Zimbabwean government allocates 5,000 farms to black families

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- The Zimbabwean government on Monday banned 1,000 white farmers from cultivating their fields and gave them three months to vacate their homes as part of its "fast track" land redistribution plan. \nThe government has targeted 5,000 white-owned commercial farms, about 95 percent of all farms owned by whites, for seizure and redistribution to landless blacks. \nIn a government gazette released Monday, President Robert Mugabe invoked special powers forcing the 1,000 farmers who had already received notification their land was being seized to stop all work on it, regardless of whether they had crops waiting to be harvested or appeals of the seizures pending in court. \nThey were given three months to leave their houses. \nLands and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the government would begin allocating plots on the farms to 51,000 black families. \nHe said 201,000 black families had already been resettled as communal farmers on formerly white farms, a number white farmers dispute as vastly exaggerated. \n"This (plan) is now fundamentally complete and has been a major success," Made said. \nWhite farmers say more than 500 farms are lying idle as a result of political violence, while many others are in only partial production, with militants occupying some of the fields. \nRuling party militants began occupying white-owned commercial farms in March 2000, soon after voters rejected a constitutional referendum that would have further entrenched the powers of Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The government later announced its plans to seize the white farms. \nThe opposition Movement for Democratic Change won 57 of the 120 elected seats in parliamentary elections in June 2000, despite a campaign election monitors said was rife with violence, mainly caused by ruling party supporters. \nOpposition officials accuse the government of using land seizures to garner support and further intimidate political opponents ahead of what promises to be hard-fought presidential elections next year. \nVice President Joseph Msika said Sunday the government supported arming the ruling party militants following the abduction of one of their leaders. \nThe government's announcement of farm seizures Monday would further damage agriculture in a country deeply dependent on it, said Adrian de Bourbon, a lawyer for the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents most white farmers. \n"I believe this is yet another nail in the coffin of commercial farming in this country," he said. \nZimbabwe, which normally runs large food surpluses, is now facing serious food shortages.