Posted on 08/10/2002 2:37:39 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Farmers will "live to regret" their defiance of government orders to abandon their land, Zimbabwean officials warned Saturday.
Nearly 3,000 white farmers were ordered to leave their property by Friday as part of a plan to seize white-owned lands and turn them over to blacks. No serious measures have been taken yet against farmers who have defied the deadline.
But Co-Vice President Joseph Msika, head of Zimbabwe's land reform task force, told state television late Friday that farmers refusing to leave their land would "live to regret it."
"Those who are not going to work within the laws of Zimbabwe have nobody to blame but themselves. The law will take its course," he said.
Ignatius Chombo, the powerful local government minister, said: "All the excuses by the farmers show what an arrogant and racist bunch they are. It shows they want to derail the land redistribution program by any means ... they will not succeed," according to the state-run Herald newspaper Saturday.
Chombo said "appropriate measures" would be taken against farmers breaking the law.
Vice President Simon Muzenda warned that authorities would act firmly against farmers opposing the "irreversible" land program.
"You are told by government what we want done ... and you simply do that," he told state radio Saturday.
The evictions deadline came as half of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people face a severe hunger crisis, according to the World Food Program. The WFP blames the crisis on drought combined with the agricultural chaos caused by the seizures of commercial farms, which are mainly owned by whites.
The government has targeted 95 percent of white-owned farms for seizure.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department on Saturday denounced Zimbabwe's attempt to evict the farmers and thousands of farm workers as "a reckless and reprehensible act."
"These actions by the government of Zimbabwe, in combination with its assault on its political opponents, have destroyed Zimbabwe's economy, undermined the nation's democratic institutions and accelerated the onset of severe food shortages," the statement said, urging the Zimbabwean government to reverse its stand.
In neighboring South Africa, there were calls for African countries to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe in response to the evictions.
"President Mugabe has become the 'tin-pot dictator' of the south. ... As Zimbabwe's regional and continental neighbors, we must act decisively to end the madness which continues to threaten the stability of our region and the welfare of so many southern Africans," New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said.
No attempts were made across the country Friday or Saturday to force farmers off their land, said the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents 4,000 white farmers.
The union reported two incidents Friday in eastern Zimbabwe in which ruling party militants and blacks who had resettled on seized land tried to pressure white farmers to leave.
Police intervened and defused the confrontation, officials said.
The union said many farmers had packed up personal belongings and valuables for safekeeping ahead of the deadline, but up to three-fourths of those who faced immediate eviction vowed to stay until it became clear what the government was going to do.
Justice for Agriculture, a newly formed lobbying group that has called on farmers to challenge evictions in court, said about 800 farmers abandoned their land in recent weeks as the deadline approached.
Another 300 farmers had taken impromptu vacations at the start of symbolic annual weekend celebrations honoring the guerrilla war that ended white rule and led to independence in 1980, the group said.
The government says its land program is an effort to correct colonial era injustices. Critics say it is part of the increasingly authoritarian government's effort to maintain power amid more than two years of economic chaos and political violence mainly blamed on the ruling party.
Last year, the annual independence war celebrations triggered a wave of attacks and looting on white farms by black militants and guerrilla veterans.
Theories: It is the only home they have known, after all, they are more African than European despite the color of their skins. Frankly, more African than Jesse Jackson....They may not have the resources to leave, though they'll be forced out on foot or will be killed, so I'd be walking to South Africa....
The Afghanistani Mujahadeen used muzzle loading rifles of the era from the American Revolution to begin their fight against the largest and most powerful army on the planet when the soviets came rolling in. True we later got them into the 20th century...but they began a successful campaign with very little in the way of weapons.
There is no lack of experience, and the farm workers who made Zimbabwe as productive as Kansas are not slothful.
It's a problem of social organization and mismanagement. The only ones who could have made it work, the loyal black farmworkers, have been driven away from their farms into destitution, the "settlers" have to money, experience or tools, it's a total goat screw.
