The State of the Nation.
Can you tell me where this year has gone? Yesterday we were welcoming the new millenium and now today we are on the edge of 2001 and what a year this has been. On Wednesday we listened to all 45 minutes of a "state of the nation" address by Mugabe in the House of Parliament. It was a clever example of how to paper over the cracks and pretend that everything was OK despite one or two slight problems. So I thought we should write our own version of the "state of the nation" for posterity.
Twelve months ago we left the 20th Century and advanced into the 21st Century. We left behind a century of turmoil and some progress.
We started out with a population of 400 000 in 1900 and ended with a population of 11,3 million (in the country that is) in the year 2000. At the beginning of the century we had a tiny mining industry, some organised agriculture, about 12 pubs and four towns – no cities. The largest, Bulawayo was built on the smoking ruins of the capital of the Amandebele and contained about 15 thousand people, we had one or two schools and no institutions of higher learning. The majority of the people were living in a simple tribal culture that had not changed for centuries. A handful of whites from South Africa and mainly the United Kingdom were taking up residence and it took weeks to travel from Johannesburg to Fort Salisbury (now Harare).
In December 1999, we left the century with a small modern economy, a highly diversified mining industry and some tourism. We have 57 Rural Councils and 25 Urban centers with about 5 million inhabitants. We have 7 Universities and some 8 000 other institutions of learning. We have the most educated population in Africa and the proportion of whites in the population, despite 80 years of white government, had fallen by about half to 0,75 per cent of the total population. Our infrastructure was amongst the most advanced in Africa and we had had 20 years of comparative peace after a bitter civil war, one that on a proportional basis had cost us double the casualties incurred by the Americans in Vietnam. Although heavily indebted, we had a vibrant economy and were very largely self sufficient, the center of the economy being a sophisticated commercial agricultural system that enjoyed widespread recognition.
The first year of the new millenium has been slightly less auspicious in its outturn than the previous century. We increased our national debt by 50 per cent in twelve months, drove inflation up to new heights while all our neighbours controlled theirs to less than double figures. We reduced our average standard of living by 20 percent and reduced employment by 10 per cent across the board. We savagely attacked the commercial farming system, which was the only part of our economy still expanding and overturned the sacred principles of justice, equality before the law and the basic obligation of government, which is to protect its citizens.
We tried to subvert the peoples will in so far as a new constitution is concerned and reintroduced terror as a standard political tactic for survival when your popularity has fallen to record lows. In a period of three months from April to June 2000, the state sponsored 50 000 recorded incidents of political violence against its own people, killing at least 34 without a single prosecution. That must be some sort of a record in itself. We tightened the government’s political control over the media and fought a running battle with civil society, which tried with mixed results, to protect the people’s rights to freedom of information and expression.
We successfully completed the transformation of our international relations, turning Zimbabwe, which at one stage had been a favorite of the world community, widely respected for its achievements in health and education, into an international outcast with few friends in the world. We lost the support of the entire community of donor institutions and even succeeded in alienating our closest allies in the Nordic States who were left feeling hurt and somehow used. Even the UN, the IMF and the World Bank abandoned us despite our huge problems and said they could not help until we corrected our governance practices, something we could not do without conceding defeat to an upstart political movement that was less than one year old.
We saw record numbers of people leaving the country for greener pastures and our own business community saw little hope of any turn around in the economy despite the rhetoric pouring out of the state media. Tourist and business arrivals in the country dropped to 50 year lows and all but BA stopped coming to Harare International Airport where the most expensive airport building in Africa lay waiting in the sun, unable to function because the government could not find the money to import essential equipment. By the end of the year our world class tobacco industry lay in ruins, our food self sufficiency completely undermined by the pending collapse of commercial agriculture. The mining industry was reeling under the impact of threats to extend the fast track land program to all sectors of the economy and the refusal of the state to follow its own policy guidelines for the value of the Zimbabwe dollar in a highly inflationary situation. Motorists waited in line for up to two days to obtain fuel and the future of the industrial economy was widely regarded as being in jeopardy.
