SADC to monitor dialogue

Zimbabwe’s government and opposition will embark on a “national dialogue” aimed at ending 18 months of violent unrest, the chairman of a summit of regional leaders meeting on the crisis in Harare said on Wednesday. The Associated Press reported that President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, the chair of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), said nations in the region would monitor a special committee that would include representatives of President Robert Mugabe’s government and the opposition.

Speaking at a late-night press conference at the close of the two-day meeting, Muluzi said regional leaders accepted Mugabe’s assurances that there would be an end to violence and intimidation linked to the transfer of some 5,000 white-owned farms to landless blacks.

However, anxiety remained within the farming community over Mugabe’s commitment amid reports on Wednesday that ruling party militants assaulted a farmer in eastern Zimbabwe.

A white farmer barricaded himself in his home near Marondera, about 70 km east of Harare after being assaulted earlier in the day by a group of about 15 militants, the Commercial Farmers Union said in a statement. The farmer, evicted from his farm by militants last month, was advised by police to return home on Wednesday despite government pledges to ensure the safety of landowners, the union said in a statement. On his return, the militants “immediately set upon him, forcing him to seek refuge inside the house. There was no reaction from police,” the statement said.
The farmer was not identified.

However, in a sign that the police were beginning to crack down, a four-day siege by militants on a farm near Beatrice, 80 km south of Harare, was broken up by the police, AP reported.

Police freed the white farm manager who had been barricaded in his homestead, the union said. No immediate comment was available from the government or police on the incident in Marondera. Union officials said that on two nearby farms, militants forced farm workers and their families to attend all-night political meetings where they were had to chant ruling party slogans and pledge loyalty to the government.