Zimbabwe court allows squatters to stay on farms

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's High Court issued a provisional order Monday allowing squatters to stay on white farms they have invaded pending a ruling on President Robert Mugabe's land seizure program, state television reported.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said High Court Judge Godfrey Chidyausika's ruling late Monday overturned an order by the Supreme Court earlier this month for the government to evict the squatters.

"Justice Chidyausiku ... ordered the minister of home affairs, the commissioner of police and all officers below them not to comply with an order directed by an earlier judgment to action evictions on occupied farms," ZBC said.

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"Justice Chidyausiku prohibited and restrained the police from carrying out the farm evictions pending the finalization of a constitutional case on the matter."

It said the ruling followed an application by communal farmer Samson Muriro, on behalf of all peasants occupying white farms, which sought a "just and fair land redistribution exercise."

Thousands of veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war and supporters of Mugabe have occupied white farms since February.

The Supreme Court -- the highest court in the land -- has reserved judgment on an application by the mainly white Commercial Farmers Union challenging the constitutionality of presidential powers used by Mugabe to seize white-owned land for black resettlement with no obligation to pay compensation.

Mugabe has repeatedly vowed he would not heed any court order that interfered with his land redistribution program, which he says is meant to correct the imbalances created by Zimbabwe's colonial past.

Mugabe's government has identified 3,041 of the 4,500 white-owned farms for forced resettlement, and has so far served formal notice on about 2,000 farmers of its intention to seize their land.

Mugabe argues that it is immoral for 4,500 farmers to occupy more than 70 percent of Zimbabwe's most fertile land while blacks are crammed into unproductive areas.

Earlier this year he amended the constitution to give himself power to seize farms with no obligation to pay for land if former colonial power Britain did not provide funding.

The 76-year-old former guerrilla leader, in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence 20 years ago, has targeted for seizure at least 12.4 million acres of the 30 million acres under commercial farming.

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