As far our much-vaunted health and education systems, they lie in shambles, crippled by high inflation and declining support from the state. Our educated people serve the economies of the entire region and thousands work in the far-flung capitals of the world. Our population, once healthy and growing rapidly, is now in decline due to aids deaths and emigration. Even those who remain, the majority can only afford to eat once a day and many sleep rough at their jobs during the week because they cannot afford to travel home. Two million urban people (40 per cent) are homeless and live in misery in crowded shacks in urban slums. The largest and most sophisticated army in Africa props up a regime in the Congo that denies its people democracy, freedom of speech and association and even the most basic services. All at the expense of the Zimbabwe taxpayer who continues to pay over 80 per cent of his gross earnings to the state with little to show for it in return.
In the past decade life expectancy has dropped 10 years and incomes have halved. In the year 2000 we managed to accelerate both declines – the economy by at least 7 per cent and life expectancy by 18 months. Our local government system was in a shambles with all but a minority of Rural Council now in breach of the Audit and Exchequer Act and the majority of urban councils operating illegally because the government did not want to face local government elections. The IMF put the cap on it at the turn of the year by saying that if the government maintained its present policies they forecast a 10 per cent decline in GDP in 2001 with 155% inflation and further losses of jobs and activity in all sectors of the economy.
Not a bad record for a government who thinks it should remain in power indefinitely and calls its opposition "ignoramuses". Not a bad record for a President with 6 University degrees and a known intellect who has taken on himself the powers of a dictator and who brooks no debate about a successor even though he is 76 years old and father time is now at the gates of his life. Not bad for a Catholic Marxist who has now abandoned any pretext to any form of integrity and who is stripping the assets of the state sector with a speed that suggests that he knows that he is not long for this world.
How can a president with that kind of record stand up in front of his people and defend his record – how can 62 elected Zanu PF members of Parliament and 30 appointed Parliamentarians applaud the performance in front of the media. Shame on them all. What a travesty of justice, what a tragedy for Zimbabwe and all Africa. Lets pray that next Christmas we will not have to put up with a similar performance and that the perpetrator of this tragedy will have played out his last scene. We can do better, we deserve better.
I find it difficult to wish you the standard Christmas greetings when so many of our friends are on isolated farms and fear for their lives and those of their families and their staff. We do not know what the New Year will hold for us but we do know who holds the future, and this is His birthday, after all. Perhaps it’s a privilege to live on the edge like this – we must depend on Him or we would go nuts. That’s why He is called the savior of the world in which we live.
Eddie Cross
23rd December 2000.
Please note that this note is personal and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Movement for Democratic Change.
| UK farmers set up fund to help fleeing Zimbabweans | |
|
12/25/00 8:16:10 AM (GMT +2) |
Agriculture Reporter
COMMERCIAL farmers in
Britain have set up a trust fund to assist Zimbabwe farmers fleeing the country
as a result of instability created by farm invasions.
The trust, called the
Farmers' Trust Fund (FTF) and administered by the British commercial farmers, is
funded by donations from Britain and elsewhere for the relief of "destitute"
Zimbabwean farmers and their employees who seek refuge anywhere in the
Commonwealth.
A similar trust, the Farm Families Trust (FFT) has also been
established by the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) locally to help commercial
farmers and their employees, who have been forced to leave the country.
FFT
vice-chairman Richard Winkfield said: "A couple of farmers in the UK were
concerned with the current state of chronic lawlessness that prevails in the
rural areas of Zimbabwe and they decided to set up a fund to assist any
commercial farmer or worker who leaves Zimbabwe to any commonwealth country."
Winkfield did not disclose how much the British fund amounted to, but could
only say the money, "runs into thousands of pounds".
A widowed farmer's
wife, Cathy Olds, whose husband, Martin, was allegedly murdered by war veterans
in Bulawayo just before the June parliamentary election this year, has since
left Zimbabwe for Britain and is so far the only known beneficiary of the FTF.
In Zimbabwe, the FFT has raised more than $6 million from more than 300
corporate and individual sources, of which $4 million has been disbursed to farm
workers and farmers' families affected by the violence unleashed against them by
war veterans, since February this year.
Winkfield said: "The FFT and the FTF
work closely together with all disbursements being advised and recommended from
FFT Zimbabwe.
"A tremendous amount of support and encouragement has been
given by farmers and others in the UK, with letters of commitment being received
also from other parts of the world."
Six commercial farmers and more than 20
farm workers have been killed since war veterans unleashed a reign of terror in
the countryside and invaded and occupied commercial farms early this year.
| The real Mugabe has now stood up | |
|
12/25/00 8:08:21 AM (GMT +2) |
What motivates a leader
to destroy his country's economy in order to hold on to power?
