We're praying for God to give wisdom to our leaders. Despite public pledges made on Wednesday by Mr Mugabe and his ally, the war veterans' leader Chenjerai Hunzvi, that peace would prevail on the white-owned farms, violent attacks have continued against white farmers and many black workers. Black self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war in the 1970s have invaded hundreds of farms, obstructing the production of crops on which the country largely depends for food and foreign exchange. While white farmers are the target, their black farm workers are bearing the brunt of the increasingly lawless campaign. On several farms on the outskirts of Harare, labourers were carting off their possessions to relatives in urban areas, fearing that they might be the next target.
People are very scared.
Mr Mugabe says his supporters must take back the land stolen from them by white colonialists during the Rhodesian era. But government critics charge that he is simply whipping up antagonism on the land issue to win the support of peasants in the upcoming elections. Zimbabwe has 11,000 troops in Congo fighting alongside smaller contingents from Namibia and Angola to shore up the beleaguered Congolese president, Laurent Kabila. Rebel forces battling Mr Kabila are backed by troops from Uganda and Rwanda. A ceasefire agreement reached last July has collapsed.