saying ‘just leave it, because its very sensitive and political. If you are not given land that is now a political issue so better leave it like that for your own safety.’ They are now following up and trying to find out how many members of the opposition were given land so that they can regain it and give it to Zanu-PF people. I heard from war vets that they are reallocating the plots. Their first efforts were haphazard and now they are saying they are going to do it the right way…My friend was lucky in the first round and he was allocated land on the first day. Now they are saying to him that they don’t think he will use that land and they want to take it away. He supports the MDC, that’s the reason. 138 Many NGO experts made similar claims of party-political allocation of land: Beneficiary selection is highly politicized. There is no doubt that this is a politically motivated process, by war veterans and Zanu supporters. Land occupations were orchestrated. These people were genuinely in charge of land occupations. They mobilized people and did it themselves. They were looking for their own faithfuls…There is confusion on who should be in charge of the process, and different people are on the RDC lists from the war veteran lists. Certain people could jump the queue, those with political clout, who were close to the war veterans, so it became automatic for them to get land faster.139 Discrimination in selection of beneficiaries is facilitated by the fact that there are no published records of deliberations or of the reasons for selection or rejection of applicants for land at each step in the formal process. The process is not transparent, and there is no provision for an appeal if an application is rejected. 140 The government has in some cases halted land occupations undertaken in the context of the general endorsement of land redistribution, but not orchestrated by its supporters, and expelled the new settlers. Police have evicted settlers on the Matopos Rhodes Estate, a state-owned national park in Matabeleland South. The land was previously Zapu property and is claimed by the members of Inqama, a movement to restore the capital of Mzilikazi, the founder of the Ndebele kingdom. According to one new settler there, war veterans led the invasion of a former farm, and after they had occupied the area tens of other families joined them, only to be removed by police: When the opportunity came for us to grab the farms, we grabbed them…The February [2000] occupations were led by the war veterans and the government gave in because they were war veterans. To be honest Zanu-PF took advantage of the situation because that was the only tool left to them to gain support after the rejection of the draft constitution, but they empowered us by so doing. The majority [occupying the land] were urban, landless people, though the people invading were veterans…Things were quiet until September when [the police] came down and destroyed our shacks. I was there when the police came. They burnt our shacks. There were three ‘santanas’ [police vehicles] and about twelve policemen. No one was arrested, no one was beaten. We were going to beat them if it was a fight. But we decided it was best to play it cool. At first we stopped them but they said they were calling the army and the Support Unit, so we left. Since then two of the farms have been launched…[but] we were advised by the government not to put up permanent structures.141 138 Human Rights Watch interview, July 18, 2001. Human Rights Watch interview, NGO expert, Harare, July 16, 2001. 140 UNDP Interim Mission Report, January 2002, p.20. 141 Human Rights Watch interview, fast track resettlement farms, Bulawayo, Matabeleland South, August 2, 2001. 139 Human Rights Watch 30 March 2002, Vol. 14, No. 1 (A)