Police arrest white farmers after clashes

Zimbabwean police on Monday arrested several white farmers after clashes with militants occupying a white-owned farm, Reuters reported quoting farming sources. They said the clashes in the northeastern town of Chinhoyi erupted when the militants, who had barricaded the farm owner in his house, objected to other farmers trying to rescue their neighbour. “They went to the police to give statements after the incident and they were arrested,” a farmer who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone. He could not say how many farmers had been arrested.

Militants led by veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s independence war have invaded hundreds of white-owned farms since February 2000 in support of a drive by President Robert Mugabe’s government to forcibly acquire land from commercial white farmers for redistribution to blacks. Eight farmers have been killed and scores of farm workers assaulted in the violence that has followed. A number of farmers say they are unlikely to grow anything in the coming November to April season, because invaders have stopped farming operations and, in some cases, destroyed crops.

Last week Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the government would take 8.3 million hectares from white farmers rather than the five million previously identified for compulsory acquisition. He also warned white farmers not to clash with war veterans and black peasants who have occupied their properties, after President Robert Mugabe’s government passed legislation protecting the occupiers.