Zimbabwean police, militants beat white farmer

White farmer Andrew Smith learned on Saturday that even obeying the Zimbabwe government's order to abandon his commercial farm was no protection against thuggery.

Smith, who obeyed the eviction order and left his farm a month ago, was tracked down by police and ruling-party militants at his apartment in Harare and beaten, reports say.

The deadline for white farmers to get off their land passed more than a week ago, and little was done for days to those who defied President Robert Mugabe's edict.

But late last week, police began rounding up the defiant ones. At least 77 have been arrested over the past few days, police said. Some were released Friday and Saturday, but many remained behind bars.

Farmers who refused to leave their estates face up to two years in jail. The program is aimed at 95 per cent of farms owned by about 4,000 white farmers.

Party militants have also roughed up at least a dozen white farmers since Aug. 8 deadline passed.

It wasn't known why Smith might have been targeted. Police and militants went to his farm outside Harare, where they beat up the caretaker before going off in search of the farmer.

Finding him in Harare, they allegedly handcuffed him, beat him, and took him to a holding cell near his farm.

The group Justice for Agriculture said Smith had suffered head injuries and a broken leg.

Observers say the controversial land reform program has combined with drought to create a severe food shortage in the country of 12.5 million people.

Mugabe says the program sets right the injustices of British colonialism, which left most of the best farmland in the hands of a few white farmers.

Eleven white farmers have been killed in violent land seizures by so-called war veterans since early 2000.

Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain after a civil war in 1980.