- "...the National Society for Human Rights, a coalition
of civic groups, yesterday strongly condemned the proposed land occupation,
saying it would do to Namibia what it had done to Zimbabwe."
-
- Civic groups in Namibia are opposing planned seizures
of white-owned farms by poor blacks, saying the move would plunge the southern
African country into the same chaos that has ruined nearby Zimbabwe.
-
- The Namibia Farmworkers Union, which has support from
landless blacks, farm labourers and the Namibian government, has announced
that its members will start forcibly taking over 15 farms next week.
-
- The union said its aim was to ensure livelihoods for
landless blacks, including the farm labourers it alleges have been mistreated
and evicted from white-owned commercial farms.
-
- But the National Society for Human Rights, a coalition
of civic groups, yesterday strongly condemned the proposed land occupation,
saying it would do to Namibia what it had done to Zimbabwe.
-
- Alarmed white farmers represented by the Namibia Agricultural
Union called on the authorities to protect privately owned land and warned
that the action may have devastating economic consequences.
-
- The human rights coalition said it "does not support
any unconstitutional and unlawful takeover of any commercial or communal
farms, regardless of the colour and or political affiliation of the farm
owners. If allowed to stand, the proposed invasion could become a most
serious setback for the relative peace and tranquillity which this country
has enjoyed since independence in 1990."
-
- It urged Namibian President Sam Nujoma, a close ally
of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, to condemn the planned invasions.
But Mr Nujoma had not done so by yesterday. Junior members of the Namibian
government have condemned the plans but are powerless to stop them if approved
by their authoritarian leader.
-
- Mr Nujoma has said African land must go back to its rightful
owners - black people. He has warned white Namibian farmers that they risk
facing the same fate as their Zimbabwean counterparts unless they give
up their land.
-
- Mr Nujoma and Mr Mugabe ambushed Tony Blair at the United
Nations Earth Summit in Johannesburg last year where the Namibian leader
launched a broadside against Mr Blair accusing him of protecting a few
white "imperialists and colonisers" in Zimbabwe at the expense
of the country's 14 million people who did not control their land. Mr Mugabe
also delivered a scathing attack in which he told Mr Blair to "keep
your little England and I will keep my Zimbabwe" to massive applause.
-
- If Mr Nujoma's silence is tacit approval of the planned
seizures, then his country will become only the second in Africa to emulate
Mr Mugabe's policies that have ruined a once prosperous nation.
-
- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=460905
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