14 March 2007

International outrage has erupted about the arrest and alleged torture of Robert Mugabe's chief opponent and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders after a weekend rally.

But on Tuesday Zimbabwe police defied a court order to give badly injured opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and others urgent medical treatment and access to their lawyers.

Papers filed at the High Court said Tsvangirai should either be charged or released on Tuesday, within the 48 hours allowed by law.

The Save Zimbabwe Campaign said another opposition leader, Lovemore Madhuku, had been taken to the main Harare hospital after police assaults and was reported to be in a serious condition.

At least four other opposition and civic leaders had been beaten and tortured in custody, the campaign said.

MDC activist Gift Tandare was shot dead at Sunday's rally, which was presented as a prayer meeting.

Meanwhile the European Union presidency and the UN secretary-general condemned the assaults.

And the US State Department said Washington was shocked by the reports of injuries, and other world leaders lashed out in even stronger terms.

Cosatu secretary-general Zwelin-zima Vavi told the Cape Argus on Tuesday that the incidents proved that South Africa's "silent diplomacy" or "megaphone diplomacy" had not worked. The union federation is to stage a protest outside the Zimbabwe High Commission against police brutality.

DP leader Tony Leon said: "The arrest and detention of Tsvangirai should serve as a final wake-up call to President Mbeki that he simply cannot afford to continue with a business as usual approach to - the growing crisis in Zimbabwe.

"The South African government should condemn this latest crackdown on a legitimate democratic protest and call for the release of Tsvangirai."

His arrest was a negation of the multi-party approach Mbeki had held up to the world as a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe, Leon said.

"It is now clear that President Mbeki has all but given up trying to resolve the conflict."

But as the chorus of condemnation swelled, President Thabo Mbeki refused to comment on the arrests and alleged assaults.

"You are not going to get a comment from the president," Mbeki's spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said only that the department was "monitoring the situation".

"But any matter of mutual consent is discussed through an existing diplomatic mechanism between the two countries," he said.

Sources who claimed to have seen the assaults on Tsvangirai in custody said police had taken turns to lift him and smash him against the wall.

He had fainted three times but they had continued to assault him.

The MDC said Tsvangirai's wife Susan was allowed to see him on Monday in a Harare jail and reported he was heavily bandaged. Some of the wounds had been stitched.

Tsvangirai's lawyer, Innocent Changonda, who accompanied her to the jail, said he was in "very bad shape". He could hardly eat or speak.

Meanwhile, Arthur Mutambara, leader of a smaller opposition faction, who had been due to appear with Tsvangirai at the meeting, was still unaccounted for on Monday after being arrested.

In other developments:

The current German presidency of the EU urged Zimbabwe to release those arrested and to allow them legal help and medical care.

A statement said the presidency "underlines the responsibility of the Zimbabwean government to ensure that those arrested are safe and remain unharmed".

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon condemned the alleged beatings, spokesperson Michele Montas said in New York. "The secretary-general urges the government of Zimbabwe to release the detainees and to guarantee their safety."

New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark said: "I think the arrest of Morgan Tsvangirai is disgraceful and confirms everything we know about Zimbabwe as, in effect, a dictatorship."

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, in Lisbon on Monday, was asked whether the events would hinder plans for a recently announced EU-Africa summit.

He condemned the assaults but said the meeting should go ahead.

MDC vice-president Thoko Khupe said police had "unleashed a wave of indiscriminate violence" to clear people from the streets of the area around Sunday's meeting place.

In the police version of events, spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena alleged people at the rally had tried to use children as human shields.

Jacob Mafume, a spokesperson for the Save Zimbabwe Campaign - which organised Sunday's meeting - said the coalition was determined to press ahead with its fight for democracy and the rule of law.

But President Robert Mugabe on Monday vowed to proceed with presidential elections next year, then stand again and rule till 2014 - by which time he would be 91 and would have spent 34 years in power. - Reports by Staff Reporters, Foreign Service and agencies.
Cape Argus.

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