White farmer in gun skirmish
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Your support makes all the difference.A white farmer exchanged gunfire yesterday with ruling party militants who shot at his homestead and tried to force him off his land.
Ian Cochrane fired eight shots into the ground and some above the heads of militants who were surrounding the farmhouse in Karoi district, 125 miles north-west of Harare. No one was hurt.
Three of the attackers, armed with pump-action shotguns and a rifle, were accompanied by about 50 militants who barricaded Mr Cochrane and his family inside the yard, Alan Parsons, a neighbour, said.
Police intervened, dispersing the attackers, who moved away in trucks to adjacent properties from where at least two more gunshots were heard. The leader of the militants was identified as an army major, Mr Parsons said. "It seems they are trying to provoke farmers to retaliate with weapons," he said.
Farmers leaders said Mr Cochrane was among 26 farmers contesting the legality of government eviction orders to leave their farms in the Karoi grain and tobacco belt.
The independent Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said the displacement of farmers had risen since 8 August, the eviction deadline for about 2,900 landowners. Property and equipment had been stolen. In one recent incident, a farmer who fled for her safety returned to find militants in her house and property strewn outside. In south-eastern Chimanimani, police officers, soldiers and Central Intelligence Organisation agents were "meting out a reign of terror", assaulting civilians with fists, boots and whips, the forum said.
No one from the government was available for comment. President Robert Mugabe vowed last week to crack down on defiant whites. "Time is not on their side," he declared.
Earlier yesterday, police reported that 306 white farmers had been arrested since the eviction deadline. Most were freed on bail but prohibited from returning to their farms before trial proceedings. The government is trying to seize about 95 per cent of white-owned farms.
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