Mugabe is 'punishing voters who rejected him', opposition claims

Published on Tuesday 8 April 2008 21:37

ROBERT Mugabe has unleashed a violent campaign to punish Zanu-PF supporters who voted against him in last month's polls, the opposition claimed yesterday.

Ruling party militias, used to cow voters into submission ahead of polls in 2000, have been reformed. They are terrorising villagers in remote rural areas, according to Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). He said: "There has been massive violence inside the country since (29 March]."

Details of the campaign are sketchy so far: rural areas are hard and dangerous to reach while mobile phone coverage is mostly non-existent.

In Chimanimani East, the home of a newly-elected councillor was torched and all his belongings burnt. There are reports of beatings in the Mutare North constituency, where "two individuals are roaming around with a .303 rifle," the official said in a telephone interview.

"They are targeting what they see as their strongholds that voted against them," he said.

"A lot of people are being arrested for celebrating."

Gangs of ruling-party supporters have also invaded at least 60 white farms since the weekend, union officials say.

"The gangs are being transported, they're armed with sticks and machetes, they're giving farmers anywhere between one hour and ten hours to leave," said Trevor Gifford, the president of the Commercial Farmers' Union.

"They're not allowed to take anything with them just the clothes on their backs. We've had reports of meetings to decide who, when and how the next farms will be invaded," he told The Scotsman.

Only about 450 white farmers remain. He said two farms belonging to black farmers had also been seized.

Tensions have been rising following the failure of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to announce the winner of the presidential poll. The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, claims that he won outright with 50.3 per cent of the vote, but Mr Mugabe appears to be preparing for a run-off.

The MDC won a small victory yesterday when a high court judge ruled that the party's appeal to force the ZEC to release the results of the presidential polls was urgent.