So this is what I do all day...

i'm switching this page so that it links to a website that buys all of our stories from the zim region. they're not all mine, but you can see in the headline section if the story has a by-line. hopefully this will be easier than me trying to cut and paste stories onto this page. cheers!
posted by Griffin Shea at 7:34 AM

Zimbabwe-summit,sched-2ndlead
Mugabe faces critics at regional summit
by Griffin Shea
ATTENTION - RECASTS, UPDATES throughout ///

HARARE, Sept 11 (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was forced to confront both the critics and victims of his violence-wracked land reform program Tuesday at a regional summit that yielded few new results but produced an unprecedented dialogue.
During a two-day summit in Harare, the presidents of Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa joined Mugabe in meeting with a broad swath of Zimbabwean society, forcing him for the first time to sit with critics and victims of his policies.
The summit ended late Tuesday with few new commitments, but Malawian President Bakili Muluzi told reporters after the talks that Mugabe had assured his neighboring states that he would check the politically charged violence and intimidation which has reigned in the countryside for more than 18 months.
"I can assure you that they will be moving forward and in a more democratic way," said Muluzi, currently chairman of the 14-nation Souther African Development Community (SADC).
"What we are all saying, even Britain, is that there is a need for land reform," he said. "What we do not want is the violence and intimidation which is being perceived as a result of the land reform."
SADC agreed to form a task force on Zimbabwe at its annual summit last month in Blantyre. Muluzi said that group would continue to meet to monitor the situation, as would a new multiparty committee within Zimbabwe.
Muluzi said SADC expected to see the government make progress in curbing the violence within two to four weeks, though he declined to set out any penalties should the violence continue.
Although the summit was held in Harare, Mugabe made no public comments during the meeting and declined to answer questions from journalists at the closing press conference.
South African President Thabo Mbeki also kept a low public profile, although diplomats credited South Africa with engineering the regional campaign to increase the pressure on Mugabe.
Purportedly called to discuss Mugabe's land reforms, Muluzi said the summit also raised issues of violence and intimidation, as well as Zimbabwe's economic collapse.
Although the summit produced few tangible results, it marked the first time that the regional grouping SADC had intervened in a member country's domestic politics by forcing a leader into talks with civil society.
With the five visiting leaders, Mugabe had to meet with his archrival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), as well as with the heads of churches and businesses and with white farmers.
After the talks, Tsvangirai said the talks were "productive, but it was very tense from time to time."
"On the land question, we said that while some people want to regard it as the ultimate cause of the problems, we find that it is just one of the problems," which must be addressed along with ending lawlessness and ensuring free and fair presidential elections next year, he said.
Church leaders also repeated their call for the government to end the violence, and condemned the beatings and killings that have accompanied the government's land reforms, according to a copy of their presentation.
Militant war veterans have been at the forefront of the forcible occupations of white-owned farms, which began in February 2000.
Some 1,500 farms, or about one third of all white-owned farms, remain occupied, according to the mostly-white Commercial Farmers' Union.
The farm invasions began only days after Mugabe lost a referendum on a new constitution, as the then-fledgling opposition MDC was making strides in winning popular support.
Violence on the farms intensified ahead of parliamentary elections last year, and has continued to grow as Zimbabwe nears the presidential polls due early next year.

Zimbabwe-CWealth,analysis-sched
Skepticism greets Zimbabwe's land deal with Commonwealth
by Griffin Shea

