On 6th May 2008 around 1p.m, I was visited by three men at our farm, Chigwell Extension Farm. They told me I had two minutes to vacate my property or they would send the mob. The house was not worth sacrificing our lives for. They said they were like hungry lions. My wife reported the incident to Chegutu Police Station, naming the people involved. I asked them if they would react to any incident, and they told my wife they would speak to the Assistant Inspector. She had seen him before and he had told her to go and make a report at the charge office.

Around 5 p.m the same day, a white Datsun 1800 pickup arrived at the gate with 10-12 people. They asked me to open the gate to talk to me. I refused and we locked ourselves inside. They asked me to come out to speak to them. When I refused, they smashed windows and the front door open. One pointed a single barrel shotgun at us ? we were upstairs. He fired at us and obviously intended to kill us. Then he left and it was quiet for a while before we heard three shots coming from the workers? housing area. They returned with all the workers and fired another shot outside.

I managed to get through to the police station to ask for assistance before there were dead bodies in the house; he said I must phone him in half and hour. Throughout all this, my wife was phoning numerous friends who were at Chegutu Police Station trying to get assistance, with no result. My wife and I also called the Member in Charge on his cell phone and he refused to answer. By then it was dark and the power went off, so we were in darkness and unable to identify our own employees. They used them as a shield to come inside the house and were downstairs chanting and singing and making threats.

They sent one worker upstairs to get my shotgun to take back to them. I refused and he stayed upstairs with us. They then grabbed his son who was downstairs and threatened to either kill, or injure the latter if he didn?t go downstairs with the weapon. He went without the weapon. After about five minutes they used all the singing workers to go upstairs as a shield once more.We tried to identify the workers one by one as they came up, as my wife was standing at the top of the stairs with a can of mace. After 15 workers had come through, she could not identify a person and used the mace and sprayed them. They ran back and out. This incensed the thugs who broke the back door and started a fire in the lounge directly below us. The wooden floor upstairs posed a great threat and we thought we would be burnt alive. Then I said we?d come out and asked if they would let us leave peacefully, which they agreed to do.

We asked the ring-leader to identify himself. We came downstairs and they demanded my shotgun, which was loaded and off safety and I refused. They insisted that I give it to them and as I tried to start unloading it they attacked me. They grabbed my wife around the throat and she started screaming. While they were trying to take my shotgun, three shots went off into the ground as it is a semi-automatic shotgun. They then took my shotgun and wrestled me to the ground and started beating me with what I assume were sticks or pipes, and kicking me with their boots. They dragged my wife outside trying to strangle her. She managed to bite the hand of the man who was grabbing her throat and he started to beat her. At one time there were at least four men beating and kicking her.

They tied me up with rope and threw me into the back of their pickup while my wife was still being beaten. When they had finished beating her, one man grabbed her by her feet and dragged her over to the vehicle. They asked her to stand up and get into the back of the truck which she was unable to do. One grabbed her by her hair, pulled her into a standing position, pushed her up against the back of the truck and told her to get in. She did climb in. They searched her and found the car keys in her pocket and demanded she show them what vehicle the keys were for. They couldn?t find the keys to the other truck.

They drove my vehicle onto the lawn, parked near the truck where I was tied up. The immobiliser for the vehicle went off. They demanded that my wife show them where the switch was situated which she did. One drove off with the vehicle which we never saw again. They still had all the employees on the lawn around a fire that had been lit by the front door and they were still forced to sing. There were about four or five of them around the vehicle watching the two of us, all the time they were shouting verbal abuse and racist comments and threatening to kill one or both of us and stating the manner in which they should kill us.

This must have gone on for almost an hour. They were burning my feet with cigarettes and then we saw vehicle lights shining towards us and my wife was told to get out of the vehicle and was dragged towards the headlights of the vehicle that had arrived. When she got to the vehicle she saw there were four armed policemen from Kadoma Police Station who asked what had happened. She told them briefly and demanded that they fetch me from the vehicle as she feared for my life. One of the thugs came and untied me and told me to get out of the vehicle and made me walk towards the headlights of the parked vehicle. I noticed that they were armed policemen. The incident was described in more detail to them and they accompanied us into the house to get some warm clothing.

Once we were in the house we saw that the gun cabinet had been opened and ransacked and that my weapons were missing. I informed the police that the weapons were missing. They then took us out of the house into their vehicle to Chegutu Police Station. There, they called some superior officer to take a statement but he only arrived as we were leaving for Harare to get urgent medical attention. No police or any authority seemed interested in taking our statement. We were attended by medical staff at the Avenues Clinic where numerous x-rays and CT scans were taken. My injuries were two cracked verterbrae in my lower back, fractured cheekbone and nose, copious bleeding into my sinuses and extensive lacerations and deep-tissue bruising in my face and back and a bite to my right earlobe. My wife?s injuries were fractured cheekbones, fractures around her orbital socket round her eye, perforated eardrum, cracked ribs and extensive bruising to her face and back and throat.

<B>William B. ROGERS & Annette M. ROGERS</B>