Harare | Thursday
ZIMBABWE’S main opposition party said on Wednesday that one of its officials died after torture, in a report that would take the death toll to at least 10 since last month’s disputed presidential election.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said that polling agent Fanuel White had succumbed to injuries sustained when he was tortured and assaulted by alleged ruling Zanu-PF supporters.
Fanuel White was taken by a security guard at his workplace, a agricultural parastatal in the northeastern Mushumbi Pools, and handed over to militias of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
They tortured him before releasing him and White died at a Harare clinic last Thursday, the MDC said in a statement.
The latest reported death brings to 43 the number of fatalities in political violence since January 1, according to a toll compiled by AFP.
The MDC has refused to recognise the outcome of the March 9-11 polls won by President Robert Mugabe, saying the vote was massively rigged and thousands of its supporters suffered intimidation, torture, assault or death.
The party claims that the violence against its members and supporters has not ceased even after the polling, but has even worsened in the form of retribution against people known or suspected to support the opposition.
”We are concerned about the violence. The violence is worse than it was before elections,” said MDC secretary for economic affairs Eddie Cross. – Sapa-AFP