Death In Zimbabwe Race Clash

A white farmer was reported to have been shot dead by black squatters and others to have been abducted in Zimbabwe on Saturday.

A local television agency said farm sources phoned in from Marendera, about 100 km (65 miles) east of Harare, saying a farmer had been abducted by militant veterans of the 1970s liberation war in the former Rhodesia.

The same sources reported later that one farmer, so far unidentified, had been shot in the face and killed. He was believed to be part of a group which had gone to look for the abducted farmer.

The BBC reported from Harare that white farmers targeted in an eight-week-old land grab by supporters of beleaguered President Robert Mugabe were fleeing the area, scene of some of the worst confrontations of recent weeks.

Vice President Joseph Msika called this week for an end to the occupation of hundreds of white-owned farms before a critical parliamentary election due in May. But invasion leader Chenjirai “Hitler” Hunzvi told cheering supporters at a city rally that only Mugabe could call off the occupations.

In recent weeks veterans of Zimbabwe’s civil war have occupied 700 white-owned farms. Opposition leaders say Mugabe is refusing to have his security forces obey a court order for the squatters' eviction because he wants to gain popular support ahead of parliamentary elections, which could be called in May.