A call for the Prime Minister to act in a time of Controlled Anarchy where crimes against humanity are being committed in Zimbabwe A letter to the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. (Pictured: Ben Freeth)Dear Prime Minister Tsvangirai,
As a very concerned person I write to you, the Prime minister, an open letter asking that something be done about the continued destruction of Zimbabwe and the lives of its people that some of your Government employees are participating in.
Countrywide, elements within the police are assisting in the rule of law break down. I have asked for a full investigation into the nefarious activities of elements within the Chegutu police on a number of occasions but nothing is being done. Instead the Officer in Charge, Chief Inspector Manyika, appears to have been rewarded by being transferred to the UN as a peace keeper in Liberia. The man who appears to be behind most of the State inspired lawlessness in Chegutu, Assistant Inspector Bepura, is still in position.
Whilst we understand the difficulties that you face, I believe it is important that you at least expose the reasons why some of your employees in the police continue to get away with allowing lawlessness and also participating in it. If you can not bring the rule of law back you owe an explanation to those that supported you as to why over the last few months, tens of thousands of your supporters are suffering from having lost their homes and livelihoods due to the activities of your police employees.
Where it comes to white farmers and their workers and their families, High Court orders are being ignored in case after case. The SADC Tribunal judgment has been ignored. In June your Government was found in contempt of this international court and your Minister of Home Affairs, Giles Matsekwa, has yet to mention this fact. Legal bodies from all over Africa have expressed their concern about the way your government employees have ignored this Judgment. It appears that there has been no move to reestablish the rule of law and there have been no repercussions or even investigations into your police employees participating in its breakdown where white farmers and the farm workers on their farms are concerned. Just as so many Europeans turned their backs on the Jews and allowed their utter destruction at the hands of the NAZI nationalists, so, it seems, you are doing the same to hundreds of thousands of farmers and their workers in the in the face of the ZANU African nationalists in Zimbabwe.
Such a state of affairs is extremely concerning. It is very negatively impacting directly on food security, employment, and economic growth and development. The indirect effects on the government health service and education are manifest. Your people are suffering and leaving Zimbabwe as a result. The children of our country are being left without a future.
Decades of agricultural development are being lost as I write. Individual case details can be supplied to those that may care, but to summarize:
. Thousands of tons of complete crops have been allowed to be looted through this harvest season;
. Hundreds of thousands of trees in established productive orchards are being allowed to die this season;
. Asset stripping of the few remaining productive farms is taking place in numerous cases right now;
. Scores of tractors and implements and other agricultural equipment are being looted with assistance from police with no compensation at the moment;
. At the moment workers are being threatened, severely beaten and evicted by farm invaders in hundreds of cases with absolute impunity some have been killed;
. Many farmers and farm workers houses have been looted and others have been burnt down recently;
. Jambanja style illegal evictions of farmers and farm workers continue to take place with police and army – tens of thousands of people have had their homes and livelihoods lawlessly forced from them since you became Prime Minister and there has been no thought of compensation;
. Over a million people [farmers, farm workers and others] currently on contested farms have no offer letter, lease or permit and under the draconian laws of Zimbabwe [that were struck down by the SADC Tribunal but continue to be ignored] stand to face a fine and or up to 2 years in prison. Many of these people, both farmers and farm workers, are being convicted in the courts in defiance of the SADC Tribunal at the moment.
. Little children are being trained up for goodness knows what even in your police camps.
None of the perpetrators of these crimes are being arrested and in many of the listed instances above police and army are directly committing these crimes.
Prime Minister, I am a Christian and it is my duty to try to do something against injustice and evil. If nothing is done or said about this controlled anarchy that is being manipulated under your leadership, and no independent internationally led judicial enquiry is set up to verify what I am saying is happening right now so that something can be done to stop it, the consequences for the children of Zimbabwe will be a very grim one indeed. I infer from your reticence to answer letters or visit a single commercial farm during your time as Prime Minister or to speak about the widespread humanitarian disaster through the rule of law break down on the farms, that you know that there is a problem; but it appears you dont want to face it. We owe it to the next generation and to God, to do something about this problem now. I pray that you will act with courage and decisiveness to bring accountability to the perpetrators of what amounts to crimes against humanity within elements of your police force.
Yours sincerely
Ben Freeth
Mount Carmel Farm, Chegutu
Post published in: News