Zimbabwe: African warning for Mugabe

BBC World Service - Africa ^ | September 10, 2001

[Clive]

"Of great concern to all of us is that, if the land issue is not urgently resolved amicably and peacefully, the economic and political problems Zimbabwe is facing now could easily snowball across the entire southern African region."
- President Bakili Maluzi of Malawi

Leaders of southern African states have been putting pressure on Zimbabwe's President Mugabe to bring the land crisis there swiftly under control.

President Bakili Maluzi of Malawi, who currently chairs the Southern African Development Community (SADC), told Mr Mugabe that the problem threatened to affect other states.

He was speaking at the start of two days of talks in Harare which are also being attended by four other SADC heads of state.

Correspondents say the talks indicate a much tougher stance by Zimbabwe's neighbours.

President Maluzi said that if Zimbabwe's land crisis was not resolved urgently in an amicable and peaceful manner, then the political and economic problems could easily snowball across the entire region.

The increasing level of instability would in turn lead to foreign investors turning their backs on SADC states.

Africa intervenes

Attending the talks along with Mr Maluzi are the leaders of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique, as well as ministers from Angola, Nigeria and Tanzania.

As the BBC's Rageh Omaar reports from Johannesburg, the stance of African states on the Zimbabwe crisis was crucial to President Mugabe's decision to agree to the land agreement brokered by the Commonwealth in Nigeria on Thursday.

It is now clear that, for the first time, major African nations are not only urging the Zimbabwean government to do everything to end the crisis, but are also prepared to break ranks openly with Harare.

Zimbabwe cannot afford to be totally isolated and publicly at odds with African powers like South Africa and Nigeria, as well as other neighbours.

During their talks in Harare, the African leaders are due to meet Zimbabwean farmers, war veterans and opposition parties to examine what concrete steps need to be taken to implement the commitment made by Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth.

In Abuja, the Zimbabwean government agreed to stop attacks by black militants on white-owned farms in return for financial assistance to implement a fair land reform programme.

But there have been reports of further violence on white-owned farms in the north of the country.

Violence continues

The Commercial Farmers Union reports a massive upsurge in land invasions in the days since the agreement was announced.

Hundreds of farms have been seized by self-styled war veterans since February in protest at the fact that - 20 years after independence - the vast majority of the productive land in the country is still owned by a small number of white ranchers.

Mr Mugabe has accepted the land ownership plan in principle, but says the deal will have to be approved by cabinet and his ruling Zanu-PF party.

In another development, shots were reportedly fired at opposition activists during local elections in Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo on Sunday.

Welshman Ncube, Secretary General of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said he and a group of other officials in the party were shot at by a group of suspected war veterans who support Mr Mugabe but no-one was injured.

The opposition have accused the government of massive vote-rigging in the election, considered a rehearsal for upcoming presidential elections

[Clive]

-

[Clive]

-

[Clive]

-

[Clive]

-

[staytrue]

To imagine that these Rhodesian farms were stolen from prior owners is to imagine that Ernest and Julio Gallo came in with guns blazing and seized their vineyards from some local Indians!

While we are on the subject of Indians. South Dakota was ceded to the Indians by treaty (mostly because it was and still is a relatively worthless piece of land) until GOLD was discovered there. Then the whites took it back.

[meenie]

This isn't over the whites taking the land from the natives who weren't using the land. They were hunting and gathering in the wild when the whites came in and cleared the land and developed it. This is RASCISM,pure and simple.

[Ohioan]

Most of the area where the great white farms are, was not occupied by anyone, when it was settled. Rhodesia was actually a much bigger country than most realize. It looks small because of its shape, and the size of some of its neighbors.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[staytrue]

Most of the area where the great white farms are, was not occupied by anyone,

I think we had this conversation before. So if see a vacant lot somewhere, am I entitled to build a house there and take it as my own ?

[Justanumba]

Just out of curiousity, what year do you feel that human migration about the planet should have been stopped?

[harpseal]

Clash of cultures. The Sioux didn't give a damn about gold and the miners didn't want the land. Probably could have been averted had the miners simply offered the Sioux Buffalo in exchange for gold.

Actually if one does detailed research on Custer and the period immediately prior to the Little Bighorn battle one finds Sioux trading gold from the Black Hills for various supplies including "Yellow Boy" rifles. They knew about the gold and its value to the white man. They were not as naive or unshopisticated as they made out to be. They also showed great bravery and leadership in the initial campaign.

Stay well - Yorktown

[Ohioan]

I think we had this conversation before. So if see a vacant lot somewhere, am I entitled to build a house there and take it as my own?

A vacant lot implies that a race, tribe or nation has laid out lots--and is exercising dominion over the land. The situation in Rhodesia, and throughout Southern Africa, is akin to entering an unsettled wilderness. And in that situation, the traditional Law of Nations would support your right to do just that.

Actually, the biggest difference between the way Caucasian settlement took place in Southern Africa and in America, is that the South Africans--and later the Rhodesians--showed more respect for the territorial rights of the various Bantu nations than we did for the territorial rights of the various Indian nations. No American ought to be delivering moral lectures or hurling aspersions at the Southern Africans on that count.

You can also get an instant fight in a South African or Rhodesian pub--if there still are any under Mugabe--if you suggest that our Indians were better fighters than the Zulu. There is a great deal of respect across racial lines down there.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site