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Zimbabwe Bans Farmers From Working on the Land

WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.

Original Post Date: 2001-11-13 Time: 14:15:37  Posted By: Jan

Isn’t this insane? The country is going under but Mugabe just shoves things
ahead. In what way is Mugabe different to say, Stalin? The man is a maniac.
And look at how Mugabe once more proved that agreements aren’t worth the
paper they’re written on.


The Zimbabwean government on Monday banned 1,000 white farmers from working
their fields and gave them three months to vacate their homes as part of its
“fast track” land redistribution plan.

The government has targeted a total of 5,000 white-owned commercial
farms, about 95 percent of all farms owned by whites, for seizure and
redistribution to landless blacks.

In a government gazette released Monday, President Robert Mugabe
invoked special powers forcing the 1,000 farmers who had already received
notification their land was being seized to stop all work on it,
regardless of whether they had crops waiting to be harvested or appeals of
the seizures pending in court.

They had three months to leave their houses.

Lands and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the government would
begin allocating plots on the farms to 51,000 black families.

He said 201,000 black families had already been resettled as communal
farmers on formerly white farms, a number white farmers dispute as
vastly exaggerated.

“This (plan) is now fundamentally complete and has been a major
success,” Made said.

White farmers say over 500 farms are lying idle as a result of
political violence, while many others are in only partial production, with
militants occupying some of the fields.

Ruling party militants began occupying white-owned commercial farms in
March 2000, soon after voters rejected a constitutional referendum that would
have further entrenched the powers of Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since
independence in 1980. The government later announced its plans to seize the
white farms.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change won 57 of the 120 elected
seats in parliamentary elections in June 2000, despite a campaign
election monitors said was rife with violence, mainly caused by ruling party
supporters.

Opposition officials accuse the government of using land seizures to
garner support and further intimidate political opponents ahead of what
promises to be hard-fought presidential elections next year.

Vice President Joseph Msika said Sunday the government supported arming
the ruling party militants following the abduction of one of their leaders.

“If they (the opposition) are looking for a blood bath, they will
certainly get one,” Msika told state radio and the government-controlled
Bulawayo Chronicle.

Police arrested Simon Spooner, a white MDC member, Monday in connection
with the abduction.

Also Monday, police tried to search the MDC offices in Harare, but were
turned away when they could not produce a warrant.

The government’s announcement of farm seizures Monday would further
damage agriculture in a country deeply dependent on it, said Adrian de
Bourbon, a lawyer for the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents most
white farmers.

“I believe this is yet another nail in the coffin of commercial farming
in this country,” he said.

Zimbabwe, which normally runs large food surpluses, was facing serious
shortages of food.

The United Nations World Food Program announced last week plans to
begin a large-scale aid program next month to assist more than half a million
hungry Zimbabweans.

De Bourbon said the 3,000 farmers who had received preliminary warnings
the state intended to seize their farms would likely begin receiving
seizure notices next week.

The move basically signalled the death of an agreement the government
signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in September promising an orderly and legal land
reform process and an end to political violence de Bourbon said.