US embassy cable - 02HARARE2318

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 002318 
 
DCHA/OFDA FOR KHANDAGLE, MARX, AND BORNS 
DCHA/FFP FOR LANDIS, BRAUSE, SKORIC, AND PETERSON 
AFR/SA FOR POE, FORT AND COPSON 
AFR/SD FOR ISRALOW AND WHELAN 
STATE FOR AF/S DELISI AND RAYNOR 
STATE/INR FOR LESLIE CURTIN AND WILLIAM WOOD 
NAIROBI FOR DCHA/OFDA/ARO FOR RILEY AND MYER 
REDSO/ESA/FFP FOR SENYKOFF 
NSC FOR DWORKIN 
PRETORIA FOR DCHA/FFP DISKIN, DCHA/OFDA BRYAN 
USDA/FAS HELM 
ROME FOR LAVELLE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, EAGR, PGOV, ZI 
SUBJECT:  Zimbabwe: Reports of involuntary relocation of 
ex-commercial farm workers to Zambezi River basin 
 
REF: Harare 2310 
 
1. Summary: OFDA/Humanitarian Response Advisor in 
Zimbabwe has received unconfirmed but credible reports 
of forced relocations of a large group of ex-commercial 
farm workers. Post views this as an extremely serious 
development and is concerned that it may signal the 
beginning of a pattern of forced relocation and 
displacement that could affect a significant number of 
the estimated 1-1.5 million displaced farm workers and 
their families, many of whom the GOZ considers 
officially not to be Zimbabwean citizens.  While many 
commercial farm workers originate from other countries 
in the region, large numbers of them have been resident 
in Zimbabwe for several generations, have no 
documentation from their countries of origin and should 
be considered de facto Zimbabweans.  Reported 
relocations are apparently to remote sites close to 
borders from which relocatees may be encouraged to 
return to their countries of origin.  International 
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is also hearing 
stories of forced relocations and trying to gain access 
to the area.  OFDA advisor will continue to try to 
verify these reports directly including, if possible, 
travel to reported relocation sites to interview 
affected populations.  End Summary 
 
2. OFDA/Humanitarian Response Advisor (HRA) traveled 
with Ambassador Hall's group to northern Zimbabwe on 
October 10 to observe a food distribution and do 
reconnaissance of the area.  Ambassador Sullivan, USAID 
Mission Director and Mission Disaster Officer 
accompanied.  The event took place at the Chiweshi 
public school in the Muzarabani District on the Zambezi 
escarpment. 
 
3. In the course of the visit, OFDA/HRA met with a World 
Food Program (WFP) food monitor at the distribution who 
said that up to 5,000 farm workers and family members 
were being assembled in the Gaierezi area in the Zambezi 
valley.  The WFP food monitor said that some of the farm 
workers were trucked to these locations.  Two political 
jurisdictions, Chadereka and Dambakurima, were 
mentioned.  These are ward names which are political sub- 
jurisdictions of districts. 
 
4. The displacement and trucking operation was described 
as follows: New settlers take over the farms vacated by 
commercial farmers. Settlers insist on moving into the 
farm workers' houses and force them to vacate the 
premises.  Wanting the ex-farm workers and house 
occupants out of sight and out of mind, settlers force 
former occupants to board lorries for movement to remote 
sites in the Zambezi plain.  On arrival at relocation 
sites, they are unloaded.  According to the WFP monitor, 
it is the new farmers/settlers who were responsible for 
trucking the ex-farm workers out of the region and there 
is no clear evidence of direct Government of Zimbabwe 
involvement.  On arrival at the Zambezi plain, the 
displaced farm workers and their families must fend for 
themselves with whatever few personal possessions they 
were able to carry, no access to farmable land, no seeds 
and tools with which to begin farming, and no access to 
humanitarian assistance. 
 
5. OFDA/HRA, operating under concern that farm workers 
with no jobs and no food would begin to move somewhere 
(see septel), has for several weeks been trying to 
locate groupings of them in parts of Zimbabwe. 
Information developed on this trip with Ambassadors Hall 
and Sullivan is the first report of trucks being used to 
relocate ex- farm workers.  Note: if events as reported 
by the WFP monitor are true and accurate, based on an 
assumed lorry capacity of 50 people and a total number 
of 5,000 people moved, that would mean 100 lorry trips 
in total over a short period of time and signal a 
systematically planned event as opposed to a spontaneous 
action. 
 
