DATE=5/3/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=ZIMBABWE / CRISIS
NUMBER=5-46251
BYLINE=WILLIAM EAGLE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
NOT VOICED:
INTRO: Last week, Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union
said it was making progress in talks with squatters
occupying over a thousand white-owned commercial
farms. The union did not elaborate. Whites -- who
represent only about two percent of all Zimbabweans --
own over half the country's arable land. The
squatters want the land redistributed. Despite the
optimistic statement by the farmers' union, some
Zimbabweans say the issue may not be settled soon.
They say that for the ruling party, this is not about
land - it's about President Mugabe's using an
emotional issue to hold on to power. From Washington,
William Eagle reports.
TEXT: Some in Zimbabwe say appearances can be
deceiving - especially in the world of politics.
For example, the squatters who are leading the
occupation of over one thousand white-owned farms call
themselves war veterans. But Trevor Ncube [pron. NEW-
bay]- the editor-in-chief of the Harare-based
Independent newspaper - says most of occupiers were
not even alive when the country became independent
twenty years ago.
/// NCUBE ACT ///
Clearly over 70 percent of the people were not
born in 1980, so there is no way they can be war
veterans. These are unemployed thugs that the
ruling party has rounded up in the cities and
rural areas. Also, some are old men, who were
not involved in the war. They say they were
rounded up and told to go to these farms. So,
clearly, the majority of them are not war
veterans.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Ncube says military men dressed as civilians are
helping direct the farm takeovers:
/// NCUBE ACT ///
[Since we made the charge two weeks ago] there
has been no denial from Ministry of Defense or
from the government. We have the names of some
of the colonels assigned to direct the farm
invasions.
The other thing that gives weight to that is the
so-called "war veterans" are heavily armed with
A-K-47 assault rifles and other assortments of
rifles. Where would they get these arms?
They're being supplied with food, with two-way
radios and vehicles. The logistics of it are
clearly being run by someone who knows what he's
doing.
/// END ACT ///
Government supporters say there is no firm evidence to
conclude that the government is supporting the
squatters with food, logistics, or military training.
In the press, the issue is portrayed as one between
Zimbabwe's blacks and whites. Others say it's not
that simple. They say that of the dozen or so people
killed by the veterans so far, most have been poor,
landless and black. /// OPT /// Among the victims are
an electrician, a policeman, a pregnant woman, and the
driver of the leader of the main opposition party. ///
END OPT /// The victims of the violence are usually
workers on the farms who are suspected by the veterans
of opposing the ruling party.
The government of President Robert Mugabe, which must
hold new parliamentary elections by August, blames the
crisis on the farmers - and on Great Britain. London
had promised to cooperate with Zimbabwe in the
redistribution of farm-land but then suspended its
cooperation two years ago, saying the Mugabe
government was giving the land to political cronies,
and not to Zimbabwe's needy.
Margaret Ndongo agrees. She's a Zimbabwean
parliamentarian - and the head of the Zimbabwe Union
of Democrats. She joined the liberation forces over
two decades ago at age 15 - and later became a
founding member of the War Veterans' Association.
She says she asked the government for a list of those
who have been allotted leases on formerly white-owned
land over the past 10 years. Ms. Ndongo says that
over half of the 520 land-owners listed were not
farmers at all but absentee landlords.
/// DONGO ACT ///
On the list are senior government officials,
senior police officers and army officers, and
senior civil servants. The priority was wrong.
The priority should have been landless needy
people. The civil servants are the ones who are
supposed to make sure land is distributed to
people [in a professional manner]. They were in
sensitive positions -- but [gave priority to]
themselves. That's where my argument is.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// The South Africa-based Mail and Guardian
newspaper adds that in 1998, nine commercial farms in
Zimbabwe were put up for sale. The 550 thousand acres
were split into 253 units. The paper says among those
who obtained leases were a cabinet minister, two
provincial governors, several civil servants, two
judges, four members of the president's office and
employees of large organizations. /// END OPT ///
Parliamentarian Margaret Dongo says the lists should
be part of public debate.
