- Hidden from a world whose gaze has been fixed on Iraq,
a full-scale reign of terror has been unleashed on opponents of the Zimbabwean
President, Robert Mugabe.
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- Hundreds, if not thousands, of Zimbabweans were arrested
and tortured as Mr Mugabe, apparently taking advantage of the lull in international
scrutiny, stepped up his campaign of repression during the three weeks
of the United States' war on Saddam Hussein.
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- The 79-year-old President marked the 23rd anniversary
of independence yesterday with a speech in which he warned that he would
tolerate no challenge to his rule. He accused Britain and the US of attempting
to "recolonise" Zimbabwe because they opposed his seizures of
white-owned land.
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- State newspapers carried full-page advertisements calling
on Zimbabweans to shun "mass violence" by "terrorists and
thugs". But during the period leading to the fall of Baghdad, more
than 1,000 opposition supporters were arrested, detained in prison and
tortured, claims the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
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- The numbers arrested in the past month are unprecedented,
and for the first time the focus of intimidation has shifted from the rural
areas to opposition supporters in towns. Many victims have been forced
to sit on hot electric stoves and fires, says the MDC, which is publishing
newspaper advertisements showing pictures of the tortured and injured.
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- The notorious "Green Bombers", Mr Mugabe's
youth militias, have also intensified their intimidation campaign in the
countryside, seeking out MDC sympathisers, burning homes, raping and beating.
Many victims are thought to have been beaten to death.
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- But the latest massive government clampdown is aimed
at the middle and higher levels of the MDC and, unusually, is being conducted
in Harare and the other cities. Some of Mr Mugabe's opponents say they
have been forced to have sex with their children.
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- The crackdown came after one of the biggest protests
against Mr Mugabe's rule, organised last month by the MDC. Its leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, vowed yesterday to continue calling strikes, protests
and what the party calls "mass action".
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- Public anger at food and fuel shortages has become more
voluble. In response, Mr Mugabe's soldiers and militiamen have started
randomly attacking and beating up people gathered in public.
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- Gibson Sibanda, deputy president of the MDC, was arrested
and jailed for eight days in what he described as "inhuman conditions".
Paul Themba Nyathi, another opposition party spokesman, was also illegally
detained for five days over his alleged "role" in the strike.
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- But it is not just party activists who are being intimidated.
Robert Muchago, a water engineer who is now in South Africa, has first-hand
experience of brutality. Mr Muchago, 32, was in a nightclub in Chitungwiza,
a dormitory town near Harare, 10 days ago when army soldiers stormed the
club. The soldiers randomly paired every man with a woman. Mr Muchago said
many of the women were prostitutes. They forced them to undress and engage
in unprotected public sex.
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- "With the high prevalence of HIV-Aids, it was like
being asked to sign your death warrant," Mr Muchago said. Two men
who tried to plead were savagely beaten and left for dead. Fearing for
their lives, the rest of the "couples" complied.
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- Scores of young women have been rounded up and raped
by the Green Bombers. "Jane", 16, said she was beaten and raped
by eight different militia commanders in a 12-hour ordeal. Her crime, she
was told, was her father's suspected support for the MDC.
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- The MDC says all of its MPs and national executive committee
members have at some time been arrested and jailed. In most cases charges
were not sustained in court. Tendai Biti, the shadow Economic Affairs Minister,
told The Independent: "Mugabe should give us the title deeds to his
prisons because these are our new homes. We now live in his jails."
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- As the repression has worsened, so too has the economy,
with inflation reaching a record 228 per cent and the United Nations investigating
how to help even the urban working population with food aid.
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- The South African government mustered support among African
nations within the UN Human Rights Commission to prevent a vote condemning
Zimbabwe in Geneva this week.
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- In response Michael Ancram, Britain's shadow foreign
secretary, called on Tony Blair and Jack Straw to bring a new UN resolution.
"The UN cannot turn a blind eye to the abuses of Robert Mugabe,"
he said, "and nor can South Africa which is beginning to be affected
financially and politically by what is happening."
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- He Job Sikhala, an opposition official, has just been
treated in South Africa after he was arrested for the 17th time, then beaten,
tortured and forced to drink urine in a Zimbabwean prison. After his last
release, he described his treatment. "I screamed for help, and no
help came, and I was told to shut up. At the third stage of torture, when
they applied electric shocks to my mouth, and in my left ear, I lost consciousness,"
he said.
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- Many Zimbabweans who would not have supported the Iraqi
war are talking of a "Bush solution". "Mr Bush, when are
you coming to liberate us?" has become a catchphrase among unemployed
youths.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=398527
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