White land grab policy has failed, Mugabe confesses

[QueEx]

Re: Zimbabweans ignore mass strike against unpopular urban clean up drive

<font size="6"><center>West Steps Up Pressure on African
Gov'ts Over Zimbabwe Abuses</font size></center>

CNSNews
Patrick Goodenough
International Editor

(CNSNews.com) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Thursday urged African leaders to speak out against rampant abuses of human rights in Zimbabwe, speaking on the same day a South African government spokesman voiced irritation about Western calls for Africans to act.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday also challenged African nations.

"[President Robert] Mugabe is sustained because of the patronage of some of the countries around him, and I think the time has long since arrived for them to take a tougher stand," he said.

Mugabe's government four weeks ago launched a controversial operation to "clean up" Zimbabwean cities by demolishing illegal shack homes, evicting their occupants and shutting down unregistered street vendors.

Since then, 46,000 people have been arrested -- according to a Zimbabwean state television report on Thursday -- and this week, two toddlers were killed when their homes were destroyed on the outskirts of the capital, Harare.

The first deaths reported in the operation called "murambatsvina" ("drive out trash") have brought new and more urgent calls for Mugabe to stop the campaign, which observers estimate have made at least 300,000 people homeless as the southern hemisphere goes into winter.

In a country where the World Food Program feeds more than one million of its 12.6 million people, many poor urban dwellers use waste land to grow small quantities of crops to eat or sell. Authorities have also clamped down on that practice.

Local media Thursday quoted Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri as saying the operation had succeeded in its aim of reducing the crime rate.

Critics say the true goal was to punish the political opposition by clamping down on areas where it enjoyed its strongest support in elections this past March.

The poll, which returned Mugabe's ZANU-PF to power with a comfortable parliamentary majority, was ruled unfair by Western governments and local observers but won the approval of African governments.

The divide between Africa and the West over Zimbabwe has become sharper in recent years, with Zimbabwe's neighbors -- led by regional power South Africa -- coming under increasing pressure from the U.S. and leading Commonwealth countries Britain and Australia.

Rice on Thursday called the events in Zimbabwe "tragic" and "outrageous" and called on African governments and the African Union (A.U.) to speak out against them.

"It simply cannot go on, and I would hope that there would be really outspokenness about this on the part of the international community," she said at a G8 foreign ministers' meeting in London.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw earlier was also critical of African governments' silence.

"Unless and until Africa's leaders as a whole recognize what is going on, take action not just to condemn it but deal with it, we are likely to be in for many more months of this kind of tyranny until President Mugabe moves aside," he said in Brussels Wednesday.

African governments have not condemned the crackdown, and on Thursday, South African presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said in reaction to Straw's comments that he was "irritated" by the notion that South Africa should act in such a way as to "look good" to the G8 countries.

Pretoria has argued that a policy of engagement and quiet persuasion is likely to be most effective with its northern neighbor.

This week, hundreds of aid groups and other non-governmental organizations called on the U.N. and A.U. to intervene.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed a special envoy who is due to visit Zimbabwe to investigate.

"What the Mugabe government is doing in Zimbabwe is not only wrong but borders on the criminal," the Voice of America said in an editorial Thursday, reflecting the views of the U.S. government.

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1337030.html

 

[mttocs]

Where the fuck is Jesse Jackson? Or Sharpton? The ostensible black leaders of our time.

Has Kwesi Mfune flown in, tried to do anything?

Does it seem ironic to anyone that every time some black teenager who smarts off to a cop gets thrown roughly on a hood, black Americans get up in arms, but genocide in Zimbabwe isn't a sexy issue here in the U.S?

 

[QueEx]

[frame]http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/07/22/zimbabwe.un.report.ap/index.html[/frame]

 

[QueEx]

<font size="6"><center>Mugabe seeks help
with debt crisis from Beijing</font size></center>

Sunday Times - London
From Jane Macartney in Beijing
July 25, 2005

PRESIDENT MUGABE of Zimbabwe flew into China at the weekend for a state visit.
It was a move that may be construed as a signal of Beijing’s growing confidence on the international stage, playing host to a leader desperate for oil and money to prop up his crumbling economy.



The visit has sparked controversy for China. New Zealand, which is leading a push to isolate Zimbabwe on the sports field, has asked China to ensure that any aid that it gives the troubled African nation does not directly benefit its leader, who is a pariah in the West.

Mr Mugabe spent yesterday touring a huge state-owned automobile plant in the industrial northeast.

Last Thursday China revalued its currency by 2 per cent and Zimbabwe devalued its own by 39 per cent. So the power of China’s economy is not lost on Mr Mugabe. He will use meetings with Chinese leaders, including President Hu, to ask for aid.

Zimbabwe says that it already has a deal with China in which it will receive 1,000 buses. In April Zimbabwe’s national airline took delivery of two MA60 passenger aircraft bought from the Chinese state-owned AVIC aircraft manufacturer and received a third aircraft as a gift.

The southern African country also took delivery of six Chinese-made Karakorum (K8) military trainer jets, and China has supplied tiles for President Mugabe’s new palace in the suburbs of Harare.

The timing of Mr Mugabe’s trip is critical, only days after Zimbabwe said that it was exploring alternative lines of credit with countries such as China and Malaysia as it grapples with a worsening economic crisis. Its unemployment rate is more than 70 per cent, inflation is in triple digits and it has acute shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel.

The economy has gone into freefall since Mr Mugabe expropriated land from thousands of white farmers, who were the backbone of the economy, and gave it to supporters of his ruling Zanu (PF) party.


