Scholieren.com forum - Written by a seventeen year old school girl

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Dear All
Written by a seventeen year old school girl....

This is an account written by a girl in Shannon's class at school. How can this happen to people of her age ?

My Story - Saturday 10th November 2001
Kirsty Colquhoun

At about 8.30 am on Saturday 10 November 2001, my sisters, Fiona and Megan,
and I were watching tv. My dad, Ian, had left earlier for a meeting at
Mvurwi Club and my mum, Peta, was due to leave for another meeting at
Msoneddi at 9.00 am.
Suddenly, she came into the room, having run up from the bottom of the
garden, and told us to close and lock all windows, doors and curtains. Not
knowing exactly what was going on, a mild feeling of panic rose and I could
feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. However, we did this and
managed to get as many dogs and cats inside the main house as we could.
Luckily, Grumpy (our grandpa), Philip Simons, had managed to bypass the
crowd that had forced its way into the security fence and was now making
its way up the driveway and was inside the house with us. He had been
informed by his cattle-boy of the possibility of activity on the farm.
Included with the crowd of squatters were many of the women and young
children from the farm village, all of them having been forced into joining
the crowd, obviously with two motives in mind: firstly, to increase the
crowd size, and secondly, to intimidate them too.

Most of the men were carrying sticks and pangas (huge, crude knives) and
they moved into the back garden and garage. The house staff, garden staff
and a few of the remaining men were also forced to join the women and
squatters, now chanting and singing ZANU-PF slogans, and dancing. Inside
the house we were all relatively calm and went to make coffee in the
kitchen. While we were there, we discovered that the invaders had put a
hose pipe in the laundry and were trying to flood the room. However, the
house being built by farm builders, meant the water flowed straight back
outside as the laundry floor is at a slight slope!! From the office window
we watched the feeble attempts made by the invaders to rouse the crowd -
they did not respond. The men outside were shouting for my mother to talk
to them and she consented on condition they spoke to her through the
window. However, they did not agree to this, so she left it. By this
time, control had been informed as had my father who immediately drove to
ZRP Mvurwi to request a detail be sent down to the farm. Mvurwi Security
were also notified and promised to get there as soon as possible. ZRP said
they would not be able to react immediately as they had no transport.
Meanwhile, on the farm, the invaders had managed to open a window in the
main bedroom and had put a hose pipe and sprinkler inside. I walked
through the house into this room to get something and saw that a huge
puddle was spreading all over the carpet. We managed to push the sprinkler
and hose pipe out of the window and closed it, therefore reducing any
further damage. The bed was soaked through and all of the electrical
equipment, including the tv and video had been soused in water.
The tv room, which is joined to the main house by the verandah, contains a
tv, video, decoder and radio. These too were badly damaged by water, beer
and coke that has been in the fridge on the verandah. The invaders had
simply helped themselves. Memories were ruined - a personal journal
belonging to me, a book I was illustrating for my best friend who is
leaving the country in December, and millions of shells collected every day
on our two week August holiday in Mozambique.

ZRP and Mvurwi Security had still not arrived by 11.00 am and the squatters
were by now the only group chanting and singing outside. The men were
patrolling around the house, and until the day I die, I will never forget
the pure evil and hatred that was so obvious in their eyes. By now a total
of three fires had been built around the house, however, these were
harmless in that they couldn't damage the house. From my bedroom window
(my bedroom being the only room upstairs), we could see that fifteen of our
geese, including six goslings, had been killed and were roasting, fully
feathered, on one of the fires.
The electric fence alarm kept on going off until the invaders managed to
find the main electricity switch, and switched everything off leaving us
with no electricity. During the whole ordeal we had communications with
the outside world via private channels on the radio and cell phones. We
had been informed that a group of farmers had reacted and were waiting at
the next door farm (this being my grandparents farm) with my father, for
the police and Mvurwi Security to arrive. By 11.40 am they were still not
on the neighbouring farm.
International press had been informed of the incident and much photographic
evidence was taken.

