Mike and Angela Campbell’s home destroyed today in an arson attack – Zimbabwe

Mike and Angela Campbell’s farm house was destroyed this morning, burned to the ground just like the Freeth’s was this weekend. Mike and Angela Campbell are Ben Freeth’s parents in law. The Campbell’s haven’t lived in their home for months now, driven out by relentless harassment and abuse by land invaders defying court orders protecting the owners and their farm. But all their furniture was still in their home and, like their daughter and their son in law, they have lost everything. The Campbell home is also on Mount Carmel, the farm that is showcasing the worst excesses of Zanu PF lawlessness and the grotesque abuses of power that have contributed to the downfall of Zimbabwe.

The images in yesterday’s post show Freeth’s home being burned to the ground on the weekend. What they don’t depict are the burning homes of three other families who also live on the farm, who, like the Freeth family, have lost everything they owned. It’s incredible to think that possible arson took place on the weekend and a few short days later, another fire occurs within close vicinity of the first – unbelievable that this can happen twice!

Where were the police? Yes, I know, questions like this are asked in Zimbabwe all the time by people aghast at the lengths the Zanu PF regime have gone to to hold onto power, but nevertheless, all decent people will wonder how on earth the perpetrators could think they could do this twice – commit such obvious glaring crimes – and get away with it.

I actually cried when I saw the images of the Freeth’s home yesterday: the despair on those weeping  faces made me feel real grief and real anger. The extent of their loss, the horror they must have faced time and time again, the relentless intimidation they are subjected to, forced to live in the close vicinity of the people who continuously abuse and hurt them – it’s all just endlessly horrible.

I know this story – and yes, it is one of many – but the heavy-handed bullying victimisation of one family and the people who share their lives, over and over and over again is, as the comments on yesterday’s post said, utterly heartbreaking. If I – a person so removed from all this – can be moved to tears by these images, then the families  living on that farm must feel as if their souls are being ripped out of their bodies every day, inch by painful inch. What is happening is unlawful, it is brutal, but it is also so incredibly cruel.

What have all these people, in their ordinary decent hardworking lives, guilty of nothing more than being farmers, farm workers and citizens of Zimbabwe, done to deserve these atrocities and to be subjected to a complete absence of justice. There are an estimated 500 workers on the farm right now being held to ransom by armed thugs. The Campbells and Freeths have had all their crops stolen this year, and yet they continue to pay their workers, who would be destitute otherwise.

Who can these people turn to?

Those of us reading their stories are faced with the utter frustration of continuously bearing witness to endless crimes, feeling paralysed by the cold fact that there has never been such a clear-cut case of horrible injustice, and no sign that there ever will be justice. Can you even begin to imagine the frustration that the families on this farm must be experiencing…?!

The police, I have been told, are very aware of what is going on Mount Carmel but have pretty much said they can do nothing: their hands are tied. I long, as I suppose many do, for one brave policeman to stand up and face the bullies, and do the right thing regardless. But even though that is exactly what should happen, the unpalatable reality is that that brave policeman would be fired, and replaced by someone more willing to bow to the bully who has the means to end all of this. The Dispol superintendent himself has said as much, apparently saying he cannot uphold any of the legal orders as he will be in danger of losing his job and will find himself on the street.

We all know why. It is because it is none other than Nathan Shamuyarira who is behind the refusal to uphold the SADC court order upholding the rights of the farmers and their workers – an order which is reinforced by two court orders from the Zimbabwe High Courts and a failed appeal lodged by Shamyurira. The police are terrified, hands tied in the face of politically motivated terror being carried out by Shamyurira which has the tacit backing of Mugabe himself.

As for that court appeal… Zimbabwe today announced that they would withdraw from the SADC tribunal. Radio Vop have a statement from Chinamasa, one of Mugabe’s most loyal acolytes, in which he said:

“The purported application of the provisions of the Protocol on Zimbabwe is a serious violation of international law [...]

“There was never any basis upon which the Tribunal could seek or purport to found jurisdiction on Zimbabwe based on the Protocol which has not yet been ratified by two-thirds of the total membership of Sadc.

“As we are unaware of any other basis upon which the Tribunal can exercise jurisdiction over Zimbabwe, we hereby advise that, henceforth, we will not appear before the Tribunal and neither will we respond to any action or suit instituted or be pending against the Republic of Zimbabwe before the Tribunal.

“For the same reasons, any decisions that the Tribunal may have or may make in future against the Republic of Zimbabwe are null and void.

“We note that the meeting of the Ministers of Justice/Attorneys-General recommended that the (2009 DRC Sadc) Summit should urge member-states to ratify those protocols which are not yet in force. We look forward to this exercise which will no doubt create an opportunity for Sadc to regularise the composition of the Tribunal.”

The timing of this, immediately after a double arson attack, makes my nostrils twitch with the smell of fat  dead rat. It’s hard not to notice that every time there is a landmark moment looming on the Zimbabwe issue, something happens – something designed to show the might of those who do not support the power-sharing agreement. Ben Freeth and the Campbells were both abducted and beaten when Mugabe was sworn in; Roy Bennett was abducted and locked up on the day the Ministers were sworn in, and now, just before a SADC meeting, two arson attacks followed by a withdrawal from SADC’s own courts.

Coincidence, or design?

This, I think, is their way of flicking two fingers up to the world, SADC, the MDCs, and the people of Zimbabwe. “Look at us”, these actions suggest, “We can get away with anything and we dare you to try and stop us!”

So who else can the people of Mount Carmel turn to? The MDCs in the power-sharing government perhaps..?

Mount Carmel has been visited by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mutambara as well as both ministers for Home affairs and the police on several occasions and yet the lawlessness continues. Ben Freeth has apparently written no less than four letters directly to President Morgan Tsvangirai about what is happening on Mount Carmel, and has yet to receive a reply. This disappoints me, shocks me, and all I can think is ‘what a disgrace’!

What next? Who next?

SADC will be sitting in congress on the 7th and 8th September in Kinshasa and the issue of the Zimbabwe government’s refusal to adhere to the ruling meted out by the regional’s own tribunal on 28 November, 2008, may or may not be on the agenda. However, Radio Vop also point out that “it has emerged that out of the 14 member states that form SADC, nine are yet to ratify both the Protocol creating the Tribunal and a subsequent amendment to the document”. What hope do the victims of national atrocities have of justice and a decent rule of law, if the majority of SADC’s leaders cannot find it in themselves to ratify Protocols upholding and protecting the rights of people within SADC? What signal does it send about the commitment and values of law and justice in the region if they don’t ratify these agreements.

I sometimes feel as if I’m watching a farce, a drama that demands that I suspend my disbelief to snapping point. The outrage that the Zimbabwean government has about the MDCs purported failure to demand that smart sanctions are lifted off targeted individuals is a joke – a total joke – when someone like Shamuyarira repeatedly defies laws in the country and linked to thugs who have beaten civilians and who are associated with arson. The fact that the Zanu PF party has done nothing to reign in the worst excesses of some of its members, and yet still manages to drum up outrage that there are sanctions targeted against individuals, astonishes me.

What planet do certain Zanu PF members live on? Do they REALLY believe that the MDCs have the power or ability to persuade the rest of the law-abiding world to drop their values into the gutter just because that is what some in SADC seem to be tolerant of.

In the meanwhile, people like the farmworkers who live on Mount Carmel whose names and identities and lives are unknown to the rest of the world, continue to have their lives and rights trampled on. and not even the people they probably voted into power – is standing by them.

Justice, it seems, has taken a long long holiday from the people of our country.

This entry was posted by Hope on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 3:29 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.