White Families Evacuated in Zimbabwe

By ANGUS SHAW
.c The Associated Press

 
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - White farmers in northern Zimbabwe evacuated families from their homes Sunday as rampaging black mobs attacked and looted more farms amid a week of violence.

Men escorted convoys to the provincial center of Chinhoyi, 70 miles northwest of Harare and to the lakeside resort of Kariba on the northern border.

District officials of the Commercial Farmers Union said 25 homesteads were trashed in the past week. Three homes were looted Sunday after families fled the corn and tobacco districts of Doma and Mhangura near Chinhoyi.

``It's totally out of hand. We are evacuating women and children and the elderly and the sick,'' said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

About 300 family members had fled from about 100 raided farms by Sunday, some flown out on light aircraft after mobs blocked several roads.

Most farmers were grouping at secret safe houses at night.

Colin Cloete, the head of the farmers' union, said in a statement that scores of black farm workers had been assaulted, with virtually no police response.

Farm equipment, furniture and supplies worth an estimated $4 million had been stolen and openly trucked or carried away, he said.

Police told one person who complained that ``these issues are political and the police cannot therefore become involved,'' Cloete said.

One retired farmer who fled to Harare said his house was looted Thursday by a group of militants who smashed their way in using sledgehammers. His family escaped with a few personal belongings of sentimental value.

The fleeing family deflated the tires on their tractors to prevent them from being driven away. Workers reported the raiders had hammered open the farm safe, trashed documents inside and stolen a revolver.

``This is anarchy at its worst. When it's safe to go back, we'll have to go and assess the damage and that's going to be absolutely heartbreaking,'' said the farmer, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

District union officials said many fleeing families were forced to leave their pets behind. There was one report of horses being slashed with knives and a child's rabbits being killed.

Violence began spreading through the Chinhoyi district Monday after 21 white farmers were arrested on allegations of violence and assault against squatters and black ruling party militants on their land. The farmers have remained in detention as their lawyers seek a court order granting bail.

The jailed farmers deny starting violence last Monday, saying they went to the assistance of a colleague under siege by squatters led by ruling party militias and were attacked first.

No black militants were arrested after the clashes Monday or after unrest Tuesday, when at least 10 whites were hurt in reprisal attacks by rampaging militants in Chinhoyi town.

Since March 2000, ruling party militants led by veterans of the independence war that ended white rule in 1980 have illegally occupied more than 1,700 farms.

The occupiers have been blamed for much of the political violence that surrounded parliamentary elections last year and has continued ahead of a presidential poll early next year, leaving at least 36 people dead, nine of them white farmers.

The government has also targeted more than 4,600 white-owned farms - about 95 percent of land owned by whites - for confiscation without compensation.

HEY! It is not their fault, it is a justified case of Black Rage. Coming soon to a town near you.

Never, ever, for whatever good reason somebody else comes up with, give up your arms.  Ever.

Somebody else will always have a reason they think is good and just.  They will gather enough people behind their good and just reason to force those who disagree to comply.  That is when the genocide starts.

Never, ever disarm.  Ever.

Maynard, I assume I do not have to draw a picture for most members of this board. Perhaps you are the exception?

Somebody just needs to throw them a basketball.

Unfortunately this is just a case of sheer weight of numbers.  The white farmers are armed. Three times as many black rioters have died as compared to white farmers.

Its also why no one outside, not Great Britain, not South Africa, not the US are coming to help them, or even making a issue about it.  We would have to kill so many blacks just to put down this decision and throw out Mugabe's fraudulantly elected governemnt.  And then keep having to do it every few years.  You think Somalia was bad, this would be much worse.

The British and the South Africans have been watching this, and if the Zimbabwayins start attacking the White farmers persons and try to keep them from leaving the country they will intervene, but only to enable them to evacuate. Of course I dont know how much help the South Africans will be, the South African government knows they have a responsability to help these people, but the majority of blacks there think the whites are getting what they deserve.

I'm glad to see that someone else cares about them too, I've posted a few articles regarding the plight of these people who are [b]just as much African as anyone else. [/b]

Burns me that the world community doesn't want to help them.   [heavy]

They are, unfortunately, the wrong color.

Watch how public attention will be drawn to the squatters and their sorry plight.

From [url]www.bbc.co.uk[/url]



This is the first I have heard of the US doing anything about this- and it is a very tiny thing. England applied sanctions over a year ago, after the stolen parlimentary electons.

I would like to help the White Africans stay in their homeland too Satcong, but how many people would we have to kill to accomplish that?  And how often would the US Army have to keep going back to stop new attacks?  Where would it end?

Yep, with a considerably different response also.

When the colonialists ran things, there wasn't any of this going on.  Now that they are not running the show, well - enough said.

Story from a BBC reporter who clames thugs working for Mugabe attacked him and his family after he fought a government expulsion order in court...[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_1186000/1186509.stm[/url]

By the way, the Zimbabwean courts have never failed to side with the White farmers.  According to their own laws, all that President Mugabe has done is illegal.

Another BBC report on how this all started:
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_1162000/1162577.stm[/url]

And yes, even suffering under a international embargo, Rhodisia was one of the wealthiest and best run countries in Africa, untill they made the mistake of caving in to American and European demands in 1980.  Even so,untill a year ago it was a country that made a considerable amount of money exporting food to Europe, now this year there is going to be famine.

It is like handing over the reins of a civilization to a bunch of young children.

I have visited South Africa, both before and now after the government has been turned over to the inmates.

Before, they had a pearl, business flourished, streets were safe, it was a great place.

Now, I was astonished to see that most of the lower floors of the highrises are occupied by farm animals, the upper floors  are uninhabitable.  It is like they stepped back 400 years.

Not really amazing, but pretty disgusting.

Speaking of South Africa in all this:
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1216000/1216719.stm[/url]

Mugabe threatens 'martial law' if US House passes Zimbabwaian Democracy Bill
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1482000/1482073.stm[/url]

Soft shoe diplomacy??!  I'll give him a soft shoe [-!-!-]


head of the Commercial Farmers' Union, Colin Cloete, told the BBC marauding bands of government supporters were wreaking havoc on the town, and more and more farms were being blatantly pillaged.

Remember, Satcong, you are talking about the man who said that AIDS was not caused by the HIV virus, and that it was a fiction created by colonialists to scare Africans into behaving like Whites.

The good news is that with all those white farms out of business the country will soon starve.  Already last year the USDA and the UN were reporting that Rhodesia was near starvation.  The blacks do not have skills or capial to farm properly.  In much of Africa they still practice slash and burn and in places like Rwanda, which has some of the richest soil in the world, they are always teetering on famine.  Mugabe got a 1st world nation 20 years ago and turned it into a 3rd world nation.

GunLvr

This was already done and now they want Sneakers and a Full Court.
I've posted to this subject before and won't bore anyone again.
Except to say that White S.Africans should see this Anarchy as their destiny also.