Re: Farmers Held Hostage

Posted by Kikers on May 07, 2008 at 19:28:44 from (98.200.4.126):

In Reply to: Farmers Held Hostage posted by Kikers on May 05, 2008 at 20:27:03:

Oops, I thought I attached a link to the full story. Here it is:

Leslie Nunu, Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

Two white farmers in Nyamandlovu are being held hostage at their farms after surviving savage attacks by gun-toting war veterans as politically motivated violence blamed on Zanu PF intensified.

The farms, in the volatile Umguza constituency, lie a few kilometers from where Martin Olds and his mother, Gloria, were murdered by war veterans at the height of the 2000 land invasions.

Olds and his mother were killed in a military operation which saw police roadblocks being lifted to enable a heavily armed party of approximately 300 militia with assault weapons to encircle their home on two separate occasions.

Wayne Monroe said on Wednesday he survived an attack by about 100 Zanu PF supporters after he used pepper spray on one of the armed war veterans said to have been baying for his blood.

"They came into my house at around midday and shouted at me, saying I must leave their farm, while pointing a gun at me," he said.

"One of them hit me on the hand with an axe and I had to use pepper spray, which drove them out of the main house into the yard."

Once in the yard, one of them fired two shots, which missed the terrified farmer. The militia then set up a base outside the farm, daring him to venture out and they have been camped there since then.

Munroe said Nyamandlovu police had not helped him.

"They said their colleagues from Bulawayo were on their way to Nyamandlovu," he said. "The government has expressed no interest in this farm and I have court orders to prove that."

A neighbouring farmer, Gary Godfrey, has been held hostage at his farm house for two weeks by the militia and the daily intimidation of his workers has brought production at the farm to a halt.

Godfrey is fighting the compulsory acquisition of his farm at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal.

"I have been a prisoner in my house for the past 12 days and they have stopped almost all my workers from working," he said. "The police have refused to come to my rescue."

The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) says a number of its members have been forced off their land by Zanu PF supporters who blame them for its defeat to the MDC in the recent elections.

Umguza and Bubi constituencies, won by the Minister of Industry and International Trade, Obert Mpofu, and Clifford Sibanda, respectively on Zanu PF tickets, have been the most affected by the political violence in Matabeleland North.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena terminated calls on his mobile phone each time he was called.

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