Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is using ”hit squads” to crack down on opposition politicians and activists, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in an interview published on Tuesday.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Tsvangirai said: ”Instead of random beatings at police stations, [Mugabe] is now using hit squads, unidentified men, unidentified vehicles.”
”But we know these are units of state agents that have been given this assignment.”
Tsvangirai and dozens of other activists were severely beaten as they tried to stage an anti-government rally on March 11.
The opposition leader laid the blame squarely at Mugabe’s door, telling the Telegraph: ”I can assess who is in charge of this — it is coming directly from Mugabe.”
”Mugabe is a violent man and he doesn’t hide it, especially where his power is threatened … No excuses, no regrets, the defiance epitomises his attitude.”
The country’s Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, however, denied Tsvangirai’s allegations, saying bluntly: ”It is a flat lie.”
”He and his group are the people who started the whole process in defiance of the government’s order not to hold a rally at a specific place,” Mutasa was quoted by the Telegraph as saying.
Opposition to 83-year-old Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has been steadily mounting amid an economic meltdown with inflation standing at 1 730% and four out of five people out of work.
Mugabe however has remained defiant in the face of virulent criticism, blaming the unrest on the MDC and its critics.
US envoy walks out of meeting
The United States ambassador to Zimbabwe walked out of a meeting on Monday with Zimbabwe’s foreign minister after the official tried to justify a violent government crackdown on the opposition, the State Department said.
Ambassador Christopher Dell was summoned along with other Western envoys to a meeting with Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, who warned the diplomats to ”remain quiet” on the crackdown of face expulsion, department spokesperson Sean McCormack said.
Dell ”sought assurances that the minister would provide diplomats an opportunity to respond”, he said in a statement.
”When the ambassador did not receive these assurances, he departed, refusing to participate in the government’s attempt to justify its recent brutality,” he said.
”The United States will continue to speak and act steadfastly in support of the people of Zimbabwe’s right to democracy,” he said.
The United States and other Western government have condemned a series of recent attacks on leaders of the opposition.
In the latest incident, a senior member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Nelson Chamisa, was severely beaten as he tried to leave the country.
”It’s just another sad example of the negative turn of events in Zimbabwe in which democratic principles are trampled on a routine basis by the Mugabe government,” McCormack said earlier in response to the attack on Chamisa.
ACDP ashamed
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) on Tuesday said it was ashamed by South Africa’s silence on the brutality of the Zimbabwean government against opposition parties.
”Now is the time for the SA government to speak out and to condemn the brutality of the Zimbabwean government. Failure to do so would be criminal and would be tantamount to condoning and approving the undemocratic and vicious acts of a government that does not care for its people,” said party president Kenneth Moshoe.
”The ACDP condemns the brutal assaults on members of the opposition parties by the Zimbabwe police in the strongest possible terms and we challenge the government to do likewise”.
”We question why the SA government that claims and pretends to be champions of human rights on the African continent can remain silent when the Zimbabwe police are beating protesters and leaders of the opposition,” said Moshoe. – Sapa, Sapa-AFP