Tsvangirai aide assaulted
2007-03-19 07:29
Johannesburg - The spokesperson for Zimbabwe's main opposition leader was assaulted by security forces as he tried to leave the country, a party official said.
Nelson Chamisa, aide to Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was assaulted at Harare International Airport on Sunday as he was leaving for Belgium via London to attend a meeting of the European Union and Africa Caribbean and Pacific group in Brussels, the party's secretary-general, Tendai Biti, said from Johannesburg.
"He was beaten on the head with iron bars. There was blood all over his face. He is in a critical condition at a private hospital in Harare," Biti said.
Other activists arrested
The assault follows the re-arrests at the airport on Saturday of three opposition activists, who were allegedly assaulted along with Tsvangirai when police broke up a March 11 protest meeting.
Grace Kwinje and Sekai Holland, among the most severely injured in last week's incident, were prevented from leaving to receive medical care, and Arthur Mutambara, leader of an opposition faction, was later also arrested at the airport.
Tawanda Mutasah, director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, said that Kwinje and Holland were due to travel to Johannesburg to receive specialist post-traumatic care.
He said the ambulance carrying the two women from Harare's Avenues clinic to the airport, where they were to leave in a medical rescue aircraft, was stopped on the tarmac by officers from Zimbabwe's security forces.
The women's passports were taken and they were told they needed a clearance certificate from the department of health. They were then instructed to go to Harare's central police station, but were later allowed to return to the clinic under police guard.
Mutasah's organisation said in a statement issued on Sunday that Holland, 64, was completely immobilised on her left side, having suffered multiple fractures including a broken arm and leg and three broken ribs. She has undergone an operation on a fracture in her left ankle and has severe bruising causing internal complications.
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe accused the opposition of being terrorists supported by Britain and the West, and Tsvangirai said the crisis in Zimbabwe had reached a "tipping point".
- AP