HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Farm leaders and representatives of armed black squatters today said they have agreed to stop the violence that has accompanied occupations of white-owned farms countrywide.
According to the agreement, squatters would peaceably continue to occupy more than 1,000 white-owned farms, said Nick Swanepoel, an official with the Commercial Farmers Union. They also agreed that the farmers should be able to farm without hindrance from the occupiers, many of whom claim to be veterans of the bush war that led to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.
Thousands of squatters began occupying the farms in February in what they say is a protest against the unfair distribution of land in a country where 4,000 white farmers own one-third of the productive farmland.
"We all agreed that land redistribution is of utmost importance and that we both as Zimbabweans can solve those problems," Swanepoel said.
Swanepoel met with Chenjerai Hunzvi, the militant leader of the National Liberation War Veterans Association, which claims to be leading the occupations.
"What I want to say to everyone, be it a war veteran or a farmer, is that violence is not needed," Hunzvi said.
At least 13 people, mostly farmers, farm workers and members of the political opposition, have been killed since the occupations began in late February.
The opposition has accused President Robert Mugabe of organizing the occupations to shore up his flagging support ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in May. Mugabe has called the occupations a justified protest against the unfair distribution of land.
A spokeswoman for the farmers union said today four new farms, two in Mashonaland East and two in the Masvingo region, had been occupied in the last 24 hours. The new occupations brought the number of farms occupied to roughly 1,100, the union said.
In London, talks on renewing funding from Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, to redistribute white-owned farms broke down on Thursday.
Britain froze funds after Zimbabwe violated an agreement only to buy farms from willing sellers.
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told the British Broadcasting Corp. that despite the deadlocked negotiations, he did not want to let the crisis deepen. He said Zimbabwe farmers also had urged him to cool tensions between the two countries.
"The last thing farmers in Zimbabwe want is to see the temperatures escalate," Cook said.
He also ruled out a call by Britain's opposition Conservative Party to freeze Mugabe's foreign assets.
"There is no legal power for us to freeze unilaterally the assets of any one individual because we have a diplomatic difficulty with them," Cook told the BBC. "For Britain to act illegally seems to me to be absolutely totally the wrong message at the present time to send to Zimbabwe, when we are trying to get it to stop acting illegally."