WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2001-08-24 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 8/24/2001 3:49:21 PM
Zimbabwe Accuses UK of "Staging" Farm Violence
By Cris Chinaka
CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) – The Zimbabwean government accused former
colonial ruler Britain on Wednesday of stage-managing the looting on some
white-owned farms earlier this month to damage Zimbabwe’s image abroad.
The allegation, later denied by Britain’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, was made
by a senior Zimbabwean official during a government-hosted tour of strife-
torn northwestern farm districts for diplomats and journalists.
A group of 21 white farmers were released on Wednesday after two weeks in
jail charged with inciting violence. They were arrested after allegedly
assaulting supporters of President Robert Mugabe occupying a white-owned
farm in the Chinhoyi area.
Mobs of militants retaliated by burning and looting properties in the area
in the week that followed the arrests, forcing dozens of farmers to flee
with their families.
After the tour, Mashonaland West provincial governor Peter Chanetsa
released a statement accusing Britain of conspiring with the farmers to
stage-manage some looting.
Chanetsa said the government had established that some farmers had removed
their property from their homes and displayed it for aerial photography by
the international media to paint a picture of “lawlessness and that whites
were victims on their rightful properties.”
Chanetsa said the farmers also provided two small aircraft and a
helicopter equipped with cameras and transmitting equipment to some
journalists.
“These developments would therefore indicate that recording of the stage-
managed looting was a pre-planned move specifically designed to give the
false impression of mass victimization of whites and lawlessness…” he
added.
“ABSOLUTE NONSENSE”
British High Commissioner Brian Donnelly, who was among a score of
diplomats on the tour of Chinhoyi and Mhangura, rejected any links with
the violence and looting in the area.
“It’s completely unfounded. It’s absolute nonsense,” he told reporters on
a bus on the way back to Harare.
The trip was led by several government ministers, including Foreign
Minister Stan Mudenge and Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, and included
presentations by senior police officers in the area.
Mudenge said the tour was designed to dispel “lies” spread by some
sections of the media that the police had responded slowly to the
violence.
“The truth is that the government responded swiftly to restore law and
order…and continues to discharge its duties in a difficult situation
created by some of those masquerading as victims today,” Mudenge said.
Mudenge and Chanetsa both said the problems had been sparked by the
alleged attack by some farmers on new settlers who had moved on to their
land.
Nigerian High Commissioner Wilberforce Juta said the tour — which
included a trip to what the government called a model farm operated by a
new black commercial farmer — had given foreign diplomats a basis on
which to understand Zimbabwe’s land crisis.
But Juta urged Zimbabwe to resolve its problems in the interests of all
its people irrespective of race.
“What happens here concerns and affects the whole world, and we must all
of us help you to solve your problems,” Juta told the government ministers.