I back Mugabe land grab says MSP-in-waiting
http://www.heraldscotland.com/
Paul Hutcheon
Investigations Editor
Sunday 12 May 2013
A Frenchman in line to become a Scottish Nationalist MSP has been criticised
for defending Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe’s notorious land reform
policies.
Christian Allard said Mugabe’s land redistribution, when his government
forcibly seized farms, was needed, and slammed an award-winning film on the
plight of one of the farmers as being “for white people to support white
people”.
In 1979, Mugabe agreed a land-reform policy which involved buying white
people’s farms. But in 2000 he began to pursue a strategy of seizing
white-controlled land without compensation.
This led to beatings and forced evictions, and has been denounced by Amnesty
International as a “corrupt and violent system”.
In 2009, Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson directed a documentary about farmer
Mike Campbell and his son-in-law Ben Freeth as they fought Mugabe’s policy
in the courts.
A tribunal of the Southern African Development Community ruled the
confiscation of Campbell’s farm was racially discriminatory, but Mugabe’s
regime ignored the findings.
The film, Mugabe and The White African, was listed for an Oscar, nominated
for a Bafta and was voted best documentary at the British Independent Film
Awards.
But in a series of internet postings, Allard savaged the film, saying: “I
agree the comments from the dictator are often vile, but so are the comments
of Mike Campbell … Let me be clear, they are men from the past who refuse
to accept that Africa is moving on.
“Robert Mugabe and Mike Campbell won’t be there for long and every copy of
this ‘documentary’ should be buried with them.”
He also wrote: “Mike Campbell, a South African army captain – came to
Zimbabwe from South Africa in 1974, in the middle of the guerrilla war
against the black majority … Original Rhodesian white farmers have now all
left or have complied with the land reform.”
He added: “This ‘documentary’ was made for white people to support white
people to keep hold of the land in Africa.”
Allard is set to become a list SNP MSP because MSP Mark McDonald is likely
to be chosen as the party’s candidate in the coming Aberdeen Donside
by-election. If he is, he must vacate his list seat, meaning Allard takes
his place.
The documentary’s producers, Elizabeth Hemlock and David Pearson, said: “Mr
Allard seems to have no concern about the violence directed at the Campbell
and Freeth families and [about] the 500 farm workers and their families who
lived on the farm.
“The Campbell family were kidnapped and brutally beaten and the injuries
sustained by Mike Campbell contributed to his death in 2011.”
On Friday, Allard said: “I feel very sorry for the white farmers and what
happened to them, but the black majority are suffering more.”
However, the SNP press office then provided a statement in his name. It
said: “Like every right-thinking person, I abhor the regime of Robert Mugabe
and its brutal land grabs. My point is that land reform must always be
pursued democratically and consensually.”