Zimbabwe farmers defiant as deadline expires

The deadline for Zimbabwe’s white farmers to leave their land expired at 12pm Irish time today, amid signs that some of them are prepared to continue to defy President Robert Mugabe’s orders.

Official sources said there were no immediate signs of any arrests having been made.

But earlier this week, Mugabe warned that he would crack down on those white farmers who still refused to quit. “Time is not on their side,” he said, adding a further warning that the government would act against those who disobeyed.

He had claimed that half the 2,900 farmers remained defiant, and said they should cooperate with the reforms, and leave the country or go to prison.

Meanwhile, the British Foreign Office’s standard line is that there was a need for land reform but that it must be carried out on the basis of the rule of law and sound economics.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has pointed out that the seized land is not being handed over to genuine black farmers but to Mugabe’s henchmen and relatives.

The Zimbabwe government says it is redressing what it describes as “colonial imbalances” and returning the land to impoverished blacks.