Body of abducted opposition worker found on Zimbabwe farm

The tortured and burned body of an opposition party worker has been found on a farm belonging to an army colonel two weeks after the activist was abducted while helping to protect the widow of a murdered human rights lawyer. The Movement for Democratic Change said the discovery of Joshua Bakacheza's badly disfigured corpse came amid a renewed intensification of violence against its officials and supporters, as the government attempts to break resistance to President Robert Mugabe's victory in the widely condemned June 28 election. At least 20 opposition activists have been murdered since the ballot. The MDC said the escalation in violence was particularly targeted at its members of parliament to try to overturn the party's newly won majority. Costin Muguti, an opposition member of parliament (MP), was abducted from his home in Gokwe and severely beaten by soldiers on July 7 before being handed to police who locked him up on charges of violence. At least 11 other MPs are facing criminal charges and scores have gone into hiding. State security agents monitoring the home of the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, confronted guards at the house and threatened them with guns but eventually left. Near Harare, masked men attacked a center housing about 350 people, including children, who were victims of earlier political violence by the ruling Zanu-PF and who had sought shelter at the South African embassy. The South Africans had persuaded them to move to the compound near Ruwa with assurances of their safety. The assault left at least eight people in hospital and more than a dozen missing. The rest are now being housed at a church. Bakacheza's body was found 30km from Harare with signs of torture gunshot wounds. The MDC said he had been abducted by state security agents along with another activist, Tendai Chidziwo, while the pair were helping to move the family and furniture of Tonderai Ndirai, a prominent human rights lawyer who was murdered before the election. The men were taken to an interrogation center, the MDC said. "Once there, they tortured the two, asking questions relating to their involvement in the MDC and then shot them both. Joshua was shot three times and died on the spot, while Chidziwo is now recovering in a hospital after he was shot once on the right side of the head. Good Samaritans assisted him after they found him in a state of unconsciousness in the Beatrice farming area." An army colonel owns the farm where Bakacheza's body was found.