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Post-election violence 2008 - Index of articles & images
Increased
military involvement seen in Zimbabwe post-election violence
Jonga
Kandemiiri, VOA News
May 05, 2008
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/Zimbabwe/2008-05-05-voa50.cfm
Violence is continuing
unabated in Zimbabwe's rural areas, sources said Monday, and some
reports from local witnesses suggest that the military is taking
a more prominent role in post-election assaults against opposition
officials and supporters.
Sources in Masvingo Province
said soldiers have unleashed a campaign of terror against members
of the Movement for Democratic Change in the town of Mwenezi and
the surrounding area, forcing them to flee their homes.
A source in Mwenezi said
the military is in charge and directing members of the ruling ZANU-PF
party's youth militia to harass suspected MDC loyalists. The source
said soldiers and militia members set up a torture camp at Neshuro
Business Center.
Also in Mwenezi, sources
said soldiers on Sunday removed four village headmen from their
positions because they were suspected of opposition sympathies,
replacing them with ZANU-PF militants.
In Gutu, Masvingo, a
traditional leader named Chief Munyaradzi is said to be leading
ZANU-PF militia members who have been taking down the names of opposition
supporters then handing over them to soldiers and liberation war
veterans.
In Mashonaland East Province,
militia are said to have been targeting school teachers. The Murewa
Community Development Trust issued a statement Monday saying that
it had assessed conditions at 15 schools around the province and
found that a number of teachers have not gone to their jobs out
of concern for their personal safety.
Other sources said militia
members are restricting the movement of teachers who have reported
for duty, obliging them to obtain written clearance from a militia
commander before they can leave their lodgings at their rural school.
Opposition activist Charles
Muzenda, who was obliged to flee Mwenezi on Sunday, told reporter
Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that soldiers in
the Masvingo town declared that they are now running the country.
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