ZIMBABWE: UN hopes new land plan can help
JOHANNESBURG, 10 November (IRIN) - The UNDP, which was this year asked to
mediate in Zimbabwe's controversial land reform programme, hopes to use a
report that it commissioned as the basis for dialogue between President
Robert Mugabe and key international players. The report calls for the land
programme to be conducted gradually, legally and in co-operation with
farmers. In return, the programme could be subsidised by international
donors.
Abdoulie Janneh, UNDP Regional Director for Africa told IRIN: "The report
comes from a technical mission funded by the UNDP, we hope it can be used as
a basis for dialogue. It's not a UNDP report and we don't agree with
everything therein, but we do feel it can act as a catalyst to help all
involved to move forward ". He added that the proposals had been welcomed by
Western donors and Zimbabwe's key neighbour South Africa.
At an international conference on land reform in Zimbabwe held in 1998,
donors indicated support for a transparent and legal land transfer which
supported poverty alleviation, but were not prepared to write blank cheques.
The often violent land grabs, in which both white farmers and black workers
have been killed, coupled with the government's disregard for the rule of
law, have attracted international condemnation.
On Friday Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba told IRIN: "We have been
involved in working with the UNDP technical mission on these proposals. The
broad principles they embody could help in discussions with international
donors." Colin Cloete, the vice-president of Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers
Union also told IRIN on Friday that although he hadn't looked in detail at
the report, "it seems to be much better than anything else available at the
moment."
The report's authors from Chile, Brazil, the Caribbean and Kenya are all
experts in land reform and deliberately left political considerations out of
their findings. "The authors tried to focus on the practicalities, bearing
in mind the needs of the landless as well as the needs of the economy," said
Janneh. They concluded that internationally-funded land reform could not
begin until all illegal land seizures were halted, the economic situation
was stabilised and the process of land transfer was legal and transparent.
Zimbabwe has seen months of violence and chaos with Mugabe attempting to
expropriate more than 3,000 of the country's 4,500 white-owned commercial
farms, backed by a constitutional amendment. While the report accepted
Mugabe's target of five million hectares for eventual redistribution, it
suggests that the transfer be carried out gradually, with the first phase
involving one million hectares. The report recommends a first phase that
would affect only about 200 to 300 farms not touching profitable estates
that produce vital foreign exchange.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
