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NY Times - February 10, 2001

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- A government offensive against the independent judiciary, the opposition and the media has intensified, with the justice minister telling two Supreme Court judges to quit or face possible violence.

Moreover, the government said it was pushing for the resignations of all the remaining Supreme Court judges, who have repeatedly ruled against President Robert Mugabe.

Judge Nick McNally said Friday that Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had already asked that he and Judge Ahmed Ibrahim resign.

``We were told very nicely and politely we should take our leave and go, otherwise anything could happen. They didn't want me to come to any harm,'' McNally said.

McNally, who is white, said he would not quit. Ibrahim, who is of Asian descent, could not be reached for comment.

Mugabe has accused the nation's judiciary of bias toward Zimbabwe's white minority, more than 20 years after blacks overthrew the oppressive, white-minority government.

On Feb. 2, Anthony Gubbay, the white chief justice of the five-member Supreme Court, was forced into agreeing to retire at the end of February after being told the government could not guarantee his safety in the wake of threats from ruling party militants.

The court's other two judges are black.

The court repeatedly has infuriated the government by ruling against its program of seizing white-owned farmland without paying compensation, and of ordering police to remove black squatters from the hundreds of white farms they have occupied for the past year.

The court further enraged officials last month by overturning a presidential decree banning opposition lawsuits over disputed results from June parliamentary elections.

That ruling opened the way for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change to contest 38 of the 120 elected parliamentary seats. If the opposition party captures half the contested seats, it would seize control of Parliament, displacing the ruling party for the first time since independence in 1980.

The government was also planning to ask for the resignations of the two remaining Supreme Court justices, who are black, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo was quoted as saying Saturday in the state-controlled newspaper, The Herald.

The moves came after a week of stepped-up pressure from the government against judges, reporters and opposition parliamentarians.

Hundreds of armed riot police forced journalists to abandon a protest Feb. 3 against both the intimidation of the independent media and an anonymous bomb attack that damaged the press of the Daily News, a newspaper the government had accused of bias toward the opposition.

Also this week, MDC deputy leader Gibson Sibanda and youth wing head Nelson Chamisa were charged with inciting violence and released on bail.

Though political violence over the past year that has killed 32 people and left thousands homeless has mainly been blamed on ruling party militants, none of their leaders has been charged with incitement.

``It is an impossible situation for anyone who has respect and belief in the law,'' said Lovemore Madhuku, a constitutional lawyer at the University of Zimbabwe.

In recent months, as the government has harshly criticized the nation's top judges, ruling party militants have threatened to kill several of them.

Hundreds of militants stormed the Supreme Court in Harare on Nov. 24, disrupting a hearing on land seizures. No one was arrested.

The government said Thursday it will ignore the latest of six court orders demanding police remove squatters from white farms.

Several judges have privately criticized the justice minister for bias against them and have said they fear for the safety of their families.

HARARE (Reuters) - A BBC correspondent ordered by the government to leave Zimbabwe within 24 hours took refuge at the British High Commission in Harare early on Sunday after a gang tried to break into his flat.

Joseph Winter said the men climbed a wall around his garden and began banging on doors, shouting for him to open up as a car waited outside with its engine running.

Winter phoned his lawyer, British officials and fellow journalists in Harare. A Reuters reporter and other journalists arrived at the scene and saw a half-dozen men in civilian clothes flee from Winter's garden, climb into a Mazda car and drive away.

``We were terrified, and we thought they were going to kill us. We don't know who these people were,'' said Winter, who was with his wife and small daughter in the flat at the time of the incident. The family were whisked away in a car by officials from the British High Commission soon after.

Beatrice Mtetwa, Winter's lawyer, said she would launch a court challenge against the expulsion order at 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Information minister Jonathan Moyo told state television on Saturday that Winter was being expelled because his work permit had been issued ``fraudulently'' by an officer with no authority. Winter, who has worked in Zimbabwe for four years, called the charge ``absolute rubbish.''

Mercedes Sayagues, the Zimbabwe correspondent for the South African-based Mail & Guardian newspaper, was on Saturday also ordered to leave Zimbabwe. She was allowed to fly back into the country from Johannesburg only to pick up her nine-year-old daughter, but said she too would challenge the expulsion.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who turned 77 on Wednesday, said he would retire only when his old white opponents had been ``thoroughly beaten.''

In an interview broadcast on state television, Mugabe accused the country's white minority of resisting his efforts to build a non-racial society by refusing to share the country's wealth, particularly land.

Asked whether he wished to retire after two decades in power, Mugabe, who has always been ambivalent on his retirement plans, replied:

``I would like to do that, sure. As long as I am assured that those we fought yesterday are thoroughly beaten and that the carpet they now stand on, the economic carpet, has been removed from their feet and it has become our carpet,'' he said.

``The political struggle and the political victory alone. No. We need economic victory as well and that is why we must take the land,'' Mugabe added.

There is speculation that the ex-guerrilla fighter -- who led the former British colony of Rhodesia to independence in 1980 -- may step down in favor of Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa and bring forward presidential elections due in April 2002.

Mugabe's recent assault on critics, the media and the courts has led some analysts to speculate that he may call a snap vote in August or September.

Mugabe has embarked on a drive to seize at least five million hectares of the 12 million hectares owned by 4,500 white farmers for blacks.

He has vowed not to pay compensation for the land on the grounds that the land was ``stolen'' from blacks when Britain colonized the southern African country in the 1890s.

Mugabe said his government was not to blame for a severe economic crisis that has fuelled opposition to his rule. He said the economy was suffering from low commodity prices, a squeeze on foreign aid, and sabotage by white industrialists.

``They (critics) are saying that because we are going for the heart of the economic strength of the whites -- land.

``Once we have the land and are producing all that can be produced, we are home and dry,'' he added.

Mugabe criticized the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for cutting aid to his country, and vowed that he would not compromise on his political policies.

Foreign donors -- worried about the government's land policy and an expensive war in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- have withheld badly needed aid to Zimbabwe.

``When you are fighting a just cause, you must be prepared to suffer for it. Even to die for it,'' he said.

By ANGUS SHAW Associated Press Writer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- One student died and several were injured in clashes with riot police during demonstrations protesting economic hardship, police and student leaders said Monday.

Police fired tear gas to prevent students from leaving campus earlier Monday, but hundreds of students managed to breach the blockade and march through downtown Harare.

A 20-year-old student died after being trampled during the clashes at the University of Zimbabwe's main campus in Harare, police spokesman Botwell Mugariri said. However, student spokesman Brilliant Mhlanga said the student was punched and kicked by police.

Mhlanga said about 30 students were treated for injuries, some after jumping from upper floors to escape tear gas fired through windows.

``We are incensed by the high level of police brutality,'' Mhlanga said.

Campus protests began late Saturday, when rioting students stoned cars in a rampage triggered by the apparent suicide of a female student in a love tryst, police said.

Student leaders said their classmates were angered by visits to the campus by ``sugar daddies'' who use flashy cars and money to woo impoverished female students.

Zimbabwe's economy is crumbling and students have complained for several months of delays in receiving their allowances from the cash-strapped education ministry. They have also protested rising costs of food, accommodation and books.

By ANTHONY LEWIS

The title of worst government on earth — the most brutal, destructive, lawless — can probably be claimed today by Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe. Mr. Mugabe has turned a prosperous country into a land of chaos and desperation.

Example: Last week a gang of the thugs whom Mr. Mugabe calls "war veterans" invaded a grain storage depot holding grain donated by the European Union to the people of Zimbabwe. Over two days, with policemen watching, they stole 14 tons.

These so-called war veterans are Mr. Mugabe's instrument of terror. They began by invading white-owned farms, and they still remain on many — camping on the land, obstructing farm operations, demanding food by threat. Now they have begun extorting money from businesses. In recent days they have invaded leading hotels, department stores and even a private hospital, demanding payments to leave.

Mr. Mugabe's purpose is to hold on to political power. He has ruled Zimbabwe since it became independent in 1980. There must be a presidential election by next March, and he is using violence to be sure he wins. Leaders of the opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, have been kidnapped and killed.

Two of the opposition members of Parliament, Paul Nyathi and David Coltart, were in Washington this week, and I spoke to them by telephone. I asked Mr. Nyathi if he was afraid.

"No more than the average Zimbabwean," he said, "who faces beating on a daily basis. The whole of the country is under threat."

Before the parliamentary election last year, Mr. Coltart's polling agent was abducted; he has not been seen since. During the 1990 election there was an assassination attempt on an opposition leader. It failed, and the attackers were prosecuted and convicted. Mr. Mugabe pardoned them.

