OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday
IN the latest twist to a confusing series of claims and counter-claims between Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and police over a hand grenade attack on the party’s headquarters, a Harare policeman has appeared in court for his alleged involvement in the bombing.
Lazarus Nkomo, who is said to be an MDC member, appeared on allegations of terrorism, sabotage and illegal possession of offensive weapons, the state-controlled Sunday Mail said. He was not granted bail.
The MDC has already identified Nkomo as a police musketry instructor who, it said, was infiltrated into the MDC’s youth wing on the orders of senior police officers.
Party president Morgan Tsvangirai said last week the grenade attack was to give police a pretext to carry out raids on the party’s offices. He said Nkomo had been issued with hand grenades, and instructed to plant them in the party’s offices and in the homes of senior officials.
However, police affidavits in court claimed that the policeman had joined the MDC in May and became a member of its security department. Earlier this month he was given grenades by a senior member of the security department and told to “engage in subversive activities aimed at discrediting and tarnishing the image of the government of Zimbabwe,” the newspaper reported.
During the raids, police removed all the party’s records from its main offices in Harare, returning them only 24 hours after a high court order barring their action was issued.
Shortly after, home affairs minister John Nkomo claimed police had found “weapons of war.” Among them were hand grenades, he said, but he also listed a Daisy pistol, a child’s toy, and pellets for the pistol, as well as hand-held radios.
“Police found nothing, and they know it,” Tsvangirai said. “The courts will prove that this is nothing but a conspiracy.”
The raids, by heavily armed paramilitary police, were the first action against the pro-democracy party since parliamentary elections in June when it won 57 out of 120 elected seats, breaking President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party’s near absolute grip on power.
Observers warn that the latest moves signal a crackdown on the MDC by the government, ahead of presidential elections in 2002 that the opposition party is tipped to win.
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