Zimbabwe In The News Again

Back in June, Robert Mugabe, evil President of Zimbabwe, was "cleaning up" some of Zimbabwe's poorer areas as an energetic supplement to his policy of throwing out the productive white farmers. See my previous posts on these topics.

In July, after he had the poor areas of his country buldozed, Mugabe wasn't satisfied. The London Telegraph reported on July 22 that the people he had made homeless would not be allowed to remain in the churches where they had taken refuge.

Witnesses said hundreds were cleared from about 17 churches in the country's second city of Bulawayo. Clergymen said they believed the homeless had been taken to a government "transit" camp and would then be dumped in remote rural areas.

They were victims of President Robert Mugabe's "Operation Restore Order", during which security forces burned legal and informal dwellings in the Killarney township in Bulawayo on June 10.

That was in July. Now South Africa's Mail & Guardian reports on the latest in the Zimbabwe land grab from white farmers.

A Cabinet minister said on Thursday it was up to Britain to compensate thousands of white Zimbabweans whose farms were seized under President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said a constitutional amendment Mugabe signed on August 30 that strips landowners of their right to appeal expropriation "finally settled the land question in Zimbabwe".

"All title deeds of the farmers have been cancelled, with the British government having sole responsibility to compensate the evicted farmers," Chinamasa told state radio.

Zimbabwe has repeatedly accused former colonial power Britain of creating economic and political trouble in this Southern African nation. Mugabe also has accused white Zimbabweans of orchestrating opposition.

Until 2000, whites farmed 17% of the country and earned most of its export revenue. Farming was the backbone of an economy now in free fall.

So, because Great Britain colonized Zimbabwe (then known as Southern Rhodesia), Mugabe believes it's up to the British to pay for his heavy-handed policies that have destroyed Zimbabwe's economy. Mugabe is just one more in a long line of third-world strongman dictators whose only concerns are: (1) lining his own pockets and (2) holding onto power so he can keep lining his pockets even longer. He sees the people of his nation only as a means to his own personal end.

My heart breaks for the people--black and white--of Zimbabwe.