A number of countries have
had to face up to this question in the past 30 or so years. The best-known
example is the communist revolution in China.
Launched by Mao Ze Dung and
using the enthusiasm and commitment of millions of young Chinese, Mao set out to
destroy the existing economy and the elite that ran it. In the subsequent purge,
millions were displaced and many killed or maimed for life.
This was
followed by Pol Pot in Cambodia. His young cadres butchered an entire generation
of educated and experienced Cambodians. Cambodia will take a hundred years to
recover.
In Africa we have numerous examples: Idi Amin in Uganda, the
kleptocratic regime of Mobutu Sese Seko in then Zaire, Jean Bedel Bokassa of the
Central African "Empire" and others.
Now President Mugabe is seemingly
prepared to sacrifice everything he has achieved over the past 20 years in order
to hold on to power, destroying the economy of Zimbabwe and deliberately driving
away key elements of the population which stand in the way of his goals.
The
question is: why do they do it? The Khmer Rouge revolutionaries truly believed
in what they were doing. They rejected the basis on which modern societies are
built and managed and attempted to establish an environment in which people
would have more simple, subsistence lifestyles.
There was nothing like that
in the case of the African despots: they simply wanted power and the opportunity
to enrich themselves and their cohorts.
Mugabe is slightly different. He is
an intellectual of some considerable capacity and he is also a committed Marxist
and a lifelong Catholic. In his everyday lifestyle, he is not known for excesses
and has been reasonably monogamous. A fitness fanatic, he works out on a regular
basis at home and despite his 76 years looks fit and well. Why this aberrant
behaviour?
In 1974 when John Vorster and Kenneth Kaunda launched a
reconciliation exercise in southern Africa, the main leaders of the two
nationalist parties in Zimbabwe at the time (Zanu and Zapu) were released from
prison.
A colleague and I decided we would interview the main players one by
one and try to assess what they stood for in economic and ideological terms. One
of the six leaders we chose was Mugabe.
This interview was worrying. He was
dispassionately committed to a revolution which would see the whites eliminated
from the country, the modern, urban economy reduced to marginal importance and
the emergence of a simple, subsistence community that would be self-sufficient
and would not need the outside world.
When Mugabe came home at the end of
the war, we all wondered what kind of leadership he would provide. Our fears
were assuaged when he promised reconciliation and the creation of a state in
which we could all find a place in the sun. The first few years were good.
Then came the period from 1983 to 1987 when he systematically tried to
eliminate Ndebele opposition to his rule.
The leadership of Zapu eventually
caved in and signed the 22 December 1987 Unity Accord. An uneasy calm was
restored, but it was the peace of fear in a prison camp.
Mugabe did not like
the situation he had inherited at independence. He did not control the armed
forces. They were loyal to the State but he wanted personal loyalty.
He did
not want an outward-looking, export-led economy, but he was forced to accept an
economy that was over 50 percent dependent on foreign trade and which needed
that trade and the inflow of resources to maintain its lifeblood.
Because of
the conditions, engineered by the United States and Britain, under which he came
to power, Mugabe was essentially a prisoner of circumstance in the first decade
of Zimbabwe's independence.
He also lost ground in Zanu PF itself as the
conservative, traditional forces in the country rapidly took control at the
expense of the young revolutionaries who had been at the forefront of the armed
struggle.
However, the campaign against Zapu and the Ndebele in the early
1980s showed a ruthless streak that would ignore world opinion in order to
obtain what he regarded as being an essential goal.
Somewhere along the way
he also lost his commitment to honesty in financial matters as far as his own
personal affairs were concerned and those of his key henchmen.
Corruption
became more and more widespread and is now endemic in all activities of
government. It's a small step from this to ignoring the rule of law and
decisions by the courts and the wholesale abuse of basic rights.
So long as
he felt secure, he did not bother with the remnants of the white minority who
had remained in the country. They remained stubbornly influential in economic
terms and, against all the odds, began slowly to expand their population again.
This all changed when the labour movement, long a thorn in his side,
committed itself to forming a political party and challenging the hold of Zanu
PF on government.
When this became a threat, the real Mugabe stood up.
