GPA parties urged to denounce farm violence

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said in a report last week that the

parties to the global political agreement (GPA) should strive to

restore the rule of law as one of the conditions to restoring the

viability of a commercial agriculture sector battered by a decade of

state-sponsored farm seizures and violence.

It noted that restoring the rule of law would enable the government to

come up with a credible land reform programme that addresses the

historical imbalances and the injustices of the 2000 fast track land

reform process.

All parties to the GPA should publicly denounce the continued land

invasions as this undermines the determination shown by the parties to

reform the human rights culture. The continued violation of property

rights has negative impact on economic recovery, said the forum, a

coalition of 19 human rights groups that assist victims of organized

violence.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has previously ordered the arrest and

prosecution of illegal farm occupiers but his word has largely been

ignored, with targeted white farmers reporting continuing invasions of

their properties and disruption of farming activities.

President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirais partner in a fragile coalition

government formed by the arch-rivals in February 2009, has openly

incited his Zanu (PF) supporters to grab the remaining farms owned by

white farmers whom he accuses of working with the West to plot his

ouster from power.

The Commercial Farmers Union says invaders have raided at least 200 of

the about 300 remaining white-owned commercial farms since the

formation of the coalition regime last year.

The Human Rights Forum warned that the land reform programme would

further hurt the economy and other unintended targets such as farm

workers if it continued under the present format characterised by

lawlessness and disruptions of production.

The UN estimates that up to one million Zimbabweans were internally

displaced between 2000 and 2008.

A significant number of the internally displaced persons are former

farm workers while others are families displaced by a 2005 slum

destruction programme and by political violence two years ago.

It is feared that the number may have increased since the formation of

the coalition government when hordes of Mugabes Zanu (PF) supporters,

so-called war veterans and members of the army and police stepped up

farm invasions.