President Mbeki of South Africa signalled yesterday that his country could pay off some of Zimbabwe’s foreign debt, which is estimated at $4.5 billion.
He described as counterproductive the possible expulsion of Zimbabwe from the International Monetary Fund because of its debt arrears. “It may very well be that South Africa may take whatever portion of Zimbabwe’s debt,” he said. South African newspapers have said that Zimbabwe was seeking a $1 billion loan from its neighbour.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1707177,00.html

 

[Greed]

China deal 'too small' for Mugabe

China deal 'too small' for Mugabe

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe did not obtain the financial relief he had hoped for during his recent visit to China, South African newspapers report.
Mr Mugabe went to China last week hoping for help repaying a $300m debt to the IMF, but Beijing granted him only $6m for grain imports, they say.

Observers say Zimbabwe will again be looking to South Africa for help.

South Africa is expected to make any assistance to Zimbabwe conditional on improvements in human rights.

Shortages

Zimbabwe faces expulsion from the IMF if it cannot repay its debt.

The Sunday Independent and Business Day newspapers both reported that Mr Mugabe had returned from China "almost empty-handed".

During a week-long trip to China, Mr Mugabe signed a trade deal with President Hu Jintao but the details were not made public.

A BBC correspondent in Beijing says it was not a major deal.

One Zimbabwean observer told the BBC that the platinum concessions offered by Zimbabwe were not a sufficient incentive for China to grant funds on the scale requested by Mr Mugabe.

South African officials confirmed last month that South Africa and Zimbabwe had discussed a loan request from Zimbabwe.

Some reports said Mr Mugabe was seeking as much as $1bn from South Africa.

South Africa is likely to insist that as a condition of loans, the Zimbabwe government engage in dialogue with the political opposition, and halt the housing demolitions which, according to the UN, have left 700,000 without shelter in recent months.

Aid convoy

On Monday, the South African Council of Churches launched an aid operation to Zimbabwe, as trucks carrying 220,000 rand ($37,000) worth of food and blankets left Johannesburg heading for the Zimbabwean border.

The churches are also trying to put political pressure on Mr Mugabe.

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Njonkulu Ndungane said the operation had the support of the South African government and President Thabo Mbeki.

"I am confident we are engaging with the president in terms of a common strategy on Zimbabwe," the archbishop said.

"Zimbabwe has moved from one crisis to another and we are all interested in resolving the long-term political and economic problems in Zimbabwe."

Mr Mbeki has always been reluctant to publicly criticise Mr Mugabe's rule.

Following a failed harvest, Zimbabwe is suffering food shortages.

It has been short of foreign currency for imports such as fuel for several years.

Mr Mugabe's critics say his seizure of white-owned land have wrecked the country's agriculture-based economy.

He blames his problems on a western plot.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4734777.stm

 

[Nzinga]

I see it is open season on President Mugabe in here... Fools, I have been on the main board all this time not aware that my continent is under attack; no more. The recovery of our land from white thieves was one of the most progressive and courageous policies any African government undertook. This completes the process of independence. Now Africans can say they own their own country.

 

[QueEx]

Unfortunately, starvation is the concern -- not land grabs. Somehow, that seems so much more important.

QueEx

 

[Greed]

Zimbabwe rules out returning land to white farmers

Zimbabwe rules out returning land to white farmers
Sun Jul 31, 8:18 AM ET

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will not invite back white farmers whose land was seized by President Robert Mugabe's government despite calls by the central bank chief to allow them to help the struggling agriculture sector, state media reported.

"The land here is for the black people and we are not going to give it back to anybody. We are not inviting any white farmers back," Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, also in charge of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, told the state-owned Sunday Mail.

Since 2000 Mugabe's government has seized thousands of white-owned farms after often violent invasions by government-backed veterans of the country's 1970s struggle against white rule.

But Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono recently urged Mugabe's government to allow some white farmers back on to the seized farms to help revive an economy near collapse.

Gono has said while some new black farmers were doing well, he was disappointed with the performance of others, adding that the government should allow some of the skilled former white commercial farmers to resume operations in strategic areas such as horticulture.

A recent World Bank study on Zimbabwe's agriculture sector said the government's land reforms had redistributed 80 percent of farmland and improved racial distribution of agricultural property, but had increased poverty.

Once the mainstay of the economy, agriculture now contributes 40 percent to national exports, makes up 18 percent of gross domestic product, and employs 30 percent of the formal labor force and 70 percent of the population, it said.

Official statistics show that the sector saw output falling by 3.3 percent in 2004, worsening food shortages which the WFP says could threaten up to a third of the country's 12 million people.

Mutasa said a newly-created National Land Board would scrutinize some land beneficiaries to make sure they had enough agricultural machinery and capacity to farm.

Zimbabwe's mainly white Commercial Farmers' Union says that nearly 4,000 white farmers have been dispossessed, leaving between 600 and 800 still on their land.

Mugabe's government says the land seizures are necessary to redress ownership imbalances created by Britain's 1890s colonization of the southern African state, but critics say the seizures have resulted in food shortages because the new owners lack farming experience.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=574&e=16&u=/nm/20050731/wl_nm/zimbabwe_land_dc_1

 

[Nzinga]

Unfortunately, starvation is the concern -- not land grabs. Somehow, that seems so much more important.

QueEx

No one is going to starve and no is starving in Zimbabwe. The BBC preaches, and campaigns for gloom in Zimbabwe...

 

[Nzinga]

Re: Zimbabwe rules out returning land to white farmers

President Mugabe is courageous and correct....The recovery of the land was imperative, and now the white farmers should go on their merry way to Arizona or Australia. They are not coming back. The British are so desperate to characterise the situation in Zimbabwe as terminal and exaggerate every little thing they think supports their hysterical position. The BBC has lost credibility on this issue.

 

[Greed]

U.S. freezes assets of Zimbabwean farms, businesses

U.S. freezes assets of Zimbabwean farms, businesses
Wed Aug 3,12:15 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday froze the U.S. assets of 26 Zimbabwean entities it said are controlled by key members of President Robert Mugabe's government, accusing them of undercutting democracy in Zimbabwe.

