THE LONDON INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
2 APRIL 2000

 Hain wounds Zimbabwe farmers' case by shooting from lip

 By Alex Duval Smith, Africa correspondent in Johannesburg

 2 April 2000

 As government-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe increases by the day,
Britain's clumsy handling of the crisis has come under criticism from the
opposition within its former colony.
 "From here it feels like Britain does not care about Zimbabwe any more,"
said David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers' Union. "Tony Blair
is interested in Europe and does not seek to have any role with Britain's
colonial partners."

 As Zimbabwe's 4,500 white commercial farmers - scapegoats for the country's
crisis - continue to lock horns with black militants who have invaded some
of their land, the Foreign Office minister for Africa, Peter Hain, who calls
 himself "a son of Africa", is seen by many to be making matters worse.

 "Britain is being very emotional," said a diplomat from another western
embassy in the capital, Harare. "At the same time, it is deploying a
relatively junior minister to insult an old African leader like Robert
Mugabe, who hungers for respect and approval. It is just the wrong tactic."

 Last week President Mugabe accused the Blair government of being "the
spokesmen of the international community against Zimbabwe" and of having a
"gay philosophy".

 Mr Hain countered that Zimbabwe was putting "a pistol to Britain's head"
through the continued occupation of some 400 farms. Mr Mugabe wants to push
an amendment through parliament this week to legitimise the land-grabs and
win votes in the general election, which is due in May, though likely to be
postponed.

 Mr Hasluck, a supporter of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change, said:
 "Mugabe is an old Marxist yet his relationship with Thatcher was much
better than it is with Blair."

 Mr Mugabe, at 76, is old enough to be Mr Blair's father and liberated his
country from the white rule of Ian Smith. He has little time for multi-party
democracy and believes homosexuality was brought by the colonisers. Yet,
until Nelson Mandela usurped his position at the end of apartheid, Mr Mugabe
was a heavyweight in southern Africa.

 In his view - using the logic of a one-party ruler - the British Government
comes in many guises. In Mr Mugabe's view, Mr Blair was responsible when the
president was tapped on the shoulder by Peter Tatchell, a gay activist and
therefore "lower than dogs and pigs", outside his London hotel last
November. Mr Tatchell tried to make a citizen's arrest, accusing Mr Mugabe
of torturing two journalists who had been unpatriotic enough to criticise
his government. A bizarre concept for the president, and, overall, a
humiliating experience.

 At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Durban a couple of weeks
 later, Britain appeared in the guise of the Foreign Policy Centre - a
think-tank in British vocabulary but a Government mouthpiece in Mr Mugabe's
view. Its "toilet paper" report accused Zimbabwe of breaching basic
standards of human rights and good governance.

 Mr Mugabe said he expected nothing different from Mr Blair's government of
"gay gangsters". Mr Blair dismissed Mr Mugabe as "the eccentric end of the
market".

 The problem was passed to Mr Hain - apparently well qualified because he
was
born in Kenya, brought up in South Africa and was once a great admirer of Mr
Mugabe. But for the president, nothing could be more inflammatory than a
white African.

 As the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) has
watched its popularity decline - especially in February's referendum on
constitutional reform - Mr Hain has pushed up Mr Mugabe's blood pressure. He
has said "Zimbabwe is poised on the brink of an abyss" and of "political
oblivion". He has called the referendum "deeply flawed". After Zimbabwe
opened a British diplomatic bag last month, Mr Hain called the country
"uncivilised" - a word from the colonial lexicon which, on the
 lips of a white African, sounds racist. The Zimbabwe state mouthpiece, The
Herald, countered by accusing him of owning a farm in Zimbabwe.

 But there is also evidence of understanding between the governments.
Britain has allowed Zimbabwe to buy spares for Hawk fighter planes used to
support the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo against its
rebels. And after the heavy rains which flooded Mozambique and other
southern African countries, Britain gave the Red Cross £250,000 to spend in
Zimbabwe.

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