Zimbabwe's Last White Farmers Forced Off Land

From IOL

The last few white Zimbabwean farmers are being thrown off their land.

Surrounded by soldiers from the Zimbabwe National Army clicking automatic weapons, Charles Lock, 45, handed them his security gate keys and drove down the dusty road from his farm for the last time.

That was two weeks ago.

In every commercial farming district, scores of white farmers and thousands of their workers are going through similar distress amid a sudden escalation of President Robert Mugabe's seven-year ethnic purge of commercial farming districts.

As of today, any white farmer still living and working on his farm is trespassing on state land. The previous deadline in February was extended as it was mid-season and the government needed revenue from the tobacco that was being grown.

In advance of this deadline, about 50 white farmers have been under enormous pressure. Some have been arrested or manhandled, others constantly harassed or their workers forced to stop land preparation for summer crops.

Hat Tip Once Upon a Time in the West