Mugabe minister accused of gun threats

Zimbabwe's health minister armed himself with a Kalashnikov and threatened to kill opposition supporters forced to attend a political meeting unless they voted for President Robert Mugabe in a second round of the presidential election, according to witnesses. The accounts of the incident involving Dr. David Parirenyatwa, and witness reports of other forced meetings at which Zanu-PF members of parliament and senior military officers oversaw the beating of people who voted against Mugabe in last month's elections, establish a direct link between the highest levels of the ruling party and what the opposition Movement for Democratic Change described on Apr. 20 as a "war" against the people. An affidavit made before a commissioner of oaths by an opposition activist names Parirenyatwa, along with a deputy minister and other senior ruling party officials, as threatening to kill MDC supporters. "[They] came to Musama business center in Murewa and threatened MDC supporters with death if they 'revote' MDC in the anticipated election rerun," the affidavit says. "Shops were forced to close down, people were forced to attend the Zanu-PF rally." Other witnesses confirm the account by the opposition activist, whose name is known to the Guardian but who is afraid to be identified publicly. The meeting, on Apr. 10, came as Zanu-PF began what has become an extensive campaign of beatings and intimidation in areas where Mugabe and the ruling party lost ground in the presidential and parliamentary elections. In the following days, party militias and the army established torture camps in several provinces, where MDC members were taken to extract the names of opposition activists and deter the opposition from campaigning before what is expected to be a run-off between Mugabe and the MDC's candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, if and when the results of the presidential election are finally released. The targeted areas include Murewa in Mashonaland East, where two of the city's three constituencies are held by Zanu-PF, one of them by Parirenyatwa. The MDC won the third constituency, Murewa West. According to the affidavit, Pariren-yatwa -- who is on a list of senior Zanu-PF officials barred from entering the EU and US -- arrived in Murewa West for a political meeting which the local population was told to attend or face beatings or arrest. The health minister was accompanied by Joel Biggie Matiza, the deputy rural housing minister who is also a Zanu-PF MP for the area, as well as the ruling party's defeated local candidate, Lilian Zemura. Another witness at the meeting said: "These MPs had guns, they were intimidating people. They said 'this city is ours. There is no room for sell-outs to the whites. If you support the opposition you must leave or we will kill you'." At least one shot was fired into the air to intimidate people. Parirenyatwa and the other MPs then broke up an MDC meeting elsewhere in Murewa West. A witness said the health minister was carrying a Kalashnikov. "People of Murewa West constituency are now living in fear because of the death threats issued by Zanu-PF MPs and thugs," the affidavit said. Ward Nezi, the MDC candidate who defeated Zemura, said his supporters were terrified. "People are being beaten all over the place in my constituency, beaten up and hospitalized," he said. "My opponent is one of those involved. They cannot accept defeat." Ruling party MPs and senior military officials have incited violence in other areas. Ordo Nyakudanga, a Zanu-PF MP, and Bramwell Katsvairo, an air force colonel, oversaw a forced meeting in Mutoko last week at which opposition supporters were allegedly identified and severely beaten. Witnesses say that at the end of the meeting Nyakudanga and Katsvairo sent soldiers to hunt down people who had refused to attend. One of them was Tendai Chibika, who was afraid he would be identified as an opposition supporter. Soldiers found him in nearby hills and shot him dead. Zanu-PF militias also abducted two brothers, Promise and Ofias Tumu, who remain missing four days later. In Mudzi, another Mashonaland town, a man called Temba Muronda was abducted on Apr. 17 and found beaten to death at the weekend. Besides the beatings, some opposition supporters have allegedly been tortured by having burning grass or molten plastic bags dropped on to their skin. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, which has documented abductions and assaults, said: "This campaign of terror has been widespread across the country and is being perpetrated against any person who is suspected to have cast their vote against the ruling party, as well as their families." Abel Samakande, the new MDC MP for Mutoko East, once a Mugabe stronghold, said many of his supporters had gone into hiding. "Our members are not sleeping in their own houses. Some sleep in their gardens, some sleep in the hills, because they usually come to get you at night. People are terrified," he said. "During daytime I can move around with other people. In the night I hide -- and I am the MP."