In this story:
'A make or break situation'
Mugabe defends land seizures
RELATED STORIES, SITES
MDC promises to reduce Cabinet, cut expenditure
April 12, 2000
Daily News
By Tichaona Chikowore Business Reporter
THE Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says it will reduce the number of ministers to 15, eliminate unnecessary expenditure, including on deputy ministers and provincial governors, as part of its programme within the first 100 days of assuming office.
Zimbabwe, which now has two vice-presidents, has more than 48 VIPs including ministers, their deputies, and provincial governors.
They all have hefty allowances, access to chauffeur-driven government vehicles and an aide.
The MDC Secretary for Economic Affairs. Eddie Cross, said ministries under an MDC government would be asked to further identitifv posts for abolition and functions to be represented or out-sourced.
Cross said- ‘The MDC government would eliminate all government activities that are not concerned with immediate domestic priorities. This would involve reviewing the external missions abroad, an orderly withdrawal of troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the cancellation of all outstanding contracts for military hardware."
A National Revenue Authority Board arid an independent board which includes the private sector experts on taxes would be setup to improve tax collection and increase government revenue.
Cross said new boards to run parastatals would be appointed, and a time frame for their privatisation given.
"The objective would be to privatise all parastatals within a period of two years. Special attention would be given to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority the National Railways of Zimbabwe, and the POSTs and Telecommunication . Corporation," said Cross.
His government, he said, would contract a competent fund manager to dispose of the government’s equity in companies quoted on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to best advantage.
He said there would be a new management system to control government expenditure with strict reporting arid controlling systems to limit over-runs by ministries.
Cross said the focus by the Zamu PF government was on peripheral issues such as land, the role of white business and farming community
"The real issues are rapidly increasing prices, stagnant incomes and deteriorating social services," he said. "MDC recognises the need for equitable distribution of land, but it has set its main immediate goals in the economic area. It is determined to restore the confidence by both the international and local business communities."
The MDC economic plans include upgrading private sector housing policies, modernising the education and health systems and a commitment to a free regional trade system.
The Times : April 10 2000
To be a white in Zimbabwe now is to be
under threat, while those who have left, such as Peter Godwin, are like
permanent exiles who feel at home only when they return to visit
Every time I go back to Zimbabwe - which I do about twice a year - the place
is poorer, more ramshackle, the slide accentuated for me by these periodic
overviews. And every time I am tempted to tear up my return ticket and stay.
For whether I like it or not, I am home.
The Congolese
businessman sitting next to me on the plane on my last trip wore a hound's-tooth
sports coat, a Chanel tie, a sheen of sweat and two Rolexes, one on either
wrist. "One for local time, one for Washington time," he explained, noticing my
interest. "Africans can't do governments," he suddenly announced. "We are
useless at it, disorganised. Our institutions never work because we never pay
our dues."
It was raining heavily when we disembarked at Harare airport.
We jogged across the tarmac to queue up in the immigration shed. Tactically
positioned pails caught the gushing leaks. When I reached the head of the queue
I handed my passport to the black official and greeted him in Shona, Zimbabwe's
main vernacular. He ripened in smile and demanded: "Why don't you stay here? We
need people like you." By "people like you" he meant whites. I shrugged and felt
half-pleased, half-ashamed.
Above the luggage carousel an electronic
ticker flashed a welcome from the Zimbabwe Investment Centre to "the most
favourable investment destination on the continent".
But when it came to the
number for potential investors to call, the ticker broke up into a jumble of Xs
and Zs.
The telephones at the Zimbabwe Investment Centre are unlikely to
ring in the near future. Legislation was rushed through Zimbabwe's Parliament
last week, amending the Constitution to allow for the confiscation of property
without compensation. Not exactly a clarion call for foreign investment.
The reaction of the immigration officer is a typical one in Zimbabwe. It
is always like that when you return there as a "local" white man - the almost
unfailing hospitality with which you are treated by blacks is matched only by
the sullen hostility to us by the official media.
Whites who live there
all the time simply block it out. When I asked my parents, who still live in
Harare, if they were affected by it they said they didn't notice it anymore. It
was just grandstanding, said my father, no one pays any heed to it. Depending
upon how furious President Mugabe is at the time, he calls whites, variously,
"nonindigenous", "the enemy" and, most recently, "Britain's children".
There is some truth in these charges; none of the present occupants of
Zimbabwe is really indigenous - we have all passed through the revolving door of
history. The aboriginal occupants were Bushmen, driven out by Bantu migrants
from the North about 1,500 years ago. The numerically dominant Shona tribe was,
in turn, conquered and dominated by Matabele immigrants 160 years ago. Whites
began to arrive a few years later.
That we used to be enemies is
selfevident. Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party fought a war with white settlers for much
of the 1970s, but when peace and independence came in 1980 he declared a policy
of reconciliation. And, in general, the races in Zimbabwe, while hardly
intimate, get along placidly enough. I have felt more anti-white sentiment since
I moved to America than I ever felt in Zimbabwe.
Neither do most
Zimbabwean whites see themselves as "Britain's children". After all they
rebelled against the Queen in 1965, unilaterally declaring independence. And the
bulk of the quarter of a million whites who have emigrated since then haven't
headed for Britain but for South Africa, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Mugabe calls whites 'non-indigenous', 'the enemy' and 'Britain's
children'
It was further north, in Kenya, that white settlers remained
"Britain's children". When they spoke of "home" they meant the Home Counties,
whence they almost all returned. You would be hard-pressed today to find more
than a handful of whites farming in the once so-called "white highlands" of
Kenya.
Indeed, the only white population that really prevents the term
white African becoming an oxymoron is the white South African population, which,
at five million-strong, has achieved cultural critical mass. (Portuguese
settlers in Angola and Mozambique fled at independence, and French African
colonies in the sub-Sahara were never really settled, just administered.)
To the bastion of white South Africa - Afrikanerdom – we Anglo-Africans
are known as soutpiele, literally "salt penises". With one foot in Africa and
the other in Europe, our genitals dangle in the ocean, where they apparently
pickle in the brine of cultural confusion.
Those of us white Africans
who did come to Britain have had a curious time of it. My status when I arrived
to go to university here in the late 1970s was a precarious one. That I was not
of this isle was pretty apparent as soon as I opened my mouth to utter my
clipped-vowel, lowland Scots-influenced, staccato version of English. But
although I felt African, I was not black. And I laboured under a terrible
political stigma - I was unwronged. Worse still, I was associated with the
losing side of an unjust war.
To look at, we are just like you, only in
shorts. When we first descend the aircraft stairs we may sport ruddy faces and
farmers' tans, but a single British winter or, indeed, even an average wet
summer, peels off our tropical husks and reduces us to our pink Caucasian
default. Unlike Tamils or Bengalis, Ibos or Zulus, we are not distinct enough to
retain a cultural integrity here. Former Rhodesians try to establish virtual
communities on the Net at websites such as Rhodesians World Wide and meet for
occasional regimental get-togethers or alumni dinners, but they don't really
congregate into any cohesion.
Unlike our fellow colonials, Canadians and
Americans, Australians and New Zealanders, most white Zimbabweans abroad are, in
effect, in exile. Once we leave Zimbabwe, we are shorn of citizenship and cannot
go home as anything other than visitors. For many of us, the past is another
country. We are often called "When-wes" for our propensity to launch frequent
reminiscing with "When we . . . "
Unlike our fellow colonials, whose
aboriginal populations were decimated, Zimbabwe's "indigenous" population not
only survived occupation but multiplied. And so the settlers found themselves in
the minority; in Zimbabwe today there are barely 70,000 whites in an overall
population of more than 12.5 million.
Those whites who remained have, on
the whole, kept a low profile, turning from a settler society into a resident
expatriate community, insulating themselves in the bubble of sports club and
home entertainment, surrendering citizenship. Life became indistinguishable from
that of expats in the Middle East, in compounds or gated communities. They
talked of a distorted past as expats talk of home, with nostalgia and affection.
But expats go home, they leave after their contract finishes. For
resident white Africans, however, staying aloof can prove dangerously
provocative, especially when they continue to control such a large and
disproportionate slice of national prosperity. The Jewish analogy pops up, as
does that of the Ugandan Asians - small, prosperous businessmen, socially
distinct, easily identifiable. And when conditions for the majority take a
downturn, or unemployment swells, the politics of envy kick in. And political
leaders are tempted to exploit this for short-term popularity - in the case of
Hitler or Idi Amin, with catastrophic effect.
Over the past two decades
Mugabe's sources of blame for a collapsing economy have progressively dried up.
A hostile white South Africa intent on destabilising Zimbabwe was transformed
into a democracy. The civil war in neighbouring Mozambique ended. The proxy
battles of the Cold War ceased once the Berlin Wall came down. It became
increasingly apparent that Mugabe had no one else to blame for his own
stumbling, no one else to hold culpable for Zimbabwe's descent into kleptocracy.
And so, in the end, two decades after the end of the civil war, Mugabe has
settled once more on race.
As old generals do when faced with new
threats, they fight the last war. He has turned up the racial rhetoric and
deliberately torn open the wounds of past conflict. Flagellating whites has
always been his favourite means of deflecting criticism and one he clearly
relishes. But whereas in the past whites have almost accepted official
vilification, this time, at the eleventh hour, significant numbers have cast
their lot with a black-led movement for change. They are taking considerable
risks to join disenchanted blacks pressing for reform. It seems Mugabe may have
inadvertently achieved something unique in Zimbabwe's history: uniting the races
in a common purpose, albeit his own ousting.
Despite constant attacks on
whites in state-controlled media, the Government gospel of race hate seems to
have failed to find converts. A recent opinion poll by the Helen Suzman
Foundation showed that more than 80 per cent of blacks felt it was wrong to
blame whites for the country's ills, and put the blame on Mugabe. But most
surprising was that blacks did not see the land question as paramount - it came
fourth after economic ills.
The conventional wisdom has been that the
liberation war was fought over inequity of land ownership. Yet 20 years later
whites still own a disproportionately large swath of the best land.
This
is a political enigma, maybe partly explained by the dual nature of most
black Zimbabweans' lives - working in town but keeping a rural home where
family members grow crops as a safety net. What white farmland has been
redistributed has tended to be handed out as bonbons to the ruling elite, not
the overcrowded peasant farmers who make up much of the electorate.
You
may have difficulty feeling sympathy for white Zimbabwean farmers, especially
when you see them on television surrounded by the clichéd iconography of the
African Raj, lolling over their Land Rovers or gazing out at the setting sun
attended by liveried servants.
They may look like the remnants of an
ancien régime, but much of their land is under labour-intensive tobacco, which
earns most of the country's foreign exchange (now said to be down to a single
day's reserve) and provides significant employment. If these farms are broken up
willy-nilly into subsistence holdings, commercial farming is likely to collapse
- and the economy with it. This will trigger another spasm of emigration, by
both whites and blacks.
No one is watching Mubage's racial endgame more
closely than South Africa. Bishop Tutu has condemned Mugabe as the caricature of
a despotic African leader, but Nelson Mandela, in many ways Mugabe's nemesis,
has defended him. South Africa's apartheid and the homeland system it spawned
were far more formidable racial barriers than ever existed in Rhodesia, and they
cast longer shadows. Though the ANC is more multiracial than Zanu-PF ever was,
South Africa remains skewered on the spike of unresolved race issues.
And here there is another surprise. The Afrikaners, the white tribe of
Africa, are showing no more post-independence staying power than the soutpiele.
The numbers are difficult to gauge accurately, but it is estimated that about
1,000 white families leave South Africa every month, Afrikaners at the same rate
as English speakers.
Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising. The Boer War
imagery of the Afrikaner, galloping across the veld on his bush pony, a trusty
rifle snug in his scabbard, is long dated. The average Afrikaner is a computer
software salesman in Johannesburg, as nervous and potentially oxymoronic as any
white African.
Peter Godwin is the author of Mukiwa - A White Boy in
Africa, published by Picador.
From : Election Directorate, Movement for Democratic Change.
The holiday season is upon us once again and in the usual tradition a number of us would wish to get away from it all, some to resort areas but most to rural homes.
In recent years the deterioration in the economic situation has put this important ritual beyond the reach of most people. This year we have the added factor of the important decision that the nation must take on its future course.
The MDC is actively encouraging as many people as possible to visit their rural homes during the Independence and Easter holidays. It is an excellent opportunity for families to consider the present economic and political situation. We believe that urban dwellers, particularly the workforce, have an important role to play in disseminating the MDC message of democratic change in our nation.
We have taken the liberty of addressing this circular to you with the request to make copies of the following attachments which are translated into Shona and Ndebele for your employees:
Please pass this appeal on to your business and domestic colleagues. We have master copies of these attachments at our Support Centre. We can also copy them on to discs if blanks are brought to the Centre.
Lastly we urge you to assist those of your employees who choose to take up this request and to do so in every way possible.
SIDNEY MAKUMBE, one of the youthful war veterans who have been
menacing Glencairn Farm over the past six weeks, yesterday refused to accept
that President Mugabe has bowed to the courts and ordered an end to the invasion
of Zimbabwe's white commercial farms. The 31-year-old "veteran" of a war that ended by 1979, who has delighted in
brandishing his bow and arrow at the farm's terrified owners, looked crestfallen
when he realised that he may not now be able to help himself to Cecil and Lucia
Grimmer's farm after all.
