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SADC protected Zim farmer Ben Freeth picked up by police
Ben Freeth
September 15, 2009

SADC protected Zimbabwean farmer Ben Freeth and an Al Jezeera crew of four were held up yesterday morning at gunpoint on Mount Carmel farm, owned by Mike Campbell, Freeth's son-in-law, and were taken to Chegutu police station.

While Freeth was measuring for a loss assessment report at the ruins of Campbell's house, which was destroyed by fire on Wednesday September 2, a man came running towards him, armed with an FN rifle.

He told Freeth he was not allowed to be there and, together with a second man, insisted that Freeth and the Al Jezeera crew accompany them to the police station.

Both men were in civilian clothes and one was bare chested. Both claimed to be policemen but refused to give their names.

The men were backed up by several thugs believed to be members of the group of invaders installed on the farm to harass the owners and their workers.

"The situation is ridiculous," said Freeth. "My father-in-law built the house on land he purchased legally and the farm is protected by the SADC Tribunal judgement."

Freeth and the Al Jezeera crew were held for more than an hour at the police station before being released.

No charges were laid against either Freeth or the journalists. Al Jezeera is accredited and is therefore in the country legally.

However, the Al Jezeera crew was told they needed permission from Police General Headquarters to go to the farm as it was under surveillance regarding investigations of an arms cache.

Freeth's wife, Laura, said this latest arrest was once again about harassment - a favoured modus operandi of the partisan Zimbabwe Republic Police.

Earlier in the day, Mrs Freeth went to the Chegutu police station to check on the progress of a report concerning the theft of fertilizer valued at US$6 000 from their farm.

She was told by Assistant Inspector Bepura that there was no case and the docket had disappeared. He accused the family of making false reports.

However, it is widely known that dockets in the hands of Chief Inspector Manyika and Assistant Inspector Bepura disappear with alarming frequency.

Bepura also warned Mrs Freeth that they had found bombs and a weapons cache on the farm.

Last Tuesday, farm workers reported hearing two large explosions on Mount Carmel, less than a week after Campbell's homestead was burnt to the ground.

They saw dust billowing into the air above the trees shrouding his ruined house and observed army personnel in the vicinity.

Earlier this week, a reporter was told by a group of the thugs who had previously forced Mike Campbell (76) and his wife Angela (66) from their home that an arms cache had been discovered and that Campbell would be arrested.
The ongoing victimisation is believed to be in response to the fact that Campbell took his farm case to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in Windhoek.

In a landmark judgement on November 28 last year, the Tribunal ruled that Campbell and the 77 other commercial farmers who joined the case had a legal right to remain on their land.

The Government of Zimbabwe was ordered to protect the farmers against future invasions and to allow them to continue farming operations.

However, despite the SADC ruling, Campbell, Freeth and their community of 500 farm workers and their families have suffered continuous victimisation and violence.

This culminated in the burning down of the two homesteads as well as three worker homes and Mrs Freeth's linen factory. The factory employed 60 women from the farm.

All of Mount Carmel's crops, including their export mangoes, have either been stolen, sold or allowed to rot.

The United Nations notes that Zimbabwe's chronic food insecurity is set to continue well into next year, with harvest projections showing a critical shortfall.

Earlier in the year the UN revised Zimbabwe's appeal statistics, saying an estimated 2.8 million people will be in need of food aid in the 2009/2010 'lean' season.

Independent experts estimate that the population could be as low as 7-8 million, down from between 12.5 and 13 million prior to the land invasions.

The UN says that more than 20 thousand children under-five are suffering from malnutrition.

Prior to the Mugabe government orchestrated land invasions in 2000, Zimbabwe was not only food secure but also a major supplier of food crops to the region.

Agriculture contributed more to the gross domestic product than any other industry and contributed about 45 percent of total export earnings.

Chegutu Police Station
Assistant Inspector Bepura
Cell: +263 912 640 542

Chief Inspector Manyika
Cell: +263 912 919 665

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