In an indication of how blatant election-related violence has become in Zimbabwe, witnesses have described how a 24-year-old man was chased into a police station in Muzarabani, north of Harare, last Sunday and beaten to death.
The man, known only as “Tairos” in police records, is one of at least 25 people the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims have died in post-election violence.
Quoting doctors treating the injured, the Sunday Independent reported at the weekend that 7Â 000 people had been injured in the mounting violence.
In response, two regional delegations visited Zimbabwe this week, one from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and one led by President Thabo Mbeki’s chief facilitator, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi.
MDC members said Mufamadi was presented with what opposition and human rights groups say is evidence of worsening Zanu-PF attacks, including video footage showing burned-out homes of opposition supporters and testimony from assault victims.
But the meeting was described as “tense”. The MDC has reportedly written to Mbeki protesting against what they see as his bias and this had “put a shadow over this week’s meetings”, a senior adviser to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said.
Witnesses said Tairos, a tractor driver at a government-run farm in the area, was seized from his home and dragged to a police station, where he was ordered to point out policemen sympathetic to the MDC.
Unable to do this, he was beaten to death. Police officers tried to protect him, but they were outnumbered by the Zanu-PF militia, which one witness said, numbered more than 100.
The Mail & Guardian was shown a police report made at the Mvurwi provincial police station claiming the man was killed in inter-party clashes provoked by MDC activists.
The opposition charges police complicity in the continuing violence, but police officers themselves are under threat. They face pressure not to open dockets against Zanu-PF activists accused of violence, officers told the M&G.
Zanu-PF militia have sealed off rural areas to journalists and human-rights groups, while residents wishing to leave have to seek “authorisation letters” from local Zanu-PF leaders.
“We believe the tally is much worse than the 25 dead we can report, because access to some rural and farming areas has been impeded,” said MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa.
A private hospital in Harare has opened a “special ward” for victims of violence, a doctor told reporters visiting the facility. Inside the ward dozens of people are nursing injuries, most commonly broken limbs and burns.
As charges of violence escalated President Robert Mugabe met an SADC delegation on Tuesday. Tomasz Salomao, SADC executive secretary, said “the message of the chairperson of the organ on politics, defence and security [Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos] is to urge the political parties in Zimbabwe to participate in the run-off, in full observation of the law”.
Salomao’s team hopes to meet Tsvangirai, who left Zimbabwe immediately after the elections.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s chief election agent and Zanu-PF’s legal secretary, charged that the MDC is arming militia, called “democratic resistance committees”, to attack Mugabe supporters, the police and army.
A free election was impossible unless the MDC dismantled these militia, he said this week. “To ensure a peaceful campaign in the run-off period, Zanu-PF calls upon the MDC to dismantle these committees,” Mnangagwa said.
Zanu-PF said a combination of Western interference and corruption at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had “poisoned the environment against Zanu-PF”.
The SADC mission and Mufamadi were also due to meet independent Simba Makoni.