By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 24 2000 (IPS)

The United Nations – which is mediating border wars and civil strife in Africa, Europe, and Asia – has offered to play the role of an honest broker in a land reform dispute in Zimbabwe.

Mark Malloch Brown, head of UN Development Programme (UNDP), says the United Nations is trusted by all parties because it does not have a hidden agenda of its own.

The dispute, which has racial overtones, has pitted the government of President Robert Mugabe against a 4,500-strong white farming community.

Malloch-Brown, who has been designated by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to be a sort of a mediator in the dispute, points out that his organisation is genuinely committed to helping the process of land reform in Zimbabwe. A 1998 land reform conference, he points out, was co-chaired by the government of Zimbabwe and UNDP.

The land reform process incorporated principles of both land redistribution and compensation, as well as a legally enforceable approach that enjoyed broad support, both from Zimbabwe and from Western donors. “However, events have since derailed the effort,” Malloch-Brown said.

According to UNDP, the “inequitable land ownership” patterns have long been a source of political and economic tension in the country.

Currently, some 4,460 large-scale commercial farmers, mostly white, own 11.2 million hectares, much of it the most fertile land in the country, while over six million black farmers, living mostly in communal areas, occupy 16.4 million hectares.

The 1998 agreement envisaged the transfer of about five million hectares of land over five years that would help resettle some 150,000 families.

The key objective of any reform and resettlement programme, according to UNDP, must be to encourage equitable ownership patterns, incorporating both large and small scale farming, that help alleviate widespread poverty.

However, in the current climate it has become difficult to re- establish the framework for such a process.

Malloch Brown said that Western donors were willing to support the agreement. “But there will be no blank cheques,” he warned.

“The money would come when there was an agreement that the donors could support,” he added.

Based on this assurance, the UNDP plans to initiate negotiations between the two parties to the dispute. Malloch Brown said that attracting resources for an adequately funded programme would depend on the changes in the broader political context, which was beyond the competence of the UNDP to address.

“The revival of the process should persuade Zimbabweans that there was plausible and credible land reform immediately ahead,” he said. And that should take some of the tension out of the political situation and pave the way for donors who provide the resources.

Since Western donors now place heavy emphasis on “good governance” as a condition for development assistance, any donor funding would also depend on the holding of “free and fair elections” in Zimbabwe.

Malloch Brown said the announcement of the UN initiative, along with the efforts of the government to reduce tension and violence, could bring about some stability in the country. The violence over land reform was initially caused because of the frustration over the lack of progress.

Asked if the government was committed to the programme, he said if the proposal was not based on a transparent legal process that was acceptable to all parties, the donors would not want to provide resources.

“Therefore, everyone must meet each other’s standards for it to work,” he added.

He also said that the UNDP’s role, as a development organisation, would involve working with the government of Zimbabwe and the international community, especially donors, and those involved on the ground to set up a mutually acceptable plan of action.

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