HARARE, Zimbabwe -- The government urged thousands of black squatters Thursday to leave white-owned farms hours after a court ordered police to evict them.

The appeal by Vice President Joseph Msika said the government wanted to end the tense stalemate on an estimated 900 farms across the country amicably. He stopped short of committing the government and the police into enforcing a court order to remove forcibly the squatters armed with clubs, knives, spears and guns.Msika's appeal also aimed to defuse a deepening constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe's government has continued to defy the courts.

High Court Judge Moses Chinhengo earlier Thursday rejected government arguments by Attorney General Patrick Chinamasa that police action against the armed squatters could trigger a civil war.

"The rule of law has to be upheld," the judge said.

He ordered Mugabe's government to obey an early court order and end the occupation of the farms by the armed men claiming to be veterans of the 1980 war for Zimbabwe's independence.

The vice president told reporters "it is no longer necessary to continue with the demonstrations" because the government adopted a law April 6 empowering it to seize land without paying compensation.

Mugabe, in Cuba for an economic summit, has described the occupations as justified demonstrations against unfair land ownership by whites.

Welshman Ncube, a law professor at the Zimbabwe University, said the government's refusal to abide by judicial rulings deepened a constitutional crisis set by the refusal of Mugabe and the police to enforce laws and prosecute squatters involved in crimes of violence and theft.

"Mugabe is using state institutions to perpetuate lawlessness and anarchy. He has abrogated his oath of office to defend the law and the constitution," Ncube said.

The government can still appeal Thursday's ruling to the Supreme Court, delaying for a time a constitutional showdown between the country's executive and judicial branches.

Mugabe's overwhelming majority in the parliament has meant he has the power to defy the judiciary without threat of impeachment.

Mugabe's declared intention to seize white-owned farms without paying compensation has put him at odds with Western governments such as Britain and the United States, which have pressured him to follow the rule of law in land reform.

Stung by his defeat in a constitutional referendum in February, Mugabe set up the current crisis when he warned landless blacks impatient with the slow pace of land reform he would seize white farms.

Within days, thousands of armed men occupied farms across the country. Many of the squatters, led by veterans of the bush war that led to independence in 1980, are being paid to occupy the farms. Some of the unemployed squatters said they are being paid by ruling party activists.

On March 17, the High Court gave the government 72 hours to remove squatters, but police ignored that order, arguing they did not have sufficient manpower or equipment.

At a hearing brought by farmers' leaders Monday to force the police to act, Chinamasa said the 20,000-strong police force would be unable to evict an estimated 50,000 squatters claiming land occupied by the descendants of British settlers.

He said the occupations were "unfinished business" from the country's liberation war against colonial era whites.

Police action against squatters "would be a match that would ignite the country into a bloody conflagration," he said.

Mugabe has described the occupations as a justified protest against the ownership of about a third of the nation's productive land by 4,000 whites.

He promised angry war veterans he would seize white farms without compensation more than two years ago. He sought to appease veterans who were demonstrating against the government because corrupt officials and their relatives had stolen millions of dollars from their pension fund, leaving it bankrupt.

Mugabe backed off under international pressure and agreed to compensate farmers for seized property.

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But months later when a currency crisis triggered high inflation and food riots in Harare, Mugabe again renewed the threat to seize land.

He intensified the pressure on land reform again after his biggest defeat in February's referendum energized opposition groups.

The Commercial Farmers Union, representing 4,000 mostly white farmers, reported 50 incidents of violence against farmers and their workers last week. It said assaults and intimidation were continuing. One police officer died in clashes earlier this month.

Critics say Mugabe, whose popularity is being eroded by an economic crisis, is permitting the land seizures to prop up his waning support among the country's majority black voters ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be called in May.

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