To see to what poor Rhodesia has sunk! I suppose most of today's people don't remember the powerhouse it was before the UN stepped in and "corrected things"!
Sounds a lot like America. We are seeing ourselves disarmed and emasculated on a daily basis. Not to mention Taxed to death.
Yessir pardner. They waited too long.
The UN will begin a huge program of aid to Africa on a scale unlike any before. We taxpayers will surely be called upon by the UN to be the prime movers and donors, and that's a prediction that will come true.
Yes, it does. And marxism has been the great tragedy of the twentieth century. But let's get down to a personal level. The situation in Zimbabwe amounts to the basic battered wife syndrome, "He said he wouldn't hit me anymore, he promised!" And then the idiot ends up back in ER again because she didn't want to face the truth.
We don't want to see what's going on. The population of Zimbabwe has enornmously increased in this century due to the white's farming methods and the medicine. Take them out, and watch what happens. It isn't that Zim blacks aren't capable of taking care of themselves, it's because the marxist escape valve has given their "leadership" a convenient way out. Blame everybody else but us and give us the money/food. Of course the money will end up in our Swiss bank accounts (we'll laugh all the way to the bank) and the food will only go to our supporters, but that's your fault for being stupid.
. . .The people's cries for help to a government that they had just elected and indeed kept in power for the past 20 years were largely ignored.So it is in this context that it is difficult to understand Andrew Young, the visiting African-American activist and former mayor of Atlanta.
While Young, an internationally respected politician, is very right to point out that the land issue was paramount and should be resolved, there is no excuse whatsoever for him - a man who enjoys the full protection of the law in his home country the United States - to come here and proclaim that all is well, that there is no lawlessness in Zimbabwe let alone on the farms, as he is quoted as having said.
Surely it should be obvious to a person of Young's experience that the last place he could find out about the lawlessness in Zimbabwe is the State House.
Zimbabweans are tired of international apologists for ZANU PF's current violent campaign and appeal to Young and his ilk to stop trying to legitimise state-sponsored terrorism. Enough is enough.
PRESIDENT CLINTON ANNOUNCES SOUTHERN AFRICA DEVELOPMENT FUNDGovernment Offered Secret Gem Deal (Kennedys and Democrat Donor--Tempelsman--Involved)Andrew Young, Chairman
Former Mayor of Atlanta and Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Atlanta, GAAlison Leland Brisco
Lehman BrothersHouston, TX
Maurice Tempelsman
Leon Tempelsman & Co.
New York, NY
From the University of California:
Nine banks hid loans, set up false investments and facilitated phantom Enron sales
- Bank executives profited personally from "Ponzi scheme"
- Law firms structured phony deals
- Additional insider trading documented
The 485-page amended complaint lays out the scheme in detail, naming J. P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Bank America, Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers as key players in a series of fraudulent transactions that ultimately cost shareholders more than $25 billion.
Less well-known are four of Winnick's Drexel colleagues, now at Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), which provided a healthy chunk of Global Crossing's initial capital. Because of its investment, CIBC, one of Canada's five largest banks, has realized more than $1.3 billion in profits from Global.From www.jewishsf.com
Despite bankruptcy, he's still big donor to Jewish causes
. . . largest single donation is the $40 million pledged to the Simon Wiesenthal Center for construction of the Winnick Institute in Jerusalem.
Zimbabwe diamond deals exposed--Former Mossad agent trades weapons for diamonds to Mugabe.
"69. . . a whole network of Israelis was established, including Mr. Gertler in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lev Leviev in Angola and Shmuel Shnitzer in Sierra Leone. In all three cases, the pattern is the same. Conflict diamonds are exchanged for money, weapons and military training. These diamonds are then transported to Tel Aviv by former Israeli Air Force pilots, whose numbers have significantly increased both in UNITA-held territory in Angola and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Israel, these diamonds are then cut and sold at the Ramat Gan Diamond Centre."Details on the Ramat Gan Diamond Center here:
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