Zimbabwe government slams judges, warns of new land war

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's justice minister has lashed out at white and Asian judges, warning that their opposition to President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned land could plunge the country into war.

Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in an address reported by state radio that the white and Asian judges could not serve Mugabe's democratic state after having served Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith's white government prior to independence in 1980.

In a speech to a law faculty summer school in eastern Zimbabwe last week, which was reported on Wednesday, Chinamasa warned the courts not to oppose the government's controversial farm seizure program.

"Closing or frustrating the legal process will send a clear message that resolution of the land issue would have to be through the resuscitation of the armed struggle pitting the landless and war veterans against land owners," he said.

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Chinamasa said the conduct and rulings of some judges, their work history under Smith and their failure to mix socially with blacks had left the government wondering whether they could faithfully serve Mugabe's administration.

"How can personnel so high up in the pecking order of a regime grounded in racism faithfully serve a democratic state?" he asked.

Chinamasa named five white and Asian judges, including Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, who, he said, were tainted by their association with Smith's white regime.

"I believe that in a country of 12.5 million black people, it is unacceptable to get people appointed to the bench who, in a year, cannot claim to have interacted socially with a single black person of their social status," he added.

Gubbay's secretary told Reuters on Wednesday the judges would not speak to the press on Chinamasa's speech.

Earlier this year the judges replied to a string of attacks by government leaders, including Mugabe, with a terse statement saying they were professional.

Zimbabwe's judiciary -- with a majority of black judges -- is highly regarded internationally and locally. The judges have handed down several rulings against Mugabe and his followers.

Political analysts say their independence has proved inconvenient to the government, especially in disputes over Mugabe's drive since February to seize hundreds of white farms without compensation.

The government has ignored a number of court orders to evict self-styled 1970s independence war veterans who have occupied white farms since February in support of Mugabe's program.

Chinamasa said a recent reference by one judge to "so-called war veterans" showed his distaste for the country's freedom fighters.

"This is an unfortunate outburst from a man who formed the inner core of a racist regime and who was specifically showered with accolades by his former boss, Ian Smith, in his memoirs," he said.

Chinamasa said the Supreme Court, which is hearing a series of appeals over the land issue, had a "choice to act as a midwife to land reform or to be irrelevant to the resolution of this historic problem."

At least 31 people, including five white farmers, died in a violent campaign by Mugabe's ruling party ahead of parliamentary elections in June and the associated farm invasions.

"As black people, we realize that, if we lose out on the land issue, we will be reduced to a nation of drunkards as they have done to the Red Indians of the Americas and the Aborigines of Australia," Chinamasa said.

Last week, a mob of self-styled veterans invaded and disrupted a Supreme Court session hearing a land appeal case.

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

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