Zimbabwe farm violence continues despite Mugabe's pledge

Violence continued on Zimbabwe's farms, despite a promise from President Robert Mugabe to fellow African leaders to reign in his militant war veterans.

As the presidents of South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana and Malawi left after two days of talks with President Mugabe to resolve Zimbabwe's land crisis, analysts warned that the attacks on white-owned farms, which resumed on Monday, would continue.

The chairman of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, said land redistribution in Zimbabwe had to proceed on the basis of the rule of law. He added: "If democracy is to work in Zimbabwe, then violence and intimidation must be halted."

The Malawian leader also said Mr Mugabe had pledged to end violence and chaos on the farms and to establish an inter-party political conference to create dialogue on contentious issues among all the major political players in Zimbabwe.

But analysts said they doubted that Mr Mugabe would implement the promises made to his African colleagues and those made at a summit of Commonwealth ministers in Abuja, Nigeria, last week.

A University of Zimbabwe law professor, Lovemore Madhuku, said the incidents of violence on the farms, after the meeting Abuja and as the African leaders met in Harare, were testimony that Mr Mugabe would not repent.

On Monday, just after the SADC leaders had started meeting in Harare, Jane Williams, a spokeswoman for the Commercial Farmers Union said a Zimbabwe National Army truck, carrying war veterans, rammed through the security gates of Alex Van Leenoff's Protea Farm. The invaders assaulted four workers on the property.

On the same day, a group of about a hundred war veterans attacked Dave Joubert, at Potwe Farm in Inyahti, northern Matabeleland, and warned him to leave Zimbabwe.

Ms Williams said the war veterans trapped Mr Joubert inside a courtroom for almost two hours in what the CFU spokeswoman described as a well-planned and executed attack. Mr Joubert was appearing in court to face three charges of assault stemming from a clash between his game scouts and illegal settlers on his eco-tourism farm last month.

Ms Williams said the war veterans chanted anti-British and anti-white slogans during the siege, and while Mr Joubert was trapped another group stormed his farm and harassed his workers.

On Tuesday, Ms Williams said, operations at Ruzawi Park Farm ground to a halt after war veteranschased away about 100 farm workers. The invaders demanded diesel from the farm owner and ordered him to plough their plots in exchange for his safety.

The owner, Kobus Van Rooyes, said the occupiers also uprooted two hectares of tobacco already in the ground.

Yesterday,a farmer, who was evicted from Arcadia Farm in Marondera, south-east of Harare, two weeks ago, returned, only to be detained and barricaded in his house.

The CFU said the farmer, whose name it refused to release, had been encouraged by the outcome of the Abuja meeting and had even been persuaded by the police to return to his farm. He was still barricaded in his farm late yesterday. The police had not come to his rescue.

The CFU said trouble had also continued at Wenimbe Farm and Malaba Farm in the same area with war veterans assaulting farm workers. Logen Lee farm in Beatrice, south of Harare, had not recovered from the weekend violence in which war veterans burnt farm workers' homes and destroyed tobacco crops.

A University of Zimbabwe political scientist, Professor John Makumbe, said there was no sign that Mr Mugabe was acting to stem the violence. He said: "Those who believe he will change his ways are engaging in wishful thinking". Mr Madhuku said the SADC leaders and Commonwealth ministers might have given a "veil of legitimacy" for Mr Mugabe's violent policies by agreeing to meet him in the first place.