6. In an effort to corroborate the report, OFDA/HRA put 
forward an urgent alert October 11 to the UNDP/Relief 
and Rehabilitation Unit (RRU), the WFP, ICRC, and local 
Zimbabwean groups seeking answers to the following 
questions: 
 
- Did this movement as reported indeed happen? 
- If so, how many people were involved? 
- Is there any indication that the GOZ was in any way 
involved in this movement? 
- What is known about the current condition of the 
people who were reported to have been moved? 
- If the report is true, is there any organization 
prepared to provide food or other necessary assistance? 
- Is this action being replicated anywhere else in the 
country? 
- Is there any significance to depositing these people 
close to the Mozambican border? 
 
7. On October 16, OFDA/HRA met with representatives of 
the non-governmental organizations Justice for 
Agriculture (JAG) and General Agricultural and 
Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) to try to 
confirm the October 10 information.  GAPWUZ officials 
advised that people had been or were being moved to 
these sites.  One GAPWUZ representative indicated that a 
relative from the area had noted a substantial increase 
in the number of farm workers in the area. She described 
the relocation area as "inhospitable."  Over the course 
of the week, JAG representatives asserted that the 
reports of trucking were true and speculated that the 
trucks used were from the GOZ District Development Fund 
(DDF), but this allegation has not been confirmed. 
 
8. OFDA/HRA is also exploring the possibility that these 
workers may have come from Guruve in the north west 
corner of Mashonaland Central adjacent to the Mozambique 
border.  Earlier unconfirmed reports from Justice for 
Agriculture asserted that some 2,500 farm workers in the 
Guruve area had been told that they must "get out or 
die." Based on an average family size of 6, this would 
mean that some 14,000 people in total could be involved. 
JAG representatives saw farm workers sitting alongside 
the road with their possessions September 25. 
 
9. Despite various efforts to locate them, the Guruve 
farm workers were never found.  OFDA/HRA and other 
humanitarian agencies now suspect that they could be 
among those relocated to the Chadereka and Danakurima 
areas.  OFDA/HRA will try to confirm whether these 
people were trucked using official GoZ District 
Development Fund (DDF) trucks.  DDF is responsible for 
supplying "new farmers" with the necessary inputs for 
the upcoming agricultural season and are essentially GOZ 
assets. 
 
10.  OFDA/HRA's concern is that ex-farm workers with few 
options are being moved to places near borders that are 
out of sight and therefore out of mind from 
international observers.  There is a high level of GoZ 
political control of these areas, which have few entry 
roads of significance.  ICRC is reporting suspicious 
signs of political control in the sense that people on 
the ground in the Muzarabani District were attempting to 
limit their access to the area.  Efforts are being made 
to determine if similar groups of people are showing up 
near the eastern Mozambique border north of Nyamaroda. 
 
11. Conservative estimates are that the total number of 
farm workers and family members is 1.0 to 1.5 million. 
If true, that would constitute nearly one out of every 8 
people in Zimbabwe.  According to GAPWUZ, approximately 
60% of ex-commercial farm workers are of foreign 
extraction, i.e., from Malawi, Mozambique, or Zambia and 
are without official legal documentation. However, as 
reported earlier in septel, most of these workers have 
been in Zimbabwe for several generations, have no 
remaining official connection to or documentation from 
their countries of origin, and should be considered de- 
facto Zimbabweans. 
 
12. Comment: Post considers reports of forced relocation 
of ex-commercial farm workers to be credible and will 
make every effort over the next week to verify 
information including an estimate of the magnitude of 
the problem.  To this end, OFDA/HRA will attempt to 
locate and conduct interviews directly with the affected 
populations at relocation sites.  JAG representatives, 
who have been briefed on how to negotiate their way into 
and out of the area, are planning to go there October 19 
and are expected back October 20. OFDA/HRA is planning 
to go to the area as well with Christian Care, the WFP 
food distributor in the area. If reports are true, the 
situation would constitute a very serious concern for 
OFDA and other international organizations providing 
humanitarian assistance in response to the crisis in 
Zimbabwe. Furthermore, forced relocation of ex-farm 
workers, many of whom the GOZ considers to be non- 
citizens, would constitute an extremely serious and 
negative development in the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe. 
 
13. OFDA/HRA will provide by septel a description of 
efforts to date to systematize information collection 
about the IDPs, inherent difficulties in collecting that 
information, role and position of the UNDP/Relief and 
Recovery Unit on the issue, and recommendations on 
necessary support from the international community to 
assist in this effort.  SULLIVAN