HARARE (AFP) — The UN warned Tuesday that post-election violence in Zimbabwe was rising to near crisis levels ahead of a planned presidential run-off, with opposition supporters bearing the brunt of attacks.
The news came as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai prepared to return home to contest the election with veteran President Robert Mugabe amid international pressure for a fair ballot.
The UN's resident representative in Zimbabwe, Agustino Zacarias, told reporters that most of the violence appeared to be directed against followers of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but the MDC had also carried out atttacks.
"There is an emerging pattern of political violence inflicted mainly but not exclusively on rural supporters of the MDC," he said.
Announcing plans to return home this week, Tsvangirai said at a news conference on Saturday that he would only participate in the run-off if there was a complete end to unrest.
He also called for a revamp of the electoral commission and the deployment of international peacekeepers and foreign observers, but these demands have been brushed aside by the government.
"The United Nations country team urges all political leaders across the political divide to unequivocally renounce politically-motivated violence," added Zacarias, a Mozambican diplomat.
Mugabe's government has been intensifying a crackdown on its opponents in recent days, with police arresting an opposition lawmaker for the first time on Monday.
Heya Shoko, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parliamentarian who won a seat in Masvingo province formerly held by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, was arrested in connection with post-election violence in his constituency, a colleague said.
"I was with him in town when three detectives ... took him away saying it was in connection with some incidents in his constituency," fellow MDC lawmaker Ernest Mudavanhu told AFP by phone from Masvingo, southeast Zimbabwe.
Journalists, union leaders and hundreds of political activists have been arrested since general elections in March that were lost by the ruling party.
News of the arrest came as the president and secretary-general of the country's main labour organisation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), were denied bail as they made a first court appearance on charges of incitement to rebellion.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the former head of the ZCTU, is expected to return home this week after more than a month outside the country, but he had warned that the run-off election could provoke "more violence, more gloom, more betrayal."
The US has called for Mugabe's government to guarantee the safety of Tsvangirai when he arrives back in Harare.
The trade union leader is threatened by a treason charge and was badly beaten in police custody March last year.
The authorities should allow in international media as well as provide "some type of security and guarantees for Morgan Tsvangirai's safety," Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters.
The government has said the MDC leader had no reason to fear for his safety.
"If indeed there was a threat to his life, we have got law enforcement agents," Bright Matonga, the deputy information minister, told AFP on Monday.
Violence has flared in Zimbabwe since the parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29, which saw the ruling ZANU-PF party lose its majority in parliament for the first time in 28 years.
No Western monitors were allowed to oversee the first ballot and a team from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was widely criticised for giving it a largely clean bill of health before any results were released.
Zimbabwean doctors, trade unions and teachers have reported beatings and intimidation by government-backed militias since the first ballot on March 29 and the MDC says 32 of its supporters have been killed.
Results from the first-round presidential poll were delayed by the electoral commission for five weeks and no date has been given for the run-off even though the law says it should take place within 21 days of the first-round results being announced.
Mugabe, in power since the country's independence in 1980, lost by 43.2 percent to 47.9 percent to Tsvangirai in the first presidential poll.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
