Zimbabwe opposition predicts crackdown

The leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party today said he feared President Robert Mugabe would use the killing of a ruling party militant to crack down on the opposition.

Authorities announced yesterday they had discovered the body of militant leader Cain Nkala in a shallow grave near the city of Bulawayo, where he was abducted on November 5.

Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo said two men who led police to Nkala’s grave had confessed to being supporters of the main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Nkomo said the arrest of MDC members was likely.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said his party had nothing to do with the killing, but he expected a crackdown in advance of presidential elections scheduled for early next year.

‘‘They want to win these coming presidential elections by any means. They want a predetermined outcome,’’ Tsvangirai said.

Nkoma accused ‘‘enemies of the government’’ of sponsoring ‘‘terrorism’’ to stop the state’s land redistribution efforts.

The government has targeted a total of 5,000 white owned commercial farms, about 95% of all farms owned by whites, for seizure and redistribution to landless blacks.

The government has long accused Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial ruler, of supporting the opposition and working to frustrate its efforts at land reform in a country where 4,000 whites own about one third of the fertile land.

‘‘Are British funds being used to cheapen black lives and commit acts of terrorism with such impunity?’’ an editorial in the state owned Herald newspaper asked today.

Scattered incidents of violence were also reported today in commercial farming areas in the wake of Mugabe’s order to 1,000 white farmers to stop working their land and prepare to vacate their property.

The World Food Program has warned that more than half a million people in Zimbabwe, a country that usually produces food surpluses, face hunger because of the land seizures, violence on farms and poor weather.

Meanwhile, the government said it would expand price controls it had imposed on staple foods last month to more goods, including paraffin, fertiliser and seeds. Prices would be forced down by up to 35%, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said.

Tsvangirai accused the government of hypocrisy, saying it only appeared to condemn violence against the ruling party and not opposition supporters, scores of whom were killed in the past 18 months.

‘‘The government is choosing to ignore the violence that has been committed so far and has chosen to apply the law selectively,’’ he said. ‘‘There is rampant lawlessness in the country which is leading to anarchy.’’