Mugabe warns defiant farmers
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Your support makes all the difference.President Robert Mugabe is threatening "stern action" against Zimbabwe's white farmers, who have vowed to defy his "lawful orders" to stop farming and vacate their properties to facilitate resettlement of black peasants.
Mr Mugabe told a meeting of his Zanu-PF party's central committee late on Friday that he was also ready to clamp down on the MDC, the main opposition party, which is planning demonstrations against his rule, and any civic groups which sought to join in. "We shall not brook such nonsense," he warned. "The government and its appropriate arms are ready to deal most effectively with any planned mischief-makers.
"If the radical and reactionary group of racist commercial farmers wants to join ... mischief-makers and law-breakers, then the same law-enforcing measures will extend to them."
But while the President was threatening white farmers producing food for his country, a leading United Nations official was warning that Zimbabwe's food crisis was "very serious". Six million Zimbabweans, almost half of the southern African nation's 13 million people, would face famine unless quick and decisive action was taken.
"The situation is very serious, and unless there is massive effort to get in aid, [the food shortages] will have a very devastating effect," Kenzo Oshima, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said after a three-day visit to assess Zimbabwe's food needs.
He called for a massive food relief effort to avert famine. He did not give details of his talks with the government, but sources said Mr Oshima had asked Mr Mugabe to facilitate the work of aid agencies who were threatening to pull out of Zimbabwe because of operational constraints.
There are widespread accusations that food is denied to people in rural areas unless they can produce Zanu-PF membership cards, and that aid is steered away from areas which supported the MDC in March's presidential election.
Asked whether he agreed with the view of some aid groups and regional analysts that Zimbabwe's food crisis was largely manmade by Mugabe, Mr Oshima said he was not there to discuss politics. "Our responsibility is not to engage in political talks, but to make sure that the people in need are assisted. We let others deal with the political problems."
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