Court rule Zimbabwe farm squats must end

The High Court in Zimbabwe has found the leader of the squatters, who are occupying the lands around white farmsteads, guilty of contempt of court and ordered him to stop the squats.

Chenjeni Hunzi of the War Veterans Association was found guilty of contempt because he was ordered last month to stop encouraging his followers to occupy the white farms.

The ruling is unlikely to bring about an end to the violence which has already caused half a dozen deaths in the south African nation, because mr Hunzi has already said that he can not go against Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe had been expected to call the farm squatting to an end yesterday but instead used his speech marking the county's 20th anniversary as a free nation to attack white farmers and fan flames of racial tension.