ZIMBABWE, HARARE (IRIN) – President Robert Mugabe’s government is launching another wave of attacks against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a spokesman for the party told IRIN, as a much vaunted power-sharing deal appeared to be on the verge of collapse.
The September 15 deal, brokered by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, never really made it out of the starting blocks, as Mugabe maintained his stance that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was “a stooge of the West” and refused to concede any of Zimbabwe’s security ministries to MDC control.
The wrangling over the implementation of the power-sharing deal – specifically over the home affairs ministry, which controls the police – continued against an upsurge in political violence.
Zimbabwe’s Lawyers for Human Rights reported recently that in September, the month the deal was signed, there were 1 300 cases of political violence against MDC supporters, a 39 percent increase over August. The acts of political violence included the destruction of property, rape and killings.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told IRIN that Zanu-PF militias, in collaboration with state security operatives, were re-establishing torture camps and using them as bases from which to launch their attacks on MDC supporters.
“ZANU-PF is behaving like a party that has declared war on the people,” he said.
Torture camps were first set up in the wake of Mugabe’s defeat in the general election on March 29, when Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe and Zanu-PF lost control of Parliament for the first time since independence in 1980.
Tsvangirai withdrew from the presidential run-off because of the high level of political violence. Mugabe won the June 27 election in which he was the sole candidate.
Chamisa said, “On October 27, more than 30 MDC supporters were brutally attacked at Epworth, east of Harare, and several were hospitalised after sustaining serious injuries. Several torture camps have been set up throughout the country, where known or suspected MDC supporters are tortured by Zanu-PF militia,” he said.
Many rural districts are now under the control of army personnel, who are running local government and are responsible for food and seed distribution.
“On 30 October, state security agents in Mashonaland West Province raided the homes of the MDC leadership in Banket [about 100km northwest of Harare] and arrested nine MDC officials. The officials have not been brought before the courts,” Chamisa said.
He said that Zanu-PF militia was preventing MDC councillors from carrying out their duties throughout the country.
An officer in the Zimbabwe National Army, who spoke on condition he was not identified, told IRIN that since the March elections senior army officials had been deployed to rural districts, where they had virtually taken charge of all operations previously handled by local government officials.
“Many rural districts are under the control of colonels or lieutenant-colonels, who are running the local governments and are responsible for food and seed distribution, and there is no way soldiers can work together with MDC officials,” he said.
In October the commander of Zimbabwe’s defence forces, General Constantine Chiwenga was given the responsibility of identifying the beneficiaries of agricultural inputs, such as maize seed and fertiliser. There are allegations that the distribution of agricultural inputs now depends on loyalty to Zanu-PF.
In recent weeks Zimbabwe’s state-controlled media have cast Tsvangirai in the same mould as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, whose alliance with apartheid South Africa made him one of the most abhorred figures on the African continent. Tsvangirai has been referred to as Zimbabwe’s Laurent Nkunda, a rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Botswana, the region’s fiercest Mugabe critic, has been accused of providing training camps for MDC militias seeking to destabilise Zimbabwe. The Botswana government denies the allegations.
In a recent article on the opinion page of the state-controlled daily newspaper, The Herald, assistant editor Caesar Zvayi stated: “The militias are supposed to embark on acts of banditry to force the state to respond militarily, after which the lionesses in Washington and London would rush to defend their cubs, claiming Zimbabwe threatens regional peace and security.
“From there, he (Tsvangirai) will claim the AU has failed and should refer the matter to the UN, where he hopes his handlers (Britain and the US) would call the shots to effect the illegal regime change they failed to achieve over the last eight years.”
Zvayi, who was deported from Botswana this year warned ominously: “Tsvangirai would do well to learn from the fate that befell Jonas Savimbi after he withdrew from the presidential run-off that pitted him against the incumbent president, José Eduardo dos Santos, in 1992.”
Savimbi was killed in 2002 during a skirmish with Angolan soldiers. “History, they say, repeats itself,” Zvayi said. “Morgan (Tsvangirai) should be wary of the curse of history.”