Soldiers and Zanu PF supporters assault opposition members

By Tichaona Sibanda
9 April 2008

Zanu-PF has sent militias into areas where it lost to the MDC, to assault those suspected of voting for the opposition. In Gweru in the Midlands province, a human rights group reports that soldiers beat up revellers and late night shoppers in the city of Gweru, as punishment for not ‘voting correctly.’

The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) said soldiers, some of them wearing face masks, raided bars and a public market on Sunday, in Gweru’s Mkoba 6 surbub, assaulting people they accused of failing to vote correctly.

Gweru, which houses two military bases, Thornhill airbase and the Zimbabwe Military Academy, is a stronghold of the opposition MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC MP for Makoni south, said they have received reports of members of the armed forces being deployed in rural areas.

‘Our intelligence officers are busy right now travelling across the province gathering as much information as they can on the deployment of troops. But what I can confirm now is that a lot of our supporters are being harassed and intimidated by Zanu-PF supporters in all the areas we beat them,’ Muchauraya said.

Manicaland province produced the most stunning defeat for Zanu-PF when the MDC won 20 out 26 parliamentary seats in the province. From just two seats before the elections, the party claimed the scalps of four cabinet ministers, Patrick Chinamasa, Shadreck Chipanga, Joseph Made, Mike Nyambuya and Zanu-PF women’s chairperson Oppah Muchinguri.

‘In all these areas, where we beat these heavyweights our supporters are being harassed by war veterans and youth members of Zanu-PF. But we are telling our supporters to refrain from retaliating as we believe it’s a trap set that can be used against the party,’ Muchauraya added.