The European Union has rejected Zimbabwe's demand for Europe and Britain to compensate white farmers evicted from their farms under Zimbabwe's land-reform programme.
"That is now unacceptable, these reforms were conducted with minimum respect for the rule of law," Danish Minister for European Affairs Mr Berterl Haarder said last night.
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Zimbabwe current land reform programme has seen the seizure of most of the properties belonging to the country's 4,500 white farmers. Very few have been compensated so far by the Zimbabwean government.
Mr Haarder's comments came after the first day of a two-day meeting between top EU government officials and their counterparts from the 14-member Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in the Mozambique capital.
Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister, Mr Stan Mudenge, had said President Mr Robert Mugabe's government wanted Britain to compensate white farmers as "we have completed the land reform programme.
"We just want justice for the white farmers," Mr Mudenge said.
Mr Haarder said Zimbabwe had prompted heated debates at yesterday's session, which focused on peace and democracy. "We had serious and robust debates on Zimbabwe but with little progress," he said.
He said a normalisation of relations between Zimbabwe and the EU could not be expected soon but that everything would be done to ensure the continuation of dialogue.
The EU has been a staunch critic of Zimbabwean land reform, and has imposed targetted sanctions and travel restrictions against Mr Mugabe and 71 of his close associates for alleged human rights abuses.
AFP