Under an executive order issued by President Bush, the Treasury Department "designated" 24 commercial farms and two businesses controlled by Mugabe administration officials who the U.S. government says are undermining democratic processes in Zimbabwe. The move freezes their access to the U.S. financial system and prohibits U.S. citizens from doing business with them.

"The Mugabe regime rules through politically motivated violence and intimidation and has triggered the collapse of the rule of law in Zimbabwe," said Robert Werner, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

"By denying the Mugabe regime access to the U.S. financial system and U.S. persons, we're cutting off the flow of support they could use to further destabilize Zimbabwe," he said.

Zimbabwe is reeling from its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain 25 years ago, triggered by government seizures of white-owned farms for resettlement of landless blacks and allegations of vote rigging.

The Treasury Department said the commercial farms are among those handed to favored members of Mugabe's government following his chaotic land redistribution scheme.

The two businesses include Cold Comfort Farm Trust Co-operative, an agricultural cooperative controlled by National Security Minister Didymus Noel Mutasa, and Ndlovu Motorways, controlled by Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, an official with Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

Treasury has designated Mugabe and 76 other Zimbabwean government officials and "persons of influence" for economic sanctions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050803...1TAwtcA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

 

[Greed]

U.S. Ambassador Criticizes Zimbabwe

U.S. Ambassador Criticizes Zimbabwe
By MICHAEL HARTNACK, Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 13, 2:00 PM ET

HARARE, Zimbabwe - A U.S. diplomat barred from meeting victims of President Robert Mugabe's mass eviction campaign, criticized the Zimbabwe government Saturday for interfering with aid efforts and warned of outrage in Congress over the worsening humanitarian crisis.

Tony Hall, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization, said the United States would donate $51.8 million worth of food for Zimbabwe and the neighboring drought-stricken countries of Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland.

The 73,500 tons will be sufficient to feed 5 million to 6 million people for a month, he told reporters at Harare airport.

"Despite our differences with the government, the United States will stand by the people of Zimbabwe because there is no place for politics when it comes to feeding hungry people," Hall said at the end of a three-day visit.

But he warned that the U.S. donation "only scratched the surface of an essentially political problem."

The World Food Program says up to a third of Zimbabwe's 12 million people may suffer from food shortages, even though Mugabe's government has played down the need for outside help.

Hall said Zimbabwean bureaucracy was keeping 10,000 tons of food aid from U.S. relief groups "bottled up" in the South African port of Durban, over alleged lack of import licenses. He said another group had not been given permission to distribute 15,000 tons already here.

An aid convoy from the South African Council of Churches has also been held up for nearly a week as the Zimbabwe government insists on certificates to prove it contains no genetically modified food.

Hall said he would speak with U.S. officials about what he had seen. "Don't forget I have a lot of friends in the U.S. Congress, and they are going to be outraged," said Hall, who was a congressman for 24 years.

Security officers prevented Hall and his entourage from making a scheduled visit to Hopley Farm, on the capital's outskirts, to investigate claims that 700,000 urban poor were left homeless or without jobs by the eight-week "Operation Murambatsvina" — "Drive Out Filth." Many were evicted into midwinter cold from May to July.

Opposition groups contend Mugabe's government is trying to drive disaffected city voters into rural areas where they can be intimidated by denial of access to food.

Hall said the official reason for blocking his stop at Hopley was that the delegation needed a special visitors permit since the site is run by the military. But, he added, "I was told in a hushed tone that the government doesn't want me to see this place because old people are dying."

Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has said he is prepared to show progress in rehousing those evicted by Operation Murambatsvina. But human rights lawyers last week dismissed claims of improved conditions at Hopley, saying it was "nothing but a new transit camp."

Hall said he was distressed by conditions in Hatcliff township outside Harare, which he visited Friday.

"I had several people come up to me and ask me for blankets and food. They don't have enough to keep themselves warm ... their children are hungry," he said.

"One gentleman spoke of the night he was evicted — police arrived with no notice, driving him and others out with dogs. He was forced to sleep outside for a week during the coldest time of winter."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050813...pDAwtcA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

 

[QueEx]

The BBC preaches, and campaigns for gloom in Zimbabwe...

Is this just another BBC campiagn of gloom ... or are the South Africans concerned about doom ???

.

[frame]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4156082.stm[/frame]

 

[QueEx]

The BBC and the South Africans, at gloom again:

.

<font size="5"><center>South Africa is ready to get tough
with Mugabe regime<font size></center>

Mbeki: Policy switch

The Telegraph
By Bill Corcoran in Pretoria
(Filed: 20/08/2005)

President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has privately conceded that his "quiet diplomatic" approach towards Zimbabwe has failed to yield results, opening the way for a more forceful policy towards the regime of Robert Mugabe.

The signs from South Africa now suggest that the African leaders - who for decades have refused to criticise abuses among their number - are for the first time seriously considering breaking the taboo and taking Mr Mugabe to task for the destruction of his own country.

The South African leader has sacrificed much of his international reputation by declining to criticise President Mugabe's excesses. Instead, South Africa has tried to influence Zimbabwe's regime with behind-the-scenes talks.

Yet the country's descent into economic collapse and political repression has continued unabated, leading Mr Mbeki to think again. "Our President has eventually agreed that the quiet diplomatic approach has not yielded the results that were expected," said Devikarani Jana, a diplomat who received a briefing on Zimbabwe from South African officials on Wednesday.

In an interview in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, before taking up her position as ambassador to Ireland, Miss Jana added that she was personally "not happy" with the behaviour of Zimbabwe's regime, as there were "serious allegations of human rights violations".

