Opposition activists teargassed, beaten

Scores of Zimbabwean opposition supporters were teargassed and beaten up by police during a protest march in the capital, Harare, after a local magistrate overruled a police order banning the march on 23 January.

Lungile Ncube, of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who was beaten up, told IRIN she had been accosted by plainclothes policemen who asked her why she was dressed in the red and white colours of the opposition.

"When I did not respond, one of the men ordered his colleagues to beat me up until I died," she alleged. Ncube sustained deep cuts on her head and face as a result of the assault.

The MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai had announced the 'Freedom Walk' protest march to demand pro-democracy reforms and free and fair elections, and to highlight the humanitarian crisis in the country.

Tsvangirai was picked up from his house by the police early on 23 January and later released without being charged. Two other MDC officials, Paul Madzore, a member of parliament, and Elias Mudzuri, the party's organising secretary, were still in police custody when the rally ended later in the day.

The opposition appealed against the ban at the Harare magistrate's court, which ruled that the rally could take place but should finish on the afternoon of 23 January.

Riot police teargassed and beat up some of the more than 5,000 opposition supporters making their way to the venue, an open field close to the ruling ZANU-PF party's headquarters in Harare.

Beatings, an indictment

Addressing his supporters at the rally, Tsvangirai said the arrests and beatings were an indictment of the ongoing negotiations being brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) between the opposition and the ZANU-PF.

"What happened today is a serious test of the sincerity of President Robert Mugabe, [South African] President Thabo Mbeki and the entire SADC region on whether this is the kind of Zimbabwe which they want," he said.

The opposition leader announced that a series of marches would be held in the country's major urban centres as well as in rural areas.

At the last rally, organised by opposition and pro-democracy groups in March 2007, many activists were arrested and beaten up. After international condemnation of the government's actions, the SADC set up a mediation initiative, to be led by Mbeki.

Lovemore Madhuku, a political commentator and chair of the National Constitutional Assembly, a pro-democracy non-governmental organisation, told IRIN the attempt to suppress the march should not have come as a surprise.

"All it does is confirm what we as civic society and labour warned when we told the MDC that it should not go into negotiations with ZANU-PF, as it would never take any negotiations sincerely."

Mbeki visited Zimbabwe last week amid reports that a deal between the parties was imminent.

"If Mbeki claims that he is close to securing a deal, and the opposition is being bashed like this, then it means that a deal is far from being secured," said Madhuku.

The MDC now faced the dilemma of explaining the "benefits of the talks to its supporters after they were beaten up and the leadership arrested, Madhuku said. "I don't think they have the kind of leadership with the stamina to lead Kenyan style revolts."

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