Violence targets farm workers

Members of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) held talks on Monday with the leaders of independence war veterans in
a fresh bid to curb growing violence on white-owned farms they are occupying, a CFU spokesman said.

In the latest violence, two supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were killed by supporters of president Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party. News reports quoting an MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said one man was beaten to death by a mob at Shamba, 80 km northeast of the capital, Harare, after being asked to produce a ZANU-PF membership card. Another had been killed in Harare.

The talks with the farmers came amid further reports at the weekend that the veterans and their followers had attacked employees at a number of farms east of the capital, Harare.

The meeting at Marondera in Mashonaland East Province, was held following the invasion of a tobacco farm at the weekend where the employees were beaten up and the entire US $6 million tobacco crop was set alight - just days before the country's tobacco auctions scheduled to start on Wednesday.

Tobacco is Zimbabwe's main foreign currency earner.

"We have set up a task force for commercial farmers from the province and war vets," said Guy Watson-Smith, the local CFU provincial chairman. "They agreed to quell the violence."

Meanwhile, members of the beleaguered white farmers on Tuesday paid tribute to a colleague who was beaten to death 10 days ago marking the first killing of a farmer in the two-month dispute with government-backed supporters who have occupied more than 600 white-owned farms. A second farmer was shot dead last week, and at least 12 members of the MDC have also lost their lives.

At the weekend, news reports said some 200 veterans and their followers used a captured lorry and a tractor to travel from farm to farm where they beat up farm employees and condemned their support for the MDC, which is tipped to present a major challenge to ZANU-PF. The reports said farmers in the
area expected the intimidation to continue ahead of next month's
parliamentary elections.

At Mvuri, north of Harare, white farmers were evacuated after an attack at a farm on Sunday, the CFU spokesman said.