MDC supporters have been displaced in violence unleashed by ZANU PF

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s opposition has said hundreds of its supporters have suffered serious injuries while at least one supporter was murdered in an orgy of violence it blamed on state security agents and militant activists of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, which said the violence started almost immediately after it defeated ZANU PF in elections on March 29, said some of its supporters in remote rural areas were homeless after their homes were looted and burnt down by the suspected ZANU PF activists.

“Hundreds of MDC supporters have received serious injuries (due to political violence) following the party gaining more seats than ZANU PF in March 29, elections,” the MDC said in a post election violence report shown to ZimOnline on Thursday.

“Some of the villagers have fled their homes after they were burnt and their property looted by the ZANU PF militia,” said the opposition report, adding that at one time on the weekend of April 12, the MDC had 20 supporters receiving treatment for various injuries at Avenues Clinic in Harare.

Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi was not immediately available for comment while police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he was not aware of the incidents of violence mentioned in the MDC report.

ZANU PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in 28 years in last month’s election when it garnered 97 seats compared to 110 won by the MDC and other minor opposition candidates.

But electoral officials are yet to issue the much awaited results of a parallel presidential vote, which ZANU PF acknowledges Mugabe lost to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, although they say a second round of voting is required to settle the contest.

The MDC, which earlier this week lost a court bid to force electoral authorities to release results of the presidential poll, says Mugabe’s government has blocked results while it implements a campaign of violence and terror to cow Zimbabweans to back the 84-year old President in the second ballot.

In a message delivered to Zimbabweans on Thursday on the eve of the country’s 28th independence, the United States’ embassy in Harare backed the opposition claims of violence, saying it was aware of acts of violence, intimidation and murder committed against government opponents.

Ambassador James McGee said: "There is growing evidence that rural communities are being punished for their support for opposition candidates. We have disturbing and confirmed reports of threats, beatings, abductions, burning of homes and even murder, from many parts of the country."

Other Western nations led by Britain used a Wednesday summit of the United Nation Security Council and the African Union to call for tougher action to end Zimbabwe’s election stalemate and the violence it has bred.

In its post election violence report, the MDC said Zimbabwe army soldiers and secret service police were involved in committing violence and human rights abuses against its supporters.

For example, the report narrates an incident in Gokwe constituency on April 12 when an agent of the spy Central Intelligence Organisation it identified as Amos Jaravaza shot an MDC activist, Munyekeni Ganye, in both legs, seriously injuring him. Ganye is recovering form his injuries at Gokwe hospital.

On the same day Ganye was shot, suspected ZANU PF militants stabbed to death another MDC activist Tapiwa Mubwanda, who was a polling agent in Hurungwe West in Mashonaland West province.

The MDC said scores of soldiers were also seen assaulting suspected supporters of the opposition party in Mutoko North constituency in Mashonaland East province.

The allegations by the MDC of increasing violence committed by soldiers and ZANU PF militants against its supporters, tallies with reports released earlier this week by two local non-governmental organisations, the Zimbabwe Peace Project and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. – ZimOnline.