Zimbabwean Minister threatens to eliminate opponents

By Violet Gonda
8 March 2006

Minister of State Security Didymus Mutasa on Wednesday warned on state television that the government would “eliminate” people in the opposition who upset the security of the country.
This announcement was made a day after the state media reported that police had uncovered an arms cache, which they said was meant to dislodge Mugabe’s rule, at the home of an alleged former Rhodesian army officer Peter Hitschmann. Some senior MDC officials were also implicated. This resulted in the arrest Wednesday morning of MP for Mutare North Giles Mutsekwa and Brian James, the MDC’s provincial treasurer for Manicaland.

Another MDC official named on television as being involved is MDC Chairman for Manicaland Roy Bennett. He said the Mugabe regime is trying to use trumped up charges to target him and anybody else seen as being effective within the opposition.

Bennett said, “They totally destroy any form of opposition through victimisation, through harassment, through imprisonment, through killing. I watched Didymus Mutasa on ZBC and he said even these people (suspects), he is quite within his right to eliminate them. He is on record on ZTV today having said that.”

Bennett, who himself was jailed for 12 months for pushing a minister in a squabble that also involved Mutasa, said it’s obvious the security minister was saying he has it in his power to kill anybody he believes is in opposition to the government.

ZTV reported that Hitschmann claimed he worked with Bennett and Mutsekwa for an organisation called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement, launched in London in 2002. Some unnamed sources also told the state mouth piece, the Herald that this movement contacted Hitschmann, together with the senior MDC members, and agreed to set up offices in Manicaland and open a bank account in Mozambique to finance operations to unconstitutionally unseat the Government.

Bennett said he knows Hitschmann as he was an MDC activist a while ago, and added: “but as far as weapons of war and the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement, I know absolutely nothing about it.”

Bennett added, “If anyone is beaten enough, they will say anything and they know who is effective within the political circles of Zimbabwe and they know who needs to be removed from those circles. They have done it once before when they put me in prison.”

He said lawyers representing the arrested have not been allowed access to their clients and are being told this is a national issue and that the state has total power to do whatever it wants.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the MDC said it sees the arrest of Mutsekwa and James as a ploy by the regime to destabilize its forthcoming congress by implicating opposition officials

Bennett believes Brian James is being victimized because he is the treasurer for the opposition party in this province. “They know the treasurer funds the organisation of the province and he is being victimized on the basis of that. The same with Giles Mutsekwa.”

He said Zanu Pf is trying to divert attention away from the real issues in Zimbabwe, “They have blown the whole thing totally out of proportion and each one of us had nothing to do with Rhodesian forces.”

Bennett believes Hitschmann himself is in his 30s and was a child during the time of Ian Smith. “Everything they say they want to push to the Rhodesian era. They try to put all whites in a Rhodesian environment. We are Zimbabweans, Violet. We are here. We are fighting for democracy in a free Zimbabwe. There is no way we are involved in that sort of nonsense.”

On the issue of the arms cache reportedly found at Hitschmann’s home Bennett said he doesn’t know what Hitschmann had at his house. “But I know he was always in possession of arms. I know he was involved in the ZRP Special Constabulary and was very involved with the ZRP in Mutare.”

One of the lawyers representing the detainees, Trust Mhanda, said Hitschmann has been charged with possession of weapons of banditry and terrorism under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

Although the lawyer said he did not know the exact firearms found, he confirmed that Hitschmann is a registered firearms dealer and had permission to be in possession of certain types of weapons.

Mhanda, who was only allowed access to his client late Wednesday, said Hitschmann had been subjected to intense psychological interrogation. He is being held at Mutare Central Police Station together with Brian James.

Giles Mutsekwa, who was arrested in Harare, is expected to be transferred to Mutare, while Knowledge Nyamhoka and Tando Sibanda are being held at Mutare Rural Police Station in Sakubva.

The lawyer said the crime carries a life sentence.

We have been unable to get a comment from the police or Minister Didymus Mutasa.