White farmer evicted in Zimbabwe

Black militants began evicting a white farmer from his land in north eastern Zimbabwe today, the first incident since a government eviction order for thousands of farmers expired last week.

Nearly two thirds of the 2,900 farmers targeted under President Robert Mugabe's land drive have defied the midnight August 8 deadline to handover their farms to landless blacks.

Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for the lobby group Justice for Agriculture (JAG), said the Hinde family were being evicted by militant black settlers occupying the Condwelani Farm in the Bindura area, north of the capital Harare.

"The family have called for a removal company to come and have been pushed into one half of the house whilst the militant settlers in the other half move household furniture onto the lawn," Williams said in a statement.

The farm was first invaded more than two years ago and was targeted for compulsory acquisition under Mugabe's fast-track resettlement scheme.

Williams said police had been called to the homestead. Police in the area were not immediately available for comment.

Mugabe, who has governed Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, vowed this week to push ahead with his land campaign despite severe criticism at home and abroad.

In a televised speech on Monday, Mugabe failed to say what would happen to those defying the order for the handover of 2,900 of the country's 4,500 white-run commercials farms.

But a senior government official said on Tuesday white farmers should not take solace from the fact that Mugabe failed to say what action he would take.

"That is not an indication they will be allowed to stay... and those who don't get this message might eventually have to be forced to get out," the official said.

Williams said the Hinde family planned to make an urgent appeal to Zimbabwe's High Court to hold onto their farm.

The High Court ruled last week that the state could not confiscate land owned by one particular farmer because it had not told the bank, which had a mortgage on the property.

JAG has urged farmers to prepare fresh legal challenges against the acquisition of their lands, saying it would first take the cases to a Zimbabwean court and then internationally "if we do not get a fair judgement".

In an apparent reference to court challenges, Mugabe warned in his speech on Monday: "We brook no impediment and we will certainly suffer no avoidable delays."

Eleven white farmers have been killed since the land reform programme began with violent invasions by so-called war veterans early in 2000, some in possible robberies fuelled by a climate of lawlessness and others in direct clashes with militants.

Hundreds of black farm workers have been beaten and an unknown number have died at the hands of the veterans, many of them too young to have fought for the liberation of the former Rhodesia in the 1970s.

The land reforms have caused upheavals at a time when millions of southern Africans in Zimbabwe and elsewhere face food shortages due to the disruption on the farms and drought.

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