What then, I asked, can the United States and the international community do? Mr. Coltart replied: "End the culture of impunity."

"Mugabe and his people have used violence for political objectives again and again in the last 20 years," Mr. Coltart continued. "The international community objected last year, but there were no sanctions. So they think that if they bludgeon their way to winning again now, the international community will forgive them and life will go on."

The two M.P.'s said they were not in favor of general trade sanctions, which would further hurt impoverished Zimbabweans. Instead they called for personal sanctions targeting Mr. Mugabe and his top aides: their travel banned, financial assets identified and so on.

"Robert Mugabe and his henchmen have not been personally affected by what they have done to the country," Mr. Coltart said. "Targeted personal sanctions would break their culture of impunity."

Why should U.S. policy makers care about Zimbabwe, a medium- sized country in the middle of south- central Africa? The answer, I believe, is that what happens in Zimbabwe is a key to stability in the whole region.

Zambia, next door, has been in turmoil over President Frederick Chiluba's attempt, just abandoned, to change the Constitution to stay in office. In Mozambique there are dangerous tensions. In Angola the civil war continues. And South Africa, the giant of the region, is in a time of political strain. By making clear that there can be no impunity for violence and a stolen election in Zimbabwe, the United States and others can raise hope of making it a model for southern Africa.

The role of South Africa in the Zimbabwe situation has been a puzzle. President Thabo Mbeki said nothing as Mr. Mugabe's depredations mounted. His justice minister, Penuell Maduna, went to Zimbabwe and announced that, despite physical threats to judges, talk of intimidation was "pure fabrication."

South Africa has a self-interested reason to worry about Mr. Mugabe's campaign of terror. To outsiders, investors and tourists, chaos in Zimbabwe is a reason to stay away from the whole area.

Last week the South African government did condemn violence by the "war veterans." Mr. Nyathi said South Africa had "taken rather long, but they are getting the message now. If they had taken a robust attitude from the beginning, it might have reduced the destruction. But better late than never."

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai appears before the country's High Court on Monday to face terrorism and sabotage charges filed by the government of President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai's trial will be critical to whether the former trade unionist, who has emerged as the biggest political threat to Mugabe in his 21 years in power, will be able to run against the Zimbabwean leader in presidential polls early next year.

The state will argue in court that Tsvangirai contravened the terrorist provisions of the country's Law and Order Maintenance Act -- devised by former Rhodesia's white minority rulers to suppress black opposition.

The government has charged Tsvangirai with attempting to overthrow a legitimately-elected government when he used a gathering of supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to call on Mugabe to resign or face being ousted by force.

Tsvangirai told Reuters in an interview Saturday that the charges were politically inspired to prevent him from challenging Mugabe at the polls and that the government would do anything to win the election.

``By fraud they would like to prevent me from contesting and for being the main competitor and main challenger to Mugabe. They realize I have built a credible base in the country and he stands no chance in a free and fair poll,'' Tsvangirai said.

``I don't believe that I was engaged in any sabotage or unpatriotic actions,'' he said.

Tsvangirai technically faces a life sentence but any prison term of more than six months will make him ineligible to run as a presidential candidate under Zimbabwean law.

TSVANGIRAI WOULD APPEAL

The MDC president said he would appeal to the country's Supreme Court if he loses the High Court hearing on the grounds that the constitution guaranteed him freedom of expression.

Other MDC leaders are scheduled to appear in court over the coming weeks to answer charges of breaking the law in their activities against the ruling ZANU-PF ruling party.

Tsvangirai led the MDC in tightly contested parliamentary elections last year which were marred by the death of at 31 people, mainly MDC supporters, and the violent seizure of white-owned farm land by self-styled war veterans.

The High Court hearing will be against a background of escalating urban violence following attacks by gangs led by veterans of the 1970s independence war against Rhodesia on private businesses and international aid groups.

Rival ZANU-PF and MDC supporters are expected to gather outside the court.

One veterans leader has reportedly threatened embassies of countries which are seen to be supporting the MDC.

Violence and intimidation spurred former colonial power Britain and regional powerhouse South Africa to summon Zimbabwe's ambassadors to London and Pretoria to urge Mugabe's government to uphold the rule of law.

Tsvangirai warned Saturday that if Mugabe won another term in office, the country's democracy would be threatened.

``Then we will be written off as a country. It will put the final nail in any chance to have democratic advance in the country,'' Tsvangirai said.

Mugabe is expected to make the controversial redistribution of white-owned land to poor Zimbabwean blacks the centerpiece of his re-election campaign.

By HENRI E. CAUVIN

HARARE, Zimbabwe, May 10 — Marco Garizio's wife and children are already in hiding. Soon, they will probably be out of Zimbabwe, he says. Maybe he will flee, too.

Like many white owners of large businesses here, Mr. Garizio is under attack from black militants, who style themselves veterans of the guerrilla war that helped end minority rule 21 years ago and who have the support of President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party.

After seizing on the plight of the rural landless last year in a bid to win votes in parliamentary elections that saw the opposition make its best showing in the country's history, the militants have taken up the cause of the urban jobless as the country gears up for next year's presidential election. Mr. Mugabe, in power since 1980, is running for re-election, and his party is eager to recapture the urban votes it lost last year.

In their invasions of farms and factories, the militants have often been violent, sowing fear not only among owners but also among some of the poor who they say they represent. Over the last month they have descended on the factories and offices of about 30 companies, mostly here in the capital, plunging the country deeper into political and economic turmoil.

With the country's small white minority controlling more than half of the country's industry and commercial agriculture, virtually all of the factories singled out this year, like the hundreds of farms taken over last year, have been owned by whites like Mr. Garizio.

Last Friday, about a dozen militants showed up again at Mr. Garizio's company, Zimbabwe Spring Steel, looking for money, he said. At the urging of his workers, Mr. Garizio remained holed up his office, behind a newly installed iron gate. The entire work force of about 130, almost all of them black, Mr. Garizio said, marched into the parking lot to confront the militants. Told that the black workers, and not their white boss, would be negotiating, the militants left.

Business owners like Mr. Garizio, 45, a second-generation Zimbabwean, became even more alarmed last Friday when the minister of industry and international trade, Nkosana Moyo, suddenly resigned without any public explanation. One of several talented technocrats appointed to the cabinet last year in an attempt to right the country's listing economy, Dr. Moyo, a physicist, banker and writer, had criticized the attacks on industry and urged aggressive government action against them.

Among the demands the militants have made is for extra compensation for workers laid off weeks, months or even years ago. Interviews with business owners, industry association leaders and foreign diplomats, together with accounts in the local media, suggest that the demands for extra severance have been anything but subtle.

"Friends of mine have been beaten, urinated on," Mr. Garizio said, adding that they "had pens put up their noses, all sorts of physical abuse." He said that he — like other owners — had so far faced merely the threat of such treatment.

While the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries is advising businesses to refuse the militants' demands, a number of owners have acceded to them and others are negotiating, according to Malvern Rusike, the group's chief executive.

Mr. Garizio insisted he would leave the country rather than pay. What he hopes is that if enough business owners resist, the demands will die. "Someone at some point has to make a stand for their rights," he said.

In an interview, Chenjerai Hunzvi, the leader of the militants' Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, denied that his organization was behind any of the reported violence and said the militants were in fact mediating disputes between companies and their employees to avert violence.

Anyone using violence, Dr. Hunzvi said, was acting "as an individual." He pulled a press statement from an envelope that said that "rogue elements" among the war veterans were allied with "impostors" backed by the opposition in a scheme to discredit both the veterans and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

Already some of the most aggressive tactics have abated after international criticism. In particular, neighboring South Africa, which has been measured and often discreet in its comments on events in Zimbabwe, made its displeasure very public in this case, urged on by big South African companies with operations here.

But the damage to Zimbabwe's reputation and economy has been done. And business leaders are not sure that the attacks are over, in part because of the ruling party's need to recapture the urban vote.

"It's a systematic process," Mr. Rusike said in an interview. "It's not an accident." The idea, he said, is to "neutralize the opposition."

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change won just over a third of the elected seats in Parliament in the elections last June. The movement, while rooted in the trade unions, has drawn considerable support — financial and otherwise — from big business, and that has given Mr. Mugabe's party an opening to assail its credibility as an advocate for workers and the poor.

"It was clever of ZANU-PF," said Mr. Garizio, who was a top fund- raiser for the Movement for Democratic Change's campaign last year. "It was a very clever political strategy. They saw the opportunity. They saw the weak chink in the armor plate and they went straight in and exploited it."

