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Injury in addition to insult: human rights violation on commercial farms, 2000 - 2005
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
June 16, 2007

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Table of Contents

• Methodology of the study
• Background
• The Abuja Agreement
• Land and violence
• Results
• Demographic characteristics of Sample
• Human rights violations experienced by farmers and farm workers
• Violations against farmers and their families
• Human rights violations experienced by farm workers and their families
• Comparing violations against farmers and farm workers
• Perpetrators of human rights violations
• Perpetrators of violations against farmers and their families
• Perpetrators of violations against farm workers and their families
• Comparing the perpetrators of violations against farmers and farm workers
• Resorting to the law and the justice system
• Losses experienced by farmers
• Losses experienced by farm workers
• Findings
• Conclusions
• Appendix

Executive summary

Widespread human rights violations were inflicted upon white farmers and black farm workers by agents of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government during the seizures of white-owned farms from 2000 to 2005.
In addition to the human rights abuses, immense financial losses were inflicted upon the farm owners. Farm workers suffered catastrophic losses of income, habitation, health services and access to clean water and sanitation that contributed to a high death rate. The combination of the human rights abuses and loss of livelihood have contributed to a growing economic and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.

According to this survey of 187 former commercial farmers conducted over six months in 2006-2007, only 6% reported that they are still on their farms. Seventy-five per cent of the respondents said they are Zimbabwean citizens and 65% still reside in Zimbabwe. This is significant as it shows that most white farmers identified themselves as Zimbabweans, not British.

A total of 53,022 people - farmers, farm workers and their families - were identified by the survey respondents as having experienced at least one human rights violation. Many experienced multiple abuses. These abuses included assaults, torture, being held hostage, unlawful detention and death threats. If this figure from the limited survey is extrapolated to include all commercial farms nation-wide, the number of people suffering abuses during the farm seizures could be more than 1 million.

The total financial losses incurred by white farmers responding to the survey, according to their own estimates, are US$368 million. If the survey's figures are extrapolated to the entire commercial farming sector the figure is an astronomical US$8.4 billion. The results of the survey are inline with other estimates by economists.

The amount of damages for which the Zimbabwe government should be liable, for giving open support to the land invasions, would have catastrophic consequences for an economy already in precipitate decline.

The losses suffered by the farm workers were life threatening. The survey found that about 1% of displaced farm workers and their family members have died since losing their jobs. Extrapolated to the entire population of 1 million farmer workers and their families, 10,000 people could have died after displacement from the farms. This is clearly a gross underestimate and anecdotal evidence from commercial farmers suggests that the figure is considerably higher.

This report finds that the gross human rights violations, and the violations of rights generally, were much greater than had been previously assumed. It is also evident that the patterns of violations and those involved in the perpetration of these violations are not commensurate with conflicts over land between land owners and landless people. Instead the data from the survey suggests organised appropriation by an elite, as has been widely claimed.

The report concludes that the evidence is strongly suggestive of a systematic campaign, as evidenced by the failure of the police and civilian authorities to enforce the law and offer the protection of the law. The report finds that a plausible case can be made for crimes against humanity having been committed during these displacements. There is a compelling need for these to be investigated and the perpetrators to be charged and tried.

War veterans and members of Zanu(PF) were the largest number of perpetrators of the violations, followed by the police. Other significant perpetrators were found to be members of parliament, officials from the president's office, provincial governors, and other government officials. These findings point to an organized seizure of land planned by officials, not a spontaneous seizure carried out by landless blacks, as the government claims.

All Zimbabweans have suffered as a consequence of the ill-advised land reform process, which has devastated the economy and created an enormous humanitarian crisis. There can be no impunity for gross human rights violations ever and hence there must be some process of accountability for the violations that occurred during the land reform exercise. Quite obviously this accountability must involve both criminal and civil actions, and both groups - commercial farmers and farm workers - must be supported in obtaining redress for the violations they have experienced and the losses they have suffered.

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