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Zimbabwe and its former
colonial master, the United Kingdom, have had a drawn-out bilateral dispute over
the land reform programme in this country, which in 1997 culminated in the
latter�s refusal to support the programme in fulfilment of its colonial
obligations, as agreed on at the Lancaster House constitutional conference in
1979.
In a well-calculated campaign to shy away from its moral responsibility to correct the colonial imbalances in the land tenure and ownership in the country (where 70 percent of the most fertile land was owned by fewer than 4 000 white commercial farmers representing less than 0,1 percent of the country�s population), Britain sought to demonise a democratically elected Government and its leadership in a bid to have it removed from office through the following actions: - It has internationalised a bilateral dispute by lobbying the European Union and the Commonwealth, which have since imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. - The United Kingdom has convinced the IMF, the World Bank and other financial institutions to deny Zimbabwe balance of payments support and lines of credit. - It has mobilised with malice all major Western media houses to fabricate and actually lie about events in Zimbabwe. Although most parts of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Swaziland (Southern Africa) are undergoing a serious natural disaster, the drought in Zimbabwe is said to have been caused by the "seizure of productive white commercial farms" which were given to landless black peasants who have no agricultural technical know-how. The truth of the matter is that 75 percent of maize, which is the staple food in Zimbabwe, is now produced by peasant and small-scale farmers. Commercial farmers, mainly of British extraction, stopped maize production in favour of horticulture, tobacco and rearing game. Since most of them were allocated land, they will produce more crops this year depending on the rainfall. The Western media is peddling blatant and scandalous lies that food relief has only been distributed to members of the ruling Zanu-PF party and that the same applied to land redistribution. The truth of the matter is that the Government of Zimbabwe is giving food and medical relief to all needy Zimbabweans regardless of race, colour and political or religious affiliation. The land redistribution programme has benefited all, including members of the opposition parties. The United Kingdom wants a change of government in Zimbabwe because of the following: - It has reversed the skewed colonial allocation of 70 percent of rich fertile land in the rainy belt to 4 000 white commercial farmers mostly of British descent and redistributed it to black Zimbabweans whose parents were banished to dry non-arable land by successive settler colonial regimes in the past 120 years. - It would have liked the opposition MDC party, whose formation it funded and supported, to assume power and let the minority settler commercial farmers keep monopoly of the fertile land. The United Kingdom is still funding the opposition and some NGOs in Zimbabwe through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and some NGOs like the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust (ZDT). When the Democratic Republic of Congo was invaded in 1997, Zimbabwe went with other Sadc countries to the aid of a sister Sadc/OAU country. They defended the DRC�s territorial integrity and prevented a possible genocide in the Great Lakes region. Surprisingly, the United Kingdom and its allies complained and called for sanctions against Zimbabwe, a move which was viewed by Pan-Africanists as approval or support for DRC�s invasion. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia went under a Sadc mandate or protocol to support a sister state under invasion by Rwanda and Uganda. - Last year, the presidential elections in Zimbabwe were declared free and fair by the following groups, among others: - the OAU, now African Union. - Sadc Ministerial Delegation. - Non-Aligned Movement. - Peoples� Republic of China. - Russia. It was only the United Kingdom � assisted by its former colonies Australia, New Zealand and Canada � which arm-twisted and influenced the Commonwealth observer group and ultimately the European Union to say the elections were not free and fair and called for sanctions against the Republic of Zimbabwe. l There are clear double standards by the United Kingdom and its allies that provide funds and material support to regimes in Africa and elsewhere, which do not have multiparty systems and elections in which opposition parties participate. l Zimbabwe and its leadership, which were praised and supported by the same United Kingdom and its allies before the long-awaited and justified land reform and resettlement programme, are now being demonised and isolated although parliamentary and presidential elections have been conducted as scheduled since independence. The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" |