HARARE, Sept 7 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's white farmers and opposition reacted warily Friday to a government pledge to end the illegal invasions of white farms that sparked off a political and economic crisis, in what appeared to be a climbdown by President Robert Mugabe.
"It is really much ado about nothing," said Tendai Biti, shadow foreign minister for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which emerged two years ago in strong opposition to Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).
"How do you expect ZANU-PF to obey a non-binding agreement over tea in Abuja, when it has failed to obey its obligations under the UN Charter, ... its own constitution and judgments made by the High Court and Supreme Court," he said.
Biti urged the international community to continue to pressure Mugabe, who has yet to comment on the Commonwealth agreement or on his vice president's acceptance of an offer of almost one million hectares (2.4 million acres) of land from white farmers.
Zimbabwe agreed late Thursday at a Commonwealth conference in Nigeria to end illegal occupation of farmland by pro-government militants and promised action to restore the rule of law.
In return, former colonial power Britain agreed to make a "significant financial contribution" to funding a land reform programme, if carried out in a "fair, just and sustainable manner".
Last year Britain offered Zimbabwe 36 million pounds to aid the land reforms on similar conditions, which were never met.
Mugabe has openly backed the land invasions, led by militant veterans of the 1970s liberation war, which have been closely tied to a government crackdown on political dissent -- including intimidation of MDC supporters, journalists and the judiciary.
The campaign has plunged the nation into a political and economic crisis and threatened to destabilise the region.
But war veteran leader Joseph Chinotimba, who has spearheaded the farm invasions, said he was not moving his followers off the farms yet.
"I don't know about any deal in Abuja. I don't get my news from the radio. I am waiting for my foreign minister to come back and tell me," Chinotimba told journalists.
Asked if he would now start moving his followers off white-owned farms, Chinotimba said: "No. White farmers, they are the ones causing all the trouble. Our people have been allocating land legally."
In Abuja, Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge vowed that "a process will begin where, in an energized way, those on land which we have no intention of acquiring will be removed."
Under its resettlement scheme, the government has already identified more than 95 percent of white-owned farms for resettlement. Zimbabwe agreed in Abuja to de-list farms that did not meet set criteria, although the deal did not mention which criteria would be used.
University of Zimbabwe political analyst John Makumbe called the deal "classic hoodwinking of Britain and the Commonwealth."
"It's an orchestrated strategy to say Zimbabwe is now playing by the rules, and it isn't," he said.
"The 36 million pounds is really being offered to Zimbabwe on the condition that they reinstate the rule of law, that they allocate the land gradually, and all of those Mugabe cannot do and win the elections next year," Makumbe added.
Nonetheless, Colin Cloete, president of the white-run Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said he was cautiously optimistic about the apparent breakthrough made in Abuja.
"I'm hoping they're serious and not just window dressing for the Abuja talks," said Cloete.
He described the situation on farms as "desperate," with escalating lawlessness over the past few weeks as the government steps up its land seizures.
posted by Griffin Shea at 2:19 AM