The movement's chief spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe, insisted that, while business owners might support his party's policy, it was primarily an organization of working people. He also predicted that when companies cannot or will not pay any more money to the militants, the lack of jobs — Zimbabwe's unemployment rate is estimated at 30 to 60 percent — will again preoccupy voters and turn them toward the opposition.

Last year, according to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, at least 400 businesses shut down. Nearly 100 of these were in the steel sector, which depends heavily on sales to farmers, whose orders for tools and parts plunged last year with the farm invasions and the prospect of land reform.

Others like Mr. Garizio's company, which has shuttered its two other plants, have scaled back drastically. The tractor sales and service operation was shut down in October. A work force that once numbered 250 now stands at 132. Revenue, which totaled $15 million in 1997, was just a million dollars last year.

In a metalworking room, most of the lathes and saws sit idle. "We used to have an operator for every one of these," Mr. Garizio said.

In the last round of layoffs, in October, 39 people lost their jobs, he said. Now 30 or 40 more could be let go. The numbers, he said, scarcely mattered to the war veterans who turned up at the plant in late April with some of the workers let go last fall.

"They don't want to understand the problem," Mr. Garizio said. "The more I tried to explain the company's position, the more irritable they became and the more violent the threats became."

They returned a couple of days later, he said, and reiterated their demand for three months' pay for every year of service. They were supposed to come back to collect last Thursday and Mr. Garizio was girding himself to refuse. His workers did that for him when the militants finally did show up on Friday.

Buoyed by that showing, Mr. Garizio waits. If all settles down, perhaps his wife and two children can come home; if the problems mount and the economy sinks further, he will go, he says.

It is a choice his Zimbabwean workers do not have. "Their predicament is worse than mine," Mr. Garizio said, noting that they don't have the security and mobility that being rich and white affords.

"Definitely we are scared for ourselves, and for our employment as well," said a clerk in his 30's, who asked that his name not be used.

A blacksmith in his 50's, who wanted his name used until a colleague warned him about reprisals, said the attacks on factories were senseless.

"We don't have money to give them," he said. "When you retrench people, you know the purpose is to save the company. If they are coming to get more while we are struggling, that is destruction."

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - A Danish firm said Monday it had halted production in Zimbabwe because of attacks on its premises by gangs of militants backed by the country's ruling party.

Chewing gum manufacturer Dandy Zimbabwe said its decision followed the failure of the Zimbabwe government to intervene to stop the raids despite a protest from the Danish government.

``Dandy Zimbabwe is committed to conducting its business under the rule of law. However at this point in time it is not receiving the protection it requires to continue operations,'' Managing Director Jorgen Mogensen said in a statement.

``It is therefore, with immediate effect, suspending production at its Norton factory until satisfied that it and its employees can, with reasonable safety and security, resume operations,'' Mogensen said.

Dandy's plant in Norton, some 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Harare, was deserted Monday and the gates were locked. A company official said the group employed around 150 people.

Gangs led by self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war have attacked scores of private firms and international aid groups in recent weeks to demand that employers pay compensation to sacked workers.

The attacks, carried out with the support of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, are seen by political analysts as an attempt to win workers' votes in presidential elections due next year in which Mugabe will try to extend his 21 years in power for another six-year term.

Economists say investor confidence in Zimbabwe, already dented by economic and political woes, has been battered further by the latest violence and intimidation, and that more businesses are preparing to close because of the attacks.

Canada announced Friday it was imposing sanctions on the southern African country in protest against the harassment of its top diplomat and an aid agency official.

Britain, South Africa and Germany have also complained to Zimbabwe after attacks on their nationals by the militants, who accuse aid organizations and some diplomatic missions of supporting political opposition to Mugabe.

South Africa's high commissioner (ambassador) to Harare on Monday confirmed at least 16 firms with South African parent companies had been targeted by the veterans in recent months.

``We have discussed that with the government and they have assured us that the situation will be stabilized for investment to work,'' High Commissioner Jeremiah Ndou told the official ZIANA news agency.

Mugabe, 77, came to power in 1980 when the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain.

By HENRI E. CAUVIN

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — Like the rest of the country's hospitals, Mpilo Central is sick.

Mpilo, the biggest hospital here in Zimbabwe's second-biggest city, is losing its doctors, its nurses, its pharmacists and, slowly, its spirit.

Fleeing the deepening hardships in Zimbabwe and following the lure of opportunities unimaginable here, medical professionals are abandoning the country as never before. The health care system, as a result, is sinking into crisis, consuming the colleagues left behind.

Mpilo, for example, which handles many of the most difficult cases in the region, now has just one general surgeon instead of three to serve its 1,037 beds.

"I am on call every day," the surgeon, Dr. Julio Feliu, said one afternoon after completing seven scheduled operations before heading off to teach a medical school class.

Over the last few years, as many as 100 doctors and hundreds — if not thousands — of nurses are estimated to have emigrated from this nation of 11 million people. While losing medical professionals is neither new nor unique to Zimbabwe, the scope appears unprecedented. With one of the world's worst AIDS epidemics and with its economy in turmoil, the country could hardly be more vulnerable.

Indeed, business executives, teachers, engineers and others are leaving too, costing Zimbabwe much of the enormously successful investment it made in education after blacks won majority rule 21 years ago.

Their marketability is a testament to Zimbabwe's successes in improving education and nurturing a black professional class. But those achievements are in jeopardy as people flee.

Zimbabwe's economy, once one of Africa's most promising, is a wreck. A standoff over how white-owned farmland should be redistributed has roiled the country and harmed agriculture, the country's economic base. Exports and tourism are down, giving the country little of the foreign currency it needs for imports like fuel and drugs for its health care system.

Unhappy with the state's policies and priorities, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have cut Zimbabwe off, and President Robert Mugabe has refused to make concessions.

Inflation is at nearly 60 percent. Professionals like the doctors at Mpilo, who envisioned lives of at least modest prosperity for their families, instead find themselves struggling to cover their bills.

"It's money first and foremost," said Dr. Zulu Mahlangu, the acting medical superintendent of Mpilo, when asked what was luring away his staff.

Doctors in government service typically earn $550 to $1,100 a month and nurses $350 to $500, according to the Health Ministry and the nurses' union.

So when countries like Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, all facing critical health care staffing shortages, have come calling, they have found legions of workers looking for something better.

"It was mostly junior doctors at first, but now even people who are in private practice, senior doctors, are leaving — it's a lot more now," said a specialist in his 40's who works for a government hospital. "They are worrying about the education of their kids, their security, the general economic climate."

Opened in 1957, Mpilo Central would, in another time, seem a decent place to work. Set on 28 acres a couple of miles northwest of the city's central business district, it appears spare, but well kept. It is not cutting edge, but neither is it a medical wasteland.

Such mundane charms apparently no longer suffice for many of Zimbabwe's medical professionals. Of the 600 posts for doctors in government hospitals, nearly 100 are vacant, as are 600 of the 5,000 positions for general nurses, said Davies G. Dhlakama, the Health Ministry's director of technical support.

Dr. Barton Matshe is one of three staff obstetricians at Mpilo — which delivers 11,000 babies a year. The other two are on loan from Cuba, and go home for several weeks each year.

By Dr. Matshe's reckoning, Mpilo should have at least six obstetricians; by the hospital's, it should have at least five. No one expects more anytime soon.

Dr. Matshe came to Bulawayo, eager to go where his skills are "really needed." Now, however, there are days when he questions his judgment.

A 37-year-old father of three, he was born in Shurugwi, 125 miles northeast of here. After studying at the University of Zimbabwe Medical School in the capital, Harare, he fulfilled his required government service at the city's public hospitals. Then, like many other young doctors, he left the country to train in his chosen specialty. He spent six years in Cape Town, South Africa, and Johannesburg and six months ago he started work here.

"Part of me thinks I made the right decision, but there are times that I think from a personal point of view and from a professional point of view," he said, "that it wasn't quite the right decision." The fees each term for his two children in primary schools come to more than his monthly salary.

Bulawayo, with 800,000 people, is the business hub of southern Zimbabwe. In many ways it is better off than the rural areas in its ability to attract doctors and nurses.

But then those small rural hospitals are not asked to take on the most challenging cases, as Mpilo is. "We hardly ever see any low-risk patients," Dr. Matshe said.

And Bulawayo finds itself a second choice for many specialists, who prefer to be in Harare. The capital has not been spared, however. Even medical professionals who remain in Zimbabwe are devoting more time to private practice, which offers the only, albeit diminishing, hope of earning a good living.

