OWN CORRESPONDENT, Windhoek | Friday 11.00am.
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has urged landless Namibians to follow his country’s example and forcibly reclaim their land if white farmers refuse to share it.
”If the other neighbouring countries have problems similar to the ones we have encountered, why not apply the same solution as Zimbabwe. It is a simple solution,” The Namibian quoted Mugabe as saying in Namibia on Thursday.
Mugabe, flanked by Namibian President Sam Nujoma and Prime Minister Hage Geingob, addressed a rally in northern Namibia to mark Africa Day.
”If they [the white commercial farmers] are ready to discuss with you and give land then there is no need for a fight. But in Zimbabwe the British are not ready and we are making them ready now,” Mugabe said.
”A boyfriend can accept a no from a girlfriend, but a freedom fighter can never accept a no from an imperialist,” Mugabe added.
Hundreds of veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s liberation war have invaded more than a thousand white commercial farms demanding land they say was stolen from their forefathers by white colonists.
At least 23 people have been killed, hundreds beaten or raped and many others forced to flee their homes in the face of the government-sponsored land invasions and political intimidation over the past three months.
Meanwhile farmer’s organisations in South Africa and Namibia joined Zimbabwe’s Commercial Farmers Union on Thursday in warning that the land crisis in Zimbabwe has become a regional issue.
”Unfortunately, the result of failure with land reform cannot be ring-fenced to the country concerned, but its effects will be felt in the region,” said a statement issued by the CFU, Agri South Africa, the National African Farmers Union and the Namibia Agricultural Union.
It said they are ”gravely concerned about the political and land reform crises in Zimbabwe,” where close to 1500 white-owned farms have been occupied and at least 25 people killed ahead of parliamentary elections due on June 24 and 25. — Reuters & AFP