Zimbabwe farmer asks tribunal to hear land case

By John Grobler

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean farmer on Tuesday asked a regional tribunal to help block President Robert Mugabe's government from seizing his family's farm in a case that could draw Zimbabwe's neighbours into its thorny land redistribution debate.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal in the Namibian capital Windhoek must rule that it has jurisdiction over the matter if farmer Mike Campbell is to have any hope of saving the farm.

"If this application is successful, it will raise the matter to an entirely new level within SADC that will put the Zimbabwean government at odds with the other member countries," Adrian de Bourbon, Campbell's lawyer, said.

SADC, a regional grouping of 14 African nations that includes Zimbabwe, is trying to mediate an end to a political and economic crisis in the southern African nation that threatens to destabilise the region.

The bloc has asked South African President Thabo Mbeki to help broker an agreement between Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the main opposition party ahead of general elections scheduled for 2008.

Mugabe's government, often accused of human rights abuses, stifling political dissent and running Zimbabwe's economy into the ground, has seized thousands of white-owned farms and redistributed the land to blacks since 2000.

Less than 600 white farmers are still on their land, compared to 4,500 seven years ago. Zimbabwean officials, however, are continuing with the seizures and are opposing Campbell's bid to have his farm exempted from confiscation.

Zimbabwe's government says Campbell has not exhausted legal remedies available to him in Zimbabwe, an argument rejected by his lawyer.