Today's History, White Farmers Killed In A Network Of Political Racial Conflicts In Zimbabwe

JAKARTA - On March 28, 2000, an elderly man and his son were shot dead hours before President Robert Mugabe told the leadership of the ruling party that people were at war with white landowners. The massacre was part of the racial chaos that plagued Zimbabwe during that period.

Henry Elsworth, 70 years old, is a former member of parliament. He was shot in the front of his son, Ian Elsworth, by three men armed with semi-automatic weapons.

Reported by The Guardian, Ian told the incident with full wounds from the hospital bed. At that time he was opening the gate for his father.

"He (Henry) said, 'Please stop, we will leave Zimbabwe tomorrow. We will go'," Ian followed Henry.

"He was a helpless old man with crutches and they shot him down," added Ian.

Ian, who was hit by nine bullets in the leg, dragged Henry into a ditch, where Henry died about ten minutes later. No help. Help arrived two hours later.

Shortly before undergoing surgery to remove the bullets from his body, Ian called his father's murder politically motivated because his father was an active supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Henry is a former member of parliament. In this period of racial political slaughter, Henry was the sixth farmer to die since the government sent armed veterans to seize white property.

About 30 activists and opposition supporters were also killed in state-sponsored political violence. Henry's wife testified that the perpetrators were war veterans who had occupied part of their agricultural land.

"I only saw one of them. But I think they are war veterans on our farm. I believe they want to kill us because of our affiliation with MDC. These people are evil. They don't even care about their suffering," said the wife. Henry.

"Next year we will have a shortage of food. They don't care. They just want to fill their sticky pockets while they can," he added.

The killings came hours before President Robert Mugabe told the leadership of the ruling party that the people were at war with white landowners.

Hours after the assassination, Mugabe told members of the Zanu-PF central committee that the mainly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) was doing to stop the redistribution of farmland as an act of war.

"Let us bring home the CFU commercial farmers that they have declared war on the Zimbabwean people who have every determination to win," said Mugabe.

What Mugabe said at the time was not his first warning to the CFU. A week earlier Mugabe also urged white farmers to continue the redistribution of agricultural land. If not, they will be expelled from Zimbabwe.

"I urge the peasants to throw away the nonsense of fighting for land issues in the courts, because that will make us even more angry. If the farmers can't get along, then we will ask them to leave our country in harmony," said Mugabe.

Initially the CFU avoided direct confrontation with the government. However, they later won a supreme court ruling mandating land redistribution and the invasion the Mugabe government wanted illegal. The court also ordered Mugabe's government to remove war veterans and many squatters from white farms.

Henry Elsworth is the sixth farmer killed since Mugabe's rule sent armed veterans to seize every piece of land belonging to the white people. About 30 activists and opposition supporters were also killed in state-sponsored political violence.

John Weeks Killed, another white farmer died on his farm. The life of six or seven intruders who also robbed the place.

Alan Dunn, an MDC official was beaten to death on May 8 that year. Dunn left his farm two weeks earlier after receiving death threats. But his death came when he returned to pay his workers.

Tony Oates also died at the hands of two intruders who broke into his farm on May 31. Oates fought back, shooting one of the attackers dead before he died.

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