Jabou, I checked and,indeed,the Lancaster House Agreement provides for land acquisition for resettlement during the first decade of Zimbabwe's independence which "broadly followed a willing buyer/willing seller approach,aided by resources made available by Great Britain," according to donor assessment. I suspect that the absentee-landlord's intransigence is a reaction, in part, to the Zimbabwean leadership. Should there be a change in policy in Harare, including disengagement in the DRC conflict, and Blaire's huge majority in parliament holds to a reasonable degree, I beleive you will see some progress in the resettlement problem with both Britain and the donor community reacting positively. On Basil's p oint that Mugabe squandered the bouyant economy he inherited from Ian Smith;while it is true that Zimbabwe moved from net exporter to net importer of food,I do not beleive that on the monetary front things were all that rosy as you seem to be claimimg. According to yet another assessment the "complex array of price, investment,interest rate,foreign exchange and import controls(mostly inherited from the UDI era)" could have only gone to protecting domestic production,stifle competetion and discourage investment.The historical perspective of Yusupha is relevant. Sidi Sanneh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------