By PATRICK GOWER
Svea Hurd fled strife-torn Zimbabwe so her young family could sleep at night.
But their first night on New Zealand soil was disturbed by an early-morning phone call from Svea's husband, Adam, to say the farm they worked on had just been seized by veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war.
"He said to me that he felt he was lucky to be alive. He may have even been tortured had he not persuaded them to let him go.
"In some ways I wish we were there with him, but the relief of having our family safe here is greater."
When the violence against white farmers began to spread the Hurds decided Svea should flee to her mother's house in the Wairarapa with their children - daughters Chelsea, aged 8, Harley, 6, and 16-month-old son Max.
"People said we were overreacting. It turns out that we weren't.
"We got out with 48 hours to spare. If I'd been there with the children I don't know what would have happened."
Mrs Hurd said her husband and the farm's owner were interrogated for three hours by members of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, before being told to gather what few belongings they could and leave.
Zimbabwe's minority whites are in a state of panic as squatters, led by veterans of the 1970s guerrilla war against white-settler rule, roam the countryside, invading and burning farms.
With the violence of the two-month-old crisis continuing, Mrs Hurd fears that her husband may be hurt.
"I can't contact him. I don't know where he is. I don't know if our house is still standing, or whether our animals are alive."
She said her eldest child Chelsea burst into tears when she saw images of their home country ablaze on television last night, including the smouldering remains of tobacco farms like their own.
"She misses her dad, and wants to know when he's coming."
Mrs Hurd said other farmers in the area expected the intimidation to continue until parliamentary elections due to be held next month.
"It certainly looks like things are going to get a lot worse before they get better."
Dad's call tells of strife
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