Mugabe warns against legal action

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has warned white farmers that they will be forced off their land if they persist with legal challenges against government plans to seize their farms and redistribute them, the BBC said on Monday. “I urge farmers to drop the nonsense of fighting the land issue in the courts, as that will make us even more angry. “If the farmers cannot be harmonious, ... then we will ask them to leave our country harmoniously,” Mugabe said.

The Zimbabwe Government has ignored a number of court orders to evict ruling party supporters who have illegally occupied about 1,700 white-owned farms since February in support of the redistribution programme. Zimbabwe’s highest court, the Supreme Court, has declared the government land resettlement programme illegal and the High Court has made two orders to end the often violent occupations.