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Posted on 06/27/2002 6:28:08 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
HARARE (Reuters) - The Zimbabwean government on Thursday branded white farmers resisting its controversial land seizure program as "unrepentant racists and fascists." Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told the official Herald newspaper that the farmers were trying to hold onto "stolen land" to maintain their control of the key agriculture sector.The white farmers have said they will defy government orders to stop farming. About 3,000 farmers were given until midnight on Monday to stop working their farms and just over a month to leave, after Zimbabwe amended its land acquisition law in May.
A 45-day countdown for the farmers to leave their farms began on Tuesday, but many vowed to stay put rather than watch vital crops rot in a nation short of food.
A spokeswoman for the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said it was wrong to label white farmers "racists and fascists" working against blacks.
But Made accused the CFU of portraying blacks as incompetent farmers in its bid to stop the government's black resettlement program.
"The CFU action is a racist and fascist approach of wanting to continue white dominance in this country," he said, charging that there was a conspiracy to wipe out indigenous Zimbabweans.
Made said white farmers were "day dreaming" if they believed they could delay the government's program and continue to dominate a sector he said was built largely on land "stolen" from blacks during British colonialism.
LAND REFORM
CFU spokeswoman Jenni Williams said the CFU and many white farmers have always supported a properly managed land reform program, and knew that long-term stability depended on equal access to land.
"There is no racism or fascism involved...just a difference of opinion on how the land reform should be carried out," she told Reuters.
The government on Wednesday warned it would act against white farmers who tried to retain their land against a state seizure drive, saying nobody had the power to defy the law.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told Zimbabwe television that President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party had been angered by reports that hundreds of white farmers were ignoring a government order to stop farming operations on Monday, and had vowed to resist a black resettlement program on their land.
Moyo said ZANU-PF had discussed the farmers' stance at a meeting of its top body on Wednesday, and had agreed to act against those breaking its laws.
On Wednesday Mugabe vowed to press ahead with the seizures of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks, saying there would still be enough land left for whites.
Now the question is...why are aid agencies sending anything at all to such a murderous regime? Or is it really true that murdering Whites is OK?
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Yes.
Zimbabwe was appointed at the same time that the United States was re-appointed after having been excluded from it.
The Commission is a joke.
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Lets just say the killing of whites by people of color is not considered noteworthy to Big Media.
Who are the real racists and facists here?
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