So here we are, fighting for our country and our lives against a ruthless
dictator who is prepared to sacrifice the economy of his country, not just for
the pursuit of personal power, but also because this is where his heart has been
since he was in prison in the 60s and early 70s.
What we have to keep in
mind is that time and history are on our side. It is possible that, just as in
China where the struggle to overcome the internal conflicts of the Red
Revolution laid the foundations for Chinese economic growth and recovery, so it
may be in Zimbabwe.
Largely in reaction to Mugabe's excesses, we have in the
Movement for Democratic Change a new generation of political leadership
genuinely committed to a social market economy and democracy, a movement in
which minorities (Ndebele or white African) are fully accepted as ordinary
Zimbabweans.
Perhaps we are at last laying the foundations for a period of
economic growth that will reveal the potential of this great little country.
It's a vision worth working and waiting for.
| Travellers stranded as fuel crisis deepens | |
|
12/25/00 9:10:15 AM (GMT +2) |
Daily News Correspondent, Bulawayo
The fuel crisis hit the
tourism industry hard as hundreds of visitors from South Africa failed to get
transport at the Beitbridge Border Post where the volume of people crossing the
border increased during the festive season.
The border post is open for
24 hours for the convenience of travellers.
Zimbabwe is facing critical fuel
shortages, which have been blamed on mismanagement at the National Oil Company
of Zimbabwe as well as the shortage of foreign currency.
Thousands of border
jumpers who have sought economic refuge in South Africa are among those in the
scramble for transport back home.
Some travellers who phoned The Daily News
yesterday said taxi operators were now inflating the fares, capitalising on the
shortage of transport. Others who were driving in from down south said they were
stuck after running out of fuel.
"The problems start with the goods
clearance at the border post, which is very slow and when you come into
Zimbabwe, there is no fuel," said Paul Stevens, a visitor from South Africa.
The fuel crisis has cost the country millions in foreign currency as
would-be tourists have stayed at home for fear they could get stuck in Zimbabwe
without fuel to return home or even to see the sights.
A Zimbabwean living
in South Africa back home on holiday said the situation was "frustrating" and
urged Zimbabwean political leaders to "put their act together or accept
responsibility and go".
A number of "crisis businesses" are said to be
mushrooming in Beitbridge, particularly the sale of fuel to stranded motorists.
Hundreds of people were yesterday stranded at Mucheke bus terminus as there
were no buses to their rural homes because of the current fuel crisis.
The
bus station became an instant squatter camp overnight as people from as far as
Botswana and South Africa spent days at the terminus.
"We have been here
since Thursday," said Joyce Mhlanga, a Zimbabwean living in South Africa. "We
are failing to get transport to our rural homes. We learnt on Saturday that the
buses which usually service our rural area had been withdrawn because of the
fuel crisis."
Many people had to cancel their plans to travel to their rural
homes because of the transport problems.
Most of them blamed the government
for failing to secure enough fuel stocks for the festive season.
"I have
decided to go back to Harare because there are no buses to take me to Chipinda
in Zaka," said Jethro Sivaya. "We used to have only three buses servicing the
area but we have heard that they have been withdrawn by the operator because of
the diesel shortage."
Transporter Enock Chirondo said he cancelled some of
his routes because of the shortage of fuel.
He said most of his buses were
parked at the depot because there was no diesel.
In Masvingo, only one fuel
station had fuel yesterday and queues stretched for almost a kilometre.
Many
motorists said they had spent the whole night in the queue.
"We do not know
whether we are going to make it to our rural homes," said Michael Maruto, a
motorist. "We have been queueing for fuel all night long but there are no signs
that we are going to get it."
Energy Bara, Masvingo
MIKE Clarke, Masvingo
Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) regional chairman, has called on the government
to reconsider its position on the return of the rule of law to the commercial
farming areas.
Clarke said the tension on
the farms occupied by the war veterans and so-called landless villagers in the
province had reached alarming levels.
"We are calling on the government to
allow the rule of law to prevail because there is need to address the land issue
without playing political games. We know who is arming the war veterans and this
is one of the government's tactics to intimidate commercial farmers," said
Clarke.
He said because of the mounting tension on the farms in Masvingo,
the invaders had barred over 200 commercial farmers from planting the maize
crop.
This, he said, would seriously affect maize production in the country
which might result in the importation of the staple food next year.
"We want
farmers to be allowed to plant their crops. This is the time to solve the land
issue. It is of concern that the invaders have barred farmers whose farms were
not earmarked for resettlement from planting the maize crop.
