Zimbabwe police free journalists

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Four Zimbabwean journalists have been freed after they were arrested over a report alleging police involvement in the looting of white-owned farms.

Lawrence Chibwe, lawyer for the four, said Geoff Nyarota, editor of the republican's only independent daily newspaper Daily News, assistant editor Bill Saidi, news editor John Gambanga and reporter Sam Munyavi were released from Harare's central police station on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Chibwe told the agency the High Court had granted an order for Nyarota's release after an urgent appeal on Wednesday against charges of publishing "false news."

"He has been released right now in terms of the court order. The court ruling reads in part that the charges were illegal anyway," Chibwe told Reuters.

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Police had released Saidi, Gambanga and Munyavi some hours earlier but had indicated they might call them in again for further questioning on Thursday, Chibwe added.

Daily News executive Thomas Deve said he suspected the men were arrested over a report in his newspaper that alleged police had been involved in looting white-owned farms.

In a front page report on looting of farms in northern Zimbabwe, The Daily News edition on Tuesday headlined allegations police vehicles were used by ruling party militants in what it called "well orchestrated acts of lawlessness" on the farms.

The former British colony plunged into economic and political crisis last March when ruling party militants led by veterans of the independence war that ended white rule in 1980 illegally occupied more than 1,700 farms.

A wave of violence began spreading last week through the Chinhoyi district, 120 kilometres (70 miles) northwest of Harare, after 21 white farmers were arrested on allegations of violence and assault against squatters and black ruling party militants on their land.

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.

At least 30 homesteads have been looted and white families have been evacuated from about 100 farms.

On Tuesday, farming officials said the situation on white farms surrounding Chinhoyi was tense although police had finally moved against militants who had ransacked and looted dozens of properties.

Also on Tuesday, Southern African leaders appointed a committee of presidents to help resolve Zimbabwe's problems, after admitting the crisis was causing concern.

The leaders of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) said at an annual summit in Malawi that they were worried that the spillover effect from the Zimbabwe crisis would affect their countries.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's delegation had sought public support for its land re-distribution programme, but SADC leaders were less sympathetic. The leaders instead welcomed an initiative by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to try to end the stalemate.

Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, told a news conference on Tuesday government vehicles had been used to loot farming and household goods from white-owned properties after the owners fled from rampaging militants.

The Daily News has in the last couple of years published wide-ranging allegations of corruption and mismanagement against Mugabe's 21-year-old government.

In April, Nyarota and two of his reporters were questioned and charged with defaming Mugabe.

The newspaper last year linked Mugabe and Parliament Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa to awards of contracts for a new international airport outside Harare that allegedly favoured politicians, ruling party supporters and their business associates.

In January, a bomb destroyed the paper's printing press in what the Daily News said was a politically motivated attack. No one was injured.

Last August Nyarota alleged that a plot by the state Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to kill him had failed when the hired assassin lost his nerve and revealed the details to his intended victim.