July 2001 Africa News Headlines

Monday, July 16, 2001 - Web posted at 9:56:42 GMT

Gaddafi backs land seizures

HARARE - Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi says land in Zimbabwe must be taken from white landowners without compensation, state radio reported on Friday.

Whites should instead pay blacks for the land they seized during the colonial era, Gaddafi reportedly told a dinner party hosted in his honour by President Robert Mugabe on Thursday night.

Gaddafi arrived in the Zimbabwe capital Thursday by road from Lusaka, in Zambia, where he had attended a summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) earlier in the week.

He made brief stopovers in the rural towns of Karoi and Chinhoyi, telling residents there whites should return to Europe and leave Africa to Africans, the state-owned Herald reported Friday.

"Everyone who came as a coloniser must go back to where he came from," the Libyan leader told residents of Chinhoyi, 100 kilometres northwest of the capital.

At Karoi, 180 kilometres northwest of Harare, he told a gathering that Zimbabwe should be compensated for land seized by nineteenth century white settlers.

"We want them to pay. Europe must not deny us payment and compensation," he said.

- Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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