Assaulted Zimbabwe farmers forced to agree to ditch land case

Africa News

Jul 1, 2008, 11:42 GMT

Harare - An elderly white farming couple and their son-in- law who were attacked by ruling party militia in Zimbabwe on Sunday were forced to agree to end their legal battle to save their farm from seizure by President Robert Mugabe's regime. If they did not agree in writing to ditch their case in the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal, they were told, they would be killed, one of them said in a transcript of an interview with their lawyer. Mike Campbell, 77, his wife, Angela, 66, and Ben Freeth, their son-in-law, were seized at their farm near Chegutu, about 100 kilometres west of Harare, on Sunday, shortly before Mugabe was announced the winner in a one-man presidential run-off election. They were beaten with sticks, kicked, punched and whipped during their nine-hour abduction, said a spokesman for Justice for Agriculture, a lobby group pressing for the rights of dispossessed white commercial farmers. JAG said the three were in hospital and 'not in a fit state to be interviewed.' Mike Campbell suffered severe concussion, a broken collar bone, smashed fingers, lacerations and bruises all over his body and suspected broken ribs. His wife's left arm was broken in two places, her mouth was burnt after one of the war veterans rammed a burning stick into it and she had severe bruising and lacerations all over. Freeth has a severely-bruised right eye and comprehensive lacerations and bruising, particularly on the soles of his feet where he was whipped with a sjambok (heavy hippopotamus-hide whip). Angela Campbell was quoted in a transcript of an interview with a lawyer issued Tuesday by JAG as saying that at one point, a man in military uniform who appeared to be one of the ringleaders, ordered her husband to write in a notebook that he would withdraw his case at the SADC tribunal in Namibia. Campbell's appeal against his eviction is to be heard by the tribunal, along with that of 77 other Zimbabwean farmers, later this month. When her husband could not write because of his broken fingers, Angela Campbell wrote a statement swearing off the case and signed it, she said. Before that, the war veterans had beaten and punched her, urinated on her head and torn out a large chunk of hair. She had a burning stick thrust in her mouth and was ordered to sing a 'revolutionary' song. The trio's ordeal ended when they were dumped at the side of the road in the nearby town of Kadoma in the night. Last year, the SADC tribunal - to which Zimbabwe is a signatory - ordered the Zimbabwe government not to evict the Campbells, or interfere with their farming, while the appeal was being heard. The case has enraged the regime, which since 2000 has driven thousands of white farmers from their land as part of a land reform programme that has left a once thriving agricultural industry in ruins. Campbell appealed his threatened eviction to Zimbabwe's Supreme Court in March last year but the case has yet to be heard. The fruit farmer has appealed to SADC to overturn a law promulgated last year that denies farmers the right of access to the courts to challenge the seizure of their farms.

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harrisJul 1st, 2008 - 21:22:57

good job. take it all back. Im sure these farmers had stolen the land with violence anyways. what goes around, comes around.

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whereisAfrica'svoiceJul 3rd, 2008 - 00:03:12

The 'good job' subscriber. What an blatantly ignorant comment; so he's 'sure' the whites stole their land? In his simple mind that makes it ok to torture an elderly couple trying to survive in a criminal regime. Let him go and live in Zimbabwe and just to check out how hard it is to buy a loaf of bread - he'll need a wheelbarrow of course to carry the useless - and I use the term loosely - 'money' - around with him. Or perhaps he can just take his wheelbarrow and live on one of the derelict farms until he realises you can't eat dirt.

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Assaulted Zimbabwe farmers forced to agree to ditch land case

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