Zimbabwe farms set ablaze as labourers are evicted
by Griffin Shea

HARARE, Sept 1 (AFP) - Pro-government militants have set thousands of hectares (acres) of white-owned farmland ablaze in Zimbabwe during the past week, as black labourers have been driven off the land, farmers said Saturday.
The fires come during the middle of the southern African country's dry season when a small bush fire can quickly spread into an enormous blaze, two months before rains normally begin falling.
The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which represents 4,500 mostly white commercial farmers, said in a statement that bush fires, locally known as veld fires, set by farm occupiers have been spreading throughout the country.
Among the hardest-hit areas is the southern province of Masvingo, where one rancher lost 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) of grazing land to fires, the statement said.
"There is an alarming increase of veld fires in the area, and illegal occupiers are causing malicious damage to the environment," the statement said.
Earlier fires had burned at least 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) of land last weekend.
Farmers reported fires, sometimes burning across entire farms, across Zimbabwe, but especially on cattle land.
Earlier this week, the CFU said that at least 2,500 labourers and their families -- an estimated 12,500 people -- have been displaced in the Hwedza farming district after illegal occupiers ordered work stoppages on 22 farms in the district.
Workers on 14 of the affected farms were forced off the properties, the CFU stated.
A dispute between two of the settlers on farms in Hwedza erupted into gunfire, leaving two farm workers with gunshot wounds, the CFU said Saturday.
Some 60 people, mainly farm workers, have been arrested in connection with the clash, the statement said.
State radio said the clash stemmed from a dispute among settlers over a piece of land in Hwedza.
A wave of widespread destruction and looting two weeks ago in Chinhoyi, a farming region 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Harare, left another 4,000 farm workers destitute.
Some 350 whites fled the district as mobs ransacked more than 50 farms.
The violence nationwide comes as two districts prepare for parliamentary by-elections to replace two MPs who died in office, former defense minister Moven Mahachi and the firebrand war veteran leader Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi.
Zimbabwe's presidential elections are due in April, and political analysts have warned that violence in the countryside could escalate as President Robert Mugabe faces his toughest-ever challenge at the ballot box.
Mugabe has staked his political future on his land reform scheme, earmarking about 95 percent of white-owned farms for resettlement by blacks, in a bid to correct colonial-era inequities in ownership.
The area of white-owned farming land to be seized totals 5,327 farms, covering 9.5 million hectares (24 million acres), an area larger than Portugal.
Veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war spearheaded the forcible occupation of as many as 1,700 white-owned farms in February 2000, in a violent campaign closely tied to intimidation of opposition supporters.
The two-year-old Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has posed a stiff challenge to Mugabe's ruling party, winning nearly 57 of the 120 contested seats in last year's parliamentary elections.
At least 34 people died before the June 2000 vote, and rights groups say the total number killed since the violence began could be far higher.
posted by Griffin Shea at 12:46 PM

UN-racism-Zimbabwe,advancer-sched
While taking white land, Zimbabwe wants apology for colonialism
by Griffin Shea

HARARE, Aug 25 (AFP) - Zimbabwe will ask for an apology and compensation from Africa's former colonial powers at next week's UN conference on racism, but critics want the government to answer for its violent land reforms.
"As black people, like Jews, we also deserve an apology for the human rights violations that were committed against us as a race," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said earlier this month, in outlining Zimbabwe's position ahead of the conference.
"We should not be treated any differently because of our colour or because of our ethnic grouping," he said.
At the conference, opening August 31 in Durban, South Africa, Chinamasa said Zimbabwe will insist on an "express apology by former colonial masters" and the setting up of two funds to make reparations for slavery and to victims of colonialism.
"An apology should be forthcoming, reparations should also be made available," the minister said.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe likes to say that his government's land reforms are the final battle against colonialism -- what he calls the "Third Chimurenga," or the third uprising against white rule.
Whites represent less than one percent of Zimbabwe's population, but they own more than 20 percent of all the nation's land. According to the government, that represents 70 percent of the prime farmland where big cash-earners like tobacco are grown.
The former colonial power, Britain, and other donors had agreed in 1998 to set up a fund that would allow Zimbabwe to buy land from white farmers for resettlement with blacks.
Zimbabwe had agreed with donors to expropriate 118 farms over an initial two years, but then proceeded to issue issue notices of intention to acquire 841 farms.
The action was successfully challenged in court by the white farmers, leaving Mugabe incensed.
The donor-funded scheme then fell by the wayside, overtaken by a violent scheme of forcible farm invasions, spearheaded by veterans of the 1970s liberaton war.
Now government says it will take more than 90 percent of white-owned land without paying the farmers. Donors have refused to support the violence-plagued scheme, which has been closely tied to political intimidation of opposition supporters.
Since losing a referendum on a new constitution and facing a tough challenge from an upstart opposition party, Mugabe has used racially inflammatory rhetoric to whip up support for his scheme and branded whites "the enemy."
Because of the violence, which has left dozens of blacks and at least seven white farmers dead, South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance has asked that racism against white Zimbabweans be added to the agenda of a UN conference.
The party's deputy leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said last week that he made the request in a letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, who is secretary general of the conference.
"The ongoing violence and racism being perpetrated upon the citizens of Zimbabwe -- specifically upon white Zimbabweans -- by state-sponsored operatives operating under the guise of structural land reform, has gone on long enough without concrete action from the international community," he wrote.
But at the same time, South Africa's Landless People's Movement has invited Mugabe to address its meeting to be held on the sidelines of the conference.
Movement spokesman Morena Thoabana told journalists in Johannesburg that South African groups were "not interested" in the violence, but wanted to learn how Mugabe was implementing the land redistribution program.
"We were quite impressed and are hoping he (Mugabe) would give us advice," Thoabane said. "We want to learn from Zimbabwe."
The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will attract about 30 to 35 heads of state, approximately 160 foreign ministers, and delegations from 194 countries.