The sort of specialized treatment that was once available only in the capital is increasingly not offered any more. For example, children with rheumatic heart disease now have little chance of ever having the surgery they need. "It's disheartening when the children keep coming back and saying, `Why can't I be fixed,' and you have to say, `Because the government has no money for operations,' " said Andrew Bowman, a cardiologist and secretary of the Zimbabwe Medical Association. "It's very sad."

Parirenyatwa, the only hospital in the country with the facilities to perform open heart surgery, no longer offers this surgery. The equipment is still there, but there is no money for essential supplies, said one of the country's few cardiac surgeons.

What that has meant, the surgeon said, is that the few patients with medical insurance and enough money travel to South Africa for the surgery. "Those who cannot afford it," the surgeon said, "are dying — and there are a lot of them."

The day-to-day frustrations erode the faith of many doctors and nurses in what they are doing and give them another reason to leave, on top of the economic hardships.

The medical professionals who stay say they understand the thinking of the ones who don't. "It's very personal, and you can't interfere with that kind of decision," said Dr. Matshe, the obstetrician at Mpilo Central Hospital.

After all, the idea of leaving has occurred to almost all of them. "I suppose all of us have at some point or another thought about, but somebody has to hang around here," said Dr. Mahlangu, Mpilo's medical superintendent. "I was born here. I was brought up here. This is home."

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Zimbabwe's president said Tuesday the country will likely hold a state funeral to honor one of the country's most feared militants, a man who led the illegal occupation of whites' farms and openly threatened government opponents.

President Robert Mugabe said he would convene ruling party leaders on Wednesday to decide whether to formally name Chenjerai Hunzvi a national hero.

``That's a formality as his status is almost obvious ... it's doubtful there will be any other option,'' Mugabe told mourners Tuesday.

Hunzvi, a 51-year-old veteran of the guerrilla war that ended white rule in 1980, died on Monday. The government said the cause of death was malaria.

A state funeral with military honors would accord pensions and sweeping benefits for Hunzvi's family, but it would likely provoke anger in Harare and other urban strongholds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

For more than a year, militants led by veterans of the guerrilla war have illegally occupied more than 1,700 white-owned farms, accusing farmers of supporting the opposition.

The occupations orchestrated by Hunzvi, who liked to be known as ``Hitler'' during the campaign, triggered violence surrounding parliamentary elections last June. It has continued ahead of presidential elections early next year.

At least 32 people have died and thousands have been left homeless. The violence was instrumental in allowing Mugabe's ruling party to hold rural districts in the election and retain power.

Mugabe on Tuesday praised Hunzvi for his ``extraordinary energy'' in rallying support for the ruling party, organizing party activities and campaigning across the country.

Hunzvi openly threatened government opponents, calling opposition leaders ``traitors,'' ``dogs'' and ``puppets of the whites'' who would be killed.

Witnesses have testified he took part in violence and assaults and, during a by-election in January, hurled gasoline bombs into homes of suspected opposition supporters.

His surgery clinic in western Harare was shut down after victims testified Hunzvi and aides used it to interrogate and torture opposition campaigners.

Earlier Tuesday, Patrick Nyaruwata, a spokesman for Hunzvi's National Liberation War Veterans' Association, said militants will not relent in their campaign to seize white-owned land. The organization claims to have 50,000 members.

In his first tribute Monday, Mugabe said Hunzvi was ``demonized and disparaged'' by opponents of the government's program to nationalize farms and empower the nation's economically deprived black majority.

HARARE (Reuters) - A mob of Zimbabwean war veterans was holding four white farmers hostage and threatening to kill them after beating up some of their workers, a neighboring farmer said on Saturday.

Lindsey Campbell told Reuters that 60 veterans invaded Iain Kay's Chipesa Farm, 50 miles east of the capital, on Friday. They chased away his 120 workers and forced Kay and his son David to lock themselves in the farmhouse.

President Robert Mugabe wants to seize thousands of farms owned by whites for redistribution to landless blacks. His government has encouraged its supporters to invade hundreds of farms in the past 18 months.

Lindsey said Iain and David Kay were joined later on Friday in the farmhouse by two neighboring farmers, Kim Nilson and Trevor Steel, who had come to try to help.

``Since yesterday, these four farmers have been hostages. They are being prohibited from coming out and they are being threatened with death,'' she told Reuters by telephone from her farm in the nearby town of Marondera.

``The situation is quite tense because some of these people have broken down some doors, and are behaving in very violent manner,'' she said.

A police official said some police were on the scene investigating the incident.

``I don't have any details but we have some men on the ground there, and they should be able to care of the situation,'' he told Reuters.

A police constable was shot dead at Iain Kay's farm in April last year when it was first invaded by militant supporters of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF, led by veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war.

Iain Kay was severely assaulted at the time and left for dead. The invaders moved out of the property months later, but have been coming back now and then, threatening to occupy the farm.

The late Jock Kay, Iain Kay's father, served as a deputy minister for agriculture in Mugabe's government in the 1980s.

Eight farmers have been killed in violence associated with the invasions.

Mugabe plans to confiscate five million hectares (11 million acres) of the 12 million hectares held by white farmers and has earmarked over 5,000 farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

The president, who has ruled since independence in 1980, says 4,500 white farmers have 70 percent of Zimbabwe's best land. Those whose farms are seized are compensated for improvements only, not the land, which Mugabe says was ``stolen'' from blacks during colonialism.

The farmers say they support the principle of land redistribution but oppose land seizures.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi rode into Zimbabwe in a 100-vehicle motorcade on Thursday, stopping at farming towns to express support for the government's program to seize white-owned farms for the settlement of landless blacks.

The motorcade was escorted by armored cars, wailing police cruisers and motorcycle outriders as it arrived from neighboring Zambia, where Gadhafi had attended a three-day summit of African leaders in the capital, Lusaka.

Gadhafi addressed Zimbabwe ruling party groups who gathered to greet him and expressed support for President Robert Mugabe's land seizure program, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. said.

``This is our land, the land of our fathers and grandfathers. Each one who came as a colonizer should go back to where they came from,'' said Gadhafi, speaking in Arabic through an interpreter.

He said white landowners, the descendants of colonial settlers, should leave Zimbabwe. Britain, the former colonial power, and the United States ``should pay compensation for the rape and plunder'' of Africa, Gadhafi was quoted as saying.

In Chinhoyi, a farming center 70 miles northwest of the capital, Harare, school children lined the main street and Gadhafi T-shirts were handed out.

Gadhafi, who road in a black stretch limousine bearing the Libyan flag, was accompanied by half a dozen armored cars, two mobile homes and several light trucks on the 300-mile journey from Lusaka to Harare.

Zimbabwe police stood guard at major highway junctions and closed several roads in Harare, disrupting evening rush hour.

Gadhafi's trip from the Zambian border passed through the main corn-growing belt. Production of corn, the staple food, has been disrupted on white-owned farms by illegal occupations by ruling party militants.

The government last week admitted it was appealing for food aid from donors to offset shortages.

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. Shortages of hard currency have led to acute shortages of gasoline and other essential imports.

Last year, Gadhafi offered Zimbabwe oil supplies but neither side has released details of any deal.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- In scathing criticism of a Cabinet minister who quit because of concerns about government repression, embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he will keep only ``real men'' in his government, not spineless cowards.

The likes of former Trade and Industry Minister Commerce Minister Nkosana Moyo, who quit the government in May, were not wanted in his government, Mugabe said Tuesday during a function marking the official opening of Parliament.

Only journalists working for state media were allowed to cover the event, which was reported Wednesday in the state-run Herald newspaper.

In his first public criticism of Moyo's resignation, Mugabe said he did not want to work ``with cowards with no spine.''

Moyo, a former banker, left the country to join his family in neighboring South Africa in May, saying he was exasperated by lawlessness and attacks on white-owned farms and businesses in the agriculture-based economy by ruling party militants.

He had also expressed frustration over government moves that caused acute shortages of hard currency and gasoline and dried up aid and investment.

Mugabe said Moyo ``grew cold feet.''

``I do not want ministers who are in the habit of running away. I want those I can call amadoda sibili,'' -- real men in the local Shona language -- ``people with spine,'' Mugabe said.

``Our revolution ... was not fought by cowards. If some of you are getting weak-kneed, tell us and we will continue with the struggle,'' he said.

Moyo and Finance Minister Simba Makoni were appointed after Mugabe's ruling party won a narrow majority in parliamentary elections in June, 2000.

