UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Friday vowed to press ahead with his much-criticized seizure of white-owned farms and launched a blistering attack on the world's powerful nations, saying they should not be allowed to recolonize Africa by stealth.
Mugabe's fierce speech to a special United Nations Millennial Summit put a huge question mark over efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Chief Kofi Annan to give Zimbabwe an escape route out of its worsening land crisis.
Mugabe has been almost universally condemned for allowing black Zimbabwean war veterans to occupy thousands of farms across his impoverished southern African nation.
Mugabe -- who says his land-seizure policy is justified because British colonial rule left 70 percent of the best arable land in the hands of less than one percent of the population -- lashed out at critics such as Britain.
``Their response has been staggering beyond description. My country, my government, my party and my person are labeled 'land grabbers', demonized, reviled and threatened with sanctions in the face of accusations of reverse-racism,'' he thundered.
``But our conscience is clear. We will not go back. We shall continue to effect economic and social justice for all our people without fear or favor.''
Donors, led by Britain, say they will not renew aid until Zimbabwe restores order on the export-earning farms. At least 31 people, including 26 opposition activists and five white farmers, were killed during the farm invasions.
Since June, Mugabe has served notice to acquire more than 2,000 of the 3,041 white-owned farms earmarked for the resettlement of landless blacks. The government has also passed legislation absolving it of responsibility to pay compensation.
Annan gave Mugabe conditional support for the land seizures
Tuesday but said Harare had to settle its differences with key Western donors.
But instead of trying to mollify Britain and other providers of much-needed development aid Mugabe said their headlong dash down the path to globalization threatened the very independence of poorer nations such as Zimbabwe.
``We risk importing the spirit and contradictions of the Victorian era of slavery and colonialism into the new millennium and the New World,'' he said.
``If the new millennium, like the last, remains an age of hegemonic empires and conquerors doing the same old things in the new technological ways, remains the age of the master race, of the master economy and master state, then I am afraid we in developing countries will have to stand up as a matter of principle and say 'Not again'.''
He said the world ran the risk of demanding the reform of national governments and institutions in developing states while doing nothing to overhaul ``undemocratic bodies'' such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations itself.
A typical Zimbabwean peasant, Mugabe said, ``wants to understand why a system which is at the center of poverty, at the center of race relations, at the center of denying developing countries their sense of sovereignty and democracy is made to appear so right, just, fair and a damning standard.''
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Friday railed against critics of his land reform plan and said he will not back down from a campaign to take away farms from descendants of white British colonialists and give them to impoverished blacks.
``Our conscience is clear. We will not go back. We shall continue to effect economic and social justice for all our people without fear or favor,'' he said in a speech to the U.N. Millennium Summit of world leaders.
Mugabe has come under fire for his land reform plan and for supporting violent mobs that have occupied more than 1,600 white-owned farms since February. The unrest has been led by veterans of the war that ended white rule in 1980.
Mugabe used the international forum to defend his policies and blast critics.
About 4,000 whites own one-third of the fertile farmland, where 2 million farm workers and their family members live. About 7.5 million people live on the other two-thirds.
``We have sought to redress this inequity through a fast track land reform and resettlement program,'' he said.
``My country, my government, my party and my person are labeled 'land grabbers', demonized, reviled and threatened with sanctions in the face of accusations of reverse-racism,'' he told the General Assembly.
The U.S. Senate is considering a bill to force Zimbabwe to pay off its debt to the United States and suspend U.S. aid unless law and order is restored and property that was held before January is returned.
On Thursday, addressing a mostly black audience of nearly 1,000 at Harlem's Mount Olivet Baptist Church, Mugabe said that because blacks received no payment for their land, neither will whites.
``We will die clinging to our land,'' he said. ``We shall take the land and pay no compensation.''
While in New York for the summit, Mugabe was served with a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court alleging that he orchestrated a campaign of violence to keep his political party in office, The Washington Post reported in its Saturday edition.
The plaintiffs, who filed the case under a 211-year-old U.S. law that allows foreigners to sue for violations of international law, include relatives of three people slain and a political opponent who claims she was attacked. The lawsuit seeks about $400 million in damages, the Post reported.
Zimbabwe Approves 36% Increase in Govt Spending, AFP Says
Bloomberg News - Sep 8 2000 9:05AM
Harare, Zimbabwe, Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe's parliament approved an additional 35.5 billion Zimbabwe dollars ($657 million) in government spending for this year, a 36 percent increase on its initial budget, reported Agence France-Presse, citing the state-owned ZIANA news agency.
