Two wrongs to make land rights

President Donald Trump last week weighed in on South Africa’s land reform, drawing renewed international attention to a racially divisive issue in the post-apartheid nation. The government’s plan to amend the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation could stir up unrest and harm the country’s economy.

In a tweet last Wednesday, Trump said he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study” the farm seizures and “large scale killing of farmers,” after Fox News broadcast a segment on the issue.

South Africa rejected the comments as “misinformed,” noting the country has neither approved the expropriation proposal nor seized any land.

But local media reported the government had already started the process of seizing two luxury hunting farms in the province of Limpopo after offering the land owners only 10 percent of the stated value of the land.

Earlier this month, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress said it would go ahead with plans to allow the government to seize land from farm owners without compensation. The government noted the current property rights clause in the constitution does not prevent expropriation, but explicitly stating it could help accelerate the reform process.

South Africa’s legal land inequality goes as far back as the 1913 Native Land Act, a law that legally segregated the nation, leaving only about 7 percent of fertile land to black South Africans.

Nearly 25 years after the end of apartheid in South Africa, land remains a racially contentious issue. According to the Land Audit Report from 2017, 72 percent of private farmland belongs to white people, who make up only 8.9 percent of the country’s population.

“By restricting the ownership of land to a small minority, the apartheid regime ensured that one of the country’s most valuable economic resources would be severely underutilized,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa argued in an editorial published last month in the Financial Times.

But the property rights amendment could have a dramatic impact on agricultural productivity and mass unemployment, according to Marian Tupy, a senior policy analyst with the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. “It could also lead to a collapse of the banking sector (which depends on land as collateral for loan-making) and the local currency, hyperinflation, and even bloodshed,” he wrote.

In a similar 2000 land reform in Zimbabwe, the nation evicted thousands of white farmers who owned about 70 percent of the country’s agricultural land. The move spurred violent land seizures and resulted in a $12 billion loss in agricultural production.

Following Trump’s comment, the South African currency dropped 1.9 percent against the U.S. dollar.

Tupy contended South Africa is about to breach, or has already breached, conditions of the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act, which increases market access for qualified African nations. He noted the act requires protection of property rights and minimal government interference in the economy.

“President Trump should warn the South African government that if South Africa’s constitution is amended to allow for expropriation without compensation,” Tupy said, “South Africa will be suspended from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, as Zimbabwe had been.”

Uon Chhin (left) and Yeang Sothearin leave a Cambodian prison Aug. 21. Associated Press/Photo by Heng Sinith

Cambodia releases journalists

Cambodia has released two journalists imprisoned since November 2017 on bail in the latest move to spin the country’s image after a highly contested election.

Authorities charged Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, who worked with U.S.-based Radio Free Asia, with espionage and producing pornography.

“Frankly speaking, we are not fully receiving our freedom because we must still present ourselves upon police request,” Sothearin said, calling for all charges to be dropped.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen cracked down on opposition to tighten his 33-year hold on power ahead of last month’s election. Radio Free Asia closed its Cambodian office in September 2017 over a “relentless crackdown on independent voices.” By the end of the year, the government shut down more than a dozen radio stations in the country.

Hun Sen’s ruling party secured all 125 seats in the National Assembly after the government dissolved its main opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party.

In a similar move to boost its image, the Cambodian government released political activist Kim Sok after he served 18 months in prison for inciting disorder and defamation. Authorities also released land rights activist Tep Vanny after she served more than two years in detention on charges of inciting violence and assaulting security guards. —O.O.

Uon Chhin (left) and Yeang Sothearin leave a Cambodian prison Aug. 21. Associated Press/Photo by Heng Sinith

North Korea still treading nuclear path

The United Nations’ nuclear agency said it has seen no indication that North Korea ended its nuclear weapon activities despite the country’s pledge to do so.

The International Atomic Energy Agency noted in a report last week that North Korea has continued construction on a likely additional processing plant capable of extracting plutonium from used reactor fuel. The report also listed ongoing efforts at other nuclear facilities, such as the Yongbyon power plant, where the country likely produces plutonium for nuclear weapon tests.

“The continuation and further development of the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]’s nuclear program and related statements by the DPRK are a cause for grave concern,” the agency said.

In a separate report, U.S.-based think tank 38 North said satellite imagery taken on Aug. 16 of North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station showed “no significant dismantlement activity” at either the site’s engine test stand or launch pad since Aug. 3.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his historic June 12 meeting with U.S.President Donald Trump agreed to begin work on denuclearizing the country. Last week, Trump directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to postpone a planned trip to North Korea, citing insufficient progress toward denuclearization. —O.O.

Saudi Arabia opts for death penalty

Saudi Arabia’s Public Prosecution agency is pursuing the death penalty for five activists, including one woman who is likely the first female activist in the country to face execution, Human Rights Watch said.

After authorities arrested Israa al-Ghomgham with her husband in December 2015, they and four other activists remained in pretrial detention and without legal representation. Al-Ghomgham is a Shia Muslim activist known for denouncing discrimination against Shias in the majority-Sunni nation.

The activists face charges of incitement to protest, chanting slogans hostile to the regime, and providing moral support to rioters, among others.

“Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East Director with Human Rights Watch. The activists’ next court trial is slated for Oct. 28. —O.O.

Morocco restores military conscription

The Moroccan Cabinet last week approved a bill to restore mandatory military service 11 years after the country suspended the program.

The bill, which still needs parliamentary approval, requires all citizens between the ages of 19 and 25 to serve in the military for 12 months.

Abdelhak Lamrini, spokesman for Morocco’s Royal Court, said the bill follows instructions from King Mohammed VI. “The purpose of applying military service is to inculcate the spirit of patriotism in young people as part of a correlation between the rights and duties of citizenship,” he said.

In 2007, the Moroccan king scrapped conscription amid concerns that radical groups infiltrated the military. —O.O.