zanu pf thugs attack whites

ZANU Thugs Attack Whites
As Zimbabwe sinks ever deeper into anarchy

8th August 2001

A mob loyal to President Robert Mugabe went on what was described as an "orchestrated" rampage in Zimbabwe yesterday, beating whites at random and injuring at least 10. The scene of the attacks was Chinhoyi, a town 60 miles north-west of Harare, on one of the main tourist routes to Mana Pools national park and Lake Kariba. Supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF Party massed in the streets, stoning cars carrying whites and attacking shoppers, stabbing one victim. Police told whites to stay out of the town and after the violence many white townspeople fled to nearby farms. Mr Mugabe has lost no opportunity to vilify whites in public and has encouraged his followers to invade 1,700 of their farms. Critics have said repeatedly that his racial rhetoric would eventually provoke mob violence in a country where race relations have been generally harmonious. The violence was apparently provoked by the arrest of 22 white farmers on Monday night.

The men said they were responding to an appeal for help from Tony Barklay, a landowner, after squatters who had occupied his farm stormed his house. The invaders said the farmers had attacked them. When police arrived, they ordered the whites to report to Chinhoyi police station, where they were arrested on charges of "public violence" and assault. They were still in custody last night. Six of the farmers' wives tried to visit them yesterday and found a mob of about 40 youths wearing Zanu PF T-shirts massed outside the police station.

One of the women was attacked and the gang then ran through the streets, assaulting other whites. Magdalina Hartmann, 72, was assaulted in a post office where she had gone to withdraw money from her savings account. She said: "I was standing in the queue and a man came up to me and said: 'You white bitch, I am going to hurt you.' "He said it three times and then hit me on my arm. I could not stop crying then or now. I don't know what I have done to make people hate me like this." Mrs Hartmann's doctor said that she had been "badly slapped around".

Dr Chris Lewis treated five victims. He said that all were shocked. One woman was "quite hysterical". Dr Lewis treated another woman in her late sixties who was assaulted as she waited at a supermarket check-out. Witnesses said she was jostled by four men, one of whom rammed her with a shopping trolley. Hendrik Spreeth, 45, needed 20 stitches for two 3in stab wounds. Dr Lewis said: "He was chased down the street by four men. He was kicked, beaten, punched and stabbed in the arm." Betty Smith, 80, a farmer, was in a shop on the main street when her son, John, 50, joined her. She said: "His shirt was torn to pieces and the blood was pouring down." "They beat the hell out of him with sticks. I came here in 1948 and I never imagined it could be like this." A woman in her forties was punched in the face as she left the police station. She had gone there to register her car and was hit through the window as she drove away.

One farmer said: "This was clearly orchestrated. The farmers were in jail and they knew that white people would come and visit them. They had the mob waiting." Philip Chiyangwa, the Zanu-PF MP for Chinhoyi and the local party leader, blamed farmers for the violence. He accused them of attacking squatters on their land. He said: "When these farmers go haywire, they start using their guns. There should not be any provocation from the farmers. These people must not provoke us." A Foreign Office spokesman said that Brian Donnelly, the newly appointed British high commissioner, had "registered his concern at various levels in the Zimbabwean government and was awaiting their response". But by late last night there had been none.

White farmer killed by Zimbabwean 'war veterans'

An elderly white farmer has been murdered in Zimbabwe and more than 20 others arrested for assault after defending themselves from attack by so-called war veterans. Ralph Corbett, 76, a rancher farming near the town of Kwekwe, was trussed with wire and beaten about the head with an axe on Friday in what his family say was a politically motivated killing. He died in hospital yesterday. Mr Corbett is the ninth white farmer killed since President Robert Mugabe launched the land invasions nearly two years ago. The murdered farmer's land has been occupied by "war veterans" for a year.

His daughter, Cheryl Miller, said the attackers stole a gun but other valuables were not touched. "The war veterans are responsible for the lawlessness. They have made it clear they want whites out of the country and this is the way they are going about it," she said. In a separate incident, the Zimbabwean police said they will charge 23 white farmers with public violence and assault after detaining them for fighting with blacks. The farmers, from the Chinhoyi area about 60 miles from Harare, had gone to the assistance of one of their number after dozens of black squatters attacked his house. None of the squatters was arrested.

The state news agency, Ziana, alleged that about 60 white farmers were beating the squatters with sticks and stones in an attempt to drive them off the farm owned by Antony Barklay. But farmers' representatives claimed that the invaders barricaded Mr Barclay inside his home and he called for help. "A farm owner was besieged in his house and two farmers came to [his] assistance, and those farmers were stoned and assaulted," said Malcolm Vowles, spokesman for the Commercial Farmers' Union. The farmers say that when they called the police to say Mr Barklay's life was in danger they were told that a constable would be sent the 15 miles to the farm on a bicycle. They took this to mean the police would not help.

The farmers say that six of their wives were beaten at the Chinhoyi police station when they tried to visit. Yesterday, the police issued a warning on the farmers security radio network warning whites not to go into Chinhoyi after a mob attacked people on the streets and in a supermarket, injuring at least 10, most of them white. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the upsurge in violence is part of a political strategy by Mr Mugabe to further intimidate his opponents.

On Monday, the police arrested the MDC's security chief and accused him of attempted murder. Tendai Nyamushanya was detained over an incident which the party describes as an assassination attempt on its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, after his convoy was attacked during a campaign last month. Mr Nyamushanya's lawyer says his client drew his gun but did not shoot anyone and that so far as he knows no one has lodged a complaint. He says the detention is purely political. Another MDC security official was arrested yesterday when he tried to take breakfast to Mr Nyamushanya in jail. Earlier this week, South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, conceded in a BBC interview that his efforts to persuade Mr Mugabe to drag his nation from the brink of collapse had proved futile.