Posted on 03/29/2002 12:24:04 AM PST by Clive
HIS life ended abruptly at the age of 25 after a group of enthusiastic policemen and soldiers at Ruda police station beat him up for backing the candidature of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, in the just- ended presidential election.
Donald Jeranyama, an MDC polling agent in Mutasa, died at his home in the constituency on Monday from internal injuries he sustained following a severe beating allegedly by members of the uniformed forces.
Jeranyama was among the 25 MDC polling agents and five whites arrested on 7 March for allegedly contravening a section of Public Order and Security Act after they gathered at St Martins School to be deployed to various polling stations.
Pishai Muchauraya, MDC spokesman for Manicaland, said yesterday: "Following the beating, Jeranyama bled from the ears. We took him to hospital but there was a shortage of medicine so he was discharged and later died at home. We have since requested a post-mortem.
This is a cruel act by the law enforcement agents. How can they beat their own people to death? The perpetrators should be brought to book. This country will soon become ungovernable if this type of government -sponsored murders and brutality continues".
Muchauraya said burial arrangements were to be announced soon.
Evelyn Masaiti, the MP for Mutasa, Muchauraya, and Arnold Tsunga, president of Zimrights and lawyer, were arrested and assaulted allegedly by soldiers at Ruda Police station, Honde Valley, when they went to investigate the case.
They were later released without being charged, but the 25 polling agents were detained and released after voting was complete. They were also not charged, said Muchauraya.
Masaiti, who sustained bruises to the body and stiff neck, has since fled the constituency following persistent death threats from alleged Zanu PF youths and fears of arrest by the police.
In an unrelated incident in Shinja in Chimanimani, Simon Panganai Mudonha, the MDC vice chairman for ward 9, was allegedly attacked by Zanu PF youths on 19 March in the on-going post-election violence. He was admitted at Biriri Hospital and transferred to Chipinge. District Hospital. I
But it is not the British Commonwealth, or any other international organization led by Westerners, that is apt to deter Mugabe from his increasingly autocratic and destructive course and bring democracy and prosperity to Zimbabwe. What must sway Mugabe, if he is to be moved at all, is collective action by responsible African leaders.****
They'll blame racism for the failure of NEPAD; however, it will be their own, combined stupidity and black racism , that does them and the entire SubSaharan Africa in.
And Gadaafi has been giving Mugabe money and muscle*****More sinister is the fact that Gadaafi insisted on calling into conclave Harare's small community of Indian Muslims, telling them that they must assist Mugabe's plans by declaring a jihad (holy war) to throw the whites out. If they did not do this, he told the Muslim elders, he would bring in strong arm men from the Pagad movement in Cape Town with which he had close links. There has long been speculation that Gadaafi might have links to Pagad, an extremist Muslim vigilante movement often linked to bombings and murders in the Cape, including bomb attacks on US-linked enterprises such as the Planet Hollywood restaurant on the Cape waterfront, but this is the first open confirmation of the fact.
The bulk of Harare's Muslim community, consisting largely of merchants and professionals, was aghast at this demand and has failed to declare a jihad ,a failure which they believe lies behind the sudden spate of attacks on Muslim shops by Zanu-PF youths in the last ten days. For heaven's sake, said one Muslim merchant, we all do business with whites all the time. We rely on them and most of us are appalled by what Mugabe's doing. It's obvious that those youths who were sent to attack white and Muslim shops were meant to be punishing us for not complying.
However, Gadaafi - like Mugabe a virtual paranoiac in matters of personal security - had also left behind two extra bodyguards for Mugabe and four specialist coordinators. These men are believed to have experience in the training and handling of death squads and they have, in the last month, bought up 20 houses right around Zimbabwe to act as safe houses for the squads. The houses are strategically scattered only four are in Harare and there is one in every regional town or centre of any size. ****
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.