MDC chides SADC over support to Mugabe

Southern African leaders have taken “a very bad position” in supporting the embattled government of President Robert Mugabe and its land reform programme, Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told IRIN on Tuesday. A Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit decision on Monday called on Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial ruler, to honour obligations under the 1979 Lancaster House independence agreement and pay for land reform. But Tsvangirai, who leads the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the heads of state had failed to acknowledge the issue of government-backed political violence accompanying the land reform programme. “They are confusing the need for land reform, which MDC supports, with the issue of the rule of law. You don’t camouflage land reform through violence, which is the reason the country is suffering,” Tsvangirai said. “If (SADC) is in solidarity with Mugabe on land reform, then unfortunately it is a very bad position.” He said the summit should have “insisted on a stop to the violence” led by war veterans, and for land reform to be administered by a non-partisan body involving all stakeholders. The two-day SADC summit, which ended in Namibia on Monday, instructed Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Bakili Muluzi of Malawi to lobby the British government on behalf of the region to support Harare’s land policy. Mugabe’s “fast-track” programme aims to takeover five million hectares of mostly white-owned commercial farms with only limited compensation for the resettlement of 500,000 landless families. “We are convinced that to have a land reform programme which is fair and just to all the stakeholders, it is imperative for the United Kingdom government to honour its obligations under the Lancaster House agreement to provide resources for that purpose,” a summit statement said. Tsvangirai said of South Africa’s apparent support for Mugabe and his ruling party: “All we know is that by endorsing ZANU-PF they are undermining their chances of being an honest broker in the crisis.” The British government argues that since independence in 1980, it has provided roughly US $70 million for land reform. Harare’s land redistribution programme has, however, been dogged by problems. By 1990, only 52,000 families - just over 30 percent of a target set for 1985 - had been resettled. A 1992 Land Acquisition Act gave the government power to acquire land for redistribution, and provided for compensation. The Act was amended in June 2000 to allow the takeover of farms with compensation only paid for improvements. A clause states that owners should look to Britain for payment for the land itself. A British embassy spokesman in Harare told IRIN that Britain cannot support the government’s land policy because, “primarily it does not seem to be a sustainable programme”. In the light of illegal farm seizures and the authorities refusal to uphold two court orders demanding the removal of the war veterans, it would be “rewarding those who have broken the law” he added. A British foreign office statement said: “Both Britain and all other donors would like to see a programme of land reform which adheres to the principles agreed to by the government of Zimbabwe at a land conference in 1998. These principles include a transparent, fair and cost effective programme which takes place within the rule of law and is part of a wider policy of reducing poverty. Britain will not give further support to government-led programmes in Zimbabwe unless there is an end to violence and farm invasions and clear adherence by the government of Zimbabwe to the principles it has already agreed to.”