They were seen as technocrats brought into the 19-member Cabinet to tackle the worst economic crisis since independence from British rule in 1980.

Makoni, who remains at his post, has acknowledged the nation faces an acute crisis.

Officially opening the Parliament on Tuesday, Mugabe said his campaign to seize private, mostly white-owned land was a crusade to empower blacks across Africa. The seizure plan has been declared illegal by the nation's courts.

Mugabe described the seizures as ``our last struggle for the decolonization of our country and our continent.''

Since March 2000, ruling party militants have illegally occupied 1,700 white-owned farms, demanding they be confiscated and given to landless blacks. At the same time, the government has targeted more than 4,500 properties for confiscation without compensation.

Many Western countries and aid groups have frozen aid and loans to Zimbabwe because of the program, a general breakdown of law and order and the economic chaos in the country.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has suspended the accreditation of BBC correspondents in the country in the latest crackdown by President Robert Mugabe's government on the media, a government-owned newspaper revealed on Thursday.

But the move brought immediate condemnation from the country' main opposition leader, who said it showed the government's ``intolerance'' and ``persecution of the media.''

In a letter to the British Broadcasting Corporationpublished by the government-owned Herald newspaper on Thursday, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said ``the distortions and misrepresentations were unacceptable and would not be allowed to continue.''

Moyo said BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar had in a report on the official opening of parliament on Tuesday ``used the words that the President 'vowed to continue with the forcible acquisition' (of land), yet these words were nowhere in the President's speech.''

``The President made it clear that land would be acquired as it has been, in terms of the laws of Zimbabwe,'' Moyo said in the letter.

``It is apparent that, as it has happened many times before, the BBC approached the President's speech with a preconceived view to distorting it, to give a false impression that there is no rule of law in Zimbabwe,'' he said.

He said there was a world of difference between forcible acquisition and lawful acquisition.

``Under the circumstances and given many previous examples of deliberate unethical and unprofessional conduct by the BBC, which we have brought to your attention...please be advised that the Department of Information and Publicity has suspended all accreditation of BBC correspondents in Zimbabwe pending agreement, if at all possible, on an ethical and professional code of conduct.''

BBC, OPPOSITION CONDEMN MOVE

In London, a BBC spokesman told Reuters: ``We are very disappointed with the decision. We will certainly be discussing the situation with the Zimbabwean government to try to resolve it as soon as possible. We certainly stand by hispiece.''

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told a news conference in Johannesburg the suspension ``demonstrates the degree of intolerance by the government of Zimbabwe and the persecution of the media in the country.''

Tsvangirai, president of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is in South Africa on invitation of the ruling African National Congress and its ally, labor movement COSATU, to brief them on Zimbabwe's political and economic situation.

Tsvangirai said his own party's view was based on freedom of speech and democratic ideals.

``Zimbabwe must not be a liability, it must be an asset to the region (southern Africa). We are committed to finding a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis,'' he said.

GOVERNMENT SAYS COMMITTED TO PRESS FREEDOM

In May, Moyo said Mugabe's government was committed to press freedom and denied that new rules on accreditation of foreign journalists were designed to stifle the media.

The government said foreign journalists would have to apply for accreditation from the Information Ministry before entering Zimbabwe in what critics said was a move to limit coverage of the crisis-ridden country.

Previously, foreign journalists could enter the country first and then apply for accreditation.

Mugabe has over the past year described Zimbabwe's privately-owned media as pawns of the country's minority white community and his political opponents.

Mugabe, in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain 21 years ago, says foreign media are being used by Western governments to discredit his drive to take over white-owned farms for landless blacks.

In March, Zimbabwe rejected a proposed visit by Commonwealth ministers who intended to look into allegations of intimidation of journalists and the judiciary.

Zimbabwe expelled two foreign journalists in February -- a BBC reporter and a correspondent for South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper -- accusing them of breaking the law.

The United States has accused Mugabe's administration of wanting ``very much to limit media reporting on what goes on inside Zimbabwe.''

CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Twenty-three white farmers were charged in a Zimbabwe court on Wednesday with inciting public violence following clashes on a white-owned farm occupied by supporters of President Robert Mugabe.

The farmers had been arrested for allegedly assaulting the Mugabe supporters on Monday. Tension was high in this town 75 miles northwest of Harare after mobs of pro-Mugabe war veterans staged retaliatory attacks on whites on Tuesday.

As the farmers stood in the dock on Wednesday, one of them, 72-year-old Gert Pretorius, collapsed and was rushed to hospital. A farmer in the public gallery who asked to remain anonymous said Pretorius had a heart problem.

Pretorius was taken in a police truck to a local hospital and was being treated by a private doctor while being guarded by four policemen.

The 23 farmers were all formally charged with inciting public violence and the case was adjourned until Thursday, when proceedings were due to reopen at 2:30 a.m. EDT.

A leading Harare lawyer told Reuters the charge, which falls under the Common Law Offences Act, could attract a jail term on conviction if the courts deemed the crime to be politically motivated.

In Tuesday's attacks on whites, witnesses said at least one white man had been stabbed and another had his ear slashed. Police said five black settlers had been seriously injured in Monday's violence.

Pro-Mugabe militants say farm invasions that have been carried out with government approval since February 2000 are a show of support for the president's drive to seize 20.5 million acres of the 12 million hectares owned by white farmers for redistribution to landless blacks.

Nine farmers have died in the violence that has accompanied the occupations, while scores of farm workers have been injured.

TENSION ON FARMS

On Wednesday, about 200 youths chased away about a dozen foreign reporters and local colleagues from the court premises before the hearing, threatening to beat them up.

``We have grievances against the whites. Don't stand here because we will beat you up,'' one youth told a white journalist.

Witnesses said the farmers had been brought into the court through a back entrance.

Richard Lindsay, a first secretary at the British High Commission in Zimbabwe, was at Chinhoyi court to check out reports that some of the arrested farmers had dual British and Zimbabwe citizenship.

Local sources said the atmosphere on surrounding farms remained tense on Wednesday. They said two farmers were forced off their properties by suspected war veterans and supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

``There's a bit of trouble going on at the farms. One farmer's wife was chased out of her property by a mob,'' an official at the local branch of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) told Reuters.

He said the woman had been rescued by a neighbor driving by as the mob gave chase some 30 yards behind her.

The latest victim of the violence on white-owned farms was Ralph Corbett, 76, who died at a private clinic in Harare on Monday night after unknown assailants allegedly hit him on the head with an axe at the weekend. His hands were tied with wire and he had been left for dead.

On Wednesday the CFU said it was concerned at the ''deteriorating lawlessness in the country over the last few days'' and urged Mugabe's government to act swiftly to quell violence.

``The CFU executive are becoming increasingly concerned for the safety of their members,'' the union said in a statement, adding that farmers countrywide were concerned at their inability to sow and harvest crops without hindrance.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change on Tuesday condemned Mugabe's ZANU-PF for the violence in Chinhoyi, saying it was meant to provoke a violent response from the public to justify a state of emergency.

The police denied ZANU-PF was waging a campaign of violence across the country, or that there had been attacks in Chinhoyi.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Violence spread across at least 15 white-owned farms in northern Zimbabwe on Thursday as ruling party militants and illegal land occupiers engaged in widespread looting, farmers' leaders said.

Farmers and their families were forced out of 10 farms in the Lion's Den, Mhangura and Doma districts near Chinhoyi, where 21 white farmers were in court facing charges they attacked black squatters, the Commercial Farmers Union said.

The court in Chinhoyi, 70 miles northwest of Harare, adjourned the farmers' bail hearings to Friday, ordering the men held in custody for a fourth night. One 72-year-old farmer suffering from a heart ailment was freed Wednesday after collapsing in the courthouse.

No information was immediately available from police on Thursday's violence.

Farmers' union spokeswoman Jenni Williams said in addition to the 10 farms that were evacuated, five other farms were besieged Thursday and one homestead was burned to the ground. ``There is widespread looting,'' she said.

Cattle had been herded away and tractors and other equipment was stolen, she said.

Farm buildings were trashed and vehicles were used to take away furniture, fertilizer and building materials, district union officials reported. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Black squatters led by ruling party militants and veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war have occupied -- often violently -- more than 1,700 white-owned farms since March 2000.

The government has listed 4,600 farms -- about 95 percent of properties owned by whites -- for ``fast track'' confiscation without compensation. The 4,000 white farmers own about one-third of the Zimbabwe's productive land.

