Focus report on church mediation, tobacco sales, London talks

As church leaders in Zimbabwe urged an to the growing crisis over the occupation of white farms around the country, the country's annual tobacco auction started with a boycott by major growers. Officials told IRIN on Wednesday that the first day of the selling season started with 3,000 bales of flue-cured tobacco, a third below normal. The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) and the Commercial Farmers Union (CFA) both cited concerns by farmers that the Zimbabwe dollar had not been devalued. More than 600 white-owned farms in Zimbabwe occupied by veterans of the independence war and followers of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party since Mugabe lost a referendum in February that would have allowed the government to requisition the land. In a series of violent incidents that ensued, a dozen members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Congress of Democrats and two white farmers have been killed as the country prepares for new parliamentary elections next month. Church mediation The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) organised a meeting to defuse the crisis in the capital, Harare on Wednesday. "The ZCC reaffirms its mandate to advocate for justice, peace and reconciliation," said ZCC secretary-general Dennison Mafinyane. "The Council looks forward to this meeting with all political leaders to seek an immediate solution." News reports said the Vicar-General of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe, Tim Neill, had received a death threat after calling for Wednesday's meeting. He said he was terrified when he realised the threatening letter may have come from the people who had detonated a bomb outside the offices of the independent 'Daily News' on Saturday. But Neill said he would not back away from efforts to bring peace. While MDC supporters and representatives lost their lives in recent days, a number of farm workers have been beaten up or doused with petrol and set alight in violence directed at black farm workers accused of supporting the MDC. In one incident this week, an entire harvested crop of tobacco ready for auction was set alight. The tobacco auction Although Zimbabwe growers produced a record crop this year of 220 million kg of flue-cured tobacco, the ZTA said in a statement that producers should try to deliver tobacco - the country's main foreign exchange earner - next month instead. "While this recommendation is subject to individual grower's decisions, consistent deliveries of tobacco before this date are highly unlikely," the statement said. ZTA President Richard Tate said continuing farm invasions and diesel shortages in some areas were likely to keep many farmers from the auction floors until early May. Tate told a news conference buyers would look to other markets, such as Brazil, Zimbabwe's main competitor. "The US crop has come down considerably and right now the world's manufacturers have put their hat on Zimbabwe and Brazil but there is a great danger that if manufacturers are unhappy with conditions when they come here to purchase tobacco they can easily go to Brazil," he said. Zimbabwe is the world's third largest tobacco producer and the crop is its main export. The ZTA also said the status of this year's crop was unclear, and that the disruption had already cost the county millions of dollars in lost revenues. During a visit to some of the farms last week, farmers told IRIN normal work had been rendered difficult, if not impossible, by the occupations. They also said they could not afford to sell until the Zimbabwe dollar is devalued. The MDC position The MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, now posing the first real challenge to Mugabe's grip on power since independence from Britain in 1980, has said political violence appeared to be the price of change. In a statement on Tuesday, he said his supporters would not be able to avoid responding to the attacks for much longer, although he said this would be a last resort. The London talks In London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook condemned renewed violence in Zimbabwe and called for fair elections without further intimidation. Cook spoke out after the MDC reported that five supporters had been killed and a third badly beaten over the Easter weekend. His remarks came as a ministerial delegation sent by Mugabe arrived to discuss the land reform issue which has soured relations between the two countries. Officials told IRIN the Zimbabwean delegation would insist that Britain pay for the land reforms as part of its colonial obligation. The Zimbabwe delegation meeting Cook is led by Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge and John Nkomo, the Local Government and Housing Minister. British diplomats called it one of the most important meetings between Britain and Zimbabwe since the Lancaster House negotiations of 1979, which led to the independence the following year. Foreign Office officials said they hoped the meeting would bring agreement on a set of principles on land reforms, and pledges from Zimbabwe that there will be an end to violence and the intimidation of opposition activists. This broad framework, they said, was agreed when Cook met Mugabe in Cairo this month and approved the idea of the delegation. The foreign office minister in charge of African affairs, Peter Hain, who has been frequently criticised by Mugabe in recent weeks will not attend the talks because he is in Washington, the foreign office said. The Zimbabwean media quoted Nkomo this week as saying that he sees the talks as a means of securing British agreement to pay for the government's land redistribution programme.