Zim land grabs start afresh

When war veterans arrived to claim Craig Edy's cattle farm during Zimbabwe's violent land invasions a decade ago, he simply refused to budge.

The raiders eventually gave up, leaving Edy to build up his business on the 600ha plot in Fort Rixon, a dusty farming region in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland province.

But this week a beady-eyed official from the lands department started building a house on the farm. He even confiscated the keys of the generator when Edy was in town on business. When Edy sought the help of a cabinet minister he knew, he was arrested and accused of threatening the land official with a gun.

Far from being an isolated incident, the union that represents Zimbabwe's remaining white farmers - about 300 - believes it represents a fresh attempt by President Robert Mugabe to finally rid the country of white landowners.

The Commercial Farmers' Union said there had been "at least 20 incidents" in recent weeks, in most cases with farmers told to leave their land, sometimes with as little as one month's notice.