Nigeria pressures Zimbabwe on land

The UK asked Nigeria to mediate over the land issue

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged Zimbabwe to follow strictly the rule of law in resolving the land issue.

Mr Obasanjo also called on the international community to give financial support to Zimbabwe so that white farmers can be paid compensation for any land redistributed to landless blacks.

The Nigerian President was speaking after talks with President Robert Mugabe and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa in Harare.

What I think Zimbabwe should do is to strictly follow the law that is already in place for the resolution of this problem

President Obasanjo

He said they all understood the negative effect the issue was having on the Zimbabwean economy.

President Obasanjo said they also discussed the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Zimbabwe is supporting the government in Kinshasa with 12,000 troops.

Mr Mugabe visited Nigeria earlier this month, and sought its backing for plans to redistribute white-owned farmland to black owners.

The talks came ahead of a visit by United Nations envoy Mark Malloch Brown on Friday.

UN mission

Mr Brown, the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is expected to focus on possible UN help for Zimbabwe in devising an internationally-acceptable land reform plan.

Mugabe (right) believes he can count on Mbeki's support

The land issue in Zimbabwe has been the focus of international attention since early this year, when supporters of the president occupied farms owned by the white minority.

The government condoned and even encouraged the illegal occupations, arguing that the ancestors of today's white Zimbabweans had stolen the land, and accusing former colonial power Britain of reneging on promises to pay for the redistribution of land.

Mr Mbeki has frequently stood up for Mr Mugabe in the international arena, but last month issued an unprecedented condemnation of his disregard for the rule of law and his country's economic decline.

Analysts say that the decline of Zimbabwe's economy damages international perceptions of the economic prospects of southern Africa as a whole, including those of South Africa, a major trading partner of Zimbabwe's.