From: Rusty�Bullethole, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sunday Times 18.6.00
Zimbabwe farmers prepare for war
Tom Walker, Harare
WHITE farmers throughout Zimbabwe are turning back the clock
20 years to the country's war of independence. Amid fears that
President Robert Mugabe's hustings rhetoric will provoke an escalation
of violence after next weekend's elections, they are once again making
elaborate preparations to defend themselves and their land.
Safe houses have been secretly designated for women and children,
while the men ensure that all rifles and shotguns are working. Apart
from the usual hunting and pest-control guns found on Zimbabwean farms,
automatic and semi-automatic weapons are being brought out of storage.
Many of the arms, including some that date back to before the
first world war, were the property of the Zimbabwean army. Zimbabwe
Defence Industries, its commercial weapons division, decided to sell
them four years ago to raise cash.
Farmers snapped up weapons ranging from Uzi sub-machineguns to
Sten, Bren and Thompson machineguns from the second world war, all
donated by eastern European governments to the black guerrilla
movements that fought white Rhodesian rule in the 1970s.
The guns have been distributed around the country in astonishing
numbers; there are estimated to be at least 1,000 Heckler and Koch G3
semi-automatic rifles. About half a million guns are licensed, perhaps
twice as many unregistered.
"Most farmers just have shotguns and rifles, but there's a sizeable
minority with machineguns," said one estate tenant, pointing to a mint
1910 water-cooled Maxim machinegun from Russia, with the manufacturer's
grease still in its breach.
"A few bursts of automatic fire over their heads would make most
invaders think again. If not, a bit of fire at about a foot above the
ground would make them squeal a bit."
The traditional Rhodesian bush fraternity has elevated Martin
Olds, a Bulawayo farmer killed by "war veterans" after a gun battle
in April, to heroic status. It is claimed Olds killed up to 13 of his
assailants before succumbing; their bodies, so it is said, were quickly
buried in order to keep up morale among war veterans.
It is feared that if the ruling Zanu-PF wins the election, then
the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) - Mugabe's secret police -
may stage further assaults on farms whose white occupants refuse to leave.
In the case of Olds, the CIO is said to have hired 120 unemployed
youths and taken them to an army machinegun range. They were given 80
new Kalashnikovs and trained.
Military sources in Harare have confirmed that after Olds was shot,
Kalashnikov cartridges were discovered during an official forensic
examination that proved the weapons used could have belonged only to
the CIO or the army. "This was undeniably a political murder, arranged
from the top," an official said.
The danger of post-election violence was emphasised in a speech
made by Mugabe at a rally at Highfields, on the industrial outskirts of
Harare. It was meant to be a symbolic occasion at the place to which
Mugabe returned from exile in Mozambique two decades ago, to be cheered
by 500,000 people. Yesterday's event turned to farce, however.
The president's appearance was postponed while party officials
appealed for more supporters to turn up and swell a crowd of barely
4,000. Bus drivers refused to make any more journeys to pick up
flag-waving followers unless they were paid.
When Mugabe arrived, he peppered his speech with anti-British and
anti-white oratory. "We were here in 1980 and today we face another
war," he declared.
While the majority of the country's 4,000 white farmers have no
intention of putting up armed resistance, some members of the older
generation who fought in the 1970s to stay where they were appear
equally determined now.
Many have warned local Zanu-PF parliamentary candidates that
they will not be moved. "I had mine round here demanding my rifles, and
I told him that if he brought his mob any further, he'd have to take
casualties," said one farmer.
Not everyone predicts violence, however. Some diplomats argue that
if Zanu-PF wins the elections, Mugabe will quietly push through a land
deal agreed in principle with the Commercial Farmers' Union.
"Mugabe has a complex relationship with whites, and as an old man
all his old memories are coming back," said one ambassador. "You can't
expect everyone to behave like Nelson Mandela."
--
Mugabe seems to have forgotten rule#1 of oppressing the population -
disarm them first.
Steve.
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