War veterans kicked off white farms

War veterans have occupied over 1,000 farms since February

Police in Zimbabwe have begun forcibly to evict hundreds of self-styled war veterans occupying white-owned farms.

Officers set on fire hundreds of dwellings on farms south of the capital, Harare, after ordering more than 700 occupiers to remove their belongings and evacuate.

We have received instructions to be more strict with former fighters who refuse to obey government orders

Zimbabwe police

Correspondents say this has been the first serious move against the war veterans since February, when they began their land occupations.

The police action was ordered by the Home Affairs minister, John Nkomo.

More than 1,500 farms have been invaded since President Robert Mugabe announced his policy of redistributing land from whites to blacks.

Strict orders

"We have received instructions to be more strict with former fighters who refuse to obey government orders," a police officer who sought anonymity told reporters.

President Mugabe has twice overruled orders to evict squatters

However, it was not clear how long the eviction process would continue or whether it would be extended across the country.

The BBC correspondent in Harare, Joseph Winter, says no action has been taken anywhere else, although a large number of the occupied farms are not on the official list for acquisition.

Police have previously ignored several court orders to evict the squatters.

Two orders by senior ministers for occupiers to vacate private land were later revoked by President Mugabe.

On Monday, about 100 squatters were driven off a farm near Chitungwiza, a township 25km south of Harare.

A fortnight ago, a group of schoolchildren were abducted and allegedly sexually abused at the farm.

But police deny any link between the abductions and the evictions.

The evictions continued on Tuesday as police and council workers began demolishing several homes in the western suburb of Kambuza.

Official list

Mr Nkomo's eviction order came as President Mugabe was attending an economic summit in neighbouring Mozambique.

Whites own one third of Zimbabwe's prime land

In recent weeks, President Mugabe has come under increasing pressure to restore law and order in farming districts, which are the backbone of Zimbabwe's economy.

Mr Mugabe says that war veterans will only be allowed to remain on those farms acquired by the government, ending the uncertainty in the rest of the agricultural sector.

The government announced this month it would confiscate 3,000 white owned properties without paying compensation and hand them over to landless blacks.

About 4,000 whites own one third of the nation's prime land and employ nearly two million black workers.