- Last week the London Telegraph reported that Zimbabwe's
dictator Robert Mugabe recently issued 10,000 passports to Libyan troops
who are now being dispatched to his troubled nation. Ostensibly these North
African troops will act as mercenaries to quell public unrest after Zimbabwe's
next election, confront future food riots and protect Mugabe's illegimate
regime.
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- Now the London Times is reporting that Zimbabwe's government
announced this past week that that government will nationalize up to 90
per cent of all white-owned land at the stroke of a pen. Recently the
Zimbabwe government passed a decree under President Mugabe's sweeping "presidential
powers" that provided almost state-of-emergency authority. Any farm
issued with a "notice of acquisition" becomes state property
immediately. The Government can move settlers in and the owner is immediately
banned from any farming.
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- The Times reported, "This move will wipe out next
year's crops almost totally. With immediate effect, 800 farmers have been
given three months' notice to get off their land. The owners will be `confined
to their homes' during the three months while their properties are occupied
by black settlers, Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minister, said."
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- Chinamasa added that every other white-owned farm that
has been formally notified - about another 3,700 properties - that the
Government intends to take will also be issued with eviction orders.
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- What will be the results of this action?
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- About 22 million acres will fall into non production.
And just about all of Zimbabwe's farmers will cancel next years crop plantings
and livestock aquisition.
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- "It is suicide," John Robertson, an independent
economist, told the Times. "Anything that has been planted will go
to waste. Gross domestic product will be cut by half. It will make us equal
to the poorest countries in the world. These are the actions of madmen."
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- Ironically the United Nations is now prepared to respond
to the Government's appeal two weeks ago for nearly $US365 million (in
emergency relief for serious famine that has already begun. This food aid
would be paid for in large part by the American taxpayer.
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- The Commercial Farmer's Union of Zimbabwe say that food
stocks will run out by the end of January of next year and that one million
Zimbabwean's are already in "dire need" of food.
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- The Times repoted, that Zimbabwe's most recent farm confiscations
are "The final act in Mr Mugabe's campaign effectively to end any
significant white presence in the countryside."
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