By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Like many white Zimbabweans, JamesDouglas wonders if he will still be a political punching bagfor President Robert Mugabe after Saturday's election.
Mugabe faces his biggest challenge in nearly three decadesof rule in the March 29 polls. The defection of two seniorofficials from his ruling ZANU-PF party has raised hopes amonghis opponents of political and economic change.
But these hopes are not shared by Douglas and other whites,who lost power with independence from Britain in 1980 and whofeel like political scapegoats in a country whose leaderregularly decries Western conspiracies and interference.
"If the elections were going to be fair, I don't think theoutcome would be in any doubt. But I don't think that will bethe case and people are expecting more of the same," saidDouglas, whose 200-hectare farm was seized as part of Mugabe'scontroversial land reforms.
The 54-year-old was uneasy during the interview, tappingthe coffee table and scanning the outdoor cafe foreavesdroppers, always a concern in a country where human rightsgroups say abuses are common.
"I am very uncomfortable with this whole subject," he said."I don't like talking about our problems in isolation becausethat is what the politicians are trying to do, to pin a specialtag on us as whites."
Zimbabwe's white population, estimated to have shrunk toabout 40,000 out of a total population for Zimbabwe of around13 million, has kept a low political profile since 2000 whenMugabe started seizing white-owned commercial farms forlandless blacks with little or no experience in agriculture.
A dozen white farmers were shot dead and many others werebeaten and driven from their homes. About 3,800 of thecountry's 4,500 white commercial farmers lost their land.
Critics say the controversial land policy has plunged thesouthern African country -- once a food exporter -- into asevere economic crisis marked by food and fuel shortages andthe highest inflation in the world, at above 100,000 percent.
Mugabe, 84, says the seizures are part of an ambitiousblack empowerment drive and seek to correct colonial injusticesthat left 70 percent of the best farmland in the hands ofwhites.
He blames Zimbabwe's economic woes on sanctions imposed bythe West as punishment for his land reforms.
"SCAPEGOATS"
Whites are used to insults and threats from his ZANU-PFparty, which accuses them of working with the main oppositionMovement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"I think people have come to accept that they (whites) area convenient scapegoat, and while they are not comfortable withit, many white people have come to expect it," said a whitejournalist who asked not to be named.
"You shrug and say, 'there he goes again.' But you takecomfort from the fact that race relations are generally cordialand that outside a few politically motivated attacks, you arenot in danger of suffering any violence from otherZimbabweans."
Mugabe faces a fierce challenge from his former financeminister, Simba Makoni, and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of theMDC's biggest faction, in Saturday's vote.
The MDC is frequently denounced by ZANU-PF as a pawn ofwhite western interests, despite its largely black urban base.
Mugabe and his party say some whites have never acceptedblack majority rule and are desperate to get "black puppets"into power to protect their business interests.
Mugabe recently signed into law a bill empowering blacks totake control of foreign companies, including mines and banks.
"We have whites here who see Zimbabwe as an extension ofBritain, who see blacks as second-class citizens, who areracist and have never truly accepted that this is a blackcountry, an African country," Mugabe said at his electioncampaign launch.
"Anyone who thinks that we have to apologize for fightingfor, and defending the interests of the indigenous black peopledoes not understand our role as nationalists," he said.
Critics say Mugabe is obsessed with the belief that whiteshave never stopped plotting against him since he assumed powerfrom the white government of former Rhodesian Prime MinisterIan Smith.
In 1965, Smith, who died last year, led 270,000 whites inthen Rhodesia in a unilateral declaration of independence fromBritain and only bowed to the pressure of a bloody guerrillawar spearheaded by black nationalists in the 1970s.
Around 50,000 mostly black people were killed in the war.
FLIGHT
The dwindling white population in Zimbabwe still retainsome of the trappings of colonial-era life: many live in bighouses with servants and swimming pools. But more and more areleaving, heading for Britain, South Africa, Australia or otherplaces.
More than 150,000 whites fled Zimbabwe during theliberation struggle and after Mugabe's 1980 electoral victory,while some 40,000 others have emigrated in the last 20 years.
Very few whites are comfortable talking to the media aboutpolitics because they fear being branded racists by thegovernment. A handful of white officials with senior positionsin opposition ranks are constantly subjected to theseaccusations.
David Coltart, a leading figure in a faction of the MDC anda member of parliament for a black constituency, says he haslong stopped paying attention to any racial insults.
"It's something I have got used to but which does not worryme at all because I know those feelings and views don't reflectthe general feeling in our country," he said.
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say onthe top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )
(Editing by Michael Georgy and Clar Ni Chonghaile)
