BEN FREETH has eloquently described (most recently in The Spectator, November 7) what has happened to him and his family, and by extension to most white farmers in Zimbabwe. It is a terrible tale and among many similar stories, some are even worse. His description of the cruel and wanton destruction of his farm and that of his in-laws, the Campbells, deserves the widest exposure just as he and most white farmers who have become Mugabe's favourite targets deserve to be honoured today for their brave attempts, however hopeless it may seem, to stand against the tyrant.
That being said, I must disagree with his conclusion that `Zimbabwe's nationalist leaders today hate the white man just as Nazis despised the Jew". The men (and a few women) he calls nationalists are not nationalists, such as they once were; they have evolved into indescribably greedy, stupid and probably frightened bullies who hate what they fear most, the rightness of the white farmers' cause. Given the freedoms that Mugabe claims to have fought for, they could feed the nation and restore a once-viable and vibrant economy. The `blame' for the chaos that he (Mugabe) has created belongs firmly with that vain, cunning and wicked old man and his cronies (not, least the military supremos) who hang on to his coat tails - and well we know it.
Today's Zimbabwean tragedy is not only a wholly unjustified `war' against white farmers; there has been an undeclared war against his political opposition, demonstrably an opposition comprising a majority of his own black population. That is what he really hates and he is lashing out against white farmers in the fast-fading hope of restoring his popularity by giving away their lands and their lawfully earned possessions.
He is emboldened now because he no longer needs the farmers to generate the precious foreign currency that bought the loyalty of the military and his party apparatchiks. Diamonds, lots of them, have been found. Who needs oil when your military can kill peasant diamond miners with impunity and grab this new source of wealth. You can't eat diamonds but if you are wealthy enough you can import your victuals. Let the people starve and blame it on the white farmers.
No, Mugabe does not hate whites, he loves power.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
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