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Zanu PF members continue harassment of innocent civilians
Bulawayo Agenda
June 09, 2008

Bindura
Officials of the American Embassy were arrested at gunpoint in Bindura whilst on their way to visit victims of political violence in the area.

Matobo
The MDC councillor for Ward 15, Priscilla Sibanda is in hospital after being assaulted by so-called war veterans for attending a Matobo Agenda meeting yesterday. She received severe head injuries. These are the same war veterans who caused the abandonment of the consultative meeting that was cleared by the police.

Murambinda
Seventh Day Adventists in the area are being assaulted by Zanu PF war veterans after being accused of being MDC sympathizers. They are also being denied food assistance.

Gweru
Zanu PF political Commissar Elliot Manyika invades the Midlands city on Wednesday with over 90 youths forcing people to wear Zanu PF campaign t-shirts. Soldiers have been matching through the city singing war songs while jets from the Airforce of Zimbabwe have been buzzing the Gweru in a show of force. Meanwhile, senior police officers from Police General Headquarters behave like Zanu PF political commissars gathering officers at Gweru Central and making them chant Zanu PF slogans and sing political songs.

Matobo
Thugs disrupted Matobo Agenda meeting. Matobo police details watched helplessly as Zanu PF hooligans disrupted a consultative meeting called by Matobo Agenda in Silozwi to discuss the Presidential Run-off. Hundreds of villagers had turned up for the meeting when they were scared away by the hooligans who were milling around the shopping centre clad in t-shirts emblazoned with the image of the Zanu PF presidential candidate. People were visibly scared even to discuss among themselves fearing that they would be targeted. The meeting had been cleared by the police. The disruption follows the assault on Tuesday 2 June of Precious Ndlovu, the Matobo Agenda chairman for putting up posters for the meeting. Ndlovu is reported to be among those people targeted by war veterans. He had to flee to Bulawayo after concerns were expressed about his safety. Bulawayo Agenda had earlier vowed to go ahead with the meeting but later backed down after assessing the situation which had grown tense. Silozwi is one of the areas were war veterans have set up base camps to spearhead a fear campaign ahead of the Presidential run-off on 27 June. They have already confiscated Freeplay radios from the villagers claiming they were listening to regime change propaganda from pirate radio stations. The police have failed to act in both cases.

Bulawayo gears up for run-off Civic society should mobilize people to go and vote in the coming Presidential run-off and also to pressurise the government to provide a conducive atmosphere for the June 27 poll. This was one of the resolutions agreed to by 23 Bulawayo based civic organisations that met over last Saturday. Over 180 activists agreed on a set of resolution that will guide the organisations in how they are going to approach the run-off. Among the most critical resolutions was the need for a co-ordinated approach that will allow for the organisations to combine their resources and services for an effective campaign.

Various speakers tackled issues related to the post 29 March period as well as laying the foundation for the run-off campaign. It was agreed at the meeting that the dismantling of terror camps throughout the countryside would be the first logical step. The church, civic society representatives and MPs were encouraged to visit the affected areas in order to instill confidence in the people as well as talking to the perpetrators of the violence. They also pledged to facilitate the voting of persons displaced by the political violence currently affecting the rural areas. Civic society came out strongly on the aspect of protecting the vote while at the same time reactivating the sleeping vote. This would entail encouraging those who missed the opportunity of exercising their right to vote, to do so this time around. The focus would be on urban areas where far less people than those registered voted on March 29.

It was revealed that there was concerted effort by the authorities to close up democratic space in the period leading to the run-off. Civic society would in this case provide alternative means of information dissemination in order to counter the restrictions on the media. It was further resolved that the role of civic society would not be restricted to the run-off but would extend beyond the elections. This meant that the role of organisations should be for the defense of human rights and be the vanguard of democracy in a post-election dispensation.

MDC leader held in Lupane
Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC president, Thokozani Khupe (Vice-President), Lovemore Moyo (National Chairman) and senior party leaders were detained for over seven hours in Lupane in what has been interpreted as an attempt to derail their presidential run-off campaign schedule. Tsvangirai and his party were on their way to Tsholotsho for a rally after he was denied the opportunity to address the Lupane community last Tuesday. Tsvangirai, who had resorted to a walk-about in the Matabeleland North provincial capital, was stopped at a roadblock on his way to Tsholotsho and taken back to Lupane for questioning. About MDC 14 activists arrested in the at the same time as Tsvangirai town were instead taken to Sipepa police station in Tsholotsho and they had not been formally charged at the time of going to press. They included Lupane Agenda programmes officer Vumani Ndlovu. The MDC leader who has been on a campaign tour of Matabeleland North has failed to address a single rally after authorities denied him permission to hold meetings in Hwange, Victoria Falls and Lupane, and Tsholotsho. In Hwange and Victoria Falls, riot police occupied the venues where rallies were scheduled to take place and Tsvangirai resorted to walk-about meeting people in the streets like he eventually did in Lupane. Another rally that was supposed to take place in Plumtree on Thursday had been barred from taking place at the time of going to press.

Lupane Agenda officer arrested
Vumani Ndlovu, the Lupane Agenda programmes officer was arrested and taken to Sipepa police station along with 15 MDC activists after they were arrested in the Matabeleland North capital on Wednesday. Ndlovu was picked up in Lupane as police swept through the town looking for anyone who was associated with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai?s visit where he was scheduled to address a rally. Tsvangirai's rally was barred from taking place. Ndlovu and the MDC activists were then taken to Tsholotsho after being threatened by their captors that they would be handed over to war veterans in Sipepa. However, it was later confirmed that they were being held by the police but without charge. The arrest of Ndlovu comes hardly a week after Plumtree Agenda programmes officer Helijah Moyo was arrested along with MP-elect Norman Maphosa and Lutho Tapela, the senator-elect for Bulilima-Mangwe and released without charge. These events follow reports that some senior security officers have called for the surveillance of activists. There has been a noticeable increase in the harassment of civic society activists.

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