MDC leader escapes attack

2004-07-02 19:13

Harare - Militant supporters of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe used axes, clubs and stones to attack opposition politicians, injuring several people, opposition party officials said.

Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, ran from a hail of stones, taking shelter in his armour-protected car. He was not injured.

Witnesses said at least 200 ruling party Zanu-PF militants, some armed with axes and clubs, attacked an opposition meeting at Mvurwi, about 100km north of Harare.

Tsvangirai had been holding a provincial assembly of about 400 local opposition leaders and supporters to discuss preparations for parliamentary elections next March.

"It is an exaggeration to say it was an assassination attempt against him, but he could certainly have been killed," said opposition lawmaker David Coltart, who spoke to Tsvangirai shortly afterward.

Attack was 'unprovoked thuggery'

"The party is still compiling a list of those who were injured and this is quite difficult as people ran in all directions," said opposition spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi.

No comment was immediately available from police.

Themba Nyathi described the attack as "unprovoked thuggery", aimed at disrupting opposition preparations for next year's elections.

Opposition rallies have regularly been disrupted by rival party militants.

Ahead of presidential elections in 2002, narrowly won by Mugabe, Tsvangirai's campaign vehicle was fired on by suspected ruling party officials.

No one was injured in that attack.

In 1998, Tsvangirai survived an assault by militants who beat him on the head with a piece of furniture and tried to throw him from a 10th-floor window of an Harare office block.

- AP