Posted on 12/05/2001 12:08:25 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's top court has declared the government's plan to seize white-owned farms legal, overturning its own previous ruling that the seizures were unconstitutional.
In a judgment released Tuesday, four of the five Supreme Court justices appointed to hear the new seizure case said they were satisfied the government's "fast track" land nationalization program was lawful and "sufficiently complied" with the constitution.
Last year's Supreme Court ruling declared the government's methods of land seizures illegal and in breach of constitutional ownership rights and government land laws.
Some of the judges who made that ruling have been replaced in recent months.
Four of the five judges hearing the new case, including Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, were appointed recently by President Robert Mugabe. Those four voted to uphold the government's land seizure program.
The Supreme Court traditionally had only five judges until Mugabe expanded the bench to eight in July, adding three judges considered loyal to the ruling party. The chief justice usually appoints small panels of judges to hear each case.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has described the court's expansion as a political ploy designed to turn the court into a government puppet.
Armed ruling party militants have occupied more than 1,700 white-owned farms since March 2000, demanding they be redistributed to landless blacks. The government has listed some 4,500 properties -- about 95 percent of farm land owned by whites -- for nationalization without compensation and last month warned about 800 farmers they had three months to vacate their land and homes.
Monday's court ruling rejected white farmers' assertions that the land seizures were taking place amid violence and a breakdown of law and order in farming districts.
It said the government had met the previous court's order to prove it had restored law and order and a sustainable land reform program in those districts.
Though it was not disputed that clashes took place on farms, "by definition, the concept of rule of law foresees a situation in which behavior prescribed as criminal will occur. The presence of the rule of law does not mean a totally crime free environment," the court said.
Adrian de Bourbon, the lawyer for the Commercial Farmers Union, had asked Chidyausiku and two other new appointees to recuse themselves from the hearing, alleging they had shown open allegiance to the ruling party and its land seizures.
None of the judges stepped down.
Monday's ruling described de Bourbon's request as "unbridled arrogance and insolence."
"This is the first and last time such contempt of this court will go unpunished," it said.
A spokesman for the union said farmers were surprised and disappointed by the decision.
"The ruling does not seem to be based on the strict application of the law or the rules of natural justice, but on a political argument," the spokesman said.
"We are obviously surprised and shocked by this because this is the highest court. But we hope the government will still find the wisdom to be reasonable," he said.
Judges have been under mounting pressure from the government and ruling party militants. Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay was forced out after the government warned him and other judges they would not be protected from ruling party militants, who stormed the Supreme Court last December.
Bump!
It's possible that Mugabe did not enlarge the Zimbabwean Supreme Court on his own, but told his Congress to do so.
Analysts say the food problems stem from Mugabe's seizure of white-owned land, which has disrupted commercial farming. [End Excerpt]
The EU has warned Zimbabwe of sanctions unless the elections are free and fair, and unless observers and international journalists are allowed to work unhindered.
Political violence has intensified ahead of the presidential vote in which Mugabe, 77, and his increasingly unpopular ruling party face opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 49, a charismatic former labor leader. [End Excerpt]
A man representing Tsvangirai's party approached Dicksen & Madson in November, said Ari Ben-Menashe, the firm's president.
The opposition officials appeared unaware the firm had done work for Mugabe's government for "a few years" and believed it had connections to assassins, Ben-Menashe said. It is currently representing the government as lobbyists. [End Excerpt]
But it has pointedly failed to invite representatives from Britain and five other EU countries -- Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden -- which have criticized Mugabe over human rights and the seizure of white-owned farms.
South Africa, the biggest regional power, has also sent a monitoring team. It urged the EU to accept Zimbabwe's ban on Schori so it could keep the rest of its team there.
"They shouldn't fight a battle on the issue of a leader or not a leader. The issue is quite simple: Are they going to be able to put in observers to observe?" South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters in Cape Town.
The Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity, Amara Essy, adopted a harsher tone toward the Europeans, saying that Africans could look after their own.
"Really I am not happy to see foreigners coming to look at what we are doing. They do not ask us to go to the United States to see what is happening," he said in Lusaka. [End Excerpt]
I agree; and they've done it all 'nice and legal', just like the U.S. Feds in their so-called 'War on Drugs'.
Right????
Communism is not utopia.
Bump!
We'll have to remember Mr. Essy's little comment when Zimbabwe and our own pathetic liberals are clammoring for the U.S. to bail them out with our food and money!
The new U.S. Taxpayer welfare state.
Zimbabwe Defies EU Diplomat but Denies Visa Revoked-- The Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity, Amara Essy, adopted a harsher tone toward the Europeans, saying that Africans could look after their own. "Really I am not happy to see foreigners coming to look at what we are doing. They do not ask us to go to the United States to see what is happening," he said in Lusaka.
But the people trapped under this dictatorship are trying to break free.
That would certainly be the case if I were one of the farmers being evicted from my own land. I would burn down all the buildings, poison the water supply, and sow the fields with a heavy dose of salt before I vacated. They wouldn't be able to grow anything for years on that land.
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