Mugabe Says Zimbabwe Won't Stop Land Invasions, Reuters Says
Bloomberg News - May 19 2000 11:32AM
Grand Baie, Mauritius, May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who has sanctioned the invasion of some 1,300 white-owned commercial farms by armed squatters, said his government won't give into demands that the squatters be removed, reported Reuters, citing Mauritian television where Mugabe is attending a regional economic summit. ``The government will not move back, not an inch. This is do or die for us; to be a man in Zimbabwe you must have land.'' The invasions, which come in the run up to general elections that will be held next month, have caused a diplomatic spat between Zimbabwe and the U.K., Zimbabwe's former colonial power, as the U.K. said it will fund land reform only if the squatters are removed.
In Zimbabwe, which depends on agriculture for 40 percent of its export earnings, about 4,000 white farmers own the best agricultural land and about a fifth of the country's total land mass.
Zimbabwe Militant Avoids Jail Term
The Associated Press - May 19 2000 11:28AM ET
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - A militant war veteran leader escaped prison today at the request of white farmers who said jailing him could lead to more violence on white-owned farms the militants have occupied.
Chenjerai Hunzvi, head of the National Liberation War Veterans Association, was fined $260 and given a suspended three-month jail sentence. He was found in contempt of court for failing to persuade his followers to vacate 1,200 occupied farms and end violence against farmers and their workers.
``The situation is close to anarchy in some areas and putting him in jail would be inflammatory,'' said David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers Union. ``The security and safety of our members is paramount.''
Hunzvi will be jailed only if he commits another contempt of court offense within the next 12 months.
Judge David Bartlett noted that while Hunzvi did not comply with a High Court order in March to intercede to stop illegal farm invasions led by his followers, he did begin communicating last month with farmers' leaders.
``Violence has tended to ebb in some areas. Although the situation remains tense and uncertain, there seems to be a flow of dialogue so that the problem will be resolved in the interests of justice,'' Bartlett said.
Hunzvi was cheered by supporters outside the High Court building before speeding away in a limousine.
``I have been punished. Is it good to be punished?'' he said, grinning.
The farmers' union, meanwhile, reported several new farm occupations across the country and tensions running high in the Raffingora district, 60 miles northwest of Harare.
A white 43-year-old female farmer was pulled barefoot to a ruling party ``reeducation camp'' where she was forced to dance, squat and sing ruling party slogans for several hours Thursday, neighbors said. Three white men from neighboring farms who went to help her were subjected to the same treatment.
Four white farmers and at least 19 black opposition supporters have been killed in political violence since February. Police today confirmed that a father and son who supported the small opposition United Parties died after being attacked by a mob Tuesday in Mutoko, 90 miles northeast of Harare.
President Robert Mugabe says the farm occupations are a justified way of demonstrating against Zimbabwe's land disparity; about a third of the country's productive land is owned by 4,000 whites, mostly the descendants of British settlers.
His opponents say he is allowing the occupations to intimidate farmers and their workers who increasingly support the biggest opposition party. The Movement for Democratic Change is Mugabe's biggest challenge at the polls since he led the nation to independence from Britain in 1980.
Mugabe has called parliamentary elections for June 24-25. He has banned British electoral monitors or observers, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported today.
S Africa Rand Slips, Bonds Weaken as Foreigners Sell
Bloomberg News - May 19 2000 12:23PM
Johannesburg, May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The South African rand fell close to a record and bonds slipped as political violence in neighboring Zimbabwe depressed investor confidence in the region. Bonds also weakened.
The rand fell as low as 7.182 per dollar from 7.136 late yesterday, and recently traded at 7.172 per dollar. The rand's record low of 7.190 was reached yesterday.
Foreign investors were net sellers of South African bonds yesterday for the third straight day, extending a trend that has underpinned both rand and bond weakness all year. Violence in Zimbabwe has led to an outflow of foreign investment, with reports that four people were killed yesterday further hurting the rand, traders said.
``People are just going to take advantage of any rand strength to buy dollars, especially with continued violence in Zimbabwe,'' said Luke Shearer, director of foreign exchange trading at Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank. ``People are still expecting the rand to go lower.''
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe accused Britain of fomenting opposition to his 20-year rule and said he would not "give an inch" on the issue of land ownership in Zimbabwe, Reuters reported, citing comments Mugabe made on Mauritian television, where he is attending a regional economic conference.
`People are still worried it's going to destabilize the whole region and drag on, if there's no new deal struck,'' said Carsten Hils, head of foreign exchange at Standard Americas in New York.
