Prominent names added to MDC roll of shame

The campaign was launched by the MDC in March this year and several perpetrators and instigators of political violence have been named and shamed since then.

The latest list includes for the first time relatively senior figures in Zanu (PF), accused of waging terror against MDC supporters in 2008. The latest edition of the MDC newsletter, The Changing Times, charged that Moyo is the architect of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) that was used to close media houses. Moyo is the Tsholotsho MP and a Zanu (PF) Central Committee member.

Moyo has since 1999 churned out hate speech that has encouraged the spirit and culture of violence across the country. Many people have lost their lives, property while thousands have been maimed and tortured as a result, the newsletter said.

Also on the list of shame is former health minister David Parirenyatwa, who is alleged to have organised and sponsored torture bases in his Murehwa North constituency.

Parirenyatwas vehicle was reportedly used by gangs who assaulted MDC supporters and destroyed or looted their property and livestock, according to Prime Minister Tsvangirais party.

In June 2008, Parirenyatwa held a rally at Mukarakate Business Centre in Murehwa, where he threatened all MDC supporters with death if they voted for President Morgan Tsvangirai. Several MDC supporters were severely assaulted at this meeting and at another rally he held at St Peters in the same area. He was also witnessed branding an AK 47 at the rallies, the newsletter added.

The MDC said former Youth Minister, Ambrose Mutinhiri, personally led a campaign of violence against their supporters in the Mahusekwa area of Marondera West.

He would order the detention of MDC supporters for no apparent reasons. He set up and financed ZANU PF militia bases in the Chihota communal lands where many MDC supporters were assaulted and tortured, the MDC said.?

The MDC-T has said it is supporting the fight for justice for victims of the 2008 election violence and demanding prosecution of people who committed acts of rape, murder and torture.

The MDC insist the perpetrators must face justice. In the three months between the March 29th vote and the June 27th runoff election in 2008, Zanu (PF) militias, under the guidance of 200 senior army officers, set about battering the MDC.

By election day hundreds of MDC supporters were dead, many more were missing, tens of thousands had been tortured and badly injured and over half a million were homeless. Tsvangirai dropped out of the contest and took refuge in the Dutch Embassy.