Roy Bennett and Morgan Tsvangirai
Black Zimbabweans are putting their lives on the line for supporting Roy Bennett, a White Zimbabwe farmer who is being charged with treason and terrorism by the Marxist regime of Robert Mugabe.
Bennett was arrested Friday and charged with treason after he returned to Zimbabwe from a three-year exile due to charges that he was attempting to overthrow the Mugabe regime. Hundreds of Black Zimbabweans protested outside the Matare police station where Bennett was being detained the entire weekend. At one point, Mugabe-backed police fired live rounds into the air and unleashed dogs to disperse the crowd. Bennet was later moved to an undisclosed location.
Bennett is also Treasurer for Zimbabwe political party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The party named Bennett to the post of deputy agricultural minister after it entered a coalition government with Zanu-PF last week. The government coalition follows a long and bloody battle between the political rivals that was re-ignited when general elections in April 2008 saw Mugabe lose but hold on through brute force.
The MDC blasted the treason charges against Bennett as “scandalous, vexatious and without bases in law” and “simply politically motivated” in a press statement shortly after his arrest. The MDC’s second-in-command, Tendai Biti, said the arrest shows that “Zanu-PF is not yet ready to work with anyone“. Biti was charged with treason, which carries a public hanging sentence, in the past.
Tensions in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capitol, remain high, with armed military patrolling the streets. Bennett was released on bail with 30 other MDC supporters Tuesday after US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters, “I do not think it indicates any goodwill.” However, the presiding judge ruled that enough evidence exists to hold a trial.
A farmer from birth, Bennett started his own coffee plantation in Chimanimani, a lush region near the border with Mozambique, and became one of Zimbabwe’s top exporters of the crop. Bennett’s farm was expropriated back in 2003, and in 2004 he was arrested for punching the Mugabe-backed justice minister in the face during a heated parliamentary debate. He spent eight months in prison for the incidnet.
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where is Randall Robinson, Jesse Jerkoff, Little Stevie Van Zandt, Stevie Wonder, Ramsey Clark? Oh Yeah, I forgot. Whites don’t count.
@ etb:
Hehe – Jesse Jerkoff! I’m learning the correct terminology here at TRP on a daily basis!