Reign of Terror

The suffering of Zimbabwe's tiny white commercial farming population continues, whilst the world looks on. Below is an account of the terror in Zimbabwe:-

3rd August 2001

Have just put the phone down after speaking to you so please find attached a few pictures of Ian, my husband, who was tortured and missing for 24 hours.  To give you a brief run down of what happened.  We have immigrated from Zimbabwe due to this incident.  We were neighbours of David Stevens, the first Zimbabwean farmer to be murdered.

Ian and another friend, Stuart, went as a radio communication back up so if there was a problem, or if anyone was wounded or injured, some nurses could be called out.  David Stevens had been kidnapped by these war veterans so that was why we needed a radio back up, and Ian volunteered.  Ian and Stuart were abducted from the Police station where the police stood by and watched, doing absolutely nothing!

Ian was hit with anything and everything ie: sticks, poles etc. they jumped on him, burnt him with cigarettes, hit him on the back of the head etc.  The photo's tell all of what he went through.  The so called 'land hungry people' went off to buy alcohol and Ian miraculously managed to untie himself and Stuart and they escaped.  It took Ian  hours to crawl 100m as he kept drifting in and out of consciousness, he had to hold his head up whilst he crawled as it kept falling down.  It helped with the 2 of them being together I think.

These people are not war veterans as they are called.  Half of them didn't even fight a war and are 18 years old or younger.  Nothing has been done about this and as far as Mugabe is concerned, 'these farmers asked for this and  got what was coming their way.'  As I write this there is an 80 year old man and his wife who have been told to 'get off this land, it now belongs to us'.  Where must they go to?  Who will employ them?  They literally have to leave with what's on their backs.  A few weeks ago a middle aged couple was held hostage in their own home for 4 days.

These people are doing what they want and this is not about land anymore.  Every day there is either a story of someone being raped, tortured, molested, abused etc., but unfortunately Zimbabwe has fallen out of the spotlight.  With the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) coming up, and seeing the news article on channel 7 news on Monday,  Mugabe and a few other presidents were marked as targets for the 'unrest' in their countries.

Please would you help us to make our story and pictures public so that the people in Australia are aware of what that man is capable of and what he is letting happen in his country.  I promised the other farmers involved who are still in Zimbabwe, that I would try and do something from here and I need some help.  It is wrong for a man who is so possessed and evil to get the red carpet treatment when he's elsewhere.