By Paul Fauvet and Basildon Peta
Harare - International pressure on Monday mounted on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to stop violence against white farmers and implement a land reform exercise based on the rule of law.
Zimbabwe's Foreign Ministry sources said Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano and Malawian President Bakili Muluzi had reiterated, at a meeting with Mugabe in Beira on Monday, the need to resolve the land issue without violence and stop the Zimbabwe crisis from snowballing across the entire Southern African Development Community region.
A top Zimbabwean foreign ministry official, when asked to comment on the leaders' private discussions, said: "Their message was the same one that SADC leaders have been saying - let land redistribution proceed without violence."
The official said Muluzi and Chissano had agreed that there was a need for SADC to launch an initiative to appeal for international aid to fund Zimbabwe's land reforms.
"However, all that would be made easier if President Mugabe is seen as doing something to stop commercial farm violence," said the official.
Sources said the meeting between Mugabe and the two regional leaders was a direct offshoot of SADC's summit in Malawi two weeks ago.
The Malawi meeting set up a four-country task force to resolve the land crisis in Zimbabwe, which threatens to derail investment flowing into the entire SADC region. South Africa and Botswana are also part of the task force in addition to Malawi and Mozambique.
Muluzi, the new SADC chairperson, reportedly told journalists that the one-day meeting was aimed at finding a lasting solution to the long-running Zimbabwe land crisis.
The Zimbabwean foreign ministry official claimed that at the SADC summit in Malawi, President Thabo Mbeki had persuaded other SADC leaders to play a more active role in efforts to rein in Mugabe.
Chissano, a close friend of Mugabe's, has generally kept a low profile on Zimbabwe. However, he too has been concerned about the crisis in Zimbabwe and its potential to destabilise SADC.
The Zimbabwean crisis is already having serious knock-on effects on Mozambique. Zimbabwe's shortage of foreign currency has severely restricted its ability to pay for crucial imports.
- The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) arrived in Harare on Monday to express solidarity with Zimbabwean churches in their fight against violence.
Konrad Raiser said his one-day visit had been prompted by increasing violence in Zimbabwe.
He said he was seeking to better understand the situation and looking for ways the WCC could help to overcome the violence.
- In a major U-turn, Zimbabwe's minister of agriculture, Joseph Made, on Monday admitted that Zimbabwe would import maize from South Africa to avert predicted food shortages.
Made said Zimbabwe would need to import 100 000 tons of maize from South Africa to complement existing reserves. But farming analysts insisted that Zimbabwe would need to import more.
Agricultural bodies have said Zimbabwe would need to import more than 700 000 tons of maize and wheat.
Aid bodies have warned that Zimbabwe faces massive food shortages because of anticipated major crop deficits caused by a region-wide drought and disturbances on commercial farms.
Zimbabwe used to produce adequate stocks of the staple maize crop until war veterans began indiscriminately seizing white-owned farms with Mugabe's open approval.
An executive with Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers' Union said Zimbabwe would need more than 300 000 tons of maize just to avert starvation. - Foreign Service