Mugabe Promises to Remove Squatters

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe promised to remove his party militants from white-owned farms they have occupied for six months. A one-day general strike protesting a breakdown in law and order shut down the economy while Mugabe met with South African President Thabo Mbeki in the capital, Harare. After the talks, Mugabe said the occupiers would be removed by the end of August from white farms not slated to be confiscated under a national land distribution plan. The occupiers, who have seized about 1,600 white-owned properties, would be taken to farms that are due to be nationalized.