Zimbabwe-economy
Zimbabwe opposition unveils economic recovery scheme

HARARE, Aug 28 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), vowed Tuesday to revive the collapsing economy if voted into the presidency next year, and unveiled a 1,000-page scheme on how it would run the economy through 2004.
The economic scheme was the most specific proposal yet of how the two-year-old MDC would run the country if its leader Morgan Tsvangirai were to win the presidential election, expected in April.
Tsvangirai told a news conference that the first step in reviving the economy would be to rein in the violence that has engulfed Zimbabwe's countryside during the last 18 months.
"The country's economy is in a total mess. The state-sponsored violence, lawlessness and intimidation is what has led this country to where it is today," Tsvangirai said.
MDC's shadow finance minister, Eddie Cross, said restoring commercial agriculture was essential to bringing the economy back on track, in a nation where 50 percent of the economy is based on agriculture.
With the national debt expected to exceed 10 billion US dollars by April 2002, Cross said a MDC government would turn to the Paris Club of donors to restructure the foreign debt.
But Cross said it would take three years to bring inflation down to a manageable level. Now at about 70 percent, he said the inflation rate could reach 100 percent by the year's end.
The scheme also calls for stabilizing the exchange rate, officially pegged at 55 Zimbabwean dollars to one US dollar, but soaring to about 300 to the greenback on the thriving parallel market.
The plan would boost social spending to rebuild the health and educational systems and to combat the spread of diseases, notably AIDS.
But the MDC said it would also reduce spending by restructuring debt payments and by pulling out of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst-ever economic crisis, fueled by the political instability stemming from President Robert Mugabe's violence-wracked land reforms.
posted by Griffin Shea at 9:24 AM

Zimbabwe-politics-church
Zimbabwe churches condemn 'monster' of political violence

HARARE, Aug 25 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's major Christian churches on Saturday delivered a stern criticism of President Robert Mugabe's government and denounced the "monster" of political violence that has ravaged the country, in a pastoral letter published in a privately owned daily.
"Many people have fallen victim to this monster. We are witnessing murders, rapes, beatings and abductions," said the letter from the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), published in the Daily News.
"We have heard political leaders instigating violent actions against their opponents. Death threats have been publicly made. This is unacceptable!"
The letter was drafted after a ZCC meeting in the western resort town of Victoria Falls on July 17-20, during which Christian representatives discussed the crisis in Zimbabwe with leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties as well as the press.
The letter also urged the government to restore law and order, put the economy back on track, stop the spread of AIDS, and create an orderly land reform program.
Mugabe's land reform scheme -- aimed at redressing colonial inequalities by moving blacks onto white-owned lands -- has been wracked by violence and closely tied to the intimidation of opposition supporters.
"The situation at present is very chaotic and disorderly because the government has allowed the war veterans to take the law into their own hands," the letter said.
"The laws of the land must be respected and applied impartially. Sadly, this is not the case in Zimbabwe as evidenced by the manner in which the law is selectively applied or not being applied in cases of political violence," it said.
"The ZCC is deeply perturbed by the role given to the war veterans in 'resolving' national issues and by the violence surrounding their activities and the perception that they are above the law."
Veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war have sprearheaded the forcible invasions of white-owned farms since February 2000. Government and police have refused to act against the war vets, despite a Supreme Court decision ordering them to evict the farm occupiers.
The letter follows a similar letter issued in May by Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops.

