On Wed, 14 Jun 2000, Patrick Bond wrote:
> ... I've been in SA townships during police raids, Port-au-Prince,
> Chiapas, and other hotly contested sites, but never have seen and felt
> the fear of ordinary people like in rural Zimbabwe last week...
Is Chomsky too sanguine in this comment from the Z Magazine forums?
... As it looks to me, in Zimbabwe
there has been a considerable upsurge in
government violence against the political
opposition, which might well win election
otherwise. That's been accompanied by sharply
increased efforts by Black veterans and others to
take by force the lands that they feel should be
theirs, not without reason. After independence,
Britain agreed to play a constructive role in
arranging transfer of land from white owners who
hold the vast bulk of the good land to the Blacks
who are the overwhelming majority of the
population, and basically had their lands stolen
from the during the imperial conquest. Britain
hasn't done so. Zimbabwe is in serious economic
difficulties. I think these circumstances have
led to heightened concern on the part of Britain
and others. The Netherlands, for example, have
offered to provide funds for language [land?]
purchase-transfer, but on condition that Mugabe
cuts off violence against his enemies, Black and
White...
--C. G. Estabrook