Twenty thousand black farm workers and their families were thrown out of their homes this week as President Robert Mugabe's war veterans intensified their campaign to destroy Zimbabwe's white farming community.
The war veterans and other militant supporters of Mr Mugabe have brought 14 white-owned farms in the productive Hwedza district to a halt and forced the labourers to disperse. Many of the labourers have nowhere to go and can be seen by the side of dusty roads seeking shelter from the bitter winter nights.
At least five white farmers have abandoned their land under threats of violence and 20 more farms have been forced to stop all work. The war veterans go to new properties each day .
In Hwedza the campaign is led by man called Chigwedere, described by one farmer as "a war lord crazed by his own power".
"He is creating a humanitarian crisis here," the farmer added. "His aim is to rid this area of white farmers and he doesn't care how much misery he causes to our workers. Our workers are frightened and suffering and Chigwedere is preventing us from even offering them any assistance." Nearby a grey-haired man carrying a suitcase on his head stopped to catch his breath. He was too frightened to give his name.
"We were thrown off our farm yesterday and our family was scattered," he said. "Last night we slept under a tree. We hope we can find some friends a few miles away where we can get some food and a place to sleep. Then we must keep moving because of all this trouble." On the back roads there were more families lugging their belongings in duffel bags and satchels. Some were heading for the nearby towns of Marondera and Ruwa.
The war veterans are starting fires which are sweeping through hectares of dry grazing pastures. Columns of smoke can be seen rising from the rolling Hwedza countryside.
Meanwhile, 21 white farmers who were arrested when they tried to help a besieged neighbour remained in jail last night despite Monday's high court order to release them on bail.
They were not released, because officials had not yet produced the warrants for their release, the official Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The continuing disturbances caused by the land invasions are blamed by veterinary experts for an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that has hit the country and halted its once lucrative export trade of beef to Europe.
Rachel Donnelly adds from London:The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, yesterday condemned the persecution of journalists in Zimbabwe but insisted the country's invitation to the Commonwealth conference in Australia should not be withdrawn.
In a strongly worded attack on President Mugabe's "outrageous" attempts to stifle dissent, Mr Straw told the London Independent that freedom of speech must be safeguarded.
In recent days Mr Basildon Peta, a journalist working for the newspaper in Harare, discovered he was at the top of a "state-sponsored hit list" of journalists who were to be "killed or harmed" before next year's presidential elections. Commenting on the developments, Mr Straw said it was "a mark of Mugabe's government that it has sought to silence its critics, and that in turn is a mark of a brutal regime and an insecure one."