These signs that Mr Mbeki is changing his policy towards Zimbabwe come at a critical time. Mr Mugabe has spurned the latest diplomatic efforts made by African leaders to resolve Zimbabwe's crisis.

The African Union, an alliance of all 53 countries on the continent, had decided to send a mediator to Zimbabwe to broker talks between Mr Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. It chose Joaquim Chissano, the former president of Mozambique, for this mission.

But Mr Mugabe refused to receive him and called on those who "should know better" to stop asking him to meet his opponents.

Until deciding on this abortive mission, the AU had always described Zimbabwe's crisis as an "internal matter". When AU leaders gathered for summit meetings, they would ensure that Zimbabwe did not figure on the agenda.

But Miss Jana's remarks indicate that South Africa would no longer object if the AU voiced public criticism of Mr Mugabe's regime. She said that it was "unreasonable" of Western governments to expect South Africa to "go it alone" when dealing with Zimbabwe, saying that the AU held prime responsibility.

"South Africa cannot act as a single country, as it belongs to the AU, and it's up to the AU to take a stand against Zimbabwe," said Miss Jana. She added: "I speak for myself when I say I would like the AU to take stronger measures on that."

She speaks at a time when South Africa has greater bargaining power over Zimbabwe than ever before. Unable to import essential supplies of food or fuel, Mr Mugabe has been forced to turn to his powerful neighbour for a rescue package.

Zimbabwe's economic crisis has reached such proportions that the country faces expulsion from the International Monetary Fund - a move that would cast Mr Mugabe into total isolation.

Miss Jana said South Africa was likely to insist on a number of conditions before issuing the loan. "We have in principle agreed to the loan, but the finer details are still being sorted out at the moment," she said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...20.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/20/ixnewstop.html

 

[Greed]

Zimbabwe Experiences Exodus of Whites

Zimbabwe Experiences Exodus of Whites
By MICHAEL HARTNACK, Associated Press Writer
Mon Aug 22, 9:11 PM ET

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Fewer than 50,000 whites remain in authoritarian governed Zimbabwe, down from a peak of nearly 300,000 under white rule, according to recent census data published Monday.

The number of white Zimbabweans has continued to drop since the census was conducted in August 2002 amid the seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans, analysts said. Some independent experts estimate fewer than 30,000 whites remain.

The so-called fast-track land reform, coupled with years of drought, has crippled Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy. Inflation and unemployment have soared and an estimated four million people are in need of food aid in what was once a regional breadbasket.

Initial results of the 2002 census published in December that year showed that 3 million to 4 million Zimbabweans had fled the country as economic refugees, bringing the total population down to below 12 million.

Adding to the problem has been widespread allegations of human rights abuses leveled as President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently labeled Zimbabwe an outpost of tyranny, while world governments and human rights groups have accused his party of rigging elections, repressing opponents and driving agriculture to the brink of collapse.

A detailed analysis of the results of the latest census was completed recently and published Monday in the state-owned Herald newspaper.

Among the findings were that whites numbered just 46,743 in 2002, The Herald reported. Nearly 10,000 of them were over the age of 65, and less than 9,000 were under 15.

The white population peaked at 293,000 in 1974. White rule ended six years later.

Other African nations, including Mozambique and Nigeria, have welcomed Zimbabwe's experienced white farmers in the hopes they can help boost commercial agricultural production. But Zimbabwe officials have appeared undisturbed by the dwindling population.

Didymus Mutasa, now head of the country's feared Central Intelligence Organization, told the British Broadcasting Corp. at the time of the census that he would be happy to see Zimbabwe's population halved.

"We would be better off with only 6 million people, with our own people who supported the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people," he said.

Last week, Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa slashed spending on health and education even further to fund the reconstruction of homes and businesses destroyed in a widely condemned slum clearance campaign.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050823...te_flight_1;_ylt=AgrzfLOYQTPMEtjM6WMH4IrAwtcA

 

[Greed]

Zimbabwe hails IMF decision to postpone expulsion

Zimbabwe hails IMF decision to postpone expulsion
Sat Sep 10, 8:18 AM ET

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe hailed a decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to postpone Harare's possible expulsion for up to six months and said it was working hard towards repaying its debt arrears.

"We are happy with this decision," Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa told AFP, following the IMF board's announcement on Friday.

"Zimbabwe is making steady progress in addressing its economic challenges and we will continue to improve our record on paying back the arrears and also on the policy side," Murerwa said Saturday.

The IMF decision came after Zimbabwe last week paid back 120 million dollars (96 million euros) of its debt to the Washington-based body, bringing to 131 million dollars its total repayments since February.

Harare's remaining debt to the IMF now stands at around 175 million dollars. The country has been in continuous arrears to the organisation since 2001.

The IMF said in a statement Friday that its decision was made "taking into account Zimbabwe's increased payments to the IMF and its initial policy steps since the last review in February 2005."

The board said the recent payments had "resulted in a significant decline in the country's arrears."

The IMF will reexamine the possibility of expelling Zimbabwe "within six months", it said.

As well as repay its debt, the IMF has been demanding that Zimbabwe cut public expenditure and reduce fiscal deficit to set the economy, burdened by triple-digit inflation and high unemployment, back on the rails.

Murerwa said: "We have had a full discussion with the IMF and they fully understand our economic position and our new policies which are aimed at bringing stabilisation to the macro-economic situation."

To avoid expulsion, Zimbabwe will have to garner more than 15 percent of the vote when the issue comes up for discussion.

If expelled, Zimbabwe would be the second country to be kicked out of the IMF since the former Czechoslovakia in 1954.

Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by 30 percent since 2000, when the government began seizing about 4,500 white-owned commercial farms, sending agricultural production plummeting.