Bonds Fall With Rand
Bonds fell with the rand, with the R150 due 2005 falling as much as 3/8 to 91 3/4, pushing its yield up as many as 14 basis points to 14.43 percent. The R150 recently yielded 14.32 percent. The R153 due 2010 fell as much as 7/8 to 89 5/8, pushing its yield up as many as 16 basis points to 14.98 percent. The R153 recently yielded 14.88 percent.
The rand was also hurt by the British pound's fall to a six- year low against the dollar, amid expectations the gap between borrowing costs in the U.K. and the U.S. will widen, making U.S. deposits more attractive. With South Africa's benchmark securities repurchase, or repo, rate at its lowest in more then a decade, the same effect hurts the rand, analysts said.
``Our interest rates have been static for quite a while, while our trading partners' rates have been increasing,'' said George Herman, managing director of Finstruct Securities. ``That puts the currency under pressure.''
Even so, the Reserve Bank decided today after a two-day meeting of its monetary policy committee to leave its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 11.75 percent. The bank said the rand still has the potential to strengthen, given a healthy overall balance of payments position.
Possible Correction
``There's . . . a good chance that one could see a correction again in the exchange rate movements if we find that foreigners start buying our bonds again at the higher yields,'' Reserve Bank Chief Economist Ernie van der Merwe said at a press conference after the bank's monetary policy decision.
Still, South African officials also acknowledge the land dispute in Zimbabwe -- as well as outbreaks of fighting in Sierra Leone, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and between Ethiopia and Eritrea -- have contributed to the currency's recent weakness. Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said that while authorities focus on the country's underlying economy, the bank must take account of the impact of sentiment on market decisions.
``I hope and pray that all of these other negative factors leading to negative sentiment will change,'' Mboweni said.
Zimbabwe opposition seeks extended poll nomination
Reuters - May 19 2000 1:17PM ET
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition movement filed an urgent court application Friday seeking to delay the deadline for the nomination of candidates for elections on June 24-25.
``We filed the papers (affidavits) with the high court. The matter will be heard in the court Monday,'' David Coltart, legal secretary for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told Reuters. ``If we get this matter heard and the paperwork done urgently then the election date may still be held.''
In the affidavits filed, the MDC argues that President Robert Mugabe violated the law when he set nomination and election dates before a commission charged with marking constituency boundaries had ended its work.
The MDC, which has emerged as the biggest challenge to Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, says a May 29 date set for the Nominations Court to screen parliamentary candidates for the election did not give enough time for parties to file nomination papers.
At least 23 people -- black opposition members, four white farmers and a policeman -- have been killed and hundreds of black farm workers beaten or raped in a campaign of farm invasions and terror that threatens to mar the voting.
The MDC court application came shortly after Zimbabwe independence war veterans' leader Chenjerai Hunzvi was given a suspended jail sentence and fined Friday for defying a court order to end forcible takeovers of white-owned farms.
The relatively lenient sentence appeared to ease fears that continuing political violence in Zimbabwe would be exacerbated if Hunzvi had been jailed.
Three months of politically motivated violence pose a threat to parliamentary elections set for June 24-25, which pit President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF against a revitalized opposition headed by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC.
Incidents have included attacks on MDC supporters which the opposition says are the work of ZANU-PF.
The most recent killings include the murder of two people believed to be MDC supporters in a clash with ZANU-PF backers on Wednesday in the northeastern district of Mudzi.
BRITISH OBSERVERS
Meanwhile, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported that Mugabe had banned former colonial power Britain from sending monitors to the elections.
It quoted the president, now in Mauritius for a regional economic summit, as saying: ``We will welcome any observer team, as long as they don't include a single Briton. The British should not care to send anyone.''
A trigger for the violence has been a wave of invasions of white-owned farms by veterans of the 1970s liberation war in the former Rhodesia, led by Hunzvi.
Veterans have seized more than 800 farms since February, saying the land was stolen from blacks by British colonialists.
A judge last month found Hunzvi in contempt of court for failing to end the occupations.
Friday, Judge David Bartlett sentenced Hunzvi to a three-month jail term suspended for a year, fined him $262 and ordered him to meet legal costs of the trial.
Earlier a lawyer for the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), which represents 4,500 white farmers, appealed to Bartlett not to send Hunzvi to jail saying ``the issuing of a custodial sentence is totally undesirable in these circumstances.''
Opposition activists accuse the government of exploiting the land issue to counter the first real opposition challenge Mugabe and ZANU-PF have faced in 20 years of independence.
The Herald quoted Mugabe, 76, as saying he had spelled out his ban on British election observers in talks with Commonwealth chief Don McKinnon, who visited Zimbabwe this week.