The decision to allocate the extra money was passed by 71 to 51, with many members of the biggest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, voting against the proposals.
The extra finance doesn't include payments on debt of 55.4 billion rand, nearly double the amount originally budgeted.
The increased spending will be financed through state assets sales and government borrowing, said Simba Makoni, Zimbabwe's finance minister.
By Bill
Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 9, 2000; Page A03
Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe who was in New York this week for a
U.N. summit of world leaders, was served with a civil lawsuit Thursday accusing
him and two associates of human rights abuses against political enemies.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges that Mugabe has orchestrated a campaign of violence to keep his political party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriot Front, in power. The plaintiffs include relatives of three people who were slain and a political opponent who claims she was beaten.
"All my clients are looking for is basic justice," said Theodore M. Cooperstein, who hopes to turn the suit into a class action. The conduct by Mugabe and his supporters, Cooperstein said, "violates all international and domestic norms."
Facing his strongest political challenge in 20 years of leadership, Mugabe's government has encouraged the expropriation of hundreds of white-owned farms this year. At least 31 people were killed in the lead-up to parliamentary elections in June. Human rights groups have blamed Mugabe's supporters for much of the bloodshed, alleging they were determined to quash support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The lawsuit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a 211-year-old U.S. law originally meant to combat piracy. The act gives foreigners the right to file civil suits in U.S. courts for injuries suffered in violation of international law. Last month, a jury in New York ordered Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to pay $745 million to a group of women who accused him of killings and other atrocities.
The suit against Mugabe seeks nearly $400 million in damages, though plaintiffs in the past have had great difficulty collecting judgments in such cases.
Mugabe was the second international leader to be served with court papers while in New York. Another group of plaintiffs filed a similar suit against former Chinese premier Li Peng, alleging that he was responsible for the crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989, as well as other violations of human rights. Peng's security guards were served with that suit on Aug. 31 in a hotel garage.
By locating Mugabe in New York, the plaintiffs overcame one of the biggest hurdles in pursuing a human rights case under the Alien Tort Claims Act. Courts typically have held that defendants must be served with such lawsuits while in the United States. The plaintiffs' attorneys got a court order on Wednesday clearing the way for the Secret Service to hand Mugabe a copy of the lawsuit during his New York stay.
But the U.S. government objected, citing concerns by the State Department that Mugabe and the other defendants might be entitled to immunity while on a diplomatic visit. The plaintiffs' attorneys maintained that Mugabe is not immune from the lawsuit because the case involves alleged actions that took place outside his official capacity as Zimbabwe's president.
In light of the U.S. government's position, a judge instructed the plaintiffs to get the court papers to Mugabe on their own. They did so without incident Thursday night, as he was entering a church in Harlem to give a speech.
During his speech, Mugabe defended his plan to take land from white farmers and give it to poor blacks. The Associated Press quoted him as saying, "We will die clinging to our land."
9 September 2000
In this issue :
From the BBC, 8 September
Mugabe blasts West for land criticisms
The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has strongly attacked Western leaders for their economic domination of poor nations and for their criticism of his controversial land reform programme. Speaking at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York, President Mugabe said developing countries would, in the new millennium, have to stand up to what he called the master race, the master economy and the master state. He added that he was being unfairly reviled over his proposals to seize white-owned farmland for redistribution to black people. The proposals have been criticised internationally because of the Zimbabwe authorities' refusal to pay compensation for the land.
From The Times (UK), 9 September
'Merciful' Mugabe says: I could have beheaded Ian Smith
NEW YORK - President Mugabe was explaining to an appreciative audience how his treatment of Ian Smith proved that he was not a mad dictator. "We have not decapitated him," he said of the former prime minister of what was Rhodesia, prompting disappointed mutterings from members of the crowd. "He still has his land. Thank God we are a forgiving people. Now if I was a dictator, if I was autocratic, I long ago would have demanded the head of Ian Smith." There were cries of "yes" and "thief". Mr Mugabe paused, and then in those rich, fruity BBC tones that are a legacy of growing up under colonial rule, he stated: "It would be placed on a dish, in a biblical way." There were whoops and noisy shouts of approval: Why hadn't he just executed the guy? "Nobody recognises that charitable act," said Mr Mugabe. "I did it on behalf of all Africa."
