Zimbabwe's white farmers yesterday opened their two-day annual congress as hundreds of farms remained under occupation by pro-government militants.
The meeting of the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which represents 4,500 mostly white farmers, began behind closed doors, but the 18-monthold occupations were certain to dominate discussions.
"The route we are on at present would certainly seem to confirm the fears of the more pessimistic, as daily we encounter situations which are harder and harder to understand," outgoing CFU president Mr Tim Hen wood said in opening the congress. "In the last 12 months, resilience is a word that has taken on a new meaning.
"One hears of economic resilience, political resilience, the resilience of workers, companies and of every person who is experiencing the chaos in Zimbabwe today." When the farmers last met as a union in March, in a special congress called to craft a new approach to the land crisis, they agreed to drop litigation against the government and push for negotiations.
President Robert Mugabe's government wants to resettle white-owned farms with black farmers, to correct gross inequities in ownership left from colonial Rhodesia.
But the scheme has been wracked by violence since February 2000, when pro-government militants, led by veterans of the 1970s liberation war, forcibly occupied as many as 1,700 white-owned farms.
The campaign has been heavily tied to political violence, and so far, the farmers' new approach has yielded little change on the ground.
"One of our major challenges over the past year has been trying to grow crops and rear livestock in an environment that is not characterised by peace and order," CFU director Mr David Hasluck said in a statement ahead of the congress.
The government has refused to crack down on violence in Zimbabwe's countryside. Maize production on commercial farms dropped to 384,000 tonnes this year, less than half last year's harvest, because of "the high risk of producing maize", Mr Henwood said.