Workers World Sept. 21, 2000: Mugabe defends land takeovers at Harlem meeting

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------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------

Mugabe defends land takeovers at Harlem meeting

By John Catalinotto

New York

Throughout last spring and summer, the establishment media in the United States and Britain took aim at President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe for his support for landless veterans who had taken back the nation's farmland from wealthy farmers.
Washington and London also want to stop Zimbabwe from giving military support to the more independence-minded government of Laurent Kabila in Congo. That country is defending itself from an imperialist-backed assault from Uganda and Rwanda disguised as a civil war.
This first week of September, President Mugabe had a chance to defend himself and his 11.1 million people here in New York as he attended the so-called Millennium Summit of the United Nations. He did this both at a meeting of thousands of people at the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Harlem and at the UN itself.
Mugabe was the acknowledged leader of Zimbabwe's independence struggle, which in 1980 won freedom from British and settler rule in the state called Rhodesia. Because the struggle ended in a compromise, settler-farmers kept their control of the lion's share of arable land. This land was supposed to be turned over to the African population, with Britain--the former colonial power--compensating the big farmers.
With Britain still refusing to implement this part of the agreement, veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war have begun to seize land holdings and squat on them. Instead of using the police and army to put out the squatters, Mugabe gave political support to these struggles.
Land struggle continues
When he spoke before the UN on Sept. 8, Mugabe defended the land seizures: "Our conscience is clear. We will not go back. We shall continue to effect economic and social justice for all our people without fear or favor.
"We have sought to redress this inequity through a fast-track land reform and resettlement program. My country, my government, my party and my person are labeled 'land grabbers,' demonized, reviled and threatened with sanctions in the face of accusations of reverse-racism.
"If the new millennium, like the last, remains an age of hegemonic empires and conquerors doing the same old things in new technological ways, remains the age of the master race, the master economy and the master state, then I am afraid we in developing countries will have to stand up as a matter of principle and say, 'Not again.'"
Mugabe under attack in Congress
Even as he spoke in New York, Mugabe was again under attack in the United States. Congress has begun discussing a bill euphemistically entitled "The Zimbabwe Democracy Act." Like a similarly titled law aimed at socialist Cuba, it lays down criteria that allow Washington to put severe economic pressure on that African country and allocates funds to intervene in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.
The bill specifically criticizes Zimbabwe's aid to Congo. "The crisis in Zimbabwe," it reads, "is further exacerbated by the fact that Zimbabwe is spending millions of dollars each month on its involvement in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo."
It also attacks land seizures without compensation, insisting that "the Government of Zimbabwe" must demonstrate "a commitment to an equitable, legal, and transparent land reform program which should respect existing ownership of and title to property by providing fair, market-based compensation to sellers." Of course this doesn't recognize that the land was stolen from Africans in the first place under Britain's colonial rule.
And it threatens that unless those and other conditions are met, the U.S. can allow no debt relief and other international bodies cannot extend aid to Zimbabwe.
It also tries to support the opposition to Mugabe and his party's leadership of the Zimbabwean government and implies that a new government would receive increased aid from the U.S. It is blatant interference in the internal affairs of an African nation.
In addition, members of that opposition, acting in concert with U.S. authorities, served Mugabe with a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. district court alleging that before Zimbabwe's election he orchestrated a campaign of violence to keep his political party in office.
They filed the case under a 211-year-old law that allows foreigners to sue in U.S. courts for violations of international law. The lawsuit seeks about $400 million in damages from Mugabe.
This is similar to a civil suit brought against Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader. That suit resulted Aug. 10 in a $745-million verdict. Another lawsuit was filed Sept. 1 against former Chinese Premier Li Peng, regarding his role in suppressing the attempted counterrevolution in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
These suits, like the one against Mugabe, pretend to be about human rights but in fact are aimed at providing justification, or at least a figleaf, for constant U.S. intervention around the world in the interests of corporate profits.

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