Zimbabwe-farm-health
Foot-and-mouth outbreak hits Zimbabwe: reports

HARARE, Aug 21 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's struggling economy has suffered another blow with an outbreak of foot-and-mouth cattle disease, forcing a halt in beef exports, newspaper reports said Tuesday.
The outbreak was detected August 16 outside Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, according to the privately owned Daily News.
Some 800 of 7,680 cattle awaiting slaughter for export were believed to be infected in the Willsgrove Feedlot, at the parastatal Cold Storage Company, the paper said.
"As a precautionary measure, beef exports to the European Union and other markets have been suspended until the situation is clear," agriculture secretary Ngoni Masoka told the state-run Herald newspaper.
Veterinary officials were not reachable for comment.
Zimbabwe exports beef to the EU, South Africa, and other African and Asian markets. Annual exports total more than 86 million US dollars, according to the Herald.
Masoka said the Department of Veterinary Services had enough vaccines to deal with the outbreak.
The outbreak began after occupiers planning to resettle white-owned ranches took down perimeter fences, leaving cattle to mingle with wild animals from game parks, according to the Daily News.
An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain earlier this year led to a massive slaughter of cattle. The disease is harmless to humans but renders livestock virtually worthless.
posted by Griffin Shea at 10:16 PM

Zimbabwe-land,sched-4thlead
Bail granted to 21 white Zimbabwean farmers
by Griffin Shea
ATTENTION - ADDS details ///

HARARE, Aug 20 (AFP) - A High Court judge on Monday granted conditional bail to 21 white farmers arrested two weeks ago in a politically charged case that sparked a violent looting spree across northern Zimbabwe.
Judge Rita Makarau granted the farmers bail of 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars (about 1,800 US), but said that 20 of the farmers could not return to Mashonaland West province for four weeks.
Makarau said by preventing the farmers from returning home, she hoped to avoid another outbreak of violence in the region. One farmer is allowed to return to his home to receive medical treatment.
The farmers each had to provide another 100,000 dollars as surety deposit to the court's registrar, and were told to report to police once a week.
The judge also ordered the farmers to surrender their passports and other travel documents and ordered them not to interfere with any state witnesses, some of whom are farm workers.
The farmers' arrest outside the northern town of Chinhoyi on August 6-7 sparked a rampage by violent mobs through a large swath of farmland in Mashonaland West.
Prosecutors accuse the farmers of carrying out an unprovoked attack on occupiers on one farm. The farmers, who include one Briton, said they were trying to rescue a colleague barricaded inside his farmhouse by angry settlers.
The violence around Chinhoyi, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Harare, has now subsided. But Makarau said she considered there to be "a high likelihood of public violence ... if the appelants are returned to the community."
Her decision overturned a ruling by a magistrate's court in Chinhoyi, which had denied bail to the farmers.
Prosecutors said they would not appeal Makarau's decision.
The government claims that farmers created the unrest in the countryside to justify international intervention in the country's affairs.
Around 160 people, mostly farm workers, have so far been arrested and charged with theft.
Some 350 people fled the district as mobs ransacked more than 50 farms.
On Thursday, Britain, the former colonial power, announced plans to evacuate thousands of its nationals from Zimbabwe if the political crisis deteriorates.
The violence prompted criticism from the United States and Germany, while Denmark decided to freeze its aid to Zimbabwe.
Mugabe also suffered a slap from leaders of neighboring nations last week at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Blantyre, where the 14-nation grouping created a task force to help Zimbabwe deal with its political and economic crisis.
Violence broke out on Zimbabwe's white-owned farms 18 months ago, after President Robert Mugabe lost a referendum on a new constitution.
Mugabe has openly backed the forcible occupations of hundreds of white-owned farms as part of his scheme to redress colonial inequities in land ownership.
But the farm violence has had a strong political coloring, and has been closely linked to the intimidation of opposition supporters.
At least 34 people died in political violence ahead of last year's parliamentary elections, while rights groups say 19,000 were tortured.
posted by Griffin Shea at 10:00 PM

