See related article on farm violence

THE HORRORS OF ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE

State sponsored violence and lawlessness prevail.

As I write almost all of our workers have been at a pungwe since 1 pm on Monday [it is now thursday]. They have now been told to go to another one on the other side of us so it looks as though they have another night of ZANU PF slogan chanting. They were not allowed to sit down once all night and that there were no fires. We tried to get SADC observers there but they were blocked by the ZANU PF youth.

Ronnie Nyamandu tried to get away because he had been an opposition supporter but 50 ZANU youth were sent to catch him and he was beaten very badly. Our workers say they do not know if he will make it. His mother had her house burnt and has been told to dig the grave. He is tied up and we can not get observors or police there.

Everywhere these pungwes continue and beatings appear to take place at all of them. At many of them they are evidently being baptised in water into the names of the spirit mediums of Kaguvi and Mbuya Nehanda and then are made to roll in the dust backwards and forwards.

Our workers have been put in groups of ten which they have to vote in at specified polling stations. None of them can vote until all ten are there.

I went to Chegutu police again yesterday about some information that we were given by some nuns. They said that they had word that we were to be evicted through Minister Webster Shamu who is the Minister of policy implementation. Chegutu police through Assistant Inspector Sasa refused to take the report about that or about any of the pungwes taking place around us at the moment and refused to give us police men to find our workers or stop the beatings.

David Drury tried to get the information to the Commissioner of Police but his offices would not accept his letter either yesterday!

Gilbert Moyo is still at large in the area having been involved in numerous illegal evictions, severe assaults, thefts, whole scale lootings of tractors/ vehicles/ furniture etc., stealing of a lot of guns and ammunition from farmers, stocktheft; crop theft etc.

I asked Chegutu police yesterday if there was a warrant out for his arrest. They said "not yet." In the last few weeks he has evicited the Etheredges; the Rogers; the Ferreiras; the Nicholsons; the Merideths and has been trying to evict the Jouberts for the last 3 days. He appears to have been acting for the A2 beneficiaries with the complicity of the police. The Seamans have also been evicted and SPCA can not even get near to feed the dairy cattle. Wayne Seamaen in despair shot his dogs and has gone to Soth Africa.

And so this evil madness goes on. Our workers are told pungwes will continue after elections too because they will forget ..

Please continue to pray and do whatever else you can.

It gets worse. Yesterday, Sunday 29 June 2008 Gilbert Moyo went with a gang of some 20 thugs armed we hear with firearms and proceeded to beat up Mike Campbell and his wife Angela, and Ben Freeth. They all sustained severe head injuries and Ben may have lost an eye. Mike has a broken collar bone and his wife had something hot forced into her mouth which was badly burnt.

Then the three were abducted and Mike Campbell's son followed the vehicles to see where they were being taken. They fired at him hitting the windscreen, his headrest and a headlight but thankfully not him apparently. The remaining Chegutu farmers continued to search for the three abducted and discontinued their unsuccessful efforts at 10.00 pm. At about midnight Ben telephoned someone to collect them. The three had been thrown out of moving vehicles and Ben had managed to crawl to a dwelling where he was given the use of a cell phone. The three are in the intensive care section of the Avenues Clinic.

We have just heard that they will be alright and that the farm is still in one piece. Apparently the police have arrested eight of the thugs but not Gilbert Moyo who has fled.

Information on the election coming in from Tsholotsho was that there was only one SADC observer vehicle seen in the town itself, but none in the outlying areas. All the election officials appeared to be party stalwarts and the Officer in Charge of one of the rural police stations was saying how pleased he was that the election was uncontested since he had been given a farm which would otherwise have to be returned to its owner. Voting was much quieter than in the election in March with only 100 to 200 voters at polling stations which last time round had 500. Voters in the Bemba area were separated into males and females with the females told to vote at Dlamini and Mabanda (up to 20 kilometres distant from their places of residence) and only the males instructed to vote at Bemba. You may speculate on the reason for this.

On one of the farms left operating in Matabeleland workers, some settlers and some wives were taken away for what they were told was training at Llewellyn Barracks. They were gone for five or six days but the delicate matter of what they were put up to has not yet been divulged. By next week we should know.

Overall, there seems to be an air of unnecessary madness creeping in, especially in parts of Mashonaland. They have achieved that which they set out to do but continue with thuggery that now has less purpose than ever before. Reality is beyond the comprehension of thugs whose horizons only seem to stretch as far as the next condoned theft. The ramifications of what this assault on the Campbells spells out for the government case in Windhoek is seemingly beyond the understanding of police, politicians and thugs alike.

SADC TRIBUNAL ASKED TO DECLARE ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT IN CONTEMPT

We have no further news on the urgent application that has been made in the SADC Tribunal to have the Respondent in the Campbell case (the Government of Zimbabwe) ruled in contempt of the Tribunal order for interim relief accorded Campbell and his 74 Joinders/Interveners.

MR. PRINCE MACHAYA'S UNDERTAKINGS ON BEHALF OF GOVERNMENT.

We repeat the undertaking recorded in last week's issue to highlight how hollow it is.

For at least the second time, Mr. Prince Machaya has undertaken on behalf of his Principal, the Respondent, the Government of Zimbabwe, that they will scrupulously adhere to the provisions of the Interim Relief granted to Campbell and his Interveners. Here is what he said this time around. We have copied from the Tribunal transcript: -

Having said that my Lords, there is an issue arising or there are issues arising out of the provisional orders that were granted by the Tribunal at the last hearing and in the main Campbell matter in December and the issue is with regard to compliance with those orders. I say so because I was made aware this morning that there has been no compliance at least in two respects by the Respondent.(Here he is referring to the conviction and sentencing of Theron and Fick, both from Beatrice) I would like to categorically inform the Tribunal that I had not been aware of any cases of eviction of any of the Applicants that our advice and recommendation to the Respondent was that there should be no evictions and that there should be compliance with the order of this Tribunal. I am aware however that there have been prosecutions of some of the Applicants and I have drawn it to the attention of our Acting Attorney-General. I’ve also drawn it to the attention of the Minister of Justice and the Minister responsible for Lands that there is a need to comply fully with the order of the Tribunal and the last I heard when I had the audience of our Minister of Justice on Thursday last week was that he was going to table the matter with our Cabinet at its meeting on yesterday’s date and he was going to confirm with me over the telephone on the issue of the required compliance with the order. Our Minister of Justice concurred in my discussion with him that Respondent had an obligation to comply at the international level with the orders of this Tribunal and that he was going to inform his Cabinet colleagues accordingly.