After their arrest Monday, the detained farmers were not given food for 24 hours and had not been allowed to receive food or clothing and blankets from their families despite the low overnight temperatures, district union officials said.

A farm official who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals said several of the farmers' homes were searched and licensed weapons were seized. He said vehicle and other licenses were being checked in detail.

The union said the farmers arrested Monday went to help a besieged neighbor, leading to violent clashes with militants occupying his land. Militants wielding clubs and sticks chased farmer Tony Barklay into his house and attempted to smash down the door, demanding he leave the property, the union said.

Barklay radioed for help and militants stoned the cars of two white neighbors who arrived at his home. About 25 farmers from the district then went to their assistance.

No arrests of black militants were made after the clashes on Barklay's farm or during what police called ``disturbances'' in Chinhoyi on Tuesday, when at least 10 whites were hurt in reprisal attacks by rampaging black militants.

Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo, in charge of the police, said the Chinhoyi farmers had initiated the violence against blacks.

By HENRI E. CAUVIN

CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe, Aug. 9 -- With the government vowing to step up its seizures of white-owned farms and Western countries weighing punitive steps, tension has flared across Zimbabwe in recent days, and this city north of the capital has been one of the hottest flash points.

Clashes on Monday night between white farmers and poor blacks who had occupied a farm touched off the latest surge in tensions, and landed 22 white men, all but one of them farmers, in jail here, charged with causing public violence.

Today, as more than 100 government loyalists chanted angrily outside the courthouse where the men who had been arrested were to appear, dozens of white families were fleeing their homesteads after confrontations with black squatters, the Commercial Farmers Union said.

At least four houses were looted and at least two white farmers were shot at, said David Rockingham-Gill, regional executive of the farmers union.

"Nothing has been worse than today, not in this province," Mr. Rockingham-Gill said.

George Charamba, a spokesman for President Robert Mugabe, said the increase in confrontations in recent days was driven by the white farmers in a ploy to win sympathy in the United States and among the Commonwealth nations.

Foreign ministers from several Commonwealth countries will meet next week in Nigeria to try to make some progress on Zimbabwe before a meeting of heads of government scheduled for October in Australia.

"What they want to do is convince those ministers that there is lawlessness, that there is violence, and what's more that they are victims of that violence," Mr. Charamba said in an interview tonight. "Unfortunately that trick is not working because it's quite clear, in all the cases, that the commercial farmers did initiate the confrontations. These guys have been coexisting for months and it's just now that you have this."

But opponents of the president said another wave of government-sanctioned intimidation is under way in Zimbabwe as the government finds itself under mounting international pressure and the economy founders ahead of next year's presidential election.

"The weaker they feel, the more aggressive they become," said David Coltart, a member of Parliament from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, "and I think this escalation in violence is a result of them feeling increasingly isolated internationally. I think they're realizing that the net is closing in terms of the Commonwealth, in terms of South Africa losing patience. And they've decided that the only way out of this jam is to provoke a hostile response from white farmers."

The confrontations come as the government has pledged to step up its program to redistribute white-owned land to poor blacks. After saying for months that the state planned to acquire about 12 million acres of white-owned land, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made announced last week that the government now plans to take 20 million acres, and warned commercial farmers to avoid antagonizing the black squatters occupying white farms.

The first clash erupted here on Monday, when a group of white farmers came to the aid of a colleague who they believed was being attacked by a black squatter, the farmers union said. In the melee, both blacks and whites apparently were hurt, and the sight of the injured blacks in the state-owned media prompted a spate of revenge attacks this week by supporters of the governing party on whites around Chinhoyi.

Today, as they had done the day before, when they chased away local and foreign journalists, young party loyalists barred all reporters but those working for the state media from the proceedings in the courthouse.

A journalist from The Daily News, Zimbabwe's only privately owned daily newspaper, fled in a car when several young party activists walked toward him. A foreign journalist, who was surrounded and menaced by the same men, had his notes torn up and was warned by a policeman watching the encounter that he was "going to be assaulted."

While most of the people attacked and killed in Zimbabwe's political violence over the last 18 months have been black, the targeting of whites has stirred particular interest in the West, and in the coming months Zimbabwe could find itself even more isolated.

In the United States, the House is expected to take up legislation, recently passed by the Senate, that could freeze overseas assets and restrict the travel of Mr. Mugabe and some of his closest aides while setting strict conditions for resuming the international assistance Zimbabwe desperately needs.

Zimbabwe has criticized the bill as an attack on its sovereignty, and Mr. Charamba, the presidential spokesman, said the world underestimates the determination and fortitude of this former British colony.

HARARE (Reuters) - White farmers in Zimbabwe suffered fresh plundering and violence on Monday from pro-government militants who have illegally occupied properties near the northwestern town of Chinhoyi.

``There has been no let up, the violence and looting is still continuing,'' said a spokesman for the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) in the town, 70 miles northwest of Harare.

Chaos has reigned around Chinhoyi for a week as the self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence liberation war target white farms, forcing many farmers and their families to flee from the latest bout of long-running farm violence.

The CFU estimates more than $3.8 million worth of property had been lost in a week of ransacking and looting by mobs who have also assaulted scores of farm workers in the Doma and Mhangura farming areas near the town.

The CFU spokesman, who declined to be named for security reasons, said four farmers were briefly detained on Sunday, then released. Police were not immediately available for comment.

The union said up to 90 families had been evacuated from Chinhoyi. CFU President Colin Cloete told South African national radio on Monday he had heard reports of four more farms being targeted by the veterans on Monday.

Over the last year supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party have invaded hundreds of white-owned farms, backing a drive by Mugabe to seize two thirds of the 30 million acres he says are in the hands of whites for redistribution to blacks.

Nine farmers have been killed in the violence that has accompanied the farm invasions since last year.

Cloete said the latest chaos in Chinhoyi could only be stopped by political action.

He said looters had made away with tractors, vehicles, fertilizer, welding machines and other farming equipment, in several cases leaving farms almost entirely stripped.

On Saturday, Mugabe warned white farmers against attacking militants, a day after a court in Chinhoyi denied bail to 23 farmers who were charged with inciting public violence after clashes a week ago on an occupied farm in the area.

Police say five of the new settlers were seriously injured in those skirmishes, which triggered retaliatory attacks on whites in Chinhoyi the following day.

Mugabe argues that it is immoral for about 4,500 whites to own the bulk of Zimbabwe's prime farm land, which he says was in the first instance stolen from blacks when the former Rhodesia was colonized by Britain over a century ago.

Critics accuse him of using the issue to deflect from the country's economic problems and revive fading popular support for his attempts to win a fresh term in office next year.

Industry officials say Zimbabwe faces serious food shortages due to serious disruptions to farming.

By RACHEL L. SWARNS

JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 15 — The authorities in Zimbabwe today arrested three senior editors and a reporter from that nation's only independent daily newspaper. The arrest came a day after the paper, The Daily News, reported that police cars had transported militants involved in the recent looting of white-owned farms.

The editor-in-chief, Geoff Nyarota, was arrested at around 1 this morning at his house in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. He was detained and questioned about the story that appeared on Tuesday, newspaper editors said. The other journalists were arrested later. All four remained in detention tonight.

"The origin of the problem is our coverage of the looting that took place and our reference to use of police vehicles during the operation," said Thomas Deve, who runs the newspaper's Internet edition, in a telephone interview from Harare.

"We are under pressure to say what is our source and what evidence we have to say that the vehicles were being used," Mr. Deve said.

The arrests mark the Zimbabwean government's latest effort to stifle the independent news media, which has sharply criticized the authorities for condoning political violence, disregarding its courts and encouraging the invasion of white-owned farms.

Since January three foreign correspondents have been expelled from Zimbabwe. And last month the government suspended the accreditation of all correspondents for the BBC, saying it could no longer tolerate "the distortions and misrepresentations" of its reporting.

The arrests are the most recent of attacks on The Daily News, which has strongly backed Zimbabwe's leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. In January the newspaper's printing press was bombed, just a day after government-backed militants rallied outside the paper's offices chanting, "We are going to burn down your church!" A year earlier the paper's offices were bombed.

Government officials did not return calls for comment today, but they have often complained about biased reporting in local and foreign newspapers, particularly those based in Britain, the former colonial ruler of Zimbabwe.

Last week Vice President Joseph Msika complained that foreign journalists were presenting a distorted picture of Zimbabwe. The state news agency reported this week that the police were not ignoring the farm violence, as was widely reported, and had arrested 39 people for the looting, which began last week around the town of Chinhoyi.

