(10 Apr 2000) English/Nat

The Zimbabwean attorney general has ruled that the nation's police force will not be forced to evict black squatters from white owned farms reasoning that such action would lead to a bloodbath.

The Zimbabwean police had been ordered to explain in court on Monday why they couldn't enforce property laws and evict thousands of armed squatters from white-owned farms.

The Harare High Court scheduled Monday's hearing after an application from farmers demanding police action in districts where more than 900 farms have been occupied.

The application was made by Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union which represents over 4-thousand farmers.

Zimbabwe's attorney general ruled out using police to oust black squatters from hundreds of white-owned farms on Monday saying such a move would "ignite the country into a bloody conflagration".

Zimbabwe's white farmers want the squatters to be evicted by the police arguing that doing so is just a matter of enforcing law already in place.

Last month the Commercial Farmers Union already obtained one court order banning the illegal occupiers.

On March 17, Judge Paddington Garwe ordered police to evict the squatters within 72 hours.

The Government and veterans ignored the order and police appealed it, saying they lacked the manpower and equipment like tear gas to carry it out.

No T-V cameras were allowed inside Harare's High Court on Monday.

But the attorney representing farm owners accused the nation's democratically elected government and police of abandoning the rule of law.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"As you are aware we have had a lot of invaders on farms. In some cases it has been violent and we would like the police to react and to help to remove the squatters from the farms."
SUPER CAPTION: William Hughes, CFU Acting President

Violence against white farmers is continuing to escalate.

The union reported more than 50 cases of violence on members' farms in the past week.

Two farmers have been released from hospital after severe assaults, and attacks on farm workers and death threats are widespread.

But Zimbabwe's attorney general said the occupations were a just fight against unfair laws on land ownership.

He likened them to the struggle by blacks against whites during the apartheid era in neighbouring South Africa a decade ago.

The judge is expected to deliver his ruling on the hearing next Thursday.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The attorney general argued that this was beyond the resources of the police and that a ruling forcing the police to evict the squatters would ignite a powder keg. We said that that is not true. That the events in Harare on the 1st of April showed the police have ample resources and that the powder keg argument is a political one. I believe that the court will uphold the rule of law and have every confidence in the judge and when he gives his ruling on Thursday I am sure it will be the right one."
SUPER CAPTION: Adrian de Bourbon, CFU lawyer

In Zimbabwe four-thousand white farmers own one-third of the productive land while most blacks are landless and impoverished.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"They are under considerable continuous harassments on the farms and it gets them down but nobody's abandoning their farms."
Q: What do you hope to achieve?
"What I hope to achieve? Just a return to law and order. That is all we are asking. A return to law an order, then we know how to operate."
SUPER CAPTION: Jerry Grant, CFU member and farmer

Squatters began moving onto farms in early February.


SOUNDBITE: (English):





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