Zimbabwe's Farmers
	Since 1997 the Zimbabwe government under President Mugabe has been implementing an uncompromising policy of seizing farmland owned by white farmers, much of it the most productive and profitable land in the country. More than half the white owned land has been assigned for seizure without compensation. The Government claims that the policy seeks to redress past colonial injustices by redistributing land to poor black farmers. The process has become increasingly politicised as President Mugabe’s supporters have used violence against both white farmers and black workers , resulting in ten white farmers being murdered. In reality much of the seized land has been allocated to politicians and supporters of Mugabe’s re-election campaign. For many years white farmers in Zimbabwe have benefited from extremely privileged lives often at the expense of their black workforce. However seizure of white owned land, which accounts for the bulk of Zimbabwe’s exports, has heightened the detrimental effects on the country’s economy. Many in Zimbabwe’s opposition believe the land rights issue was initiated as a populist measure by Mugabe as a smokescreen to conceal the Governments own economic failures.	Two members of the Nicolle family, one of the largest landholders in Zimbabwe, stand in their fields. The 2002 election was marked by violent intimidation of the opposition and widely condemned internationally as fundamentally floored. Despite this President Mugabe has declared that the seizure policy will be accelerated.  In the face of increasing evidence of serious human rights abuses against both black and white Zimbabweans, the land seizures seem set to continue
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