August 13, 2002
Mugabe Remains Unyielding on Eviction of White Farmers
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
OHANNESBURG, Aug. 12 — President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe announced today that he was standing by an eviction order that requires most of the country's white farmers to abandon their properties and livelihoods for an uncertain future.
Mr. Mugabe said he was determined to redraw the colonial map that has left a tiny white minority with more than half of his country's fertile soil. Nearly 3,000 white farmers were ordered to leave their farms by midnight last Thursday, though many have defied the order. The president said today that land would be turned over to landless blacks by the end of the month.
But Mr. Mugabe extended an olive branch to those white farmers who agreed to abide by the government's decisions. He said cooperative farmers who took part in the land redistribution program would be allowed to keep portions of their farms.
Mr. Mugabe, 78, who has run Zimbabwe since white rule ended in 1980, said he would not reverse course despite mounting pressure from Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, as well as the United States and other Western countries.
"The game is up and it is time for them to go," Mr. Mugabe said of the defiant farmers in a nationally televised speech. "We shall not budge; we shall not be deterred on this one question. The land is ours."
"All genuine and well-meaning white farmers who wish to pursue a farming career as loyal citizens of this country will have land to do so," Mr. Mugabe said. "We shall always welcome and respect loyal citizens or residents who cooperate with government and respect our policies and decisions."
So far, the police have not forcibly evicted any farmers, with senior police officials saying they were awaiting instructions from the government. Many farmers have already packed their bags, but farming officials say hundreds are continuing to defy the eviction order.
Colin Cloete, the president of the Commercial Farmers Union, emphasized that his group supported land redistribution though he said he hoped the government would allow white farmers to stay.
But Mr. Cloete, who represents most of the 3,500 white farmers in Zimbabwe, admitted that the future was uncertain. Government officials say farmers who refuse to leave their properties will face up to two years in prison or a hefty fine.
Most Western officials and foreign donors agree that land should be redistributed in Zimbabwe, where millions of blacks were forced to subsist on rocky, arid soil by British settlers who seized the country's best land during the colonial era.
But farmers and the donors have balked at participating in the land redistribution program, which has been dogged by violence and cronyism ever since it was revived two years ago in what is widely viewed as a tactic to bolster Mr. Mugabe's waning popularity.
Prominent politicians loyal to Mr. Mugabe now control scores of fertile farms while many poor blacks are still stranded on arid stretches without adequate water or sanitation. Government-backed militants have swept across the country, invading and occupying white-owned farms. In the course of those invasions, several white farmers and black farm workers have been killed while thousands of black laborers have been evicted and left homeless.
The combination of land invasions and severe drought has been devastating.
The production of corn, the country's staple food, plunged by nearly 70 percent this year, the United Nations says. The production of winter wheat, which is harvested in October, will be down by as much as 40 percent. Nearly half of Zimbabwe's population is in need of emergency food aid.
Morgan Tsvangirai, who heads the country's leading opposition party, accused the government of destroying what was once one of Africa's most promising and prosperous nations.
"Zimbabwe is currently reeling under the effects of Mugabe's dictatorship, with millions facing certain death from disease, starvation and state-sponsored violence, and yet Mugabe's message to the nation was a promissory note for more misery and death," Mr. Tsvangirai said in a statement today.