ZIMBABWE: HUNDREDS OF MOURNERS ATTEND FUNERAL OF MURDERED WHITE FARMER MARTIN OLDS IN BULAWAYO

Record ID: 319127

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: HUNDREDS OF MOURNERS ATTEND FUNERAL OF MURDERED WHITE FARMER MARTIN OLDS IN BULAWAYO
  • Date: 22nd April 2000
  • Summary: BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE (APRIL 22, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE VIEW OF CHURCH 0.05 2. SV: CHURCH SIGN 0.09 3. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ARRIVING AT CHURCH (4 SHOTS) 0.24 4. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER ROSENFELS SAYING: "We are looking at refugee status. I am already a refugee. I am living in Bulawayo. I am at a funeral. I don't have a tie or a jacket. Perhaps we will be in Botswana. But now I don't see us going to South Africa where it looks like this will follow suit." 0.39 5. SV/PULL OUT: PEOPLE ENTER CHURCH (2 SHOTS) 0.51 6. SV: MARTIN OLD'S WIDOW ARRIVES AT THE CHURCH ON CRUTCHES 1.04 7. VARIOUS OF INTERIOR OF CHURCH SERVICE (5 SHOTS) 1.22 8. SLV/MV: MARTIN OLD'S COFFIN IN CENTRE OF CHURCH (2 SHOTS) 1.32 9. MV: PEOPLE STAND UP TO SING 1.32 10. CLOSE UP OF MARTIN OLD'S WIDOW CRYING 1.50 11. WS: INTERIOR OF CHURCH 1.53 12. SCU: MEN WATCHING CHURCH SERVICE 1.57 13. WIDE OF REVEREND PAUL ANDRIANATOS SPEAKING FROM THE ALTER 2.00 14. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) REVEREND ANDRIANATOS SAYING: "Don't vote for a party that encourages lawlessness. I believe that every vote for such a party is a vote for the devil, a vote for oppression, a vote for anarchy, a vote for dictatorship." 2.22 15. MV: PEOPLE ATTENDING SERVICE 2.26 16. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) IN-LAW DAVID GIFFORD SAYING (CLOSE TO TEARS): "He will not grow old as we who are left grow old. Age will not weary him, or the years condemn (him). The going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember him." 2.58 17. CU: MOURNER AT THE SERVICE DROPS HER HEAD 3.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 7th May 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BULAWAYO (500 KM SOUTH OF HARARE), ZIMBABWE
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Reuters ID: LVANDTPIOEPGLHK0D4YQLND7D9I
  • Story Text: Hundreds of mourners have turned out to bid a tearful
    farewell to slain white Zimbabwean farmer, Martin Olds, at an
    emotional ceremony south of the country's capital Harare.The
    service itself took on some political overtones as the priest
    proclaimed that every vote for Zimbabwean President Robert
    Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was "a vote for the devil".

    The memorial service took place in Bulawayo on
    Saturday (April 22) as about 600 people crowded into the St.

    Andrew's Presbyterian Church almost 400 kilometres (240 miles)
    southwest of Harare.

    Martin Olds, 44, had been bludgeoned and shot to death
    on Tuesday (April 18)
    when his Compensation Farm was attacked by more than 100
    people wielding AK-47 assault rifles, machetes and metal
    poles.

    He was the second farmer to be killed along with a
    policeman and a black farm foreman in a government-endorsed
    campaign of violence against the country's predominantly white
    farming community.Three opposition activists have also been
    killed ahead of elections due by August.

    Apart from the murders, several farmers and many of
    their workers have been badly beaten.Many have been forced
    to flee their homes and have taken refuge in the towns and
    cities.

    Before the service began local farmer, Peter Rosenfels,
    insisted that that he is already living as a refugee.He
    said: "I am living in Bulawayo.I am at a funeral.I don't
    have a tie or a jacket.Perhaps we will be in Botswana.But
    now I don't see us going to South Africa where it looks like
    this will follow suit".

    At an occasion shrouded with mourning and uncertainty,
    Martin Old's disabled wife Catherine, and her two teenage
    children, Martine and Angus, arrived to take their place next
    to Martin's mother, Gloria.

    Martin's coffin was at the centre of the church as a
    painful reminder of the lives lost in the escalating unrest in
    Zimbabwe.

    Critics accuse President Robert Mugabe who has been in
    power since independence in 1980, of manufacturing the crisis
    to divert attention from the collapsing economy and to give
    his ZANU-PF party a chance of retaining power.

    During the service the Reverend Paul Andrianatos told
    the mourners that the government and Mugabe were to blame.

    He called Mugabe a criminal and an enemy of the state.

    Andrianatos, encouraging people not to vote for Mugabe
    in the upcoming elections likened the Zimbabwean president to
    the devi.He said: ",...don't vote for a party that
    encourages lawlessness.I believe that every vote for such a
    party is a vote for the devil, a vote for oppression, a vote
    for anarchy, a vote for dictatorship."
    Martin Old's brother in law was close to tears, yet
    defiant, when he addressed over 600 mourners present, slamming
    his fists on the pulpit and saying that "we will remember
    him".

    Other farmers and friends who attended the service
    condemned what they described as a sell-out by South African
    President Thabo Mbeki who, together with leaders from
    Mozambique and Namibia, on Friday (April 21) rallied round
    Mugabe and blamed the British for the current land crisis.

    The situation came to a head when thousands of
    self-styled veterans of the former Rhodesia's liberation war
    invaded hundreds of the 4,500 commercial farms which form the
    backbone of Zimbabwe's economy.

    The veterans continue to demand the right to the farming
    land which they say was stolen by British colonists over a
    century ago.

    On the same day as the memorial service police moved
    onto occupied farms in Zimbabwe to free two abducted white
    farmers, in the first sign of a possible turnaround in the
    country's escalating land and political crisis.


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