HARARE (IPS)—Invasions of white-owned commercial farms have risen since Zimbabwe Home Affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa, contradicted president Robert Mugabe and ordered ex- guerrillas of the country’s war of independence to vacate the farms they had invaded by March 3 at the latest.

But by March 6 thousands of farm invaders had still not left the farms they had been invading for three weeks, despite a police order to do so or face unspecified action.

The ex-combatants vow they will remain put as they have the full backing of President Mugabe who emphatically told state television on March 2 that his administration would not take any action against the invaders.

Mr. Dabengwa, responsible for maintaining law and order in the country, called a press conference hours later at which he ordered the war veterans to leave the farms with "immediate effect."

Mr. Dabengwa repeated the call over the weekend but still the squatters had not taken heed and police has done nothing. The police was expected to take action by dawn on March 6. But the war veterans say they "don’t take instructions from police."

By March 3, an estimated 70 white-owned commercial farms had been invaded. Latest figures from the largely white dominated Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) now estimate that more than 200 farms countrywide have been invaded.

David Hasluck, director of the CFU representing commercial farmers who own 30 percent of the land, called on the police to act immediately to prevent "an escalating state of anarchy."

But with Mr. Mugabe—who is also patron of the ex-combatants—away on state visits to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he has deployed 11,000 troops to prop up the government forces fighting rebels backed by Ugandan forces, and another trip to Kuwait, the former fighters appear set to remain on the farms until the president returns and personally orders them off the farms.

With crucial parliamentary elections in April, analysts say it is most unlikely that Mr. Mugabe will make that move and risk losing their votes.

With the country paralyzed by a severe shortage of petrol, diesel and people struggling to get paraffin, used by thousands of families for cooking and lighting, Mr. Mugabe and his party are not very popular at the moment.

The government lost a referendum to choose a new constitution held in February amidst the shortages. The situation has since worsened.

The farm invasions, which analysts charge are being orchestrated by the government, are seen as a political ploy by Mr. Mugabe to get political capital out of the farm invasions which have left many Zimbabweans divided. Most, however, appear not to be in favor of the illegal invasions.

While most Zimbabweans appear to agree that land was the central issue that drove Black Zimbabweans to take up arms against white settlers, the manner the government has handled the emotive issue, they say, has not been satisfactory.

Two decades after independence, prime arable land remains a privilege of Zimbabwe’s white minority. In the few cases where land has been redistributed, critics say it has not been done fairly, or where people were resettled, no infrastructure was made available.

The downside risks of this have been high, and the poor execution of the land reform program has carried a high social and economic cost. Zimbabwe has fallen out of favor with international donors because of the unsatisfactory land reform process which has favored a few top officials and the elite.

Analysts say there is an urgent need to correct the land reform program so that it begins to alleviate poverty and benefits a wide section of Zimbabwe’s population.

Whites constitute one percent of Zimbabwe’s 12 million people yet they still own much of the prime land, while a million Black families are reported to be settled on barren land after being forced to vacate their original fertile areas by the colonial rulers.

While the recent spate of occupations of large-scale commercial farms by ex-combatants indeed depicts their deep-seated anger and mounting frustration with the present pattern of unequal distribution of land ownership, and the pace at which resettlement has been conducted since independence, their latest actions are being condemned by some sections of the population.

Using the Internet, Zimbabweans have been debating the issue in the "ZimWeb" general discussion site. The countrywide farm invasions started three weeks ago and appear to have been flamed by President Mugabe who repeatedly warned of farm invasions if his plan to seize land was blocked.