"We have heard nothing," he said. "We will remain here. We have been promised
land. We have been struggling for land for years," he added defiantly, as we sat
under a majestic cassia tree discussing the future of the illegal farm
occupations. "We won the war of liberation," he said with an aggrieved air.
"Twenty years of independence and we still haven't got our land back. These
white people colonised us. We are landless, and we are tired of waiting for what
is ours."
Mr Makumbe's legal title to the land he has been guarding so assiduously may
be tenuous in the extreme. But there is no doubting his conviction that the land
is his by right. Border Gezi, the Zanu-PF Governor of Mashonaland Central, and
Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi, the chairman of Zimbabwe's National Liberation War
Veterans Association, have told him, and thousands like him, that it is theirs.
Now the aspirations that have been unleashed among the impoverished landless
will have to be reined in, which white farmers hope will trigger a round of
infighting among the leadership of the ruling Zanu-PF party, boosting Morgan
Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change's prospects for victory
in the forthcoming elections.
The fact that the present owners of Glencairn legally bought their 4,000-acre
farm, with the approval of President Mugabe's Government in 1989, cuts little
ice with Mr Makumbe. "They bought stolen property," he said.
Despite claims that the war veterans association has 60,000 members, the real
figure is thought to be between 6,000 and 7,000.
They have been transported to whichever farm has come up next on the target
hit list, often in municipal vehicles, and will not see their hopes for land
distribution discarded lightly.
Their disappointment could cause incalculable damage to Mr Mugabe's battered
credibility among his dwindling number of supporters.
The war veterans fired guns as they arrived in three lorries after midday at Lonely Park Farm in Arcturus, about 20 miles east of Harare. On Tuesday night, for the first time in the two-month campaign of invasions and intimidation, shots were fired against farmers and their workers.
There was some confusion about whether the attackers were using live bullets in yesterday's attack against farmer Paul Retzlaff and his workers. Four people suffered injuries but they appeared to have been inflicted by projectiles such as stones, Fran Brown, Mr Retzlaff's neighbour, said. The attackers were also armed with heavy clubs and pangas, she said.
Mr Retzlaff and his workers fled on foot but returned later after the mob had moved on. A small unit of junior policemen had been also chased off.
The violent turn of events has forced Cecil Grimmer, a farmer at Bindura, about 100 miles north of the capital, to carry a firearm close to hand. "If they come at you with axes, you've got to be able to defend yourself," he said. "No one wants to have blood on their hands. But you have to be prepared, just in case."
Some of his workers on Glencairn Farm have been beaten with sjamboks and knobkerries by the war veterans. All are terrified they will be thrown off the land that sustains them and their families.
Lovemore Guraupira, 47, the manager of the 4,000-acre farm, and father of nine, said that the veterans had arrived at dawn yesterday "singing and chanting that the invasions would continue until the white farmers had been chased away". He said: "What they are doing is wrong. If I lose this job, my family will starve. The Government will do nothing for us."
But the mood of doom lifted considerably after a radio broadcast reported that President Mugabe had agreed to accept a High Court ruling forcing the police to evict squatters from all white-owned farms.
But Mr Grimmer was wary. "We have no idea what way the war veterans will take it," he said. "I think the next couple of days are going to be a watershed. If the war veterans decide to bump off a couple of farmers, panic will set in."
Telephone calls were made to neighbours to find out who had been attacked. It was learnt that two more farms were invaded, one worker was abducted and two beaten up.
"I wake up tired," Mrs Lucia Grimmer said. "Every morning you have this thing hanging over you. It's difficult to motivate yourself when you don't know how long you'll be here. I'm not sure how much longer we can cope with it."
With Tamaryn, her 13-year-old daughter in tow, Mrs Grimmer went to vaccinate some cattle showing signs of illness. She also takes responsibility for organising the farm village into sections, each equipped with whistles so that section leaders can raise the alarm if attacked by invaders.
| Zimbabwe Squatters Asked To
Leave | |
| The Associated Press Apr 13 2000 10:02PM ET |
|
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's High Court Thursday ordered the government to remove squatters from hundreds of white-owned farms and the country's leadership responded by broadcasting a radio appeal for the protesters to leave.
The appeal by Vice President Joseph Msika was the latest move in Zimbabwe's land crisis: Some 50,000 squatters refuse to give up the farms, defiance that has left farmers and opposition groups demanding police action.
Msika's statement sought to head off a constitutional crisis between the judiciary and the government of President Robert Mugabe, who is in Cuba for a summit.
The High Court has ordered the government to evict the squatters from more than 900 farms. The government has defied the order, with Mugabe calling the occupations a justified protest against unfair ownership of much of the country's productive land by 4,000 whites.
But Thursday, Msika appealed to squatters to leave the farms and said the government wanted to end the tense stalemate amicably. The vice president stopped short of committing the government to obeying the court order and removing the squatters.
Mugabe's government has argued that police action against the squatters - who are armed with clubs, knives, spears and guns - could trigger a civil war. However, the High Court said Thursday the rule of law must be observed. It ordered the government to obey the earlier court order to end the farm occupations.
``We are encouraged'' by the court's ruling, said David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers' Union representing about 4,000 mostly white farmers.
The standoff in Zimbabwe combines elements of racial tension and economic crisis.
The farm occupations, which began in early February, come in a nation where a few whites own one-third of the productive land while most blacks are landless and impoverished. The squatters are led by men who claim to be veterans of the bush war that led to this nation's independence in 1980.
Mugabe set up the standoff more than two months ago. Stung by his defeat in a constitutional referendum in February, he publicly warned that landless blacks impatient with the slow pace of land reform would seize white farms.
Within days, thousands of armed men occupied farms across the country. Many of the squatters are being paid to occupy the farms, and some said they were paid by ruling party activists.
Many of the farm takeovers were violent. The Commercial Farmers' Union has reported dozens of assaults on members' farms. Several farmers have been severely beaten, and death threats have been widespread.
On Thursday, Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of the main war veterans association, said he had received no instructions from the court or the government to withdraw from the farms. Hunzvi, who earlier said his followers would return to war to keep the farms, refused to say how his group would respond to the new order and the vice president's appeal.
Isaac Maphosa, an official of the National Constitutional Assembly, an alliance of opposition and reform groups, said doubts lingered over whether the police would implement the court order to evict the squatters.
Police have said they lack the manpower and equipment, including tear gas, to carry out the order. On Monday, Attorney General Patrick Chinamasa said the 20,000-strong police force would be unable to evict an estimated 50,000 squatters.
Police action ``would be a match that would ignite the country into a bloody conflagration,'' he said.
The government could seek to delay any action by appealing the order to the Supreme Court, the nation's highest court.
If police continue to delay, ``the courts must stand their ground, or we will be completely finished,'' Maphosa said. ``The order to end this must come from Mugabe himself.''
Mugabe's overwhelming majority in the parliament, where he controls 147 of the 150 seats, gives him the power to defy the judiciary without threat of impeachment.
Welshman Ncube, a law professor at the Zimbabwe University, said government refusal to enforce laws has created a constitutional crisis. ``Mugabe is using state institutions to perpetuate lawlessness and anarchy,'' Ncube said.
Mugabe's declared intention to seize white-owned farms without paying compensation has put him at odds with Western governments such as Britain and the United States, which have pressured him to follow the rule of law in land reform.
But Mugabe, speaking at the South Summit in Havana on Thursday, sounding a defiant tone.
``The message is simple. We Zimbabweans should leave the ... settlers in control of our Zimbabwean land. I want to assure you that the land will be acquired, sanctions or no sanctions,'' he said.
This is not the first time Mugabe has used land reform as a political tool. More than two years ago, he promised to seize white farms as a way to appease angry war veterans. The veterans were demonstrating against the government because corrupt officials and their relatives had stolen millions of dollars from the veteran's pension fund, leaving it bankrupt.
Under international pressure from donor countries, Mugabe backed off and agreed to compensate farmers for any seized property.
But months later, when a currency crisis triggered high inflation and food riots in Harare, Mugabe again renewed the threat to seize land.
MDC PRESS RELEASE
From tonight the state media will be publishing statements about the MDC relating to a document which the government said they found which they claim was authored by the MDC. Among other things this document claims that an alliance with southern African whites as been entered into by the MDC and is responsible for the following:
Training private owners on white farms.
Conspiring to creat the recent fuel shortages
And many more riduclious claims.
In response to this the MDC would luke to make the following comments:
PEACE IS THE ONLY WAY
The MDC denies the authenticity of the document produced by the Minister of Information. It is evidence of Zanu PF’s desperation as the elections approach.
The signature on this fraudulent document is not that of MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai.
The MDC condemns all types of violence and lawlessness.
The MDC will use only peace and democracy to change the government of Zimbabwe.
The MDC believes that is the right of every Zimbabwean to support the party of its choice.
The MDC has formed an alliance only with Zimbabweans who are committed to peace and democracy.
The MDC will stand by the results of a free and fair election and honour the choice of the people.
The MDC will never attempt to promote instability and violence.
The MDC believes that the Zimbabwe National Army and Zimbabwe Republic Police are the only ones who should enforce the democracy that is every Zimbabwean’s right.
The MDC has never trained a private army and never will promote any private armed force.
The MDC condemns the violence that has been generated by Zanu PF and some of its supporters.
The MDC believes that Zanu PF is trying to scare the people of Zimbabwe with talk of war.
Zimbabwe must avoid war at all costs.
Zimbabweans know peace is the only way.
The MDC believes in peaceful change to improve the lives of all Zimbabweans.
HAVANA, April 13 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe slammed former colonial power Britain on Thursday at the Group of 77 summit of Third World nations and vowed that a controversial transfer of white-owned land would proceed.
"I want to assure you that the land will be acquired, sanctions or no sanctions. Let Zimbabweans own Zimbabwean land as Britons own British land," the 76-year-old former guerrilla leader told the assembled representatives of 133 Third World nations in Cuba's capital Havana.
Earlier on Thursday, Britain said that Zimbabwe had agreed to send a ministerial delegation to London to try to resolve the dispute that led Mugabe to threaten the former colonial power with war. The High Court also upheld an order for the eviction of squatters who have occupied white farms.
But Mugabe fiercely attacked Britain before the Third World leaders for trying to use its influence to perpetuate what he regards as the historical injustice of a small number of whites owning most of the country's best land.
"I do not need to tell this summit that hell has broken loose over Zimbabawe's decision. The former colonial power Britain is on the warpath," Mugabe said.
"It has appealed to regional groupings and international institutions such as the European Union and, of course, the Bretton Woods institutions to impose sanctions against Zimbabawe. This, Mr. Chairman, is the most brazen example of the abuse of sanctions as an instrument of coercion," he said.
Many countries at the summit, including China, have voiced anger at what they see as a growing trend by rich nations to impose their idea of morals on weaker nations while simultaneously insisting on crippling debt payments and barring poor countries' exports.
Mugabe has persuaded his increasingly unpopular ZANU-PF party, a coalition of forces that defeated Ian Smith's renegade white administration and won independence from Britain in 1980, to authorise confiscation of white farms without compensation.
HUNDREDS OF FARMS OCCUPIED
Hundreds of farms now have been occupied by people claiming to be guerrilla veterans. Some white farmers have been beaten up and a few have been forced to sign over their land.
Mugabe insists that Britain pay any compensation to the farmers, arguing that the land was stolen from Africans by colonialists in the 1890s.
But Zimbabwe's opposition opposes the measure -- defeated in a referendum in February -- and accuses Mugabe of trying to boost his flagging popularity ahead of parliamentary elections expected next month.
Mugabe pitched his land reform to the G77 assembly during a speech about broader injustices in a world in which most people live in poverty. The G77 countries are trying to forge a unified voice to confront the rich nations in the World Trade Organisation and to call for more debt relief.
"The land reform programme seeks to transfer five million hectares (1.2 million acres) from 12 million hectares (2.9 million acres) of the best arable land owned by 4,500 largely British settlers and transfer this to thousands of landless hungry peasants," Mugabe said.
But major African leaders at the summit took a cautious stance on the land occupation.
Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo said he was willing to act as a "midwife" to an agreement between Zimbabwe and Britain. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, who also has to oversee a delicate racial balance, urged Britain and Harare to promote dialogue and respect the original independence agreements he said committed British funds to pay for land reform.
HARARE, April 13 (Reuters) - Vice-President Joseph Msika, acting for President Robert Mugabe, called on Thursday for an end to invasions of Zimbabwe's white-owned farms and said the government would seek British funds for orderly land reform.
Speaking while Mugabe was on a visit to Cuba, Msika told state media that last week's constitutional amendment allowing the seizure of land without compensation had cleared the way for the legal redistribution of white-owned land.
"There is no reason for the war veterans and the povo (people) to continue demonstrating or occupying farms in a haphazard manner. We have passed the Land Bill, which will allow us to resettle people in an orderly manner," he said.
He spoke after Judge Moses Chinhengo of the Zimbabwe High Court upheld an order for the eviction of squatters who have seized at least 500 of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white-owned farms, dismissing an appeal by police who said it might trigger civil war.
Msika said Local Government and Housing Minister John Nkomo and Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge would go to London soon and discuss British funding for a formal resettlement programme.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook welcomed developments and repeated earlier pledges that Britain would help fund land reforms as long as they were within the rule of law, offered a fair price for farms and were undertaken by "willing sellers."
