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The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 31 May 2008

“Instead of being a source of hope to the people, the police have become a threat.”

HARARE

Deadly AK47 rifles have become the weapon of choice for thugs involved in murder, kidnapping and torture throughout Zimbabwe.

Suspiciously, though, the police have not been able to apprehend a single suspect in all the cases involving the illegal use of AK47s or other firearms. A substantial number of the 50 Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists murdered after March 29 were kidnapped by men with AK47 rifles.

Over the years, this Gukurahundi style of abduction and disappearance of activists has left the state as the lead suspect.
At Murambinda in April 2000, for example, two alleged killers driving a Zanu (PF) Manicaland Nissan twin-cab truck approached MDC activists Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika. The two killers pointed AK47s and petrol-bombed the MDC group. Mabika and Chiminya died.

Later that year, David Coltart’s chief polling agent, Patrick Nabayana, was abducted by men allegedly carrying AK47 rifles. His body has never been found.

The following year, 10 men with AK47 rifles abducted Bulawayo war veterans leader Cain Nkala. His decomposing body was later found in a shallow grave near Solusi University. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai blamed Zanu (PF) for Nkala’s death.
A pointer to who the perpetrators of these abductions really are is contained in an Amnesty International (AI) report, dated June 2002, and entitled Toll of Impunity.

The human rights agency says “these violations were primarily committed by members of ‘state sponsored militia’ and also by state security forces – police officers, army officers or agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)”.

The BBC
30th May 2008

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has described the country under President Robert Mugabe as an “unmitigated embarrassment” to Africa.

He said that during 28 years of Mr Mugabe’s rule, services such as education and healthcare had gone from the best in Africa to among the worst.

He is standing against Mr Mugabe in a run-off election at the end of June.

Zimbabwe’s justice minister said a Tsvangirai victory would plunge the nation into crisis.

Mr Tsvangirai was speaking at a gathering of parliamentarians from his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and media in the Zimbabwean capital Harare.

This was, in effect, his election manifesto, the BBC’s Peter Greste reports from Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa.
‘Gratuitous violence’

The MDC leader again condemned the ruling Zanu-Pf party for what his party insists is a campaign of intimidation and violence.

He said there would be no amnesty for anyone responsible for political attacks.

“The violence that is currently taking place must stop,” he said.

“There will be no tolerance or amnesty for those who continue to injure, rape and murder our citizens. We consider these acts as criminal acts, not political acts.”

Senator David Coltart, a human rights lawyer and a member of the MDC, described for the BBC some of the attacks on supporters of his party.

“And I think that has caused the Morgan Tsvangirai statement. It amounts to a plea in desperation to get this violence to stop.”

Mr Tsvangirai listed Zimbabwe’ s problems as:

In the News UK
Thursday, 29 May 2008

Robert Mugabe is waging a campaign of violence against the MDC. He is attempting to cling to power in Zimbabwe as pressure for change builds and builds.

Robert Mugabe is waging a campaign of intimidation and violence against Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a senior party figure has claimed.

David Coltart, re-elected as a senator in the March 29th parliamentary elections, said Mr Mugabe’s supporters had committed “a fresh crime against humanity” in the last five weeks.

Increased abductions, displacements and the “gratuitous use of violence” all form part of the targeted campaign being conducted by Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party since the first-round election.

That took place two months ago today and, after a lengthy delay, saw the MDC take control of the country’s parliament. The MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai failed to win an absolute majority in the presidential contest, prompting the current run-off campaign and Mr Mugabe’s reign of terror.

Speaking at an event hosted by thinktank Policy Exchange in London, Mr Coltart compared the current crisis to the Gukuruhundi, the 1983 campaign which resulted in the deaths of 20,000 civilians.

The month after the election saw the number of human rights violations in Zimbabwe increase tenfold, he said, with second- and third-tier leadership levels of the MDC and the north-east of the country singled out for special attention.

“A new operation has unfolded. It is increasingly clear that Zanu-PF has organised a brutal campaign to root out people who voted for, or were in junior leadership positions in, the MDC under Morgan Tsvangirai,” Mr Coltart said.

By May 16th Harare hospital had treated 1,600 victims of the violence alone while 22 deaths among MDC supporters had been confirmed, he claimed. One man was found with his eyes gouged out and his tongue cut out.