- Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has said soldiers
returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo war will get preferential
treatment in the carve-up of seized farms, a local newspaper reported on
Sunday. The official Sunday Mail said Mugabe told a rally of his Zanu PF
party in north-western Zimbabwe that land was still available for all aspiring
farmers, but soldiers who fought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
were a special case. "Those who were in the DRC are a source of pride
and honour because they accomplished their mission well," he said.
"Those who have applied for land will be given special consideration
and everyone who desires to go into farming should not be denied the opportunity,"
he added.
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- Last week, Zimbabwe withdrew the last of its troops from
the former Zaire where they fought alongside Angolan and Namibian soldiers
to defend the Congolese government against rebels backed by Rwanda and
Uganda. At the height of the war, which broke out in August 1998, about
11,000 troops or a third of Zimbabwe's army was deployed.
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- Zimbabwe has been in turmoil since pro-government militants
began invading white-owned farms in early 2000. Mugabe, in power since
the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980, says his
land drive is aimed at correcting colonial injustice, which left 70 percent
of the country's best land in the hands of white farmers.
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- The Zimbabwe government has ordered nearly three quarters
of the country's 4,500 commercial farmers to quit their land without compensation
under a programme to seize farms to make way for largely landless blacks.
The campaign has drawn criticism at home and abroad and is blamed by analysts
for a severe food shortage affecting nearly seven million people or half
of the population. The government insists the shortages are solely the
result of drought.
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- http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=5465
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