MASS ARRESTS OF ZIMBABWEAN FARMERS WHO IGNORE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 001882

SIPDIS

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER
LONDON FOR CGURNEY
PARIS FOR CNEARY
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/19/2012
TAGS: PGOV EAGR ASEC ZI
SUBJECT: MASS ARRESTS OF ZIMBABWEAN FARMERS WHO IGNORE
EVICTION DEADLINE,


Classified By: Political section chief Matt Harrington. Reasons: 1.5 (
B) and (D).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Police have begun arresting commercial farmers -- and
family members, in some cases -- who have failed to comply
with the August 8 deadline to leave their properties. More
than 140 people were arrested over the August 17-18 weekend,
and 92 remained incarcerated on the morning of August 19.
Orders clearly have been issued from on high to incarcerate
farmers who have chosen to remain on their properties,
instead of charging and releasing them, and arrests seem to
be taking place throughout the country. Some of those in
detention have been subjected to humiliating treatment and
are hoping that the courts rule favorably on their bail
applications early in the week of August 19. End Summary.



2. (C) According to the splinter group Justice for
Agriculture (JAG),whose mandate is to publicize developments
in the long-standing land acquisition exercise, the majority
of arrests have occurred in Mashonaland East, Mashonaland
Central, Mashonaland West, and Masvingo, with other
detentions scattered throughout the remaining farming
regions. The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has encouraged
farmers to present a signed statement to the police who
arrest them, containing a list of reasons why the August 8
deadline does not apply to them, including: the lack of an
Administrative Court ruling on the acquisition, objections to
the validity of section 8 orders, and objections to
abandoning crops in the field and livestock. We understand
that police have refused to accept such statements, noting
simply that they have orders from above to proceed.

Snapshot from a troubled region
--------------


3. (C) As an illustrative example, Alan Parsons (strictly
protect) is a leader in the farming community in Karoi, a
town 200 km northwest of Harare which has been particularly
affected by land invasions since 2000. Parsons told us that
arrests in the Karoi area began in earnest on August 16, but
farmers at that point were released after being charged with
remaining on their properties after the August 8 deadline and
signing "warned and cautioned" statements. The district
police commissioner began going farm-to-farm in a
four-vehicle convoy, accompanied by war veterans, the
district administrator (the central government's top local
authority),and riot police. On August 18, however, the
police changed their approach and began jailing those found
on designated properties, including a farmer's spouse in at
least one case. The district police commissioner told
Parsons he had come under strong pressure from his
"superiors" to incarcerate farmers who had received
acquisition notices. On August 16, Parsons was at the Karoi
police station trying to offer assistance to affected farmers
and witnessed 15 separate police details being issued
weapons, including automatic weapons.


4. (C) Parsons, who has received four preliminary
acquisition notices but not a final Section 8 notice, told us
about the particularly egregious case of the August 18 arrest
of Louise Cochran, a farmer's spouse. When police failed to
find her husband at home, Cochran was taken to jail, and
forced to leave her six-year-old and three-year-old children
at the homestead with a housekeeper. When the husband later
offered to replace his wife in jail, the police denied his
request. To add insult to injury, police did not allow
delivery of basic personal items to Mrs. Cochran, including a
toothbrush, soap, facecloth, and drinking water. The
officer-in-charge said Mrs. Cochran would have to share a
single mug and bucket of (presumably untreated) drinking
water with six other inmates. The unfortunate irony in this
case is that the Cochrans do not own the property on which
they live; they lease it. In a separate case which reveals
the chaotic and nonsensical way in which this effort is being
conducted, the manager of a farm which has already been ceded
to the GOZ was arrested and incarcerated as he was
supervising the winding down of activities on the property.


5. (C) Parson expressed concern that "things might get nasty"
as a result of the government's latest initiative. He has
heard some desperate farmers threatening to use personal
weapons both to spring their colleagues from jail and to
defend their homesteads.


6. (C) Meanwhile, another of the farmers caught up in the
latest police sweep is Guy Coke-Norris, arrested in the
eastern city of Mutare on August 16. Coke-Norris is in his
late 60's and suffers from a heart ailment, but he has been
denied access to his medication and medical care. He has
been told he will be allowed only one visitor a week, and his
initial court hearing has been scheduled for August 22.
Other farming contacts have related similar tales, including
the inexplicable tracking down and beating of a farmer in the
Chisipite suburb of Harare, although the farmer had
reportedly abandoned his rural farm several months ago. He
suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries, but to
date no one has been able to explain the exact genesis of the
assault.

Comment
--------------

7. (C) The final bell appears to be tolling for Zimbabwe's
white commercial farmers. The GOZ seems determined to force
the vast majority of white farmers off their properties,
while intimidating and humiliating them, the consequences be
damned. The farmers will undoubtedly seek protection in the
courts, but President Mugabe has already stated he will
ignore court rulings with which he does not agree. The
government appears determined to jail holdout farmers while
six million Zimbabweans require food assistance, an image
that is both tragic and surreal. End comment.
SULLIVAN