MDC PRESS April 8, 2003.

Zanu PF in panic, parades own youth militia to deceive the world.

Zanu PF and the Mugabe regime are clearly in a state of desperate panic. They are failing to find ways to challenge the moral authority and increasing popularity of the MDC. The success of the recent two-day stay away demonstrated that the MDC in the eyes of the people is the legitimate authority in Zimbabwe.

The landslide victories by the MDC in the Kuwadzana and Highfield by-elections was symptomatic of the scale to which Mugabe and Zanu PF have been rejected by the people of Zimbabwe. When the people of Zimbabwe think of Zanu PF they think of hunger, insecurity and violence.

Zanu PF' s response to the recent successes of the MDC has been violence, violence and more violence. Violence and brutality are increasingly the only tools with which Zanu PF engages the people of Zimbabwe.

Yesterday the army paraded a group of youths claiming that they had been hired by the MDC to wreak havoc in Harare's high-density suburbs over the past two weeks. This is false. This is a theatre that is being performed to divert attention of the state-sanctioned human rights abuses ahead of the arrival of the SADC ministerial taskforce in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe regime is panicking following the strong condemnation from the SADC region of the gross human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, particularly in the last two weeks.

The parading of the youths, who are evidently members of the Zanu PF Border Gezi youth militia, who have been given army uniforms by the Zimbabwe National Army is an attempt to suggest that all the violence that has been going on in the last few weeks has been sponsored by the MDC.

The wave of terror that that swept through Harare in the last two weeks was carried out by groups of people who were wearing army uniform, armed with AK 47 Rifles and driving in big army vehicles. They moved around in broad daylight. All the cases were reported to the police and published in the media.

Mugabe and his illegitimate regime have unashamedly sanctioned and encouraged the violent attacks on the MDC. In a speech given at a funeral on Friday 21 March Mugabe chillingly declared:

"Let the MDC and its leaders be warned that those who play with fire will not only be burnt, but will be consumed by that fire".

What ensued after that statement by Mugabe was an intensification of torture, rape and murder of MDC leaders and activists. It would beat all logic, including the desperate Zanu PF propaganda logic that a militia could be set up by MDC to brutalise its own people.

In an article in the sycophantic Sunday Mail on Sunday 6 April, Junior Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, confessed that the Mugabe regime had deployed the army to 'deal with terrorism'. Moyo chillingly warned that 'where the army is deployed, people should not expect a picnic'.

Desperate attempts once again to hide the truth from the world are futile. The truth of the matter is that the regime in Zimbabwe has sponsored violence and applied the law selectively. That is why Jocelyn Chiwenga, wife of the Army General, could walk into Glenorah police station and brutally torture Daily News lawyer Gugulethu Moyo on March 17 right in front of the police. The police did not lift a finger to protect Moyo who had gone there to represent journalist Philimon Bulawayo. Bulawayo a photographer was severely tortured in police custody at that police station alongside 83 MDC supporters that day alone.

Steven Tonera was brutally murdered after being abducted from MDC MP Roy Bennet's farm in Ruwa by a group of state agents led by Richard Mashingaidze. Over sixty farm workers were brutally tortured. The police have lifted no finger to investigate this murder and torture, although the perpetrators are known.

Similarly, Joseph Mwale a member of the CIO who is known to have murdered Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya in 2000 still walks free today despite a court order to bring them to justice. He is responsible for the wave of terror on MDC supporters in Cimanimani. The most recent case is that over 1000 people were forcibly removed from Roy Bennet's farm and dumped in the open with their belongings. All their little food and belongings were drenched in the rain for over a week.

Hundreds of other state agents and Zanu PF supporters that include a gang of former dissidents led by Khiwa, responsible for the terror and death of at least 4 MDC supporters in Nkayi are all walking free in Zimbabwe. The message that they are being given is that they are above the law.

Margret Kalunji, MDC Harare's provincial Secretary was forced to open her legs and a rifle was forced into her private parts. Last Thursday, an MDC election agent's wife was gang raped by Zanu PF militia in the presence of a baby who is less than a year old, while her husband was severely tortured by the same gang. The police record number is OB3646/03. As usual the police have lifted no finger to investigate the matter.

