The Daily Telegraph
28th January 2002
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
INTENSIFYING violence yesterday forced Zimbabwe’s opposition to abandon all its public rallies in the presidential election campaign.
The decision by the Movement for Democratic Change came after one of its supporters died and several others were critically injured at the weekend. The shadow justice minister, David Coltart, said the MDC had decided to abandon political rallies until foreign observers arrived.
He said: “We have to give four days notice to the police, and this puts our supporters at risk. We will be holding small house meetings in future for which we do not need official permission.”
European Union foreign ministers meet today to consider sanctions against Zimbabwe. It is believed that the measures will be triggered if President Mugabe refuses to accept foreign election monitors.
The opposition says the Harare government is mounting an increasingly brutal campaign ahead of the March 9-10 presidential poll, in which Mr Mugabe is expected to face the toughest challenge so far to his 22-year rule from Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mkhokosize Ncube, who was aged about 20, died in Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, a week after pro-government youths went on a rampage at a stadium to disrupt an MDC rally.
At least two more MDC supporters were injured, one critically, when supporters of Mr Mugabe attacked MDC members at two election rallies in Harare on Saturday.
Another political meeting scheduled in Bulawayo yesterday was cancelled when scores of uniformed national servicemen, loyal to Mugabe, arrived several hours before it was due to begin.
The servicemen are effectively a new pro-government militia selected by the Defence Ministry and paid by the state. They have gained a fearsome reputation for attacking the government’s opponents during the past six weeks.
The MDC says it does not know how many of its members are currently in police cells or hospitals around the country, or how many more were attacked at the weekend. A police spokesman said he also did not have the figures.
But the MDC said several thousand of its members have been beaten and tortured recently and at least 10,000 have fled their homes. Many are now in “safe houses”.
In what political observers say is a pattern of selective police prosecution, hundreds of MDC loyalists, including six MPs, are awaiting trial on a range of charges from murder to public violence. An MDC spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe, said yesterday: “We cannot keep up with statistics because so many of our structures have been smashed.”
The government says only monitors it has trained will be allowed at the polls. Although Mr Mugabe told southern African leaders earlier this month that foreign observers would be allowed into Zimbabwe ahead of the elections, so far no invitations have gone out.
Mr Mugabe has let it be known to the state-controlled media, that Britain, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries have been specifically excluded from observing the run up to the elections and the two polling days.
Tony Reeler, director of the Amani Trust, which monitors violence, said yesterday it had been forced to stop sheltering hundreds of vulnerable people since it was accused by the government last week of promoting political attacks on behalf of the MDC.
“We are extremely concerned as a humanitarian organisation to be so threatened,” he added. He said the trust did not have accurate statistics about political violence.
“We can only record what people come into town and tell us. We are unable to go into the field, but we do know that it is substantially worse in the first two weeks of this month than in December,” he said.
Information from the MDC leadership is that a growing number of its young supporters have become involved in violence against the ruling party, Zanu-PF.
“The difference,” said an MDC leader who did not want to be named, “is that we do not give orders to our members to attack Zanu-PF. We condemn them and we will not provide any financial or legal assistance to supporters who initiate violence.”
President Mugabe is to be presented with one last warning before Britain and other nations take action against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, will today ask European Union leaders to agree a timetable for sanctions. On Wednesday he will make a similar plea to Commonwealth leaders in London.
The EU General Affairs Council is expected to call on Mr Mugabe to end attempts to silence critics and allow international observers for the election. This will be backed by a threat to cut aid by £78.5 million.