Harare - A white farmer was found dead on Monday morning, the president of the Commercial Farmers' Union said.
The man was found dead in the Chivhu farming district, about 150km south of Harare, Tim Henwood said. The union released no details, as the man's family had not yet been notified.
Police were on the scene, but had no comment. No motive was known, and it was unclear whether the dead farmer's property was among the 1 600 farms occupied by ruling party militants and war veterans.
If the killing was political, it would bring to 32 the number of people who have died from political violence since February. The total includes five other white farmers allegedly killed by ruling party militants or veterans of the bush war that led to independence in 1980.
Meanwhile, the government accused white farmers of holding the country at ransom by threatening to shut down their farms to protest against continuing violence by the illegal occupiers.
"We can't have a few people threatening the majority because if they go ahead it will mean that everyone will go hungry," Joseph Made, the newly appointed agriculture minister, was quoted as saying in Monday's Herald, a state-controlled newspaper.
David Hasluck, director of the farmers union, said his organisation had no intention of co-ordinating countrywide work stoppages, but added that individual farmers had little other recourse. This comes a week after the government promised to take action against veterans and squatters.
Chalkie Van Schalkwyk, a farmer in the Karoi district, 200km northwest of Harare, said nobody wanted to hold the government ransom.
"We are the ones being held to ransom," he said. "We just want law and order back. We've had numerous disruptions and we can't continue with potentially life-threatening situations like this."
Ten farm workers had been abducted by ruling party militants, and a white family was forced to flee on Monday after police failed to respond to emergency calls, Van Schalkwyk said.
Farmer Fin O'Donoghue cut his way through a security fence behind his homestead to escape along a back road with his wife and three children, aged 10, nine and four.
Militants and war veterans had barricaded the entrance to the homestead since Friday and threatened the family, said a neighbour, Chalkie van Schalkwyk.
"Police have been unco-operative. It is very tense and we are getting to where we are going to have to close down the whole system in this area," said Van Schalkwyk.
Since February, militants have illegally occupied or pegged claims on more than 1 600 white-owned farms across the country.
President Robert Mugabe, who ordered police not to intervene, described the occupations as a justified demonstration against unfair land ownership by the nation's whites, mostly the descendants of British and South African settlers.
Earlier this month, in the aftermath of parliamentary elections, the government said it would speed up the nationalisation of white-owned farms for landless blacks, but would also begin removing illegal occupiers and squatters from farms not targeted for confiscation.
About 60 farmers north of Harare shut down operations for three days last week to protest against police inaction against law breaking by squatters.
Work resumed on those farms during the weekend after police warned occupiers.
Made, the agriculture minister, told The Herald that farm shutdowns were unwarranted.
"Anyone who feels threatened on the farms should go to the police," The Herald reported him as saying.
The ailing agriculture-based economy, facing its worst crisis since 1980, has been hard hit by the farm occupations, which have disrupted tobacco and wheat production.
Tobacco is the nation's biggest hard-currency earner.
The state Zimbabwe Investment Centre said on Monday that foreign and local investment dropped this year by up to 80 percent, largely because of economic uncertainty and politically motivated violence.
Similar losses in tourism bookings were reported last week by the official Zimbabwe Tourism Council. - Sapa-AP