War Vets speed up the slide into anarchy in Zimbabwe

Original Post Date: 2001-08-22  Posted By: Jan

From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 8/22/2001 5:58:18 PM
War Vets speed up the slide into anarchy in Zimbabwe

CRIS CHINAKA, Harare

AT least 60 black Zimbabwean militants besieged a white farmer in his home
on Tuesday as self-styled war veterans laid claim to white-owned land
reportedly earmarked for transfer this month to blacks.

Peter Goosen was barricaded at his farm in the Nyamandlovu area, outside
the southern city of Bulawayo, after militants armed with knives and
spears moved onto his property, local farmers said.

“They are demanding that he must leave so they can settle there,” Goosen’s
neighbour Peter Johnstone said.

Chris Jarreth, chairman of the Nyamandlovu Farmers’ Association, said the
group was in radio contact with Goosen and had not been harmed.

“We are in some kind of talks to resolve this issue,” he said. “They want
him out, but he does not want to leave.”

The latest scramble for land came after 21 white farmers northwest of
Harare were granted bail on Monday after being kept in jail for two weeks
on charges of inciting violence.

The farmers were however not released on Tuesday, apparently due to
administrative hitches. The farmers had clashed with pro-government
militants occupying their properties in the northwestern town of Chinhoyi.
The militants retaliated by burning and looting property.

A lawyer for the farmers said the High Court in Harare had signed their
release warrants in the afternoon, but prison officials in Chinhoyi said
they would not free the men until the prison had received the documents.

Since farm invasions began in February 2000, nine white farmers have been
killed and scores of farm workers injured in the accompanying violence.

The land seizure campaign, criticised by Western including the United
States and Britain, has depressed foreign investor sentiment towards
southern Africa.

War veterans and Zanu-PF supporters in Victoria Falls on Tuesday closed
the border post between Zimbabwe and Zambia for more than an hour to
prevent travellers from entering Zimbabwe.

The war veterans went on a rampage in the morning, closing down
supermarkets and wholesale shops in the town.

Then they went to the border post and ordered customs officers to close it.

Meanwhile, at least 7 000 heads of cattle are to be destroyed in an effort
to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease blamed on land invaders
in Zimbabwe, state media said Wednesday. The Herald quoted an unnamed
government veterinary officer saying the cattle would be slaughtered in
the southwestern Matabeleland Province, where the disease broke out last
week.

The outbreak began after occupiers planning to resettle on white-owned
ranches took down perimeter fences, leaving cattle to mingle with wild
animals, according to the independent Daily News and farming officials.

“All affected properties have been quarantined and vaccination programmes
have commenced,” said the Cattle Producers Association, a section of the
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) representing mainly white farmers.

Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Joseph Made told state
television that more vaccines had been imported and airlifted from Namibia
to help deal with the outbreak.

Experts say the cattle were likely to have been infected by buffaloes.

“The industry has made a very strong appeal to the government … to clamp
down on the illegal movement of cattle that is occurring countrywide …
to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease,” the Cattle Producers
Association statement said.

Meanwhile, the government has halted beef exports since the outbreak was
detected August 16 at a farm outside Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo.

Zimbabwe exports beef to the EU, South Africa and other markets in Africa
and Asia. Annual exports total more than $86-million. – Reuters, AFP, The
Daily News

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