Squatters and local farmers were wounded on Thursday in the first reported shootout between rival sides on the Lonely Park Farm about 30 km (18 miles) east of Harare.
WOUNDED MAN IN CRITICAL CONDITION
One of the wounded was in critical condition at Harare's Hospital Avenues Clinic with fractured ribs, head injuries and punctured lungs.
Three other wounded men said they were working when three truckloads of veterans pulled up, jumped down and started beating and clubbing them.
Zimbabwean political analyst Masipula Sithole said Msika's statement appeared to signal a crucial change of heart, but added: "Until Mugabe himself makes a statement, until those on the farms start to move, we cannot be too sure. But I think this move has Mugabe's blessing, it has his mark.
Johannesburg-based political analyst Gary van Staden said the government appeared to be backing away from conflict.
"HITLER" HUNZVI HAS NO COMMENT
A government source told Reuters that Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi, leader of the invasion programme, held meetings with government ministers on Thursday.
In an uncharacteristic response to reporters, Hunzvi told state television: "I don't think it is going to be proper for me to comment at this stage."
At least 7,000 people claiming to be veterans have occupied at least 500 white-owned farms. Police put the figure at 60,000 holding about 1,000 farms.
Several white farmers have been beaten up, many have abandoned their farms and some have signed documents handing parts of their farms over to squatters.
Officials estimate that white farmers control about 75 percent of the most productive farmland, which generates more than half the country's foreign revenue. Farming sources put the land figure closer to 40 percent.
Sources in the Commercial Farmers Union have said their strategy is to keep a low profile in the hope that the land issue will subside after parliamentary elections due within the next four months. Presidential elections are not due until 2002.
Mugabe, 76 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, faces his toughest challenge yet from the Movement for Democratic Change, which delivered his first poll defeat in February, when voters rejected a new constitution.
Mugabe, who was at the Group of 77 summit in Cuba, told reporters the land seizures, led by veterans of the 1970s war against white settler rule, were not racially motivated.
"It is not a fight against whites as such; it is a fight against a particular section of the whites who have land.
"What (the veterans) have done is merely stage a demonstration, a peaceful demonstration in most cases, because they have not been guilty of any acts of violence," Mugabe said, adding some farmers had been assaulted for resisting occupation.
FLOOD RELIEF APPEAL
The CFU is working in conjunction with the Civil Protection Authority and would appreciate donations for those made homeless after the cyclone and flooding.
Donations in the form of food, blankets clothing, and cooking utensils would be most welcome..
Donations can be made direct to our Mutare Office,
Telephone
020 66614
Contact Mrs J Wilson,
or
at the Burley Tobacco Auction
Floor on the Beira turn off where goods will be received and receipted.
In Masvingo donations should be our Office there
Contact Mr H
Olivier
Telephone 039 65884, who will advise where to deliver goods.
Donations in Harare can be made to CFU Head Office
Telephone
309800.
CHIPINGE CYCLONE DISASTER FUND REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING:
Buckets, Blankets, Food, Plastic Rolls for Shelters, Clothing.
RELIEF FOR APPROX 40,000 PEOPLE.
THANK YOU FOR THE TRUCK LOAD OF MAIZE RECEIVED YESTERDAY.
CHIPINGE CYCLONE DISASTER FUND HAS KNOW OPENED A BANK ACCOUNT FOR ANY CASH IN
KIND. STANDARD CHARTERED BANK CHIPINGE
ACCOUNT NO. 57237300.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP RECEIVED
Donations and Distribution
01 March 2000
To date 18 tonnes of maize meal has been taken by Mr. Alan Stewart (Banket Farmers' Association) via Masvingo to Middle Save, and Warwick Evans of Mashonaland West (North) Farmers' Association is busy delivering 60 tonnes of maize meal and 2 000 blankets from his members.
The Mashonaland West (North) donation is being equally split between Chipinge and Mutare victims
The Chipinge office have requested plastic sheeting to make temporary shelters for flood victims and Saltrama Plastex Zimbabwe have donated 1 000 sheets to construct temporary shelters at Middle Save and Chipinge. Huge thanks go to Saltrama.
ZTA have offered $50 000 cash which is being allocated by ZTA into $25 000 maize meal and the balance going into procuring cooking utensils and blankets. ZTA are delivering this to the Mutare CFU Flood Relief Programme c/o Judy Wilson.
Regarding the balance of the donations from farmers around the country, donated maize and goods (as per the ZGPA appeals list) should now be delivered to ART Farm as soon as possible Richard Winkfield will co-ordinate the donations when they arrive there. Donations will go into covered storage while the final transport arrangements are being made. Some of the donations will go to Mutare and some to Chipinge. ZTA, through Vice President Joubert, have arranged two 7 tonne trucks to transport the donations to Mutare and Chipinge, as required. The Civil Protection Division Director is assisting the CFU and the ZTA with fuel for this transport. We have asked for 500 litres which ZTA will pay for.
For those farmers delivering direct to Mutare, please contact Judy Wilson at the CFU Mutare Office or Mr. Charles Inggs at the Chipinge Ops Room first to make the necessary arrangements. This will also allow them both to liaise with the appropriate Civil Defence people to co-ordinate our efforts.
Their details are as follows:
Judy Wilson
Mutare Telephone: 020-64303
Fax:
020-66614
cellphone: 011-611084
e-mail: mutare@cfu.co.zw
Charles Inggs
Chipinge Telephone: 027-5631/5
direct
line: 027-2718
Fax: 027-2375
Cellphone: 011-414988
Home No. 027-2230
Ops Room: 027-3278
Farmers are asked to please make sure that the truck delivery note is signed by the receiving authority when you deliver your flood appeal donation.
Bulawayo and Masvingo regions have been asked to liaise with us as regards their requirements for flood relief from the donations, otherwise all will be sent to Mutare and Chipinge for use in Mid Save, Mutare, Chipinge. The distribution of the maize and goods is at the discretion of the co-ordinators at the CFU Mutare office and the Chipinge Ops Room.They are consulting with the Civil Protection Directorate in the provinces
CFU continues to liaise with the Civil Defence Directorate in Harare. Mrs. Nicole Menage from the World Food Programme, based in Rome has arrived in Harare and a meeting has been set up between her office and the Commercial Farmers' Union. WFP will be fully briefed on the CFU initiatives to date. CFU briefed Minister John Nkomo yesterday on flood relief progress so far. Our thanks are extended to the Minister for his support as regards procuring diesel to get the maize and goods to the flood victims. (P.S. We are still waiting for the diesel.)
Thanks also go to all the farmers who, so far, despite their own fuel problems (and farm invasions) have moved the food to Middle Save and Mutare. Well done, one and all!
Additional donations can be co-ordinated through
CFU
fax 309873,
cellphone 011-607750
or
through the Zimbabwe Grain Producers' Association
telephone:
309850/309849.
NOTE: TOTAL RAISED TO DATE : APPROXIMATELY Z$2 000 000,00 (AS AT 29 FEBRUARY 2000)
URGENT APPEAL FROM CHIMANIMANI AND CHIPINGE
The farmers and road crews working on the roads have contacted us to ask if anybody has any idea where we can obtain the following to repair roads and bridge crossings and to prevent further erosion.
ZIMBABWE'S High Court is due to rule
today over the failure by the national police to evict mobs of independence war
veterans and supporters of President Robert Mugabe from hundreds of farms they
have seized in the past two months.
That the actions of the rampaging veterans and followers of Mugabe's
governing ZANU PF party are patently illegal is not in doubt. In fact, the
courts have already declared them so.
What the court is ruling on today is whether the police, who Mugabe last week
openly admitted having ordered not to enforce an earlier judgment of the same
court, should be allowed to fold their arms and retreat in the face of anarchy.
Without pre-judging the outcome of today's ruling, the patience of all
right-thinking Zimbabweans over the government's naked flouting of the rule of
law by its members and supporters is wearing pretty thin.
No sane people or nation can allow a bunch of thugs to terrorise them this
way and to do so with impunity, fortified in the knowledge that those breaking
the law are protected by the security forces which they control.
Enough is enough.
The time has come for Mugabe to seriously weigh the fallout of his
impeachable actions of condoning the farm seizures and of openly encouraging
lawlessness.
He must quickly pull himself back from this tragic grandstanding, which has
pushed Zimbabwe beyond the limit, and fully enforce whatever judgment is handed
out today by the High Court or helplessly watch the country slip deeper into
chaos.
The choice is his and his alone because, it is clear, no one within his
government has either the wish or courage to tell him that he has already
crossed the Rubicon.
For the police, it is time Commissioner Augustine Chihuri took swift and
unfettered measures in defence of the rule of law or go as quickly.
Zimbabweans cannot and must not tolerate a police force which they fund and
yet it openly sides with one political party or another and refuses to guarantee
citizens minimum conditions of law and order that are expected of any civilised
nation.
Chihuri must choose whether his allegiance is to the nation state of Zimbabwe
or to Mugabe's ZANU PF. He can't have it both ways.
Zimbabweans cannot simply sit back and watch the country being subjected to
generalised violence purely because Mugabe has chosen to intimidate voters into
supporting his party which, by any standards, has run out of ideas to govern and
has clearly become a destabilising factor in southern Africa.
Mugabe's renewed threats of violence and of death befalling his foes are
partly fuelling the dangerously rising political temperature pervading the
nation.
Instead of all political contenders being allowed to sell their programmes
and policies to the electorate in peace, the voters are being threatened with
dire consequences should ZANU PF lose the coming elections.
How low can any government sink in order to retain power at any cost?
The prevailing lawlessness has already cost Zimbabwe vital aid for the very
farm reforms which Mugabe claims to be championing.
Britain, the US, Norway, Holland and Sweden, as well as the World Bank, have
already cut off a total of $228 million which they had pledged for the reforms.
Several other states are on stand-by to do the same and more should the polls
be judged as unfree and unfair — and we don't see them being anything but a
fraud under this chaos.
The donors are reluctantly taking this step even though they know that
Zimbabwe, because of ZANU PF's misrule and corruption, is economically facing
the brink.
Hard-pressed Zimbabweans have already surely paid the price for Mugabe's
bungling of the economy, driven to virtual collapse by the ever widening budget
deficit of his government which spends money as if it is falling from trees.
This much, no more. Staff Reporter ZIMBABWE'S budget deficit, forecast by
the government at 3,8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this fiscal and
calendar year, could easily reach 20 percent of GDP, according to the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"The heart of our problems is the budget deficit. We have researched the
problem and we forecast that the budget deficit is going to reach 20 percent of
GDP this year," MDC's secretary for economic affairs Eddie Cross told the
Financial Gazette this week.
"This is not a political figure, it's something that has been compiled by
serious economists who really know what they are doing. We have also run our
estimates by the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and they
agree with our numbers."
The government's widening deficit has long been a bone of contention between
it and the Bretton Woods institutions, which last year suspended crucial aid for
Zimbabwe because of the government's failure to meet economic targets under
IMF-backed reforms.
Last year the Ministry of Finance targeted a deficit of five percent, but had
to revise this figure upwards to nearly eight percent because of uncontrolled
government expenditure.
Although the government wants the deficit at 3,8 percent by the end of the
year, Ministry of Finance officials have indicated it could balloon to $45
billion or 15 percent of GDP.
Cross said this figure was a conservative estimate. The research unit of the
MDC's Economic Affairs Department had shown that government expenditure would
this year top $160 billion, about 46,8 percent more than the $109 billion given
by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa in his 2000 budget in October last year.
The forecast expenditure overruns are a direct result of Zimbabwe's military
involvement in the civil war of the Congo, which is costing Zimbabwe $36,6
million a day.
Other contributory factors include the 69 to 90 percent pay increase awarded
to civil servants in January, the 300 percent pay rise for President Robert
Mugabe and his ministers authorised last year and backdated to last July, a
substantial increase in monthly allowances for independence war veterans and
interest repayments on the government's widening debt.
"We estimate that interest repayments alone will exceed 50 percent of all
revenue. The government is borrowing from the Reserve Bank and also has huge
amounts of Treasury bills. As a result, we have a highly inflationary
situation."
According to statistics from the central Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the bank
is advancing between $5 billion and $6 billion a week to the government, which
as at March 10 this year was sitting on Treasury bills worth $62,6 billion which
were attracting an interest repayment of $14 billion.
Increased government borrowing, most of it for recurrent spending, has lifted
money supply growth, which had been on a downward trend in the second half of
1999.
Money supply or M3 growth has surged from 29,8 percent in December to 45
percent in January as a result of the government's increased borrowing on the
domestic market.
Runaway money supply growth, experienced in the first half of last year, is
expected to refuel Zimbabwe's inflation, which touched a record high of 70,4
percent in October last year and had been easing in the past three months. Staff Reporter ZIMBABWE faces severe wheat shortages
as a result of farm seizures by President Robert Mugabe's supporters who have
disrupted plantings of the winter crop, the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said
this week.
CFU deputy director Jerry Grant said there was bound to be a downturn in
wheat output because of the farm invasions, as well as an acute shortage of
diesel and power rationing which has disrupted electricity supplies for the
irrigated crop.
Zimbabwe, with 600 large-scale wheat farmers most of whom are CFU members,
needs to produce about 400 000 tonnes of wheat a year to meet domestic needs.
