VZCZCXRO2415
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0856/01 3011404
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281404Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5066
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 2389
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 3118
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 3230
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1657
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2491
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 2860
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 3278
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5726
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2410
RUZEHAA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HARARE 000856 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR B. WALCH 
DRL FOR N. WILETT 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR M. GAVIN 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L. DOBBINS AND E. LOKEN 
STATE PASS TO DOL FOR S. HALEY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ELAB PGOV ASEC ZI
SUBJECT: WAITING FOR GOD OR SADC: VIOLENT FARM SEIZURES, 
DISPLACEMENTS INCREASE 
 
REF: HARARE 760 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
-------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Poloff visits to farms in central Zimbabwe confirmed 
continuing invasions of white-owned commercial farms by ZANU-PF 
supporters, and associated violence and displacement of black 
Zimbabwean farm workers.  Police have refused to intervene. 
Although politically-motivated violence has decreased since 2008, 
land-related violence in violation of Zimbabwean and SADC court 
orders is increasing.  Farmers and farm workers have no recourse as 
the government refuses to act to uphold its own court rulings. 
Thousands of black Zimbabweans have already been displaced by the 
farm invasions, and thousands more may be displaced in the coming 
weeks and months. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Commercial Farmers Union has told us that of the 4,500 
white farmers in Zimbabwe before the land invasions, only 300-400 
remain.  Of those, at least half are engaged in protracted legal 
battles which contribute to significant slow-downs on those farms 
that are productive.  The international media has historically 
focused on the plight of white farm owners; this was portrayed by 
ZANU-PF as proof positive of a racist western attitude toward 
Zimbabwe.  However, the greater and growing human rights and 
humanitarian tragedy is the massive upheaval that black Zimbabwean 
farm workers continue to suffer in the name of land reform, the 
hallmark of the ZANU-PF party platform.  According to the local 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) office, at least 
4,500 farm workers and their families have been displaced since the 
beginning of the year as a result of the takeovers of white 
commercial farms.  The average family size in Zimbabwe is five 
people, meaning that nearly 25,000 Zimbabweans have likely been 
displaced in 2009 alone.  In comparison, IOM estimated that at least 
30,000 Zimbabweans were displaced in election-related violence in 
¶2008. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The soon-to-be released film "House of Justice" (Reftel) 
documents human rights abuses suffered by black farm workers.  After 
viewing this film, on October 21 and 22, poloffs visited farm 
workers and owners of five different farms near Chegutu (Mashonaland 
West province) and Kwekwe (Midlands province) in central Zimbabwe. 
All have come under serious threat since the beginning of 2009, and, 
in a disturbing new trend, black farm workers have been increasingly 
targeted for beatings, threats, and forced evictions by the "new 
owners."    Just a day after we met with a farmer whose property is 
protected by a recent SADC ruling against interference by ZANU-PF, 
his farm was invaded by dozens of drunk ZANU-PF supporters who 
launched a tense, ongoing standoff with the owners that police 
Qlaunched a tense, ongoing standoff with the owners that police 
refuse to address (septel). 
 
---------------------------- 
Workers Threatened, Evicted, 
Struggling to Survive 
----------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) In Chegutu, the District Organizer for the General 
Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), 
Edward Dzeka, led us to several affected farms where we met workers. 
 Of the twelve white-owned farms in Chegutu, only one has not yet 
been targeted.  We first visited the Mt. Carmel farm owned by Ben 
Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell.  Campbell was the lead 
 
HARARE 00000856  002 OF 004 
 
 
plaintiff in a major court case in the Southern African Development 
Community (SADC) Tribunal that declared the Zimbabwean government's 
land reform policy unconstitutional, in part because it is based on 
race.  In the November 2008 ruling, the Tribunal ordered that farm 
invasions by ZANU-PF against the 78 plaintiffs must cease and that 
the government compensate dispossessed farm owners by June 30, 2009. 
 Subsequent to the Court's decision, in September 2009, the homes of 
Campbell and Freeth at Mt. Carmel, once the largest producer of 
export-quality mangos in Zimbabwe, were burned. 
 
¶5. (SBU) We hoped to speak with Freeth's farm workers who lived on a 
compound just adjacent to the house.  On arrival at Freeth's 
property, we were met by a lone man who told us that the house now 
belonged to ZANU-PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira.  When we asked 
about the farm workers - since nobody else was around - he said they 
had "gone into town." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Down the road at the compound adjacent to Campbell's home 
(which had also been taken over by Shamuyarira - as noted by a 
ZANU-PF campaign poster with the slogan "Our Land, Our Sovereignty" 
now attached to his gate), we met with the Mt. Carmel farm workers. 
They told us that the workers who lived near Freeth's house had been 
evicted the day before after repeated threats.  The plight of the 
Mt. Carmel farm workers was immediately evident.  Although it was a 
school day, numerous children roamed aimlessly and their parents 
explained that they could not pay the US$3 fees for the nearby 
public school.  The workers told us they had not been paid in three 
months and that they survived through intermittent piecework on 
nearby farms. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Some of the workers continue to help graze Campbell's 
cattle.  A foreman said he had been at Mt. Carmel since 1978 and 
didn't know where he would go if evicted.  With the takeover of 
Campbell's home, he and the other 70 workers and their families also 
lost access to the farm's four boreholes.  Now the destitute workers 
must trek roughly a mile to take water from a borehole on an 
adjacent farm.  Bruce Campbell, Mike Campbell's son, told us the 
last of the four boreholes had broken and that police refused to 
help him move the remaining 20 cattle from his farm.  He feared that 
unless action was taken soon, the cattle would die from 
dehydration. 
 
