Zimbabwe police accuse rival party of hoarding arms
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Police loyal to President Robert Mugabe raided a house used by the prime minister’s supporters yesterday and accused them of hoarding weapons in a move likely to push Zimbabwe’s fragile coalition government closer to collapse.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change said yesterday that the police raid on a house where the party’s executives stay was provocation by Mugabe’s party, which wants the coalition to fail.
Mugabe was forced into a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai, the country’s longtime opposition leader, in February after disputed elections last year. Tsvangirai withdrew temporarily from the coalition government Oct. 16.
Mugabe, 85, has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, and many fear he will hang on to power at all costs.
Tendai Biti, finance minister and MDC secretary general, said about 50 armed police “ransacked’’ a house used by party executives in Harare on Friday.
He said a guard, Moffat Nyandure, and his wife were assaulted. Police told Nyandure to dig in the yard around the house in search of weapons, he said. Nyandure was made to dig with his bare hands for five hours.
A room occupied by a party official, who was at the house at the time of the raid, was searched and “valuable party documents’’ were taken, Biti said. Police said they had a search warrant, he said.
The house is used by MDC executives who visit from outside the capital.
Wayne Bvudzijena, police spokesman, had no immediate comment.
“They are behind this attack,’’ Biti said, referring to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. “Our decision of pulling out of the inclusive government infuriated ZANU-PF, and this is the price we now pay for that decision.’’
Tsvangirai’s boycott has been a setback for the country’s struggle to emerge from political gridlock, economic collapse, and international isolation and sanctions.
Both parties have said they are committed to the coalition, but it has been strained by disagreements that have paralyzed the country.
Tsvangirai has condemned unilateral moves by Mugabe to fill government posts, continuing human rights violations, and attacks on activists by ZANU-PF militants and security forces.
The only positive sign for unity and democratic change in Zimbabwe occurred weeks ago when the Supreme Court released nine activists and dropped terror charges against them because they had been tortured and beaten in jail.
But the catalyst for Tsvangirai’s withdrawal was the prosecution of Roy Bennett, a popular party member nominated as deputy agriculture minister.
Prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to send Bennett back to jail to await trial on charges linked to discredited allegations that he had plotted the violent overthrow of Mugabe.
