LETTER FROM ZIMBABWE: THEY CAME AT NIGHT
By Cathy Buckle

Thank you so much for the absolutely staggering response to my letter last week. Dozens of people wrote to tell me that they had contacted their MP's and registered their outrage about the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe.

Hundreds wrote with messages of support and encouragement and for the first time in months I just could not cope with responding to them all. If I did not answer your letter I am sorry and thank you now for your caring and concern, your thoughts and prayers and for helping me to tell the world that the outrages continue and lawlessness is rife.

In addition to my letter to you all last week, I wrote a piece on home invasions which is running in this weeks' Zimbabwe Independent - surely now no one is in any doubt about either land invasions or war veterans.

For those who don't know, the Marondera farmer who was being held in his own home by armed 'war veterans' finally got out on Sunday afternoon. His name is Iain Kay and this was the third very close encounter he has had with 'war veterans'.

Kerry sent out out a very moving email when at last it was over and the family was together and her tales demonstrate beyond doubt the wonderful unity that is becoming the norm in Zimbabwe. Kerry told how farm workers were beaten by 'war vets' in front of the police, how farmers from three districts were on standby to help, how a priest risked his life to go and pray at the gate of the seiged property, how a woman and her son who work for the Kay's did not run away but hid in a linen cupboard while armed men roamed the house.

Journalists covering the story were as moved and one wrote to me saying how much she feared for the Kays and said what we are all saying "all we can do is be there for them."

A 'kangaroo court' which eventually led to Iain's release, told them they have 30 days to get off their property and out of their home. Both Iain and Kerry are determined not to compromise their principles and beliefs . Their faith, courage and patriotism is an inspiration to us all.

These sort of crises have continued all week on other farms across the country but I have not been told about them first hand and cannot compromise the safety of those farmers by telling their stories.

Hundreds and hundreds of farmers are caught in the most abominable cycle of fear where they desperately want to tell the world what is happening to them but feel that if they speak out they will be victimised, their families put at risk. Until those farmers feel ready to speak out or ask me to speak on their behalf, I can do nothing.

I know from my own experiences on my farm last year that silence is a pointless and self destructive exercise and that if people do not know what is happening, they cannot help. I remain convinced that we must speak out.

Surely the fact that the OAU leaders giving Zimbabwe's land redistribtuion their full support this week is evidence enough of the destructiveness of silence. I cannot believe that if those African leaders knew what was really going on here they would have supported it.

Who in their right minds can support rape, murder, torture, looting, burning? Which leader -- of any colour -- would support a policy where policemen stand and watch as people are beaten up by thugs calling themselves 'war veterans'?

I am convinced that if we had found a way of telling each and every one of those African leaders what is really going on, they would not have given their support to this method of land distribution. Another opportunity for truth and exposure has come and gone.

I am fully aware that the following sentences will yet again incur the wrath of the commercial farmers union in Zimbabwe. My conscience though will not allow me to stay silent so here it is.

At a meeting with government leaders this week, farmers representing a body called the Joint Resettlement Initiative made a statement at the end of the discussion. These farmers included senior officials from the CFU and the tobacco Association.

A part of their statement read: "The meeting reaffirmed that the land issue has been sensationalised locally and internationally..."

Yes, I am incensed that my representatives could "reaffirm" that telling of murder,torture, abduction and rape are consider sensational. I am disgusted. I have met people who have been widowed, who have been tortured, who have been raped, who have lost even the shirts on their backs in the name of land redistribution .

Their hell is not "sensational", it is a cold and horrifying reality.

Even if their "affirmation" was a diplomatic one, a placatory one, I find it extremely insulting to all those who have suffered and continue to suffer the foulest of human rights abuses.

For 17 months we have seen innumerable examples of the government's total disregard for the rule of law, for court orders and for the suffering of all Zimbabweans.

Regardless of any affirmations made now, the evil political games will continue, over 90% of farms have been gazetted for seizure without compensation, thousands and thousands of people have suffered huge mental, physical and human rights abuses. To say now that it has been "sensationslised" will not change a single thing.

I am not going to spend a lot of time telling you now what has happened in Zimbabwe this week. I am going to take extracts from one of our daily newspapers reporting on evidence being given in the High Court in Harare by the widow of a murdered MDC man last year. These extracts are not for the feint hearted, they are not sensationalised, they are the truth of what our government has done and condoned under the guise of land redistribution.

Extracts from the Daily News, quoting the horror encountered by the widow of Fainos Zhou at the hands of 'war veterans':

"They came to my home at night ... One of them used a knife to tear apart my petticoat... He forced an iron rod into my private parts ...He ordered me to stop crying ...They urinated into a container and forced me to drink it... they threatened to force me to eat their stool if I refused."

When Mrs Zhou was finally able to get away,she and her family searched for her husband Fainos for three days, when she found him he was dead. "...he had wounds all over his body as if he had been assaulted with a hot iron bar."

I dedicate this letter to the memory, the life and the loves of Mr Fainoz Zhou.

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],