¶8. (SBU) When we asked the Mt. Carmel workers if anyone from 
government had come to visit them to ask about their plight, one 
woman laughed and sighed, "Ah, no.  You are the only ones." 
 
¶9. (SBU) Further down the road at the Wakefield tobacco farm, home 
to approximately 1500 farmworkers and their families, manager 
Charles Jongwe showed us the eviction papers delivered to him and 
QCharles Jongwe showed us the eviction papers delivered to him and 
the other workers on October 19.  The owner, Ken Bartholomew, was in 
Harare for the day working with his lawyer to block the evictions, 
though the foreman expressed doubt that any court order would be 
respected in light of the experience of other white farm owners in 
Zimbabwe.  Jongwe explained that his former house, directly adjacent 
to the farm's workshop, was now occupied by surrogates for the new 
"owner," Felix Pambukani.  Jongwe told us that the take-over 
attempts began in February 2009, and that he was jailed for 48 hours 
in April and accused of "being violent" although the police did not 
press charges against him. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Jongwe told us that the once-productive tobacco farm now 
lay idle as Pambukani's men refused to allow the workers to plant 
this year's crop, which needed to be in the ground by the end of 
 
HARARE 00000856  003 OF 004 
 
 
November.  Although most of last year's crop was sold, some rotted 
in the curing sheds because of interference from Pambukani. 
Pambukani's men recently sprayed herbicide on the seedlings they 
intended to plant in an attempt to completely derail this year's 
planting.  Wakefield's employees fear for the future, having seen 
the fate of the workers at the nearby Mt. Carmel farm.  Since they 
are unable to work, they spend their days keeping watch over the 
farm's assets, bracing for a possible violent invasion. 
 
----------------------------------- 
It's Worth Crying Over Spilled Milk 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Rob Taylor, whose plight at Usasa Seedling farm near 
Chegutu is featured in "House of Justice," told us that before the 
last invasions between February and June, at one of the two farms he 
managed, he had 138 cows.  During the forced takeover, the invaders 
refused to allow Taylor's workers to feed 17 calves, all of which 
died.  30 other cows died from neglect, and the invaders 
intentionally killed his bull, worth about US$4,000.  He had managed 
to move 60 cows to a field owned by the Pentecostal Church, but only 
because he had convinced the invaders that he was selling the cows 
as he moved them off the property.  On October 16, when he attempted 
to retrieve his last 20 cows, the invaders at the farm stoned his 
truck, and one of the stones injured his driver in the ribs. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The "new owner," Tendai Chasaoka forcibly took over the 
farm in January with a purported government "offer letter."  Since 
January, Chasaoka, who is the director of the Chegutu Grain 
Marketing Board, has forced Taylor to pay the electricity bills and 
wages of the remaining eight workers.  Taylor told us on October 21 
that he needed to get money to pay them the next day, but he still 
didn't know where he would get it.  Taylor lamented that although 
the farm was protected by high court orders and the SADC tribunal 
ruling, and although he had given up the fight for the farm in order 
to save his remaining herd, he continued to be the victim of 
extortion, intimidation and violent attacks. 
 
 
¶13. (SBU) Taylor, in true Zimbabwean fashion, has "made a plan" for 
the future.  He told us that if he could get milk pasteurizing and 
packaging equipment, he could sell the milk his remaining 60 cows 
are producing.  Currently, because of erratic electricity and a 
breakdown at the local Dairy Board, most of his cows' milk goes to 
waste.  He estimates the equipment and installation would cost 
US$15,000, which he could probably pay off in six months.  However, 
since no bank will accept his cows as collateral, his plan remains 
stalled until he can find a source for the loan.  While Taylor, like 
Qstalled until he can find a source for the loan.  While Taylor, like 
others, welcomes dollarization for the stability it has brought to 
the economy, he lamented the continued lack of coins and its impact 
on the local economy.  He explained that a pint of milk sells for 50 
cents, and the lack of change continues to deter planned purchases 
of less than a dollar, particularly in rural areas. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
 
¶14. (SBU) Although farm invasions were most widespread and violent 
in 2000 and 2001, remaining farmers are subject to intimidation and 
violence.  Racism and inequality have always plagued Zimbabwe and 
the continued racial treatment of the land issue by ZANU-PF has 
 
HARARE 00000856  004 OF 004 
 
 
resulted in reluctance from the international community and even the 
MDC, who are most susceptible to ZANU-PF's rhetoric, to speak out 
for fear of appearing to support wealthy white farmers. 
Significantly, however, farm workers - black Zimbabweans - are now 
the primary targets of these attacks as they become an increasingly 
victimized and overlooked population 
 
¶15. (SBU) The SADC Tribunal ruling in November 2008 was a 
significant victory for the Campbells and other dispossessed 
farmers.  The Zimbabwean government's decision to ignore the ruling 
and pull out of the Tribunal is continued evidence of the absence of 
rule of law.  It is also disturbing that SADC countries have allowed 
Zimbabwe to flout the ruling of their court. As one of the farm 
workers says at the end of "House of Justice," "only God or SADC can 
help us."  END COMMENT. 
 
PETTERSON