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Farmers in Zimbabwe Increasingly Nervous

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JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, is calling for an end to the violence in the campaign by former war veterans and other black squatters to take over white-owned farmland, but he is also moving forward with plans to distribute that land to blacks. The farmers are increasingly nervous.

CNN's Nic Robertson reports.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An hour's drive from the capital, Harare, farmer Ben Freeth and a security consultant, Charles Pickering, inspect what would have been a farm protection agency. Under threat of death, Charles closed it down. They have, he says, no other option.

CHARLES PICKERING, SECURITY CONSULTANT: We've adopted a strategy in this district, in this region, that there is no confrontation. You cannot afford to even insinuate that you are not happy with what's going on.

ROBERTSON: The early days of resisting the so-called war veterans are gone, replaced now with rapid-response negotiating teams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many of them are there?

ROBERTSON: Constantly on their guard, farmers keep in touch by phone and radio. This time a neighbor reports so-called war veterans have arrived at his farm.

But the intimidation is not just about their land, farmers say, it's about coercing them and their workers to vote for the government in upcoming elections.

BEN FREETH, FARMER: This is about winning the vote of those critical two million people. It's about intimidating those people and about intimidating those people who employ them.

Farmers say they have cautioned their workers to tell anyone who asks they will vote for the government, but advise them privately on the day of elections they should vote with their hearts.

(on camera): So far, almost one-third of the 4,000-plus white- run farms have been targeted by the so-called war veterans in their campaign to take over those farms. Most farmers now believe it is only a matter of time before they are visited by the veterans.

Negotiations between war veterans and farmers are ongoing, but the farmers are already finding they have little to counter the threat of violence.

WILLIAM HUGHES, COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION: We are Zimbabweans together, and we understand there is a land problem, and we need to sort it out together as Zimbabweans. That's all we have.

ROBERTSON: For the time being at least, that doesn't seem to be enough to stop their losses.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Chegutu, Zimbabwe.

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