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Opposition denies killing leading war veteran

[Zimbabwe] Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC Leader Obinna Anyadike/IRIN
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on the basis of a video secretly filmed by Ari Ben-Menashe
    JOHANNESBURG

    Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has rejected government claims that it was behind the abduction and murder of a leading war veteran in the country's second city, Bulawayo.

    The body of Cain Nkala was found in a shallow grave on Tuesday 13 November, a week after he was kidnapped from his home by armed assailants. State-controlled media said he had been strangled with his shoe laces.

    Police have arrested six men, reportedly opposition members, and the minister of home affairs has been quoted as saying that the police are investigating leaders of the MDC.

    But MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai, said this was a pretext to intimidate the opposition ahead of presidential elections due early next year.

    "This is just another attempt by government to whip up anti-MDC sentiment, we're convinced the murder was an inside job," he told IRIN on Thursday.

    Sources IRIN spoke to said Nkala was murdered by a government hit squad because he was preparing to give evidence about the abduction and disappearance of MDC election agent Patrick Nabanyama in May last year in the run up to parliamentary elections.

    "Hundreds of our supporters have been killed by (the ruling) ZANU-PF, nobody has ever been prosecuted for these murders, we live in an atmosphere of complete lawlessness," Tsvangirai added.

    More than 40 people have been killed in politically-motivated violence since President Robert Mugabe was defeated in a constitutional referendum in February 2000.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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