HARARE, Aug 12: Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe told white farmers in a fiery speech on Monday that he will stick to the August deadline for giving their lands to blacks.

The warning, delivered during ceremonies for Zimbabwe’s liberation war dead, came four days after 2,900 white farmers were supposed to leave their homes to clear the way for blacks.

“That deadline stands, as it is our wish that everyone interested in farming should be on the land by the time the rains come,” he said in the nationally televised speech. Zimbabwe’s rainy season usually starts in November or December.

“We shall keep a watchful eye on what is happening on the farms. Those who think Ian Smith can rally the white folk as he did in the UDI days, and rally them for another war, should think again, while there is still time for them to do so,” he said.

Smith, leader of the former white-minority government, made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain in 1965, pushing the nation toward a brutal civil war that ended with the change to majority rule in 1980.

Mugabe was speaking on Heroes’ Day, a holiday commemorating those who fought in the 1970s liberation war against the white-minority government in the country, then called Rhodesia.

The speech was given at Heroes’ Acre, a national cemetery and shrine for the war dead. Several thousand people attended the ceremony, where former finance minister and top UN official Bernard Chidzero was also buried.

War veterans have spearheaded the often violent invasions of white-owned farms in the name of land reform. That campaign has been used as a vehicle for political violence mainly targeting opposition supporters, according to rights groups.

By midnight on Thursday, 2,900 white farmers were supposed to leave their homes to clear the way for resettlement, but advocates for the farmers estimate that about 60 percent of them stayed put.

About 1,100 did leave their homes to stay in urban areas or resorts, or move overseas, according to Jenni Williams from Justice for Agriculture.

If enforced, the eviction orders also would affect more than 250,000 farm workers and their families, or more than one million people.

One farmer speaking from the northern district of Karoi said most people in his area were staying because “it’s basically the only way you can protect yourself.”

He feared police would start criminal proceedings against farmers after the long holiday weekend.

So far, no farmers have reported any forced evictions. Police have said they will enforce the law, but declined to say how.

“All genuine and well-meaning white farmers who wish to pursue a farming career as loyal citizens of this country have managed to do so. We have been generous. No farmer, we said, need go without land,” Mugabe said.

“Britain, Europe and America can impose sanctions or do worse devilish things,” Mugabe said.

“Let Europe’s banishment list grow by another 50, another 100, another 1,000, another million,” he said. “But we, the principal people of Zimbabwe, we, the true owners of this land, shall not budge. We shall not turn from this one vital issue, the land. The land is ours.”—AFP