White farmers in court

Thousands of white-owned farms have been invaded

Around 20 white farmers are due to appear in court in the town of Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe.

The new violence has flared in Zimbabwe over farm settlements. The twenty white farmers are accused of attacking a group of war veterans and are appearing in court on Wednesday.

There are conflicting accounts of how the trouble started. The war veterans say they were attacked by farmers.

The farmers however say they were defending themselves from a violent mob.

A wife of one of the farmers has said that they have had no protection from either the police or the British High Commission. But a local politician for the ruling Zanu PF party claims that it was white farmers who made the first attack.

Another predictable flare-up?

The British High Commissioner in Harare has protested to the Zimbabwean government - after several white farmers and their families were apparently assaulted in and around the town of Chinhoyi 60 miles North-West of the capital. So far he has had no response.

The police arrested 20 farmers, while no settlers were taken into custody. When a group of relatives tried to visit the arrested men, they were reportedly set upon by youths wearing t-shirts with the name of ZANU-PF, President Mugabe's party.

The Foreign Office has told the World at one that they have now received a request from one of the families involved for assistance, and they are now responding to that request.

President Mugabe

President Mugabe has said the occupations are a spontaneous expression of anger as a result of the unequal distribution of land between the black majority and the tiny white minority.

But his critics, both at home and abroad, accuse him of using the land issue to bolster his support at a time of worsening economic crisis.

Does Chinhoyi mark a new development in Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis, or was it simply another predictable flare-up on a long and dismal journey away from the country's multi-racial ambitions?