Squatters attack white farmer in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Squatters occupying farmland in Zimbabwe attacked a white farmer Tuesday, slashing at his face with a machete and seriously wounding him, officials said.

Attackers cut through Marshall Roper's nose and into the roof of his mouth, officials said. The 37-year-old was evacuated to the capital, Harare, from his tobacco and corn farm 125 miles northwest, and was in stable condition and out of danger after surgery.

The attack prompted about 4,000 farm workers and more than 60 white families to demonstrate Tuesday outside the police station in the provincial town of Karoi. The protesters demanded the arrest of Roper's assailants, said the Commercial Farmers Union, saying the attackers' identities were known.

Landowners were also demanding the arrest of 12 farm occupiers who allegedly tried to prevent Roper and his black workers from planting tobacco on his 3,600-acre property.

Late Tuesday, the union reported that at least four occupiers and three farm workers who clashed with Roper's attackers in an attempt to defend him were arrested. Police were unavailable to confirm this.

Since February, militants led by veterans of this southern African nation's independence war that ended white rule in 1980 have occupied more than 1,700 white-owned farms across the country. President Robert Mugabe has backed the occupations, describing them as ''a minor trespass.''

About 4,000 white farmers own a third of the nation's productive land.

Earlier Tuesday, the Justice Ministry said a suspect in the murder of a white farmer was arrested on Friday, five months after the slaying. Douglas Chitekuteku, 41, described as a war veteran, is accused of shooting dead David Stevens after he was abducted from his farm east of Harare on April 15.

Stevens was the first of five white farmers killed in the first months of the occupations. Political violence at the same time, leading up to parliamentary elections in June, left at least 31 people dead and thousands homeless, most of them opposition supporters.

Chitekuteku was arrested Friday and appeared in court in the provincial town of Marondera, 45 miles east of Harare on Monday. He is set to appear in court again on Oct. 10 on murder charges.

No arrests have been made in the four other killings.