Zimbabwean Revenge

Ever since blacks came to power in 1980 in Rhodesia and the country became Zimbabwe, whites who didn’t emigrate have experienced hard times.  Years of white rule left the black majority with a taste for revenge and retaliation.  Now that they have the power, blacks have harassed whites, especially over the issue of land ownership. White land owners have been threatened, bullied, arrested and had their land confiscated or “purchased’ by government over their opposition.  Whites singled out as “troublemakers” and “racists” have been subjected to harassment and abuse.  This is the story of one such couple, Erik and Pamela Pieters. When their land was “bought” by the government, Erik, working with a “radical” law firm, filed suit to contest the sale and get his property back.  He also wrote letters to the “resistance” newspapers criticizing the government and threw his support to opposition political parties. This earned him the attention of the government’s state security forces.  Pieters was brought in for questioning more than once.  During these “interviews” he was browbeaten and warned to curtail his opposition to the government. But Erik was a stubborn man and he kept writing letters and filing claims.  The word came down to intensify the pressure.   He was again picked up, but this time he was brought to a camp outside Bulawayo, run by Joshua Mutumbami.  The facility had been labeled by Western newspapers as a “torture [...]