President Robert Mugabe's government has blamed drought and sanctions by the European Union and the United States for the country's economic decline.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2005091...cmFOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

 

[Greed]

Mugabe admits land reforms fraught with problems

Mugabe admits land reforms fraught with problems
Sat Dec 10, 5:41 PM ET

ESIGODINI, Zimbabwe (AFP) - Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe admitted that his government's land redistribution has been fraught with problems.

"The conference deliberated on and debated our agrarian reforms. It is clear this is an area with some problems," Mugabe told his party activists at the close of the ruling ZANU-PF annual conference.

He cited the problems as multiple ownership of farmland by some of his party's top officials, under-utilisation of land and white farmers still not keen to give way to landless blacks.

"We still have (white colonial) Rhodesian farmers resisting land reforms, often supported by some of us in the party and government," Mugabe said.

Zimbabwe's land redistribution, launched in 2000, have seen some 4,000 white farmers lose their properties as part of a policy that Mugabe maintains will correct imbalances created under British colonial rule.

In August parliament passed reforms that legally ban white farmers from challenging land grabs.

Fewer than 500 white farmers still own land in Zimbabwe.

Critics have alleged that the changes, which have driven out thousands of large scale commercial farmers, have partly contributed to food shortages.

Mugabe blamed government officials for inadequate agricultural inputs, lack of technical support for farmers and low rainfall for the poor agricultural output and food insecurity in the country.

"There are serious shortcomings in government planning and steps will have to be taken to correct them," Mugabe said.

He also promised that due to widespread irregularities in land allocation, his office was now in charge of all distribution.

"No land can be apportioned without our office saying 'yes'. We did this because we saw, we had experienced a lot of irregularities, a lot of corruption a lot of favouritism.

"We want a fair distribution. We all know that fairness did not happen in every case, people were taking farms and so on and giving each other. It's not good and it does not give us a good name. So let us be orderly," he said.

Mugabe pledged to improve security on the farms, weeks after a white farmer was reportedly burnt to death in his bedroom by suspected arsonists, at a farm near the capital.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2005121...kzAwtcA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

 

[Greed]

Zimbabwe condemns UN emergency houses for homeless

Zimbabwe condemns UN emergency houses for homeless
Wed Dec 21,11:13 AM ET

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe launched another verbal attack on Wednesday on United Nations efforts to house those left homeless by the government's demolition of shanty towns, describing one model house as a "mockery to Africans."

President Robert Mugabe's government has rejected offers of emergency aid from the world body for thousands whose homes were destroyed during its urban clean-up campaign this year, although it says it wants U.N. help to build permanent homes.

Mugabe has led attacks on the U.N. and senior officials including Secretary-General Kofi Annan, accusing them of unfairly dramatizing Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis on behalf of his Western critics. The U.N. says the crackdown displaced 700,000 people from their homes or jobs in the informal trading sector.

On Wednesday, Zimbabwe's state-controlled Herald newspaper said Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo had condemned as "substandard and a mockery to Africans" a model emergency two-roomed house put up by the U.N. at an estate where thousands are living in plastic shacks.

He said the house, with walls made of bricks and asbestos sheets, fell short of government expectations and human dignity.

"This structure is not permanent. We want permanent houses for our people," the minister was quoted as saying.

"Comrade Chombo described the house ... as below human dignity, saying the people who designed the structure had been guided by a 'this-is-good-for-the-African' attitude," the newspaper said.

U.N. resident representative and humanitarian coordinator in Zimbabwe, Agostinho Zacarias, said the model house design had in fact been a cooperative effort between Zimbabwe and the United Nations.

"I'm surprised and somewhat puzzled that, as reported in the press, the model was judged to be sub-standard by government officials," he said in a statement.

Zacarias said the model had been approved after Zimbabwe rejected an earlier U.N. offer of tents, which the world body often supplies in humanitarian emergencies.

He "categorically rejected" any notion that the U.N. had applied a double-standard to Zimbabwe, and said the main task now was to find shelter for 2,500 families who remain living in the open at the start of Zimbabwe's rainy season.

"Let me state the obvious: namely that the joint U.N.-Government of Zimbabwe model which was viewed yesterday is infinitely superior to living under plastic sheeting," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051221..._bAwtcA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

 

[QueEx]

Re: Zimbabwe condemns UN emergency houses for homeless

<font size="5"><center>Mugabe to ask whites back in land grab U-turn</font size></center>

Robert Mugabe

The Telegraph
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
(Filed: February 9, 2006)

President Robert Mugabe has begun to reverse his "insane" land grab and offer some white farmers the chance to lease back their holdings in Zimbabwe.

With the fastest shrinking economy in the world, Mr Mugabe has had to backtrack on six years of chaos and his own determination to rid the country of all white farmers.

In an orgy of violence, Mr Mugabe seized the land, homes, equipment and infrastructure of about 4,000 white commercial farmers who produced almost half of Zimbabwe's foreign currency.

The U-turn is expected to be announced within days. The ruling Zanu-PF party's politburo has been informed and selected journalists in the state-controlled media have been briefed on how to spin the policy reversal.

About 250 whites remaining on small portions of their farms will immediately be offered state leases for the land they used to own. Some will be hoping that their full land holdings will be restored at a later stage.

The leases will, farmers hope, give them some legal protection from local warlords continuously trying to evict them or seize their equipment or crops.

In a second stage, the leases will be extended to some white farmers who have already been evicted, particularly where there is no activity on that land. Some fled to Britain, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa and are desperately homesick.

The government is expected to admit in the next few days that it has only used about 50 per cent of the land it seized. In reality, land economists say the figure of idle land is nearer 80 to 90 per cent.

The new policy is understood to have been approved by Mr Mugabe but it is unlikely he will announce it, as the government hopes to play down the U-turn.

It will be executed by two of his most trusted lieutenants: the lands minister Didymus Mutasa and the agriculture minister Joseph Made. Neither was available for comment yesterday.

