UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Zimbabwe on Tuesday to change its land-seizure policies to stave off the food crisis that threatens the country and compensate farmers who have lost their land.
Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Angola, Annan said: ”A fresh land reform program is urgently needed to minimise the negative effects of the current situation on food production and the economy of Zimbabwe.
”It should be one that is run according to the rule of law, that allows for proper training and adequate support to new small farmers and pays compensation to displaced farm workers and commercial farmers.”
A drought and the government’s confiscating white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks are causing widespread food shortages that relief groups say threaten half of Zimbabwe’s 12,5-million people.
Zimbabwe’s land dispute has compounded southern Africa’s food crisis. Aid groups say the region is facing its worst famine in 10 years.
Annan appealed to governments in southern Africa and donor nations not to politicise food aid.
”Helping the landless poor is more important than ever,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s land conflict has added to political unrest during which about 186 people, most of them opposition supporters, have been killed over the past two years. Among the dead are 11 white farmers.
Since March 2000, the government has targeted 95% of
white-owned land for allocation to blacks. Critics say many prime farms have gone to politicians, military and police officers and government cronies and not landless blacks.
The farmers, many contesting the legality of their eviction orders, face up to two years in jail and a fine. Many were released on bail terms prohibiting them from living on their land while awaiting trial over the next few weeks.
Before ”fast track” seizures began two years ago
4 500 whites owned a third of Zimbabwe’s farmland and 7-million blacks lived on the rest. An estimated
350 000 black farm workers and their families live on the white-owned land.
The Zimbabwean government has ignored a host of court rulings against it, with President Robert Mugabe saying he would abide only by rulings that he considered just.
Annan will visit Botswana, Lesotho and Mozambique before attending at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 1. He also visited Ivory Coast and Ghana during his weeklong tour to Africa. – Sapa-AP