Zimbabwe farmers flee ultimatum

One eyewitness counted more than 100 farmers' lorries piled high with furniture and household goods leaving the fertile area north-west of the capital, Harare.

Justice for Agriculture (JAG), a farmers' lobby group, says the authorities told scores of farmers to leave on Sunday or face arrest for resisting the land redistribution programme.

JAG is advising them to stay put and take the eviction orders to court, saying the deadline has been imposed by local administrators not the central government.

But a BBC correspondent in neighbouring South Africa says it seems many white farmers are taking these latest threats seriously and are leaving with whatever they can take.

Farming officials in Zimbabwe say most of the farmers facing the deadline have decided to leave.

One official in the town of Banket told the BBC that about 50 farmers in his area had been told to leave and warned that their possessions would be seized if they stayed.

A Zimbabwean police spokesman has told the BBC that any farmer who stays on his land in violation of the law will be punished.

'Stay your ground'

JAG's chairman, David Connelly, told the BBC that at least two farmers were being "held hostage" in their homes on Sunday.

In one case, an army major accompanied by other men dressed in civilian clothes was insisting he had been issued the farm by the government.

Zimbabwe's white farmers
Out of a population of 13 million, 50,000 Zimbabweans are white, of whom 4,000 are farmers
About 2,500 white farmers have been defying orders to leave their land
When Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980, 70% of the best land was in white hands
12 white farmers have been murdered since land invasions began in 2000 (JAG figures)

But the farmer was "completely within the laws of Zimbabwe", said Mr Connelly.

"The government is trying to intimidate farmers off their land because they obviously realise that in the courts they are not going to have too much success," Mr Connelly said.

Most farmers affected by the new deadline are believed to have had previous eviction orders overturned in court last month.

'Undeserving farmers'

Last week, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said time was running out for white farmers resisting land redistribution.

"Those do not deserve to be in Zimbabwe and we shall take steps to ensure that they are not entitled to our land," he told supporters after returning from the world summit in Johannesburg.

The United Nations says the turbulent land reform programme has worsened food shortages in Zimbabwe, where six million people are threatened with starvation.

But Mr Mugabe denies this, saying that most white farmers concentrate on commercial crops for export.