FARM MURDER TOLL RISES
TEN farmers have been murdered this month alone, and another eight have been injured in attacks. In the latest attack, Newcastle farmers Nicholas and Magda Marais were strangled, then shot dead.
The far-right Boere Weerstandbweeeging announced on Wednesday that its military wing would go to war in defence of white farmers, and that from now on a policy of “an eye for an eye” would apply. “Innocent people could get hurt,” warned the statement. The movement said the attacks were political, not criminal, and were a result of the slogan “one boer, one bullet”.
ZIM TO NAME ‘SEIZED’ FARMS
ROBERT MUGABE announced on Wednesday that some 1 503 farms to be aquired by the government will be listed in the Government Gazette this Friday. Mugabe, who held a two hour meeting with leaders of the Commercial Farmers Union, said the Lancaster House agreement with Britain in 1979 had not resolved the land dispute, and that he remained committed to the principle that the government would pay only for improvements to the land.
243 000 MINES DESTROYED
SOUTH Africa destroyed a total of 243 423 anti-personnel landmines during a five-month period this year, Defence Minister Joe Modise said on Tuesday in reply to a question in Parliament. The first controlled detonation of mines took place at Alkantpan in the Northern Cape on May 21 this year, followed by a further 211 detonations.
POACHERS FIRE ON INVESTIGATORS
POACHERS armed with AK47 rifles opened fire on Namibian investigators in the Caprivi Strip on Tuesday morning — and missed. A team of Environment and Tourism officials was examining the decomposing carcasses of two poached elephant cows when gunshots came from the bushes. The investigators did not fire back, but the poachers fled, leaving a hide-out containing stolen bags of food distributed as part of a drought relief programme.
RESEARCHER SUSPECTS ZAMBIAN TORTURE
THE Zambian government has barred a researcher from the New York-based Human Rights Watch from meeting detainees. But researcher Alex Vines says that he attended the court hearing for one detained army officer and “his testimony and the way he looked give credence to torture claims”.
Vines flew out of the country on Tuesday after being repeatedly told that there was no need for foreigners to see the detainees. Vines said he was surprised to discover that the local Human Rights Commission failed to act independently in the interests of the detainees, and seemed under the influence of Ministry of Home Affairs officials.
BY-ELECTION TEST FOR NEW PARTY THURSDAY sees a local government by-election in the traditionally conservative National Party stronghold of Ward 5 in Johannesburg’s western metropolitan substructure. The election will be the first to be contested by the newly formed United Democratic Movement of former Nat Roelf Meyer and former Transkei strongman General Bantu Holomisa. Observers believe the race will be between the National Party and the Democratic Party. The DP is hoping to continue its recent by-election winning streak which has seen the small mostly white-led party score victories in formerly conservative Boksburg, Kempton Park and Witbank.
MADIBA MEETS NUJOMA PRESIDENT Nelosn Mandela on Wednesday met his Namibian counterpart Sam Nujoma for a 90-minute discussion of issues of mutual concern, particularly the influx of illegal immigrants into SA from neighbouring states. Nujoma, who is on a flying visit to South Africa, is scheduled to return to Windhoek on Thursday afternoon. Speaking to journalists after the meeting at his official residence, Genadendal, Mandela said issues of bilateral and regional co-operation, particularly trade and investment, had also been discussed. “One of the problems that concerns us, especially in South Africa, is the large number of immigrants who are coming in, without full compliance of the law,” Mandela said.
GARANG SEEKS EGYPTIAN SUPPORT The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) on Tuesday said a landmark visit to Egypt by its leader John Garang is aimed at gathering support against the “oppressive” regime in Khartoum. “The historic visit of Colonel Garang comes as a response to an official invitation by [Egyptian] President Hosni Mubarak in August,” the SPLA said “Colonel Garang will hold official talks on the prevailing political situation in the Sudan and other issues of common interest,” the statement said. “We hope for and count on the support of the government and people of Egypt to the struggle of the Sudanese people for justice, democracy, peace and unity of the Sudan on a new and correct basis against the brutal, divisive and oppressive” government of General Omar al-Beshir, it added. Garang arrived in Cairo on Monday for his first visit since he became the head of the SPLA in 1983
FOURTH JOURNO DETAINED MILITARY authorities in Sierra Leone arrested another journalist this week, bringing the number of detained editors to four, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) said on Wednesday. Mohamed Sesay, editor of the thrice-weekly Point newspaper, was picked up by police on Tuesday, according to the SLAJ. Editors Dorothy Awonoor Gordon of the Concord Times, Pios Foray of the Democrat and Ibrahim Sei of the Standard Times were arrested on Saturday and were still being held without charge on Wednesday. “Press freedom has to stop just where the security of the state begins,” junta Secretary General Colonel Abdul Sesay said on Monday.
10 000 DISPLACED IN BURUNDI FIGHTING TEN thousand people have been displaced by fighting between the Tutsi-led Burundian army and Hutu rebels in the south of the country, the World Food Programme said on Wednesday. The WFP office in the Burundian capital Bujumbura said the report came from parishes distributing food to the displaced people. The 10 000 add to hundreds of thousands already displaced by fighting in the tiny African country, where more than 250 000 people are believed to have been killed in more than four years of civil war. An army spokesman said on Monday that around 100 Hutu rebels had been killed, or “put out of harm’s way”, in an army operation at the end of last week.