Zimbabwe made no deal to stop violence - Moyo

Zimbabwe did not agree to curb violence on white-owned farms under a Commonwealth-brokered deal on the land crisis, government spokesperson Jonathan Moyo was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Moyo said there was no requirement in the agreement for the Zimbabwean government to end the violence. "Not in the agreement. This is not a secret agreement. There is no such condition in the agreement," Moyo said. He said the deal only required the government to implement land reforms within its laws and its constitution.

He said the violence was a "side effect" of the land crisis and that it would disappear "on its own" once the government resettled black farmers on white-owned farms. "Once there is recognition of the fundamental problem, the symptoms will disappear," he said. Under the Commonwealth-brokered agreement reached on 6 September, Zimbabwe agreed to curb violence on the farms in exchange for British financing of its land reform scheme.