Police in Zimbabwe have arrested around 400 opposition members since a widely followed controversial two-day opposition-led strike this week, a police representative said on Sunday.
Bothwell Mugariri said most of those arrested had been charged with malicious injury to property and are still in custody. Buses were stoned and burnt, roads barricaded, supermarkets torched and a ruling party office fire-bombed during and after a two-day strike called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
”The majority of the 400 have appeared in court and have been remanded in custody,” Mugariri said. State radio however later put the number of those arrested at only 200 and said that many were top party officials.
Meanwhile the MDC has stepped up allegations of state-sponsored violence against its members. Party representative Paul Themba Nyathi said in a statement on Sunday that several MDC members in Harare’s low income suburbs of Mabvuku and Mufakose had been attacked this weekend by ruling party supporters.
”Apart from assaulting our members, these criminals looted cash and goods from the victims’ homes,” Themba Nyathi said.
The attacks have not been confirmed by police. Rights groups say there has been a surge of retaliatory violence this week against the opposition and rights activists. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai Sunday visited alleged victims of the
violence in hospital.
President Robert Mugabe on Saturday vowed his government would take ”greater action” against the opposition, whom he accused of trying to overthrow the government.
The strike on Tuesday and Wednesday was called to protest alleged misgovernance and the MDC has presented the government with a list of demands it wants addressed by the end of the month.
Tensions are rising in Harare ahead of two key by-elections next weekend. – Sapa-AFP