Farm invasions have not stopped, ministers told

Baroness Amos and other Commonwealth ministers heard first-hand accounts of illegal farm invasions and intimidation by government supporters as they toured Zimbabwean farmland on a mission aimed at ensuring that President Robert Mugabe will comply with a plan to end the land crisis.

At Mr Mugabe's invitation, the ministers were flown to southern Masvingo province to meet settlers who took up plots on farms under the "fast-track resettlement programme" – the name the government has given to what others see as state-sponsored farm invasions.

They then returned to Harare to hold discussions with representatives of civil society, including war veteran supporters of Mr Mugabe, the main opposition, and journalists.

But a white farmer who spoke for the community of Wedza, 200km south-east of Harare, accused the government of failing to meet commitments agreed in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, in September. Japie Jackson told the ministers at Bath Farm that the mainly white commercial farmers had been warned not to tell the truth about the situation, otherwise there would be "severe consequences".

Under the pact, the government agreed to stop landless blacks taking over white-owned farms, and Britain pledged to help fund a fair and just land reform programme.

But according to the Commercial Farmers Union, which groups 4,500 farmers, at least 680 farms have been occupied since the Abuja agreement. Of these, 200-300 were new invasions, while the rest were on occupied farms where new settlers joined those already there.

Mr Jackson said that needy people were not being given land. Instead, he claimed, it was being earmarked for army officers, district administrators, policemen and "others who are in a position to influence next year's vote".

The Commonwealth team, which winds up its mission today, also heard complaints from journalists' representatives, who protested against harassment by so-called war veterans as they attempted to cover events. They also complained of the government's "sustained campaign to muzzle the media".

About 100 private news vendors have been detained and released as part of the systematic harassment campaign, effectively preventing them from selling their newspapers over the past three weeks. The latest example was the arrest of the board of the Daily News, Zimbabwe's leading independent newspaper, as the Commonwealth team were meeting with President Mugabe on Thursday.

No details of that meeting have been made public, but diplomats said that Mr Mugabe told the ministers that he was committed to the deal to end the violent invasions of the white-owned farms, which began in February last year.

The Zimbabwean leader also warned Western governments that they had to do their part to end the 20-month-old standoff, according to the diplomats. War veterans' representatives who met with the Commonwealth ministers yesterday warned Britain that they would "not allow Britain to manipulate Abuja" in the way that the UK had allegedly done with the Lancaster House agreement that brought Zimbabwean independence.

Led by the Nigerian Foreign Minister, Sule Lamido, the mission to Harare includes the Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, Britain's Baroness Valerie Amos, and representatives from Kenya, South Africa, Canada and Australia. The ministers are expected to set a timetable for the full implementation of the Abuja pact.

The visit came as the European Union is moving closer to applying sanctions against Zimbabwe over its human rights record and its failure to end the land chaos.