Zimbabwe: Opposition claims 113 supporters have been killed

7/11/2008 - 4:44:22 PM

Zimbabwe’s opposition party reported today that at least 113 of its members have been killed in political violence since the country held its first round of presidential voting in March.

Among the dead was Gift Mutsvungunu, who helped the opposition Movement for Democratic Change monitor voting in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, in March, the group said in a statement.

He disappeared last week and his body, with eyes gouged out and back severely burned, was discovered yesterday, it said.

President Robert Mugabe claimed victory in a widely denounced June 27 presidential runoff in which he was the only candidate.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mr Mugabe and two other candidates in the first round of voting in March, but pulled out of the June runoff because of state-supported violence against his supporters.

The UN refugee agency, meanwhile, said today that more and more families from Zimbabwe were fleeing across the border into South Africa “as a result of political violence, with several people showing signs of beatings or torture”.

The agency urged South Africa to suspend all deportations. It said 17,000 Zimbabweans have been deported from South Africa in the last 40 days alone, and said some of them could now be in danger as a result.

The chief negotiator for Zimbabwe’s opposition returned home today after going to South Africa to set out conditions for substantive talks with Mr Mugabe’s government – chief among those being an end to violence blamed on Mr Mugabe’s supporters.

Chief negotiator Tendai Biti met today with Zimbabwean government officials. South African President Thabo Mbeki has mediated talks on and off for more than a year.

Opposition spokesman Nqobizitha Mlilo said more talks were expected, but no date was yet set.

“The conditions have been discussed. The issues are in discussion,” Mr Milo said.

Once substantive negotiations begin, the goal would be forming a coalition government.

Both sides say they are willing to share power, if only during a transition to new elections, but differ on who should lead it. Mr Mugabe’s ZANU-PF wants Mr Mugabe at the head, something the opposition and Mr Mugabe’s critics in the West have rejected.

Beside ending the violence, other opposition conditions for holding talks include appointing another mediator alongside Mr Mbeki, whom the opposition says is biased toward Mr Mugabe.

The opposition also is calling for the release of political prisoners, allowing humanitarian organisations to resume work and for parliament to be convened.

Mr Tsvangirai’s supporters won control of parliament in legislative elections in March. As president, Mr Mugabe has to convene parliament, but he has not done that yet.

Mr Mugabe’s party has shown increasing willingness to start talks, apparently in the hope of persuading UN Security Council members to reject possible US-backed sanctions on Mr Mugabe and his top officials.

Zimbabwe’s UN mission said yesterday the sanctions could push the nation toward civil war.

UN council member South Africa has led the opposition to the sanctions, arguing that Zimbabwe is not a threat to international peace and therefore not a proper matter for the council. Russia has threatened to veto the sanctions resolution.