LETTER FROM ZIMBABWE: STATISTICS DON'T BLEED
By Cathy Buckle

Thanks as always for your letters in response to mine last week and for all the very touching birthday messages for Richie. We had a lovely but very low key day as flu had overtaken him and I'm delighted to say that he has decided that 9 year olds do in fact still hug their mums!

I am going to send this week's letter out in even smaller and more staggered batches than usual as it seems I have again attracted the attention of what we call "the sunglasses boys".

Its been a very frustrating 7 days of outgoing mails being bounced back at me, incoming arriving blank and yesterday the most obvious virus I've ever been sent!

I will not give up though and I hope 'they' enjoy this one.

For me it is more than ever a case of who is watching who and who is using what they see and hear more constructively!

My letter this week is going to be devoted almost entirely to farms as tomorrow, the 1st of July, is an historic one.

Last year in December our Supreme Court made a ruling which comes into effect on the 1st of July. Details of it are in the final paragraph in African Tears (excuse me boring you): "The Supreme Court declares that the rule of law has been persistently violated in commercial farming areas and that the people in those areas have suffered discrimination in contravention of the constitution... the court states that the people in these areas have been denied the protection of the law and had their rights of assembly and association infringed. The Court orders that the Minister of Home Affairs and the Commissioner of Police restore the rule of law in farming areas by no later than July 1st 2001."

So there it is, they have until tomorrow to restore the rule of law.

I think that none of us are under any illusions, none of us actually think that it is going to happen. It is simply another ruling from the Highest Court in the country that will be ignored.

Everyone knows it is imminent though and the farmers have been experiencing total hell this week.

Total hell is not an exaggeration. Imagine having 30 odd 'war veterans' literally camped in your garden, sleeping on your veranda, so close that they can even hear you flushing your toilet. Just imagine - 4 days and nights of it, you can't even go outside your front door. It is an abomination which is in contravention of every human right known to mankind and there is a human face on it - there is fear, anger, frustration but mostly, total despair.

Last night President Mugabe was on TV speaking at his political congress and he too knows the Supreme Court ruling is imminent. He did not mention it but he did say that "we" would not give up on the struggle for "our land" and he reminded us of his newest law - the Protection from Eviction Bill.

President Mugabe did not explain though why he has just given 180 farms in Zimbabwe to foreigners. That's right! The government announced on Wednesday that 180 foreign owned farms had been de-listed. The owners of these farms are signiatories to the 'Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement' and will not now have their farms compulsorily acquired.

A government spokesman said: "This will help us show the world that we do not break agreements that we would have undertaken to adhere to and that we respect the rule of law."

What can I say, this is an absolute outrage and leaves the most disgusting taste in my mouth. He will allow foreigners to retain their farms but not third or fourth generation Zimbabweans.

To all foreigners owning and leasing Zim farms please understand my outrage, this is not a personal attack on you - it is just complete and utter disgust at the hypocrisy, at the blatant bribery and black mail - how low our government has stooped.

I pray that all Zim farmers, foreign, local, black and white stand together now and refuse this disgusting outrage.

As to the 'cathy paranoia' I refered to last week about my personal belief that every single farm in Zimbabwe is to be listed. It seems I may not be that far from the truth after all. Yesterday's newspaper listed 2030 properties, some were repeat lists but- if I am not mistaken - there were 1020 new farms to be compulsorily acquired. The lists ran to 18 staggering pages. Add these to the governments admitted number of 3410 already listed and we are near the end.

While these are just numbers, a good friend said to me this week that 'statistics don't bleed'.

How right he is. Imagine seeing your name in a newspaper, seeing a small notice telling you that the government is taking your land, your home, your job, your life's work - just taking it. They might pay you for the house but, very sorry, haven't got any money to pay you for it right now.

Wow, what a depressing missive.

But there is hope, huge hope now and I can still see that little pin prick of light at the end of the tunnel. The EU yesterday gave the Zim government 60 days to: end the violence; scrap media curbs; end farm occupations, and uphold court rulings - or face sanctions and other measures of EU disapproval.

More hopeful though - people have had enough of being scared, people have had enough of violence and intimidation. People are beginning to speak out. We face two days of national stayaways on Monday andTuesday this coming week to protest the 70% fuel price rise.

So the government may throw out the last resident foreign journalist (David Blair) but I believe we Zimbabweans are ready to pick up where David leaves off, we are all ready to start speaking out.

Enough for now, until next week,

With much love, Cathy

Cathy Buckle is the author of African Tears, available from the following worldwide distributors: South Africa [email protected] USA [email protected] UK and Europe [email protected] Australia [email protected] New Zealand [email protected],