Mr Mugabe, ostracised by many at the UN Millennium Summit over the seizure of white farms in Zimbabwe, had found an adoring reception at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem. Although some protesters had handed out leaflets arguing against him being given the forum, the hall was packed with militant sympathisers. Mr Mugabe was four hours late, which allowed plenty of time for drumming and dancing and for members of the Friends of Zimbabwe to vent their fury against what they saw as continued imperialism in Africa. "Mugabe - keep on kicking colonial butt," said one woman's banner. "This is not a time for peace, it is a time for war," railed Omowale Clay, chairman of Friends of Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe was constantly referred to as "a real president", as opposed to the inhabitant of the Oval Office.
Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, swept in surrounded by a group of heavies and wearing tinted glasses. Despite reports that he has been ill, he repeatedly leapt to his feet to applaud the rhetoric on stage and eventually rose to say a few words about the need for black people to get "what we rightfully deserve" by working outside the political system. But he scampered hurriedly from the stage at word of Mr Mugabe's approach and looked on in raptures as the President entered. While Mr Mugabe punched the air only weakly and leaned heavily on the lectern, he was full of fighting talk as he delivered a sermon about the international dispute over seizures of white farms which have left at least three farmers dead.
He laid the blame for the "quarrel between us and the British" squarely at the door of "Blair and his lot," who he charged with reneging on agreements between Britain and Zimbabwe to fund the purchase of white farms for redistribution. Britain has provided millions of pounds for the process and the government insists it will continue to do so, but only if a proper legal process is followed. "We tried to reason with them," Mr Mugabe said, sadly, of the Blair government, but in the end he had to break the deadlock by amending the constitution to permit seizure without compensation. When the the white farmers' ancestors "seized our land they did not pay compensation so we do not have any duty or moral principle on the strength of which we pay compensation. We shall take the land. We will die clinging to our land," he said to rousing cheers and chants of "take the land. Take the land."
He reiterated the theme in an address to the UN yesterday in which he said that even though he had been "demonised and reviled", his conscience was clear and "we will not go back". He told his Harlem audience: "The fight has no hate in it," but "all talk about fair play emanating from the developing countries is nonsense." Attacking a bill before Congress which recommends sanctions against his "little Zimbabwe", Mr Mugabe suggested that American politicians were in league with the British because the majority of them are "Anglo-Saxons and blood is thicker than water. We blacks have to stick together. We must be able to say an attack on a black in the diaspora is an attack on me". He urged his audience to work to support Zimbabwe in America, or best of all, return to Africa. "I say to yooooou...NOW. I say to you, verrrrry warmly. Come home."
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 9 September
Harlem hails Mugabe as 'our president'
New York – Shunned by his fellow world leaders at the United Nations, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe took his message of racial revenge to Harlem, where an adoring black audience compared him to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Mr Mugabe said his land seizure programme was an effort to "right the wrongs inflicted on us by British colonialism". A series of earlier speakers had roused the crowd by mocking the British as "the Yorkshire-pudding British", saying they cared more about "the poaching of elephants than the killing of African children".
With Zimbabwe's economy spiralling into disarray after 20 years of his autocratic rule, Mr Mugabe is becoming an international pariah. In recent years his support has also ebbed at home. But in Harlem, at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church, black radical groups championed him as both a hero of African nationalism and a fighter against white economic dominance. The audience referred to themselves as members of the black diaspora and to Mr Mugabe as "our real president". His accent seemed to flummox the crowd at first, but after a while they grew used to it and began hissing at the mention of the names Thatcher and Reagan.
He asked was it fair for black Zimbabweans to compensate white farmers for their land. They booed and then cheered lustily when he said: "We shall take the land and pay no compensation." He said that during the recent elections in Zimbabwe, he had felt as though he was "fighting against the British Government" and accused American and European leaders of operating an "Anglo-Saxon conspiracy" against Zimbabwe. He said: "What we hate is not the colour of their skin but the evil deeds which emanate from their colour."
From The Star (SA), 9 September
State-owned site on Zim's land-grab list
Harare - In an increasingly haphazard and error-plagued land reform programme, the Zimbabwe government on Friday announced it will seize an industrial site and a school for redistribution to poor black farmers. A gasoline depot owned by the state oil company is included on the most recent list of properties targeted for confiscation by the government under the programme, which aims to seize white-owned farms for landless blacks. A co-ed private high school with neat sports fields, state-owned forests, and land owned by the government's own railroad company and the Mutare municipal council were among 150 new sites listed on Friday. The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe's storage and pipeline facility outside the eastern border city of Mutare appeared on the list, released by the minister of agriculture, Joseph Made.
