Zimbabwe's national security minister has told the country's last remaining white farmers that they will be jailed if they refuse to abide by a deadline that passed over the weekend for them to leave their farms, according to a newspaper report on Monday.
The official Chronicle newspaper quoted the minister Didymus Mutasa as saying police would be "unleashed" to deal with white farmers who ignored the eviction notice.
"Those farmers who do not comply with the orders to vacate the land will be dealt with severely," said the minister, known to be close to President Robert Mugabe. The deadline was on Saturday.
Auch hier hat sich "Black Power" wieder mal durchgesetztFarming officials said there were no immediate reports of arrests but they feared the worst.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence, with acute shortages of hard currency, food, gasoline, medicines and essential imports. The meltdown is blamed largely on disruptions to the agriculture-based economy after the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000.
Annual inflation is running at more than 1,000 percent, the highest in the world.
Irgendwie haelt sich meine Anteilnahme in GrenzenU.N. agencies estimate that about 4 million people are in need of food aid in Zimbabwe.
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