Zimbabwean Farm Squatters Defy Ruling

White farmers said black squatters invaded at least five more white-owned farms Friday, despite a court ruling against them and a government plea for an end to the occupations of hundreds of farms.

Though Zimbabwe’s High Court ruled Thursday that the government must remove the squatters, there was no apparent police action against the occupiers. However, much of the violence that has plagued the white-owned farms in recent days has dissipated, and squatters left several farms Friday.

“There has been movement on and off farms . . . but it has been generally much quieter and there has been no violence or damage to property,” said Stephen Crawford of the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents most of the white-owned farms.

Since the end of February, thousands of squatters armed with bars, clubs and axes have invaded more than 900 white-owned farms and demanded that the farmers give up the land. While the courts have repeatedly ordered the police to evict the occupiers, President Robert Mugabe has backed the squatters, calling their actions a justified protest against unfair landownership.

The 4,000 white-owned farms occupy about a third of Zimbabwe’s productive farmland, while millions of blacks are landless and impoverished. Government plans to buy some of the land and divide it into plots for blacks to farm have repeatedly bogged down in the 20 years since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain.

Soon after Thursday’s ruling, Vice President Joseph Msika appealed to the squatters to leave and said the government wanted to end the standoff amicably.

But squatters might have received a different message from Mugabe. Speaking from a summit in Cuba on Thursday, Mugabe sounded a defiant tone. He again threatened to use a new constitutional amendment to seize white-owned land without compensation.