Buhera police in weekend arrest of 25 MDC supporters

By Lance Guma
23 September 2008

It’s business as usual for the police under Mugabe’s regime after officers in Buhera on Saturday arrested around 25 MDC supporters for celebrating the signing of the power sharing deal last Monday. MDC Manicaland Provincial Spokesman Pishai Muchauraya told Newsreel the villagers saw the signing ceremony as the beginning of an end to their suffering and the violence they have had to endure for so long. But police picked them up and charged them with ‘celebrating’. On Monday the charge was altered to the more serious, but absurd charge of ‘stock-theft’. Muchauraya says this is a deliberate attempt to punish their supporters given that none of them ever stole any livestock. Under harsh colonial laws stock theft can attract sentences of more than 50 years in jail.

Those arrested were still being held at Murambinda Police Station by Tuesday afternoon. Mutare lawyer David Tandire has been hired by the MDC to secure their release. The power sharing accord has failed to stop the victimization of MDC supporters. Militant elements from ZANU PF have declared the agreement means nothing to them. The notorious ZANU PF gang known as Chipangano attacked MDC supporters outside the venue of the signing ceremony in Harare last week. Analysts believe a section of the party aligned to the security services is eager to sabotage the deal and is actively encouraging rogue youths to target opposition members.

In the Nhema Village of Zaka in Masvingo MDC supporter Sam Veremu Jaricha had his home burnt down by ZANU PF supporters Saturday evening. The MDC released a statement saying the suspects are based at the homestead of Chief Nhema Rangarirai Guvanda. In Mbare over 61 MDC families, who where evicted from their homes in the lead up to the June 27 presidential run-off, were on Tuesday afternoon assaulted at Matapi police station by Zanu PF members. Despite the courts granting them permission to move back into their homes the youths attacked the families in the presence of the police. In Mabvuku on Sunday over 10 ZANU PF supporters assaulted Edmore Ngadziore at the Red Bull shopping centre, simply because he wore an MDC T-shirt.

Meanwhile Muchauraya told Newsreel there have been fresh farm invasions in Manicaland, with at least 4 farms in the Vumba area being taken over. Another 2 farms in Old Mutare have also been invaded. The invaders are said to be brandishing ‘fake’ offer letters from State Security and Lands Resettlement Minister Didymus Mutasa. They are also looting property belonging to the farm owners, in what Muchauraya described as a ‘last minute rush to loot and cause confusion.’ The invasions are disrupting operations in the area with other farmers unsure whether to continue with their planting preparations or not.