Mugabe's term creates Zimbabwe divisions

[citizen snips]

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's ruling party recommended Sunday that President Robert Mugabe's term be extended by two years, to 2010, delaying a showdown between rival factions over the choice of his successor.

At the annual Zanu-PF party conference outside the capital of Harare, delegates in general endorsed the extension of Mugabe's term but referred the matter to the party's central committee for formal approval.

The decision by the 4,000 delegates not to vote on the plan, some analysts say, reflected internal dissent over the extension.

Mugabe said the move would combine presidential and parliamentary votes in order to save on the costs of polling and ease the handling of election administration for Zimbabwe's 5 million registered voters.
more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061217/ap_on_re_af/zimbabwe_mugabe

[Big_Mike]

1. How long will this thug hang on?

I frankly believe that he will stay until he dies. His grip on that poor nation is simply too strong for him to step down voluntarily. He has raped the land and destroyed many of the farms to garner support from his people. What a tragic, tragic waste. One of the richest agricultural areas in Africa destroyed out of sheer incompetence and corruption.

[classysassy]

2. Shrub's

partner in crime.

[David__77]

3. No to UK/US anti-Zimbabwe campaign.

I oppose many aspects of Mugabe's politics, but an independent Zimbabwe under Mugabe is INFINTELY preferable to a settler-colonial, racist state under white or British rule.

[Nihil]

4. Do you support the newfound "freedom" of Iraqis too?

> but an independent Zimbabwe under Mugabe is INFINTELY preferable
> to a settler-colonial, racist state under white or British rule.

This strikes me as the same blind rhetoric that claims Iraqis are
better off now since being "freed" from Saddam ...
:eyes:

[David__77]

7. Zimbabweans liberated themselves.

Iraqis are not liberated - they are enslaved by a new colonialism, occupied by the US. There is a world of difference.

[slackmaster]

9. They "liberated" themselves right into the poor house

The country is a mess.

[David__77]

11. It is their right to run their own country.

Colonialists claimed to well run the affairs of "savages" who could not govern themselves. It was criminal then, and is criminal now.

[slackmaster]

14. I agree it's their right

And they are doing a damned shitty job of it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2950218&mesg_id=2950218

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Who is campaigning for white rule in Zimbabwe? (n/t)

[rinsd]

6. You oppose nothing.

You simply give this as your line never actually criticizing any of the behavior.

[David__77]

8. Those are matters for Zimbabweans to decide.

My criticisms are ideological. They are too conciliating with entities like the World Bank and the IMF. They are timid in carrying out land reform. They allow a parasitical minority to continue its exploitation of Africans.

But these criticisms are secondary to matters of importance to me. It's my job as an American to oppose US aggression. It's for the people of Zimbabwe to decide their own fate, free from foreign subversion and interference.

[brentspeak]

10. You said you were also opposed to "white rule"

That doesn't seem to fall under the categories of "US aggression" or "foreign subversion and interference". Seems you just don't like white Africans.

[David__77]

12. They are not "white Africans," they are settler colonialists.

They are economic parasites who feed off of African labor. That is why ZANU and ZAPU waged a successful armed struggle for national liberation.

[brentspeak]

13. They're NOT Africans???

They're "settler colonialists"? Then that must make today's white Zimbabweans each average about 120 years old. Some of them might even be 150 years old. Maybe the white Zimbabweans should return to where they were born -- like, uh, Zimbabwe?

[Nihil]

16. Hah! In that case ...

... I look forward to the day when the Native Americans throw off the
chains of their imperialist invaders and evict all the settler colonialists
who have been living in the USA since the late 1400s.

Freedom from economic parasites and their descendants! :crazy:

[LeftishBrit]

17. Their ancestors may have been, but they were mostly born in Zimbabwe

According to the same logic, white (and many non-white) Americans would have to move out because their ancestors took over Native American land; and white Australians and New Zealanders would have to move out because their ancestors took over Aboriginal and Maori land. Not supporting or condoning colonialism in any of these cases, but how long can you punish people for the sins of their ancestors? It's no more logical than the attitude of white racists who, for example, tell 3rd-generation British Asians to 'go back where you came from' (which is here, of course).

[davepc]

15. Timid land reform? in Zimbabwe? They removed thousands of white farmers from their lands

and now are begging them to come back.

President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, which has mounted a six-year campaign to seize white-owned farms, is beginning to allow some white farmers to return to their land as the country faces starvation and economic collapse.

Since November, 19 white farmers who lost ownership of their land have been granted 99-year government-backed leases on resettled farms. "We wanted to come back, because it's home," one farmer told The Independent on Sunday on his 100-hectare farm outside the capital, Harare, where he is planning to grow maize and tobacco. "Farming has been in my family for generations. We're just happy to be back on the land."

There are only about 600 white farmers left in Zimbabwe, down from 4,500 in 1999. That was the year Mr Mugabe was defeated in a referendum; from 2000 the government decided to "fast-track" land reform in an effort to win over a hostile electorate, resulting in farm seizures by supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party who claimed to be landless veterans of the country's war for independence. Dozens of white farmers and black farm workers were killed in violent land seizures.

In July 2005 Mr Mugabe declared that his land reform policy would only be complete when there was "not a single white on the farms". But a contracting economy, hyperinflation and severe food shortages have forced the authorities to allow some interested whites to return. The Land Minister, Flora Buka, said the government had received more than 200 applications so far from whites to take up farming again.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2081650.ece