President Robert Mugabe called on Tuesday for the West to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying “neo-colonialist enemies” were trying to make his land reform fail and his country dependent on food imports.
Mugabe, speaking at a U.N. food summit in Rome, denounced what he called the “punitive policies of certain countries” whose interests he said were opposed to the success of his farm and food policies.
But compared with his firebrand attacks on the United States and Britain, he struck a relatively moderate tone in his speech.
“We face very hostile interventions by these states which have imposed unilateral sanctions on us,” Mugabe said.
“This has had a negative impact on our farmers who, according to our neo-colonialist enemies, must fail as to damn the land reforms we have undertaken,” he added, without naming any country.
He added that Zimbabwe had also “seen a wish to make us dependent on food imports as opposed to enhancing our capacity for production”.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has long been a pariah in the West. Critics blame him for plunging his country, once the bread basket of southern Africa, into poverty through mismanagement and corruption.
“INHUMAN SANCTIONS”
He has repeatedly accused his Western foes of ruining the economy through sanctions in retaliation for a policy of seizing white-owned commercial farms for landless blacks. Those countries say the sanctions only target him and close associates.
“May Western countries please remove their illegal and inhuman sanctions on my country and its people,” he said at the end of his speech in Rome.
Since forming a unity government with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai this year, Mugabe has made some overtures for better ties with the West, drawing a cautious reaction from London and Washington.
Britain last month said it would provide $100 million in aid to Zimbabwe, its largest donation to the country, to help the new government and ease a grim humanitarian crisis .
At the U.N. summit, Mugabe defended his land policies, and said reversing them would create bitter conflicts. “Zimbabwe will not allow land alienation from the indigenous farmers by a new class of imported would-be land owners,” he said.
He said that thanks to a dam construction programme and with adequate support Zimbabwe had the potential to increase land irrigation to 453,000 hectares from 153,000 now.
Seeds and fertilisers provided by the Southern African Development Community meant Zimbabwe’s maize production had increased by 75 percent this year, he added.
Reuters
message to mugabe
We got the fake tractors from China, we have Sables chemicals for fertilizer. What do you want from the West. Tosvika riini tichipiwa zvikwereti (for how long should we be funded by loans).
True what your president is saying. Its a pity most of you have not understood it. If Zimbabwean Land Reform had been allowed to succeed then the next would come the mines ( where the real wealth is) .Zimbabwe has Platinum reserves that are the second largest after South Africa. But considering the size and population of the two countries then Zimbabwe has more resources per person. Then if the people in SA, Namibia , Zambia, Botswana started to follow the successful model then western permanent interests in Africa would be threatened.
That is really why the Land reform programme was never allowed to succeed. In other words the black farmers were to fail so that they become an example for the whole of afica. It was the same story in Mozambique when Cde Samora Machel tried it and failed. Zambia when Kaunda tried to nationalise copper mines. Unfortunately Zimbabwe will never be allowed by the west to succeed in a very long time. Zimbabwe is too close to South Africa to be allowed to come out of this mess. So when the people of SA look at Zimbabwe they will always know how to treat the western interests.
What is a pity is that if Zimbabweans had united and worked together and understood the dynamics and issues involved it is Zimbabwe followed by Namibia in the region where land and other reforms would have stood the best chance of success. (Our brothers from down south seem to be cowards and the whole system is dominated by women while the men booze , rape and do drugs .)
Its not the Land Hameno…I think most of us support a re-distribution…………ITS THE HUMAN RIGHTS.
Sorry for “Shouting”…but no one seems to be listening except Zuma. (ED)
ED! success in farming is a journey from A to F and with re-distribution you may expound will or may be a recipe for disaster. Its easier to drive a stolen/given benz with a quarter tank and no insurance but an uphill task to get into viable and productive modern farming, its not only farms which have been run down but industries, hospitals, schools and mines, actually the whole economic fabric. I wish if I could edit this paper but journalism is not my field neither let alone editing. We have regions 1 to 5 and all needing different agro-business activities coupled by a steep mountain to climb with regards to marketing as a lot of 3rd world poor countries are having sighes of reliefs trough Fair Trading while coming from an energy and capital intensive business activities to produce seeds, chemicals and fertilizers- my foot!
