Zim boy, 12, killed in 'political attack'
2013-02-25 15:06
Special Report
Chinese vice premier Wang Yang has urged Zimbabwe to ensure peace and political stability ahead of elections this year.
Harare - A 12-year-old boy was burnt to death in eastern
Zimbabwe in a suspected case of political violence ahead of a referendum next
month, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party said on Monday.
The son of Shepherd Maisiri, a senior regional official of
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), died when the hut he was sleeping in
was fire-bombed in the rural town of Headlands on Saturday.
The MDC suspects that activists from President Robert
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) were behind
the attack.
"This politically motivated murder bears the signature
of Zanu-PF and we call upon the police to investigate this case and bring the
perpetrators to book," MDC spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said.
Three other children who were in the hut at the time of the
attack escaped, but their condition could not be immediately established.
No arrests have been made and police could not be reached
for comment.
The southern African country holds a referendum on a new
constitution on March 16 while general elections are slated for July.
The July poll is to choose a successor to an uneasy
power-sharing government formed nearly four years ago by Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
The bitter rivals were forced into a unity government to
avoid Zimbabwe tipping into all-out conflict in the aftermath of a bloody
presidential run-off election in 2008.
Past elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by violence
including killings, assault and intimidation.
The violence that gripped the country's 2008 vote left at
least 200 dead, most of them MDC supporters.
Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have called for peaceful
elections this year.
- AFP
