Starvation of 6 million won't deter Mugabe's crack down on white defiance in Zimbabwe

yahoo.com ^ | September 5, 2002 | ANGUS SHAW, AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe vowed to crack down on whites in Zimbabwe who oppose his policies and have defied eviction orders to abandon their farms, state media reported Thursday.

Mugabe said half the 2,900 white farmers served eviction notices disobeyed a recent deadline to leave their properties under a government program that seizes land from whites and redistributes it to landless blacks.

"Time is not on their side," Mugabe was quoted by state radio as saying. The increasingly authoritarian leader said his government would take action against those who defied its orders.

Despite a looming famine in southern Africa, Mugabe has continued with the seizure of 95 percent of the white-owned farmland in the country, bringing to a standstill an industry that once helped feed southern Africa.

About 6 million Zimbabweans are threatened with starvation.

Mugabe also lashed out against two prominent white lawmakers from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

"Your place is in prison and nowhere else. Otherwise your home is outside the country," Mugabe said of the two politicians upon his return to Zimbabwe from neighboring South Africa.

Mugabe was greeted at the Harare airport Wednesday by thousands of bussed in supporters. He had been attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

Mugabe used his address there Monday to blame Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, and other Western countries for the poverty and despair in his country.

He also defended his seizure of white-owned farms, saying the program pitted the majority against the white minority he described as obdurate and backed by the British.

Zimbabwe was singled out for criticism by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during his speech at the summit, saying the government was leading its people to the brink of starvation through its land policies.

About 300 white farmers had been arrested since an Aug. 8 eviction deadline, police said earlier this week. Most were freed on bail but have been forbidden to return to their farms before their trials begin.

Scores of others fled their farms fearing arrest.

The state Herald newspaper said Mugabe told supporters that the government was also planning to seize stakes in foreign owned companies and mines that he said were "scooping out our wealth."

"They can't continue like that, using our wealth," Mugabe was quoted as saying.

Since March 2000, the government has begun targeting white-owned land for allocation to landless blacks. Most of the country's commercial farmland had been in the hands of the white minority.

The land conflict has added to political unrest in the country and critics say many prime farms have gone to politicians, military and police officers, and government cronies instead of the poor.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Mugabe isn't giving land to landless blacks. Mugabe is allowing them to lease the land.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Zimbabwe -- Beware the U-turn***……….The key to understanding what Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are up to - for blacks as well as whites - is the word "leases." The ruling party moguls, security force chiefs and 54,000 others getting so-called "model 2" holdings, capable of being farmed on an individual basis, will not be granted the freehold their 5,000 white predecessors had (The first 2,900 seizure and eviction orders fell due on August 9 and scores of whites were detained over the past weekend for defying them, although their constitutional validity is heavily in doubt). At the first sign of political disloyalty the "new farmers", as Mugabe calls them, will be liable to instant eviction.***

[trebb]

I can hear the commie weenies of the world trying to lay the blame on the USA when all his people start dieing of starvation.....

[hoosierskypilot]

You know, I don't even care about these people anymore. Because now we're putting together an aid package that this chief monkey in office is simply going to divert to his own use. They all do it.

Yet our elected monkeys on capital hill will send it over because America is everybody's big brother, the world's policeman, the big dog in the meathouse, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

I wish we would just stop paying attention to the world's whining problems. I wish we would develop our oil resources and alternative energy and let the rag heads sink into oblivion. Let'em blow themselves up.

Cause I'm really tired of hearing about all their messes and how we're gonna be their savior.

[headsonpikes]

"Time is not on their side", Mugabe says of the whites.

For once, I think we can believe him. They should flee for their lives NOW! The horror will start sooner rather than later, I fear.

Mugabe needs to be dead, very badly.

[Jmouse007]

Fine, they want to kick the people producing the food out of the country.

"Let them eat cake."

[tomakaze]

this animal needs to be put down.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Mug needs to find that mothership Farakan keeps talking about.

[MrB]

foreign owned companies and mines that he said were "scooping out our wealth."

Yeah, it will just sit in the ground when Mugabe's people take over. There is no way that they will make efficient use of it to the benefit or their people.

[logic]

It already said that after taking away 95% of the white owned farms from their legal owners, the people will be starving....

Despite a looming famine in southern Africa, Mugabe has continued with the seizure of 95 percent of the white-owned farmland in the country, bringing to a standstill an industry that once helped feed southern Africa.

and then blamed the west for it's problems...

Mugabe used his address there Monday to blame Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, and other Western countries for the poverty and despair in his country.

what more needs to be said?

[Kenton]

Zimbabwe will collapse in a year or so. Mugabe and his cronies will wind up with burning tires around their necks. Wonder if there's anything left there worth re-colonizing?

[Imal]

Terry McAuliffe must be mad as hell at Mugabe. After all, he's stealing all his ideas from the U.S. Democratic Party and implementing them in Zimbabwe.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

Imal

[Anamensis]

"Let them eat cake."

Curses. You beat me to it.

[Wright is right!]

"Mugabe isn't giving land to landless blacks. Mugabe is allowing them to lease the land."

Let me put this in the simplest terms. Mugabe is simply engaging in the world's second-oldest profession - a plantation slave owner. The plantation he envisions owning is the entire land area of Zimbabwe, and every soul within the plantation's fences is his slave.

He doesn't really see Zimbabwe as a "country" but as his personal "estate."

Michael

[razorback-bert]

In a year, South Africa will be needing food aid.

[KC_Conspirator]

Where is the European left? Ethnic cleansing is happening right before their eyes but they do and say nothing.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

It's all part of the plan. After it's over there will be less mouths to feed!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

After it's over there will be less mouths to feed!

And they're the opposition mouths. Food distribution is selective.

[headsonpikes]

bump

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Let me put this in the simplest terms. Mugabe is simply engaging in the world's second-oldest profession - a plantation slave owner. The plantation he envisions owning is the entire land area of Zimbabwe, and every soul within the plantation's fences is his slave.

Bumps!!