NELSON CHAMISA BRUTALIZED!

19 March 2007

http://www.nehandaradio.com/chamisaassaulted190307.html

 

The spokesman for Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader was assaulted by security forces as he tried to leave the country today, a party official said.

Nelson Chamisa, aide to Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change leader, was assaulted at Harare International Airport as he was leaving for Belgium via London to attend a meeting of the European Union and Africa Caribbean Pacific in Brussels, the party’s secretary general, Tendai Biti, said from Johannesburg.

“He was beaten on the head with iron bars. There was blood all over his face. He is in a critical condition at a private hospital in Harare,” Mr Biti said.

The assault follows the re-arrests at the airport on Saturday of three opposition activists, who were allegedly assaulted along with Mr Tsvangirai when police broke up a March 11 protest meeting.

Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe accused the opposition of being terrorists supported by Britain and the West, as Mr Tsvangirai said the crisis in Zimbabwe had reached a “tipping point.”

Zimbabwean police used tear gas, water cannon and live ammunition to crush the March 11 gathering, and beat activists, during and after arrests, according to opposition members.

Mr Mugabe, 83, has rejected the international condemnation following the arrests and alleged beating, lashing out at critics and telling them to “go hang,” and he vowed to crackdown on further protests.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark International Women’s Day in Harare on Saturday, Mr Mugabe accused the opposition party of resorting to violence sponsored by former colonial power Britain and other Western allies to oust his government, a newspaper reported.

Zimbabwe is facing a critical moment that could see the end of Mugabe’s dictatorship, Mr Tsvangirai said by telephone from Harare where he is recovering from injuries.

Photographs of his battered face were printed in newspapers around the world.

“Things are bad,” Tsvangirai told the BBC’s Sunday AM program, “but I think that this crisis has reached a tipping point, and we could see the beginning of the end of this dictatorship in whatever form.”

Mr Tsvangirai left the hospital on Friday battered but defiant, pledging to “soldier on until Zimbabwe is free.” His supporters vowed to drive Mugabe from office with a campaign of civil disobedience.

In the interview with the BBC program, he also criticized South Africa for its role in the crisis. Calling the country a “critical player,” he said South Africa “could have been more strong,” and urged continued pressure from both the African Union and the international community, as well as individual nations such as the United States.

A regional power center, South Africa has come under fire for its policy of “quiet diplomacy” toward Zimbabwe, arguing that working behind the scenes would do more to encourage reform than isolating its president.

But now calls have been made for African nations to speak out against Mugabe’s treatment of the opposition. - Times Online.

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