/// DONGO ACT ///
My question is: the land issue has been a thorny
issue for the last 20 years - why has it become
an issue three months before elections? It is
government's responsibility to make sure that
land is re-distributed in a fair manner and not
to politicize the land issue. At the end of the
day, it is the government that should have
reported to parliament any constraints with
acquiring land from the white farmers. The
issue is not racial, it is about the
government's failure to administer the land
acquisition program.
/// END ACT ///
Harare-based historian and author David Martin takes
issue with Mrs. Dongo. He says she fails to
acknowledge what the government has done in response
to the charges of corruption.
/// MARTIN ACT ///
There certainly was some corruption in this
process, that's undeniable. The list was not
made public for Mrs. Dongo - but for all
parliamentarians - and has shocked a number of
people within [the ruling party] ZANU-PF. Many
cabinet members have spoken quite disparagingly
about this.
Unfortunately, when it comes to publicity and
propaganda ZANU is bad [at promoting its own
point of view] - two of the cabinet ministers
named in the list have been forced to give back
the farms they came by through improper means.
Others were allowed to keep the farms after
showing they paid for them. Where land has been
taken over, and where property has been
misappropriated by government officials, it has
been returned by force. But unfortunately,
ZANU-PF has not publicized that.
/// END ACT //
David Martin also says it's wrong to say that the land
issue only comes up at election time. He says it has
come up often over the past 20 years. But he says for
the first 10 years or so, the government was
restricted in what it could do by the Lancaster House
agreement with Britain, which laid out the terms for
Zimbabwe's independence.
/// MARTIN ACT ///
The first 10 years the British said they could
not take land, it had to be on the basis of
"willing seller, willing buyer." Thereafter,
they could do whatever they wished: they could
pass any laws they wished; And so, they kept
trying to get the British to compensate the
farmers. It was not up to Zimbabwe to pay the
farmers. The original farmers had taken the
land without compensation from the Africans. And
so, it was up to the British government as the
colonial power to pay compensation. The
sticking point was who is going to compensate
the farmers. Mugabe has said he will not pay
compensation for the land - but only for
[improvements] - wells, dams, fences, barns,
etc. He says the land belongs to the people and
was taken from them without compensation [by the
British] - and that is how it must be returned
to them. Or the British government can pay the
compensation itself.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// For many years, President Robert Mugabe
preached reconciliation of the races. However,
observers say that at election time, some politicians
tend to demonize whites. Critics of the white
community say whites are British, others call them
enemies of the country -- especially for their
participation in the newly formed opposition party,
the Movement for Democratic Change. It is considered
the most serious rival ever to President Mugabe's
ruling ZANU-PF party. Recently, Zimbabwe's minister
of local government and national housing, John Nkomo,
charged that the new party is sponsored by Great
Britain, white farmers and multinationals. He says
angry veterans viewed this alleged collaboration as an
attempt to reverse the gains achieved since
independence and to subvert Zimbabwe's sovereignty.
Parliamentarian Margaret Dongo says the government
only complains about foreign involvement when the
foreign aid is going to the opposition:
/// DONGO ACT ///
The question of funding is always [raised] when
opposition parties [accept foreign funding], but
when the ruling party is funded by foreign
organizations, there is no complaint. The ZANU
PF is being funded [in part] by Tiny Roland, a
British citizen [head of the LONRHO
corporation]. We do not call him an agent of
the British. We are sick and tired of the
situation where when things go wrong, the
opposition is blamed, and when things go well,
credit is given to the ruling party. Let's be
realistic. It is obvious they are getting funds
from their allies. If the opposition does, too,
what's the difference?
/// END ACT /// /// END OPT ///
Mrs. Dongo agrees that the unequal distribution of
land is a real issue that has to be solved by any
government that comes to power in Zimbabwe.
But she says the focus of the upcoming elections
should on why the government has so little to show for
20 years of efforts to solve the land issue. And she
says voters should ask how the government plans to
improve the skills of small-scale black farmers, so
their new holdings can be as profitable as those of
the commercially oriented white-owned farmers they're
replacing.
Government supporters say the government should be
credited with trying to get Great Britain to pay
compensation for any white farms that are re-
distributed. They say London is withholding any
progress on the issue - in the hopes that Robert
Mugabe's government will be defeated. (SIGNED)
NEB/WE/KL
1
1
03-May-2000 15:06 PM EDT (03-May-2000 1906 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
