Warning of more political violence

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned on Wednesday that the deaths of three members of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - allegedly by ruling party supporters - signalled the start of a violent presidential election campaign, news reports said. Trymore Midzi, an MDC youth leader in rural Bindura, about 60 km north of the capital, Harare, died in hospital on Monday after being beaten and slashed through the head with a machete. MDC officials said he was attacked by a group of ZANU-PF militants. His death followed the killing of two other MDC members, Titus Nheya and Milton Chambati, last week. Tsvangirai said the fact that three MDC people had been killed made it "obvious now that ZANU-PF is not going to retreat from its campaign of violence as we head towards the elections" in March. President Robert Mugabe kicked off his re-election campaign this month announcing a "real war" against the opposition. An independent journalist in Harare who asked not to be named, told IRIN on Thursday that the situation would "definitely deteriorate" as the presidential election approached. He predicted that violence and intimidation would spread from the rural areas and into the MDC's urban strongholds. Pro-democracy activists believe that at least 110 people have died in politically motivated violence since last year's parliamentary election, the South African newspaper Business Day reported. Tsvangirai's warning of more violence to come follows a visit by a high-level delegation of South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) to their ZANU-PF counterparts last week, widely seen as a bid to put pressure on Mugabe to ensure free and fair elections. Although the ANC has not commented on the visit, Business Day quoted ZANU-PF chairman John Nkomo as saying on Wednesday that the ANC was "satisfied" with his party's commitment to free and fair elections. "We were happy to assure them that from our side, elections will be free and fair but we expect other political parties to do the same," he reportedly said.