Forex crisis
Grant gave no figures of the projected shortfall, but industry officials say
about 150 000 tonnes of wheat will be produced this year, leaving a deficit of
250 000 tonnes which will have to be imported at a cost of least $3 billion.
The failure by the farmers to meet their normal annual output of 300 000
tonnes will force Zimbabwe to import wheat mostly from Argentina, just when
Zimbabwe is mired in its worst foreign currency crisis.
Shortages of bread and of allied products are expected.
Wheat is an irrigated winter crop that is planted in April and harvested in
October.
Economic mainstay
Grant told the Financial Gazette that most wheat farmers had been unable to
plant their crop because of the farm invasions, which are threatening to cripple
agriculture, Zimbabwe's economic mainstay.
Mugabe's supporters, some of them veterans of Zimba-bwe's 1970s war of
independence, have occupied more than 900 farms in the past three months to back
Mugabe's plans to seize land of mostly white CFU members without compensation.
Zimbabwe's High Court has ordered the invaders off the farms, but Mugabe and
his supporters have openly refused to comply, ushering in an era of anarchy.
Despite an amendment to the Constitution last Thursday empowering the
government to seize the farms, the veterans have said they will not leave the
farms until these have been parcelled out to them.
Death threats
Grant said the farm invaders were threatening farmers and their workers with
death.
"The situation is very ugly. They are making death threats all over," he
said.
Some of the farmers whose properties have been invaded have already abandoned
them for fear of their lives.
Most analysts and farmers say the farm seizures are being used by Mugabe and
his governing ZANU PF party to intimidate Zimbabweans to vote for ZANU PF in
tough general elections due later this year.
ZANU PF, its power base whittled down by persistent economic turmoil in
Zimbabwe blamed on Mugabe's misrule, will face its biggest threat in the polls
from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the country's newest party
formed last September. THE future of Zimbabwe's next tobacco
crop, its biggest single export earner, hangs in the balance as war veterans
occupy hundreds of farms.
This year's crop is safely in and graded ready for the annual auctions that
are due to start on April 26, but farmers are either being prevented from
preparing the land for the next crop or are holding back out of uncertainty.
"Right now there is a window when doing nothing will not hurt next year's
crop, but if this matter is not resolved within a few weeks there will start to
be an impact," Jim van Heerden of the Tobacco Trade Association said in an
interview.
"I am not saying the crop will be affected, just that it could be," said van
Heerden, chain smoking and red-eyed.
Zimbabwe produces around 200 million kg of tobacco every year, of which more
than 80 percent is exported, making it the third biggest player on the world
market.
Tobacco accounts for more than one third of the earnings generated by the
agricultural sector, the mainstay of a crumbling economy.
Since 1990 it has accounted for 29 percent of foreign exchange earnings on
average, making it the biggest single earner.
So-called veterans of the liberation war began moving onto commercial farms
about six weeks ago after a referendum allowing the goverment to confiscate farm
land was rejected.
Attorney-General Patrick Chinamasa told the High Court this week that more
than 1 000 farms were being occupied by 60 000 war veterans. But Jeremy Grant of
the Commercial Farmers' Union said in reality there were 7 000 occupiers on 500
farms.
Opponents charge that the invasions are a crude ploy to bolster waning
support for President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party ahead of a general
election expected in May.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, does not face
reelection until 2002.
Van Heerden said the farmers and the tobacco industry were praying for the
land question to be solved by the election at the latest, but worried that no
date had been set and feared many of the invaders might not leave.
"I am not really concerned that our customers will walk away right now," he
said. "But they will be looking at issues of continuity. You can't change a
cigarette blend overnight. It comes back to a question of confidence."
Further clouding the picture is uncertainty over the date that the annual
auctions will open, which is linked to the expected devaluation of the Zimbabwe
dollar.
The central bank has pegged the Zimbabwe dollar at around 38 to the US dollar
for the past 15 months.
But it is now accepted that it is overvalued and the bank is expected to let
it float freely at the end of April.
Tobacco growers, looking for an exchange rate closer to 45 to the US dollar,
are therefore reluctant to come to the market before the flotation. They would
prefer the auctions to start on May 3, by which time the devaluation should have
taken place. —ReuterMDC forecasts 20% budget deficit
Land seizures disrupt wheat production
Bread shortages loom as farmers fail to plant winter crop
Future of tobacco crop hangs in the balance
EDITOR — The President is on a futile
crusade to give his party some dubious credentials that it is able to deal with
corruption.
Robert Mugabe is on record as assuring the nation of his dedication to
stamping out corruption and promising everyone that no one will be spared,
including his relatives (really?).
Initially, arrests were made on a daily basis, but somehow — perhaps due to
the postponement of elections — the exercise has been put off.
While the President is taking a breather, gathering more evidence and
contemplating who should go next, it would be ideal to propose an unlikely
candidate whom I am sure at this moment does not appear on his casualty list —
that being none other than his spouse Grace.
Mr President, your wife "borrowed", as it was later termed, $5 million from
the VIP housing scheme, denying homeless people like me the chance to own a
house.
Perhaps you are not sure what charges to press against her, but maybe I can
help:
- Your wife deprived thousands of civil servants of their investment without
their consent. She was not entitled to it, nor did she qualify to get a loan —
if you may call it that.
- She obviously used her position as the first lady (or was it prospective
first lady then?) to access funds from the scheme. This is abuse of power or
corruption, as it will appear on the charge sheet, which more than qualifies her
to be added on your list.
- She claims that she repaid "every cent". Good of her if she did (though we
can't prove it) but so what? As Jonathan Moyo would say, that's not the point.
- She goes on to build her mansion, and years after completion she does not
want to stay there but offers to sell it at an incredible profit. Shrewd
investment, it may sound to you, but it sounds more like a line from the
Willowgate scandal to me.
She has an opportunity to make profit from public funds, unlike some of us
who are not related to the President — not that I wish to be.
Who would not want an interest-free loan of $5 million payable at your own
convenience?
- And by the way, where on earth did she get the money to repay all that
much? I say this because she was a mere secretary then and, if you add the
President's official salary figures from independence up to, say, 1997, they do
not add up to $5 million, that's assuming that the President did not spend a
single cent of his earnings.
- By approving of her act and being aware of her actions, does it not make
you an accomplice?
- Mr President, corruption is at your doorstep and in your house but you are
reluctant to act. We know nothing is going to happen to Grace (while you are in
power), but we are aware, we are hurt and we will not forget.
Corruption within the government and by public officials has been going on
for years. It did not start with the allegations against Kumbirai Kangai and
Enos Chikowore, the poor sacrificial lambs.
For years, people have been talking about corruption but you did not listen.
Is it just a coincidence that some of the cases that occurred three or four
years ago are being discovered close to elections?
I suppose you have papers relating to the War Victims' Compensation Fund in
front of you. Please do care to look into Reward Marufu's record payout.
He is your brother-in-law.
It's also frightening to learn that some of your ministers who benefited from
the war fund with disability ratings of up to 80 percent are seeking re-election
for another five-year term!
Your drive against corruption is nothing but just a silly joke which we do
not find funny because we are too tired of being taken for granted. Dr Hondo Yevhu, Centenary.
EDITOR — Having heard Comrade
Chenjerai Hunzvi talk on both radio and television and having read about him in
the newspapers, I came up with a diagnosis of this man's problem.
Comrade Hunzvi is really suffering from HIV (Hunzvi Indigenous Virus).
At the rate he is getting crazier each day, I wonder whether a vaccine will
be discovered before he bursts up.
Being an HIV patient, I have discovered that this man has a pathological
infection and is hungry for power and popularity.
We have a Heroes' Acre already. May I suggest that we build another "shrine"
for people like Hunzvi. Let it be known as the Fools' Acre. Kuda Maposa, Hiram, Ohio,
USA. During the 1990 parliamentary and
presidential elections, I watched the announcement of the results on television
anxiously hoping Edgar Tekere's Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) emerge victorious.
At the end of the day he managed to clinch only one seat and the ZUM frenzy
soon faded away, leaving us in the same merciless hands of ZANU PF thugs.
In light of this, I would like to urge fellow Zimbabweans to take advantage
of the opportunity being given to us in the May elections to turn things around.
Let us not let this chance slip away like what happened in 1990.
To those arrogant middle-class citizens who think that they should not waste
their time voting and would rather watch SABC and M-Net on their satellite
dishes I say: If you stick with the same mindset, you are slowly going to see
yourselves moving into the poor class real soon. Save Zimbabwe Now, Botswana.
EDITOR — Robert Mugabe has an erection
to stay in power despite having lost the climax of political wisdom.
He has thrown the meaning of good governance to the brothels. For respect and
integrity no longer mate with his faculty of thought.
Mugabe has thrown the cause of good governance into disrepute. Local and
international institutions and organisations have no good cause to associate
with a racist and terrorist. Farms subdivided into residential stands -
The Herald
It could not be ascertained why people were being asked to pay money. The
peo-ple who were allocating the land, said they were busy and needed up to an
hour before they could talk to the Press.
However, the chairman of the Zimba-bwe National Liberation War Veterans
Association, Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi, pro-fessed ignorance over the move, saying he
needed time to establish if the people de-manding money were true war veterans.
“What these people are doing is unlaw-ful. We have never said money should be
paid to get land for residential purposes. I need to get the full details of
what is hap-pening before committing myself to mak-ing comments,’’ said Dr
Hunzvi.
The three farms on which people were being allocated residential stands are
Donald, Butler and Dunstan. The owners of these farms have willingly offered
part of their properties for resettlement.
The secretary for the committee re-sponsible for land allocation appointed by
the war veterans, Mr Bright Tirivanhu, said the farmers had freely offered
un-used land for resettlement.
“They are urging us to build houses. Ours is going to be a location and will
not be used for farming.’’
The Zimbabwe National Liberation Supporters Association yesterday said the
passing of the Constitutional Amendment signified the start of economic
empower-ment.
The chairman of the association, Mr Collins Chipare, urged the war veterans
and the general public allocated land to take orders from their political
leaders now that the land Bill had been passed. “If the leaders ask them to move
off the land, they must listen in the same way they lis-tened during the
liberation strug-gle.’’
He said white commercial farmers who honestly wanted to farm should be left
to continue on the land.
To date the former freedom fighters have occupied nearly 1 000 white
commer-cial farms throughout the country.
The farmers, represented by the Commercial Farmers’ Union, have for the
second time petitioned the High Court to order the police to act against the war
vet-erans.
“Any country is free to make its laws to safeguard the interests
of the people,” he said in reference to last week’s amend-ment of
the constitution to give Government power to compulsorily ac-quire
land for resettlement without paying compensation.
However, Rev Wauchope said the com-mittee was concerned about the
decision by war veterans to occupy commercial farms as a way of
trying to redress the im-balances in land ownership.
The committee also condemned the po-litical violence that has
gripped the coun-try in recent weeks.
Rev Wauchope said while society will not always agree on who
should form the government, “those diversities should en-rich it by
promoting an open and competi-tive platform for those searching for
the best national good”.
He urged aspiring political leaders to be humble, tolerant and
“exercise peace and nation building voices in their search for the
blessings of governance”.
“There is no room for crude vitriol, in-citement of violence,
obscenities or gutter lingua. We should be mature and respect-ful of
our citizenry and children.”
Wanton and reckless injury of any human being and infringement of
human rights by any person is an affront to the teachings of Christ,
he said.
“The human being is the temple of the Lord and for society to
function smoothly and progressively, there must be rever-ence and
respect for the human being.”
The Anglican Church recently hit the headlines following the
distribution of pamphlets by its St Luke’s Greendale Parish
criticising President Mugabe’s comments on farm invasions.
The fliers, distributed by the parish’s canon Reverend Tim Neill,
also questioned whether or not the President still had a right to
remain in power.
President Mugabe had said that the Government would not stop the
invasions by the ex-combatants as they were a peaceful demonstration
against historical imbalances in land
ownership.Fools' Acre for Hunzvi
It's time to leave your satellite dishes, gentlemen
An erection for political power
At least 15 000 people allocated urban stands
Agriculture Reporter
THREE farms occupied by war
veter-ans between Ruwa and Epworth are now being subdivided into urban
resi-dential stands with people having to pay between $20 and $100 to be
“reg-istered”.
At least 15 000 people have been given residential
stands but most of those allo-cated land are complaining that they are being
asked to pay between $20 and $100 before getting it.
Anglican Church backs land reform programme
Herald Reporter
THE land issue
is a “justice issue” and land should be redistributed equally, the
Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Committee of the Anglican Diocese
of Harare said yesterday
In a statement, the chairperson
of the committee, Reverend George Wauchope, said the committee
supported the redistri-bution of land and efforts to carry out the
exercise.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ZIMBABWE CASE NO. H.C. 3544 /2000 HELD AT HARARE
In the matter between:
THE COMMERCIAL FARMERS UNION APPLICANT
AND
COMRADE BORDER GEZI
FIRST RESPONDENT
AND
DR. CHENJERAYI HUNZVI SECOND
RESPONDENT
AND
THE ZIMBABWE NATIONAL LIBERATION
WAR VETERANS
ASSOCIATION THIRD RESPONDENT
AND
THE COMMISSIONER OF POLICE
FOURTH RESPONDENT
IN CHAMBERS BEFORE THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE GARWE FRIDAY 17 MARCH 2000 4.30 PM
Advocate De Bourbon SC for the Applicant
Mr Musungwa for 2nd and 3rd Respondents
Ms Machaka of the Civil Division, Attorney-General's Office for 1st and 4th Respondents
Having read the papers and considered the representations of Counsel,
IT IS ORDERED, BY CONSENT THAT
1. Every occupation of any property listed in the Schedule hereto or of any other commercial farm or ranch in Zimbabwe that has been occupied since February 16 2000 in pursuit of any claim to a right to occupy that property as part of the demonstrations instigated, promoted or encouraged by any person, is hereby declared unlawful.
