Violence reported in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwean militants have attacked whites near an area where white farmers were arrested for alleged violence against land occupiers, The Associated Press has reported.

Several people were injured and cars stoned in the rampage through the farming town of Chinhoyi, centre of a corn and tobacco district 115 kilometres (70 miles) northwest of Harare, witnesses said.

Officials at a private clinic told AP one white man was treated for stab wounds and another for head injuries, including a perforated eardrum. Three white women also were assaulted.

A Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) told Reuters by telephone: "(Ruling) ZANU-PF supporters are going around beating up anybody that's white and Chinhoyi is fast becoming a danger zone."

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But police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told Reuters: "There is not truth to that. The situation in Chinhoyi is very calm after 21 farmers were arrested for assaulting a number of settlers on one farm."

Jerry Grant, deputy director of the CFU, representing white landowners, said 19 farmers were arrested on Monday after a confrontation with militants occupying white-owned land.

He said militants wielding clubs and sticks chased farmer Tony Barklay into his house on Monday demanding he leave the property and attempted to smash down the door.

Barklay radioed for help and militants stoned the cars of two white neighbours who arrived at his home. About 25 farmers from the district then went to their assistance, he added.

Paramilitary police ordered farmers to report to the Chinhoyi police station, where 19 were arrested.

In Harare, police spokesman Tarwireyi Tirivavi said 23 farmers were being held on Tuesday on allegations of public violence and assault with intent to cause injury.

He also said five black farm settlers were injured in the clashes with the farmers who attacked them.

Militants led by veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war have invaded hundreds of white-owned farms since February 2000 in support of a drive by President Robert Mugabe's government to forcibly acquire land from commercial white farmers for redistribution to blacks.

The death toll of white farmers rose on Monday as Ralph Corbett, 76, a rancher near the Midlands provincial town of Kwekwe, died, his family told AP.

Corbett became the ninth white farmer to have died since a campaign of violent land occupations began.

His ranch was among at least 1,700 white-owned farms occupied by ruling party militants.

Last week Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the government would take 8.3 million hectares (20 million acres) from white farmers rather than the five million previously identified for compulsory acquisition.

He also warned white farmers not to clash with war veterans and black peasants who have occupied their properties, after President Robert Mugabe's government passed legislation protecting the occupiers.

Mugabe says 4,500 white farmers own 70 percent of the country's best farmland while a majority of blacks are squeezed into barren areas.