Zimbabwe police round up dozens of white farmers

Zimbabwe's government extended up its efforts to seize white-owned land yesterday, ignoring court orders and Western condemnation as it rounded up more farmers who had defied eviction notices.

Andrew Phiri, a police spokesman, said 133 farmers who had failed to heed a deadline of 9 August to leave their farms had been arrested since Friday.

There would be "no favour or compromise" for those who broke the government's land redistribution laws, he said.

The increasingly unpopular government of President Robert Mugabe plans to seize nearly 5,000 white-owned farms, claiming they are to be distributed to landless blacks.

About 2,900 farmers had already been ordered off their land, but 60 per cent of those failed to comply, said Jenni Williams, a spokeswoman for the farmers' pressure group Justice for Agriculture. Farmers did not intend to confront the police but would fight for their farms and their title deeds through the courts, she said. "Farmers are not defying the government, but rather orders they believe to be illegal," she said.

Justice for Agriculture said a farmer was beaten up by ruling party militants and police at his home in Harare on Saturday, despite having vacated his farm.

Ms Williams said between 30 and 40 of the farmers who were arrested had since been freed on bail. The others remained in police cells and were hoping to appear in court today.

Farmers' lawyers believe the eviction orders violate constitutional rights of freedom from racial discrimination, and also contain technical errors, rendering them invalid.

Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said police would continue to arrest farmers until told to stop by the Attorney General's office. The policy would also apply to farmers who had won court orders staying their eviction, he said.

Among those who have obtained such orders is the former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith, 83, who led the fight against majority rule between 1965 and Mr Mugabe's election in 1980. He said he would continue to produce food regardless of the threat of a two-year jail sentence. Police have not yet visited his property near the central city of Gweru.(AP)