2. All persons who have taken up occupation of any commercial farm or ranch in Zimbabwe since February 16 2000 in pursuit of any claim to a right to occupy that property as part of the recent demonstrations instigated, promoted or encouraged by any person shall vacate such land within 24 hours of the making of this Order.
3. The first three Respondents be and are hereby ordered not to encourage, allow or otherwise participate in any demonstration in protest against the holding of commercial farming or ranching land in Zimbabwe according to the race of the present owners or occupiers thereof insofar as such demonstration
3.1 comprises the entry upon any farm or ranch by five or more persons; and/or
3.2 persists for more than two hours; and/or
3.3 extends at any time to the presence of any of those persons at a point closer than 100 metres from any point of any residence on the property or into the area included in any security fence; or
3.4 purports in any way to be designed to acquire control of the farm, ranch or any part thereof otherwise than in accordance with the laws of Zimbabwe;
3.5 This order shall not prevent the 2nd Respondent from addressing any such occupants in order to achieve the peaceful removal or ejectment of such occupants.
4. The Applicant shall forthwith announce -
4.1 on radio and television over periods of not less than 20 seconds each, four times a day in each of Shona, Ndeble and English for three successive days; and
4.2 through the medium of two major newspapers circulating within Zimbabwe where the announcements shall appear in respect of advertisements covering not less than two columns by 15cm on three successive days.
the precise terms of the first four paragraphs of this Order and those media reports shall be deemed to be adequate notice, for the purposes of Rule 37, Order 5 of the High Court Rules, 1971 ,to the persons subject to the order set out in paragraph 2 hereof of their obligation to vacate those farms.
5. The Fourth Respondent is ordered to direct all officers and members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police that :-
5.1 the uninvited presence on any ranch or farm of any persons for more than two hours can constitute the offence of contravening paragraph (b) or paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section 5 of the Miscellaneous Offences Act [Chapter 19:05];
5.2 any report of any such presence shall be investigated immediately and unless the persons present have good and sufficient reason to remain on the farm, they shall be removed from the farm
5.3 any claim that the person's presence on the farm is justified by virtue of a desire to occupy the land because of a wish to protest against the racial distribution of commercial farming land in Zimbabwe or the State's obligation to provide him or herself or others with land on which to settle is not a good and sufficient reason<
5.4 all persons who have taken part in the recent demonstrations instigated, promoted or encouraged by any person shall be ordered to vacate the land that they occupy forthwith and all those who remain in occupation 24 hours after the making of this Order or who resume occupation or reenter the land are to be arrested and charged with such offences as they may have committed.
6. The Fourth Respondent is ordered to disregard any executive instruction that he may receive, from any person holding Executive Power in Zimbabwe, to the effect that the Zimbabwe Republic Police or any member thereof is not to assist any Deputy Sheriff, Messenger of Court or Deputy Messenger in the service and enforcement of any order of eviction made by the civil courts of Zimbabwe and he is ordered to direct all members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police to disregard any such instruction.
7. The Fourth Respondent is also ordered to disregard any such executive instruction to disregard any offence other than a First Schedule Offence, as defined in the Criminal Procedure & Evidence Act [Chapter 9:071 that may committed in the course of demonstrations in favour of the redistribution of land in Zimbabwe and he is ordered to direct all members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police to disregard any such instruction.
8. Insofar as any person who gained occupation of any property listed in the Schedule on or after 16 February 2000 in association with the aforementioned demonstrations may remain on the land more than 72 hours after the making of This Order, the Fourth Respondent is ordered forthwith to deploy such manpower, having regard to available resources, as is reasonably necessary to evict all such persons from any such land with their families and their belongings and to this end the Fourth Respondent shall
8.1 ensure that all persons so evicted are correctly identified and that their names and addresses are recorded; and
8.2 ensure that all offences that are reported to have occurred on each such farm are fully and properly investigated;
BY THE COURT
The Belgian Foreign Affairs Ministry has asked travellers in Zimbabwe to be extremely cautious. Those planning to go to the African country, despite the present unrest, are advised to present their travel route to the Belgian embassy in Zimbabwe.
In a BBC interview, the veterans' leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi, said the court could go to hell, adding they would not give up the land without a fight.
The High Court ruled that police must enforce the eviction of thousands of squatters occupying the farms.
In an apparent attempt to defuse the situation, Zimbabwe's vice-president has told squatters they do not need to continue with their demonstrations on white-owned farm land.
Joseph Msika said the demonstrations are no longer necessary
because of the recent amendment to Zimbabwe's constitution allowing the
government to seize white-owned land without paying for it.
Our correspondent in Harare says it is not clear what effect the statement will have on the ground.
Thousands of squatters, led by veterans of Zimbabwe's war of independence, have been occupying hundreds of white-owned farms with the backing of President Mugabe.
The president's critics say he is using the issue to gain support ahead of forthcoming elections.
Eviction ordered
The High Court ruling appears to place the court at odds with
the government.
|
Hunzvi: Invasions will
continue |
Judge Moses Hungwe Chinhengo rejected a police appeal against an earlier court order to remove the squatters.
He urged the president to "recognise that it is in the permanent interest of Zimbabwe and the rule of law to bring to an end the farm invasions".
The ruling confirms last month's judgement in favour of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) when an eviction order was served on the squatters.
Zimbabwe's Attorney-General Patrick Chinamasa had argued
against the earlier order, saying the police did not have the resources to evict
60,000 veterans from about 1,000 mainly white-owned farms.
The farmers say the squatters number only 7,000.
President Mugabe, speaking from Havana, acknowledged that some farmers had been assaulted for resisting the occupation of their farms.
But he described the invasions as peaceful.
"What they (the invaders) have done is merely stage a demonstration, a peaceful demonstration in most cases, because they have not been guilty of any acts of violence," he said."I say people must be cool ... It is not a fight against whites as such; it is a fight against a particular section of the whites who have land," he added.
Newspapers in Zimbabwe have quoted Dr Hunzvi as saying that more invasions will be taking place.
Against this background, the government has cancelled next week's celebrations to mark 20 years since the end of white rule.
Instead, the president will deliver a televised address, which many expect him to use to set an election date.
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In this story: 'A make or break situation' Mugabe defends land seizures RELATED STORIES, SITES |
HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Feeling isolated against the government over the issue of land seizures, many white Zimbabweans are ending years of political apathy and actively supporting the opposition.
The country's High Court will rule Thursday on whether police must enforce an order to evict thousands of veterans of the war of independence, who have occupied white-owned farms.
The occupation has been backed by President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence. Mugabe is facing his greatest challenge to date from the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change in upcoming elections.
Thousands of veterans of the 1970s war against white minority rule in the former Rhodesia have invaded hundreds of the country's 4,500 commercial farms. The veterans have demanded land they say was stolen by the British from their forefathers in the 1890s.
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White make up less than 1 percent of Zimbabwe's population of 12 million, but still control much of the country's farm land economy.
April 18 is the 20th anniversary of independence from white rule for Zimbabwe. But it comes as the country faces its worst economic crisis and the violent farm occupations continue unchecked by the police.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangiai's rising popularity is bouyed by growing support from many whites.
"We really see this as a make or break situation, not only from the white point of view, but from the entire country's point of view," said Eddie Cross of the MDC.
President Mugabe, however, has seized on the issue of white involvement in politics in his campaign.
"They are paying money, lots of money, to the coffers of the MDC. We are ready to fight and it will be a fight to the finish," he said.
The threat was echoed by the leader of the war veterans, Chenjerai Hunzvi.
"There is no other government that will come and rule this country while we are still alive, and what we want to assure everyone that we are ready to fight and we are ready to do so now," he said.
In Havana, Mugabe defended the land seizures and denied that the such seizures represented an "anti-white campaign."
"I say people must be cool," Mugabe said on the sidelines of the Group of 77 summit of 133 Third World nations.
"It is not a fight against the whites as such; it is a fight against a particular section of the whites who have land," he added.
Mugabe pointed out that the land of former Rhodesian leader Ian Smith had not been occupied and defended the veterans.
"What they have done is merely to stage a demonstration, a peaceful demonstration in most cases, because they have not been guilty of any acts of violence," Mugabe said. He acknowledged, however, that some farmers had been assaulted after resisting occupation.
"We have appealed to the war veterans not to assault anybody, not to touch any property and not to vandalize. ... We will regularize the process and list the farms that they are occupying and see whether in terms of our criteria they deserve to be acquired," he added.
He blamed the Labor government of former colonial power Britain for the crisis, saying they reneged on the previous Conservative government's plans to help compensate white farmers for land purchases.
But in Harare, white farm owners accused the veterans of targeting farm workers in a fresh wave of intimidation. Many black farm workers have defended the farm owners' land.
Malcolm Vowles, a spokesman for the Commercial Farmers Union said, "there is a pattern of intimidation and witch-hunting in the compounds at night. We have information on three cases of serious assaults on workers, using sticks and fists."
Reporter Bob Coen, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
In February, President Robert Mugabe lost a national vote for the first time ever - the constitutional referendum. This confirmed what analysts had long been saying - that he and his Zanu-PF party were losing their popularity.
Nationwide he got 46% of the vote but in
urban centres, such as Harare and Bulawayo fewer than a quarter supported the
government's position.
With parliamentary elections due in the next few months, it was a serious
blow. Mr Mugabe has responded by concentrating on rural areas where Zanu-PF
support held up relatively well.
The carrot is land. The invasions are intended to demonstrate that Zanu-PF is
committed to redistributing land from whites to blacks, despite the slow
progress in the 20 years it has been in power. This is calculated to win the
votes of the millions of peasant farmers, struggling to support families on tiny
patches of barren land, next door to white-owned highly mechanised, large-scale
farms.
The stick is the use of war veterans. Those in rural areas bore the brunt of
the fighting in the 1970s war of independence that brought Robert Mugabe to
power. They are saying that if Zanu-PF loses, they will go back to war, hoping
that this will scare those considering voting for the opposition into either
changing their minds or staying at home.
Race relations
A further element is the race card. By blaming the current problems on whites
and the West, Mr Mugabe is trying to absolve his own government from
responsibility and hopes to persuade the 99% black majority to support him.
Mike Auret, a former director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and
Peace, now with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, says this tactic
will backfire. The day after an opposition march was attacked by government
supporters in Harare and whites singled out for beatings, he said that this
would improve race relations as "blacks and whites would unite - against
Zanu-PF".
The invasions apart, generally there is surprisingly little animosity in
Zimbabwe, even if racial groups still tend to remain separate.
About 600 white-owned farms are currently occupied by a mixture of war
veterans, unemployed urban youths and peasants. The houses of farm labourers
have been searched. Those found with opposition t-shirts, leaflets or other
electoral material have been beaten up - some have needed hospital treatment.
So is this strategy working? It's impossible to tell. There are very few
opinion polls in Zimbabwe and there is a suspicion that those that are carried
out ignore the rural areas where the battle is being fought. The threats of war
will win few votes in towns. Most condemn the violence and will be more
determined than ever to vote for change.
But one analyst says that seeing the war veterans and their own neighbours
occupying land and pegging out their own plots will be a vote-winner for Robert
Mugabe. He says this sight will be more powerful than the unfulfilled promises
of the past, as it meets their desperate need for land.
On the other hand, the reaction of the 600 000 farm workers and their
families could go either way.
The only accurate measure will be the parliamentary election itself.
President Mugabe has not announced the dates yet and the groundwork is still
being done. Originally due in April, they might not be held until July.
LONDON (April 13) XINHUA - Britain on Thursday welcomed a Zimbabwean High
Court ruling that police must take action to clear the illegal occupation of
white-owned farms.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said in a statement that the ruling was
in Zimbabwe's own interests that land reforms are carried out in an orderly and
transparent way, "which does not ride roughshod over the rights of individuals."
Zimbabwe's High Court on Thursday dismissed a police application to overturn
an earlier eviction order on thousands of veterans involved in the country's
1970s liberation struggle.
Under the ruling, supporters of President Robert Mugabe, who seized
white-owned farms, will be cleared out from the farms.
Zimbabwe police had argued earlier the order was impossible to enforce
without risking civil war.
"I hope that the police will now begin to carry out this order and that calm
will return to the farms of Zimbabwe," Cook added.
Copyright XINHUA NEWS AGENCY - from CNN HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's acting president called Thursday for an end to
the invasion of white-owned farms and said government ministers would travel to
Britain soon to discuss funding for orderly land redistribution. Vice President Joseph Msika, acting for President Robert Mugabe, told state
media last week's constitutional amendment allowing the seizure of land without
compensation had cleared the way for the legal redistribution of white-owned
land. "There is no reason for the war veterans and the povo (people) to continue
demonstrating or occupying farms in a haphazard manner. We have passed the Land
Bill, which will allow us to resettle people in an orderly manner," he said.
