Zimbabwe election violence spreads to Harare

Morgan Tsvangirai (C) is greeted by supporters during a visit to a Harare suburb. Photo / Reuters

Since Zimbabwe's disputed presidential election in March, a steady stream of battered victims of President Robert Mugabe's thugs have come into the capital, Harare, telling stories of horrific intimidation in the countryside.

But in the past week the violence has arrived on the city's doorstep.

"A ring of torture camps has been established on the outskirts of Harare, and gangs of youths are marauding in the high-density suburbs [the former townships that surround the city centre]," a resident told The Independent on Sunday.

"They are stopping commuter minibuses and threatening the passengers. Many people are unable to go to work. They are being told to report every night to the camps to be taught how to vote."

Even in Harare's relatively prosperous northern suburbs, she added, there were groups of youths on the streets.

Other witnesses said gangs of militants, wearing the bandanas and scarves of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and carrying sticks and clubs, were manning makeshift roadblocks around Chitungwiza township, south of Harare, where four opposition activists were reportedly killed on Wednesday.

Party militias and "war veterans" had set up camps in suburban grassland and were frog-marching residents of Chitungwiza and other townships to political meetings ahead of Friday's presidential run-off vote.

People were told to stay indoors and avoid travelling by road at night.

The violence which broke out shortly after the election on 29 March, when the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat Mr Mugabe by a 6 per cent margin but narrowly failed to secure an overall majority, has escalated dramatically ahead of this week's second round.

According to independent human rights groups, 85 people have died in political violence since the first round, and tens of thousands have been driven from their homes.

In both categories, the vast majority were supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The worsening situation has confronted Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC with an agonising decision this weekend n whether to press on with their campaign in the face of ever-mounting intimidation and bloodshed, or to withdraw and cede victory to Mr Mugabe.

The party is taking soundings from its provincial organisations around the country, and is due to announce its decision tomorrow.

But the MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, admitted that "differences of opinion" over strategy had surfaced at a meeting of the leadership in Harare.