Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a retired white farmer for suspected involvement in the deaths of two ruling party militants in eastern Zimbabwe on Saturday.
Mr John Bibby (70) was being held by police in Wedza, about 120 km east of Harare, his son said. He was charged with inciting violence and being an accessory to murder, which he denies. An unspecified number of farm workers were also arrested.
The two ruling party militants died during clashes with workers on the Bibby family tobacco, corn and cattle farm.
The farmer said he locked himself inside his home throughout the clash. His security guards said the two young men died after falling from their truck and getting run over by the government supporters who were ferrying them from farm to farm.
No comment was immediately available from police.
Relatives said workers reported a raid on the farm by militants in which several workers' homes were torched. About 35,000 bales of hay were also set on fire.
Mr Bibby accompanied police to the workers' village and was later arrested, said his son.
The deaths followed the beating to death of a primary school headmaster on Tuesday in the central town of Chivhu, part of a district where a parliamentary by-election is set for September 22nd-23rd.
The headmaster, Mr Felix Mazava, was a supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and party officials are convinced that his killing was politically motivated.
Violence has continued unabated nationwide, despite three separate deals reached during the last two weeks aimed at resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis.
Under the first agreement, reached on September 5th with white Zimbabwean farmers, the government accepted an offer of nearly one million hectares (2.4 million acres) of land and substantial financing for resettled farmers. Although the government agreed to nothing in return, farming officials see that deal as their best hope for ending 18 months of violence on their land.
The next day, the Zimbabwean Foreign Minister, Mr Stan Mudenge, agreed at Commonwealth talks in Abuja, Nigeria, that the government would crack down on farm violence in exchange for British financing of land reforms.
That meeting was followed by a regional summit last Monday and Tuesday in Harare, where regional leaders backed the deal reached in Abuja and said Mr Mugabe had promised to crack down on violence and intimidation.
The summit ended with no concrete agreement, but did force Mr Mugabe to meet his chief critics - including the opposition, church leaders, businesses and white farmers.
Mr Mugabe has remained largely silent throughout the latest diplomatic developments. Although he endorsed the Abuja deal in principle, he has yet to sign it.
Farmers say they have yet to see any crackdown on the occupiers, who continue shutting down work on farms and burning grazing land.