Posted on 12/16/2005 7:38:48 AM PST by blam
Zimbabwe army 'moves onto the land'
By Sue Lloyd Roberts
BBC News
Many Zimbabweans are now scavenging for food
In an attempt to rescue his failing programme of land redistribution, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is trying to involve the army in a "command agriculture" programme.
"Instructions have already been passed onto battalion commanders," a Zimbabwean army major told the BBC.
Five years after Mr Mugabe ordered the seizure of the white-owned commercial farms, agricultural production has halved.
Mr Mugabe has admitted that the people to whom he gave some 4,000 farms have some responsibility for the country's current problems.
"Mugabe is now saying that the people who are on the farms are opposition supporters and that they are sabotaging the country. He says the army must take over," the major said.
"This is an idea which Mugabe got from China, where the army is used in agriculture and industry".
'Desperation'
The major risked his job and his life in talking to us. We met on a street in the capital, Harare, late at night and interviewed him in the safety of a car, away from the eyes and ears of Zimbabwe's network of informers.
"For farming, you need experience and commitment. The army has neither
Roy Bennett, former MP"
Leaving the land
I asked the major whether he believed the idea would work.
"I don't think it will because soldiers are not trained for farm work," he says.
"They're trained to fight. They don't have the skills. It's out of desperation that he's doing this. It will not work."
Others I spoke to in Zimbabwe agree. John Robertson, the country's foremost economist, pointed out that "the idea has been tried out in China, North Korea and Stalin's Russia and look where it got them."
Roy Bennett, a former opposition MP who lost his farm in the recent seizures, describes the scheme as "a non-starter".
"For farming, you need experience and commitment. The army has neither."
Many soldiers and other officials have already been given land individually under the land reform programme.
Malnutrition
A country which once exported grain must now import 80% of its foodstuffs.
Children are dying of malnutrition
The hospitals are filled with malnutrition cases with the very old and the very young the worst affected.
Surrounded by children suffering from HIV and in the advanced stages of malnutrition, Dr Julie Kanaki, who works at a mission hospital near Bulawayo, says, "the situation is hopeless and getting worse".
The hospital puts children on an emergency feeding programme, releases them but they are back within weeks because, the doctor says, their parents have "no meat, eggs, beans, sugar or milk".
Food queues
In the town, the queues for basic foodstuffs are getting longer.
"The soldiers cannot afford the most basic food stuffs. Soldiers are really pissed off
Zimbabwean army major"
The battle for land
In cities like Harare and Bulawayo, people line every street in the hope of a shipment of grain, mealie-meal, flour, oil or sugar.
With inflation at 600%, a loaf of bread now costs $85,000 Zimbabwean dollars.
"Our wages have not gone up in a year," the major says. "The soldiers cannot afford the most basic food stuffs. Soldiers are really pissed off."
Will there be a mutiny in the army?
"No," he replies. "Government informers are everywhere in Zimbabwe, including in the army.
"The soldiers want to rebel, but it is impossible."
Ping.
Hungry stomaches are often the least straw before a coup.
"Mugabe is now saying that the people who are on the farms are opposition supporters and that they are sabotaging the country. He says the army must take over," the major said.
Huh? Mugabe gave the land to his political cronies. It would be like Ted Kennedy confiscating farms in Massachusetts, giving them to his cousins and later claiming that they all must have been Republicans because they haven't grown a good scotch crop by planting Ted's empty bottles.
I assume Air America is all over this
triumph of progressive tribalism,
not :-)
Mr Mugabe has admitted that the people to whom he gave some 4,000 farms have some responsibility for the country's current problems.
No, you insane, communist scumbag, the responsiblity is entirely yours, it was your sick idea. This guy has some gonads blaming the people he is claiming to try to "help" for his mess. He would fit right in with the American democratic party though.
it's called Commu-fascism
It does take a village.....
So let me see if I understand.
A black dictator seizes white farms leading to mass starvation of black people.
The American left-dominant media completely pays no attention to this.
A black mayor and a democrat governor rule while New Orlean's black population sinks deeper into poverty, then blame Bush for the disaster.
The American left-dominant media go orgazmic over this.
What?
A hungry man with a gun represents a dangerous combination
Yeah, but all in all, Mugabe's program has been a huge success...with Land Redistribution being the highest achievable goal.
Who cares if a few million people starve?
The important thing is Whitey Got What Was Coming To Him.
This chump takes equal amounts of hubris and incompetence and elevates them to an uncommon level of criminality...... :-(
I don't understand either but know somethings are broke and need fixin.
mc
""Yeah, but all in all, Mugabe's program has been a huge success...with Land Redistribution being the highest achievable goal.
Who cares if a few million people starve?
The important thing is Whitey Got What Was Coming To Him.""
better yet , they took the land AND equipment and are still able to fail. They didn't have to worry about saving capital for land, equipment and improvements, making payments, meeting bank loans.
these people are not /were not FARMERS
Obviously things just keep getting more desparate in the People's Utopia of Zimbabwe, but not yet desparate enough for someone to put Mugabe's head on a pike in the city square. Until that happens, there will be starvation. However, to those who believe race trumps all, at least those starving will have the satisfaction of knowing that the food they are not getting is attributable to black-owned farms confiscated from evil whites.
Yeah, on TV he can rip off his face and reveal that he's really Ian Smith!
I think Ian Smith still has his farm. Read this:
Maybe so, although the article is 4 years old...
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