Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai left hospital in a wheelchair on Friday after being treated for head injuries sustained at the hands of President Robert Mugabe’s security services.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) president made no comment to waiting reporters as he was driven away from the private Avenues Hospital in downtown Harare. He was expected to address a press conference later.
Tsvangirai was badly beaten in police custody earlier this week but was told by doctors on Thursday he had suffered no long-term damage from his head injuries and was now out of danger.
In an article published on Friday he vowed that Mugabe would not deflect him from the campaign to ”free” Zimbabwe.
”Yes, they brutalised my flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free,” Tsvangirai wrote in an article published in the British Independent newspaper.
Mugabe has brushed aside international condemnation sparked by the images of a badly beaten Tsvangirai, saying Western governments could ”go hang” themselves and accused the MDC of instigating the violence.
Tsvangirai spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told Agence France-Presse shortly before the MDC leader left hospital that he would attend a press conference later in the day when he was expected to spell out his determination to keep pushing for Mugabe’s removal from power.
In the newspaper article, Tsvangirai said he had been surprised by the brutality of the treatment he received at the hands of the security forces who arrested him and dozens of supporters on the way to a banned protest on Sunday.
”Although Robert Mugabe had banned all opposition political party meetings and rallies, I had never anticipated that he could go as far as ruthlessly crushing a peaceful prayer meeting,” Tsvangirai wrote.
Mugabe, however, has been unapologetic about the use of force, accusing the MDC of going ”out of their way to effect acts of violence”.
”When they [Western governments] criticise the government when it tries to prevent violence and punish perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that they can go hang,” Mugabe said on Thursday after meeting Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete who is trying to mediate in the crisis.
Analysts have warned a bigger threat to Mugabe comes not from the MDC but within the ranks of his own Zanu-PF party which had been expecting him to stand down at the 2008 elections.
Comments in a weekend interview that he hoped to stand for another six-year term further inflamed an already volatile situation in a country where inflation now stands at 1 730% and fuel and basic foodstuffs are scare.
Increasing pressure
On Thursday, the British foreign secretary outlined proposals aimed at increasing the pressure on the Zimbabwean government following the crackdown.
Margaret Beckett directly blamed Robert Mugabe’s government for unleashing ”quite appalling” violence against members of the opposition, and protesters.
”Everybody’s horrified and it’s absolutely clear that there is direct responsibility from the government of Zimbabwe,” Beckett told reporters at her office.
She said Britain would be seeking talks with fellow European Union countries to strengthen measures the 27-nation body has already taken against Zimbabwe.
One possibility is to increase the list of Zimbabweans banned from travelling to European Union states.
British officials are trying to identify those responsible for the violence and will seek to add their names to those already proscribed from travelling under a previous EU sanctions regime.
”If you are engaged in that kind of thuggery this is a problem for you. It’s not just a problem for your country,” Beckett said.
The foreign secretary also said she would be pressing for the recently created United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate Zimbabwe, and added that its reaction will be a sign of whether the body has the teeth to deal with such issues.
The United States has refused to sign up to the council created in March 2006, saying it fails to confront human rights abusers.
”It is certainly a test for the Human Rights Council,” Beckett said. ”Certainly it would be a very bad signal of the way the new system might be made to work if we can’t deal with these issues.”
Britain, joined by the US, has led the condemnation against Mugabe’s government, accusing him of repression and corruption and blaming him for acute food shortages and creating an economic crisis that has crippled a country once considered ”Africa’s breadbasket”.
Tortured
Meanwhile, ZimOnline has learnt that Zimbabwean army authorities last weekend severely tortured five army officers who were captured in South African last month after deserting their jobs to seek better fortunes in the neighbouring country.
Sources at the army headquarters in Harare said the five deserters were last Friday moved from their heavily guarded cells at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison to the army headquarters in Harare, where they were severely tortured.
The officers, who are members of the army’s Mounted Unit, were arrested in the border town of Musina on February 16. They were part of a group of 45 officers who dumped their weapons in the bush and crossed over to South Africa.
The deserters were on patrol duty along the Zimbabwe-South Africa border. They have been in detention at Chikurubi since their capture last month.
”They were taken out of their cells [last] Friday afternoon and were taken to the army headquarters, where they were asked a few questions on the whereabouts of the other 40 deserters.
”It seems that they refused to cooperate and were later handed over to three sergeant majors who took turns to severely torture them for the rest of the day,” said a source.
”Three other army officers spent the whole day beating them, making them roll on the hard surface and pouring water on them, demanding to know the whereabouts of their colleagues.
”They accused the five of refusing to blow their colleagues’ cover and said they would not stop the torture until they got the truth out of them. But they later released them at about 5pm and returned them to Chikurubi,” said another source.
A senior police officer who saw the deserters on Monday, a day after they were returned to Chikurubi, said the deserters were in ”extremely bad shape” as a result of the torture.
The sources said the five deserters had bruises all over their bodies and could not walk properly as a result of the torture.
Police officers at Chikurubi who spoke to ZimOnline also confirmed that the deserters were severely tortured.
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi refused to comment on the torture reports, saying the army was right in following its code of conduct.
”What do you want me to do on that? They [deserters] should have known the consequences of their actions before deserting their jobs.
”The army has a code of conduct to follow and those who breach it should face the music, so leave me alone,” said Sekeramayi. — AFP, Sapa-AP, ZimOnline