He said Local Government and Housing Minister John Nkomo and Foreign Minister
Stan Mudenge would go to London soon for talks with Britain about funding a
resettlement program. At least 7,000 people claiming to be veterans of the war of liberation in the
former Rhodesia have occupied at least 500 white-owned farms in a land grab
sanctioned by Mugabe. Police put the figure at 60,000 holding about 1,000 farms. Several white farmers have been beaten up, many have abandoned their farms
and some have signed documents handing parts of their farms over to squatters.
Britain said recently millions of pounds would be available to fund an
approved land redistribution scheme benefiting the poor rather than Mugabe's
friends and colleagues. Mugabe, who was at the Group of 77 summit in Cuba, told reporters the land
seizures were not racially motivated. "It is not a fight against whites as such; it is a fight against a particular
section of the whites who have land. "What (the veterans) have done is merely stage a demonstration, a peaceful
demonstration in most cases, because they have not been guilty of any acts of
violence," Mugabe said, adding some farmers had been assaulted for resisting
occupation. Squatters and local farmers were wounded Thursday in the first reported
shootout between rival sides on the Lonely Park Farm about 18 miles east of
Harare. Witnesses said ambulances were called to the farm to ferry an unknown number
of wounded to hospital. Earlier Thursday, the Zimbabwe High Court upheld an order for the eviction of
squatters occupying white-owned farms. POLICE CASE DISMISSED Judge Moses Chinhengo dismissed a police argument that the eviction order was
unenforceable and that any attempt to do so could trigger a civil war. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook welcomed the court's decision. "It is in
Zimbabwe's own interests that land reform is carried out in an orderly and
transparent way, which does not ride roughshod over the rights of individuals,"
he said in a statement. "I hope that the police will now begin to carry out this order and that calm
will return to the farms of Zimbabwe," he added. Officials estimate that the country's 4,500 white farmers control about 75
percent of the most productive farmland, which generates more than half the
country's foreign revenue. Farming sources put the land figure closer to 40 percent. Sources in the Commercial Farmers Union have said their strategy is to keep a
low profile in the hope that the land issue will subside after parliamentary
elections due within the next four months. Presidential elections are not due
until 2002. Mugabe, 76 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, faces his
toughest challenge yet from the Movement for Democratic Change, which delivered
his first poll defeat in February, when voters rejected a new constitution. A government source told Reuters that war veterans leader Chenjerai Hunzvi,
leader of the invasion program and until now an outspoken critic of white
farmers, had held meetings with government ministers Thursday. Hunzvi declined
to comment. Zimbabwean political analyst Masipula Sithole said Msika's statement appeared
to signal a crucial change of heart, but added: "Until Mugabe himself makes a
statement, until those on the farms start to move, we cannot be too sure. But I
think this move has Mugabe's blessing, it has his mark. "The process starts while he is away and he does not have to take the first
step or be seen to be losing face and it still leaves him with room for
grandstanding if he wants," he said. Britain Welcomes Zimbabwe Court Ruling on Farms
Update 5-Zimbabwe Minister Indicates Farm Tide Turning
HARARE (April 13) XINHUA - President of The Law Society of Zimbabwe Sternford Moyo Thursday welcomed a High Court decision which orders the police to evict the war veterans occupying the white-owned farms.
Moyo said the decision reinforced their confidence in the independence of the Judiciary.
The society urged the government to proceed with due expedition and diligence to enforce the order, Moyo said.
"It is fundamental to the observance of the rule of law and the maintenance of law and order in this country that the perception of reluctance or unwillingness by the government to enforce court orders be brought to an end as a matter of extreme urgency," Moyo said.
High Court Judge Justice Moses Chinhengo Thursday ruled that the State must move swiftly to remove the war veterans who have invaded commercial farms owned by white farmers. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is in Havana, Cuba, attending the G77 Summit.
Chinhengo said there was no basis at all to interfere with Justice Paddington Garwe!/s original ruling that the rule of law must be upheld.
Since February this year, war veterans of the country's liberation struggle have invaded more than 1,000 white farms countrywide.
Copyright XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
HARARE (April 13) XINHUA - Zimbabwe's High Court ruled on Thursday that the government must swiftly remove the black war veterans from the white-owned farms they have invaded. Judge Justice Moses Chinhengo also dismissed a police appeal against an earlier High Court order for the eviction of farm invaders, saying they have not enough manpower to enforce the order.
He urged the executive to recognize that the permanent interest of Zimbabwe and the rule of law were served by ensuring the land invasions were brought to an immediate end.
"I would urge the executive to provide the Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri with additional resources that the police force may require to carry out its functions under the law," said Chinhengo.
He said while the application could be viewed sympathetically as a cry for the courts to recognize the predicament the police commissioner was in, the court had on the other hand issued an order which he should enforce.
War veterans and other landless black peasants have waged a campaign since February to occupy commercial farms and ranches owned by the whites, urging the government to accelerate land redistribution reform.
When the campaign spread throughout Zimbabwe, the Commercial Farmers Union applied to the High Court to have the invasions stopped.
An order was granted by Justice Garwe on March 17, declaring the invasions unlawful and invaders vacate within 24 hours.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is in Cuba attending the G77 Summit.
Copyright XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- A judge on Thursday ordered the government and police to evict black squatters from white-owned land, rejecting police claims they had insufficient men or equipment to enforce property laws.
The court called an urgent hearing after the Commercial Farmers' Union, representing white farm owners, demanded action in districts where more than 900 farms have been occupied for months.
Police have so far failed to evict the squatters, led by armed men claiming to be veterans of the bush war that led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980.
Judge Moses Chinenga dismissed an application by Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri that an earlier High Court order to evict the squatters be changed.
"The rule of law has to be upheld," he said.
Government officials said Monday the issue dates back to independence and could not be resolved by any court order.
The government has said it feared police action to force out squatters armed with knives, spears clubs and guns could trigger civil war.
Officials said the 20,000-strong police force estimated they would be pitted against at least 50,000 squatters claiming land occupied by the descendants of British settlers.
With opposition mounting to his two decades of rule, President Robert Mugabe has backed the illegal occupations, arguing they are a justified protest against unfair land ownership. About 4,000 white farmers own one-third of Zimbabwe's productive land, while most blacks remain landless and impoverished.
Many black farm workers, however, have defended the farm owners' property and cases of violence have broken out.
Critics say Mugabe, whose popularity is being eroded by an economic crisis, is permitting the land seizures to prop up his waning support among the country's majority black voters ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be called in May.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.
HAVANA (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, his nation in turmoil over the invasion of white-owned farms, Wednesday urged the world to keep "cool" and insisted the occupations were not an "anti-white" campaign.
Mugabe, in Havana for the Group of 77 summit, also laid the blame for Zimbabwe's current troubles on Britain's Labor government and insisted that without aid from London, there would be not be full compensation for affected white farmers.
"I say people must be cool," Mugabe said in an interview with three news media, including Reuters, on the sidelines of the "South Summit" of 133 Third World nations.
"It is not a fight against the whites as such; it is a fight against a particular section of the whites who have land," he added, emphasizing that the land of former white ruler Ian Smith had not been occupied.
The Zimbabwean president defended the invasions of white- owned farms by liberation war veterans, which is considered to have plunged his country into its worst crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. But he added the veterans had been warned to avoid violence.
"What they have done is merely to stage a demonstration, a peaceful demonstration in most cases, because they have not been guilty of any acts of violence," Mugabe said. He acknowledged, however, that some farmers had been assaulted after resisting occupation.
"We have appealed to the war veterans not to assault anybody, not to touch any property and not to vandalize. ... We will regularize the process and list the farms that they are occupying and see whether in terms of our criteria they deserve to be acquired."
Thousands of veterans of the 1970s war against white minority rule in the former Rhodesia have invaded hundreds of the country's 4,500 commercial farms -- demanding land they say was stolen by the British from their forefathers in the 1890s.
Harare says the government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair is responsible for the crisis by back-tracking on the previous Conservative government's plans to finance the purchase of land from the white farmers and thus redistribute it more fairly.
Zimbabwe's demand that Britain be responsible for compensating the affected white farmers has badly strained ties with the country's former colonial ruler. Harare says this had been agreed to under the 1980 Lancaster House accord that ended Zimbabwe's liberation war.
Mugabe lashed Britain for allegedly stirring up European opinion over the Zimbabwe issue. "It might appear to many that the problem has suddenly erupted. But this has been ongoing, a continuous problem, but worsened only because the Labor government has not wanted to follow in the footsteps of the Conservative government," he said.
If Britain does not give Zimbabwe funds for land purchases, "then we will have to take it without that compensation, except in respect of improvements of the land," he added.
"Let that be known. We will pay compensation for any developments like irrigation schemes, structures erected on the land. ... But the full market value of the land, no, we cannot pay that."
He said the world should remember that Zimbabwe fought for its independence: "They talk of human rights and democracy. Who taught Britain democracy about Zimbabwe? We did. We freed ourselves from the clutches of British colonialism. ... Britain cannot teach us about democracy."
Mugabe said foreign investors should not worry about Harare's land takeover plans, because it would be carried out in an orderly way following the passage of clear legislation.
"Investors should not be inhibited by the fact that the people of Zimbabwe are getting their land back," he said. "Of course, some people might misread the situation and regard it as a situation of turmoil. No. Actually, we would want to give the land in an orderly manner."
Mugabe emphasized that the farms needed were the ones adjacent to communal land. Former white leader Smith's land did not fall into that category, he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge said the land conflict has created a "potentially explosive" situation which could "negatively affect" the rest of southern Africa if not resolved.
He also defended the war veterans. "There are no land invaders. They are ex-combatants, people trying to demonstrate their desire for a more just land redistribution by self- settlement," Mudenge said.
"If we do not resolve the land question, it will be explosive; I can assure you of that," he added. "The people ... will not accept the present unjust situation to continue forever and they will forcibly correct that." The landless poor would "do all that is necessary to have back their land."
An earlier high court ruling ordering the eviction of more than 50,000 squatters, who have occupied several hundred white-owned farms amid increasing violence, had been challenged by the police commissioner and the attorney-general, Patrick Chinamasa. They maintained that the order was unenforceable and if attempted, could lead to widespread bloodshed.
Earlier this week Mr Chinamasa went further, telling Judge Moses Chinhengo that the farm invasions were essentially a political matter, part of the "unfinished business" of Zimbabwe's liberation war against Ian Smith's illegal white-minority regime.
Mr Justice Chinhengo rejected those arguments today, saying he saw no reason to reverse the previous court order. "The rule of law must be upheld," he said.
The ruling is the latest in a series of blows suffered by Mr Mugabe's regime. Last year, it lost funding from the IMF and World Bank after a row over its economic management and its involvement in the Congo war. In February, it lost a national referendum on a new constitution. Since then, the United States has cut bilateral aid, South African banks have suspended commercial credit, Zimbabwe's foreign reserves have been exhausted and the country has been hit by serious fuel and energy shortages.
Mr Mugabe has also become engaged in a war of words with Britain, the country's former colonial power, which he claims is trying to influence forthcoming general elections. But facing his biggest-ever challenge from the multiracial Movement for Democratic Change, Mr Mugabe has postponed the elections, originally due this month, and has refused so far to set a new date.
This week's dissolution of parliament, coupled with the government's control of much of the media and its suppression of opposition demonstrations, means that the judiciary is the only remaining obstacle to unchallenged rule by Mr Mugabe.
The big question now is whether Mr Mugabe's government will accept the court order. It made no immediate comment after the ruling.
On recent form, it seems unlikely to comply. If it does not, then farmers and other groups are likely to return to court, arguing that Mr Chinamasa and the police commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, are in prima facie contempt of court. Mr Justice Chinhengo yesterday imposed no penalties on the government, other than costs, for ignoring the earlier ruling. If its defiance continues, however, he may be forced to put the government in the dock.
Mr Mugabe has repeatedly expressed his support for the farm occupations, and has increased the tension by telling white Zimbabweans that they should leave the country if they are not prepared to give up their land. To back down now would be seen as another, big personal humiliation.
But the alternative - ignoring the law, defying the high court, and perhaps preventing further court proceeedings - would be even more damaging, confirming the view of many Zimbabweans that Mr Mugabe has become an autocrat and that the country is heading for anarchy and a possible new civil war.
All this makes it more necessary than ever that a British plan to appoint an independent regional mediator to tackle some of these issues is implemented.
Apr 8 2000 7:10AM ET : HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean riot police set up roadblocks Saturday and searched cars entering a township where opponents of President Robert Mugabe were said to be planning a protest.
So-called liberation war veterans, emboldened by the beleaguered president's endorsement Friday of illegal farm invasions, grabbed more land from white farmers.
A witness said police patrolled the sprawling Chitungwiza township about 40 km south of Harare. Armed officers used armored personnel carriers to block the road and searched cars.
The police declined to say why they had moved into the area.
Local reporters said there were rumors that an opposition march was planned in the district, home to 500,000 poor people, where violence erupted during 1998 anti-government food riots.
Government officials said Mugabe, who has challenged white farmers to back his ruling ZANU-PF or leave, was resting before flying in the evening to Cuba for a Third World economic summit.
