Over 600 hospitalized as opposition appeals for medical assistance

By Lance Guma
10 April 2007

In a sign of the deteriorating situation the opposition has sent out an appeal for urgent medical supplies and funds to help meet escalating medical costs, food and legal assistance. The appeal from the MDC comes in the wake of what the party terms a vicious crackdown on its members since the planned prayer rally in March that was crushed by the police. According to hospital figures over 500 people in Harare alone are said to have been beaten up or tortured and the country’s hospitals are said to struggling to cope with the numbers. Over 600 activists countrywide are thought to have been hospitalized.
Some of the injuries include eye damage, deep lacerations, severe blunt-force trauma to the abdomen, ruptured bowels, fractured limbs and skulls, broken ribs, shattered joints, gunshot wounds and extensive damage from blows to the back, shoulders, buttocks and thighs. A statement from the MDC says numerous women are among the victims. One woman in her late 30s and seven months pregnant was savagely beaten with a baton stick and lost the baby as a result. Two other women Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinjeh have been hospitalised in South Africa. The opposition estimates 30 people are being arrested on a daily basis.

Senior official Sekai Holland suffered multiple fractures including three broken ribs, a broken arm and leg as well as deep tissue bruising. After being denied medical attention for what the party called ‘a dangerously long period’ she underwent surgery to insert pins in her arm and leg, but her knee - which was also shattered - required specialist surgery in South Africa. The MDC has sent out an appeal to purchase MARS (Medical Air Rescue Service) kits. They say government hospitals frequently refuse to provide medical assistance to opposition supporters and are increasingly without medical supplies, which is why they are resorting to private hospitals and also trying to help themselves.

The MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennet told Newsreel all those willing to contribute could do so by sending to the MDC’s audited ZimFund accounts in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Meanwhile William Bango the press secretary for the Tsvangirai MDC is back in Harare having recovered from surgery in South Africa. A statement from MDC national executive member Eddie Cross says Bango had his gall bladder removed as well as repairs to other interior organs, damaged during beatings he received from police officers. ‘William collapsed in South Africa after the beating and had to have emergency surgery to repair internal injuries that were not apparent when he was treated initially in Harare,’ Cross explained.