Scores of white farmers fled the area as looters burnt houses and stole goods in incidents that continued over the weekend, the farmers' union said. The government blamed criminal elements masquerading as supporters of President Robert Mugabe.

The Daily News reported, however, that the attacks appeared to be orchestrated by the government itself.

In the front-page story published on Tuesday, the newspaper quoted an unidentified farmer who described the looters, saying: "Some of them are driving around in police vehicles. They are taking furniture, television sets and video cassette recorders and throwing them into swimming pools."

Wayne Bvudzijena, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe police, denied the report. He said the journalists were arrested for "publishing false news claiming that police facilitated looting in the Mhangura area by providing transport to the looters."

The growing unrest on the farms comes as the government has pledged to step up its program to redistribute white-owned land to poor blacks.

After saying for months that the state planned to acquire about 12 million acres of white-owned land, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made announced earlier this month that the government now plans to take 20 million acres, virtually all of the commercial farmland in the country. Zimbabwe's tiny white minority owns more than half of the nation's fertile land.

All four journalists — the editor-in-chief, the assistant editor, the news editor and the reporter who wrote the story — were charged under Zimbabwe's Law and Order Maintenance Act, which prohibits the publication of false information that might cause alarm or despondency among the public, newspaper officials said. It carries a maximum jail sentence on conviction of seven years.

The arrests were criticized today by the South African National Editors Forum, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Committee to Protect Journalists, an advocacy group based in New York.

Yves Sorokobi, the Africa program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said he expected the pressure on journalists to mount as President Mugabe begins his campaign for presidential elections, which are expected to be held next year.

"We're very, very concerned about the physical safety of these journalists," Mr. Sorokobi said in a telephone interview from New York. "I think there are going to be a lot more severe problems. The closer we get to presidential elections the more repressive the system will get."

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police Thursday slapped new charges on four journalists from the country's only private newspaper, a day after a court had thrown out earlier ones, over a story alleging police involvement in farm lootings.

Geoff Nyarota, editor-in-chief of the Daily News and three senior colleagues were called to Harare's central police station and charged with publishing subversive material.

``They have now been charged under Section 44 (2) (b) of the Law and Order Maintenance Act,'' their lawyer Lawrence Chibwe told Reuters.

``The new charge is publishing a subversive statement. At this juncture I have been promised that they will not be incarcerated or detained,'' he added.

Chibwe later said the four had been released after making statements.

``The next logical step is to issue summons for purposes of a trial. But I don't really think it's a charge the police will try to pursue,'' he said.

But chief police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the force would pursue its case.

``We are still making investigations and Nyarota will be going to court. I don't know when, but it should be very soon,'' Bvudzijena told Reuters.

FALSE NEWS

Nyarota, assistant editor Bill Saidi, news editor John Gambanga and reporter Sam Munyavi were accused Wednesday of publishing ``false news,'' but a court overturned the charge and ordered their release from police custody.

The Daily News, which has published allegations of corruption and mismanagement against President Robert Mugabe's 21-year-old government, reported Tuesday that police vehicles were used by militants in the recent looting of white farms in northwest Zimbabwe.

The farm attacks were in retaliation for clashes between white farmers and self-styled war veterans occupying farmland in the Chinhoyi area, 70 miles northwest of the capital Harare.

White minority rulers of the former Rhodesia devised the Law and Order Maintenance Act to suppress black opposition. The act was kept on the books after Mugabe led the country to independence from Britain in 1980.

The former British colony has been plunged into crisis since February last year when militants invaded white farms, in what they say is a show of support for Mugabe's campaign to seize white farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

Nine white farmers have died in the violence that has accompanied the occupations and scores of farm workers have been hurt.

In January, a bomb destroyed the paper's printing press in what the Daily News said was a politically motivated attack. No one was injured.

Last August, Nyarota said a plot by the state Central Intelligence Organization to kill him had failed when the hired assassin lost his nerve and revealed the details to his intended victim.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - At least 60 black Zimbabwean militants besieged a white farmer in his home Tuesday as self-styled war veterans laid claim to white-owned land reportedly earmarked for transfer this month to blacks.

Peter Goosen was barricaded at his farm in the Nyamandlovu area, outside the southern city of Bulawayo, after militants armed with knives and spears moved onto his property, local farmers told Reuters.

``They are demanding that he must leave so they can settle there,'' Goosen's neighbor Peter Johnstone said.

Chris Jarreth, chairman of the Nyamandlovu Farmers' Association, said the group was in radio contact with Goosen and had not been harmed.

``We are in some kind of talks to resolve this issue,'' he said. ``They want him out, but he does not want to leave.''

Local police said they were trying to defuse the situation.

Increased militant activity comes after Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said in a statement in a Sunday newspaper that the first phase of fast-track land resettlement would be completed this month, and farmers had to vacate targeted properties immediately.

MUGABE BACKS REDISTRIBUTION

President Robert Mugabe says it is immoral for some 4,500 whites to own the bulk of Zimbabwe's prime farmland while majority blacks are still crammed into unproductive areas.

Farmers say the settlers, led by self-styled war veterans -- some of whom are too young to have fought in the 1970s independence war -- have already claimed agricultural land across the country.

The latest scramble for land came after 21 white farmers northwest of Harare were granted bail Monday after being kept in jail for two weeks on charges of inciting violence.

The farmers had clashed with pro-government militants occupying their properties in the northwestern town of Chinhoyi. The militants retaliated by burning and looting property.

A lawyer for the farmers said the High Court in Harare had signed their release warrants in the afternoon, but prison officials in Chinhoyi said they would not free the men until the prison had received the documents.

``They are not going to release the farmers today. But in our view, because the warrants have been signed the farmers are being held illegally,'' said lawyer Jeremy Callow.

Bail included a cash payment of 100,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($1,960), a similar amount in titles to assets or other surety, and the surrender of passports to the police.

The farmers also cannot return to the Mashonaland West area, which includes Chinhoyi, for at least four weeks.

NOTHING OFFICIAL

The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which represents 4,500 white farmers, says its members had been told nothing official by the government about the speeding up of land transfer that minister Made's statement implied.

Made, who has not commented further on his Sunday newspaper statement, was unavailable Tuesday.

``We cannot act on the basis of newspaper reports...but what is sad is that some people are acting on this,'' said a CFU official who declined to be named.

Earlier this month, Made told a CFU congress that the government had increased the amount of commercial land for redistribution to blacks to 8.3 million hectares (20.5 million acres) of the 12 million hectares it says whites own.

The state had previously targeted five million hectares.

Since farm invasions began in February 2000, nine white farmers have been killed and scores of farm workers injured in the accompanying violence.

The land seizure campaign, criticized by Western governments including the United States and Britain, has depressed foreign investor sentiment toward southern Africa.

Tuesday, Australia denounced Zimbabwe for failing to control escalating lawlessness between white farmers and landless blacks and ignoring international complaints about human rights abuses.

CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - The Zimbabwean government accused former colonial ruler Britain on Wednesday of stage-managing the looting on some white-owned farms earlier this month to damage Zimbabwe's image abroad.

The allegation, later denied by Britain's ambassador to Zimbabwe, was made by a senior Zimbabwean official during a government-hosted tour of strife-torn northwestern farm districts for diplomats and journalists.

A group of 21 white farmers were released on Wednesday after two weeks in jail charged with inciting violence. They were arrested after allegedly assaulting supporters of President Robert Mugabe occupying a white-owned farm in the Chinhoyi area.

Mobs of militants retaliated by burning and looting properties in the area in the week that followed the arrests, forcing dozens of farmers to flee with their families.

After the tour, Mashonaland West provincial governor Peter Chanetsa released a statement accusing Britain of conspiring with the farmers to stage-manage some looting.

Chanetsa said the government had established that some farmers had removed their property from their homes and displayed it for aerial photography by the international media to paint a picture of ``lawlessness and that whites were victims on their rightful properties.''

Chanetsa said the farmers also provided two small aircraft and a helicopter equipped with cameras and transmitting equipment to some journalists.

``These developments would therefore indicate that recording of the stage-managed looting was a pre-planned move specifically designed to give the false impression of mass victimization of whites and lawlessness...'' he added.

``ABSOLUTE NONSENSE''

British High Commissioner Brian Donnelly, who was among a score of diplomats on the tour of Chinhoyi and Mhangura, rejected any links with the violence and looting in the area.

``It's completely unfounded. It's absolute nonsense,'' he told reporters on a bus on the way back to Harare.

The trip was led by several government ministers, including Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge and Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, and included presentations by senior police officers in the area.

