Robert Mugabe, Reported to have expressed regret over fatal shooting of white farmer
Zimbabwe's white dominated farmers' union has said that it's been given an assurance by President Mugabe that order will be restored in the country. However, he stopped short of ordering squatters off occupied farms. Mr Mugabe is also reported to have expressed his regret at the fatal shooting of a white farmer over the weekend. Many white Zimbabwean farmers have left their homes, saying that they would not return until the authorities guaranteed their safety. The British High Commission in Harare has reported a large influx of white Zimbabweans applying for British citizenship.
However, Mr Mugabe earlier refused to condemn the killings of the white farmer, and of two opposition party officials. All three were members of the Zimbabwean Movement for Democratic Change. Robert Mugabe also refused to order veterans of the 1970s war of independence to leave land they have occupied in recent weeks, despite last week's high court ruling which upheld an eviction order against them.
White farmers in Zimbabwe have been meeting with the police to discuss ways of improving security in an area to the east of the country's capital, Harare. The talks were arranged after one farmer was killed and several others were severely beaten by squatters, who have taken over white-owned farms. The Zimbabwean Minister for Health has said that Britain is partly to blame for the political crisis in Zimbabwe. Dr Timothy Stamps told the BBC that the recent occupation and violence on white-owned farms would not have escalated if Britain had honoured its 1979 pledge to redistribute the land fairly. He said that Zimbabwe was promised over £1bn to fund the land programme but had received less than £17m.
