Zimbabwe defiant on land policy

Mugabe: Told to make elections 'free, fair and transparent'

BLANTYRE, Malawi -- The Zimbabwe government has said its controversial land reform programme is "irreversible" despite growing international concern.

President Robert Mugabe left a one-day summit of the Southern African Development Community saying he was happy while his foreign minister insisted the administration would stick to its policy.

Other leaders, including Malawi President Bakili Muluzi who was chairing the SADC summit, had urged Mugabe to resolve his country's political and economic crisis.

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Mugabe left the 14-nation summit after seven hours saying: "All is well that ends well. We are very happy that all the issues were well discussed."

Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said: "Any attempt that Zimbabwe should reverse its land policy is like whistling in a grave yard (a waste of time)," he said.

"It is irreversible because land is what we fought for and it is what is just and what is right."

Mugabe and his administration want to redistribute Zimbabwe's most fertile land -- most of it owned by white commercial farmers -- to the landless black population.

While there is international controversy over the ambition Mugabe has given tacit support to -- or at least turned a blind eye to -- landless blacks, who describe themselves as veterans of the war of independence, occupying white farms.

The one-day conference had opened with an appeal by Malawian President Bakili Muluzi that Mugabe ensures free and fair elections in March's presidential poll.

"As the date for the presidential elections in Zimbabwe has been announced, we are very hopeful that the elections will be peaceful, free, fair and transparent," Muluzi said in an opening address to the SADC summit attended by Mugabe.

"I hope that it will be so by allowing every Zimbabwean to participate effectively in the elections in the spirit of democratic principles and values which are within the framework of the SADC protocol," Muluzi said.

SADC had been under pressure to condemn Mugabe and even consider imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Mugabe, 77, arrived in Malawi on Saturday in a combative mood, accusing former colonial power Britain of trying to help the opposition into power in the March election.

Also on the summit agenda were the wars in the Congo and Angola.

Hopes of bolstering Congo's peace negotiations hit a snag even before the one-day summit got under way, when President Joseph Kabila declined to meet rebel groups who have been fighting to oust his government.

The leaders of the rebel groups, the Congolese Rally for Democracy and the Congolese Liberation Movement, were invited to Malawi by Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, who heads SADC's regional security body.

Kabila also objected to the leaders of Rwanda and Uganda -- which back the rebels -- attending the summit.

The presence of foreign troops in Congo was "an injustice that has to be solved sooner than later," and three previous SADC meetings had failed to ensure they left, Kabila said on Sunday. "I hope we will be successful this time around."

Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia also sent troops to back the Congolese government after war broke out in August 1998. A peace accord brokered in 1999 has been repeatedly violated.

Nevertheless, SADC leaders were encouraged that Congo's war seemed to finally be drawing to a close, said Justin Malewezi, the Vice President of Malawi, which chairs SADC.

Prospects for peace were considered slimmer in Angola, where a civil war, which began after the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975, has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced about four million others -- a third of the population. A four-year-old peace accord collapsed in 1998.

Despite U.N. sanctions, UNITA rebels are still selling diamonds to fund their effort to overthrow the government, Malewezi said.

"It is only when all loopholes for the sanctions busting are closed that UNITA's capacity to destabilise Angola will be decisively paralysed," he said.

"Let's try at this very difficult time to assist, to take measures that will help us stabilise the situation," he said.

SADC comprises South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Mauritius, Seychelles, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia.