Zim brushes off land verdict

2008-12-01 14:16

Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government on Monday shrugged off a regional court's ruling against controversial land reforms in a new rejection of international interference in Zimbabwe's affairs.

Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa insisted the government would go ahead with seizing property from 75 white farmers despite a tribunal for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) ruling on Friday that the farmers could keep their land.

The judges ruled that the farmers facing eviction and three more whose land was already seized had been discriminated against because of their race.

Mugabe's government flatly rejected the verdict, which struck at the heart of his controversial reforms to resettle landless blacks on white-owned farms.

"They are day-dreaming because we are not going to reverse the land reform exercise," Mutasa said in the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper.

"There is nothing special about the 75 farmers and we will take more farms. It's not discrimination against farmers, but correcting land imbalances," he added.

The announcement marked the latest rejection of international opinion by Mugabe's government and dealt a blow to the credibility of the new court, which was first convened in April last year.

By treaty, the court's decision are binding on the 15 members of SADC, which created the tribunal to ensure that the bloc's founding treaty is respected, including provisions for human rights and property rights.

But the grouping has shown little ability to influence Mugabe, despite years of trying to steer Zimbabwe away from political turmoil and economic crisis.

SADC's mediator for Zimbabwe, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, brokered a power-sharing deal in September that had been hailed as a step toward ending the crisis.

After more than two months, the deal still has not been implemented despite repeated SADC summits aimed at bridging the differences between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai won a first round presidential election in March but pulled out of a runoff, accusing Mugabe's regime of staging deadly attacks against his supporters across the country.

The opposition leader has pointedly refused to accept SADC's proposal for a unity government, saying that a summit of regional leaders last month "did not have the courage" to stand up to Mugabe.

Critics blame the land reforms for hastening Zimbabwe's economic collapse. Many white-owned farms were resettled with blacks who had little commercial farming experience and who were not provided with support or training. Other farms ended up in the hands of Mugabe cronies.

After the reforms, Zimbabwe's food production plummeted, leaving the country dependent on international aid for survival. Nearly half the population will need food aid next month, according to the United Nations.

- AFP