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UK fails to deliver on promises: Mugabe
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Zimbabwean president accuses the former prime minister Tony Blair of reneging on British pledges to pay compensation for repossessed lands. Robert Mugabe, responding to a question by Trevor Gifford, Chairman of Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) representing the last remaining white farmers in Zimbabwe, said, "I told Blair to keep his money and we were going to keep our land", a Press TV correspondent quoted him as saying on Thursday. Zimbabwe launched the land reforms in 2000 to resettle blacks on 4,000 white-owned commercial farms, but the process was marred by politically-charged violence. Mugabe, who is attending an investment conference in Harare of foreign fund managers, financiers, investors and entrepreneurs, repeated his stance that the former colonial ruler - the UK -- was responsible for paying owners who were stripped of their farms. "The responsibility to pay compensation is that of the British, we pay compensation for improvements, developments, whatever you can evaluate as improvements, we pay compensation for, that's our obligation and we honor that part," he said. Mugabe also blamed western sanctions on Zimbabwe for the country's economic downturn. Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who was also at the conference, said that all parties in Zimbabwe recognized that land reform was needed but differed on their approach. Posted by: Fred 2009-07-10 |
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