BRYAN PEARSON, Harare | Wednesday 7.00pm.
VIOLENCE in Zimbabwe threatened to spiral out of control ahead of next month’s general elections, with police reporting one death and numerous injuries in bloody clashes in the capital and a chaotic rampage by militant war veterans through farmlands in the east.
The clashes came as the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) announced it was seeking a court order to extend the deadline for nominating parliamentary candidates — a move which could delay the poll.
In the bloodiest incident, one man died and 18 people were injured when political rivals battled with each other in Harare’s Budiriro suburb Tuesday night, police told the state-run Ziana news agency. The district is the stronghold of war veterans’ leader Chenjerai Hunzvi.
Two houses were torched and Hunzvi’s medical surgery came under attack, as as supporters of the opposition MDC and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party clashed, said police.
The latest death brings to at least 21 the number of people killed in violence linked to the June 24-25 parliamentary poll, most of them MDC supporters.
The violence has increased since Monday, when President Robert Mugabe announced the election dates — June 24 and 25.
White farmers and white residents of the eastern highlands village of Chimanimani, meanwhile, were late on Wednesday sheltering in a “safe house.”
They were forced to flee their properties when about 50 war veterans, brandishing iron rods and wooden clubs, arrived in the already volatile area.
Farmers and timber workers said the rampage began on Tuesday. War veterans, supported by ZANU-PF members, arrived at Charters Sawmill, near the town, and began to attack workers they claimed supported the MDC.
“Some people were beaten very thoroughly,” said a timber worker, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
The latest incidents come a day after Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon secured a commitment from President Robert Mugabe that he would ensure levels of violence dropped ahead of the election.
The MDC, meanwhile, threatened on Wednesday to take Mugabe to the High Court arguing he had failed to comply with the constitution when he proclaimed the election on Monday. -AFP
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