Zimbabwe government says it regrets police farm action

HARARE, Aug 23 (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's government on Wednesday said it regretted the destruction by police of makeshift houses erected by war veterans illegally occupying white-owned farms.

"The government regrets and takes full responsibility for the manner in which the Zimbabwe Republic Police have, since Monday, sought to evict homeless families," the government said in a statement after the cabinet discussed the incidents.

MESSAGE BOARD Zimbabwe's future

Acting on Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo's orders, police on Tuesday destroyed houses under construction and burnt down makeshift huts on three farms, including one where war veterans were accused of abducting and sexually molesting schoolgirls.

"While the police have a duty to keep the peace and to enforce and restore order where necessary, this must be done in accordance with government policies and plans," the statement said.

"The police actions in the recent evictions were not inspired by and do not provide a guide to government policy in respect of the ongoing rural resettlement programme."

The official Herald newspaper said police had also evicted veterans and backers of the ruling ZANU-PF party, apparently defying President Robert Mugabe's assertion that they would only vacate farms as and when they were moved onto resettlement land.

Demonstrating war veterans seemed to believe Nkomo had acted unilaterally, without approval from Mugabe, who was visiting Mozambique at the time. But Zimbabwe's main state newspaper has applauded the police action as a blow for law and order.

On Wednesday about 150 angry veterans camping outside Mugabe's offices chased away local and foreign journalists, accusing them of writing lies about the land issue.

The veterans sang revolutionary songs, chanted slogans and waved placards, one of which read in the Shona language: "John Nkomo, you have sold out."

Self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s war of independence have, with Mugabe's blessing, invaded almost 1,000 white farms since February, disrupting agricultural activity.

In an editorial on Wednesday, the Herald applauded what it called the government's crackdown on war veterans "who have been causing lawlessness on occupied farms."

"There is no need for disorder and disruptions on occupied farms and there is no need for any more farm occupations."

Farmers say invaders continue to attack them and their workers, steal livestock and disrupt farming under the nose of the police, widely accused of siding with the veterans.

"Now that the police have rediscovered their moral courage and decided to act in a manner they were constitutionally obliged to have acted in way back in February, it is absolutely imperative that they are never seen to vacillate again," the privately owned Daily News said.

Mugabe plans to acquire nearly half the 12 million hectares (30 million acres) owned by about 4,500 white farmers to resettle peasants who he says were deprived of their land by British colonists over a century ago.

Critics say that besides damaging farming by handing land to peasants ill-equipped to utilize it, the programme will also displace about 500,000 black farm workers and their families.

At least 31 people, mostly opposition supporters and five white farmers, were killed during the farm invasions and in a wave of violence across Zimbabwe before a general election in June that Mugabe's ZANU-PF narrowly won.

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