"The country
cannot afford to import food when it is facing a serious shortage of foreign
currency," he said.
In the Masvingo East commercial area, work on the farms
has been disrupted by war veterans who accuse farmers of training militia to
deal with the invaders.
At Yetton and Marah Ranch and Lothian Farm, owners
have not been allowed to plant any crop, while farm workers have been
threatened.
"We are saying farmers whose farms were not earmarked for
resettlement should be allowed to plant their crops without any interference.
Farm workers should not be threatened to allow business to continue," he said.
In Chiredzi scores of war veterans moved from Escort Farm into Wasara Ranch
last week.
The invaders immediately began to allocate plots to each other,
accusing the land task force of being "too slow".
Generally, plot allocation
has degenerated into a free-for-all after it became clear to the invaders that
the government lacked the necessary resources to speed up the resettlement
process.
"Work stoppages continue at Lothian Farm," said the CFU. "The owner
of Yetton and Marah Ranch had to make a hasty retreat after war veterans alleged
that the security guards on the farm were trained militia."
_______
President Robert Mugabe describes whites as `our real
enemy.'
ENTERPRISE VALLEY, Zimbabwe -- Not for 50 years had
oxen been used to plow on Owen Connor's farm. Mechanization made it one of the
most productive farms in the district.
But ox plows are back now, gouging ragged, widely spaced furrows
for hand-scattered corn seed. The tillers are ruling party militants and
squatters who have camped illegally on Connor's property since February.
He can't stop them. The government and police have refused court orders to
remove the squatters. The squatters are black, Connor is white, and a legacy of
racial resentment is proving more powerful than the economic imperatives of
modern farming.
``We've gone back half a century in time to an age before technology,'' said
Connor.
For this 67-year-old farmer, the political upheaval of the past year and the
long-festering issue of land add up to a litany of woes: corn and wheat
production slashed by half, a forest of lumber worth $150,000 razed by the
occupiers for firewood, Connor's workers assaulted, his cattle prevented from
grazing, disease and parasites infecting his livestock.
A neighbor has been allowed to milk the cows to spare them ruptured udders,
but squatters took some of the milk and prevented the rest from being
refrigerated and taken to market, he says.
``Now the rains have come, the squatters are frantically trying to plant.
It's absolutely chaotic; it's a free-for-all everywhere. I don't know what we
are going to do to survive,'' Connor said.
He said he has moved his family's personal effects and valuables into storage
after receiving death threats and being told his homestead, 30 miles northeast
of the capital, Harare, would be fire-bombed.
``They seem to want to make it untenable for us, to drive us out,'' Connor
said.
Connor grew up on the farm. As a teenager, he toiled to clear virgin land
with oxen until the family bought its first tractor.
He and his son, Kevin, 41, have both been honored for producing more than
four tons of corn, the nation's staple food, per acre.
VIOLENT DISRUPTIONS
Since February, occupiers led by ruling party militants and veterans of the
war that led to independence in 1980 have seized land on about 1,700 white-owned
farms, often violently disrupting production. At least seven white farmers have
been slain.
President Robert Mugabe says the occupations are a justified protest against
disproportionate land ownership.
On Dec. 14, the president urged supporters to keep up the fight with
Zimbabwe's whites and their ``black puppets.'' ``Our party must continue to
strike fear in the hearts of the white man, our real enemy,'' he said.
The government has begun nationalizing hundreds of the 3,000 farms it says it
will carve up and hand over to landless blacks without compensating the white
owners.
It argues that 20 years after independence, three-quarters of Zimbabwe's 12.5
million people are poor, while many of the 4,000 white farmers are rich. The
land seizures, it says, will avert a bloody uprising that Mugabe has so far
managed to prevent.
``Zimbabwe has found a lasting solution to the land problem -- giving land to
the masses in a massive way. There will be no compromise,'' said Willard
Chiwewe, a senior ruling party official.
CORRUPTION ALLEGED
Mugabe's opponents say the government's land reform program is corrupt and
mismanaged, with many nationalized farms going to politicians and their cronies.
They contend the latest land seizures are a ploy to bolster Mugabe's waning
support among about 7 million landless poor.
Connor's farm has been targeted by the government for confiscation. Ian
Millar's has not. But both are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Millar farms grain, soya and bananas on 1,600 acres about 20 miles north of
this lush valley.
