ZIMBABWE — HARARE - The MDC has expressed fear for the lives and safety of 12 of its members abducted by the junta two weeks ago and held incommunicado to date for allegedly receiving training in banditry in Botswana, with police contemptuously defying a High Court order to bring them to court.

 

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told ZimDaily that the party was gravely worried about their whereabouts and their condition.

 

High Court Judge Justice Charles Hungwe on Tuesday ordered the police to allow the MDC activists access to their lawyers, their relatives and access to medical treatment immediately.

The police have defied this order.

The 12 were arrested in predawn raids in their homes in Banket, Chinhoyi but the party, its lawyers and relatives have been denied access to them.

 

The people who arrested them looted property and party regalia during the raid.

The government alleges the group is part of MDC activists who were sent to Botswana to receive training in banditry and terrorism in a programme jointly sponsored by the British intelligence service, MI5 and the US military, which the Zimbabwe government claims has a base in the kalahari desert in the neighbouring country.

 

Both the Botswana government and the British embassy in Harare have dismissed the claims, with Botswana President Ian Khama inviting fact finding delegation to prove this.

Zanu-PF's Patrick Chinamasa says the British government is bankrolling MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to cause mayhem and overthrow government through unconstitutional means. He has likened Tsvangirai to the slain Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.

The MDC has insisted it not seeking violent overthrow of the regime and would pursue legal means to cause regime change. ZimDaily also heard that the Joint Operations Command has okayed a new crackdown on the MDC if the National Council meeting Friday resolves to pull out of the agreement. A hit list has also been drafted of key MDC officials, according to our intelligence source.

According to Chamisa, over 250 MDC activists have been brutally murdered at the hands of Zanu PF and suspected State security agents in unmarked vehicles in the violent crackdown on MDC members after Zanu PF lost the election on March 29.

ZimDaily heard that among those being held incommunicado is MDC national executive member Concilia Chinanzvavana, the Women’s Assembly provincial chairperson for Mashonaland West and her husband, Emmanuel and their two-year old baby. Emmanuel is an MDC councillor in Banket.

High Court Judge Justice Charles Hungwe ruled that the detained be produced in court at or before 4pm yesterday, but the State is in contempt of court after the police failed to comply with the order.

The High Court has also ruled that the continued de

tention of the 12 was beyond the statutory 96 hour period and was therefore unlawful.

The High Court ordered the respondents in the case, who are the Minister of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi, Commissioner General of the Police, Augustine Chihuri, the Officer Commanding Homicide, Chief Superintendent Crispen Makedenge and Detective Constable Muuya to abide by the High Court ruling.

Chamisa said: "The continued violence against MDC members is testimony that the leopard has not changed its spots. The regime has begun a systematic crackdown on the largest party in the country as it tries in vain to solidify trumped-up charges of banditry and terrorism against MDC supporters."

Chamisa said the MDC believed that Zanu PF must begin to show respect for human life and said it was absurd for a party which won all the elections in march to plot chaos.

"Since 1980, Zanu PF has not shown any respect for the sanctity of human life and the rule of law," the MDC spokesman said. "The unlawful arrests, detentions and abductions of MDC supporters should cease as a matter of urgency. We are comforted by the fact that the people of Zimbabwe will win their battle against tyranny."

 

 

JOKE OF THE DAY - This is a true story happened in Kadoma a few months ago.

 

A man was hitch hiking on a very dark night, in the middle of a storm. The night was rolling by and  there was hardly a car on the road.

 

The storm was so strong that he could hardly see his feet in front of him. Suddenly a car came towards him and stopped. Without thinking, he got in and closed the door, just to realise that there was nobody behind the steering wheel.

 

The car moved off slowly. He looked ahead and saw a curve in the road. Scared, he started praying, begging for his life. He was terrified. Just before hitting the curve, a hand appeared through the window and turned the steering wheel.

 

The man, now paralysed with fear, watched how the hand kept appearing everytime they got to a curve. Gathering all his courage, he jumped out and ran to the nearest lights he could see. Wet and in shock, he went into a bar and asked for a Castle.

 

After drinking it, he told everyone of the horrible experience he had just had. Everyone was silent when they realised he was crying. About half an hour later, two men came into the bar and on seeing the terrified man, one of them said to the other, 'Moyo ndizvo, that's the idiot who got into the car when we were pushing!!!!!!

 

Got a story, joke, quote, opinion or want your letter published, please e-mail Editor at editor@zimdaily.com