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Arrest and detention in Zimbabwe - Diary of the events from February 23 - April 12, 2002
Hans Christen

Saturday 9^th March 2002
After breakfast we took the girls home for the day, and tried to start piecing our lives together again. We felt that it would be tempting fate if we stayed in our house overnight, so we went back to Chris and Rozanne in the evening.

Sunday 10^th March 2002
On our way home we drove around Marondera to check on voting queues. We discovered that there was virtually no queue at Peterhouse, so we collected my mum, Elias, Damiano and their wives and went to vote there.

We spent our first night at home!

Monday 11^th March 2002
Schools were closed, as voting had been extended by a day in Harare and Chitungwiza. The High Court had, overnight, ruled that polling stations countrywide should reopen, however the Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede only opened stations in the capital and Chitungwiza, and not untill noon in some cases! An elderly lawyer friend, Chris Kavanagh, was arrested for allegedly having ink on his hands when he went to vote. It’s quite pathetic! We went to report to the Police Station for the first time, in compliance with our bail conditions. We took Marondera lawyer Ignatius Sakala with us as we had a sneaking suspicion that the CID might try to re-arrest us! We saw our "friend" Detective Inspector Chikwanda standing outside his office, but he ignored us.

Tuesday 12^th March 2002
We took children back to school at 10 am where we chatted at length with other parents. The next stop was prison where we brought food to Bornface and Christopher. We also took hampers to Dominic, Peter, Owen, Tonderai, Wonder and Andrew – as a thank-you for their help and friendship in Prison. We weren’t allowed to take a hamper to Martin. As a convicted prisoner he is only allowed to received visitors and a hamper on a Public Holiday – the next one is April 18^th. We’ll see him then.

We weren’t allowed to give anyone books or magazines, and even syrup was refused. The acting 2 i/c, Msademba told me he didn’t want to see me anywhere in the prison vicinity, I had to stay in the car. All the other prison officers were very friendly.

My co-accused all met at our house at 3.30pm to go to Harare to meet Andrew, our lawyer at 5pm. He told us that on the 14^th there would be a further remand hearing and that on the 28^th he would apply for a "refusal of further remand". I settled the bill for services rendered to date - $324,400 incl. $42,300 sales tax. The sales tax bit hurt – going straight to the government who had arrested me! Then at 7pm we met two South African parliamentary observers, Andries Botha and Aza van Jaarsveld. On our way back to Marondera at about 9pm we heard rumours that all people who had assisted the MDC with polling agents’ logistics were being rounded up by the police. We decided to spend the night with a friend, rather than go home.

Wednesday 13^th March 2002
We went to the Police station early to report – to avoid the CID and CIO. No problem! A well-wisher popped in with $250,000 from donations to help pay for our legal expenses – what a relief! The election results were announced – interestingly, there was no celebration to speak of – everyone was stunned. The only people celebrating were a couple of hundred Zanu(PF) supporters who staged a noisy march in Marondera. The "war-vets" immediately stepped up their campaign of intimidation by looting farm homesteads and workshops.

We sat on the veranda and tried to decide what to do. We expected the worst so we decided to pack the car with clothes, valuables, DSTV decoder, computer and stereo. There’s a limit to what you can take with you at short notice! We drove out of our gate and wondered where to go. The first place that came to mind was Malwatte Farmhouse Restaurant, on the main Marondera – Mutare highway, about 6kms from Marondera, from where we could ponder our next move. On the way there we had to negotiate a celebrating gang of Zanu(PF) youth at the North Rd. turnoff – luckily only one rock hit the car! We had lunch at Malwatte, where we bumped into some friends and the 2 Norwegian observers who had come to watch the court proceedings at the Marondera Magistrate’s Court. At 3pm we collected the kids from school and went to the Bell’s for the night.

Thursday 14^th March 2002
Rozanne took the children to school while Jenny and I got ourselves ready for court. We spent virtually the whole morning waiting for our case to come up. Once in the dock, it took the Magistrate about 30 seconds to remand us to the 28^th. Christopher and Bornface who had been brought to court from prison were hauled off back to cells whilst the rest of us walked out into the sunshine. We decided that we couldn’t stay "on the run" for ever, so we went home and unpacked the car and tried to settle in again.

Friday 15^th March 2002
We went to the police station early, the kids and Jenny waited in car while I signed in, then we went straight to Harare. We had lunch (more liquid than solid) at the Keg and Maiden with a whole lot of friends. It’s so surreal to be able to do this in the midst of all that one is facing! Today a Marondera farmer, was assaulted by war vets with a hoe handle. His wife was forced to witness the beating. His guard, was beaten to death. Pound Pororai was beaten up on his way back from the reporting at the police station. Another well-wisher phoned from Bulawayo to offer $150,000 in assistance.

Sunday 17^th March 2002
We heard that Ian and Kerry Kay had once again been evicted from their home.

Monday 18^th March 2002
Mbeki and Obassanjo spent 2 hours with Mugabe and an hour with Morgan Tsvangirai. Two Marondera farmers, were barricaded in their houses overnight, and Terry Ford of Gowrie Farm in Norton was bludgeoned to death in the early hours.

Tuesday 19^th March 2002
Went to the prison to take Bornface and Christopher another hamper. Lawyer Sakala came to speak to them. We hope to get them out on 28^th. I paid Sakala $56,400 to cover his attendances to date. A meeting of three Commonwealth Heads of State – from Australia, Nigeria and South Africa – resolved to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth for 12 months. Richard Quest from CNN emailed Carrie to say that they’d had more emails regarding the "Commonwealth suspends Zimbabwe" issue, than on any other "Question of the Day", - even last week’s "What should be done with the World Trade Centre site?" I went to Doc George. He vaccinated me for Hepatitis and told me that if I developed night sweats, I probably had TB! Switzerland has frozen the assets of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite and has imposed targeted sanctions in line with the EU and America.

Wednesday 20^th March 2002
Chris Kavanagh was released from custody. The CFU have appealed to all farmers, their wives and children to show solidarity with Terry Ford and support for his family by coming to his funeral on Friday, 22^nd, at 11 am at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Harare.

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