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2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Armed
men disrupt Zimbabwe rally
BBC News
June 22, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7467778.stm
Zanu-PF men, armed with
clubs and stones, are patrolling streets leading to the Glamis stadium,
witnesses say.
A spokesman for the Movement
for Democratic Change said it still planned to go ahead with the
rally. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was due to attend.
The MDC says it will
decide by Monday on whether to contest run-off vote.
It says at least 70 of
its supporters have been killed in the run-up to the 27 June vote,
which will see Mr Tsvangirai challenge Mr Mugabe.
The MDC is due to meet
on Sunday to discuss its possible withdrawal from the vote.
"We have to evaluate
whether it is worth spilling blood in the name of an election"
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters news agency.
Violence
feared
Sunday's rally was due to go ahead after the High Court on Saturday
overturned a police ban. According to eyewitnesses, hundreds of
Zanu-PF youth militia have thronged the streets around the Glamis
stadium, while hundreds more are inside.
Carrying clubs, sticks
and stones, they have been stopping cars, demanding people sing
party slogans and in some cases show party cards.
Uniformed riot police
- and observers from the South African Development Community - are
on the scene.
The opposition rally
had been due to begin around noon local time - and the party says
it is determined to go ahead.
However a party spokesman told the BBC that given the large numbers
of armed Zanu-PF supporters in and around the stadium, violence
is likely.
On Saturday, South Africa
sent two mediators to Harare, just days after its President, Thabo
Mbeki, went to Zimbabwe himself, for separate talks with Mr Mugabe
and Mr Tsvangirai.
The BBC's Peter Biles,
in Johannesburg, says this is possibly a last ditch effort to persuade
Mr Mugabe to cancel the election run-off, and to persuade both sides
to begin negotiations on a government of national unity.
It is widely accepted
that in the present circumstances, with serious political violence,
the election will not resolve Zimbabwe's problems, our correspondent
adds.
The MDC says its members
have been beaten, and its supporters evicted from their homes, forcing
it to campaign in near secrecy.
The party's
secretary general, Tendai Biti, is under arrest charged
with treason.
Mr Mugabe has accused
the MDC of acting in the interest of Britain, the former colonial
power, and other Western countries.
Zimbabwe's other immediate
neighbors have also added their voices to increasing international
concern over the validity of the run-off.
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