No end to political violence

Zimbabwean police allegedly tortured and "seriously injured" the leader of a teachers' trade union who called a strike this week, his lawyer said. Raymond Majongwe gave himself up to police on Wednesday after hearing that the police were looking for him. His Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe has been on strike since Tuesday, demanding a 100 percent pay rise, the French news agency AFP reported. "He has been beaten and when I saw him yesterday [Wednesday] night he couldn't sit on his own. I think he has broken ribs and internal bleeding," lawyer Tererayi Gunje told AFP. Police spokesman Andrew Phiri told the news agency that the allegations would be investigated. Majongwe was expected to be charged under the controversial Public Order and Security Act. The police have accused Majongwe and other union leaders of visiting schools and intimidating teachers into following the strike call. In a statement on Thursday, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) condemned "the politicised and militarised Zimbabwe Republic Police for the assault on the Secretary-General of the Progressive Teachers' Union". It said the government, "has continued to defy provisions of the constitution of Zimbabwe, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several protocols to which Zimbabwe is a signatory, which clearly prohibit torture and other degrading treatment". The statement added: "The MDC is also concerned by reports from several schools around the country that officers from the Criminal Investigations Department are being sent to schools where they are asking pupils which teachers had reported for lessons and listing the names of those that have not reported. It is the teachers' constitutional right to engage in a peaceful strike, and the regime should be, instead, making concerted efforts to address the grievances of the teachers, who are the most expensive resource in the education system." Meanwhile, reported cases of political violence in Zimbabwe continued last month, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. In its latest survey covering the period 1 to 30 September, it said cases of political intimidation had declined to 20 from 35 compared with August, but the number of assaults rose from 23 to 38. The report said one case of murder had been reported in the local press. This brought the number of deaths from politically motivated violence to 59 since 1 January 2002, the rights group noted. "Nikoniari Chibvamudeve was allegedly hacked to death by [ruling party] ZANU-PF supporters in Hurungwe West ahead of the two day by-election," the NGO said. Chibvamudeve was reportedly murdered by youths suspected to have been deployed by ZANU-PF supporters to drum up support for their candidate. In the run-up to country-wide local elections last month, the MDC complained of victimisation and "spurious bureaucracy" that prevented about 700 of their candidates from registering in around 1,400 wards. On 27 September, the day before the polls were to start, an MDC petition to the High Court to nullify the election nomination process was dismissed. ZANU-PF went on to win almost 90 percent of all local council seats.