An unofficial state of emergency has been imposed on Zimbabwe by President Robert Mugabe, with police beating people who venture on to the streets after dark and breaking up gatherings as small as four people, residents report.
In the capital, Harare, government gunmen on Saturday seized the body of opposition activist Gift Tandare to prevent his burial from becoming a focal point for the opposition. Tandare was shot dead by police at the prayer rally last Sunday where Morgan Tsvangirai and others from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were arrested and later beaten.
“Armed Central Intelligence Organisation [CIO] men stormed the funeral home and took away Tandare’s body still in its coffin,” said Nelson Chamisa, an MDC spokesperson. “People attending his wake have been beaten indiscriminately. Mugabe’s thugs are not even respecting the dead. This is against African culture and against God. It is the act of a frightened regime. Mugabe is trying to provoke violence.’
Tsvangirai was still feeling “dizzy” from his injuries and resting at home, said his party officials. He has five stitches to a head wound and a broken arm. Four others beaten along with him remain in hospital. “This incident has just heightened the stakes,” said Tsvangirai. “This has created even more impetus and more determination on the part of Zimbabweans.”
Zimbabwean police also stopped two opposition officials from flying to South Africa on Saturday for medical treatment for injuries sustained in the same beatings as Tsvangirai, according to their lawyer.
MDC members Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinje, who were among the most severely beaten, were prevented from boarding a flight to South Africa, said their lawyer, Andrew Makoni. They are back in a Harare hospital.
Mounting pressure
Domestic and international pressure against the Mugabe government is mounting. The British government has this weekend called for the United Nations Security Council to be briefed on the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, while the 14-nation Southern African Development Community announced a special meeting on the escalating Zimbabwean crisis will be held in Dar es Salaam on March 25 and 26. This follows talks between Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Mugabe on Thursday.
A defiant Mugabe retorted that his police will “hit harder” and threatened to expel Western diplomats, in a speech last Friday. Exposing his growing isolation, he admitted that members of his own Zanu-PF party were plotting against him.
Mugabe blamed the opposition for instigating the violence. Speaking to the youth wing of Zanu-PF, he lambasted critical Western diplomats.
“We will kick them out of this country,” said Mugabe, according to Agence France-Presse. “I have asked the minister of foreign affairs to summon them and read the riot act to them. We shall tell the ambassadors that this is not a country which is a piece of Europe.’
Mugabe also warned the opposition against anti-government demonstrations. “If they do it again, we will bash them again,” he said. Mugabe said that, because of attacks on police officers, all officers, including traffic police, would now be fully armed.
“We are under a state of emergency: it would just be a waste of breath for Mugabe to declare it,” said political-science lecturer John Makumbe. “We are seeing police beating people in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Masvingo, Kwekwe. It has spread all over the country.”
Risk of more violence
Makumbe said police are breaking up groups of people on the street. “Even people walking to church are harassed. Nightclubs are closing because no one will go out after dark.” He warned that tensions are rising and the opposition is more united and determined.
“There is a risk of more violence. People are saying the difference between dying quietly in our houses and dying on the streets is the same. Only negotiations can defuse the situation. In Zimbabwe, we are pressing for a transitional period and a new constitution leading to free and fair elections. The international community must support that, especially Africa.”
Zimbabwe is at “a turning point”, and there is no going back to when “Mugabe’s power was unquestioned. Even his own party is shaken by tremors that are weakening Mugabe.”
Restoring democracy will not be easy. “It’s not instant coffee. It’s going to be a long haul and messy and it has already started to be bloody.”
Many Zimbabweans are frightened. “It’s scary. Everybody is angry and wants change. But police are beating us and keeping us in our homes,” said Fred Chihota (29), who lives in Harare’s Mabvuku township. “Prices go up every day and people cannot buy bread. People say nothing will get better until Mugabe goes. Nobody supports him. Nobody. I don’t know what is going to happen. It feels like things are going to explode.”
Chihota was made redundant and now ekes out a living selling trinkets for the dwindling tourist trade. “We want to meet and plan what to do, but the police and army break up any meeting of just a few people. We must stay in our homes, but we contact each other by cellphones.”
Students are being sent home early from night schools because police arrest young people as they go home, reports Harare factory supervisor Iddah Mandaza. “My son is missing his classes, but he knows he must get home early. The police are beating people. But people are angry because prices are going up and up every day.”
Doctors report they are treating a stream of injuries from beatings by police, the army, the Zanu-PF youth militia and the CIO.
United opposition
Zimbabwe’s splintered opposition has vowed to unite under the Save Zimbabwe campaign to challenge Mugabe’s rule. That newfound unity was highlighted last Friday when Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway faction of the MDC, stood with Tsvangirai’s deputies and vowed to fight together.
“Our core business is to drive Mugabe out of town. There is no going back. We are working together against Robert Mugabe and his surrogates,” said Mutambara in Harare last Friday.
Mutambara acknowledged that opposition factions had differences but said recent events had united them.
Confirming the opposition’s newly discovered unity of purpose, Tendai Biti, secretary general of the MDC, added: “The struggle in Zimbabwe is completely about democracy. We are going to do it by democratic means, by being beaten up and by being arrested — but we are going to do it,” he said.
“Mugabe and Zanu-PF have now undressed themselves before the entire world. No longer is Zimbabwe seen as a black-white issue or a land issue. It is a question of democracy and basic human rights,” said Roy Bennett, the MDC’s representative in South Africa. “Now that the leadership of the opposition have gone to the front and have been beaten, the people of Zimbabwe are going to follow.”
British Foreign Minister Lord David Triesman called for African and European nations to step up action against Zimbabwe, telling the BBC that Mugabe’s policies are “bordering on crimes against humanity”.
The British envoy to the UN called for the Security Council to be briefed on developments in Zimbabwe. Emyr Jones Parry said he sought a “humanitarian briefing, because of the impossibility of the present situation”. South Africa’s UN ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo, expressed surprise at the call, saying Zimbabwe “is not a matter of threatening international peace and security”.
Nobel Peace Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said his fellow African leaders should “hang our heads in shame” for not strongly denouncing abuses in Zimbabwe. — Guardian Unlimited Â