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02/27/2006:

"Bad luck continues to stalk Zambia's white farmers, hounded from Zimbabwe"

When disaster visited them in Zimbabwe it had a name, Robert Mugabe. Now disaster has followed white farmers into exile in Zambia but this time there is no villain, just bad luck.

Hounded from Zimbabwe, things went well at first for the 200 farmers who crossed the border to Zambia. Welcomed by the government, they leased tracts of fertile land and borrowed money to buy equipment and seed. Within two years the new arrivals were producing bumper harvests of maize and tobacco, helping to transform a hunger-stricken nation into a breadbasket and exporter.

In this peaceful corner of southern Africa the settlers, part of the diaspora from one of the continent's last white tribes, thought they could start anew. Now that dream has withered. A fickle economic wind has gusted through Zambia, scattering the farmers' calculations and driving many to the brink of ruin.

HOUNDED? One of the continent's LAST WHITE TRIBES? BRINGING PEACE AND PLENTY TO THE POOR ZAMBIANS? Sick sick sick