OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday 6.00pm.
A WAVE of ”state-sponsored terrorism” against opponents of President Robert Mugabe is threatening free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
Amnesty’s Africa Director Maina Kiai has accused the government of using liberation war veterans to intimidate the electorate before the parliamentary elections on June 24-25.
”There is a deliberate plan. It started with the farmers, then moved to the farm workers and on to teachers and businessmen and now to the opposition,” Kiai said in Harare. ”It is clearly state-sponsored terrorism.”
At least 27 people have died and hundreds, mainly supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, have been beaten, raped or forced to flee their homes.
The violence follows the invasion of hundreds of white-owned farms since February by liberation war veterans claiming land they say was stolen during the British colonial era a century ago. Mugabe has approved of the invasions but denied responsibility for the violence.
”The war veterans are a controllable group with a clear structure and this group is now being used by the government,” Kiai said. ”Amnesty International believes that the climate is not conducive for free and fair elections.”
The High Court on Thursday dismissed an effort by an opposition party to delay the elections.
Mugabe does not face a presidential election until 2002. But his ruling Zanu-PF party is fighting its strongest challenge since independence in 1980 and could see its dominance of the 150-seat parliament significantly decreased. — Reuters