More MDC activists abducted

More activists abducted

POLICE last week continued with abductions and arrests of opposition MDC activists in a purge by the Zanu PF government to silence all dissenting voices ahead of next year's elections.
MDC deputy organising secretary Morgan Komichi was abducted from his house in Hwange on Friday around 10 PM while an MDC employee, Denis Murira, together with his wife were arrested on the same day.
Another MDC activist Shame Wakatama, who was arrested during a police raid at Harvest House last month and released, was re-arrested on Friday.
MDC lawyer Alec Muchadehama yesterday said senior police officers from the Law and Order section confirmed having arrested the trio but could not reveal their whereabouts.
“I have not been able to see anyone of them. However police officers from Law and Order confirmed arresting the three. The details are still very sketch at the moment and we will continue searching,” said Muchadehama yesterday afternoon.
Komichi's wife yesterday described how the unidentified men in a police vehicle raided their house in Hwange and took away her husband.
“They were driving a police traffic vehicle for Hwange and they were around five. They knocked at the door around 10 PM at first we ignored it since we were already asleep but after some minutes my husband just gave himself up to the men,” said the wife, who declined to be named for fear of victimisation.
She added that the men just told him that they wanted to investigate him about what happened at his workplace.
“This morning (Saturday) I went to Hwange police station with his breakfast but to my surprise they told me that there was no docket about him there. Right I don't even know where he is and we are worried,” added the wife.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the abductions were a calculated attempt by Zanu PF to cripple the opposition party but will never work,
“In the history of mankind, thuggery and terror have never worked as instruments of resolving national problems. MDC is an official opposition party and the abductions and assaults are not going to intimidate us but they will militate against the existence of a conducive environment for the holding of free and fair elections,” said Chamisa.
The MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai two weeks ago claimed that more than 600 supporters have been abducted, arrested and assaulted by State Security agents while in police custody over the past two months adding that of the 600 people affected, at least 150 had sustained life threatening injuries.
He said President Robert Mugabe’s government had intensified a long-standing programme designed to destroy the MDC party ahead of the harmonized presidential and parliamentary elections next year.