Mugabe men 'shot white farmer and drank his blood'

Rampaging war veterans killed a white farmer, David Stevens, and drank his blood mixed with alcohol, the Zimbabwe High Court has been told. The accusation was made by a witness testifying against four militants from the ruling Zanu-PF party, charged with the murder in April 2000 of Mr Stevens, a farmer and opposition political activist.

The militants are the first to face trial over the deaths of 12 white farmers – and 200 black activists – at the hands of President Robert Mugabe's supporters after the Zimbabwe government unleashed a violent campaign to seize and occupy white farms.

The High Court heard that war veterans occupying Mr Stevens' Arizona Farm, in Macheke, 100 miles east of the capital, Harare, frogmarched him to their office in the nearby Murehwa district. He was beaten and then dragged to a burial shrine for heroes of the 1970s independence war, where he was shot.

"One of them knelt over Stevens' body and brought a container filled with blood, which they mixed with alcohol and shared among themselves," the witness, who cannot be named for his own protection, told the High Court judge, Benjamin Paradza.

The four accused – Richard Svisviro, Muyengwa Munyuki, Charles Matanda and Douglas Chitekuteku – were arrested and remanded shortly after the murder. A fifth suspect, Banda Katsvamudanga, has disappeared.

This month, Jocyline Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe's army commander, threatened to kill a white farmer, saying she had not "tasted white blood" for a long time. The farmer is taking legal step to recover money for his produce, which was soldafter Mrs Chiwenga forcibly evicted him.

In a separate development Geoffrey Nyarota, editor of the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent newspaper, has been charged with "undermining confidence" in the police by publishing claims of police torture made in court by an opposition activist.