Zimbabwe Supreme Court hears land seizure dispute

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's Supreme Court began hearing an appeal on Monday by embattled white farmers challenging the constitutionality of President Robert Mugabe seizing their land without compensation.

The mainly white 4,500-member Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) filed an application in September to contest the legality of Mugabe's land-seizure drive, which he has vowed "will never be stopped by anyone or any court" because it is meant to correct imbalances created by colonial rule.

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In the past week, Zimbabwe's official media have carried articles questioning the ability of the judiciary to be impartial on the land issue and advertisements praising Mugabe's stance.

"We condemn unrepentant and unapologetic Rhodesians who are abusing the policies of national reconciliation and unity by misleading the international community while seeking to monopolise our constitution and the courts to deny us access to our most important heritage: land," Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party said in a two-page advertisement.

"Say enough is enough. Put a stop to the madness. Say no to their arrogant abuses. This land is your land. Don't let them use the courts and the constitution against the masses," it said.

Earlier this year Mugabe amended the constitution to give him power to seize white-owned farms for blacks with no obligation to pay for the land if former colonial power Britain does not provide funding.

Britain denies responsibility, but says it is ready to help fund an internationally acceptable land redistribution program that is fair, transparent, economically viable and aimed at alleviating poverty in a country where 75 percent of the 12.5 million population is classified poor.

Mugabe's government has sanctioned the invasion of hundreds of farms by self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war against white rule and ignored High Court orders to drive them out. He argues that they are demonstrating support for his land redistribution program.

The 76-year-old former guerrilla leader, in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence 20 years ago, says it is immoral that 4,500 farmers occupy more than 70 percent of the country's most fertile land.

He wants to acquire at least five million hectares of the 12 million under commercial farming.

Since May, the government has served notice to acquire more than 2,000 of the 3,041 white-owned farms earmarked for black resettlement and settled hundreds of people on parts of the farms.

But critics say Mugabe's land-seizure drive is meant to divert public attention from a serious challenge to his rule sparked by a deepening economic crisis blamed on gross government mismanagement.

A survey published by a pro-democracy regional organization two weeks ago showed that one in two Zimbabweans want Mugabe to quit before the end of his current six-year presidential term in 2002 and stand trial for alleged genocide.

It also showed that most Zimbabweans don't support his land-grab program, and don't see land reform as the key issue facing the country.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last month launched a drive to impeach Mugabe for the violent campaign waged by ZANU-PF supporters -- with the tacit approval of his government -- ahead of June parliamentary elections in which the opposition grabbed an unprecedented 57 seats.

The violence left at least 31 people, most of them MDC supporters, dead.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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