Dozens of Zimbabwean white farmers are due to appear in court this morning after defying a government order to leave their land.
President Mr Robert Mugabe's government has arrested over 140 farmers after refusing to leave in protest at the controversial land reforms. Many spent the weekend in custody.
There would be "no favour or compromise" for those who broke the government's land redistribution laws, said a police spokesman.
Mr Mugabe's government plans to seize nearly 5,000 white-owned farms, claiming they are to be distributed to landless blacks.
About 2,900 farmers have already been ordered off their land, but 60 per cent of these failed to comply, said Ms Jenni Williams, a spokeswoman for the farmer's pressure group, Justice for Agriculture. "Farmers are not defying the government, but rather orders they believe to be illegal," she said.
Mr Phiri said no violence had been reported over the past two days. But Justice for Agriculture reported one farmer was beaten up by ruling party militants and police at his Harare home on Saturday, despite having vacated his farm.
Ms Williams said between 30 and 40 of the farmers who were arrested had since been freed on bail. The others remained in police cells and were hoping to appear in court today.
The farmers' lawyers believe the eviction orders violate constitutionally entrenched rights of freedom from racial discrimination and contain technical errors rendering them invalid.
PA