Zimbabweans to live on maize alone?

Mugabe to farmers: Grow rutabagas at your peril!

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, having apparently grabbed all the farm land owned by whites, has now started seizing land from black farmers.

Once the "bread basket" of Africa, Zimbabwe's agricultural economy is now in ruins. It seems Mugabe has a thing for corn:

Lot Dube's crops of onions, tomatoes and sweet potatoes were growing nicely when soldiers marched into Insiza district, in the south of the country, set up camp and declared that all crops other than maize would be destroyed. "They told us, 'We are taking away your fields from you' ," said Mr Dube, 63, who has farmed 10 acres, 80 miles south of Bulawayo, since 1982. The soldiers ploughed in the market vegetables which he grew to raise cash to pay school fees for his children, and told him to plant maize.

And to add insult to injury (or injury to insult):

Just for amusement, they forced him to pick stones off his field, while neighbouring farmers - some of them women - who refused to uproot their own vegetables and fruit trees were beaten until they submitted.

Naturally, the UN loves this guy.