Zimbabwe war veterans attack white farmer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- A white Zimbabwean farmer was injured on Tuesday following a confrontation with war veterans demanding that he stop working on his tobacco plantation, farmers and hospital officials said.

A dozen self-styled war veterans occupying the Perveral Farm in Karoi, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Harare, attacked owner Marshall Roper after he and his laborers resisted demands that they stop work, a spokesman for a local farm group said. "One of the veterans then pulled out a machete and slashed him across the face," said the spokesman, who declined to be named. The farm workers were not harmed.

Harare's Avenues Clinic confirmed that a white farmer had been admitted on Tuesday morning, but did not give his name nor details of his injuries.

"We have got such a patient. His injuries are not life threatening," a hospital spokeswoman said.

No police comment was immediately available.

The incident comes four days after police arrested four white Zimbabwean farmers in an area south of Harare for allegedly inciting violence and mobilizing their workers to evict illegal settlers from their land.

President Robert Mugabe's government has sanctioned hundreds of farm invasions since February by veterans of the 1970s liberation war against white rule.

But last week the government began evicting some of the illegal settlers, targeting those who occupied land after the launch in July of a government resettlement scheme.

Mugabe's government has served notice it will acquire more than 2,000 of the 3,041 white-owned farms earmarked for resettlement and has passed legislation absolving it of responsibility to pay compensation.

Farm industry officials say agricultural production has fallen sharply this year due to work stoppages enforced by the invaders. Agriculture accounts for approximately 20 percent of Zimbabwe's gross domestic product.

At least 31 people - mainly opposition supporters and five white farmers -- were killed during the farm invasions and a wave of violence across Zimbabwe before parliamentary elections narrowly won by Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

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