Squatters driven from white farms

In their first serious response to Zimbabwe's six-month-old farm occupations, police have begun tearing down shelters of squatters on some white-owned farms, officials said yesterday.

In their first serious response to Zimbabwe's six-month-old farm occupations, police have begun tearing down shelters of squatters on some white-owned farms, officials said yesterday.

Police ordered more than 700 occupiers off farms near the capital, Harare. About 100 squatters were told on Monday to leave a farm near Chitungwiza, a township 25km (15 miles) south of Harare. Earlier this month, militants on the farm were accused of abducting and sexually molesting 17 farm workers' children. Police also arrested 13 militants who threw up makeshift road blocks and halted traffic for several hours on a main highway into Harare.

Police and council workers also began demolishing several brick houses on Tuesday in the Harare suburb of Kambazuma, where squatters had builton vacant council-owned land.