Group of white farmers who had their land seized in Zimbabwe plead with William Hague not to lift sanctions on Robert Mugabe
KIM SENGUPTA THURSDAY 18 OCTOBER 2012
A group of farmers who had their land seized in Zimbabwe are launching a
campaign today to protest against a proposed lifting of sanctions against
Robert Mugabe’s regime by the European Union.
The 11 farmers and their families have won successive court cases over the
takeover including one through the legal channels of the World Bank and
another presided over by an officially sanctioned judge in Harare. They were
awarded compensations totalling £ 17.5 million, but no money has been
forthcoming for over three years and now there is fear that the Zimbabwe
authorities will have no incentive left to pay up if the EU move goes
through.
A delegation from JusticeZimbabwe, along with MPs supporting their cause,
will meet diplomats from the Foreign Office, including William Hague’s
Zimbabawe advisors . Meanwhile an online petition launched this morning, it
is claimed, is expected to gather 3000 signatures by weekend.
The farmers say that they had agreed with a Zimbawean request not to
publicise the legal actions with the promise that the money they were due
would be paid up in return. The Harare government, they now believe, have
been playing for time and the sanction lifting will encourage them to renege
altogether on their deal.
EU ministers have stated that most of the punitive measures against Zimbabwe
would be lifted once it held a credible referendum towards a new
constitution. The move would mark an “important milestone” towards a
democratic future for the country, they said in a recent statement.
More than100 key individuals have been covered under an EU travel ban and
assets freeze imposed in 2002. The online petition by the campaign group
states: “In 2000, the world looked on in horror as the Zimbabwe state and
thugs acting for President Mugabe destroyed property, attacked farm
employees and in some cases, tortured and murdered Zimbabwe’s own farmers.
In response to this, the UK Government led efforts to implement sanctions
against the ruling elite of Zimbabwe.
“(Now) the international community and EU High Representative Baroness
Ashton are preparing to abandon them and their hopes for justice, if plans
to lift targeted sanctions progress. Despite Mugabe and the Zimbabwe
Government refusing to pay these farmers, the UK Government will soon
unfreeze money from stolen assets, lift travel bans allowing Mugabe’s thugs
to visit London and Paris and allow UK aid money to flow directly into
Mugabe’s Government coffers.”
Campaign organisers point out that that the World Bank’s process in the
International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) which
found in favour of 11 British and Dutch farmers against the Zimbabwean
government is voluntarily accepted by both creditors and debtors.
Timolene Tibbett, part of the delegation to the Foreign Office spoke of what
the she and others have had to endure. Her husband, Rolf, died at the age of
50 due to stress related illness. Altogether “Six members of our farming
community in Macheke have died since the land invasions” she recounted.
“One murdered, three stress related, one car accident in another country,
one stress and age related. How many of our employees have passed on, I have
sadly no idea.”
Pippa van Rechteren who lost her farm north of Harare 12 years ago insisted
that the facts irrefutable: “As part of a group of ex Zimbabwean farmers, my
husband and I fought and won a landmark legal ruling entitling us to
compensation for the loss of our land, property and livelihoods. The court
ruling of 2009 remains unsettled and we are asking the UK Government, EU and
others to do all they can to ensure the Government of Zimbabwe end our
ordeal and our battle for justice.“