Militant supporters of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe have invaded more white-owned farms today.

The government today described Zimbabwe’s remaining white farmers as irrelevant and rejected their pleas for a truce on land seizures.

ZIMBABWE, once a regional breadbasket, is facing its worst agricultural season since independence in 1980, with shortages of seed, fertiliser and equipment threatening next year’s harvest before it even has been planted, farmers and other experts said.

THE first white farmers charged with defying Zimbabwean government eviction orders appeared briefly in court yesterday and were freed on bail, allowing them to return to their homes.

Ruling party militants and local officials began putting pressure on a few of the hundreds of farmers defying a government order to leave their homes, farmers’ leaders said today.

None of Zimbabwe’s thousands of white farmers have been forcibly evicted after a deadline passed for them to get off their land last night.

Thousands of white farmers in Zimbabwe have until midnight tonight to decide whether to fight the government and risk jail or flee the lands they have worked for years.

The Zimbabwean government today reassured its Asian citizens that their businesses and homes would not be seized by ruling party militants.

A white farmer was murdered in Zimbabwe today as President Robert Mugabe prepared to meet the leaders of South Africa and Nigeria to discuss his controversial election win.

Four judges recently appointed to Zimbabwe’s highest court issued a snap order today allowing the government to proceed with the seizures of white-owned farms.

Talks between white farmers and the Zimbabwean Government over President Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reform programme have collapsed without agreement.

Zimbabwe’s government yesterday said it had accepted an offer of 531 white-owned farms for the resettlement of landless black people.

White farmers in northern Zimbabwe have evacuated families from their homes after several farms were attacked and looted by rampaging black mobs yesterday.

Militant supporters of President Robert Mugabe have attacked and looted 15 white-owned farms in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s white landowners and private financial backers today offered to give the government 2.4 million acres of farmland to resettle landless blacks.