After realising that we were not giving them a reaction, the invaders
inserted a hose pipe down the chimney into the main lounge. Luckily we
managed to move the furniture and carpet using superhuman strength, that
could only have come form the adrenaline running through us. Though there
was little damage in this room, the 'spraying' continued. While I was
speaking on the phone to our neighbour, I looked out of the curtain onto
the verandah. Here, the destruction was evident. A 20kg bucket of
chlorine and a 5kg bag of sunflower seed for our birds had been dumped all
over the furniture, plants and floor. The fridge, now empty, was left open
and a sprinkler had been strategically placed to increase the damage (the
chlorine bleached the furniture and floor and burnt the plants).

At about 12 midday, things happened very quickly and are therefore a bit of
a blur. ZRP arrived with Mvurwi Security, following my father and uncle,
William Simons. After managing to get through two roadblocks that had been
set up by the illegal invaders, the Mvurwi Security vehicle had a puncture
and stopped to repair it. The police declined my father's offer to take
them on the back of his truck, preferring to walk. Having heard vehicles
(before they arrived at the bottom of the garden), I went back to the main
bedroom where I discovered a squatter talking to another one outside. They
were obviously panicking, having heard the vehicles arriving too. I think
they imagined a whole huge squad of people and they knew their numbers were
not enough. I then ran into the kitchen, admittedly giggling nervously the
whole way at their inadequacy. I sat on a kitchen counter and pulled the
curtain back to watch what would happen, thinking the police would
effectively disperse the crowd and life would carry on as normal.

How wrong could I have been? When I saw our truck come up the driveway with my
father and uncle inside, I didn't think anything of the fact that the
police were not there to back them up if everything went horribly wrong.
However, they arrived alone and I saw them both get out of the car and they
moved around to the other side of the car, having locked it before. Small
details were suddenly not important as the angry crowd of invaders
surrounded them. I did, however notice the police presence and the fact
that they stood by and watched what was happening. As soon as I saw the
first man in beige overalls attack my father, I screamed and yelled abuse
at them, then opened the window with force. Somewhere in the back of my
mind I knew nothing would help unless I went out there with a weapon of my
own. I jumped off the counter and vaguely remember my mother running up to
me and asking me what I was doing as I searched for the biggest knife I
could think of. I ran outside with this in my hand, but I hadn't thought
of using it, it was just there for protection. I later realised how lucky
I was it hadn't been used on me. My mind has a block as to what happened
next. I do remember Grumpy and my uncle taking me back inside and my
father's head being covered in blood. It is the most sickening memory.
After a bit more shouting from both sides, we walked into the house and
more photographs were taken of the damage. All doors were opened and our
little kitten was rescued from the verandah. She had managed to hide
behind the fridge for these four hours and escaped any harm. The crowd
continued their singing and chanting of pro ZANU-PF songs and slogans and
during this, my father told me to get my sisters and as many animals as I
could off the farm. Adrenaline and anger gave me no time to get emotional,
although my sisters were hysterical. Still holding my knife, I collected
the car keys and only then surrendered my weapon. I walked outside among
the crowd unarmed and got into the car. Some of the women belonging to the
squatters began walking towards me, so I started to car and revved the
engine, warning them to move out of my way. Because I was so angry, it is
the only moment I would have felt no remorse or guilt if I had run someone
over. I opened the window and shouted at one of the armed men to move
these women. One of the women, shouted abuse at me, calling me a bitch and
a white whore. I turned to the Mvurwi Security representative who was
standing nearby telling me to calm down and told him that if this woman was
not removed from my sight within the next two seconds, the car would be
advancing towards her at a rapid rate. To emphasise my point I revved the
engine again and an armed officer pushed her out of my way. Luckily, my
father arrived and pushed a few men who had by now gathered around the car
away, telling them to leave me alone. I was extremely disappointed with
the police's reaction and if I had had even the remotest bit of trust left
in them, it has all gone now. Their inaction spoke volumes about their
true loyalties.

My sisters got into the car with all of the dogs and the kitten and I left
the scene soon afterwards to go to my grandparents house where I knew the
other farmers were waiting. Never before have I driven so fast. My main
objective was to get as far away as possible. as quickly as I could. When
I saw a couple of the farmers and my gran, Isobel Simons, waiting on the
road for me, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Our horrifying day
was finally over and I could now collapse.

I would like to thank everyone who has phoned or sent messages comforting
us. Your support and kindness has been overwhelming and amazing.

Please forward this to as many people as possible. I do realise and
understand that many people try to ignore the reality, but even if a few people read this, it will make a difference.