The almost weekly lists have been ridden with errors. A defunct oil refinery, shut down because it was too costly to maintain, stands alongside huge gas tanks and the junction of a pipeline to Harare from the Mozambique coast on 560 hectares on the property listed for seizure. The high school Lomagundi College, near Chinhoyi, 115km north-west of Harare, educates the children of well-to-do blacks, who outnumber white pupils, and is known for its sporting prowess. Friday's list brought to 2 076 the number of properties named for confiscation since June 2. The government has said it will identify 3 041 white-owned properties for nationalisation under its "fast track" resettlement programme.
Last month, black farm owners were named on the lists - by mistake, said Made, and added that those affected need only report to district officials to be excused from the seizure programme. But Friday's list still included several black properties. Among them was Philimon Machipisa, a wealthy Harare businessman and former ruling party lawmaker. The list said he should forfeit two farms totaling about 2 000 hectares near Chinhoyi. The CFU, representing 4 000 white farmers, said official records show that Machipisa owns another 10 farms in the same district amounting to another 14 000 hectares. It was not clear whether Machipise would be allowed to appeal the two farms listed on Friday.
Much of Machipise's land lays idle. The government insists it is only seizing underutilised farms, those of absentee owners or farms next to peasant areas suitable for cost-effective resettlement. But the union said two successful horticulture and vegetable producers north of Harare on the list met neither of those criteria. "We have no idea how the selection is being done. We have said we could be of help but no one takes any notice," said David Hasluck, the union director. Made, the agriculture minister, boycotted a two-day union convention that ended on Thursday, after the organisation announced it will sue the government over land seizures it says breach provisions of the government's own land reform law passed by the ruling party in April. The law empowers the government to take land without paying for it. Made has said many of the named properties will be resettled by the start of seasonal rains around November.
With confusion mounting, "it is hard to see where any of this is headed", said Hasluck. The union argues the government has no intention to meet requirements of the law that compensation must be paid for buildings and infrastructure. No evaluations have been carried out on farms listed in June, and some farmers have received eviction notices to vacate by early October. The law said farmers should get 90 days notice before being evicted, but some already received notices giving them 30 days to leave. "It's against the law. It is totally illegal," said Hasluck.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 8 August
DRC denies pledging to repay Zim for war costs
THE DRC never promised to repay Zimbabwe for its efforts in the Great Lakes conflict and there was certainly no "verbal agreement" between the two SADC allies for compensation to be paid to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, the Zimbabwe Independent has been told. Last week Finance Minister Simba Makoni told parliament that Zimbabwe had spent $10 billion in the DRC and had a verbal agreement with Kabila’s government on reimbursement. Military analysts said the figure was a gross understatement of what the government has spent in support of Kabila’s regime. It is believed that Zimbabwe has so far sunk at least $26 billion in the DRC. However, the DRC’s ambassador told the Independent that there was no verbal undertaking that the DRC government would repay the allied forces, or Zimbabwe in particular, for the two-year military campaign which is deeply unpopular with the public. DRC ambassador to Zimbabwe Kikaya bin Karubi said his country was paying for everything and that Zimbabwe was restricting its responsibility to paying the salaries of its 11 000 troops in the Congo.
Karubi denied any knowledge of the "verbal agreement" Makoni referred to, insisting everything was agreed in writing. "Everything was in writing. On the payment of salaries (it was agreed that) they would be paid by the Zimbabwe government which was going to pay anyway even if the soldiers were to stay in Zimbabwe," said Karubi. "Everything else, food, spare parts, uniforms, ammunition is paid for by the DRC government. I cannot state the figure because this is a very sensitive matter. It is not things that we publicise. It cost us so much... spare parts, transport, fuel and everything that the allied forces have as expenditure," Karubi said. He said that the $10 billion figure Makoni gave the House would still have been incurred even if its soldiers were not engaged there. "Every soldier in the DRC has an additional salary, the DRC government has committed to that 100%," Karubi added. "I do not know where Makoni got that figure from, it is not us. Our figure is much higher than the $10 billion," he said…
From The Daily News, 9 September
MDC MPs walk out on $35 billion budget
ALL 57 MDC MP’s yesterday walked out of the House as soon as the Minister of Finance and Economic Development asked Parliament to approve a supplementary budget of $35 billion. Simba Makoni said the money was needed mostly for the Defence, Health and Education ministries. There was chaos as the MDC MPs walked out and immediately went into a two-hour caucus meeting. They said Makoni's move negated the measures he announced on 3 August to revive the economy. "From the MDC's point of view," said Tapiwa Mashakada, the shadow finance minister, "the spending syndrome that has characterised this government for the past 20 years will never go away, no matter what technocrat is appointed finance minister by Zanu PF." Mashakada said the supplementary budget would worsen the situation of ordinary people, already reeling from rising costs of basic commodities.
