Zimbabwean police have arrested 130 white farmers over the last three days for defying government orders to leave their land for redistribution to landless blacks, farming groups have said.
President Robert Mugabe's government has ordered 2,900 farmers of the country's remaining 4,500 white commercial farmers to quit their land without compensation, but nearly two thirds have defied an August 8th deadline.
The disruption to agriculture in Zimbabwe, once the bread-basket of southern Africa, comes as millions in the region face food shortages.
Farmers' lobby group Justice for Agriculture (JAG) said on today that latest figures showed 130 farmers had been arrested since Thursday for defying eviction orders. Of these, 38 had appeared in court and were out on bail, while 92 were still in custody.
In a separate statement, the main Commercial Farmers Union, grouping 4,500 mainly white producers, said police arrested 107 farmers on Saturday alone for continuing farming operations. Mugabe, who has been in power since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980, says his land drive is aimed at correcting colonial injustice which left 70 per cent of the best farmland in the hands of white farmers.
JAG says most of the targeted farmers have only one farm each and nowhere else to stay, nor any other source of income outside agriculture.
Aid agencies say nearly six million Zimbabweans - half the national population - need food aid this year, part of a wider food crisis threatening nearly 13 million people in six southern African countries.
Zimbabwe now needs food aid after drought and the farm invasions slashed output of the staple maize crop.
Mugabe's government blames the shortage of maize solely on the drought that has hit small-scale black farmers who produce 70 per cent of national output.