Mugabe's terror reaches NZ

By JOSIE CLARKE

Jackie Neumann lies awake at night praying for the safety of her family hiding in their homes in Zimbabwe.

She fears they will become targets in a mounting campaign of terror unleashed against white farmers by President Robert Mugabe.

Every night, she makes a call from her Remuera home to her terrified parents, sister and daughter in the Harare suburb of Borrowdale, just 20km from where two white farmers were murdered in the past three days.

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.

Speaking on Zimbabwe's 20th anniversary of independence yesterday, Mugabe all but declared war on white farmers, denouncing them as "enemies of Zimbabwe" for opposing his plan to seize their land without paying compensation.

Last night, Mrs Neumann's father, Clifford Knowles, speaking from Zimbabwe, said his family were too afraid to leave their homes.

They are on the British High Commission list to be evacuated.

"There's no rule of law. It makes me very nervous. I want to get my family away from here as quickly as possible.

"It's on the brink all the time. It really is a nasty situation."

He was reluctant to talk for long because he said the Government had been monitoring phone calls in and out of Zimbabwe.

"Zimbabwe is our home, but we need to get out now because we're frightened. We're not living a normal life any more."

Mrs Neumann's daughter Lindsay Rhodes, who has two children, one aged 18 months and the other 3 years, is too frightened to sleep.

"Last night she said, 'I'm scared, Mum, I'm scared.' She is worried that if they've turned against the farmers, it only takes a few to turn against the town people and then it will really become a bloody war."

Her family feared that even their own staff could turn against them.

"They trust their staff, but the farmers trusted their staff, too.

"I think it's that uncertainty of not knowing what's going to happen and whether you're going to have to get out with nothing after working so hard.

"Everyone my daughter knows is incredibly stressed and depressed. My dad is beside himself. He's convinced they are going to start attacking the homes in the suburbs now.

"Her little son was playing house the other day, practising locking up the doors."

Mrs Neumann said she felt for the farmers, many of whom had built clinics and schools on their properties for their workers.

"They did a lot for the community at large. They are ordinary, down-to-earth people."

Last night, Foreign Minister Phil Goff said the Government would consider all refugee applications from people "genuinely subject to oppression and threats to their lives, whether they be white or black."

In the past five years, 244 Zimbabweans have been granted residency.

In London, Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Government was in close touch with the New Zealand High Commission in Harare. "Any sign of danger and we'll be there to assist them."

She said the Commonwealth was not at the point of suspending Zimbabwe, but the killing and violence had to stop.

"The New Zealand Government, through the Commonwealth Secretary-General, has urged that every possible recommendation be taken to end the violence."

Helen Clark was due to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair early today (NZ time), at the end of a series of meetings with British Labour cabinet ministers.

Zimbabwe was expected to be on the agenda.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman James Funnell said there were 140 New Zealanders registered with the High Commission in Harare as expatriates living in Zimbabwe.

The number is only a guide because it is not compulsory to register with the High Commission.