In anticipation of this change of policy, the Commercial Farmers Union has advised some members to apply for leases, and some farmers have already filled in lease applications at the agriculture ministry.

The union yesterday issued a rare statement calling for a ''moratorium on land and agricultural policies''. All those involved in agriculture should get together and "rebuild the entire industry to return as the principal employer of labour and generator of food and foreign exchange", it said.

"We have the energy and capacity to help bring Zimbabwe back once again to be the bread basket of the sub-continent."

The statement was signed by the CFU president, Doug Taylor-Freeme, who would not comment on the change of policy. "We need to create some stability on the ground for existing farmers if we want any investment in agriculture. That's the first step.

"All land has been acquired by the state for one reason or another but the issue now is who uses that land? We believe it should be farmers. When you look at the state of agriculture and the state of the economy we need to find the right balance."

Behind closed doors last week, the International Monetary Fund told Zimbabwe's finance minister Herbert Murerwa - who has helped himself to a white-owned farm - that land seizures should halt immediately and that without increased agricultural production there was no chance of halting Zimbabwe's slide.

While this is a reversal of Zanu PF's policy to rid Zimbabwe of all white farmers, some of those who lost their holdings are cynical about any offers from the government. Many will need convincing that the offer is genuine unless it is openly endorsed by Mr Mugabe and, even then, they may still be sceptical about a president who has broken promises in the past. "The government vastly underestimates the damage of its insane policies," said one of Zimbabwe's former top cereal producers. "They probably believe that allowing some of us to return will turn the economy around in a single season. We won't be able to do anything without international finance, and we won't get that until there is political reform," he said.

"It's bloody miserable out there. All our friends have gone, our equipment has been broken, irrigation has been vandalised, our homes have been wrecked, the roads are a mess, our workers have gone so why should we return? I am sure there will be some clots who are so damn miserable in other countries or living in towns that they will go back.

"We should be campaigning for compensation, not going back to help people who wrecked our country."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...09.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/09/ixnewstop.html

 

[Fuckallyall]

Where's Makkonnen ????

 

[GhostofMarcus]

some people want these africans to be depended on their former white colonial masters forever. With better planning and no resistance from Commercial Farmers Union(white colonial masters), EU and IMF then the plan might have gone alot better. The government should have asked blacks educated in agriculture for help.

 

[fatninja]

It amazes me the arrogance of whites sometime.

ALL of this land was stolen from blacks and rightfully reclaimed. NOW whites are saying the land was theirs because it was given to them by a white man.

WTF???

So what if the lands empty, WE as africans must have are own land and cannot rely on whites to grow our food. I understand why he did what he did. He should have hired african agriculture workers from around the world to help him setup an agrarian society for the growing of food.

 

[QueEx]

some people want these africans to be depended on their former white colonial masters forever. With better planning and no resistance from Commercial Farmers Union(white colonial masters), EU and IMF then the plan might have gone alot better. The government should have asked blacks educated in agriculture for help.

I think some people too would like to see Africans not fucking other Africans in the name of fucking white people.

QueEx

 

[GhostofMarcus]

I think some people too would like to see Africans not fucking other Africans in the name of fucking white people.

QueEx

yeah with the help of the Commercial Farmers Union(white colonial masters), EU and IMF.

 

[Makkonnen]

Where's Makkonnen ????

maybe this time around they will get these crackas to train black people so they can kick em out again in a few years
this shit is stupid- they should have worked out a deal with china or someone for some agriculture training
mugabe is a stupid sack of shit and that shit he did to the homeless and shanty town inhabitants was fuckin awful - unfortunately he and his crew wont be leavin anytime soon without bloodshed
maybe 10-15 years from now after some liberia shit they will get to start new

 

[Makkonnen]

interesting shit about zimbabwe and the imf

[frame]http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/imf28.13723.html[/frame]

 

[Makkonnen]

[frame]http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?id=788[/frame]

 

[Fuckallyall]

maybe this time around they will get these crackas to train black people so they can kick em out again in a few years
this shit is stupid- they should have worked out a deal with china or someone for some agriculture training
mugabe is a stupid sack of shit and that shit he did to the homeless and shanty town inhabitants was fuckin awful - unfortunately he and his crew wont be leavin anytime soon without bloodshed
maybe 10-15 years from now after some liberia shit they will get to start new

I think they should deal with the US, if Mugabe can be put out of the picture. AS much as you (and me) may dislike the current administration, the US are fucking wizards at growing shit. The US can and has produced more corn, wheat, soybean or beef per acre than anyone else on the planet. And I think it would go a great deal toward repairing the damage shithead Bush has done to our rep.

And on an unrelaed note: I did some research on some deals worked out in South America, and you are right: some are as sheisty as Carl Rove.

 

[Makkonnen]

I think they should deal with the US, if Mugabe can be put out of the picture. AS much as you (and me) may dislike the current administration, the US are fucking wizards at growing shit. The US can and has produced more corn, wheat, soybean or beef per acre than anyone else on the planet. And I think it would go a great deal toward repairing the damage shithead Bush has done to our rep.

And on an unrelaed note: I did some research on some deals worked out in South America, and you are right: some are as sheisty as Carl Rove.

nah i wouldnt get into bed with US corps - they'd have em selling GM (genetically modified) foods and shit- selling them all the pesticides n shit thats illegal here and in europe
still he could have done something rather than let 90% of the farm land sit idle

man im telling you bechtel was tellin mufuckas it was illegal to collect rain water in one fucked up deal- ill never forget that shit- tellin people they had no right to the rain and havin the army crack heads over it

 

[Ballatician]

Hearing that African Americans have lost 14 million acres of land here in the U.S. I wonder if there are any African American farmers that will be willing to stay in Zimbabwe for sometime to produce crops?

