6-11-05,13:04pm

JOHANNESBURG, 6 Jun 2005 (IRIN) - The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) has warned that its members will fight the security forces if the crackdown dubbed 'Operation Restore Order' is extended to farms.

Security Minister Didymus Mutasa reportedly said last week that the operation, which has led to the arrest of over 22,000 people and the displacement of several thousands would proceed to the farms to deal with illegal settlers and owners of multiple farms.

The government said the operation was aimed at returning order and normality in urban areas, in addition to putting an end to parallel market trading, which has been flourishing on the back of crippling food shortages.

ZNLWVA chairman Jabulani Sibanda told IRIN that he did not know of any illegal settlers among the war veterans and the poor, and claimed his organisation was only aware of multiple farm owners and illegal settlers among ministers, provincial governors, members of the ruling ZANU-PF politburo and other party organs. He alleged that the recent urban clean-up exercise was an inhuman act, used to target poor people because they were seen to be opposed to certain cliques in the ruling party.

'As war veterans, we will not be surprised if they move into the farms - but what we want known is that we are against any exercise that causes loss or homelessness to any Zimbabwean. This is not a ZANU-PF programme; it runs contrary to all the ideals the party has stood for. It is unjust and we will not take it lying down.

'People on the farms were settled there by the ZANU-PF government, in terms of the Land Acquisition Act. The stands were given by government, and we wonder on which farms minister Mutasa found illegal settlers,' said Sibanda.

Last year the government took back the farm allocated to Sibanda after he attended the ill-fated meeting at the Tsholotsho home of then information minister Jonathan Moyo, allegedly held to block the appointment of Joyce Mujuru as vice-president and back parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa for the position instead.

Sibanda remains suspended from the party but has continued as chairman of the militant war veterans association, which spearheaded the farm invasions that began in 2002 and has steadfastly supported ZANU-PF.

Mutasa told IRIN that the ZANU-PF politburo had already ordered the police and paramilitary units involved in the crackdown to 'sharpen their armoury' in anticipation of pockets of resistance on some farms.

'The operation will go ahead as planned in the farms - only those who were settled legally will remain: we have serious farm-by-farm intelligence information, confirming that there are many illegal settlers,' he said.

'The issue of multiple farm owners is a problem and, yes, they are mostly senior ZANU-PF party and government officials. Government has been clear from the beginning, and everyone knows it is illegal to own more than one farm. We will deal with that as well,' Mutasa remarked.

He said war veterans on the farms would be dealt with like anybody else if they resisted. 'War veterans are not above the law. If they break the law, they must get ready to face the lawmaker one day. They are a big problem on the farms, but we are serious in this operation. Any resistance will be crushed - no matter how big and by who.

'War veterans are supposed to behave like all loyal children in the party. They will never be the ones to tell government how and when to run its business, and certainly cannot stand up and fight it,' Mutasa maintained.

Sibanda's suggestion that the exercise was planned by a powerful ZANU-PF clique with scores to settle against others was 'outright silly', said Mutasa, and showed that war veterans were mistaking their role of party-backers with that of kingmakers.

'There are no cliques in ZANU-PF, and no one is abusing their power to settle scores because this is a legitimate national programme,' he asserted.

The war veterans' call for the prosecution of cabinet ministers and senior party officials still holding more than one farm was belated and of no effect - president Robert Mugabe had made a decision to pardon all those who surrendered excess properties, Mutasa pointed out, and there would be no change until government reviewed the process.