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Nod for white farmers

Christopher Thompson

Harare: President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, which has mounted a six-year campaign to seize white-owned farms, is poised to allow hundreds of 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 in a spectacular U-turn by Mr. Mugabe.

In July 2005, Mr. Mugabe declared that his land reform policy would be complete only when there was ``not a single white on the farms''. But a contracting economy, hyperinflation touching 1,100 per cent and food shortages have forced the authorities to allow some interested whites to return. The World Food Programme has said that two million Zimbabweans will need food aid in the next six months. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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