Makoni introduced the supplementary budget to cover salaries and other operational costs. "Following the 182 percent increase in the salaries of ministers and Members of Parliament in 1999," said Makoni, "the government awarded a 69 to 90 percent increase to civil servants, effective from 1 January 2000. The increase had not been previously budgeted for and has resulted in an additional requirement of $22,8 billion." Eddison Zvobgo (Zanu PF Masvingo South) said $22 billion of the money was for the salaries of civil servants who received whopping increases a few months before the June election. Mashakada said people must adopt a radical political strategy to then solve their economic problems because other options were failing.
When the House began voting on individual items, there was a further outcry on a proposal to increase the vote for the President's Office. The MDC argued that the money would be used to fund underhand activities of the secret service, the Central Intelligence Organisation. That office requires an additional $616 million. Parliament itself needs $56,8 million more. This further infuriated the MDC's David Coltart who immediately proposed that the salaries of MPs be cut by 20 percent to save ordinary people from footing the bill. Makoni's proposals, which were likely to pass because of the Zanu PF majority, sought to direct $9,7 billion to government projects, including the new Harare International Airport. Education and Culture, which had an original budget of $17,3 billion, is asking for $8,1 billion more. Defence received $6,1 billion in addition to the $9 billion in the original budget…
Correction - yesterday we described the ZFU as the union representing mostly black commercial farmers, with the CFU representing mostly white commercial farmers. This was not entirey correct. The ZFU represents black small-scale farmers - presumably the type of farmer which the current "fast-track" land programme is meant to encourage. Mostly black commercial farmers are represented by the Indigenous Commercial Farmers' Union, the ICFU. We hope we have got it right this time.
HARARE, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Relatives of three people killed and another who was allegedly assaulted in the run-up to Zimbabwe's elections said on Sunday that they had filed a $400 million U.S. lawsuit against President Robert Mugabe.
"A lawsuit accusing President Robert Mugabe of human rights abuses was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, September 7th, on behalf of these victims of Mugabe's orchestrated political violence," said human rights activist Topper Whitehead.
"We have had to resort to this action because of the breakdown of law and order in our country and the inaction of the police in bringing known criminals and murderers to book," he told a news conference attended by the plaintiffs.
Mugabe was served with the lawsuit while attending this week's U.N. millennium summit in New York, Whitehead said.
The suit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, which gives foreigners the right to file civil suits in U.S. courts for injuries suffered in violation of international law.
Whitehead said that lawyers for Maria Stevens, Elliot Pfebve, Adella Chiminya and Evelyn Masaiti hoped to broaden the suit into a class action on behalf of the families of at least 28 others, mainly supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, killed during a violent campaign.
Thousands of others were allegedly assaulted and raped and had houses and other properties destroyed.
"The same level of violence that was perpetuated against opponents during and after the elections could still resurface but we are prepared for any eventuality for the purpose of justice," said Pfebve, an MDC official who lost his brother.
"It should serve as a lesson not only to Mugabe but to any future leader that they have to be accountable for their actions," he said.
Stevens' husband David was the first white farmer killed by self-styled war veterans and ZANU-PF supporters who have staged often-violent invasions of white farms since February with Mugabe's support.
Chiminya's husband Tendai, a driver for MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, was burnt to death during a campaign assignment.
The MDC offered Mugabe's party, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, its stiffest ever electoral challenge, grabbing 57 of 120 contested seats in the June vote.
International monitors said the months of political violence and farm invasions had prevented the poll from being free and fair.
LUSAKA (Sept. 10) XINHUA - Zimbabwe will not pull its troops out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) despite its high costs until the Lusaka peace accord is implemented and the United Nations (U.N.) troops deployed, Sunday Mail newspaper reported.
The report quoted Zimbabwean High Commissioner to Zambia Tirivafi Kangai as saying Zimbabwe was aware of the cost implications of its involvement in the DRC but the move was pan- Africanist.
"It is part of our foreign policy to reciprocate and defend a neighboring country that is being invaded," he said in an interview here at the weekend.
He reiterated that Zimbabwe is waiting for the implementation of the Lusaka agreement signed last year, and deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force so that it can pull out its troops and cut costs.
Last week, Zimbabwean Finance Minister Simba Makoni told the parliament that Zimbabwe could ill-afford to continue supporting the war in the DRC which has already cost it 200 million U.S. dollars.