rest of the world could turn their backs on us, friends family farmers workers killed, for what, so that the rest of the world could wash theirs hands of Rhodesia and give it to poor poor Mugabe.
Well done THE REST OF THE WORLD you must be so proud of yourselves.Yes we were a completely self sufficient proud nation, the only thing we did not have was oil, and thats how they killed Rhodesia.
I am not going to say anymore because my blood is starting to boil. Please for those out there that care circulate the stories to everyone you know and perhaps it may just jolt some non caring big shots into gear.