Zimbabwe headed for trouble
By Sheldon Yoder

Trouble is brewing in Zimbabwe as the country gears up for a presidential election in March. Current President Robert Mugabe recently gave in to pressure from other nations and agreed to allow international monitors and journalists to observe the upcoming elections. However, Mugabe said no change would be implemented in Zimbabwe's land reform program.

Mugabe and his administration support the measure which calls for a redistribution of Zimbabwe's most fertile land to the landless black population. Much of the land is currently owned by white commercial farmers. Mugabe is accused of allowing, or at least refusing to notice, the hostile occupation of these lands by homeless blacks describing themselves as veterans of the war of independence.

The Zimbabwean army recently revealed that it would not support a president from an opposition party. Political violence has escalated as President Mugabe's government has curbed the rights of the press and maintained that only native journalists would be allowed to report in the country - but then only with a permit. Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu of South Africa warned that Zimbabwe was "sliding towards a dictatorship."

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