Posted on 07/03/2002 10:14:03 AM PDT by Clive
It is hard to think of any disaster in human history quite comparable with Zimbabwe's food crisis, where mild adverse natural factors combine with crass malevolence.
At Binga, where self-styled ``war veterans" have forcibly closed a church relief project, the first 27 children were reported to have succumbed to malnutrition-related disease, despite Robert Mugabe's oft-repeated pledge "no one will die".
On Monday June 22, Land Acquisition Act "Section 8" orders came into force against 2,900 commercial farmers, in terms of which they were supposed to stop all cropping and livestock management programmes.
Last week, the regime came up with a new official term: "farmers of European origin", not "whites". They were "confined to their homesteads" from June 22 and must quit their properties entirely by August 5.
The Commercial Farmers Union's spokeswoman Jenni Williams asked: "Do the farmers tend 22,547 hectares of wheat or let it shrivel and die? Do they grade their tobacco, bringing it to the floors to earn US $330 million in foreign currency or does it sit in the tobacco barns? Do they leave unattended thousands of cattle, pigs and other farming animals?"
Williams was addressing the same politicians who, in May 2001, spurned warnings to start importing maize (then obtainable at 25 percent of the current price) and boost the commercial maize crop for 2001-2002. Peasant farmers, reliant on ox-ploughing, were unable to exploit the good 2001 early rains.
This past week, peanut butter and salt have disappeared from the supermarket shelves along with maize meal, sugar and cooking oil.
Wheat flour is being rationed, and bread shortages are imminent.
Milk supplies are drying up, with grave implications for young children.
In a few weeks, the majority of the population will be surviving on sweet potatoes and - if they can afford it - rice.
We are eating the last of our pig and poultry production and slaughtering the national beef herd as fast as the abattoirs can handle it.
The 2,000 farmers not yet given Section 8 eviction orders face the imminent prospect of them.
Or they have gangs of carpet-bagger wannabes roaming the country, telling them to get out regardless of formalities.
Or they cannot get feed for their livestock and dare not retain what they have grown for fear of accusations of hoarding and sabotage.
A ruling Zanu PF functionary was hailed as a hero for "discovering" salt in warehouses belonging to National Foods, in which Anglo American has a 34 percent shareholding.
Such is the mood of paranoia whipped up by the Mugabe regime and its media that few were surprised to hear the Minister of Agriculture, Joseph Made, declaring that farmers were "racist and fascist - wanting to continue white dominance" by approaching officials for permission to keep their stock and crops alive.
"The confrontational approach by the commercial farmers was another conspiracy to wipe out the indigenous peoples of this country as they had tried in India, Australia and New Zealand," Made said.
The 26 member Zanu PF Politburo met under Mugabe's chairmanship and threatened to "de-register" (ban) the Commercial Farmers Union, a move Zanu PF's former Justice Minister Edison Zvobgo says would be a blatant violation of constitutional rights. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo claimed "some farmers have vacated farms leaving behind a trail of malicious destruction of property".
The state media, meanwhile, played down the gift by Britain of a further £22 million relief.
The regime claims it has resettled 354 000 people on former white-owned farms, but independent observers say fewer than 40,000 are squatting on ill-organised and as-yet unproductive holdings. Much land is lying derelict. Many of the "354,000" are urban people with mere pieces of paper, promising them plots at some future date.
Up to 500,000 farm workers and their families have already been displaced, and another two million face eviction.
A visiting UN mission, headed by Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Kendo Oshima, stubbornly parried all questions on the political dimensions of the crisis.
The mission had been specifically told by the Amani Trust of the use of relief food as a ruling party weapon, but he spoke blandly about "expanding their monitoring system" to stop the denial of food to children of suspected opposition supporters.
In a masterpiece of understatement, Oshima said 6 million Zimbabweans "face a serious health challenge".
People aren't being more-or-less deliberately starved: they are "seriously health challenged". Be ready for allegations the famine is due to broken promises of aid, as well as sabotage "of European origin".
And no "humanitarian aid" on my nickel, either. At this point the most humane thing to do is let the generation that caused this mess to fall dead to the ground, so that their children might learn from their folly.
Maybe if this comes out, he can get back to his carpentry.
The farmers are white. A revolt by whites would arouse the whole of southern Africa against them regardless of merit.
Zim is landlocked. The nearest port is 200 kilometers away across Mozambique. Hence, logistics and support from foreign mercs are not feasible.
Like all farmers, they do have guns. So do the thugs. The police look the other way when the thugs use their guns but respond with alacrity when farmers use their guns. There are farmers who have used their guns to fire warning shots when threatened by thugs with death or bodily harm. These farmers now stand charged with attempted murder.
Mugabe is actually hoping for a revolt led by whites.
For a revold to be successful, it has to be instigated, prosecuted and led by Shona people. Whites will have to stand aside.
This is not going to stop a the borders though. This idiot will start a war with somebody.
Why am I reminded of Pol Pot's "year zero" program of agrarian reform?
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