AP. 12 January 2002. Looting Reported on Zimbabwe Farms.
HARARE -- Government-backed militants embarked on a fresh looting campaign of white-owned farms last week, forcing 23 landowners from their homes, a farmers' organization said Saturday. One farmer was given five minutes to vacate his property while another had to barricade himself inside his house, said Jenni Williams, a spokeswoman for the Commercial Farmers' Union. Most of the reported incidents were in the Raffingora area, about 62 miles northeast of the capital, Harare, not far from a camp where opposition politicians say the ruling party is training unemployed youths as militia. In one attack, a group of militants -- including a police officer -- stole 900 bags of corn and slaughtered five cattle, Williams said. Militants have invaded hundreds of white-owned farms since early 2000 with the tacit support of President Robert Mugabe, who called their actions a justified response to the legacy of inequitable land ownership left by colonial rule. Most of Zimbabwe's commercial farmland is owned by whites who make up less than half a percent of the population. Western governments have condemned the violence. America has imposed sanctions, and the European Union has threatened to do the same. Addressing journalists, Mugabe accused Britain of trying to re-colonize his country and attempting to persuade the European Union to impose sanctions. "It's just Britain -- Britain is at war with us," Mugabe said. British Prime Minister Tony Blair "has his own version of colonialism, and we will resist that, I can assure you." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
