Military

DATE=11/06/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ZIMBABWE / FARMS (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=MARTIN RUSHMERE

DATELINE=HARARE

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Supreme Court in Zimbabwe has begun hearing a challenge by commercial farmers to a law allowing the government to seize farms without payment. The Commercial Farmers Union is asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional. Martin Rushmere in Harare has this report.

TEXT: In a 50-page affidavit, the director of Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union, David Hasluck, says the law goes against the best interests of the people and the country and also has been introduced for narrow, political reasons.

Zimbabwe's government wants to take three-thousand farms for the resettlement of landless people and has called on Britain, the former colonial power, to pay compensation to the farmers whose land is taken.

So far, more than two-thousand farms have been illegally invaded - some of which are not listed for seizure - leading to a number of farmers being killed and beatings for thousands of workers.

The farmers union says in support of its action that the chief of police has publicly admitted that he has acted out of political allegiance to the government of President Robert Mugabe over the invasions.

Earlier this year, the police ignored a Supreme Court order to evict farm invaders.

The government claims that the challenge by the farmers is based on self-interest and political motives.

All five judges of the Supreme Court are hearing what is seen by judicial authorities as a landmark test case of Zimbabwe's constitution. In February, a national referendum rejected a proposed new constitution.

British-born Chief Justice Anton Gubbay is heading the panel of judges. He is the target of a petition by the ruling party to have President Robert Mugabe remove him from office.

Zimbabwe's ruling party says Chief Justice Gubbay has tried to usurp the functions of the government by ordering the police to investigate cases of corruption and torture. (SIGNED)

NEB/MR/GE/KBK