Meanwhile, one MDC MP, Marvellous Khumalo of Chitungwiza, and up to 50 people were being held on allegations that they participated in last week’s stayaway that brought Zimbabwe’s economy to a standstill, the police and MDC said. Police confirmed 38 arrests, state radio reported.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights monitoring group said that emergency wards across the country are treating people for broken bones, bruising and sexual assault after they were beaten with wire whips, iron bars, electrical cords and rifle butts by ruling party militias, uniformed soldiers and police reservists.
Since the election on March 29, up to the end of April 14, members of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) have seen and treated 157 cases of injury resulting from organised violence and torture, the report by the human rights group says. The provinces where the injuries were sustained include Manicaland, Mashonaland East and West, and Masvingo.
In Harare, witnesses said soldiers were telling people to remain indoors at night, with reports of assault of nightclub patrons reported at Spaceman Bar in Glen Norah A, Tichagarika Shopping Centre in Glen View, Makoni Shopping Centre and many others places in the ghettos where soldiers had literally imposed a curfew. Staff members at one private clinic said its emergency services treated 20 people.
The police had no comment on allegations they had a role in the attacks, but the military denied any involvement.
Speaking to children last Thursday on Independence eve, Mugabe threatened retribution against his opponents, saying he could never countenance defeat by the MDC.
As long as we are alive, that shall never happen. Never again shall this country be a British colony, Mugabe vowed.
The authorities say the strike action was used by the opposition to incite violence, and claim an opposition mob had burnt a bus in Warren Park. It has since emerged that the bus developed a technical fault on its own and burst into flames.
The strike was called by the opposition to protest the prolonged hold-up in presidential election results, three weeks after the poll.
A statement issued by US ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee said three weeks after elections, the results are still not known, the economic tailspin continues and for many, hope is fading. Even more disturbing are the many reports of violent retribution being carried out in rural communities, McGee said.
Amnesty International described deteriorating security conditions and mass arrests in Zimbabwe as “a new and dangerous phase of repression”.
MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said troops and militias have raided the homes of opposition supporters across the country, assaulted over 200 activists, burnt almost 50 huts and killed at least four people since the March 29 poll, describing the crackdown as slow motion genocide.
Junta’s hit list targets MDC, civil society and media
HARARE
The military junta running Zimbabwe has heightened its witch-hunt and is after several senior officials of the MDC (Tsvangirai) who have been forced to go into hiding, as well as civil society and media practitioners.
The junta has a hit list comprising MDC officials, MPs, senior administrators, media practitioners and civil society leaders it wants silenced.
Glen View legislator, Paul Madzore, Marvellous Khumalo of St Marys as well as MDC’s chief executive officer Toendepi Shoni have gone into hiding after being alerted to plans by the regime to arrest or abduct them following the mass action organized by the MDC this week.
A group of members of the CID, based at Harare Central Police Station, is in possession of the hit-list, which also names freelancer, Frank Chikowore who was arrested on Tuesday whilst covering the stay away. He was still in police custody on Friday, together with former news editor of the banned Daily News, Luke Tamborinyoka, who is the MDC information director and Fortune Gwaze, the party’s research and policy director.
The Zimbabwean on Sunday also heard on Friday that the hit squad was after some of its reporters.
Other individuals targeted by the hit squad include Progressive Teachers Union secretary general Raymond Majongwe, National Constitutional Assembly chair Lovemore Madhuku and WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams.
 Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka denied the existence of the hit squad and the operation. That is not true. We are doing out duty normally and those crossing the path of the law are duly dealt with, he said.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the operation was part of a wider plan to incapacitate the MDC, civil society and the media ahead of Mugabe’s rerun or to simply drag the country into a state of emergency where fear abounds everywhere.
Mutasa suppresses damning land audit
HARARE – The ministry of state responsible for Land Reform is sitting on a damning report – the fourth audit on the bloody land grab – that highlights the systematic looting of prime farms by senior government officials, army generals and Zanu (PF) cronies.
The explosive report documents the fourth land audit exercise to assess the status and ownership of farms acquired under the controversial land grab.
It highlights the abysmal production on grabbed farms, mainly due to input and financial shortages, lack of security of tenure and the inability of the grabbers to farm.
Highly placed government sources told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that Didymus Mutasa, the former minister of state for Land Reform and Resettlement, was sitting on the damning report, which should have been presented to Mugabe by now.
Sources said the report affirmed the findings of previous reports that senior government and military personnel had looted prime farms at the expense of the landless people. There are also several cases of multiple farm ownership by senior government officials and generals, in open defiance of Mugabe’s one-man-one-farm decree.
The sources said the latest move to reclaim at least 1,449 A2 farms – the category for commercial production – was prompted by the land audit, which is understood to have been completed at the end of 2007.
The report paints a classic picture of looting that has characterised the affairs of the party over the years, added the source. Zanu (PF) is peddling the lie that the MDC will return land to whites, a charge that has unsettled senior government officials about change of guard. The allegation has been dismissed by the MDC.
Efforts to obtain comment from Mutasa were futile. But a ministry official admitted that there were problems in the report.
Yes the report has been finalised and we are going to publish it soon. It has some problems but we are not at liberty to discuss them with the press now, she said.
So far, government claims to have resettled over 300,000 families under the A1 model scheme as well as about 51,000 others under the A2 model scheme. Most of these A2 model farmers did not take up their pieces of land.
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