Zimbabwe opposition says illegal land reform risky

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's opposition warned on Thursday that President Robert Mugabe's government would plunge the country into further chaos if it took illegal steps in resettling black peasants on seized white farms.

"The government cannot lawfully acquire these farms within the time available, implying that it intends to use...extra-legal means, hence plunging this country into further anarchy," Tendai Biti, land secretary of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told a news conference.

Mugabe has announced plans to take over nearly half the 12 million hectares (30 million acres) owned by about 4,500 white farmers. Last week the government began settling black families on 200 farms whose acquisition the farmers have not contested.

On Wednesday the government said that before the start of the rainy season in three months' time it would have resettled landless peasants on about 100 farms in each of the country's eight provinces.

Biti also warned that the "fast track" resettlement approach would not allow the cash-strapped government to equip peasants with the means to farm the land, further undermining the key agricultural sector which contributes 20 percent to gross domestic product.

"Our people will be dumped on unsurveyed pieces of land, in the middle of the bush, under circumstances where there are no access roads, no social infrastructure, no support services and no capital support," Biti said, adding that Mugabe's land programme made no mention of title deeds for resettled people.

"What the government is doing is sentencing people to perpetual subsistence," Biti said. "If people don't have titles to land, how are they going to borrow from banks?"

The programme would also displace about 500,000 farm workers and their families and threaten the viability of financial institutions exposed to targeted farms, Biti said.

"We estimate that the 804 farms that have been targeted for acquisition were indebted to about Z$5 billion ($100 million) to financial institutions. Surely it is foreseeable that domestic finance capital will collapse," he warned.

Self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's war of independence have invaded almost 1,000 farms since February, disrupting farming activity and damaging the vital agriculture sector.

Farmers say the invaders are still stealing, poaching, assaulting and threatening farmers and their laborers despite assurances from the police that they would stop the violence.

Commercial Farmers' Union President Tim Henwood said last week that the group of mostly white farmers was dropping a court application challenging the constitutionality of government plans to forcibly acquire white-owned farms to resettle blacks.

He said the union was committed to working with the government on land reforms.

At least 31 people, mostly opposition supporters, were killed during the farm invasions and a wave of violence that swept across Zimbabwe ahead of a June general election which the ruling ZANU-PF party narrowly won.

Mugabe has passed legislation making former colonial power Britain liable to pay compensation for land "stolen" from blacks by colonialists.

Britain says it will only fund a fair and transparent land reform process that benefits the needy.

($1 - 50 Zimbabwe dollars)

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