MDC: Zanu-PF 'using' youths
22/03/2005 15:00  - (SA)  

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Cape Town - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the ruling Zanu-PF party is attempting to tarnish the image of the opposition by stage-managing violent acts by youths. It also claims that the ruling party has thousands of MDC t-shirts in storage at its headquarters ahead of using them for "evil purposes".

MDC publicity secretary Paul Themba Nyathi reacted in a statement on Tuesday to a State-controlled Herald newspaper report on Monday that five MDC youths had surrendered themselves to police and confessed they had undergone training in South Africa with the aim of destabilising the country.

Nyathi said: "Such claims are not only deeply mischievous and baseless they are also part of a calculated attempt by the (President Robert) Mugabe regime to tarnish the image of the MDC in the eyes of voters ahead of the March 31 (parliamentary) polls.

Advocating non-violence

"The MDC has always advocated non-violence. The new beginning desired by the MDC and the people of Zimbabwe can only be achieved through peaceful, democratic and constitutional means. Violence and chaos will not lead to job creation and food security.

"The MDC's unequivocal commitment to non-violence and democracy underlines the absurdity of claims that the MDC is training youths to cause chaos ahead of the elections."

Nyathi said that the MDC had it on good authority that a war veteran and CIO employee recruited the five youths in Johannesburg in January 2005. "The unemployed youths were offered money and subsequently travelled to Zimbabwe in February. They were kept at a secure location in Harare before being 'handed over' yesterday to the law and order section of the police."

Nyathi said: "This nefarious tactic is not new; it has been used before by the Mugabe regime on numerous occasions.

"For instance, on the eve of the March 2002 presidential poll, 17 army 'deserters' were paraded on ZBC (the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation). The Mugabe regime claimed that the 17 'deserters' had been arrested for plotting to cause disruption ahead of the poll. No evidence was ever produced to support this claim. After the election the issue of the '17 deserters' and their alleged crimes was never mentioned again by the regime."

Nyathi reported that In November 2001, five MDC activists were arrested for the murder of war veteran Cain Nkala. "At the time Mugabe claimed that their arrest proved that the MDC was a party bent on using violent means to achieve its political objectives. After being held in prison for over two years, and subjected to torture, all five were acquitted last year.

"The complicity of senior members of the police in this latest attempt to malign the MDC provides further confirmation of the extent to which the police, as an institution, is harnessed to the election campaign of the ruling party."

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