Posted on 08/13/2002 2:06:39 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Prime Minister Helen Clark called Tuesday for Zimbabwe to be expelled from the British Commonwealth and threatened tougher sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's regime.
In a hardline speech Monday, Mugabe quashed hopes among white farmers for a reprieve from a government order to turn over the bulk of their lands to blacks.
Clark - an outspoken critic of Mugabe - said she was "very, very shocked" by Mugabe's comments and angry the international community was being asked to help out an "outrageous" government.
Zimbabwe "should have been suspended (from the British Commonwealth) quite some time ago and I would be very happy to see them suspended now," she added.
In March, Zimbabwe was suspended for a year from the councils of the Commonwealth - a move that fell short of expulsion - for the "high level of politically motivated violence" that marred March 9-11 presidential elections.
Full expulsion would further isolate Mugabe's government and cut off an important diplomatic channel to potential aid donors. Mugabe has appealed for international aid to combat drought and starvation in his impoverished nation.
Wellington has already put in place targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe's leadership - including barring them from traveling here and using New Zealand banks. But New Zealand has little trade with the African country.
"I understand the European Union is tightening its sanctions, we will look at following in their wake," Clark said.
Clark called on the Commonwealth - an organization of Britain and its former colonies - to do more to highlight the plight of white farmers in Zimbabwe.
She said she would discuss Zimbabwe when she met Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon at a summit of Pacific leaders in Fiji at the weekend.
As the presidential poll draws near, Mugabe is wary over his security in the event of losing the do-or-die election that pits his 38-year-old Zanu PF party against the two-year-old opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The Libyans' role in the election has been unclear, though suspicions abound that they could play a crucial role in perpetuating the reign of Muammar Gaddafi's closest ally in the southern African region if the vote went against him.
"As far as I know, they are just involved with monitoring and improving the security of Mugabe who envies Gaddafi's intelligence network," a source said. The team will be in the country up to the time of the presidential election next year. "There are strong fears that something terrible could befall Mugabe if he loses. There is need to ensure his maximum security," the source said.
A British paper this week said "hundreds of Libyan troops", part of Gaddafi's elite forces, "known for their terror tactics, were being housed in secret locations scattered across the country". The Daily Telegraph, quoting intelligence sources, said there was a growing number of intelligence officers turning against Mugabe, forcing him to turn elsewhere for protection. The Libyans were to be issued with Zimbabwean passports by the Registrar-General's office to help Mugabe's presidential election campaign, the paper said.
Other press reports from South Africa suggest that Pagad, a Libyan-funded vigilante group which campaigns against drug lords on the Cape Flats, would be unleashed on the white commercial farmers in a terror campaign. The development takes place at a time when the country has mortgaged itself to Libyans after it sought a US$340 million loan to purchase fuel. The Independent reported recently that the Libyans were going to acquire major stakes in the country's two financial institutions and a major hotel group in addition to receiving 8 000ha of land for industrial and farming purposes. [End]
Well, Mugabe didn't lose. Mugabe appointed four of the five Supreme Court judges and then increased the court to eight members, adding three more judges loyal to his ruling party. Gaddafi sent in his henchmen and they set up terror squads. Gaddafi loaned Mugabe millions of dollars, bought up houses in Zimbabwe and made sure he won.
Most of the farmers had accepted that they would lose much of their land and were complying with the rulings to give over major portions of their farms but Mugabe wants all the land.
The opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) makes up just over a third of the parliament assembly. Their party had been strongly predicted to win the recent election even after a year of being terrorized by squads of roaming gangs. Finally Mugabe removed poll watchers, slowed down voting and assured his "reelection." 67 rallies canceled: Zimbabwe opposition members attacked, murdered Despite international condemnation of the stolen election and calls by the opposition party for a new election, Mugabe continues to drive off all farming, giving the land, homes and farms to his family, his cronies and to Libya (to whom he is deeply in debt). He has murdered farmers as they held on to what had been promised would be left to them. Despite the fact Zimbabweans are starving to death Mugabe continues to destroy the economy and uses his court to rubber stamp any law he wants. Evil Under the Sun
When killing accompanies elections/Zimbabwe's 'elected' dictator*** Mugabe's election victory was celebrated with an "anti-American" march in which a coffin of the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was paraded through Zimbabwe's capital with an American flag draped over it. Sheila McVey, a white Zimbabwean farmer who observed this celebration, told WorldNetDaily, "It was frightening and disgusting. Zimbabwe has gone mad. Where are the Americans and Brits when we need them most? Where is the United Nations?"
