A lawmaker from Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party was arrested this week by police on unspecified charges, the party announced on Wednesday.
Pauline Mpariwa was arrested at her home on Monday and is being held at a prison in Harare, the party said in a statement. She is the fourth MDC deputy to be arrested this month in what the party claims is a deliberate clampdown on opposition supporters and officials.
Police could not immediately confirm Mpariwa’s arrest. Paul Madzore, another MDC lawmaker from the low-income Harare suburb of Glen View, was arrested two weeks ago for protesting over the arrest of the MDC mayor of the capital.
Harare Mayor Elias Mudzuri was arrested in mid-January along with 20 other councillors, municipal workers and residents while addressing a meeting with city taxpayers.
Job Sikhala, another opposition deputy, was arrested last week for being in possession of ”subversive documents.” He was allegedly tortured while in police custody.
Earlier this month, Abednico Bhebhe, an MDC deputy from western Zimbabwe, was arrested for sticking up a protest poster that read ”Hoot enough is enough”.
The government has vowed to crack down on people suspected to be involved in or planning to disrupt the 2003 World Cup Cricket matches to be held here in February and March.
”There has been a sudden increase of violence and arrests of MDC MPs and official and leaders of civic organisations since the beginning of the month as preparations for the Cricket World Cup reach advanced stages,” MDC representative Paul Temba Nyathi said.
He said he disapproved of the decision taken by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to proceed with the matches in Zimbabwe ”in light of these sad developments”.
”The decision callously underlines the point that the leading figures in world cricket are simply guided by profit rather than principle,” said Nyathi.
Another opposition lawmaker, Tafadzwa Musekiwa, who was in Britain last week, decided to stay in that country and seek asylum after hearing about the arrest and alleged torture of fellow parliamentarian, Sikhala. – Sapa-AFP