Commercial Farmers' Union of Zimbabwe

Commercial Farmers' Union of Zimbabwe

***The views expressed in the articles published on this website DO NOT necessarily express the views of the Commercial Farmers' Union.***

Group of white farmers who had their land seized in Zimbabwe plead with William Hague not to lift sanctions on Robert Mugabe

Group of white farmers who had their land seized in Zimbabwe plead with William Hague not to lift sanctions on Robert Mugabe

http://www.independent.co.uk

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.“ 

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp

Fresh Chingwizi headache for govt

Fresh Chingwizi headache for govt    12/7/2019 Source: Fresh Chingwizi headache for govt | Newsday (News) BY TATENDA CHITAGU Survivors of the Tugwi-Mukosi floods in 2014

Read More »

ED dangles carrot to war veterans

ED dangles carrot to war veterans – NewsDay Zimbabwe   2/7/2019 By Everson Mushava PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has ordered all the country’s eight provincial

Read More »

New Posts:

From the archives

Posts from our archive you may find interesting