Occupiers have prevented his 320 workers from entering the fields for several
weeks. Grain, banana seedlings and fertilizer have rotted in the sheds.
Millar owes $360,000 in bank loans that he says he can't repay.
``I'm ruined,'' he says. ``I haven't got a clue what I or my workers are
going to do.''
Another 16 white-owned farms in his district are facing insolvency,
threatening the loss of 4,000 jobs and $12 million worth of crops. He says three
of his neighbors have left, and one had a nervous breakdown in November.
``My life's work has fallen apart,'' said Millar, 55, his voice quivering
with emotion. ``There's no law here. Our community is dying.''Despair grips Zimbabwe's white farmers
Land seizures
by blacks spread, motivated by racial resentment
BY ANGUS SHAW
Associated Press
Land seizures in Zimbabwe wreak chaos, inefficiency
Economic woes, racial tension are worsening
By Angus Shaw, Associated Press, 12/25/2000
ENTERPRISE VALLEY, Zimbabwe - Not for 50 years had oxen been used to plow on Owen Connor's farm. Mechanization made it one of the most productive farms in the district.
But ox plows are back now, gouging ragged, widely spaced furrows for hand-scattered corn seed. The tillers are ruling party militants and squatters who have camped illegally on Connor's property since February.
He can't stop them. The government and police have refused court orders to remove the squatters. The squatters are black, Connor is white, and a legacy of racial resentment is proving more powerful than the economic imperatives of modern farming.
''We've gone back half a century in time to an age before technology,'' said Connor.
For this 67-year-old farmer, the political upheaval of the past year and the long-festering issue of land add up to a litany of woes: corn and wheat production slashed by half, a forest of lumber worth $150,000 razed by the occupiers for firewood, Connor's workers assaulted, his cattle prevented from grazing, disease, and parasites infecting his livestock.
A neighbor has been allowed to milk the cows to spare them ruptured udders, but squatters took some of the milk and prevented the rest from being refrigerated and taken to market, he says.
''Now the rains have come, the squatters are frantically trying to plant. It's absolutely chaotic; it's a free-for-all everywhere. I don't know what we are going to do to survive,'' Connor said.
He said he has moved his family's personal effects and valuables into storage after receiving death threats and being told his homestead, 30 miles northeast of the capital, Harare, would be fire-bombed.
''They seem to want to make it untenable for us, to drive us out,'' Connor said.
Connor grew up on the farm. As a teenager, he toiled to clear virgin land with oxen until the family bought its first tractor.
He and his son, Kevin, 41, have both been honored for producing more than four tons of corn, the nation's staple food, per acre.
Since February, occupiers led by ruling party militants and veterans of the war that led to independence in 1980 have seized land on about 1,700 white-owned farms, often violently disrupting production. At least seven white farmers have been slain.
President Robert Mugabe says the occupations are a justified protest against disproportionate land ownership.
On Dec. 14, the president urged supporters to keep up the fight with Zimbabwe's whites and their ''black puppets.''
''Our party must continue to strike fear in the hearts of the white man, our real enemy,'' he said.
The government has begun nationalizing hundreds of the 3,000 farms it says it will carve up and hand over to landless blacks without compensating the white owners.
It argues that 20 years after independence, three-quarters of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are poor, while many of the 4,000 white farmers are rich. The land seizures, it says, will avert a bloody uprising that Mugabe has so far managed to prevent.
''Zimbabwe has found a lasting solution to the land problem - giving land to the masses in a massive way. There will be no compromise,'' said Willard Chiwewe, a senior ruling party official.
Mugabe's opponents say the government's land reform program is plagued by corruption and mismanagement, with many nationalized farms going to politicians and their cronies. They contend the latest round of land seizures are a ploy to bolster Mugabe's waning support among about 7 million landless poor.
Connor's farm has been targeted by the government for confiscation. Ian Millar's has not. But both are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Millar farms grain, soya, and bananas on 1,600 acres about 20 miles north of this lush valley.
Occupiers have kept his 320 workers from entering the fields.
Millar owes $360,000 in bank loans that he says he can't repay.
''I'm ruined,'' he says. '' ... I haven't got a clue what I or my workers are going to do.''
This story ran on page A18 of the Boston Globe on 12/25/2000.