Zimbabwe-land
Zimbabwe tells white farmers to leave land

HARARE, Aug 19 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's minister for lands told white farmers to immediately leave their property to make way for black settlers, in an interview with the state-run Sunday Mail.
"Commercial farmers have refused the concept of co-existence, and some of them have even gone on to beat up resettled farmers. That is unacceptable and we now require all those in areas gazetted for resettlement to pave way for settlers," Joseph Made told the paper.
The Zimbabwe government has gazetted 5,327 white-owned farms totalling 9.5 million hectares (24 million acres) for seizure, marking more than 90 percent of all white-owned land.
Made's statement came after last week's upsurge in violence on farms around the northern town of Chonhoyi, where violent mobs ransacked about 50 white-owned farms.
White farmers have won a Supreme Court ruling that declared the government's resettlement scheme unconstitutional and that ordered police to evict thousands of pro-government militants who have forcibly occupied white farms since February 2000.
President Robert Mugabe's government has ignored the ruling and pushed ahead with his scheme, which aims to redress inequities in land ownership left from the white-minority colonial government.
The farm violence has had a strong political coloring, closely tied to the government's crackdown on dissent ahead of presidential elections due in April.
Mugabe is expected to face his toughest challenge ever from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the two-year-old Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Zimbabwe-US-emergency
Zimbabwe's Mugabe not to declare state of emergency: minister

HARARE, Aug 19 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's government will not declare a state of emergency if the United States imposes sanctions on leaders here, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said Sunday, contradicting the foreign minister.
"The suggestion that the American sanctions bill against Zimbabwe would lead to the declaration of a state of emergency is totally baseless," Moyo told the state-run Sunday Mail.
"We will not declare a state of emergency, especially now when we have gone over the dark clouds," he said.
Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told state television Friday that if Zimbabwe failed in its lobbying efforts to stop the bill's passage, a declaration of a state of emergency in Zimbabwe could not be ruled out.
"When a country is under siege, all options will be looked at, including declaring a state of emergency," Mudenge said.
If passed, the law would direct President George W. Bush's administration to support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle to bring about democratic change and restore the rule of law in the country.
It also asks the president to consult with other countries on ways to implement visa restrictions and other targeted sanctions against those responsible for political violence in Zimbabwe.
The bill needs approval from the US House of Representatives and to be signed by Bush before becoming law.
Under a state of emergency, a number of constitutional rights such as freedom of expression, assembly and movement could cease to have effect, according to legal experts.
If imposed, the measure could sharply limit the ability of Mugabe's opponents to campaign against him in presidential elections due in April.
posted by Griffin Shea at 10:57 AM

SADC-summit,sched
Zimbabwe's neighbors slap Mugabe's wrists at annual summit
by Griffin Shea

