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Article: Land, politics, race.(Zimbabwe)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- May 8, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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HARARE, ZIMBABWE--When Neville Tapson received word from a neighbor late one night that trouble was coming his way, the 69-year-old white farmer packed a few belongings, jumped into his truck, and drove off with his wife and son. The next morning, a mob of landless blacks arrived at the farm. They torched his tobacco stock, worth $250,000, firebombed his house, assaulted the laborers, then slaughtered a few cattle and settled down for a barbecue.
In the past two months, veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war and their followers have seized 1,060 white-owned commercial farms in Zimbabwe. Most of the invasions have been peaceful, but in some cases black ...