Zim to seize more farms (Including Oppenheimer lands)

Reuters via News24 (SA) ^ | March 22, 2002 | Lucia Mutikani

[Clive]

Harare - Zimbabwe's government on Friday earmarked more white farms for seizure in defiance of rising international pressure against President Robert Mugabe after his controversial election victory.

The government published in the state-owned Herald newspaper a list of 388 farms for seizure - including ranches owned by South Africa's wealthy Oppenheimer family, which has huge mining interests in southern Africa.

"Notice is hereby given... that the president intends to acquire compulsorily the land described in the schedule for resettlement purposes," read the advertisement.

It did not give a time frame for the seizures, but owners have until April 22 to lodge objections.

The announcement comes on the heels of the southern African nation's one-year suspension from the 54-nation Commonwealth after its election monitors said the March 9-11 presidential election was neither free nor fair.

Tsvangirai in court

On Wednesday, opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai appeared in court on treason charges.

A barely heeded three-day strike called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to protest against violence collapsed on the final day, Friday. Workers claimed that fear of reprisals and harsh laws had driven protesters back to work.

"The environment in which we are operating is so cruel. We are going to evaluate the weaknesses and what we could have avoided," said ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo.

The United States on Thursday warned African countries they could lose US aid if they did not take a stand against Mugabe's re-election, rejected by many observer missions as fraudulent.

Analysts said the government was trying to keep the land issue at the top of its political agenda amid mounting pressure for an election re-run. The land reform programme formed the core of the ruling Zanu-PF's election campaign.

"They are essentially saying 'to hell with the Commonwealth'. The government is clearly unrepentant and we are going to see worse trouble, with pressure growing for a new election," said John Makumbe, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

"They will need to keep the land issue alive so that they can use it in case there is an election re-run. More farmers are going to be driven off their land."

The MDC and farmers say Tsvangirai's supporters have been increasingly targeted in a retribution campaign since the 78-year-old Mugabe's controversial victory.

'Harassment, trashing and looting'

A black farm guard has been beaten to death, 25 farmers assaulted and 50 chased from their farms in the past 10 days, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said on Thursday.

"Incidents of harassment, trashing and looting, forced eviction and extortion as well as political retribution have reached alarming proportions since the election," CFU president Colin Cloete said in a statement.

The CFU, which represents mostly white farmers, backed Tsvangirai in the election. The opposition leader had promised to stop the illegal seizure of white-owned farms and to implement a negotiated programme to advance black land ownership.

Mugabe - who says it is immoral for the 4 500 white farmers to occupy 70% of the country's best farm land - vowed at his inauguration to press ahead with the land reform programme.

The government wants to seize at least 8.3 million hectares of the 12 million hectares in white hands. It has so far listed about 6 000 farms, representing about 90% of commercial farm land, for seizure, but not all have been taken yet.

Mugabe, who came to power when the former white-ruled Rhodesia gained independence in 1980, sees his land seizure programme as a belated drive to correct imbalances in land ownership created by previous colonial governments.

[Clive]

I wonder if Oppenheimer will hire Executive Options/Outcomes or Sandline.

These mercs were going through the RUF in Sierra Leone like a dose of salts until the international community made a deal through Jesse Jackson of the US and Charles Taylor of Liberia to call them off.

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[Cincinatus' Wife]

Zimbabwean workers of slain farmer Terry Ford line the wall of the Highlands Presbyterian Church in Harare at his funeral March 22, 2002. Ford was killed outside his homestead west of Harare earlier in the week. Zimbabwe's government earmarked more white farms for seizure in defiance of rising international pressure against President Robert Mugabe after his controversial election victory. Photo by Howard Burditt/Reuters

Mark Ford, left, the son of murdered white Zimbabwean farmer Terry Ford, attends his father's funeral in Harare, Zimbabwe, Friday March 22, 2002. Ford was shot in the head in an execution-style killing Monday at his farm west of Harare. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

[kimosabe31]

When is the Hague court and Carla going to indict and try this Mugabe sub-human on the litany of PC crimes of which he is clearly guilty: racial bigotry, hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, war cimes of all imaginable types, probably cannibalism, etc ??

