GO TO SOURCE


ZIMBABWE, AFRICA, February 15, 2003: President Robert Mugabe’s “war veteran” militia is changing its land-grabbing campaign in Zimbabwe from white-owned farms to Asian-owned businesses. The move has echoes of the policy pursued by Idi Amin in Uganda 30 years ago, which saw 60,000 Asians expelled while their land, money and businesses were seized. Last week, the veterans accused the 12,000 people of Asian descent in Zimbabwe of being economic criminals. They were ordered to hand over money and computers, which might have recorded transactions that violate the country’s foreign-exchange laws, or risk having their homes “nationalized.” Leaders of the small but affluent Asian community are considering telling families to prepare to leave. Asian community leaders have said they fear they are being targeted by the militia groups because European farmers have been effectively neutralized following the seizure of white-owned farms over the last two and a half years. Last year Andrew Ndlovu, second in command of the National Liberation War Veterans, told the Herald, a state-controlled newspaper, “We want these Indians to surrender a percentage of their land. They are not here to develop our country or to work with us. They are economic looters.” Most of Zimbabwe’s Asians were born here. They are descended from families that arrived in east and central Africa at the end of the 19th century, to work as artisans and clerks while the Germans and British built roads and railways.

Post Views: 228