Mugabe, his political stock at an all time low after 20 years in power, told a rally Friday he had not ordered the farm invasions, but said he supported the so-called liberation war veterans in their land grab.
ZANU-PF supporters, claiming to be veterans of the liberation war that brought the former Rhodesia to independence from Britain in 1980, have occupied more than 800 farms owned mainly by the country's 4,500 white commercial farmers.
Two farms were seized near Mozowe, about 20 km northeast of Harare, overnight and one was reported taken in Kadoma, further from the capital.
GROUP PEACEFULLY TAKES OVER FARM
Saturday, a group of veterans, youngsters and children marched onto the Danbury Parks farm in the Mazowe district, home of the white Bayley family for more than 60 years.
``We are just informing you we are taking over,'' a group leader told Tommy Bayley calmly outside the homestead.
``We are not taking the land from you, we are retaking the land you took from our forefathers,'' the leader said.
In line with the policy set by the mainly white Commercial Farmers Union, Bayley offered no resistance, telling the group: ''I am here. I cannot stop you doing whatever you want to do.''
Political analysts say the white farmers hope the invasions will end after parliamentary elections in May and that their land will be restored to them.
Mugabe, 76, does not face a presidential election until 2002. He has threatened white farmers and talked of taking their land before each parliamentary and presidential election since independence, the analysts note.
Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs officials said Mugabe had no firm appointments while in Cuba for the Group of 77 Summit, but southern African leaders often meet at international conferences to share views on regional developments.
``I am sure he will meet his colleagues as usual and exchange views of common interest, not just covering Zimbabwe, but the whole region,'' an official told Reuters.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected to leave for Cuba Monday and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said he would try to discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe with Mugabe.
Zimbabwe's powerful northern neighbor, which only threw off white rule six years ago and also has a large and still dispossessed black population, has said it is worried by the turn of events.
``We are very concerned about the situation and we are in constant touch with the government in Zimbabwe,'' Pahad told reporters Friday.
``It is in our interest to ensure that the situation does not explode. Anything that explodes in Zimbabwe will have very serious consequences for us,'' he said. Zimbabwe is South Africa's largest African trading partner.
Mugabe Friday made an emotional appeal for popular support with a strong message to the country's whites to take his side or leave.
His ZANU-PF party has pushed through a law giving the government the right to confiscate predominantly white-owned farmland with the onus on Britain to pay compensation.
MUGABE SAYS FARMERS FUNDING OPPOSITION
``Alas, those that we had thought had accepted the hand of reconciliation had not in fact done so,'' Mugabe said. ``The white man has not changed. I appeal to him or her to rethink.''
He said he was not anti-white, just against those who did not support him, and accused the white farmers of bankrolling the emerging opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
``I support the invasion of the farms, but I didn't send them,'' he told a crowd of about 1,500 people -- including several veteran fighters and a large group of young militants.
Mugabe warns 'Boers' to
leave
Zimbabwe: special
report
Chris
McGreal in Harare
Saturday April 8, 2000
President Robert
Mugabe yesterday said that those whites who do not agree with the new
constitutional reform permitting the seizure and redistribution of their
farmland without compensation should leave Zimbabwe.
Addressing an election rally in the north-east of the country, Mr Mugabe also let loose at an array of other opponents. He warned opposition politicians against "starting a fire" that will consume them and declared that Zimbabweans will "rise up and repel" Britain if it interferes in the land issue.
Mr Mugabe, who discarded his usual western suit in favour of an olive-green safari outfit with overtones of combat fatigues, offered his backing to the invasion of nearly 1,000 white farms by poor blacks and veterans of the independence war. He warned whites against resisting the land seizures.
"Have we now come to the position where they [whites] are determined to fight against Mugabe and his government? he asked. "If that is the case, I will declare the fight to be on and we will win it."
"We appeal for the farmers to be reasonable... Let there be no clashes between them and the war veterans," he said. "There have been some cases of violence, but many of these have been due to resistance by the farmers."
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), which represents most of the country's 4,500 white farmers, said land on a total of 926 farms has been seized and at least 50 farmers assaulted. Two men arrested by police for beating one farmer so severely that he was taken to hospital were released yesterday and returned to reoccupy their victim's land.
Zimbabwe's president denied there is an anti-white policy, but several times he de scribed his country's white citizens as "Boers" and accused white farmers of bankrolling an increasingly popular new opposition movement.
The opposition has dismissed the occupations and constitutional amendment as a ploy by Mr Mugabe to whip up support ahead of parliamentary elections, scheduled for next month. The ruling Zanu-PF party faces the biggest opposition challenge of its 20 years in power amid a crumbling economy, soaring inflation and fuel shortages.
The CFU said yesterday it was still deciding its response to the constitutional reform, but that seizing farms without compensation will "render land worthless".
However, the leader of the country's war veterans association, which is spearheading the land seizures, said that they will continue despite parliament's vote to pave the way for the government to legally take over land redistribution.
"We are staying there. We are prepared to fight on," said Chenjerai Hunzvi. "We have to protect our gains. We are in the second phase of liberation. This is why there is this war."
The US said it has with drawn about $1m aid for land reform because Mr Mugabe has failed to stop the farm invasions.
"That programme has broken down in recent weeks as war veterans and their supporters illegally occupied hundreds of commercial farms in clear violation of Zimbabwean law," said the state department spokesman, James Rubin. "Zimbabwe's future and reputation are threatened by this display of political intolerance." The US called for "rational, sustainable and equitable land reform in Zimbabwe.".
The new constitutional amendment requires that, as the former colonial power, Britain compensate whites who lose their farms. A statement from the British high commission in Harare yesterday rejected the demand. "One sovereign and independent state cannot use its constitution to impose conditions on another," it said.
The Foreign Office said Britain has agreed to accept a Zimbabwean delegation to discuss the issue. The Department for International Development said the UK has spent £44m on resettlement projects since Zimbabwe's indepen dence in 1980. But as a result of the land invasions, a further £5m earmarked for resettlement is being diverted to other projects.
The violence on the farms continued yesterday with at least one other white
couple assaulted. And one of the leaders of the war veterans association,
Agrippa Gava, warned that reporters will also become targets if they visit the
occupied farms. "If you go to these places, you will die," he said.
BBC: Saturday, 8 April, 2000, 18:44 GMT 19:44 UK
The Movement for Democratic Change rejected Mr Mugabe's warning that white farmers should leave the country if they could not accept a new law allowing their land to be seized without compensation.
MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said Mr Mugabe's support for
the militants squatting on hundreds of white-owned farms was dividing the
nation.
|
Mr Tsvangirai accused the president of
electioneering |
At a rally in Kadoma, central Zimbabwe, Mr Tsvangirai said: "This country is a multi-cultural society. There's no way you can remove the racial aspect.
"The whites will be here to stay, other ethnic groups will be here to stay. It's a multi-cultural, multi-racial society."
The rally was attended by about 2,000 MDC supporters, some of whom complained that they had been stoned by followers of Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party before the rally.
Emboldened by Mr Mugabe's remarks on Friday that he would fight white farmers who opposed his land grab, war veterans invaded more farms on Saturday.
Land seizures
Two were occupied overnight near Mazowe, about 20km north-east
of Harare, and another was reported taken in Kadoma.
Analysts say white farmers hope the invasions will end after parliamentary elections in May, and that their land will be restored to them.
War veterans and government supporters are squatting on about
800 white-owned farms, and there have been attacks against some of the owners.
|
President Mugabe said the MDC would never govern
Zimbabwe |
White political activists have vowed to fight on to topple Mr Mugabe's government in the forthcoming elections, despite threats of violence.
David Coltart, a human rights lawyer and executive member of the MDC, told the AFP news agency: "I am not going to be frightened by a tin-pot dictator like Robert Mugabe.
"This is simply the ranting of a very frightened old man who fears the consequences of losing power, who fears what will be seen when his corrupt activities and his gross human rights abuses are revealed."
Mr Mugabe told an election rally on Friday that whites were backing the MDC with large cash donations and said that if they wanted a fight, he was ready.
He said: "MDC can never be the government of this country, never, never, never. I will declare a fight to the finish and they will not win."
BBC: Saturday, 8 April, 2000, 10:31 GMT 11:31 UK
The strongest warnings have come from South Africa where deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said it was in his country's interests to ensure that the situation in Zimbabwe did not explode.
The warnings follow President Robert
Mugabe's statement that he would fight any opposition by white farmers to his
plan to take over their land.
He told an election rally on Friday that his government no longer intended to
ask for the land, but would take it without negotiation. Any whites who objected
should leave the country, he suggested.
Regional consequences
After South Africa, Zimbabwe has the biggest economy in the region.
According to business leaders, economic turmoil caused by a confrontation
over the ownership of white farms could reduce agricultural output and have
severe economic consequences.
"The whole region will carry the cost if there is an economic meltdown in
Zimbabwe," said Kevin Wakeford, chief executive of the South African Chamber of
Business.
|
Some farmers have already surrendered their
land |
South Africa's deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said Pretoria was closely monitoring the situation.
"We are very concerned about the situation and we are in constant touch with the government in Zimbabwe," Mr Pahad said.
Zimbabwe is South Africa's largest trading partner and there have been warnings in the press that unrest there could lead to an influx of Zimbabweans into South Africa.
Opposition warnings
War veterans and government supporters are squatting on about 800 white-owned farms, and there have been attacks against some of the owners.
|
Mugabe praised war veterans for leading the
occupation of
farms |
Opposition leaders say the dispute has nothing to do with Mr Mugabe's desire for fair land distribution, but is instead an attempt to make sure his party wins power in elections due next month.
The opposition parties have also warned that Mr Mugabe might be pushing the country towards chaos to provide a pretext for declaring emergency rule and further delaying elections.
Mugabe's rally
At a rally on Friday attended by over 3,000 supporters of his Zanu-PF party, Mr Mugabe said that if whites wanted to stay in Zimbabwe they must do so on his terms, and not oppose the seizure of their land.
"If they want to go, we will open the borders for them. We will give them a police escort," Mr Mugabe told supporters.
Zimbabwe's parliament passed legislation on Thursday to give the government the right to seize farms without compensation.
The wording of the constitutional amendment is identical to a clause in a draft constitution which was recently rejected in a national referendum.
This is war, says Harare's Hitler
The Polish-trained medical doctor speaks in hidden meanings and dark menacing allusions of war and death that lace his denials of anti-white racism and violence.
However, Agrippa Gava, one of his lieutenants and director of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association, is candid. "You look like a commercial farmer," he told one journalist after an interview in the organisation's headquarters. "Don't go to [opposition demonstrations] or you will die."
Peace Kiliwane, a veterans' spokesman, said: "Violence is the resort at the moment. It's a war and we've changed our strategy. They [white farmers] are being beaten but you have to know why. They are the ringleaders and are sponsoring people [the Movement for Democratic Change] to protect their interests."
Dr Hunzvi was pressed for an explanation of the attack on a peace march last week. "This is the second phase of liberation and we have to transform the economy of this country, and this is why there is this war," he said. The organisation said last month that farm occupations would end when legislation to take the land was passed. The law was passed on Thursday but the veterans are not moving, Dr Hunzvi said. "Why should we move them off land they fought for? That is the land we want and we are staying there."
Mugabe 'will not negotiate' over white land grab
Boers".
Emboldened by Parliament's approval of the Land Acquisition Bill, which gives him the power to take any land he chooses without compensation, Mr Mugabe said he would seek an urgent meeting with the white Commercial Farmers' Union to spell out how the land acquisitions would take place.
"This is an historic day," Mr Mugabe told supporters attending his Zanu (PF) party's first election rally in Mashonaland. "It is a victory over imperialism and colonialism."
The Land Acquisition Bill effectively overturns the result of February's constitutional referendum, which denied Mr Mugabe the authority to take white land without compensation. Mr Mugabe refused to accept the earlier result on the alleged ground that white farmers intimidated their black workers to vote against him.
Compensation for white farmers for any land acquired by the Government of Zimbabwe was the moral responsibility of Britain, Mr Mugabe said. "Compensation can only be paid if funds are made available by the former colonial power."
Mr Mugabe said that he wanted to assure the country's 4,500 white commercial farmers that his Government "will not proceed arbitrarily". But he also made clear: "There will be no negotiation about it."
Britain and the international community have agreed to support a transparent land reform programme that benefits the landless, in an attempt to offset the situation in which less than 1 per cent of white farmers own some 70 per cent of prime agricultural land. But it has refused to back unilateral action by Mr Mugabe.
Any pretence that the Government was not behind the invasion of some 900 commercial farms by thousands of "war veterans" dissolved when a phalanx of former fighters from the 1970s war of liberation marched on to the parade ground to be welcomed by Mr Mugabe's clenched fist. He thanked the veterans for their "fighting spirit" and for setting an example on how to solve the land issue. "The land has been baptised," Mr Mugabe said. "It has gone back to the people."
Dismissing the war of words between London and Harare over the forcible acquisitions, Mr Mugabe said that when the white man came to this country he just took the land and said: "This is mine." "Those who now own the land say they bought it. But those who sold it came from Britain," Mr Mugabe said.
"That's why Britain must pay for the land. When the money comes from Britain we will give it to you. If it does not, you are finished," he added.
