Previously called Rhodesia, Zimbabwe geographicaly lies in Southern Africa, North of South Africa and between Botswana and Mocambique. The name originated from the famous "Zimbabwe Ruins" in the country and was addopted in 1980 when the country became independent.
The ruling party of Zimbabwe, ZANU(PF), (which stands for "Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic
Front") has been in
power since 1980 and was originaly heralded as a liberating and heroic force. Under the rule of Robert Mugabe, president since independince, the country has slowly been deteriating. At independince, Zimbabwe had a flourishing economy based on agriculture as well as an opertunity to construct a new and free political arena, particularly after the
era of
white rule. This opertunity was passed by as the rulling party started to remove any democratic oposition or barrier to their mantainince
power.
Recently the situation has escalated to a human rights tragady. Under the governments "Land Redistribution Scheme," land that had been leagly owned by
white farmers has systematicly been ocupied and eventualy taken over. In the prosses
people have been thretened, beaten and killed. Although the
government originaly had no ofical conection to any of the violece, many of the warlords and guerilla groups are either sponsered or run by ranking officals. However, the
police force and
army made no move to stem the growing violence, and has even started to participate in the occupation.
ZANU(PF) has tried to justify its actions by claiming the it is only reclaming land that was originaly owned by the native black population. Despite this though, the
government has renounced all of the farm hands who worked on the
white owned farms. These workers are almost exclusively black and are being forced to live in the wilderness in barrent and appaling conditions. For most of them the farms represented the sole form of income and even if they did now have some refuge, they would have no meens to support themselves.
Dispite the hidiously unatractive political enviroment, Zimbabwe is a country rich with natural
beauty. It has an abundance of wildlife and
stunning scenery. To
add to this, there are huge reserves of natural resources in the country, as well as some potentialy extreemely productive land. In essence, Zimbabwe is a butiful country that has been sabatouged by a few powerhungry dictators and diserves better.
