US embassy cable - 02HARARE1882

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 001882 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER 
LONDON FOR CGURNEY 
PARIS FOR CNEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/19/2012 
TAGS: PGOV, EAGR, ASEC, ZI, Land Reform 
SUBJECT: MASS ARRESTS OF ZIMBABWEAN FARMERS WHO IGNORE 
EVICTION DEADLINE, 
 
 
Classified By: Political section chief Matt Harrington.  Reasons: 1.5 ( 
B) and (D). 
 
Summary 
-------- 
 
1. (C) Police have begun arresting commercial farmers -- and 
family members, in some cases -- who have failed to comply 
with the August 8 deadline to leave their properties.  More 
than 140 people were arrested over the August 17-18 weekend, 
and 92 remained incarcerated on the morning of August 19. 
Orders clearly have been issued from on high to incarcerate 
farmers who have chosen to remain on their properties, 
instead of charging and releasing them, and arrests seem to 
be taking place throughout the country.  Some of those in 
detention have been subjected to humiliating treatment and 
are hoping that the courts rule favorably on their bail 
applications early in the week of August 19.  End Summary. 
 
 
2.  (C) According to the splinter group Justice for 
Agriculture (JAG), whose mandate is to publicize developments 
in the long-standing land acquisition exercise, the majority 
of arrests have occurred in Mashonaland East, Mashonaland 
Central, Mashonaland West, and Masvingo, with other 
detentions scattered throughout the remaining farming 
regions.  The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has encouraged 
farmers to present a signed statement to the police who 
arrest them, containing a list of reasons why the August 8 
deadline does not apply to them, including:  the lack of an 
Administrative Court ruling on the acquisition, objections to 
the validity of section 8 orders, and objections to 
abandoning crops in the field and livestock.  We understand 
that police have refused to accept such statements, noting 
simply that they have orders from above to proceed. 
 
Snapshot from a troubled region 
------------------------------- 
 
3. (C) As an illustrative example, Alan Parsons (strictly 
protect) is a leader in the farming community in Karoi, a 
town 200 km northwest of Harare which has been particularly 
affected by land invasions since 2000.  Parsons told us that 
arrests in the Karoi area began in earnest on August 16, but 
farmers at that point were released after being charged with 
remaining on their properties after the August 8 deadline and 
signing "warned and cautioned" statements.  The district 
police commissioner began going farm-to-farm in a 
four-vehicle convoy, accompanied by war veterans, the 
district administrator (the central government's top local 
authority), and riot police.   On August 18, however, the 
police changed their approach and began jailing those found 
on designated properties, including a farmer's spouse in at 
least one case.  The district police commissioner told 
Parsons he had come under strong pressure from his 
"superiors" to incarcerate farmers who had received 
acquisition notices.   On August 16, Parsons was at the Karoi 
police station trying to offer assistance to affected farmers 
and witnessed 15 separate police details being issued 
weapons, including automatic weapons. 
 
4.  (C) Parsons, who has received four preliminary 
acquisition notices but not a final Section 8 notice, told us 
about the particularly egregious case of the August 18 arrest 
of Louise Cochran, a farmer's spouse.  When police failed to 
find her husband at home, Cochran was taken to jail, and 
forced to leave her six-year-old and three-year-old children 
at the homestead with a housekeeper.  When the husband later 
offered to replace his wife in jail, the police denied his 
request.  To add insult to injury, police did not allow 
delivery of basic personal items to Mrs. Cochran, including a 
toothbrush, soap, facecloth, and drinking water.  The 
officer-in-charge said Mrs. Cochran would have to share a 
single mug and bucket of (presumably untreated) drinking 
water with six other inmates.  The unfortunate irony in this 
case is that the Cochrans do not own the property on which 
they live; they lease it.  In a separate case which reveals 
the chaotic and nonsensical way in which this effort is being 
conducted, the manager of a farm which has already been ceded 
to the GOZ was arrested and incarcerated as he was 
supervising the winding down of activities on the property. 
 
5. (C) Parson expressed concern that "things might get nasty" 
as a result of the government's latest initiative.  He has 
heard some desperate farmers threatening to use personal 
weapons both to spring their colleagues from jail and to 
defend their homesteads. 
 
6. (C) Meanwhile, another of the farmers caught up in the 
latest police sweep is Guy Coke-Norris, arrested in the 
eastern city of Mutare on August 16.  Coke-Norris is in his 
late 60's and suffers from a heart ailment, but he has been 
denied access to his medication and medical care.  He has 
been told he will be allowed only one visitor a week, and his 
initial court hearing has been scheduled for August 22. 
Other farming contacts have related similar tales, including 
the inexplicable tracking down and beating of a farmer in the 
Chisipite suburb of Harare, although the farmer had 
reportedly abandoned his rural farm several months ago.  He 
suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries, but to 
date no one has been able to explain the exact genesis of the 
assault. 
 
Comment 
------- 
7. (C) The final bell appears to be tolling for Zimbabwe's 
white commercial farmers.   The GOZ seems determined to force 
the vast majority of white farmers off their properties, 
while intimidating and humiliating them, the consequences be 
damned.  The farmers will undoubtedly seek protection in the 
courts, but President Mugabe has already stated he will 
ignore court rulings with which he does not agree.  The 
government appears determined to jail holdout farmers while 
six million Zimbabweans require food assistance, an image 
that is both tragic and surreal.  End comment. 
SULLIVAN