African Leaders Urge End to Land Seizures

African leaders began a summit in Zimbabwe with a strong warning to President Robert Mugabe that his campaign to seize white-owned farms was hurting economies throughout the region.

“Of great concern to all of us is that, if the land issue is not urgently resolved amicably and peacefully, the economic and political problems Zimbabwe is facing now could easily snowball across the entire southern African region,” Malawian President Bakili Muluzi said.

Muluzi is leading the two-day talks attended by the leaders of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique and ministers from Angola, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Zimbabwe has been in crisis since early 2000, when militants, encouraged by the state, began invading hundreds of white-owned farms. Mugabe has endorsed a deal backed by the British Commonwealth to end the crisis, but he has said the plan must still be endorsed by his Cabinet and his party’s policymakers.