Mugabe Accepts Deal to End Zimbabwe Land Crisis

Reuters via The New York Times ^ | September 9, 2001

[sarcasm]

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Sunday endorsed a Nigerian-brokered deal to end his controversial land seizure drive in exchange for funds to implement a fair and just land reform program.

Mugabe, whose personal seal is crucial to the deal, said he accepted the agreement in principle, but needed to pass it through his ruling ZANU-PF party politburo and the cabinet.

``We accept it...but we need to go through processes. They are legal and political,'' Mugabe told a news conference in his first public reaction to the pact under which Britain pledged to help finance Zimbabwe's land reform program.

``I don't see these two authorities (the politiburo and cabinet) rejecting it really because it confirms what we have been doing and affirms our position and enables Britain to act as a partner,'' he said.

Mugabe returned home early Sunday after a week's ``working holiday'' in Libya and received a two-hour briefing from Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido on the agreement reached in Abuja Thursday.

Asked whether he saw the agreement as a humiliating U-turn on the part of his government or a victory, Mugabe said: ``It is a victory for us and the farmers because they need to be compensated.''

``We were fighting for the farmers to be compensated and they should have realized that long back,'' he added.

Mugabe said it was critical for Zimbabwe that the Commonwealth ministerial meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, had reaffirmed that land was at the core of the crisis in the southern African country and that it had to be settled within the law.

``It is going to be settled by us as the government on the basis of our constitution and law,'' he said.

WILL NOT CONDONE VIOLENCE

Mugabe invited the white farmers to talk to his government about any problems with the program, but said they would not win if they chose confrontation.

``We will not condone any violence on the farms...and we will punish it whether the perpetrators are black or white,'' he said.

``Normalcy must return,'' he said.

But militants backing Mugabe's land seizures invaded a white-owned farm and burned workers' homes Saturday as Zimbabwe waited for the president to endorse the deal.

The mainly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said it had received no other reports of major incidents on the farms by mid-morning Sunday.

Under the Abuja accord, Zimbabwe's former colonial power Britain agreed to co-finance compensation for farmers whose land is handed to blacks.

The CFU and Zimbabwe's main opposition party have welcomed the agreement, but said it would only be of importance if Mugabe implemented it.

Regional leaders led by South African President Thabo Mbeki, will convene in Harare Monday for a two-day summit with Mugabe on the land issue.

Mbeki has urged Zimbabwe to uphold the rule of law and has called on the international community to honor pledges for financial assistance for the land reform program.

Zimbabwe plunged into a serious political and economic crisis when Mugabe allowed his supporters, led by self-styled independence war veterans, to begin invading hundreds of white-owned farms in support of his land seizure drive.

Critics say Mugabe has chosen a radical land reform drive as part of a campaign to retain power in the face of a serious political challenge from the MDC.

Mugabe has been in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence in 1980.

(Harare Newsroom: +(263-4) 369-122; +(263-4) 369-118; e-mail: cris.chinaka+reuters.com))

[sarcasm]

ping

[Tacis]

That means that Mugabe and his henchmen are trying to figure how much of whitey's money they can steal without offending the thieves in the appropriate European bureauracracies.

[Clive]

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[Clive]

Mugabe and ZANU-PF will examine the accord for wiggle room.

And there is lots of it in this open textured accord.

Also expect more violence which will be attributed to the farmers.

[SocialMeltdown]

``We accept it...but we need to go through processes.

The key phrase.

Translation: "We'll accept it to quiet our critics but as soon as they walk away, we will return to business as usual. Blacks will take the [highly productive] white-owned farms, by any means necessary."

[blam]

Has he released the white farmers he has in jail?

[xp38]

Leftists love conferences, treatys, negotiations, agreements, accords, etc. because they lull the opposition into a false sense of security and good feeling. The left loves the phrase by any means necessary and that includes all of the above. History has so many examples of the left breaking treaties and agreements that it is high time we saw through them all. A perfect example is Arafat and the PLO and all the things they have signed and discarded like toilet paper. If you are dealing with a bloodthirsty murderer what is breaking a treaty or agreement to them?

[AntiScumbag]

the omniscient bobby mugabe was quoted in another article as calling all of the thuggery, looting, burning and killing that has transpired "a minor trespass"

so, obviously it's all no big deal, the brits will be asked to cough up a sawbuck or two, and they can get back to the business of decimating the remaining productive farms

[katykelly]

I believe they are out on bail.