US embassy cable - 04HARARE1594

UNCLAS HARARE 001594 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
AF/S FOR BNEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVELLE, D.TEITELBAUM 
PARIS FOR C. NEARY 
 
 
E.  O.  12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, ZI, Land Reform 
SUBJECT: Police Burn Out Farmers 
 
1.    (SBU)    SUMMARY: On September 14, 237 homesteads on 8 
farms were burned down by riot police in Mashonaland West 
province.  The government announced that it was removing the 
A1 (communal) farmers settled there to make way for A2 
(individual land holders) farmers.  Local attorney Alec 
Muchadehama, who is representing the displaced farmers, 
estimated that at least 600 people were affected.  He said 
the displaced farmers claimed that the GOZ wanted to make 
room for its political heavyweights to seize the farms.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2.    (SBU) On September 20, Muchadehama told Embassy 
political staff that he applied for an expoliation order (an 
order asking the court to restore the status quo before the 
unlawful act took place) and an injunction to prevent the 
police from going back to the farms.  Muchadehama said the 
court application would go before High Court Justice Rita 
Makarau on September 22.  The government served the farmers 
with notice on September 10, to leave the land by September 
22.  Muchadehama said that the GOZ ignored its own notice, 
and riot police descended upon the settlers at 7:30 am on 
September 14 to burn the homes.  The burned homes stretched 
from the Chinhoyi area all the way up to Inkomo barracks. 
(N.B., These farmers had been encouraged to set up homes on 
the land, at that time owned by white commercial farmers, by 
the GOZ in 2000, and had been farming for their own 
consumption since then.) 
 
3.    (SBU) Muchadehama said that the A1 farmers claimed to 
have been told that the farms were going to be given to Zanu- 
PF heavy weights.  Some settlers claim to have seen familiar 
faces visit the area, such as Zanu-PF MP for Chinhoyi, 
Phillip Chiyangwa and the President's sister, MP for Zvimba 
South Sabina Mugabe, prior to this incident. 
 
4.   (SBU) International aid groups such as the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) are trying to 
assess the level of humanitarian assistance that is required 
to help the displaced farmers and their families.  IOM was 
scheduled to meet with the Ministry of Public Service, Labor 
and Social Welfare September 17 to discuss the situation. 
According to IOM officials, the Ministry agreed to send 
representatives to participate in the IOM assessment and 
would send IOM a letter to that effect. 
 
5.   (SBU) Muchadehama said that there also have been 
reports of another possible displacement in Macheke. 
Although the police have not yet destroyed any homes in this 
area, they have made threats to do so.  There are 58 
families that were re-settled in Macheke in 2003. 
 
6.  (SBU) COMMENT: The burning out of hundreds of families 
signals a shift in the pattern of violence in Zimbabwe's 
beleaguered agricultural sector.  Fights over possession of 
rural properties now rarely involve white commercial 
farmers, as they did in the past.  Rather, they pit party 
elite against party elite or, as, in this case, party elite 
against powerless small holders.  It is not as yet clear who 
the principals behind the removals are in this case, but 
they may well provoke outcry from both the opposition and 
rivals within the ruling party.  The last indigenous farmer 
against indigenous farmer spat evolved into a front-page war 
of words between Vice President Msika and Minister of 
Agriculture Made.