During the past two weeks in Harare over 600 MDC supporters have been arrested, scores beaten and tortured, 250 hospitalized and a number abducted, many of whom are still missing. The attempt by the Mugabe regime to blame the MDC for this reign of terror is not only ridiculously absurd it is also a clear attempt to divert the attention of the SADC Taskforce away from the true dynamics that are currently shaping the Zimbabwe crisis.

The Mugabe regime is blatantly trying to polarise the effectiveness of the 'Taskforce' by quickly building a wall of deceit and lies in order to shield the extent of their unprecedented barbarity.

Zanu PF and Mugabe should not sit comfortably in the belief that they can shift the blame for the violence that has engulfed Harare during the past two weeks. The facts speak for themselves. The hundreds of injured people littered around Harare know who attacked them. Blaming the MDC for their own passion for violence is a futile exercise and which will simply serve to further weaken the regime. Such insidious tactics will not fool the SADC Taskforce. It is coming to Zimbabwe to build an accurate picture of what is going on and to hear the truth.

If the Taskforce genuinely wishes to hear the truth about the crisis we advise that it pays special attention to the people of Zimbabwe and treats any information from Zanu PF with the utmost suspicion.

Professor Welshman Ncube, MDC Secretary General.

Notes to Editors:

Examples of victims of Mugabe campaign of retribution against the MDC since the successful mass stayway of 18/19 March.

Fidelis Mhashu - MDC Shadow Education Minister In the early hours of 3 April, armed soldiers ransacked the home of Mhashu and brutally attacked his wife and two young grandsons.

- James Munetsi - MDC Activist Brutally attacked in Highfield on April
1 by Zanu PF youth militia whilst on his way to work.

- Paul Shambira - MDC Information and Publicity Secretary for Chitungwiza - He and his family were brutally attacked by armed soldiers on 1 April.

- Stanford Mashumba - MDC Chair - Zengeza Armed soldiers raided Mashumba's house on 2 April and proceeded to brutally attack him after the thugs had teargassed all the rooms in an effort to force him to respond to their repeated knocks on the door.

- Rejoice Moyo - On April 3, Rejoice Moyo (21) was raped by 12 members of the youth militia in front of her husband, Hector. Hector was then taken away by the militia and brutally tortured. The militia urinated in his mouth and tried to set him on fire.

- Steven Tonera - Beaten to death by members of Mugabe's feared Central Intelligence Organisation on Tuesday 18 March.

- Giles Mutsekwa MP - MDC Shadow Minister for Defence - Mutsekwa was arrested on Wednesday 19 March along with 11 other MDC members including Patrick Chitaka, chairman for Mutare North and Pishai Muchauraya, Provincial Secretary (Manicaland) for Information and Publicity. All were beaten whilst in police custody and Mutsekwa was denied medical attention even though he suffers chronically from hypertension. The 11 were illegally detained beyond the stipulated 48 hours. Mutsekwa was released on 23 March.

- Austin Mapandawana MP - Arrested along with 83 MDC supporters in Kadoma on 19 March. Mapandawana has been severely tortured whilst in police custody and denied medical attention. Hon Mapandawana was released on bail last week.

- Mrs Viola Shamu - Councillor for Ward 34 in Mufakose (Harare) The house of Mrs Shamu was raided by a group of army, police and CIO officers on the evening of 21 March. Mrs Shamu managed to escape, however, her husband and two young children (aged 11 and 13) were severely beaten. Mrs Shamu's husband, a retired army officer, was dragged into an army truckand his whereabouts remain unknown. Her children were beaten so badly that they went unconscious and are now in hospital.

Margaret Kulinji - Harare Provincial Secretary in the MDC Women's League - Margaret Kulinji and her mother were brutally assaulted on Saturday 22 March in Harare. ZANU PF thugs, wearing army uniforms, forced Kulinji's mother, at gunpoint, to open her legs and stuck a gun in her private parts. Kulinji's brother, Chrispen, was abducted and, at the time of writing, is still missing.

In February a school boy by the name Kindness Moyo who had gone to watch cricket was severely assaulted by the police in the police cells. He was in a coma for more than a month as a result of the injuries he sustained at the hands of the police.