RI Passes On Torch Of Int'l Peasants Movement To Zimbabwe

Jakarta, June 13 (Antara) - One of the world-largest coalition of peasants movement, La Via Campesina(LVC), will move its secretariat office from Indonesia to Zimbabwe, Africa in 2014. "We will witness the transfer of the central secretariat of La Via Campesina from Indonesia to Zimbabwe. Since secretariat has been located in Indonesia for eight years, we believe that it`s time to move it to Africa," said Henry Saragih, head of the Indonesian Peasants Union(SPI) and general coordinator of LVC, to Antara here on Wednesday. La Via Campesina, the international peasants` movement which embraces about 180 organizations from 70 countries, has placed its international operative secretariat in Indonesia since 2004 for two consecutive periods. As the self-evaluation of Indonesian secretariat, Henry said it had recorded two successes respectively in management structure and open dialogue with International institutions. "Such successes have to do firstly with international cooperative secretariat with the minimum people, but in a good coordination. And secondly, we had developed a better coordination into action from the field to the international forum like UN and FAO," said Henry. "Africa is a very important continent because the transnational have their eyes on Africa to grab the land and to impose the green revolution model with GMOs(Genetically Modified Organisms), which has failed in Asia," he further said. The international peasants` coalition has been concerning about the replacement of peasants` seeds by the seeds of industrial hybrid which have been working against the GMO-liberating laws. The new international coordination committee of LVC from Zimbabwe also touched on her future strategy of the movement. "In the coming years, we will continue to intensify the debates and recommit to all our key issues that were decided during our last global conference in Maputo, Mozambique," said Elizabeth Mpofu, the chairperson of the Small Holder Organic Farmer�s Forum of Zimbabwe to the press. The Maputo declaration of LVC in 2008 listed the issues as building a global food sovereignty movement, pushing for a UN Declaration of Peasant Rights and agrarian reform, opposing free trade and transnational coorporations and stopping climate change. "As youth, we are very proud that LVCs complete 20th years and that it`s moving to Africa to strengthen the peasants there," said Verlinden Jeanne, a member of the International Committee of LVC Youth from Belgium. La Via Campesina held its 6th international conference in Jakarta from June 6 to 13 under the title of "For the land and sovereignty of the people solidarity and struggle" with the participation of more than 500 peasants from four continents. La Via Campesina was founded in Mons, Belgium in 1993 by the group of farmer representatives across the world when the agricultural policies and the agribusiness were becoming globalized. In September 2003 during the Cancun ministerial meeting of the WTO, South Korean peasant movement leader and the member of La Via Campesina Lee Kyung-hae stabbed himself to death and this brought an nternational concern on farmers` resistance against liberalization of agriculture.