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THE SITUATION: Over 160 white farmers have been arrested by Zimbabwean police, after defying a government order to vacate their land by August 8th. 35 farmer have since appeared in court and have been granted bail, another 96 were still technically under arrest, awaiting court appearances.

The usual bail conditions are that the farmers vacate their land or face up to two years in prison and fines. According to the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, his “Fast-track” land reform policy aims to correct colonial injustice, which has left 70% of the best farmland in the hands of white farmers.

White farmers make up less than 1% of Zimbabwe’s population but until recently have owned around a third of the country’s most productive farmland. White-owned land is in more fertile areas with better rainfall, while black farming areas are often in drought prone regions.

Since March 2000, eleven white farmers and an unknown number of their black workers have been killed, with many others seriously beaten.

The evictions come at a time when six million Zimbabweans face starvation from the current drought, which relief agencies say are the worst in a decade.

The United States has re-iterated its criticism of the land reform saying the confiscation of white-owned farms is contributing to the growing hunger crises in the region. It is feared that by handing the land to people without the means to manage them properly Zimbabwe’s agriculture will collapse.

Should white farmers in Zimbabwe be forced to leave their farms?

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Why should the farmers give back land, they have farmed their for years giving jobs to all colours and creeds. If we did this in Britain, there would be uproar from the black communities. What I want to know is why is it ok for them to be racist and throw out all whites, but if we attempted to do that here there would be terrible reactions. And by the way, I am not a racist, some of my good friends are black I just feel that there are dual standards these days.

Black Americans and British think Mugabe is a solution but if you had to put it to the Zimbabwean people, 90% now will tell you he is an old man out of touch with reality.

The events taking place in zimbabwe right now, are what I call history repeating itself. The same thing happened here in the uk during the agricultural revolution.I am not going in to detail about that, but I am glad Mugabe is standing up to the entire colonial idealogy. No longer shall the UK & the USA set rules for other nations. A lot of zimbabweans here in the UK are employed in factories, hosiptals not to mention nursing homes. Why are they having to do menial jobs which locals do not want to do, when they could do highly intellectual jobs which they probably were trained to do in zimbabwe. There is a certain evil about the way Europe and America deal with other non-western countries and races both here and abroad. To cut a long story short, Europe and America do not have the right to dictate standards to the rest of the world. Its not surprising to see members of other countries retaliating e.g september 11 and Mugabe.

Mugabe is a crook. Who the hell does he think he is? Letting his own people live in poverty and starve, while he battles white farmers. He condones violence and murder whilst his "supporters" kill their own people. He is an animal. In regard to Danielle, make an intelligent comment in the future. It's your kind of ignorance that causes these problems.

Being Zimbabwean myself it hurts to see the way the land reformation is going about. The people who are suffering because of this process are the black people themselves. Yes, the land should be distributed evenly; but I feel that the way and the reason it's being done is not for the welfare of the common people, but it's because the ones on top are losing popularity. White farmers should not be forced to leave, they have provided a lot of jobs, homes and schools for their workforce in a country with an unemployment rate of over 70%. The land needs to be distributed evenly between the white Commercial farmers and the black Subsistence farmers; that way both parties gain.

I believe that the people of Zimbabwe should demand their land back by all means. White farmers were given time to vacate and resisted. They are not the real citizens of that nation, the land they have was acquired through colonialism, which was actually theft. So by Mugabe and his supporters demanding the land which was actually theirsin the first place is actually justifiable. Should they burn their houses or forcefully evict them? I believe the white "farmers" did more harm when they acquired that same land.

Well, it is kinda understandable the hurt, resentment and anger the Zimbabweans are feeling towards the white farmers for owning their land and basically being better off than the locals. But on the other hand they are going about it the wrong way. Burning down their houses and terrorizing the whites is not far from the slavery which was abolished years ago. I feel in this day in age, there are more civilized ways of putting a point across i.e. using diplomacy.

They should absolutely be made to give it back because it was never theirs in the first place.

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