Tsvangirai demands probe as his youths
attack buses
MDC leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday
accused the Government of sanctioning the torture of his party�s members by
police, while opposition youths were simultaneously stoning mourners on their
way from burying a Zanu-PF supporter killed in a petrol-bomb attack perpetrated
by suspected MDC hooligans.
Mr Tsvangirai demanded an independent
judicial investigation into a tide of violence he said had led to some 30
political murders in the country between January and November 2002.
"Our
leaders are arrested, often on trumped-up charges, in order to torture them," Mr
Tsvangirai told a news conference.
"A number of MDC party functionaries
have been tortured and subsequently died as a result."
Mr Tsvangirai
said yesterday the team set up by the police to investigate allegations of the
torture of MDC MP for St Mary�s Mr Job Sikhala was just a cover-up of other
serious torture crimes by the country�s security agents.
"Some members
of our partisan police have become a major part of the deteriorating security
problem in this country. They are openly brutalising their brothers and sisters
in the defence of a collapsing regime," said Mr Tsvangirai.
He said his
party was appealing to the international community, including the US, to send a
team to investigate crimes against humanity that he said were rampant in the
country.
Mr Sikhala was recently arrested after being found in
possession of documents linking him to the burning of a Zupco bus by suspected
MDC activists in Highfield.
The bomb attack came as the campaign in the
Kuwadzana parliamentary by-election heats up.
Last year, several MDC
officials were arrested in connection with the murder of a Zanu-PF official, Cde
Ali Khan Manjengwa, who was shot dead in Mbare.
The MDC leader last week
told diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe that his party had reached a stage whereby
it could no longer counsel patience on "such a restive population" and
threatened a bloodbath in the country.
"There is clearly a red light
flashing for the Mugabe regime to stop. There is a gathering storm of the
people�s anger. We have no power to stop it and we refuse to take responsibility
for whatever transpires."
While Mr Tsvangirai was crying foul over the
alleged torture of his party�s MP yesterday, suspected opposition supporters
were attacking a convoy of Zupco buses in Kuwadzana carrying Zanu-PF supporters
from the burial of their colleague Cde Tonderai Mangwiro.
One of the
three Zupco buses attacked yesterday had its windows shattered but no one was
injured.
Yesterday�s incident happened around 4 pm at Kuwadzana 4 shops
when suspected MDC youths started throwing stones at three buses carrying
mourners coming from Granville cemetery.
When Zanu-PF youths disembarked
from the buses the stone throwing youths disappeared into the suburb.
Cde David Mutasa the Zanu-PF candidate for the Kuwadzana constituency
deplored the attack, saying it was uncalled for.
"It�s sheer madness on
part of the MDC to attack a funeral procession coming from a burial," he said.
Cde Mangwiro was buried at Granville cemetery at a ceremony attended by
top Zanu-PF officials and hundreds of party supporters.
In a graveside
speech, Zanu-PF national youth secretary Cde Absolom Sikhosana said it was sad
to note that some parents were teaching their children to be murderers.
"It�s unfortunate that some parents are singing praise songs for their
children committing treacherous crimes like the one that befell our youths in
Kuwadzana," he said.
He said it was now time for Zimbabweans to unite
and shun being used to destroy the country by foreign powers.
Cde Mutasa
said the death of Cde Mangwiro was a testimony of MDC�s realisation that it has
lost the race.
"What they are doing now in Kuwadzana is exactly what
they did in Insiza where their terror campaign failed to bring them victory
during polls," he said.
He said a victory in Kuwadzana would herald the
ruling party�s supremacy in urban areas.
Cde Mangwiro died last week
when scores of MDC supporters petrol bombed Zanu-PF offices in Kuwadzana.
Several other supporters were injured during the attack.
The
Kuwadzana seat fell vacant after the death of Learnmore Jongwe in October last
year in remand prison awaiting trial for stabbing his wife eight times with a
kitchen knife before leaving her for dead.
Cde David Mutasa will lock
horns with Mr Nelson Chamisa of MDC and Kempton Chiwewete of the National
Alliance for Good Governance.
Dates for the election are yet to be
announced.
The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
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