PHILIP PANK & SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Friday 4.00pm.
ZIMBABWEAN war veterans’ leader Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi began a national tour on Friday, urging squatters on white-owned farms to renounce violence and wait peacefully for a share of the land.
Hunzvi was accompanied by Commercial Farmers’ Union vice president Nick Swanepoel after talks in the capital Harare, where the farmers and war veterans spearheading the invasion of more than 1000 farms agreed to a peaceful settlement of the land crisis.
Earlier they announced a breakthrough to end the land crisis as the opposition went into emergency talks to discuss a possible legal challenge to a pre-election police clampdown on political activity.
The announcement came a day after top-level government talks between Britain and the former colony failed to come up with a plan to bring an end to the violence ravaging Zimbabwe, as predicted by the opposition.
But back home progress was made in direct talks between farmers and invaders.
“We have gone a long way today in resolving our problems as far as the land issue is concerned,” Commercial Farmers’ Union vice president Nick Swanepoel said after the meeting.
Hunzvi said: “Today’s meeting has been very fruitful.”
Coinciding with the police curb on Thursday was a pledge by government to Britain that it will hold “free and fair” elections under international supervision.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which is widely seen as the main threat to President Robert Mugabe’s 20 years of uninterrupted rule, has expressed fears that the reactivation of the notorious Law and Order Maintenance Act could be a precursor to a state of emergency.
Under the law, first introduced by the former white-minority regime here to crush black nationalism, police will have sweeping power including the authority to ban political marches and rallies.
Meanwhile Zambia’s President Fredrick Chiluba supports Zimbabwe’s decision to seize land from white farmers, press reports said Friday. The two state-run dailies, the Daily Mail and the Times of Zambia, quoted Chiluba as saying that if indigenous Zimbabweans did not own land, they could not enjoy the fruits of their independence. — AFP
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