News / National
Tsvangirai trying to spark anti-government uprising: ZBC
04 Feb 2011 at 12:01hrs | Views
ZBC radio yesterday accused the Morgan Tsvangirai of trying to spark antigovernment uprisings similar to those seen in Tunisia and Egypt, as an independent doctors group said recent political violence has left at least three people hospitalised.
The group said several supporters of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party have been treated for "grave injuries" this week. The stone-throwing and assaults started on Monday.
On Wednesday, armed riot police sealed off the central offices of the Harare City Council as it was besieged by mobs chanting slogans of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party, in power since 1980, witnesses said. Council staff fled the building. Calm had returned in Harare early yesterday.
Activists say Zimbabwe is already seeing a surge in political violence and intimidation as the government prepares for national elections, even though the vote has not been scheduled yet.
State radio said Mr Tsvangirai intended to incite his supporters to hold a mass uprising against Mr Mugabe.
The state broadcaster cited recent remarks by Mr Tsvangirai to the US-run Fox News in which he defended mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt and allegedly implied he supported similar action in Zimbabwe. It claimed Mr Tsvangirai was planning an uprising "against himself" as he had taken vows to join the government when a power-sharing coalition was formed in 2009.
His spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said the claims were "hogwash".
Mr Mugabe's party has blamed turmoil in Tunisia and Egypt on the two countries' close links with the US and western financiers. It has said those countries "supped with the devil" and that similar protests were unlikely in Zimbabwe or its allies Cuba and Venezuela .
On Sunday, the Southern Africa Coalition for the Survivors of Torture said in a new report that tensions rose markedly last month ahead of proposed elections this year. It reported mob attacks, threats, assaults, questionable arrests by police and at least one shooting in the capital and its suburbs.
In a statement released yesterday, the independent doctors group said it had evidence from witness accounts that at least 70 pro-Mugabe militants were brought to the western Mbare township, the centre of Monday's violence. They were brought by truck after the apartment of a Movement for Democratic Change district official was ransacked and set on fire there last week.
The militants sang Zanu (PF) songs and slogans and carried party flags.
Nine people were injured in Monday's clashes . Seven people were arrested, none of them attackers, witnesses reported. "There are no reports of perpetrators being arrested," the doctors group said.
The group said several supporters of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party have been treated for "grave injuries" this week. The stone-throwing and assaults started on Monday.
On Wednesday, armed riot police sealed off the central offices of the Harare City Council as it was besieged by mobs chanting slogans of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party, in power since 1980, witnesses said. Council staff fled the building. Calm had returned in Harare early yesterday.
Activists say Zimbabwe is already seeing a surge in political violence and intimidation as the government prepares for national elections, even though the vote has not been scheduled yet.
State radio said Mr Tsvangirai intended to incite his supporters to hold a mass uprising against Mr Mugabe.
The state broadcaster cited recent remarks by Mr Tsvangirai to the US-run Fox News in which he defended mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt and allegedly implied he supported similar action in Zimbabwe. It claimed Mr Tsvangirai was planning an uprising "against himself" as he had taken vows to join the government when a power-sharing coalition was formed in 2009.
His spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said the claims were "hogwash".
Mr Mugabe's party has blamed turmoil in Tunisia and Egypt on the two countries' close links with the US and western financiers. It has said those countries "supped with the devil" and that similar protests were unlikely in Zimbabwe or its allies Cuba and Venezuela .
On Sunday, the Southern Africa Coalition for the Survivors of Torture said in a new report that tensions rose markedly last month ahead of proposed elections this year. It reported mob attacks, threats, assaults, questionable arrests by police and at least one shooting in the capital and its suburbs.
In a statement released yesterday, the independent doctors group said it had evidence from witness accounts that at least 70 pro-Mugabe militants were brought to the western Mbare township, the centre of Monday's violence. They were brought by truck after the apartment of a Movement for Democratic Change district official was ransacked and set on fire there last week.
The militants sang Zanu (PF) songs and slogans and carried party flags.
Nine people were injured in Monday's clashes . Seven people were arrested, none of them attackers, witnesses reported. "There are no reports of perpetrators being arrested," the doctors group said.
Source - Sapa
