Update 1: Zimbabwe Police Raid Finance Minister Biti’s House
Harare, October 24, 2009 – Police on Friday raided a house belonging to Movement Democratic Change secretary general and Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister, Tendai Biti in search of guns said to have been stolen from the army headquarters, KG6 on Thursday.
UPDATE 1:
Zimbabwe police raided a house used by executives of the prime minister’s party, saying they were searching for weapons, the country’s finance minister said on Saturday.
Tendai Biti, secretary-general of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, said about 50 armed police “ransacked” the house in a Harare suburb on Friday night.
He said a guard, Moffat Nyandure, and his wife were assaulted. Police told Nyandure to dig in the yard around the house in search of weapons, he said. Nyandure was made to dig with his bare hands for five hours.
A room occupied by a party official, who was at the house at the time of the raid, was searched and “valuable party documents” were taken, Biti said. Police “claimed” they had a search warrant, he said.
The house is used by MDC executives who visit from outside of the capital. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena had no immediate comment.
Biti said the raid was “provocation” by President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party who wanted to see the unity government fail.
“They are behind this attack. Our decision of pulling out of the inclusive government infuriated ZANU-PF and this is the price we now pay for that decision,” Biti said.
Tsvangirai withdrew temporarily from the coalition on Oct. 16. The unity government was formed in February after disputed elections last year.
While both parties say they remain committed to the coalition, many feel it is doomed to collapse.
Mugabe’s long-time rival, Tsvangirai has condemned unilateral moves by the president to fill government posts, continuing human rights violations and attacks on activists by ZANU-PF militants and security forces.
But the catalyst for Tsvangirai’s withdrawal was the case against Roy Bennett, a popular party member nominated by the prime minister as deputy agriculture minister.
Prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to send Bennett back to jail to await trial on charges linked to discredited allegations that he had plotted the violent overthrow of Mugabe.
“These acts of harassment are an attempt to intimidate us but we will not be intimidated and our disengagement will not be reversed until outstanding issues are resolved,” Biti told reporters Saturday.
Mugabe, 84, has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.
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Reports say 17 AK47 rifles were stolen from the army headquarters in Harare on Thursday.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa confirmed the raid incident saying no one had been arrested yet.
The raid, the first such incident since the formation of the unity government in February this year, could signal the first signs of a crackdown on the MDC for its recent decision to disengage from Zanu PF.
Chamisa said his party’s concerns were not just about any arrests on party functionaries but were about the renewed culture of retribution by Zanu PF on his party.
The MDC boycotted cabinet and council of ministers in protest over President Robert Mugabe’s unwillingness to stick by the terms of the unity agreement signed by Zanu PF and the two MDC formations September last year.
Tsvangirai is currently on a tour of SADC countries to drum up support for his party’s pull out from the two institutions.
President Mugabe, who has been accused of using brute force to keep himself in power, on Friday described the MDC’s decision to pull out of cabinet as an act of desperation and a non-event.
Dozens of MDC and human rights activists were seized by secret agents in October last year and kept in secret detention for two months only to be produced in court on December 22 facing charges of plotting to overthrow the long serving leader.
The case collapsed after the Supreme Court barred the trial of the activists who had sought a permanent stay of prosecution arguing their arrest and detention was in violation of their fundamental rights.
Biti was also arrested just before the violent June 27, 2008 Presidential run off elections on charges of treason. President Mugabe’s government was accusing the MDC legislator of authoring a document which purportedly spelt out an elaborate plan by the MDC to seize power from his party.
MDC treasurer general and deputy minister designate Roy Bennett will next week stand trial at the High Court on terrorism charges of possession weapons for purposes of banditry.
Posted by Sakhile Malaba
on October 24, 2009. Filed under Local News.
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