| The Unleashing of Violence: A report on violence in Zimbabwe as at May 15, 2000 |
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Contents Violence on Commercial Farms « » Section
A Allan Dunn, aged 48, was murdered on Sunday 7 May 2000 at his Maasplein Farm in Beatrice, which is 50 km south of Harare. Mr Dunn was relaxing at home with his wife and three daughters when he heard a disturbance outside. He went to investigate and was attacked by a group of six men who attacked him with blunt objects, namely building blocks and folding chairs made out of metal. They then dragged him into the garage where they left him for dead. Dunn had broken bones and serious head injuries. He was rushed by plane to a hospital in Harare but he died at about 11.30. After the attack on Dunn nothing was stolen from the farm. The assailants simply ran away. Dunn’s farm had apparently not been occupied by war veterans. The assailants were allowed to enter the main gate of the farm by security guards at the farm because they thought they were PTC employees come to carry out repairs. Dunn was a regional executive member of the MDC. A police spokesman said on 8 May that the police had not yet established whether the attackers were war veterans or criminals. No arrests had been made. One farm manager, Marius Stein, described Dunn as a "good man" who looked after his workers. Farm operations would continue, he said. "He would have wanted us to carry on. For his sake, and for his wife's sake, we've just got to carry on," he said. The Herald had this to say on whether the assailants were war veterans:
On the other hand, this is what The Daily News had to say: " . . witnesses told The Daily News that a group of war veterans, who had been camping at the farm for some time went to Dunn’s farmhouse under the pretext that they wanted to "negotiate with him" over the land issue. Jason Garrat, the manager of the farm, said the ex-combatants drove to Dunne’s house and assaulted him with hard objects. He said the war veterans then fled, leaving Dunne for dead. . . .A neighbour who refused to be named, said the war veterans had pretended they wanted to negotiate with him. Allan obviously thought they really wanted to negotiate with him but to the surprise of everyone, the war veterans attacked him with chains, bricks and stones. . . .Dunne’s wife and three daughters witnessed the whole incident. The family called for help through the farm radio but the police at Beatrice ‘took a long time to respond because they are also scared of these people. Allan had been on holiday in South Africa . . . He came back during the week and that was when he found people on his farm.’ The Mail and Guardian carried this report of the farmer’s widow: 9 May Allan Dunn’s wife, Sherry, accused a well-known war veteran of being behind her husband's. Without naming the official, Dunn said her husband had defeated him in rural council elections in the district two years ago. "He has had a vendetta against Alan for a long time," she said. Dunn said she had not seen her husband's attackers, but she said. "I heard a lot of screaming and ran inside to tell the kids to hide." While running with her three daughters to a cottage on the property, she heard the sounds her husband being beaten. "I heard Alan shouting ‘ouch, ouch’," she said. She got on to the farming radio network and alerted other farmers in the area, who raced to her rescue. By then the assailants had fled. The incident was clearly politically motivated and not the work of criminals as police are claiming, she said. She confirmed that her husband had been a supporter of the MDC, but he had not been "all that politically involved." "It was sheer murder," she said. She added that threats had been made against her husband in the past but declined to elaborate. Asked about Dunn's murder, Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi said: "There is nothing to say. He's dead." TOP |