MDC accuses ZANU PF of rolling out Terror Campaign
By Lance Guma
20 November 2009
The MDC has accused ZANU PF of mobilizing its militia to re-open torture
bases countrywide, to intimidate the electorate into accepting the
controversial Kariba Draft constitution. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
party says it has unearthed evidence that meetings are being convened to
revive terror squads to harass, intimidate and torture people to endorse the
draft constitutional document, which leaves sweeping presidential powers
largely intact.
A Parliamentary Select Committee is supposed to be leading the constitution
making process to ensure that Zimbabweans have a say in any new
constitution. The co-chairperson of the committee, Douglas Mwonzora, told SW
Radio Africa that their outreach teams would begin their work around the
country on 29th November.
With these public hearings now imminent, ZANU PF is reportedly beginning the
deployment of ‘terror squads’, to force people to accept the Kariba Draft.
Meetings to discuss these deployments are already taking place. At Chief
Nhema’s homestead in Zaka North, Masvingo, ZANU PF official Shenu Jeya
openly told villagers that all militia bases set up last year during the
violent presidential run-off had to be re-opened. Another meeting in Murehwa
at Zihute Hall saw one district chairman, known as Siwela, telling the
gathering that ‘if they heard their neighbours screaming at night, they
should remain indoors.’ He also warned that ZANU PF youths were monitoring
the movements of everyone in the area.
In the mining town of Bindura, where Tsvangirai began his career as a mine
foreman, 43 war veterans called for a meeting at Killstone Farm. The meeting
was chaired by a retired army colonel known as Siya, who said it was
impossible to convince the electorate to vote for the Kariba Draft and as a
result it was necessary to use violence. The MDC say similar meetings are
being held in all the country’s 10 provinces.
The party has also expressed concern at the way victims of last years
election violence are being forced to surrender blankets, tents and other
kitchen utensils donated to them by aid organisations. At the end of October
Nyepanai Chimusakati was forced into surrendering his building materials, to
Roy Chihota Jenami, an aide to Chief Mutasa. Chimusakati, whose home was
burnt down in June 2008, had 6 asbestos sheets, 2 window frames, 1 door
frame and 6 bags of cement forcibly taken from him.
Meanwhile ZANU PF has postponed its December congress, following reports
they were struggling to raise money to sponsor the delegates to go to
Harare. Sources say in the past the money came from the Reserve Bank, under
Gideon Gono’s ‘quasi-fiscal’ activities, but with the dollarisation of the
economy and the MDC running the Finance Ministry, such siphoning-off of
resources is now much more difficult.
SW Radio Africa
Posted by Dave Fish Eagle
on November 20, 2009. Filed under Main Headline.
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