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English/Nat Another farm has become victim to the ongoing siege of white owned farming land by war veterans in Zimbabwe. To date the violence has claimed the lives of two white farmers and many other farm workers, along with political and media targets. The latest farm occupation has so far been relatively free of violence.: Lynton Farm in Marondera, South East of Harare, fell to the siege of war veterans on Saturday, the same day the memorial service for murdered white farmer Martin Olds was being held in Bulawayo. Although workers on Lynton Farm were beaten and whipped by the war veterans no lives have yet been lost there. The white farm owner, John Malzer, is unharmed and continues to remain in the farmhouse believing himself to be relatively safe. Unusually, local police arrived to try and control the situation. Their lack of presence has marked the conflict so far and been held against them by the minority white farmers who say they are not receiving sufficient protection. The police told the war veterans they could stay on the farm and wouldn't be forced to leave, but warned they must not use violence. The police instruction echoed Tuesday's meeting between Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, war veterans leader, Chenjeri Hunzvi, and the president of the Commercial Farmer's Union, Tim Henwood, when it was agreed that war veterans may remain on the occupied farms. What is not clear however is whether the meeting advocated further invasions of white owned farming land. Local farmers waited on the dirt roads for the return of local police vehicles once they had been to Lynton Farm, a sign perhaps of budding cooperation between farmers and local police. Local farmer, Harry Orfinidis despairingly referred to Tuesday's meeting between the leaders of different factions in the growing dispute. SOUNDBITE: (English) "This is absolutely ridiculous. We are in the process right now of negotiating with the war vets. You have heard what Henwood and Hunzvi have agreed to. They are going to go around and speak to these war vets and diffuse the situation. And then yet we continue with these atrocities here. Hunzvi was in Marondera yesterday, the day before yesterday, he spoke to all the commercial farmers. His task now is to go around the whole area and speak to the war vets. We understand that they have been spoken to yesterday morning and yet we have this sort of situation going on still" SUPER CAPTION: Harry Orfinidis, local farmer) In a show of support local farmers then proceeded to Lynton farm to speak to John Malzer who then explained what had happened. At first he did not want to communicate at all with the war veterans who have remained on his land. SOUNDBITE: (English) "We are not speaking to you at all and then they went to the compound and they have been sitting and singing all night in the compound. This morning they came out here, and the same thing, they wanted to speak to me and I said no, sorry I am not talking to you. They kept on and on and then they went to demanding food.. we contact the people here, and they said no, they will be coming down to speak. Then they wanted food so eventually I said all right I will give you food and that. That was the story. It wasn't anything really. We weren't being molested as it were, but they were sitting outside the fence causing trouble, noise and that and they have intimidated all the labourers of course." SUPER CAPTION: John Malzer from Lynton Farm The veterans arrival on Lynton Farm has remained relatively incident free. Whether that continue to be the case will very much depend on the ongoing efforts to regain control of a situation which has threatened to spiral out of control. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/7862a1e5e7995b7a545d079269fc9a0a Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork