Posted on 06/25/2002 2:16:56 AM PDT by Clive
President Robert Mugabe ordered 2,900 commercial farmers to stop work yesterday, as Zimbabwe faces its worst food shortage for 60 years.
The order is the final step before the government seizes the farms, including the crops in the fields, for redistribution to its black supporters.
"From [today] a farmer could be arrested for trying to feed the nation," the Commercial Farmers Union spokeswoman Jenni Williams said.
"We have 22,567 hectares [more than 56,000 acres] of wheat in the ground which will only be harvested in September/October. Who is going to look after the crop if the farmers stop working?"
She said the union was considering asking the courts to stop the order. Other union sources said discussions with the government were still taking place.
Many farmers vowed to ignore the order. One, asking not to be named for fear of retribution, said: "It is madness, our farms are producing wheat and other food crops while so many in this country are going hungry. Now we are being ordered to stop all farming work.
"It is crazy. I will not give in to this. I have crops in the ground and animals to feed and I am determined to keep going. What will my workers do if I shut down?"
Human rights groups said that the ruling could make more than 100,000 farm workers homeless overnight.
"It is a human rights catastrophe," John Makumbe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Crisis Committee, said. "These farm workers are real people and they are vulnerable.
"The government is taking away their livelihoods and their homes, but it is not doing anything to give them an alternative."
The often violent land seizures are blamed, even by some of Mr Mugabe's ministers, for the food shortages. The World Food Programme estimates that nearly half the country's 12.5 million people will need food assistance this year.
The food crisis is due to a combination of dry weather during the growing season and the disruptions on the commercial farms, which are about five times more productive than small farms, the WFP said.
The new order shows that Mr Mugabe is determined to dismantle the white farming community whatever the social cost.
Any of the farmers involved who continue working after today's deadline may be jailed for up to two years.
Since June 2000 the government has named 5,872 mostly white-owned properties for confiscation. On many already vacated livestock and irrigation and other equipment have been seized without compensation.
State radio reported yesterday that security checkpoints would be set up in farming districts to prevent "sabotage" of the land reform programme: an apparent effort to stop farmers removing goods and equipment from their property.
The state media have accused some white farmers of adopting a "scorched earth" policy after confiscation. The farmers' union denies the accusation.
The EU allocated €6m (£3.9m) famine aid to Zimbabwe yesterday and again accused President Mugabe's policies of aggravating the food crisis.
"The private sector has a leading role to play in bringing in food on the market. The government must remove the constraints which are preventing this from happening," the EU aid commissioner, Poul Nielson, said.
The order will make it difficult for the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, to convince western leaders that he has persuaded Mr Mugabe to moderate his more extreme policies.
That may prompt the G8 summit in Canada this week to decline funds for Mr Mbeki's New Economic Partnership for African Development (Nepad).
Although told to stop work, the farmers are allowed to stay on their land for 45 days.
They are barred from putting their land to any use or occupation, whether agricultural or not.
It is (almost) always the same. We hear that millions will die etc. etc. but miraculously it never comes to pass (save in places where our governments have no commercial/strategic interests).
VRN
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