If it was me, before I give these white folks back the land, I would look to my family in the diaspora.

Not only do some African Americans have the money, but they also may have the necessary equipment to be an effective farmer.

 

[D Town Redd]

Re: U.S. freezes assets of Zimbabwean farms, businesses

Mugabe could have learned a thing or two re land reform from Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas: If you're gonna grab the land and redistribute to the poor, you have to pair it with farm training, seed capital, and aggressive farm bureau support. It's a noble thing to give the land back to its original owners (the black majority) but without additional support, shit will just get aggravated and you'd be fuckin with a famine.


_______________________
Progress for the BLACK COMMUNITY: http://www.wewritereviews.com/blog/

 

[Dolemite]

Re: U.S. freezes assets of Zimbabwean farms, businesses

[frame]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4932060.stm[/frame]

 

[jamaa]

I see it is open season on President Mugabe in here... Fools, I have been on the main board all this time not aware that my continent is under attack; no more. The recovery of our land from white thieves was one of the most progressive and courageous policies any African government undertook. This completes the process of independence. Now Africans can say they own their own country.

Africans don't own their own country, Mugabe does. Bastard kicked one of my friend's family off thier land(5th generation) because they looked to white. Now they live in South Africa. The people that got thier farm had never farmed before so the land isn't being used.
I can't believe you're defending a guy who would do these kind of things to his own people. He forces people into poverty, and then, because he doesn't like the look of the ghettos he created, he fucking sends in the troops to tear it all down.

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>Mugabe keeps allies sweet with 100 limos</font size></center>

The Sunday Times
Christina Lamb
May 21, 2006


ROBERT MUGABE has spent millions of pounds ordering luxury cars in an effort to retain the support of allies as he comes under mounting pressure to quit as Zimbabwean president.

The Sunday Times has obtained government documents showing transfers of money made last week by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to accounts in South Africa and Britain. The payments were for more than 50 4x4s such as the Toyota Prado and Land Cruiser Amazon, some costing as much as £47,000. The total order is believed to be for more than 100 vehicles.

The revelation comes as the country descends into economic meltdown, with inflation officially put at 1,041%.

Many people eat just one meal of gruel a day, and many have had to withdraw their children from school after fees rocketed. The Bankers Association of Zimbabwe has warned that “serial bank collapses are imminent”.

So bad is the situation that last week the South African government finally broke its silence on Mugabe, calling for “an urgent solution”.

Officials said Pretoria had been discussing a plan with the United Nations under which Mugabe would step down in return for immunity from prosecution and guaranteed exile — although they concede that the 82-year-old dictator is unlikely to accept.

The expenditure on cars while millions of Zimbabweans are near starvation and hospitals lack vital drugs will outrage the opposition, one faction of which is planning a “winter of discontent” to start in the next two months.

David Coltart, an opposition MP, said: “The purchase of luxury vehicles at a time when Zimbabwe is in such an economic crisis is just a further manifestation of the callous disregard shown by Zanu-PF for the plight of Zimbabweans.”

Church leaders are due to meet the president on Friday for what they describe as “critical talks on a wide range of issues buffeting the country”.

Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister, is known to be preparing legislation to delay the end of Mugabe’s term from 2008 to 2010. Among the beneficiaries of the car hand-out are MPs and senators who are believed to have pledged their support for the bill.

Although there is a parliamentary vehicle fund and every MP is entitled to buy a duty-free car for £12,000 during their five-year tenure, all except two of the people on the list obtained by The Sunday Times are ruling party MPs. Many of the cars cost double the allowance.

One recipient is Leo Mugabe, the president’s nephew, who ordered a Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon costing £46,950.

The money has been transferred to an account at Coutts in the Strand in London. However the address given for the dealership on the invoice — World Class Cars of Belvedere, Kent — is private and the Zimbabwean family living there insist they have nothing to do with Leo Mugabe or car sales.

One of the wealthiest members of the Mugabe clan, Leo Mugabe has been associated with a series of scandals. He was arrested last year after being accused of smuggling subsidised flour to Mozambique, and he was dismissed as the head of Zimbabwe Football Association after it emerged that some of the organisation’s funds had gone astray.

The invoices show that the foreign currency used to obtain the cars was offered to the recipients at a rate of just 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars to the US dollar, compared with a market rate of 230,000.
This suggests that in some cases cars might not have been bought at all; fake invoices may have been used both to avoid sanctions and to move money out of the country at highly favourable rates.

The reserve bank has also been transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to accounts overseas, supposedly for student bursaries. On all the relevant documents obtained by this newspaper, the recipients are sons or daughters of government ministers.

Other strange transfers include a payment of £80,000 to Zimbabwe’s ambassador in Namibia for medical fees. The approval of the money appears to have been based on a letter that contains no explanation of the treatment or why the sum should be so high.

The distribution of cars coincides with the anniversary of the start of Operation Murambatswina (drive out the filth), in which 700,000 people had their homes and businesses demolished. Fewer than 7,000 new houses have been built and most of these have gone to government cronies. Yesterday there were prayer meetings across the country in protest.

Mugabe refuses to accept there is a problem. Last week, the defiant president told a gathering at Buridiro high school, where he was handing out computers on the eve of a by-election: “Zimbabwe will never collapse. Never ever!” His government said recently that unemployment — widely believed to stand at 90% — was just 9%. Last week it claimed that this year’s maize harvest would be 1.8m tons, more than double other predictions.

But Mugabe’s political demise may be hastened if South Africa has lost patience with the constant stream of Zimbabwean refugees crossing their border, now numbering more than 2m.

Last week Aziz Pahad, the deputy foreign minister and a confidant of President Thabo Mbeki, revealed that South Africa remained “seized” with the problem and was working with the UN on a solution, its first admission that the policy of quiet diplomacy towards its neighbour had failed.


