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Date Posted: 18:43:21 08/08/02 Thu
Author: Pot
Subject: Certainly It Makes Sense!
In reply to: Cut n' Pase 's message, "Does ANY of this make ANY sense?" on 18:18:25 08/08/02 Thu

>Tense White Farmers Await Looming Eviction Deadline in
>Zimbabwe
>By Angus Shaw
>Associated Press Writer
>
>HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - About 2,000 white farmers
>waited nervously on their farms in Zimbabwe early
>Friday as the deadline passed for them to get off
>their land before it is redistributed to the nation's
>blacks.
>As the midnight deadline passed, there were no
>immediate reports of action against the farmers.
>
>The government's plans for what to do about them
>remained unclear, though police said they didn't plan
>to use force to evict them. About 2,100 of the 2,900
>farmers who had been told to leave were resisting the
>order.
>
>"It is obviously tense," said Alan Parsons, a
>spokesman for farmers in the Karoi tobacco and corn
>district, 125 miles northwest of Harare, where 54
>white landowners face the deadline.
>
>"People are going to stay put and try and secure their
>assets. We will simply have to wait and see what
>happens in the next 48 hours," he said.
>
>On Wednesday, Vice President Joseph Msika tried to
>allay fears that the government and ruling party
>militants would begin widespread and possibly violent
>evictions Friday, the start of symbolic annual weekend
>celebrations honoring the guerrilla war that ended
>white rule and led to independence in 1980.
>
>Although Msika did not bow to union demands for an
>extension of the eviction deadline, he told a farmers'
>convention the nation needed "a deliberate blending of
>your experience, expertise and knowledge" to feed its
>people, currently facing severe food shortages.
>
>But Ignatious Chombo, the local government minister,
>said officials expected farmers to leave when the
>deadline expired.
>
>Those defying the orders "will be arrested and dealt
>with by police. It is fairly straightforward as far as
>I am concerned," he said.
>
>The deadline comes as half Zimbabwe's 12.5 million
>people face severe hunger, according to the World Food
>Program. The WFP blames the crisis on drought combined
>with the agricultural chaos caused by the seizures of
>commercial farms, mainly owned by whites.
>
>President Robert Mugabe's administration says its land
>program is an effort to correct colonial era
>injustices by taking farms out of white hands and
>redistributing them to blacks. Critics say the program
>is part of a wider effort to crush Zimbabwe's
>opposition and they charge that much of the seized
>land is earmarked for government officials and
>cronies.
>
>Parsons said farmers in his prime farming district
>faced financial ruin and were being forced to abandon
>longtime family homes and "a life's work."
>
>"It's an emotional time. If certain people are
>targeted for arrest, that'll make others get off the
>fence and make up their minds up to go," he said.
>
>Earlier, some hopes of reprieve emerged after a court
>invalidated one of the eviction orders, saying the
>government had not followed proper procedures.
>
>The effect of the High Court ruling, which was brought
>on behalf of one farmer, was unclear.
>
>In the ruling Wednesday that was made available
>Thursday, Judge Charles Hungwe overturned the eviction
>of farmer Andrew Kockett, saying that since Kockett
>had a mortgage on the property, the government had to
>consult the bank before evicting him.
>
>Farming officials said many other farmers have
>mortgages on their land, as well as other bank debts,
>giving the banks what Hungwe described as "legal
>rights of interest" in the disposal of land.
>
>Economists estimate white farmers owe the nation's
>private banks at least $70 million in annual operating
>loans, excluding mortgage repayments and other finance
>charges that are difficult to estimate.
>
>The Commercial Farmers Union, which represents the
>nation's 4,000 white farmers, said up to three-fourths
>of the 2,900 facing immediate eviction vowed to stay
>until it became clear what the government was going to
>do.
>
>The seizure program also threatens the livelihoods of
>the 350,000 people, mostly black, who work the white
>farmers' land.
>
>Before the land seizures began two years ago, white
>farmers owned about one-third of the nation's
>productive land. About 7 million blacks lived on the
>remainder. The government has targeted 95 percent of
>white-owned farms for seizure.
>
>Over the past two years, Zimbabwe has been wracked by
>political violence mainly blamed on the ruling party,
>and the agriculture-based economy has collapsed.
>
>AP-ES-08-08-02 2044EDT
>
>This story can be found at:
>http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGALYJ1DN4D.html

It's called biting the hand that feeds you.

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