(8 May 2000) English/Nat
A white farmer has died in Zimbabwe from injuries suffered in an attack by squatters occupying his farm near Beatrice, 35 miles south of the capital, Harare.
Alan Dunn was attacked in his garage on Sunday afternoon and severely beaten.
Squatters fractured his skull and broke both his arms, according to the Commercial Farmers' Union.
At least 18 people have died from political violence that started in February, when Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change led the defeat of a referendum on a revised constitution.
The attack on Dunn, along with the abduction and beating of two game scouts on Saturday, renewed fears among white Zimbabwean farmers.
More than one-thousand farms are now occupied.
President Robert Mugabe has called the land occupations justified in this former British colony, where one-third of the fertile land is still owned by about four-thousand whites.
Opponents accuse Mugabe of provoking the land crisis to intimidate white farmers and other opposition supporters.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We don't exactly know how it happened. But he heard a noise. He came out to see what the noise was. By the time I got here, the guys had ran off. He was lying here in a critical, critical condition. The girls ran off to the cottages, out of danger and they stayed there until the situation was safe."
SUPER CAPTION: Jason Garret, farm manager]
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I didn't expect this to happen. He was a father figure to me."
SUPER CAPTION: Marius Steyn, farm manager]
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"CT scan showed that there was extensive damage to the brain caused by an unknown object, presumed to be metal objects and this case - I must say - is subject to police investigation."
SUPER CAPTION: Malcolm Boyland, managing director hospital]
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Collective defence, self-defence, is a legal right of everybody. People must be conscious that they're are the target, that they must find collective means of self-defence. People in isolated areas are targets and that they must find a way of either grouping together, defending themselves."
SUPER CAPTION: Morgan Tsvangirai, opposition leader
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