Additional reporting: RW Johnson, Cape Town

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2189773_1,00.html

 

[African Herbsman]

Zimbabwe's army takes over black farms

By Daniel Pepper, Contributor to The Christian Science MonitorMon Jun 5, 4:00 AM ET

The soldiers rolled past Lot Dube's land, and set up camp nearby. They stopped just long enough to give him a blunt message: Your fields are ours.

"They told us, 'We are taking away your fields from you'," says Mr. Dube, who farms a 10-acre plot south of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second biggest city. The soldiers, who arrived last November, proceeded to plow under his tomatoes, onions, and sweet potatoes. Since 1982, these were the crops Dube had grown to pay for his children's food and school fees. Now, for the good of the nation, he was ordered to plant maize.

The Mugabe regime is looking for ways to ease a food and economic crisis so severe that inflation is running at more than 1,000 percent. But as pressure builds on the president to step down, Robert Mugabe is instead strengthening his grip.

He has ordered Zimbabwe's military to fan out across several rural areas to ensure that the government's grain silos are full.

That move has been mirrored in the cities by the appointment of military commanders to top slots at the Reserve Bank, the Electoral Commission, Zimbabwe Railroads, the Ministry of Energy, the Public Service Commission, the National Parks, and other key institutions.

Political opposition groups are largely neutralized by Mugabe's extensive domestic intelligence network. But experts say that without a viable political alternative, anger over rising prices, shortages of basic goods and services, and abuses by government officials could fuel serious unrest.

"[Militarization] is an admission that things have fallen apart and national governance can no longer continue in a civilian mode," says Jonathan Moyo, a former secretary for information and currently Zimbabwe's only independent member of parliament. Mr. Moyo warns of a possible "slide into anarchy" if social unrest erupts into violence.

Zimbabwe's economy has been shrinking for the past six years and has been dependent on food aid since 2002. Eighty percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed, and food and fuel are scarcer than ever. Last month, the UN distributed emergency food aid to about one-fourth of the 12.5 million population, and said many people were surviving on one meal or less a day. This year, despite the best rains in 20 years, the government predicts the grain harvest of a country that was known as the breadbasket of southern Africa will be only half as large as in 2000, when the eviction of white commercial farmers began.

But putting agricultural decisions in the hands of the military is troubling to locals. "They don't know anything about farming," says Dube. "They say they want to end hunger in Zimbabwe. But I think they want to take the fields for their own use."

Ephraim Masawi, Zimbabwe's deputy secretary for information, says that reports of soldiers destroying farmers' vegetables has "never come to my ears." He adds: "These people have invited the army to try to help them because some have no collateral to go to the bank for loans."

The presence of the military, predominantly in the southern part of the country, and not in the north where Mugabe draws his support, is no coincidence. "The army has targeted areas that are potential opposition strongholds, those farmers that have voted for the opposition," says Gordon Moyo, leader of an opposition political group, Bulawayo Agenda. "It's an act of intimidation and a violation of human rights of those people."

For some southern farmers, the military presence is reminiscent of the mid-1980s, when human rights groups say that a unit of the Zimbabwean Army massacred up to 20,000 Ndebele, the predominant ethnic group in the southern region, crushing support for an alternative to Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

"The militarization of the state of government is viewed by Mugabe as a passport to a post-State House security," in which he will be immune from prosecution, says David Coltart, a white member of parliament with the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "Mugabe hopes that after he leaves the State House [the presidential residence] he will not be pursued by the law and not dragged to Senegal or the Netherlands for crimes against humanity."

Earlier this month, the pro-government Herald newspaper announced a possible constitutional amendment for Mugabe to remain in power until 2010, two years past the next scheduled presidential election.

None of this is helping the economy, critics say. "The economy will only turn around when you get competent and experienced people running it, not the military," says Mr. Coltart. "The appointment of mili-tary people to run things like the railroads will only speed up the demise of the regime."

Many officials in prominent positions are accused of pillaging from the institutions they oversee and profiting from corruption rackets.

"It is robber baron stuff of the highest order," says John Robertson, an independent economist in the capital, Harare. "It's a pirate ship with Robert Mugabe as the captain. It's an exciting, profitable ride while it lasts, but inflation is the consequence."

Tourist destinations such as Victoria Falls are almost empty, even as neighboring Zambia experiences a tourism boom. Thanks to inflation, a cup of tea that as recently as last year cost 12,000 Zimbabwean dollars now costs a quarter million. Supermarket shelves are stocked full of goods too expensive to purchase.

The poverty line, the minimum amount an average family of six needs for a month's worth of food is 41 million Zimbabwean dollars (US$405), but the average Zimbabwean worker earns 14 million dollars a month.

On a recent Thursday in Harare, ABC Auctions was selling off every wine glass, fixture, table and chair of the Acropolis Taverna, a restaurant that had been in business over 30 years. Altogether the store went for 4.2 billion Zimbabwean dollars, or about US$21,000, at the black market exchange rate - twice the official rate. "Now, when most people go out of business they simply sell their goods immediately," says ABC Auctions' supervisor Jo Zwoushe.

As the economic crisis has deepened, the government has responded by printing more paper money.

But the increased printing of money is only likely to spur even greater inflation. The official opposition has thus far been relatively ineffective, however. After years of repression, the MDC is split. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is threatening to take his opposition to the streets, but may struggle to muster enough supporters.

Back in the southern fields, farmers interviewed say that soldiers have beaten local residents - women as well as men - who have not obeyed the planting orders. They can be seen guarding roads and footpaths throughout the irrigation schemes and driving tractors.

Dube's neighbor Gabrial Nkala who has been farming on the same plot since 1980, says: "We need agriculture experts, not soldiers, but it seems they are here for a very long time."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/2006060...0O9ueuve8UF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-