Britain has criticized the farm invasions and traded harsh words with Mugabe, with a British minister questioning his stability and the Zimbabwe president calling London the ``enemy.''
But Roger Moore, head of the European Union's southern Africa division, told a news conference in Harare the EU planned to deploy 160 election monitors, including Britons.
Mugabe said he had told the United States it could send observers if it wished.
Relations between Zimbabwe and Britain have deteriorated sharply over Mugabe's demand that the former colonial power pay compensation for land he plans to take from white farmers.
This was received from a friend on 18 May. I have edited some names.
---------------------------------------------
Fwd:
Please note - Border Timbers - one of
Anglo-American's companies was sold
to
another party a
few months back. SNIP
Hi all, this is a
true account. SNIP
No-one should have to put up with this kind of
thing, especially when the
police just stand by and watch and even
join in more often than not.
---
"I had a very interesting day yesterday, one of the aspects of my job
is
that I have to go out to the sawmills and ensure they are
producing what we
need in the town factories. Well yesterday I went
to our sawmills in
Chimanimani, and arrived there just in time to be
included in the
Chimanimani Chapter of the War veterans' political
re-education programme.
These so called war vets, some of whom were
under 20 years old, had just
marched into our largest sawmill and
demanded that it be closed so that
they
could hold an
illegal rally. They were accompanied by 2 total ineffective
policemen.
"When I arrived they had already started
the rally. I was pulled from the
car and forced to march to the back
of the sawmill. I tried to reason with
them, but each time they
would shout in my face stop calling us bloody
kaffirs. I tried to
say that I wasn't - only to be told I had called them
black
bastards. They then told me to sit down with the workers and listen
to
the rally, all of which was in Shona so I didn't have a clue
what they were
ranting and raving about.
"One of them then noticed a bulge in my pocket and started shouting that
I
had a gun, I said "Don't be silly it's my keys" and pulled them
out of the
pocket. I was rewarded with a open handed full force slap
across the ear,
which knocked my glasses flying.
"I was then pulled up to the front of the crowd where I was
again accused
of
calling them Black kaffirs and black
bastards. I denied this, which just
made them madder. At this point
the police inspector who was at the rally
came up to me and said
"please just apologise for your own safety." I
explained that I had
not said anything that I was being accused of, he
replied that it
did not matter and that I should just apologise anyway.
"The so called War Vets are absolutely insane, and pure evil exudes
from
them. They have a demonic look in their eyes, and they refuse
to listen to
any reasoning.
"I was then
told to sit in the mud in front of the sawmill workforce, and
was
forced to chant ZANU(PF) slogans. They then called me up to the front
to
stand with them, and they forced me to read out a totally
fictitious
document that was meant to be an agreement between Anglo
American and
the MDC, where the details of how the country's assets
would be divided up
after an MDC victory. Anyone with even half a
brain could tell that this
was
just ZANU(PF)
propaganda. It was so poorly written and so unbelievable that
it
would have been funny had I not been surrounded by people carrying
spears, batons and machetes.
"After a couple of
hours of this they sent the workers away and asked the
management to
stay behind, so that we could take down a list of their
demands. One
of the other white managers suggested that we go into the
offices,
so that we could take notes properly. In a screaming voice the
one
war vet yelled "This is our fucking land and you can't tell us what to
do." So like I have said before these people have crossed the line and
are
no longer sane.
"Anyway, we took down a
list of their demands which were as follows:
1) Mr
Bottger and Mr Coates (2 most senior managers in Chimanimani) are
to
be replaced with black managers in the next 48 hours.
2) Messrs Bottger and Coates are to be delivered to the War Vets.
3) Border Timbers is to fund ZANU(PF)'s election
campaign.
4) Border Timbers is to provide transport to
ferry the workers and their
families to the ZANU(PF)
rallies.
5) Border Timbers is to supply 2 cows for meat
at the rally.
"My name along with the names of the
other three managers with me were
taken
down, and we
were told we would be held accountable if their demands were
not
met.
"They then left the premises to go onto other
commercial enterprises in the
area. Followed closely by their police
escort.
"I went back to my car which if you remember I
was pulled out of, only to
find the War Vets had stolen my car
radio/tape, my radar detector, and a
jacket that was on the seats.
This once again proves that they are nothing
more than common
criminals and thugs.
"As for me, I am fine ---
SNIP.
"SNIP --- vote this evil bunch out of power and
into the jail cells they
deserve.
"One
driver from Chimanimani, was braver than me and refused to take off
his
MDC t-shirt. he was beaten senseless, and left in a ditch
until they had
finished intimidating the rest of us. Only then 4
hours later was he
allowed
to be taken to
hospital."
---