Zimbabwe farmers meet government after land grab report

HARARE (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's white farmers will meet President Robert Mugabe's government on Monday, just hours after state television announced a dramatic expansion of the plan to seize farms for resettling landless blacks.

The Commercial Farmers Union, which at the weekend said it would join this week's opposition-backed general strike, had scheduled the meeting before Zimbabwe Television announced that 3,000 farms would be acquired to settle thousands of people.

In May, the government had said it had earmarked about 800 farms for seizure with a final plan to acquire five million hectares of the 12 million hectares owned by white farmers in the southern African country.

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ZTV reported on Saturday that the government would use the army to provide transport and logistical support for the resettlement programme. Officials were not available for further comment.

A spokesman for the CFU, which represents 4,500 primarily white farmers, said the union had no details of the government's latest plans and might get them at the Monday meeting.

The television report came a day after the CFU said it would back a three-day general strike called by the country's main labor movement to press Mugabe to end violence against opposition supporters and the occupation of about 1,000 white-owned farms.

Business leaders are due to meet on Monday to discuss the proposed strike, which the government has denounced as "ill-advised" and meant to undermine its authority.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which enjoys the support of most of the country's 1.2 million laborers, said a nationwide strike would begin on Wednesday.

The strike is also being supported by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which says war veterans occupying farms since February are busy "raping, beating and killing farm workers."

White farmers employ about 300,000 people and the government has not explained what will happen to them and their families when the farms are redistributed.

The proposed strike is the first major challenge to Mugabe since his ruling ZANU-PF party narrowly won fiercely-contested parliamentary elections last month.

The MDC captured 57 seats against 62 for ZANU-PF and one seat to a minor opposition party.

At least 31 people died in pre-election violence linked to the farms invasions by liberation war veterans and pro-government militants.

Mugabe's government has denied responsibility for the violence.

But the CFU has said intimidation and interference on the farms have escalated despite the government's announcement this month of plans for the orderly transfer of land from whites to blacks.

The turmoil has exacerbated Zimbabwe's worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. Inflation and unemployment rates are at record highs and the country faces acute shortages of fuel and foreign exchange.

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