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Zimbabwe: White farmers beaten, land taken by President Robert Mugabe.

July 16, 2008 by editor  (View Source

(cnn) It was a frigid June night at Pickstone Mine in Zimbabwe when 67-year-old Angela Campbell -- soaking wet, her arm broken and a gun to her head -- signed a document vowing to give up the fight for her family's farm. The kidnappers demanding her signature at gunpoint were "war veterans" from President Robert Mugabe's heyday as a liberation hero, and they made it clear that her refusal would mean more beatings. Though Campbell signed the document, her son-in-law said she has no intention of giving up her battle; Campbell's family will be in Windhoek, Namibia, on Wednesday to present arguments to a Southern African Development Community tribunal. In pursuing the case, the Campbells and 77 fellow Zimbabwean farmers are risking theft, torture and death for what may be their only remaining chance to save the homes and farms so coveted by Mugabe and his loyalists. Mugabe blames the West for his nation's soaring inflation and poverty. But analysts say Mugabe's 2000 "resettlement" policy, in which property was snatched from white farmers and redistributed to landless blacks, is more to blame for the country's turmoil. "All I want to see is justice," said Richard Etheredge, 72, a white farmer who was evicted from his farm last month. "The world cannot carry on with criminals." On June 15, Etheredge, who has joined the case, and his family received word that a Zimbabwean senator planned to take over his Chegutu farm, a process known as "jambanja." "We're going to murder you if we catch you," Etheredge recalls an assailant yelling from outside his son's house two days later. The senator bused "criminals" to his property, Etheredge said. Etheredge, his wife and one of his twin sons escaped, but the other twin and Etheredge's daughter-in-law were later beaten, he said. Looters stole his computers, farm equipment, antiques, custom gun collection and a safe with billions in Zimbabwean currency (hundreds of thousands in U.S. dollars). Etheredge said he watched the thieves abscond with his possessions in vehicles belonging to the senator. The looters also caused about million in damage to his property, which includes three houses and a fruit-packing plant that was once among the most sophisticated in southern Africa. The Etheredges have been farming for 17 years and, before the attack, were producing 400,000 cartons of navel oranges and kumquats a year, he said.

kirbyny
I think Mugabe may have gone too far off the plantation on this one. I can’t imagine the world accepting and not responding to white farmers getting beaten, terrorized and their land being taken away. It’s one thing for black land owners to be beaten, terrorized and land stolen like they did here in the US. But the reverse is just unacceptable. Mugabe has just started the numbering of his days by this craziness. That he ‘takes’ the land to return it to black land owners whose land it was is an initiative that falls flat since he just gives it to his cronies. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. No way in hell the world will stand by this violence against white farm owners in Zimbabwe. With the murders and brutality inflicted on Rwanda, Sudan and now Zimbabwe one might get the impression that the world is numb to the terrorizing, rape and killing of people. Not so when those people are white. Simply not so. I predict Mugabe’s days are numbered.



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