US embassy cable - 02HARARE1850

UNCLAS HARARE 001850 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PD (DALTON), AF/S (SCHLACHTER), AF/RA, INR/R/MR 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT LAND REFORM IN ZIM; HARARE 
 
 
  1.   Under headline "Farming: a great leap forward into 
      uncertainty" the independent daily "The Daily News" 
      dedicated its August 10 editorial to criticize the 
      haphazard land reform program in Zimbabwe.  Excerpts: 
 
  2.   "The land reform program reached its peak this week 
      with the expected departure, under Section 8, from 
      their farms of all commercial farmers from 
      properties designated by the government.  The legal 
      challenges in the courts are of significance because 
      they indicate the farmers are not taking the seizure 
      of their properties lying down.  Even if they don't 
      succeed, their message to the government is clear: 
      the exercise could have been conducted with more 
      decorum than it was. . .The legal challenges to the 
      program suggest strongly that its fast-track element 
      may have included a deliberate ploy to short-circuit 
      the law relating to its implementation.  The 
      suspicion of something not quite moral about it will 
      linger for a long time to come.  The persecution of 
      a whole race of citizens has left many Zimbabweans 
      wondering about the sincerity with which the 
      doctrine of reconciliation was pronounced on the eve 
      of independence in 1980.  People have been told that 
      when the hand of friendship was stretched out to the 
      commercial farmers, they spurned it, hence the 
      apparent decision to abandon the softly-softly 
      approach.  Instead, a roughrider strategy was 
      employed, which has culminated in. . .images of 
      farmers leaving the homes they have known for 
      generations with little but their memories. . . ." 
 
SULLIVAN