VIOLENCE IN ZIMBABWE

From Jim Fryer – Real World Libertarian 

Hi Cindy, A message from a friend upset me to the point where I feel I need to do something about it. I am sending this to every person I can contact, any press outlet I can reach, and every politician I can, in the hope that we can get together a critical mass. I hope you can help. Don't go to the second link unless you have a strong stomach.

Jim.

The situation in Zimbabwe is something we should all be trying to get action on, and I am asking you to do whatever you can to achieve this. I am sending the following to all of my contacts and urging them to pass it on or do what they can to call attention to it. I hope you will see fit to help.

 
The violence in Zimbabwe has really hit home to me today via an Email from a friend I have worked with for around 20 years. I delete names in case they identify people who may be victimised as a result: -
 
I have been preoccupied with the saga involving the eviction of my brother and his wife from their farm in Zimbabwe.  They were finally driven out by armed soldiers this weekend, in a move obviously designed to get all the last remaining white farmers off the land.  Am attaching this account of the violence because I feel people need to be aware of what Mugabe and especially his army generals are doing.
 
Included was a message from another person: -
 
Dear all
I normally just send the e-mails I get about Zimbabwe only to those friends of mine to whom I think will be interested. However, the brutality has reached such a pitch and the situation of the people seems to have become so without hope, that I find myself sending this e-mail to everyone in my address book. Please forgive me if you are not interested. But for those of you who are, I believe that the more people who know about the true situation there, the better. Only prayer and outside intervention can help these poor, suffering people. I implore you to help in whatever way you can.
Regards, x.
 
An attachment contained a document from the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights. The content can be found at: - For those of you with strong stomachs, there were photos which are not included in the above link but can be found at,
 
In 20+ years in the mining and exploration industry I have seen some pretty bad things happen to people I know well, and heard of worse including deaths of friends and to some extent I have learned to rationalise in order to deal with it. In short it takes a lot to upset me. This did, but it did not just upset me, it angered me.
 
If one of our citizens was suffering the sort of things that appear in the above links in a foreign country we would demand that our embassies and consulates beat doors down to do something about it. These people are not entitled to this, as it is their own government doing it to them, so it becomes just a matter of internal order.
 
We as individuals are basically impotent in the face of this, or should I say these atrocities. We can stand by and bitch about it and feel that we have made a stand, but in reality we have done nothing to help. If we send aid it will probably be diverted to soldiers, police, thugs and cronies to keep them on side.
 
What I feel we can do is to push this issue, pass it on to every person in your address book. Those who run a blog, post on this issue, as I will do later today. Write to any politician you can contact, harass the press, if enough of us get together and form a critical mass this issue will have to come out.
 
Talking has done no good, we have to press for armed intervention. While our armed forces and the Americans are pretty tied up at the moment with the war on terror, the Europeans, Canadians, and others are not. There is no reason why a multinational force cannot be put together and toss these people out.
 
The UN if this is left to them will still be passing resolutions five years from now on those occasions when they can actually get them through. Mugabe knows that and will treat those resolutions with the contempt due to an impotent group.
 
I know that Regime change is not a popular cause at the moment, but can the world stand by and watch this happen. We reviled Idi Amin, compared to this guy he was Mother Theresa, and was eventually thrown out by foreign forces. We have to push for the civilized nations of the world to do the same to Zimbabwe.
 
The Zimbabwean military is trained to attack unarmed civilians and is very good at it, look at the links above, and think how good it would be to have them run up against a professional outfit.
 
But do something.”