CHRIS MCGREAL, Harare | Friday
ZIMBABWE’S president, Robert Mugabe, is preparing to declare a state of emergency, and possibly martial law, in response to US legislation imposing sanctions on the country’s leaders because of political violence, according to a Harare newspaper.
The report came amid a fresh wave of violence against white farmers and their families yesterday as mobs attacked at least 15 farms, burning one homestead to the ground, looting others and sending families fleeing. The police ignored calls for help and the government said the white farmers had brought the violence on themselves.
The respected Financial Gazette reported that Mugabe’s cabinet intends to use the looming passage of the Zimbabwe democracy bill in the US Congress as a pretext for declaring a state of emergency which would allow the president to suspend parliament, delay elections and rule by decree.
American legislators say their law is intended to punish Zimbabwe’s leaders with sanctions, such as a ban on travel to the US, for promoting violence and lawlessness. But the government in Harare is portraying the bill as introducing broad sanctions which threaten the country’s security.
The Senate unanimously approved the law last week and it is thought likely the House of Representatives will follow suit. The Financial Gazette quoted officials in the ruling Zanu-PF party as saying the “law of survival” would take over if sanctions are imposed on Zimbabwe.
“We will be left with no choice but to declare a state of emergency if we are under sanctions,” a cabinet minister told the paper.
The home affairs minister, John Nkomo, confirmed that the US law would provoke a response. “We hope the situation won’t reach the sanctions level, but if we are under siege, we have to employ strategies to survive. We cannot lie down and mourn,” he said.
The foreign minister, Stan Mudenge, has previously said that sanctions could lead to the imposition of martial law.
Violence rose again yesterday as farmers in the Chinhoyi area, where 22 of their number are charged with public violence over clashes with land invaders, said a fresh wave of attacks and violence has driven dozens of white families from their homes. Gangs of Zanu-PF militants were also reported to be roaming the area in an orchestrated campaign against farms.
“There is widespread looting of evacuated farms,” the Commercial Farmers’ Union spokeswoman, Jenni Williams, said.
The union said the police had ignored calls for help.
Zimbabwe’s home affairs minister, John Nkomo, said the escalating violence is the fault of the white farmers whom he accused of victimising poor black people.”It is true the farmers have been attacking properly and legally resettled farmers… it is the farmers who are unleashing this violence. Measures are being taken to nip it in the bud,” Nkomo told state television.
Land invaders have also descended on a farm belonging to a white opposition member of parliament, Roy Bennet.
A fortnight ago, the local government minister, Ignatius Chombo, led a delegation of Zanu-PF and government officials to the farm where he ordered the redistribution of the land to be speeded up. Chombo also said that Bennet’s house would be handed over to the Zanu-PF candidate he beat in last year’s parliamentary election.
The land minister, Joseph Made, told the CFU that the government now plans to resettle at least 90 % of white-owned land.
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An anonymous group calling itself the Black Scorpions has issued threats against Mugabe and the Malawian president, Bakili Muluzi in the Malawian city of Blantyre, where a reional summit is due to start on Sunday.