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Tavern brawl kills Political activist |
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June 14, 2000
HARARE, ZIMBABWE (AP) - Political violence claimed another life, this one in a tavern brawl, police said Tuesday. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said a ruling party supporter was stabbed in the chest after refusing to take off a party T-shirt in a bar in Chivi, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of Harare on Sunday.
The man, who was not identified, died before he reached a nearby hospital and police were searching for his assailant, who witnesses said fled the tavern.
On Friday an opposition organizer died in southwestern Zimbabwe after being assaulted by ruling party supporters.
The two deaths brought to at least 32 the number of people killed in political violence since February, most of them supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change party.
The main opposition party poses the biggest threat to President Robert Mugabe's hold on power since he led the nation to independence from Britain in 1980. Elections are scheduled for June 24-25. Human rights groups and foreign election observers have expressed doubts the elections can be free and fair because of a campaign of violence and intimidation mostly perpetrated by ruling party supporters. Ruling party militants led by veterans of the bush war that ended white rule two decades ago have violently occupied more than 1,400 white-owned farms across the country in what Mugabe has described as a justified protest against unfair land ownership by the descendants of colonial era British settlers. Opponents of Mugabe accuse him of allowing occupiers to seize land to shore up his popularity and use armed militants to pressure farm workers and rural poor to vote for his party. War veterans leader Chenjerai Hunzvi has vowed election monitors will not be allowed onto occupied farms, warning them not to interfere with land seizures.
But on Tuesday Mugabe told Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar, head of a group of 44 observers from the Commonwealth of former British territories, the group will be given free access to go where they wish without any restrictions. A group of 20 observers from awmakers from the South African parliament are seeking a meeting with Hunzvi and officials of the National Liberation War Veterans' Association to demand access to farms enabling them to assess the impact of the violent occupations on rural voters. The European Union said Tuesday the Zimbabwe government backed down over a restriction announced Monday that only 120 EU members would be granted official status to observe the poll. Tana de Zulueta, deputy head of the EU mission and a member of the Italian Senate, met with Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge to protest the restriction. He agreed the EU's full contingent of 150 observers would be accredited. EU officials criticized the restriction as an attempt to obstruct the group's operations.U.N. observers were withdrawn Saturday in a dispute over their role as coordinators of foreign observer groups.
Mugabe alleged the world body tried to assume "an illegitimate role" and attempted to hijack the monitoring process.
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