President Robert Mugabe's government, pushing ahead with its land reform program to resettle landless blacks, has ordered 2,900 of the country's remaining 4,500 white commercial farmers to quit their land without compensation, but nearly two-thirds have defied an August 8 deadline and refused to leave their farms.
About 200 defiant farmers had been arrested by late Monday, of which more than 40 have been charged and released on bail. Police said the latest arrest figures for Tuesday were not yet available.
Farmers' lobby group Justice for Agriculture declined to comment on Chinamasa's remarks. The disruption to agriculture in Zimbabwe, once the bread-basket of southern Africa, comes as millions in the region face food shortages. ***