Mugabe defends land takeovers at Harlem meeting

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Does the justice of Mugabe's land struggle, and national struggle against
IMF interference, outweigh the  injustices of individual bourgeois
democratic rights in that country?

Chris Burford

_____________


          Via Workers World News Service

         Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000
          issue of Workers World newspaper
          -------------------------

          Mugabe defends land takeovers at Harlem meeting

          By John Catalinotto
          New York

Throughout last spring and summer, the establishment media in the United
States and Britain took aim at President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe for his
support for landless veterans who had taken back the nation's farmland from
wealthy farmers.

Washington and London also want to stop Zimbabwe from giving military
support to the more independence-minded government of Laurent Kabila in
Congo. That country is defending itself from an imperialist-backed assault
from Uganda and Rwanda disguised as a civil war.

This first week of September, President Mugabe had a chance to defend
himself and his 11.1 million people here in New York as he attended the
so-called Millennium Summit of the United Nations. He did this both at a
meeting of thousands of people at the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Harlem
and at the UN itself.

Mugabe was the acknowledged leader of Zimbabwe's independence struggle,
which in 1980 won freedom from British and settler rule in the state called
Rhodesia. Because the struggle ended in a compromise, settler-farmers kept
their control of the lion's share of arable land. This land was supposed to
be turned over to the African population, with Britain--the former colonial
power--compensating the big farmers.

With Britain still refusing to implement this part of the agreement,
veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war have begun to seize land holdings
and squat on them. Instead of using the police and army to put out the
squatters, Mugabe gave political support to these struggles.

Land struggle continues

When he spoke before the UN on Sept. 8, Mugabe defended the land seizures:
"Our conscience is clear. We will not go back. We shall continue to effect
economic and social justice for all our people without fear or favor.

"We have sought to redress this inequity through a fast-track land reform
and resettlement program. My country, my government, my party and my person
are labeled 'land grabbers,' demonized, reviled and threatened with
sanctions in the face of accusations of reverse-racism.

"If the new millennium, like the last, remains an age of hegemonic empires
and conquerors doing the same old things in new technological ways, remains
the age of the master race, the master economy and the master state, then I
am afraid we in developing countries will have to stand up as a matter of
principle and say, 'Not again.'"

Mugabe under attack in Congress

Even as he spoke in New York, Mugabe was again under attack in the United
States. Congress has begun discussing a bill euphemistically entitled "The
Zimbabwe Democracy Act." Like a similarly titled law aimed at socialist
Cuba, it lays down criteria that allow Washington to put severe economic
pressure on that African country and allocates funds to intervene in
Zimbabwe's internal affairs.

The bill specifically criticizes Zimbabwe's aid to Congo. "The crisis in
Zimbabwe," it reads, "is further exacerbated by the fact that Zimbabwe is
spending millions of dollars each month on its involvement in the civil war
in the Democratic Republic of Congo."

It also attacks land seizures without compensation, insisting that "the
Government of Zimbabwe" must demonstrate "a commitment to an equitable,
legal, and transparent land reform program which should respect existing
ownership of and title to property by providing fair, market-based
compensation to sellers." Of course this doesn't recognize that the land
was stolen from Africans in the first place under Britain's colonial rule.

And it threatens that unless those and other conditions are met, the U.S.
can allow no debt relief and other international bodies cannot extend aid
to Zimbabwe.

It also tries to support the opposition to Mugabe and his party's
leadership of the Zimbabwean government and implies that a new government
would receive increased aid from the U.S. It is blatant interference in the
internal affairs of an African nation.

In addition, members of that opposition, acting in concert with U.S.
authorities, served Mugabe with a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. district
court alleging that before Zimbabwe's election he orchestrated a campaign
of violence to keep his political party in office.

They filed the case under a 211-year-old law that allows foreigners to sue
in U.S. courts for violations of international law. The lawsuit seeks about
$400 million in damages from Mugabe.

This is similar to a civil suit brought against Radovan Karadzic, the
Bosnian Serb leader. That suit resulted Aug. 10 in a $745-million verdict.
Another lawsuit was filed Sept. 1 against former Chinese Premier Li Peng,
regarding his role in suppressing the attempted counterrevolution in
Tiananmen Square in 1989.

These suits, like the one against Mugabe, pretend to be about human rights
but in fact are aimed at providing justification, or at least a figleaf,
for constant U.S. intervention around the world in the interests of
corporate profits.

          - END -

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