Mudenge said the tour was designed to dispel ``lies'' spread by some sections of the media that the police had responded slowly to the violence.

``The truth is that the government responded swiftly to restore law and order...and continues to discharge its duties in a difficult situation created by some of those masquerading as victims today,'' Mudenge said.

Mudenge and Chanetsa both said the problems had been sparked by the alleged attack by some farmers on new settlers who had moved on to their land.

Nigerian High Commissioner Wilberforce Juta said the tour -- which included a trip to what the government called a model farm operated by a new black commercial farmer -- had given foreign diplomats a basis on which to understand Zimbabwe's land crisis.

But Juta urged Zimbabwe to resolve its problems in the interests of all its people irrespective of race.

``What happens here concerns and affects the whole world, and we must all of us help you to solve your problems,'' Juta told the government ministers.

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights investigators urged Zimbabwe on Friday to protect five journalists who they said were allegedly on a ``hit-list'' compiled by police and security forces.

In a joint statement, two U.N. rapporteurs also called on the Harare government to ensure that the right to freedom of opinion and expression was fully guaranteed in the country, mired in a land crisis.

Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer who is the U.N. special investigator on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Abid Hussain, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, wrote to the government on Wednesday.

They expressed concern about reported ``death threats'' against the journalists, who had ``publicly denounced the repeated violations of press freedom in their country,'' according to the statement issued in Geneva.

The U.N. statement cited ``allegations'' that five journalists ``appeared on a hit-list compiled by the law and order section of the Zimbabwe police and Central Intelligence Organization.''

The U.N. named the five on the reported hit-list as: Geoff Nyarota, editor of the Zimbabwe Daily News; Basildon Peta, news editor of the weekly Financial Gazette and correspondent for the Independent of London and the Star of Johannesburg; Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent; and Mark Chavunduka and Cornelius Nduna, respectively editor and news editor of the Standard.

The U.N. investigators urged the government to provide information on the ``serious allegations.''

U.N. sources told Reuters that the U.N. investigators had been informed of the allegations by groups including Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, in addition to a report which appeared in the Independent newspaper in Britain on Wednesday.

In that report, Peta wrote that he had discovered his name was at the top of a hit list of those to be targeted by what he called ``Mugabe's thugs'' ahead of presidential elections in 2002.

Zimbabwe has been in crisis since February last year, when militants invaded white farms in what they said was a show of support for Mugabe's campaign to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

Last week, four journalists from Zimbabwe's only privately owned newspaper were charged with publishing subversive material in connection with a report alleging that police vehicles were used in farm lootings.

HARARE (Reuters) - Militants occupying white-owned farms in support of President Robert Mugabe's land seizure program have burned thousands of acres of pastures in Zimbabwe in the last five days, the farmers' union said on Wednesday.

The mainly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) also said that at least 2,500 farm workers and their families had been displaced in the eastern Hwedza farming district since the weekend in a fresh wave of farm disruptions.

The CFU, which represents 4,500 farmers, said many pastures, especially in the cattle-ranching regions of Matabeleland, Midlands and Masvingo, had been set on fire and animals driven out of paddocks.

``The region is being burned out on a large scale through arson. At least 11,000 acres of land has been burned since the weekend,'' the CFU said in a statement.

A CFU official told Reuters that the government had been informed, but the burnings were continuing.

``This is a terrible and very distressing development because not only are farmers losing their valuable pastures, but this is also endangering farm and wild animals,'' said the official who refused to be identified.

Agriculture Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

One farmer said dozens of farms on a 65 mile stretch around the southern Chivhu district had been burned on Tuesday by militants in the area.

``I think the idea is to drive us out of business and out of farming,'' he told Reuters by telephone.

The CFU said militants, led by self-styled war veterans, had disrupted operations on 22 farms in the mainly tobacco-growing Hwedza district and forced workers on 14 of the farms to leave.

``In excess of 2,500 farm worker families have been displaced in the district over the past 10 days,'' it said.

Zimbabwe has been plunged into crisis since February last year when militants invaded white farms in what they say is a show of support for Mugabe's campaign to seize white farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

In the past two weeks, Mugabe's militant supporters have tightened the noose around hundreds of white-owned farms they have occupied since last year in support of his controversial land seizure drive -- pegging out more plots on the farms and driving out some farmers and their workers.

The pro-government militants have stepped up the pressure on farmers in the past few days after a Sunday newspaper quoted Agriculture Minister Joseph Made as saying owners must quit properties targeted for resettlement by the end of August.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Zimbabwe agreed at Commonwealth talks in Nigeria Thursday to halt all occupations of white-owned farms, according to a conference communique.

It said that Zimbabwe's delegation at the meeting gave assurances that there would be no further occupations of farmland, the rule of law would be restored to land reform and firm action would be taken against violence and intimidation.

Zimbabwe has slipped into crisis in the past 18 months as self-styled nationalist war veterans backed by President Robert Mugabe's government have occupied farms.

The government backs the land invasions, saying it is immoral for whites to own the bulk of prime farmland while majority blacks are crammed into unproductive areas.

Nine white farmers have been killed and hundreds assaulted in the takeovers. Thousands of people have left their homes because of the violence in the countryside.

Mugabe's government has identified about 5,000 white-owned farms for acquisition, two-thirds of the 30 million acres the government says is held by whites.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Ruling party militants occupied a farm Saturday, burning buildings and threatening its white manager in violence that came three days after Zimbabwe's government pledged to restore law and order and stop the seizure of white-owned land.

About 150 militants stormed onto Logan Lee Farm in Beatrice, 40 miles south of Harare, and threatened manager Angus Brown and his employees, said Jenni Williams, a spokeswoman for the Commercial Farmers' Union, which represents about 5,000 white landowners. Brown fled.

Police refused to respond to calls for help, and the local farmers' association advised Brown via radio to abandon the property after workers' houses were burnt, Williams said.

The attack was the first since Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge pledged Thursday to end farm occupations in return for British funding for orderly land reform.

Ruling party militants have occupied more than 1,700 white-owned farms since March 2000, spurred by a government campaign to take 4,600 white-owned farms -- about 95 percent of all white-owned land in Zimbabwe -- and give the land to blacks.

At least nine white farmers and dozens of supporters of the opposition to the government President Robert Mugabe have died in clashes since June.

The foreign minister's pledge came in an accord that was reached in Abuja, Nigeria, and was brokered by Nigeria with the support of Britain and other Commonwealth members.

The accord, which obliges Zimbabwe's government to uphold the law, has not been signed by Mugabe, who officials said was in Libya on a state visit.

Mugabe in the past has described the farm occupations as ``a minor trespass'' and a legitimate protest against unfair land ownership by the white minority.

In other discord Saturday, opposition leaders accused the ruling party of rigging a mayor election in the Western city of Bulawayo. A ruling party spokesman, Nathan Shamuyarira, dismissed the claims.

Ruling party supporters were bused in to the area to help sway the vote in favor of the ruling party candidate, said David Coltart, a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The Movement for Democratic Change, which holds 56 of the 120 elected seats in Zimbabwe's parliament, was expected to win the mayoral elections easily. Results are expected Monday.

In the Makoni East district, 100 miles southeast of Harare, where a parliamentary by-election was under way, police said five opposition supporters were arrested for beating five backers of the ruling party, state radio reported.

Mugabe has been in power for 22 years and plans to seek another six-year presidential term in elections in April, but his support has waned.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Police arrested a retired white farmer for suspected involvement in the deaths of two ruling party militants in easternZimbabwe, relatives said Sunday.

John Bibby, 70, was being held by police in Wedza, about 75 miles east of Harare, his son Peter said. The father has been accused of being anaccessory to the deaths Saturday of two militants, an allegation he denies.

An unspecified number of farm workers were also arrested.

The two died during clashes with workers on the Bibby family tobacco, corn and cattle farm. Details of how the two died remains unclear.

No comment was immediately available from police.

Relatives said workers had reported a raid on the farm by militants Saturday. Several workers' homes were reportedly torched, and some 35,000 bales of hay were also lit on fire.

John Bibby accompanied police to the workers' village and was later arrested, his son said.

At least 22 white farmers have been arrested since early August on allegations of violence against militants and the squatters who occupy their land, with tacit government approval.

A deal was brokered Sept. 6 in Abuja, Nigeria by the British Commonwealth to restore order in farming districts and to open national political dialogue in Zimbabwe. However, political violence and land occupations have continued.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe promised to abide by the accord, but there were doubts that he could quickly rein in violence by the militants who have illegally occupied 1,700 white-owned farms since March 2000.