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF militia beat several MDC supporters to death. Darlington Vikaveka and farm manager John Rutherford were beaten to death on a farm near Mrondera. In Kwekwe, Mugabe troops killed Funny Mahuni at a torture camp in the Mbizo township. Witnesses said Mahuni's stomach was slit open with a knife. Many street vendors in Bulawayo were beaten and had their "for sale" items taken away by the Mugabe militia when they were suspected of voting for the opposition.
During the election, Mugabe's militia - bolstered by 20,000 new recruits based at 23 posts in Mugabe's tribal homeland of Mashonaland - spread out around the nation and prevented at least 500,000 registered MDC voters from turning in their ballots, about 15 percent of all registered voters. The militia set up roadblocks all across the nation and would allow only passengers with ZANU-PF membership cards access to voting stations. On one Zimbabwean farm, where a poster of Mugabe was ruined with graffiti, the militia reportedly threatened to send the black workers on the farm to one of Mugabe's "re-education camps."
Philip Chiyangawa, a ZANU-PF member of parliament was captured on videotape telling one Mugabe youth militia member to "get a hold of MDC supporters; beat them until they are dead. Burn their farms and their workers' houses, then run away and we will blame the burning of the workers' houses on the whites. Report to the police, because they are ours."***
More than 100 families live and work on the farm where his plot is located. And there are other complications. Raymond says that though he has been promised seed and fertilizer from the government, he realizes the government has no money for such things. Seed for corn, he also says, is hard to come by because the government has taken all the seed-corn farms. But seed corn once grew on the plot where he's now building his house.
Raymond is a bit sheepish about settling on land that once belonged to someone else. He pulls a pink newspaper from his belongings and opens it to an article about white farmers being evicted from their land. "So sad," he says, displaying the article. "So sad." While the white farmers will lose their land and the decades of hard work they put into it, few will go away destitute. Most will drive away with a little savings and their personal belongings. It is the estimated one million black farm workers who stand to lose the most in the country's land reform. Most have nowhere to go. Desperate, many are refusing to allow their employers to leave until they pay compensation.
Mugabe said a price freeze on basic foods imposed Friday will be strictly enforced, and the government will seize firms that shut down, withhold their goods or engage in illegal profiteering.
``Let no one on this front expect mercy . . . The state will take over any businesses that are closed,'' Mugabe said. ``We will reorganize them with workers and at last that socialism we wanted can start again.''
Zimbabwe dropped its socialist economic policies a decade after it gained independence in 1980 and embraced Western-style economic reforms. In recent years, Zimbabwe's economy has become crippled by out-of-control inflation, unemployment and a shortage of hard currency.
Analysts say the crisis began with the country's expensive military involvement in the Congo war and worsened when ruling party militants began occupying white-owned commercial farms, which generate much hard currency in this agricultural-based economy.
On Monday, Mugabe offered a challenge to anyone unhappy with the country's new economic direction. ``Those tired of doing business here can pack up and go,'' he said.
Independent economist Howard Sithole said Mugabe's remarks set ``a depressing outlook for private enterprise.''
``We are putting the clock back to shortages and food lines we had in the 1980s. Manufacturers will have to scale down, forget about any new investment at all and hope this is a temporary political measure that can be removed'' after presidential elections early next year, he said.
On Friday, the government ordered price cuts of 5 percent to 20 percent on corn meal, bread, meat, cooking oil, milk, salt and soap. During the weekend, bread, cooking oil and margarine were unobtainable. [End]
August 11, 2002 - Deadlock remains over white farms evictions in Zimbabwe The government has targeted 95 percent of white-owned farms for seizure. However, despite Mugabe's promises to redistribute the farms to landless blacks, many farms have gone to his confidantes and ruling party officials.
But the disruptions in farming have contributed to a looming famine. Relief agencies say up to half of the country's 12.5 million population face a severe hunger crisis in the coming months. The government says its land seizure program was launched in 2000 as a final effort to correct colonial era injustices. Critics say it is part of the increasingly authoritarian government's effort to maintain power amid more than two years of economic chaos and political violence.***
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