BLANTYRE, Aug 14 (AFP) - The 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) gave Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe a slap on the wrist at the close of its summit Tuesday, while inching ahead with its reorganization to better tackle pressing problems such as AIDS and poverty.
After two days of talks at their annual summit here, leaders of 10 countries and representatives of the four others did not produce any new proposals on reducing poverty and fighting AIDS -- two of the main items on the agenda.
The summit's final communique said SADC was working on a scheme to provide life-prolonging drugs at low cost to people with HIV.
But the summit broke with its agenda to discuss Zimbabwe's 18-month-old political and economic crisis, which has already had ripple effects in the region and has scared off some investors.
SADC voiced concern at Zimbabwe's deteriorating economy and created a three-nation task force to help Zimbabwe deal with its political and economic problems.
The summit's final communique "expressed concern at the effects of the Zimbabwe economic situation on the region, and indicated its readiness to engage in a dialogue with the government of Zimbabwe and other cooperating partners to resolve the situation."
The communique welcomed Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's effort to mediate between Zimbabwe and Britain, which has spearheaded criticism of Mugabe's controversial land reforms and his crackdown on political dissent.
SADC leaders also agreed to create a task force comprising Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa to work with Zimbabwe on its economic and political woes.
Mugabe suffered another slight at the summit by losing control of SADC's strategic organ on security and defense.
SADC leaders decided in March to make chairmanship of the organ and one-year elected post, ending Mugabe's previously permanent place at its helm.
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano was elected to head the organ, with Zimbabwe and Tanzania deputy chairmen for one year.
Mugabe irritated several SADC members -- including the then SADC chief, former South African president Nelson Mandela -- by using his position to justify deploying some 12,000 of his troops to back the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Angola and Namibia, both SADC members, also deployed troops to back the government against Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed rebels.
But despite the voice of regional concern, Mugabe remained defiant.
His spokesman, George Charamba, said the summit's discussions on Zimbabwe consisted only of Mugabe "briefing his colleagues on the land and what has been going on."
A statement issued by the government of Zimbabwe before the summit's close again blasted Britain, claiming it was backing Zimbabwe's main opposition party "for the now clear and unacceptable neo-colonial purpose of recolonizing Zimbabwe by derailing and reversing the political and economic gains of Zimbabwe's hard-won sovereignty and independence."
The summit's final communique gave little support to any of Mugabe's policies, except a weakly worded statement in support of land reform in general in the region, but pointedly not of Mugabe's own violence-wracked scheme which has helped push the economy into economic free fall.
That has had ripple effects through the region, where smaller nations were used to selling their goods in Zimbabwe's once-thriving economy.
SADC also inched ahead with its reorganization, aimed at creating a professional staff -- instead of ad hoc teams -- to run the group and slimming its 19 divisions into four main directorates.
Diplomats here said the goal is to boost the group's efficiency and its ability to tackle problems including food shortages, natural disasters, conflicts, the AIDS pandemic and poverty.
SADC also plans to eventually form a free trade area among its members -- Angola, Botswana, the DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
posted by Griffin Shea at 8:53 AM

Zimbabwe's neighbors "concerned" by its economic fall

BLANTYRE, Aug 14 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's neighbors expressed "concern" at the nation's economic fall and voiced support for efforts to improve relations with its former colonial power Britain, in the final communique of a summit here Tuesday.

The summit of 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) "expressed concern at the effects of the Zimbabwe economic situation on the region, and indicated its readiness to engage in a dialogue with the government of Zimbabwe and other cooperating partners to resolve the situation."

"Summit welcomed the initiative of President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria to mediate between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, and further welcomed the readiness of the government of Zimbabwe to fully cooperate with the president of Nigeria," the communique said.

"Summit also expressed its total support for the initiative in the expectation that a positive outcome will emerge for all parties concerned," it said.

SADC leaders also agreed to create a task force comprising Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa to work with Zimbabwe on its economic and political woes.

Zimbabwe has slipped into economic free fall over the last 18 months, with hundreds of companies closing during that time. Inflation and unemployment rates hover around 60 percent, and the country is so short on foreign currency that it struggles to import enough fuel and electricity to keep it running.

The economic crisis has unfolded in pace with the political turmoil that has hit Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe lost a referendum in February 2000 on a new constitution.

Shortly after his loss, pro-government militants began invading hundreds of white-owned farms purportedly to push the government to speed up land reforms that would resettled white lands with black farmers in a bid to correct colonial inequities.

But the farm invasions have been closely tied to political violence targetting the opposition, which left at least 34 people dead and some 19,000 tortured ahead of June 2000 parliamentary polls.

Britain has spearheaded international criticism of Mugabe's policies. In turn, Mugabe has accused Britain of backing the opposition.

Nigeria was due to host talks this week with Zimbabwe and a team of foreign ministers from Commonwealth countries aimed at improving relations with Britain. Those talks have been postponed to the first week of September.
posted by Griffin Shea at 11:37 PM