OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lisbon | Tuesday 2.30pm.
THE European Union expressed concern Tuesday over the illegal occupations of more than 200 white-owned Zimbabwean farms by veterans of the country’s independence war 20 years ago.
“The European Union, Zimbabwe’s main development partner, is appealing to the government of the country to respect the law and re-establish public order and civil security,” the EU’s current Portuguese presidency said in a statement.
The EU said the land occupation movement “is taking on greater and greater proportions and is often accompanied by damage to property, threats and acts of violence which are unacceptable in a democratic country.”
More than 400 farms have been invaded in the past few weeks by thousands of squatters led by war veterans who say they are merely reclaiming land stolen by white colonialists in this former rebel British colony of Rhodesia.
But critics accuse President Robert Mugabe’s government of orchestrating the invasions to punish whites, whom it blames for the rejection of a new draft constitution in a referendum last month.
Mugabe said Friday that the invaders could remain on the farms.
“We want the whites to learn that the land belongs to Zimbabweans,” he was quoted as saying by the Herald newspaper.
Mugabe’s statement was a direct contradiction of assurances given to farmers by his ministers and police, who said the squatters would be evicted. Many have already ended their occupations voluntarily.
The Portuguese statement reaffirmed the EU’s support for land reform in Zimbabwe, but said the illegal farm occupations “put at risk the right of property and the freedoms enshrined
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