All quiet on the Zim front - for now

Independent Foreign Service via Independent Online (SA) ^ | August 10, 2002 | Basildon Peta

[Clive]

Fearing that his actions might plunge the southern Africa region into further turmoil, African leaders are secretly urging President Robert Mugabe to exercise restraint in dealing with 2 900 white farmers who have defied his orders to hand over their properties for black resettlement.

Mugabe has said nothing since Thursday's midnight deadline for the farmers to vacate their properties and facilitate the ageing Zimbabwe leader's land seizure drive. Mugabe, 78, is, however, expected to address the issue when he buries his former finance minister Bernard Chidzero at a shrine reserved for national heroes in the capital Harare on Monday.

"There is obviously concern that any mass evictions of farmers would attract more bad publicity and stir negative sentiments about the SADC region which already has all sorts of problems," said an authoritative Zimbabwe government official.

'More negative

coverage of southern Africa' "Concerned leaders have directly or indirectly been in touch with the president. I don't know his reactions to their advice."

Malawi president Bakili Muluzi , who chairs the 14 member Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) body, is said to have spoken to Mugabe over the issue as well as South African leader Thabo Mbeki's office. Efforts to get direct confirmation from the two leaders' offices failed on Sunday.

Farming leaders said at least 60 percent of the affected farmers have defied the evictions and remained on their farms with the remainder either retreating to the cities and towns to see what happens next or completely abandoning their properties.

"There is a feeling that any mass evictions of the farmers would attract more negative coverage of southern Africa in the white media in Europe. Indications are that a lot of you newsmen are excited about the story," another official said.

"A lot of white journalists have been smuggled into Zimbabwe without official accreditation to witness any mass evictions and it's understandable if other leaders are concerned about the negative publicity that would follow."

Zimbabwe has passed new stringent regulations barring foreign correspondents from entering the country without special accreditation.

The Zimbabwe leader has repeatedly shunned advice from fellow African leaders who have tried to help resolve the Zimbabwe crisis over the past two years.

Presidents Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria have so far failed to persuade Mugabe to go back into "reconciliation talks" with the Movement for Democratic Change which accuses Mugabe of stealing the March presidential election.

Mugabe's officials have warned white farmers defying the ban that they would face stern action from the Zimbabwe government. The UN estimate that six million Zimbabweans need urgent food aid. - Independent Foreign Service

[Clive]

Note that the southern African leaders are not leaning on Mugabe because Zim's conduct is wrong. They are leaning on him because it is bad public relations which is likely to undernine the credibility of their plan to get donor nations to cough up 62 billion dollars a year in development money based on Africa's promise to self-police "good governance".

[Clive]

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[Travis McGee]

Exactly.

[xJones]

Zimbabwe has passed new stringent regulations barring foreign correspondents from entering the country without special accreditation.

Kind of scary. He doesn't want outsiders to see what's coming up.