Diary of a murderer

Jane Flannagan in Matabeleland received this diary from one of the government-sponsored thugs enforcing this week's deadline for the final withdrawal of white farmers from their land. While he cannot be named, he wanted it published as a personal gesture of defiance against the vortex of violence that has become his life.

Wednesday, August 7 I am woken by a phone call from the boss and told to report to the Zanu-PF offices at 8am.

"The day has finally come my friend," my governor shouts down the line, "we are going to show these British settlers that they have outstayed their welcome."

For the past two years, I have organised invasions, beatings, abductions and even murder on behalf of Mugabe's government. I used to think of it as my own guerrilla war - I was too young to have fought for independence.

It did not take that long for me to realise that there is nothing heroic or brave about terrorising people just because they are white or vote for another party. I don't even get paid for doing his dirty work any more. It is a life sentence. If I leave, I will be hunted down and shot like an animal.

The meeting is at the government complex in Bulawayo. More than 300 of us - war veterans and youth militia - are packed into the hall. Ignatius Chombo, a nephew of Mugabe's and head of the land reform programme, leads the meeting.

He can probably tell we have lost our thirst for blood. He shouts and shakes his fist. He accuses the white farmers of being arrogant, selfish and superior. "They don't want to share their treasures with you because you are just worthless blacks."

The youths whistle and shout and dance on the spot, calling for blood. I command a battalion of about 200 youths and we are to be given police riot uniforms, though none of us are police officers. Chombo says we must be seen to be working with the "might of the law" on our side.

I return home with dread in my stomach. I have brought no money home for months and rely on wife's salary, but some months she doesn't get paid either. I am an embarrassment to her and my children and I wish I could change the past.

Three years ago, I was made redundant from my job as a trainee manager at a factory. I began hawking on the streets and had a few guys working for me. I was hoping to open a shop one day.

Then I was spotted by a Zanu-PF official who recruited me into the militia as a commander. I knew in my heart that it would end badly, but was promised land, a car, money and power. I signed up.

Thursday, August 8 The eviction deadline for white farmers is tonight. I am told to gather my youths and send them on to the land and show the whites we mean business. I have a list of 60 farms in the areas to be cleared as a priority. They are owned by MDC supporters or allocated to ministers or friends of Mugabe.

I am allocated police riot uniforms for my teams. Once night begins to fall, I drive groups to farms surrounding Bulawayo with orders to "hassle and unsettle" the farmers and their workers. We have been told to take everything from the property "except clothes".

After dropping off my last group of youths, I stop off at the homestead of a white farmer who has become a friend. Over a cup of sweet tea, I tell this man, who should be my enemy, where the roadblocks will be the following day so he can avoid trouble.

He has built a clinic and a school on his land. There is no way they can stay open if he quits. We agree that the situation is a mess. But at least I can try to make sure this white is spared the worst of any violence.

I rejoin one of my groups who are sitting at the gate of a tobacco farm. I try to relax over a game of cards. Someone accuses someone else of cheating. Punches and insults are thrown. At the end of the day, we are just a bunch of kids dressed up as policemen.

Friday, August 9 The youths are up at daybreak and anxious to see some action. One has a box of matches and says he is going to start burning. The farm workers come and go as though we are not there and this angers the militia.

The governor calls and orders me back into town for another meeting. I tell the youths they must not act without my orders. I give one of them a punch in the head to show they have to listen to what I say.

I hear shouting as I walk into the Zanu-PF offices. Chiefs in Harare say there are details still to be worked out before we can move our men onto the land, but that the notices will be enforced. There is no extension to the deadline: they insist "stubborn and selfish" whites will learn their lesson.

Our boss is frustrated. "We have waited too long already," he yells at me. I listen to the radio which reports that farmers are leaving their land in huge numbers. But that is not what I have seen with my own eyes.

Saturday, August 10 Another meeting. Bernard Chidzero, Zimbabwe's first black finance minister, who died last week, has been declared a national hero. The President says he will be buried on Monday - Heroes' Day - at Heroes Acre in Harare.

We are not to let the farmers steal any attention from him, the bosses say. I hear "grace period" being mentioned and am told to be ready for the "day of reckoning" on Tuesday.

I go back to the rural areas to let the youth know what is going on. On the way, I stop off to see my white farmer friend to tell him to relax for the rest of the weekend.

Well, this will go out in the morning mass email to editors & opinionators, and more will see "what the media just doesn't like to talk about."

FWIW:

First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.

-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--

South African Crime Report

Mugabe is starving his own people *** People are being starved in Zimbabwe by President Robert Mugabe's deliberate and systematic ploy of using food shortages to cling to power. Millions of people are going hungry not, as Mr Mugabe's government claims, because of poor rains but as a direct result of its policy of denying food to opposition supporters and enriching its loyalists. Last night, the deadline passed for the mass eviction of 2,900 of Zimbabwe's white commercial farmers, for decades the mainstay of the agricultural sector. Mr Mugabe ordered them to abandon their homes, land and livelihoods by midnight.***

You know what will happen-- with the formerly productive white farmers- who fed a continent- gone, they will be replaced by subsistence farmers who will rapidly deplete the soil, and all other resources, in their mad and futile stuggle to merely survive.

This has happened time and again over there, and this time will be no different.

"Pity about Africa..."

A bttt^ to you.

When I got on the web Thanksgiving, 1999, I saw a report claiming 42% of Americans got their news from "alternative sources"-- like the web & talk radio.
Some months later, a new report claimed 47%... and about a year and a half ago, it climbed to 50%.

I suspect that we are finally going to turn a corner, and be able to bypass the corrupt, cynical, gullible, and "worship celebrity & charisma at the expense of all other character traits" media. I surely hope this will be the case.

***I surely hope this will be the case.***

A positive note to exit on. Thanks backhoe.

"They don't want to share their treasures with you because you are just worthless blacks." Right from the mouth of Jesse Jackson.

Interesting: this could have been written by a member of the Young Communist Leage in 1920s Russia or Hitler Yugend of 1930s, word for word.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.