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Man
of Straw 14th
July 2002 White
farmers being forced off their land in Zimbabwe were warned last night by Jack
Straw, the Foreign Secretary, that Britain has "no magic wand" to
protect them. More than
2,000 farmers have been given a deadline of August 10 by President Robert Mugabe
to leave their farms, and although work has come to a halt on most of their
properties, few show any signs of leaving, raising fresh fears for their safety.
Twelve white farmers have been murdered since the violent land occupations began
almost two and a half years ago. In an
interview with The Telegraph, Mr Straw said: "It would be a deceit to
pretend that there is some magic wand that could immediately resolve the despair
and injustice meted out against white and black alike in Zimbabwe." The Land
Acquisition Act, announced by Mugabe's government in late June, made it illegal
to sow crops, plough fields or feed animals on the listed farms and gave the
farmers 45 days to move out with their families. Their departure will leave more
than 100,000 black farmers out of work. Mr Straw
said that Britain was "very concerned" about what might happen on the
expiry of the deadline next month, but refused to offer advice to the farmers.
He played down earlier reports of contingency plans to airlift thousands of
British passport-holders out of Zimbabwe. "We
have contingency plans for a hundred countries and these are kept under
review," he said. "It's not for me to tell people what to do. People
have got to make their own decisions." So far,
around 400 of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white farmers have left the country, moving to
neighbouring African countries or to Britain, but with the collapse of the
currency and inflation of 110 per cent, few can afford to leave. Mr Straw's
remarks came amid warnings from the World Food Programme and other international
organisations that Zimbabwe is on the brink of famine, with more than half of
the country's population of 12 million facing starvation - largely because of
the policy of seizing white-owned commercial farms. Until a few years ago,
Zimbabwe was a net exporter of food. Aid
agencies complain that food deliveries are being seized by workers from the
ruling Zanu-PF, preventing them from being delivered to areas that voted against
Mr Mugabe in the March presidential elections. The WFP has made three official
complaints in the past month. Mr Straw
said: "We are seeking to ensure humanitarian relief goes in as quickly as
possible for everybody regardless of skin colour, and that pressure is
maintained on the government of Zimbabwe. We do not recognise the elections.
What we would like to see is a re-run." He held
out little hope of change, though. "There are limits to what the
international community can do in the short term," he said. "I am
afraid that is just a reality. I understand the anger and despair but it would
be playing a trick if we pretended there was some magic wand to resolve this in
the short term." He
defended the Government against charges that not enough has been done to try to
end Mr Mugabe's reign of terror in Zimbabwe. "The consequence of
British-led diplomacy, notwithstanding the efforts of Mugabe to blackmail the
African states, is that the EU took sanctions, the US weighed in and that
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth," he said. The
Foreign Secretary insisted that the travel sanctions, imposed by the European
Union in February, were having a more significant effect than realised, despite
the fact that Mr Mugabe has already breached them. The
sanctions on Mr Mugabe and 19 top government and military officials freeze their
European assets and ban them from travelling to Europe, a favourite destination
for shopping and the education of their children. However, opposition members
are lobbying for sanctions to be extended to another 30 individuals including
businessmen backers of Mr Mugabe. An EU meeting to discuss this is set for July
22. Daily
Telegraph (UK) - By Colin Brown and Christina Lamb |