Addressing the white commercial farmers, Mr Mugabe said: "Today we have given you your freedom. You now have the knowledge that this country belongs to black people. There is no one who is going to say to a white man that you are the boss. We are now on the same level."
Mr Mugabe warned the white community that their support for the Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition coalition of labour, church and student groups, would be seen as "a demonstration that the white man has not changed". "Have they come to the point where they want to fight Mugabe and his government? Then I will declare the fight. And it will be a fight to the finish," he said.
|
Zimbabwe Squatters Won't Leave
|
| Reuters Apr 8 2000 2:31AM ET |
HARARE - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, his political stock at an all-time low after 20 years in power, has made an emotional appeal for popular support with a strong message to the country's whites to take his side or leave.
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has felt ripples from political and economic turmoil rattling Zimbabwe, but is unlikely to follow its neighbour into crisis, analysts said on Friday.
| Mugabe Bids for Votes With
Strong Words to Whites | |
| Reuters Apr 7 2000 6:12PM ET |
|
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, his political stock at an all-time low after 20 years in power, has made an emotional appeal for popular support with a strong message to the country's whites to take his side or leave.
Mugabe's message was spelled out at a rural rally just one day after his ZANU-PF party pushed through a law giving the government the right to confiscate predominantly white-owned farmland while making Britain responsible for compensation.
``Alas, those that we had thought had accepted the hand of reconciliation had not in fact done so,'' the 76-year-old Mugabe said. ``The white man has not changed. I appeal to him or her to rethink.''
He said he was not anti-white, just against those who did not support him, and accused the 4,500 white farmers and their families of bankrolling the emerging opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Mugabe was unrepentant over the collapse in relations with former colonial overlord Britain after supposed veterans of the liberation war that ended in 1980 with the Lancaster House accord invaded more than 800 farms.
``I support the invasion of the farms, but I didn't send them,'' he told a crowd of about 1,500 people -- including several veteran fighters and a large group of young militants.
Two people have died and scores have been injured since the supposed war veterans began the farm invasions.
Farmers have been attacked and held hostage on their properties, and reporters have likewise been abused, kept captive and threatened.
Mugabe said the occupations would continue, but appealed for calm. He blamed the violent incidents on resistance by the farmers.
ACCUSATIONS OF POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM
Opponents accused Mugabe of cynical political opportunism with national elections expected within three months, and across the country MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai identified the problem in simple terms.
``The main issues are very, very simple. For the last 20 years we have allowed the ZANU-PF to destroy the economy,'' he told a rally of 2,000 supporters.
Mugabe, who does not himself face reelection until 2002, suffered a humiliating political setback in February when the country voted against a new constitution that included the power to seize land as well as giving the president more powers.
``Rejection of the draft constitution was a foolish act,'' he said, accusing white farmers of having voted in a block against it and of having coerced their workers to do likewise.
Zimbabwe's powerful neighbor South Africa, which only threw off apartheid rule six years ago and also has a large and still dispossessed black population, said it was worried about the turn of events and was watching it carefully.
``It is in our interest to ensure that the situation does not explode. Anything that explodes in Zimbabwe will have very serious consequences for us,'' Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said.
Land distribution in the former Rhodesia is heavily skewed toward the large landowners, with 4,500 huge commercial farms accounting for 11.2 million hectares (27.7 million acres) of the fertile countryside.
Zimbabwe has a total land area of 39.6 million hectares (98 million acres) of which all but 3.3 million are set aside for agricultural usage.
Farming is the backbone of the economy which is in ruins, with the International Monetary Fund withholding funds and international aid donors turning off the taps until the land issue is sorted out.
Zimbabwe Squatters Won't Leave
Apr 7 2000 2:46PM ET : HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - President Robert Mugabe on Friday praised thousands of squatters and war veterans who have illegally occupied more than 900 white-owned farms and said any whites scared of rising tension in Zimbabwe can have a police escort out of the country.
``We are no longer going to ask for the land, but we are going to take it without negotiating,'' Mugabe told a campaign rally near Bindura, 50 miles northeast of Harare.
The squatters - led by men armed with spears, clubs, knives and guns who claim to be veterans of the bush war that led to independence in 1980 - kept the ``liberation spirit'' alive by claiming white land occupied by the descendants of British colonial-era settlers, Mugabe said.
He said whites who resisted the takeovers have been injured in worsening clashes across the country, and fearful whites were free to leave.
``If they want to go, we will open the borders for them. We will give them a police escort,'' he told about 4,000 ruling party supporters.
Earlier Friday, the leader of a war veterans association promised to continue his group's occupation of white-owned farms.
``We are staying there. We are prepared to fight on'' despite a new law passed Thursday allowing the government to seize white land without paying compensation, said Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of the National Liberation War Veterans Association.
The occupations, which began in early February, come in a nation where 4,000 white farmers own one-third of Zimbabwe's productive land, while most blacks are landless and impoverished. The agricultural nation is also in the midst of its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. Inflation reached a record 70 percent last year and unemployment has exceeded 50 percent.
Mugabe has described the land occupations as justified protests against the inequity in land ownership and police have defied a court ruling ordering them to evict the squatters and enforce the law. Western nations have frozen aid for land reform and sharply criticized the government for failing to protect citizens' rights.
Speaking Friday, Hunzvi disputed assertions that the squatters were simply lawbreakers, saying that the white settlers respected no laws when they fought blacks and grabbed tribal lands in the colonial era.
``As freedom fighters we were being called terrorists, so we don't mind what we're called,'' he told reporters. ``We will fight. We have to protect our gains. We are in the second phase of liberation.''
On the farms, the standoffs remained tense. The Commercial Farmers Union, which represents most white farmers, reported at least 50 cases of violence against its members this week. A Hunzvi aide warned reporters to stay away from occupied farms.
``If you go to these places, you will die,'' said Agrippa Gava, a director of Hunzvi's group.
Youths from Mugabe's ruling party threatened to kill two black journalists at a besieged farm northwest of Harare and held them hostage for two hours while the police looked on Thursday, said the journalists' newspaper, the independent Daily News.
``This is anarchy. To have innocent citizens detained by ruling party youths and barred from going about their lawful business is totally unacceptable,'' said Geoff Nyarota, the newspaper's editor.
In parliamentary elections expected to be called in May, the opposition is expected to pose Mugabe's biggest electoral challenge since he led the country to independence. Opposition leaders have accused him of supporting the land occupation to boost his popularity.
APO/Zimbabwe-Land-Occupations/
Copyright © 2000 The Associated
Press.
INTERVIEW-Opposition says Zimbabwe drifting into chaos
Apr 7 2000 3:24PM ET : WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is drifting into chaos and the economy is threatened as a result of ``an orchestrated campaign of violence'' by President Robert Mugabe, the country's main opposition groups said Friday.
On a visit to Washington, several leaders of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an umbrella group of opposition parties, told Reuters Mugabe appeared to be pushing the country toward anarchy, possibly to provide an excuse to declare emergency rule and stall a general election due to be held in May.
``We are sending out an SOS signal,'' said Gibson Sibanda, the MDC's vice president, who led the delegation to lobby the U.S. State Department and key lawmakers on Capitol Hill to help step up international pressure on the Mugabe government.
``The Western world must tell Mugabe to stop the orchestrated violence and abide by the rule of law.''
The MDC, Zimbabwe's biggest opposition party, in February handed Mugabe the worst humiliation of his 20-year rule by helping to defeat a referendum on a new constitution that would have expanded his powers and enabled him to seize land from white farmers without compensation.
Since then Mugabe has intensified a campaign of violence and intimidation by using thugs to break up peaceful political protests and encouraging black squatters to invade some 800 white-owned farms, opposition leaders said.
``Mugabe is trying to get the land through the back door, when the people of Zimbabwe have said 'no','' said Isaac Maposa, director of the NCA, which organized the nationwide campaign urging voters to reject the new constitution.
``It is better for the international community to prevent any further recession into anarchy and violence than to have to send peacekeepers to Zimbabwe,'' he said.
The United States Thursday condemned the farm invasions and the suppression of recent peaceful demonstrations in Zimbabwe and announced it would suspend aid to the country's land-reform program.
Britain has also been highly critical of Mugabe's actions in its former colony, accusing him of handing the best land so far appropriated by the government to his cronies.
Sibanda said the MDC supported cutting off aid, but he called for coordinated pressure by the United States and the European Union to force Mugabe's government to hold the planned elections in May and to send a team of international monitors to ensure the poll is free and fair.
Weary of corruption, cronyism and years of economic mismanagement resulting in low wages, fuel shortages and soaring inflation, 65 percent of Zimbabwean voters surveyed in recent opinion polls have said they want a new government.
The 76-year-old Mugabe, an intellectual and former guerrilla commander whose party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), has governed the country since it negotiated independence from Britain in 1980, has become increasingly unpredictable as he fights to remain in power.
On Thursday Mugabe persuaded Zimbabwe's parliament to vote to make Britain liable for compensating white farmers whose farms were seized for redistribution to blacks -- something Britain swiftly rejected.
Several opposition members, citing his Mugabe's behavior in the escalating dispute with Britain, said there were also questions about his sanity. In March Mugabe ordered a British diplomatic shipment to be impounded at gunpoint, prompting Britain to recall its envoy to Harare. This week Mugabe threatened to go to war with Britain if it tries to interfere in his state-sanctioned land grabs.
``It is clear that Mr. Mugabe is a megalomanic,'' said Douglas Mwonzora, a leader of the opposition United Parties. ''The irrational decisions that he has made in the past ... do lend credence to the suspicion of senility on his part.''
Meanwhile, government opponents said the occupation of farms is harming Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, a mainstay of the economy, making the need for change more urgent.
``Our economy is bleeding to death,'' said Wonder Maisiri, chief executive of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce. ''The economy can still be revived. But it can never be revived by a Mugabe government, because they are the problem.''
Mugabe Says Will Fight for White Land If Necessary
Apr 7 2000 3:13PM ET : HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe, in his first address after winning the right to seize white-owned farms without compensation, vowed on Friday to fight whites for the land and said those who were unhappy should leave Zimbabwe.
Throwing himself firmly behind the so-called war veterans who have occupied about 800 white-owned farms, the 76-year-old Mugabe, wearing an olive suit, said he was ready for a battle.
``If they (whites) want to go, we will open the borders for them. We will give them a police escort,'' state-owned ZIANA news agency quoted Mugabe as saying in his native Shona at a rally outside the capital Harare.
He also accused the 4,500 white commercial farmers, a few of whom have already caved into occupation and surrendered their land, of bankrolling a new opposition movement ahead of an election due in May.
``Have we now come to the position where they are determined to fight against Mugabe and his government? If that is the case, I will declare the fight to be on and we will win it,'' he told a crowd of about 1,500 in the farming town of Bindura.
Two people have died and scores have been injured since the ''war veterans,'' many far too young to have fought in the country's 1970s war of independence, began to occupy the farms.
Parliament voted by the narrowest possible majority on Thursday to give Mugabe the right to seize farms without compensation. He warned whites they would not be able to prevent the surrender of some of their land.
APPEAL FOR REASON
``We appeal for the farmers to be reasonable...Let there be no clashes between them and the war veterans. There have been some cases of violence, but many of these have been due to resistance by the farmers,'' he said.
``We will not remove the people (occupiers) from the farms. We are going to share the farms. We are all equal. We all have to share equally,'' said Mugabe, who has clashed with former colonial power Britain over the emotive issue.
But he added that whites would not be forced back to Britain, which the law says must compensate for land grabbed.
Britain has rejected the new law, which was pushed through parliament as part of a constitutional amendment rejected in a referendum in February.
In London, a Department of International Development spokeswoman said one state could not impose constitutional obligations on another.
The United States on Thursday joined Britain and other donors who have suspended aid to Zimbabwe.
Southern neighbor South Africa also expressed concern. Officials said they were ``closely monitoring the situation'' and that President Thabo Mbeki would meet Mugabe to discuss the matter at a conference in Cuba next week.
``We will not give orders to President Robert Mugabe,'' said South Africa's Safety and Security Minister Steve Tswete.
``We would like to credit him with some intelligence.''
Mugabe's rally was called to celebrate passage of the controversial law and to kick off the campaign for national elections expected to take place within three months.
FOUR FARMS OCCUPIED
A source in the mainly white farming community told Reuters that four more farms were occupied overnight and scores of farmers reported rising tension and attacks on farm workers.
``We are obviously worried about the turn of events. What can we do rather than just watch and see how things develop? We hope the land invasions at least will come to an end,'' the source said.
Others merely expressed resignation.
``There is a sense of despair, not just in the white community, not just among the farmers, but the whole country,'' said Diana Mitchell, author of a number of Zimbabwean political biographies.
The new law followed a defeat for Mugabe in a referendum over a new constitution that would have allowed the government to seize farms from the mainly white commercial farmers.
Zimbabwe faces a deepening political and economic crisis, with inflation and unemployment both hovering near 50 percent.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whose new Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) poses the first real challenge to Mugabe since independence in 1980, said Mugabe appeared to have abandoned the search for a peaceful resolution.
Land distribution in the former Rhodesia is skewed toward large landowners and 4,500 huge farms account for 11.2 million hectares (27.7 million acres) of the fertile countryside.
Total land area is 39.6 million hectares (97.9 million acres). All but 3.3 million is set aside for agricultural use.
