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Court's farm ruling slammed

2010-01-28 10:07

Special Report

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Cape Town - A Zimbabwean judge's dismissal of a southern African court ruling that blocked a move to resettle more than 70 white-owned farms had "entrenched the future possibility of human rights abuses" in the country, a SADC watchdog group said on Wednesday.

"It seems that Justice Bharat Patel has overlooked considerations of basic human rights and the rule of law in his scramble to appease the dictator [Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe]," said Ben Freeth, a spokesperson for SADC Tribunal Rights Watch.

"What he did not take into account is the abject poverty and misery that has come to the vast majority of the people of Zimbabwe, especially the two million farm workers in a land reform programme that has resulted in desettlement rather than resettlement."

The Namibia-based SADC tribunal ruled in 2008 that the white farmers could keep their land because the scheme amounted to racial discrimination.

Zimbabwe's government rejected the ruling. The farmers turned to a Harare court to try to enforce the judgment.

"The judge goes on to state that the land reform program 'is quintessentially a matter of public policy in Zimbabwe, conceived well before the country attained its sovereign independence'.

"He says that 'the greater public good must prevail'."

According to Freeth, Patel concluded his judgment saying there is an "overwhelmingly negative impact of the tribunal's decision on domestic law and agrarian reform in Zimbabwe.

"SADC Tribunal Rights Watch believes that it is a sad day for any country rife with human rights abuse, when a member of the judiciary entrenches the future possibility of human rights abuse.

"By dismissing international treaties in favour of laws that fly in the face of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Zimbabwe authorities have brought about the direct suffering of over two million farmers and farm workers, most of whom have been left homeless or jobless."

- SAPA

Read more on: zimbabwe | zimbabwe land reforms | southern africa

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