Opposition criticises African inaction as looting continues

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on Tuesday described the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) as “a conspiracy of dictators trying to rally behind another dictator”, Reuters reported. He denounced the organisation’s failure to condemn violence by President Robert Mugabe and urged South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki to apply the same pressure his country did to Ian Smith’s Rhodesian government to accept the principle of majority rule in the days of apartheid. “Attacks on bloth black and white farmers have nothing to do with land reform,” Tsvangirai told a press conference as fresh reports came in of looting in the Chinhoyi-Banket area, 90 km northwest of Harare. In a telephone interview from Chinhoyi a local church pastor, Deon van Dyk, described as “bull” overnight reports that police had taken action to curb attacks which have caused the evacuation of 100 families and the trashing of about 40 homesteads. He said the Doma area, 60 km north of Chinhoyi “may have quietened down”, but “as we speak they are looting farms in the Banket area” (40 km south of Chinhoyi). “I am angry, and it is time it started showing,” said Van Dyk, accusing the authorities of deliberately encouraging the onslaught to further Mugabe’s land reform programme. A further four attacks took place overnight with many farmers, who were willing to try and resume farming operations, still fearful to go back, the report said. The MDC said Mugabe hoped to chase whites off their land, short circuiting even limited legal safeguards, in time to win votes for next April’s scheduled presidential elections, when Mugabe expects to seek a further six-year term after 22 years in power. Tsvangirai accused the ruling ZANU-PF party governor for the area, Peter Chanetsa, of masterminding the week-long violence and alleged that a special army unit had been deployed, in plain clothes, to terrorise suspected Mugabe opponents.