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Zimbabwe Report

A letter from Roy Bennett MP

July 21, 2003


Dear friends,

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks since I last wrote, but I guess that is now par for the course.

You never quite become used to it. It still makes your blood boil every time one of these thieves thinks they can steal or kill with impunity.

Well, as I stated last time, the government has reacted to the considerable pressure that many of you in the media managed to exert. For this I am grateful, and again in your debt.

However, it was a victory of limited worth, as before they left, the evil thieves managed to steal over $110 million dollars worth of property. Much of this was the personal possessions of my farm manager and his wife, Norm and Isobel Gardiner. These two have already suffered so much in the last farm invasion and beatings. To now lose all their photographs, their clothes, and their childrens’ clothes, is heartbreaking.

The assistant manger, Mr. Brown Leston, and his family, had everything trashed and stolen, including his kids school books and Sunday school materials.

Unfortunately, it now looks like the whole saga may start again. One of the key organizers, Mr Tendai Gurira, has been threatening to invade the farm again. In his arrogance, and assumption of immunity from the law, he has identified himself. 

We also have more arrests and harassment at Chimanimani, but this has become a daily note.

But you never must let this get you down, and I am in the process of filing a legal suit against Mugabe, as the prime instigator of the these actions. If we back down here once, we let them win. So we fight on.

On a more general note, Morgan Tsvangarai is now out of jail, and more fiery than ever, so we are looking at interesting times in the future. But certainly the struggle is stepping up again. This time, we will hopefully learn from the mistakes of the past, but I am very hopeful that many of the problems we have are already ironed out.

It cost the regime a lot to stop the mass action last time, more than many people know, and their capacity is reducing every day.

The U.S. president’s visit to Africa has come and gone, and now we wait to see the effect his efforts with the African heads of state, in particular Thabo Mbeki, had.

Meanwhile, on the home front, we are redoubling our efforts to keep the pressure on these thieves, these kleptocrats that are still clinging to control, trying to squeeze still more money out of the rapidly dying Zimbabwean economy.

Thank you again for your support. Change is coming.

Roy Bennett MP

All letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of the submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice for Agriculture.