Squatters Ordered to Leave Farms

Zimbabwe admitted that it had allowed former guerrillas to take over white farms but said it ordered the squatters to leave by Saturday after some became violent. The squatters, led by former combatants from Zimbabwe’s bush war for independence, “could not be denied their democratic right to demonstrate” by storming onto at least 70 private properties in the past week, Home Affairs Minister Dumiso Dabengwa said. Tired of waiting for the government to slowly buy white-owned land and distribute it to poor black farmers, squatters armed with axes, knives, clubs, spears and some guns have taken over homesteads in the last week.