Thank You L.Nyati…..I support..and this Site supports a fair and equitable distribution of the land in Zimbabwe…Where we disagree with the Junta..is the method and distribution…Farming is a dedicated and intensive activity..it needs education, investment…My Mentor…Asher Mutsengeni..said that the wrong people got the right land…My hope is that the people win their rights..be it Democracy, Fair representation at law or their Civil Rights..I will be posting stories, articles, exposes etc to ensure it happens. (ED)
My grandfather should be ashamed of himself. What did the West do to sabotage his land reform? Are they the ones who sent criminals to reap on farms in which they had not planted? Are they the ones who wrote fake offer letters to only ZANU PF fake farmers? Is the west responsible for dishing out farming implements, generators and seeds and fertilizers to non-farmers? Was the West giving out free diesel to civil servants, police, army and CIO officers who had neither farms nor interest in farming?
Here is the real truth old Madala. In 2000 when your fake Constitutional Commission told some villagers in my remote Silobela village that they were going to take farms without compensation, my grandfather who was 92 at the time told them that the result will be the end of our money. My grandfather is dead now and so is our Zimdollar. All Zimbabweans from 2 years and above know who killed our agriculture and by extension our economy. You also know my dear grandfather. Do you think anyone else in the world will simply just buy your fake stories?
It seems some of us do not have athorough understanding of the history of the Land issue in Zimbabwe. Given the limited space available in a comment I will summarise some of the major areas which most of you try to ignore.
Throughout the history of Zimbabwe, land has remained the most important political and economic issue in the country. This can be traced back to the time of the Pioneer Column in the late 1800s and the subsequent legal instruments that were passed and entrenched to ensure division of the ownership of land between the two major races namely, blacks and whites. The evolution of these legal instruments is as follows: The Lippert Concession (1889),The Native Reserves Order in Council (1898),The Land Apportionment Act (1930),Native Land Husbandry Act (1951),The Tribal Trust lands (TTL) act (1965).
No need to tell you that to settle the war that had ravaged the country the Lancaster House Agreement.In the Opening Speech to the Lancaster House , the Patriotic Front listed the land question among its nine major issues for negotiation. During the negotiations, the British government insisted on a stringent protection of private property with equally restrict provisions for ‘prompt’ and ‘adequate’ compensation in the few cases where compulsory was to be allowed.
History records The Lancaster House Conference nearly broke-down over the land question. The Patriotic front wanted the British government to provide money to pay compensation. An agreement was reached and the Patriotic Front announced it as follows:
“We have now obtained assurances that … Britain, the United States of America and other countries will participate in a multinational donor effort to assist in land, agricultural and economic development programmes. These assurances go a long way in allaying the great concern we have over the whole land question arising from the great need our people have for land and our commitment to satisfy that need when in government”.
Ater Independence there were a variety of Legistlations to try and reverse the colonial era legislations namely The Communal Land Act (1981),The Land Acquisition Act (1985),The Land Acquisition Act (1992) because people wanted to honor the RIGHTS that you are talking about..
After realising than Britain had reneged on their agreement the Zimbabwean government called a Donor’s Conference from the 9th to the 11th of September 1998 to try and find Donors to fund the Land Reform programme.
To cut a long Story short Mugabe realised that he was being taken for a ride and the western countries did not want any meaningful Land reform in zimbabwe except the cosmetic resettling of Communal farmers into Resettlement farms. The way he went on to redistribute Land was about the only option he had.
Hameno. You failed to mention the millions of pounds that were handed to the zanu government for land compensation but was instead diverted to the pockets of the corrupt zanu ministers.
Bobby!!Bobby!!!Bobby!!!
Those corrupt officials stashed that money into Western accounts with the help of those Western governments (the ones they are now freezing) What did the west think they were doing? They must deal with those corrupt officials while we take back our land. You cannot justify the distribution of land prior to 2000, no matter how you cry Bobby
P.S I am writing from under a tree now since my shack was burnt yesterday by these SA morons.
Thanks ED!! The support of fair and equitable land distribution in my homeland is good in principle but, but that may not be ALL converted into economic successes bearing in mind the realities on the ground and Africa as a whole. Angola and DRC have very good agricultural lands but they are extremely very rich what