Farmers evicted from Zim

April 09, 2008, 08:00

At least 60 white farmers have reportedly been evicted from their farms in Zimbabwe since the weekend after elections more than ten days ago. War veterans were moving on to white-owned farms. There are about 500 white farmers still operating in Zimbabwe after the government's controversial land reform programme in 2000.

Beginning in 2000, Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president began an effort to redistribute land from white holders (predominantly large farms) to 250 000 black Zimbabweans. In 2005, the government, led by central bank governor Gideon Gono, started making overtures that white farmers could come back. There were 400 to 500 still left in the country, but much of the land that had been confiscated was no longer productive. In January 2007, some white farmers signed long term leases but the government reversed course again and started demanding that all remaining white farmers leave the country or face jail.

Fear now grips white farmers in parts of Zimbabwe that recently witnessed fresh farm occupations by so-called war veterans. This follows statements by the war veteran’s leadership that they would defend the country against what they consider an invasion of the land by white people. Groups of people claiming to be war veterans have reportedly invaded several farms in Masvingo province over the past few days.

President of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmer's Union, Trevor Gifford says: "It is a process of intimidation and retribution - those people who have been invading the farms are doing it on the instructions of their superiors - it is state sponsored - and the district and provincial party offices are involved in collecting people - paying them to invade these farms."