Zimbabwe policeman is denied asylum in Britain... but Robert Mugabe torturer can stay
By Jack Doyle, DailyMail.UK
Last updated at 10:53 PM on 5th June 2011
His British great-grandfather fought for his country in the Boer War and on the Somme before the family moved to Zimbabwe.
Now Guy Taylor has sought refuge in Britain, fearing a return to his native land would leave him facing persecution.
But despite his pleas for asylum in this country, immigration judges have dismissed his bid and he faces being deported.
The 31-year-old's case has provoked fury as it follows the decision to allow one of Robert Mugabe's former henchmen to stay in the UK indefinitely.
Phillip Machemedze was involved in 'savage acts of extreme violence', including smashing a man's jaw with pliers and then pulling out his teeth.
But last month it emerged an immigration tribunal ruled he cannot be sent back to Zimbabwe, as he fears for his human rights and could face torture.
Mr Taylor, by contrast, fears he could be deported within weeks.
He was born in Zimbabwe but his great-grandfather was Welsh and served in the Army during the First World War.
His mother's great-grandfather was born in Dublin and emigrated to South Africa at the turn of the last century.
In his asylum claim, Mr Taylor said that as a former policeman and member of the opposition MDC party he would be targeted by the Zimbabwean authorities who would suspect him of being a British spy.
He left the police in 2000 after it came under the influence of Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party and came to Britain in 2005, where his sister lives.
But judges dismissed his case, saying they were not convinced he was a member of the MDC and that his 'credibility' is damaged as he lived here illegally for two years after his visitor visa expired.
Last night Mr Taylor said: 'If I go back there I will be persecuted.
'I fear for my safety. They are notorious for their brutality.
'I was taken aback that this man, this torturer, can be allowed to stay in the UK and I’m not. I have got a genuine claim for asylum.
'I have put my fears across, I have proved what's going to happen to me, but they won’t listen.'
By contrast, Machemedze has won his case and – failing a successful appeal by the Home Office – will be allowed to stay here indefinitely.
The 46-year-old former member of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation inflicted horrific injuries on Mugabe's political opponents.
He came to Britain in 2000 but didn’t claim asylum for another eight years. His wife has been granted asylum and the couple live in Bristol.
» » » » [Daily Mail]
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Farmer who took Mugabe to court dies of his injuries
07 April, 2011 02:54:00
The Zimbabwean
07 April, 2011 02:54:00
The Zimbabwean
Mike Campbell (79), the Zimbabwean commercial farmer who made legal history when he took President Mugabe to the international court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in 2007 and won the case a year later, passed away at his temporary home in Harare on April 6.
Campbell never recovered from the abduction and brutal beatings meted out to him, his wife Angela and son-in-law Ben Freeth by Zanu-PF thugs late at night in a remote militia camp on June 29, 2008 just two days after the Presidential run-off election.
Eventually their captors forced them at gunpoint to sign a paper stating that they would withdraw from the SADC Tribunal court case, due to be heard in Namibia the following month. They were dumped outside the town of Kadoma from where they were rushed to hospital.
Campbell sustained severe head injuries which resulted in brain damage, broken ribs and damage to his lower limbs caused by a crude and brutal torture method known as falanga.
This involves beating the soles of the feet with iron bars, logs or cables and can result in permanent disability or death due to kidney failure. Campbell’s medical report noted that severe force had been used and that the possibility of permanent damage was likely.
A dedicated farmer and conservationist, Campbell purchased Mount Carmel farm in the Chegutu district in 1975 and spent the next 24 years paying back the loan.
The farm was transferred legally into the family’s company name in 1999 on receipt of a “certificate of no interest” from the Mugabe government which had the first purchase option on any sale.
» » » » [Read Further]
Woman who took part in violent attacks on white farmers in Zimbabwe denied UK asylum
The judge said the state-sponsored mob violence, which saw white famers’ land seized and shared out among President Robert Mugabe’s cronies, was akin to genocide.
By David Gardner, Daily Mail.UK
Last updated at 7:52 PM on 16th September 2010
 Land invasions: A woman who applied for UK asylum admitted she had been involved with gangs who scared white farmers off their properties in Zimbabwe (file photo) |
A woman who admitted taking part in savage evictions of white farmers from their homes in Zimbabwe lost her bid for asylum after a High Court judge accused her of ‘crimes against humanity.’
Mr Justice Ouseley threw out the widowed mother-of-two’s appeal to remain in the UK after she confessed to beating up ten people during two land invasions.
The judge said the state-sponsored mob violence, which saw white famers’ land seized and shared out among President Robert Mugabe’s cronies, was akin to genocide.
 Loyal: The woman, who cannot be identified, said her actions were in support of President Robert Mugabe |
‘We are satisfied that the two farm invasions were crimes against humanity,’ he said, likening the 39-year-old woman’s role to a concentration camp guard who followed Nazi orders during the Holocaust.
The woman, who cannot be named, came to Britain illegally in 2002 and did not claim asylum until six years later.
Her bid for refugee status was rejected on the grounds that her own violent actions in Zimbabwe disqualified her from humanitarian protection in this country.
She admitted to being part of a gang of thugs from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party who invaded two white-owned farms intent on causing maximum terror and driving away black workers.
The woman, referred to only as ‘SK”, agreed she had beaten up to ten people whilst their homes burned, ‘inflicting enough pain to get them to run away.’
She said that on one occasion, she beat a woman so badly she thought she would die.
However, she insisted she had taken part in the raids under duress to prove her loyalty to Mugabe’s regime and she had never intended to kill anyone.
» » » » [Read Further]
White Refugee Pensioners in Zimbabwe Today
 A White Refugee Pensioner in Zimbabwe; supported by the Zimbabwe Pensioners Support Fund |
Zimbabwe Today:
Once considered the Breadbasket of Southern Africa, today Zimbabweans face the following:
- 90% unemployment
- Major shortages in most consumer goods and raw materials
- Fuel shortages and when petrol is available, it is hugely unaffordable
- A cost of living that far exceeds earnings income
- Widespread Famine and Disease
- An excessively corrupt goverment
- Lawless Society and extensive media censorship
- An economy that has collapsed - all transactions are now in Rand or US$
- Pensioners that are destitute and without means of support
How did This Happen?:
» » [Mugabe and the White African]
» » [Why Were We So Wrong About Mugabe?]
» » [The Sixth Weapon: Ethno-Cultural Warfare]
» » [Frank Ellis on Zimbabwe & SA Farm Murders]
» » [UK Immig. Judge: Zim Farm Invasions = Genocide]
» » [White SA's & Zim's: World's Euro Coalmine Canaries]
» » [Roy Bennet 2 UK: Thanks for Our Zimbabwean ‘Democracy’!]
» » ['Life was better under White Rhodesia Gov.' - Black Zimbabweans]
» » [From Rhodesia's Kings Feast Breadbasket to Zimbabwe's Basketcase]
» » [Christiane Amanpour interviews Robert Mugabe; Re 'Reconciliation']
» » [Africa's Indiginisation -- Bread Basket to Basket Case -- Pied Piper....]
» » » » [Read Further]
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