IRIN Focus on independence anniversary

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday he was seeking "to reach an understanding" with the predominantly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) over the occupation of their lands by war veterans and supporters of his ruling ZANU-PF party. But hours before he spoke in a nationally televised speech marking Zimbabwe's 20th anniversary of independence from Britain, a second white farmer was killed by armed veterans who invaded his homestead on a farm outside the country's second city, Bulawayo. Mugabe stopped short of ordering the veterans and party supporters off an estimated 600 farms they have occupied since February when his government lost a referendum on constitutional reforms that would have allowed the government to seize land without compensation. In the living room of an occupied farm, the elderly farmer and his wife, an IRIN reporter and the local Anglican minister watched the speech in silence, wondering whether the veterans already on the farm would seize their home too. Mugabe's speech Mugabe started off by saying independence celebrations were being kept low-key this year because government resources were being diverted for the assistance of an estimated 500,000 people affected by recent floods in the southeast where roads, bridges and homes were destroyed. He spoke of the impact that HIV/AIDS, high inflation and interest rates were having on an economy already in crisis. He also praised the army as a "dependable player in global stabilisation and peacekeeping" in Somalia, Mozambique, and currently, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Across this predominantly agricultural country, the war veterans, the farming community and the public at large had waited weeks for him to address the crisis which has brought new racial tension to Zimbabwe. Mugabe called it "the last colonial question heavily qualifying our independence". "The issue of land remains emotive and vexed. It has always been so," he said. "Many will recall that negotiations for independence almost got bogged down over this matter." Sadly, he said, the commercial farmers had contested the subsequent second phase of the Land Reform Programme in the courts. "It has been slow and frustrating. We have been slowed down by the 'willing seller, willing buyer' clause in the Lancaster House agreement." Britain, he said, did not want to honour its part of the bargain, and landless Zimbabweans had grown frustrated. "Yesterday, I met with the farmers so that we can reach some understanding. I met with the British foreign secretary who suggested we send a delegation. We should be able to find a way forward," he added. "We are determined to resolve it once and for all. Let us defend our freedom and deliver the benefits of independence to our people." But in a state television interview afterwards, Mugabe said: "The white farmers are enemies of the state." The remarks contrasted, famers' leaders said, with assurances they had been given in a meeting with Mugabe on Monday. Another farmer is murdered Beyond the open living room and a carefully nurtured garden on a hilltop looking out onto a model livestock and vegetable farm of 700 hectares in the Enterprise Valley some 50 km east of Harare, a score of veterans and some youthful followers had set up camp not far from the bungalows of the 80 families employed on the farm. They were marking out sections of the farm they intended to seize. Their leader, a war veteran carrying a mobile telephone, had come to the farmer and asked to be handed the property. He was told it was in fact mortgaged to a bank where the title deeds were lodged. "That was yesterday morning," said the farmer who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. "He was quite aggressive about it all, but gave me his name and his telephone number after I told him the situation, and they are now camped down there. We are both in our seventies and our three daughters have married and left home. We live out here alone. I am a committed Zimbabwean and I cannot say this speech offers much hope of an end to all this. It is anarchy." Shortly before the television address, the battery-operated two-way radio which all the local farmers use to keep in touch, crackled into life from a table in the entrance hall: "We have just heard that Martin Oulds of Corporation Farm in Nyamandhlovu, about 40 km east of Bulawayo, was killed this morning. Shots were heard. His crippled wife is fortunately safe with the neighbours." About eight farms in the Enterprise Valley are currently occupied. It was in a neighbouring valley where the first farmer to die, David Stevens, was killed on Saturday. Then a woman's voice came over the radio to announce that her husband had been taken away by veterans at a neighbouring farm pending payment of compensation for the destruction of their shacks by the farm's employees. She said she would find the money, but said the situation was too tense for a planned visit by the Anglican minister and IRIN. We heard later that he had been freed and that they planned to leave their farm for good later on Independence Day. They would stay with friends in the city. By Tuesday evening, the farmhouse had been set alight by veterans, church officials told IRIN. The veterans had been transported to the local farms by buses hired by their association and, the farmers said, by the ruling party. A complex issue The CFU said that in total about 619 white-owned farms are currently occupied by an estimated 5,000 veterans and their followers. The farmers insist that police should have no difficulty in carrying out two court orders for their eviction, but that the Mugabe government lacks the political will. "Mugabe is using this as his last political card ahead of next month's parliamentary elections because he was so embarrassed by the referendum defeat," said the wife of a farmer who had left her home with her children to stay with friends in town. "Most of the people occupying our farm are under 30 which would make them too young to be war veterans in any case," she told IRIN. "Many of them are wearing ZANU-PF shirts. They are really Mugabe's Red Guards. They do not behave as if they want to build this country up." Since 1980, the government, with the financial support of Britain, has purchased 3.5 million hectares of commercial farmland, according to official figures. It is a requirement under Zimbabwean law that any farm sold must first be offered to the government. If it does not seek to acquire the property, a "certificate of no present interest" is issued. A donor conference was set up in 1998 after the government designated 1,471 farms for acquisition. It issued a joint communiqué signed by all parties - the government, donors and stakeholders - on a transparent process for the redistribution of land. The conference led to the so-called second phase of the Implementation Plan of the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme which was debated and approved by the cabinet. The government purchased 70 of 120 properties offered for sale, and it currently owns about 300,000 hectares of former commercial farmland that has not been resettled. In addition, according to official figures, state farming operations currently use some 500,000 hectares of former commercial farmland. The CFU says that of the total of 39 million hectares of land in Zimbabwe, its members currently hold 20.7 percent, with national parks and state forests accounting for 15.5 percent, communal areas 41.8 percent, large-scale corporate estates 2.4 percent, with state land leases, resettlement areas, and small scale commercial farming making up the remainder. An end to the crisis The farmers union insists that they are not a whites-only body and claim a number of ruling party members of parliament among their members. They also said they are keen to resolve the problem which has been unfair to both sides of the farming divide in Zimbabwe. Analysts said they expected little progress until after next month's parliamentary election. But they also said they feared a propaganda campaign by the veterans against farmers who have declared their allegiance to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In a bid to defuse political tensions, the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has suggested a French-style "cohabitation" agreement with Mugabe should his party win. CFU director David Hasluck told IRIN he had been urgent contact with the home affairs minister on Tuesday following an earlier meeting with Mugabe to defuse the growing tension. On the farm out at Enterprise Valley an elderly couple known in the area for their liberal views and their farm clinic don't know what to expect. "Yesterday, after the meeting with the veterans occupying the land, we still held our major planning session for the next 15 months," the farmer said. "This farm does well out here and as Zimbabweans we are committed and want to stay committed. We are the major onion producer and farm hybrid maize seeds for use across the country."