Zimbabwe denies land grab by ruling elite - Colonel Muammar Gadaffi taking his cut

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Allegations that top politicians and ruling party elite took confiscated white-owned land intended for the landless and impoverished were "patently stupid and indecent," a government spokesman said Thursday.

However, ruling party officials were not excluded from a program to allocate seized land to some 54,000 new black commercial farmers, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said in a statement.

A report compiled by farmers that was distributed Thursday said hundreds of senior officials, ruling party supporters, military, police and intelligence officers, and even journalists in the state media were allocated plots ranging in size from a few acres (hectares) to farms of thousands of acres (hectares).

No prominent opposition party leaders or outspoken government critics appear on the list.

The farmers who compiled the list said they did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals. The information was drawn from government notices on land allocations and was backed by testimony from white landowners forced from their properties who had contact with new occupants.

Moyo described the report as propaganda aimed at tarnishing the country's land reform program.

"There is no land grab in Zimbabwe by anyone. The last time land was grabbed it was done by murderous and thieving British colonialists," he said.

Though government and ruling party officials had been allocated land, they were not given special preference, nor could they be denied land because of their affiliations to the state or ruling party, Moyo said.

President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly insisted the program to confiscate 95 percent of land owned by the nation's 4,000 white farmers, mostly the descendants of British and South African settlers, was intended to settle unfair land ownership lingering from the colonial era, which ended in 1980.

Previous efforts at land reforms have been plagued by mismanagement and corruption.

The new land seizures, coupled with ruling party militants' occupation of white-owned farms has driven hundreds of white farmers and tens of thousands of their black workers off the land.

Disruptions on the farms, along with erratic weather, have led to severe food shortages.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change accused Mugabe of stepping up land seizures around parliamentary elections in June 2000 to shore up his waning support.

July 2001 - Gadaffi bids to be leader of Africa*** THE new African Union (AU), launched at a summit of the Organisation of African Unity in Lusaka last week, is to have its own parliament. Indeed, the parliament building has already been built - in Tripoli. For the idea of the AU is being driven by Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, the Libyan president. Now that his long-standing ambitions for an Arab Union have come to nothing, he is hoping to play a central role in a union of African states instead. The organisation promises to respect democracy and good governance more than the OAU ever did. The snag is that its new parliament will sit in a country that allows no opposition, no free elections, free speech or free press.

In March, Gadaffi announced plans for single a African identity and a union under which the boundaries between states would be scrapped, national armies merged and a single passport introduced. Amazingly, this vision seems to have been largely accepted by African leaders. It has also been decided that, besides the parliament, there will be a pan-African court of justice, a central bank and a common currency. Clearly with the aim of flattering Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, Gadaffi has proposed that the first AU summit should be held in Pretoria next year and should elect a president - presumably Mbeki. ***

November 2001 - Gadaafi to supply Mugabe with death squads?***Harare: Zimbabwe- Libya's President Muammar Gadaafi has bought up 20 houses in Zimbabwe which seem likely to be used as safe-houses for death squads supplied by the Libyan dictator as part of his plan to assist the man he sees as his embattled comrade in arms, President Robert Mugabe. In addition Gadaafi has bought Gracelands, the gigantic Harare mansion belonging to Grace Mugabe, the President's young wife. The house is now to become the Libyan Embassy, making it by far the biggest embassy building in Zimbabwe, dwarfing the British and American missions.

In effect Gadaafi seems to be making a bid to save Mugabe which, if successful, would create a virtual Libyan client state at the far end of Africa. Already there is evidence of direct Libyan involvement in the violence which racked Zimbabwean farms in the last ten days. ***

December 2001 - Zimbabwe court rules seizing of white-owned land legal

April 2002 - Zimbabwe -- Libyans arm twist state over land

April 2002 - Zimbabwe -- Libya threatens to cut fuel supplies over debt*** Mugabe has been increasingly isolated by the world in the wake of his controversial victory in last month's presidential election amid reports that Zimbabwe is virtually mortgaged to Libya in exchange for oil and money. The Libyans are said to have been allocated farms by the government. No official comment could be obtained from the Libyan ambassador, Mahmoud Azabi, who was said by his office to be out of the country. Reports in the State-controlled Herald yesterday said Libya was now providing 70 percent of Zimbabwe fuel imports. A 12-month US$330 million (Z$18,15 billion) oil deal signed by Mugabe and Gaddafi last year for Libya to supply Zimbabwe with oil expires in two months' time and Mugabe was reportedly anxious to secure an extension to avert another crisis in the tense period after the presidential poll.

"The bottom line is that Libya has been unable to get the products promised by Mugabe when the deal was sealed," another source said. "That is why Mugabe had to go and plead with Gaddafi." The deal, under which Gaddafi supplied oil in exchange for land, agricultural produce and stakes in key enterprises in the tourism sector, helped Mugabe reduce the magnitude of the crippling fuel crisis which started in October 1999. With the exception of Gaddafi, the rest of the world's suppliers had stopped oil supplies to Zimbabwe due to non-payment. ***

Libya pulls Zimbabwe's fuel plug***Libyan demands that the Mugabe regime hand over valuable farms as part of the deal have yet to be met, prompting fears from fuel-hungry consumers that the north African country will soon grow impatient with Zimbabwe. It is understood that groups of Libyan businessmen have been to Zimbabwe and visited vast commercial farms around the country. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi also toured some big commercial farms and identified some for his country's expropriation last year.

However, the mechanics of delivering this land to the Libyans seem to have been delayed, prompting cries of impatience from the Libyans. Zimbabwe is now so heavily reliant on the Libyans that the country will cease to function if Gaddafi puts brakes on oil supplies. Mugabe has paid a dozen visits to Libya in the past year to maintain Gaddafi's patronage. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says Zimbabwe has virtually become a "colony of Libya". Libya's cut supplies have only been resumed after interventions at the highest level.

"This isn't safe because there's no guarantee the interventions will always succeed. It is like signing your own death certificate," said an industry source. ***

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