Posted on 08/28/2002 3:59:35 AM PDT by Clive
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has ruled out negotiations with white farmers who are being systematically expelled from their land as part of a fast-track land seizure programme.
Speaking at a rally, he said there was no room for talks as "the rightful owners are reclaiming their land".
Earlier, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, urged Zimbabwe to change its land programme to prevent famine from devastating the country.
But Mr Mugabe's rhetoric just gets stronger and stronger.
And with each speech, the future of the white farmers seems to become more bleak.
The Commercial Farmers Union is split over an internal row, with the CFU president urging dialogue.
But his arrest and President Mugabe's speech seem to suggest this route has now been blocked.
International pressure is mounting, especially with the World Summit on Sustainable Development taking place here in neighbouring South Africa.
But the hardline determination to evict the white farmers as soon as possible continues.
Mr Annan joined criticism of the regime, urging Zimbabwe and its fast-becoming pariah president to change the land reform policy, to compensate the farmers and to ensure those receiving land know what to do with it in order to prevent a looming famine.
But the crisis merely seems to deepen as time runs out for white Zimbabwean farmers and the thousands of black workers that depend on them for jobs and homes.
Whether or not you have been able to get past the denial stage, I'd wholeheartedly advise you to cut your losses and leave Zimbabwe as soon as you can.
Nobody is going to come to your aid, and you are not going to be compensated for your losses by Mugabe. You have been made his scapegoats, just as Hitler did to the Jews in the 1930s.
I know you feel the burden to care for your former black employees who are suffering under Mugabe's policies, but you can't anymore. They are no longer the "White Man's Burden", they are completely at the mercy of their "Great Liberator". Just leave, with sorrow in your hearts but alive....
The world cares not for your suffering. But the world still has places where productive citizens are welcome.
As far as Zimbabwe goes, there is no hope until the UN takes the politically incorrect position of noticing that this black dictator is guilty of gross crimes against humanity and is every bit as worthy of condemnation and arrest as Milosevic.
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