HARARE (IPS)� The Zimbabwe police appealed for calm July 16 after war veterans, enraged by the weekend killing of a fellow Black settler, ordered all white commercial farmers to leave their farms, immediately.

"We appeal for calm," police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).

Mr. Bvudzijena�s appeal came after Andy Mhlanga, secretary general of the war veterans association warned that they would take the law into their hands, if the farmers refused to leave voluntarily. Asked what that meant, Mr. Mhlanga retorted, "the farmers know what that means."

Mr. Mhlanga said "the killing shows that co-existence between us and the white farmers has failed and they should leave immediately."

Tension began building after a commercial farmer, Philip Bezuidenhout, allegedly ran over Febian Mapenzauswa at his farm in Odzi in eastern Zimbabwe on July 14..

After knocking Mr. Mapenzauswa to the ground, the farmer dragged his body under his car before dumping it at roadside, according to police.

The farmer is alleged to have threatened to kill 15 Blacks to celebrate the "passing�" of the Zimbabwe Democracy Bill in the United States.

If passed, the bill�which calls for the return of rule of law in Zimbabwe�would impose travel restrictions on President Robert Mugabe and his ministers.

According to the police, the farmer first drove towards a group of settlers to force them away. When he missed them, he reportedly made a U-turn, and sped towards Mr. Mapenzauswa, knocking him down.

This is the first incident in which a commercial farmer has killed a settler. The farmer has been arrested and faces a murder charge. He was to appear in court July 17.

The killing of Mr. Mapenzauswa has further strained relations between the government and white commercial farmers who are entangled in bitter dispute over land reform.

"This is a callous, premeditated, cold-blooded murder which smacks of the Ku Klux Klan-type of murders done in the U.S. and South Africa," said Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe�s information minister.

"It is a shame that in doing it, this white farmer turned it into a celebration and so we expect the full wrath of the law to take its course," Mr. Moyo told the state-run Herald newspaper.

In an editorial, the paper wrote: "Unlike the Italians who were force-marched out of Libya with nothing and their hands above their heads, the white commercial farmers have had it so nice all along to the extent that they believe that they can determine the political temperature of this country."

"Farmers who think they can wantonly kill blacks and drag their bodies as happened in America and South Africa should think twice because they are certainly courting trouble," the commentary warned. It did not elaborate.

The Zimbabwean government is acquiring land from white commercial farmers to resettle millions of landless Black people who were pushed away from fertile land by white settlers over 100 years ago.

Since veterans of Zimbabwe�s 1970s independence war started invading farms last February, more than eight white farmers have been killed.

Although the court has declared the farm invasions as illegal, the government says Black Zimbabweans have a right to their land, "stolen" from them by white settlers.

The Commercial Farmers Union, which represents white farmers, declined comment.

The government has compulsorily acquired more than 1,600 commercial farms for resettling landless Black people. Although white people constitute less than one percent of Zimbabwe�s 12 million people, they own 70 percent of its prime land.