Police help ease Zimbabwe violence

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- The ransacking spree on white-owned farms in Zimbabwe has eased after much-delayed police reinforcements arrived.

Police and paramilitary units moved into the troubled northwestern district of Chinhoyi on Monday and farmers' representatives said the level of violence had been "slightly" reduced.

It was the sixth consecutive day of a plunder spree by pro-government militants who have occupied and looted more than 30 properties near Chinhoyi, 120 kilometres (70 miles) northwest of Harare.

"The situation seems to have improved slightly, there were less properties raided today than there were on Sunday and the police are now starting to react," Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) President Colin Cloete told Reuters after touring the area.

But he said it would be some time before white families who had fled the northwestern Lion's Den, Mhangura and Doma farming areas returned.

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"It is still not safe. Those people will not go back until they get some sort of assurance," Cloete said.

CNN's Bob Coen said criminal elements appeared to be to blame for the violence rather than the Zimbabwe government's controversial land reform moves.

He said that local people had joined in to take advantage of the situation, looting homes and stealing property.

But police reinforcements had improved the situation, he said.

Earlier on Monday Coen had reported that the mood among the farmers was of "hopelessness," with more than half of the 107 farms in the area -- one of the most productive for corn and tobacco crops -- abandoned.

Women and children had been evacuated, he said, while white farmers stayed behind to try to negotiate with the angry crowds in what appeared to be vain attempts to save their property.

About 300 family members had fled about 100 farms in recent days, while most of the men stayed behind, according to The Associated Press. Some had been forced to leave once the looters arrived.

The CFU estimated that more than 210 million Zimbabwean dollars' ($3.8 million) worth of property had been lost in a week of looting by mobs who have also attacked dozens of farm labourers.

Violence spread north through the Chinhoyi district after 21 white farmers were arrested last Monday on allegations of violence and assault against squatters and black ruling party militants on their land.

The farmers were held in police cells while their lawyers sought a High Court order granting them bail.

The farmers denied initiating last week's clashes, saying they went to the aid of a colleague under siege from squatters led by war veterans and were attacked first.

A CFU spokesman told Reuters that four farmers were briefly detained on Sunday, then released. Police were not immediately available for comment.

At least 15 farms in the Doma district near Chinhoyi were looted on Sunday as a crowd of about 300 black settlers went from property to property.

Some white families were flown out on light aircraft to the Kariba airport after mobs blocked several roads, the AP reported. Most farmers were gathering at secret safe houses at night.

One farmer who fled his property on Saturday came back on Sunday to find his home burned to the ground.

On Saturday, President Robert Mugabe promised to move ahead with government-sponsored land seizures of white-owned farms and warned the farmers not to resist his land redistribution program.

"We will proceed with current land reform with or without sanctions," Mugabe said. "Let that position be known here and abroad and let the commercial farmers tell that to their constituency or constituencies overseas."

The government has targeted about 4,600 white-owned farms for confiscation without compensation. The farms account for about 95 percent of the white-owned land.

Groups of squatters led by veterans of the war for independence that ended white rule in 1980 began taking over white-owned farms in February 2000. Since then, they have occupied more than 1,700 farms.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, threatening travel and economic sanctions unless the country restores the rule of law and ends politically motivated violence and intimidation.