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| International-UN-NGOs | |
| Weeds and wasted lives on the farm run by UNÂ’s rural kingpin | |
| 2007-06-27 | |
| It looks as if no one has lived here for years. Tall, dense elephant grass grows everywhere. There is a rutted track that passes a nearly empty dam where a truck has broken down and been left to its own fate. Sheds and barns for curing tobacco are deserted. Gates hang open and there is scant fencing. A fallen tree lies across the track. The only sign of activity is a flock of sheep owned by a neighbouring white farmer who leases the unused grazing.
On its 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres), Mr Shepherd had planted 80 hectares of high-grade tobacco and 200 hectares of maize. Cattle grazed on 300 hectares. Last year Mr Nhema managed three hectares of tobacco and ten hectares of maize. “This year there is nothing,” said a former farm security guard, who asked to remain anonymous. “There is a small patch of soya beans. The rest is weeds. The whole 1,000 hectares are weeds.” Mr Nhema, who is now the world’s leading international authority on global policies for the prudent management of rural and industrial resources, has never been on the farm for more than a few hours and comes once every few months, said the guard. A relative lived in the house for a while “but he knew nothing about farming”, and it is now empty, he said. The 4,300 farms seized illegally by President Mugabe since 2000 have followed the same pattern overwhelmingly, and turned one of the most robust and enterprising agricultural industries into a model of neglect. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum says this week in a report – the first detailed study on the human rights violations against white farmers and their black workers during the land grab – that there is “a plausible case for crimes against humanity” having been committed in the past seven years by Mr Mugabe’s regime. “There is a compelling need for these to be investigated and the perpetrators to be More than a million people living on commercial farms suffered incidents of assault, torture, being held hostage, illegal detention and death threats, it estimates. More than 10,000 farm workers are believed to have died after their removal and the consequent loss of employment, housing, nutrition and access to health-care on the farms. | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #6 |
| Posted by: Natural Law 2007-06-27 13:23 |
| #5 |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-06-27 12:44 |
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| Posted by: Farmin B. Hard 2007-06-27 11:55 |
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| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2007-06-27 11:12 |
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| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-06-27 10:55 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2007-06-27 08:14 |