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, delivers his inaugural speech at the State House in Harare, Zimbabwe, Sunday March 17, 2002. Mugabe was sworn in to serve another six-year term. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

[jragan2001]

It would be a miracle for the Hague to go after butcher Mugabe-If he were white, he would have already been tarred and feathered. They are more concentrated on going after Milosevic (who ironically is white himself) than more deserving scumbags like Mugabe.

[Rytwyng]

Mugabe ...says it is immoral for the 4 500 white farmers to occupy 70% of the country's best farm land

Was it the "best farmland" before the whites developed it? (I suspect not.) Is it "moral" to starve one's own country, to satisfy racial-political abstractions or for any other reason? Is it "moral" to persecute the small percentage of whites who trusted the black government enough to stick around as a politically powerless minority after Rhodesia fell? Will we soon see Soviet style explanations for agricultural failure -- "due to the 70th straight year of unusual weather blah blah blah..." (See, I'm not a racist, I can admit that whites can be incompetent too. Da, konyechno!)

A bumper sticker I've seen in California farm country, any white Rhodesian might appreciate:
PUT A FARMER OUT OF BUSINESS -- STARVE!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

They need to go after communists, black and white.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The farmers were agreeing to giving up a lot of their land, land they'd owned and farmed for generations.
Large parcels of land had already been turned over and lay fallow.
But when Mugabe saw Morgan Tsvangarai's political star rising,
he needed to do something and ordered the siezure of the white farms to begin.

[jragan2001]

You're right-let's hope it happens soon.

[ex-Texan]

Your post is in line with my thinking. Mugabe could be eliminated.

[Cachelot]

It would be a miracle for the Hague to go after butcher Mugabe-If he were white

Nothing to do with color or even religion. The Hague - and the UN - supports totalitarian regimes and terrorists wherever they find them. When they are islamic terrorists, that is just icing on the cake.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[nopardons]

What a desperate and despicable situation. The Commonwealth's slap on the wrist, as well as our media ignoring this truly disgraceful genocide, is appalling.

For those, who claim that this is none of our business, all I can say is, is that when our tax dollars are demanded, for Commie , racist dictaor's self inflicted horrors upon their own country, it IS our problem. Of course, just from a purely humane sense, it is absolutely our problem !

[jragan2001]

Michael Savage, World Net Daily (Joseph Farah) and Chris Ruddy's Newsmax have reported on length about this. I do wish Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity would bring this out in the open even more. This crap being pulled by Mugabe and the poor leadership by Thabo Mbeki is more outrageous than what apartheid could have even done in South Africa. Instead of granting amnesty to ILLEGALS from south of the border, the US should bring the farmers over from the former Rhodesia and SA who want a new homeland and let them add to our prosperity here.

[nopardons]

You're right; of course.

There's nary a word, in any of our mainstream media. As much as I like Sean ( I'm listening to his radio show, as I type ) , he has totally ignored this situation. It isn't something that should be ignored !

Mbeki and Mandela and even Mugabe have been lionized in the West. All of them are stinking COMMUNISTS ! Just like Stalin , Castro, and any other Marxist, they've ruined their own countries, and demand that the West then bail them out .

Want know what the USA's policy is ? In South Africa ( I can't talk to how it is in Zimbabwe; however , I suspect that it is the same ) , it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to get an immigration visa , to the USA, it costs a lot of money ( they hold a lottery for it , and one has about as much of a chance of winning one, as any American has of winning a 500 million dollar POWERBALL ! ) , takes a VERY long time, and no, there is NO amnesty granted. After 9/11/01 and the latest INS screwup, whom are the INS agents now hassling ? Why the LEGAL , law abiding, hard working, Afrikaners, who are here and waiting to be approved for green cards; that's who !

America woud benefit greatly ( and so would the Comservatve Movement, BTW ) by allowing more of these people to emmigrate here.