Loyalist
02-23-2009, 06:10 PM
Scores of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe have been invaded since the country's national unity government took office, a union chief has told the BBC.
Commercial Farmers Union President Trevor Gifford said 77 properties had been occupied in the last fortnight.
MPs, police, the military and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe officials had taken part in the invasions, he said.
Many of the farmers targeted recently mounted a successful legal challenge to government land reforms, he added.
The BBC attempted to contact a number of officials from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party - including the ministers of agriculture and lands - but no-one was available to comment on the farmers' union claims.
Attempts to contact the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister earlier this month, were also unsuccessful.
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Tribunal ruled in November the Zimbabwe government's programme of seizing white-owned property for redistribution to landless black farmers was discriminatory and illegal.
The government said at the time that it would not comply with the ruling. (Continues)
Source (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7906031.stm)
Commercial Farmers Union President Trevor Gifford said 77 properties had been occupied in the last fortnight.
MPs, police, the military and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe officials had taken part in the invasions, he said.
Many of the farmers targeted recently mounted a successful legal challenge to government land reforms, he added.
The BBC attempted to contact a number of officials from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party - including the ministers of agriculture and lands - but no-one was available to comment on the farmers' union claims.
Attempts to contact the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister earlier this month, were also unsuccessful.
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Tribunal ruled in November the Zimbabwe government's programme of seizing white-owned property for redistribution to landless black farmers was discriminatory and illegal.
The government said at the time that it would not comply with the ruling. (Continues)
Source (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7906031.stm)