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MDC supporters charged
21/04/2008 19:41 - (SA)
Harare - Dozens of Zimbabwe opposition activists appeared in court on Monday in the violent aftermath of last month's elections as the government rejected claims that it was arming groups of vigilantes.
Around 30 people were brought before Harare Magistrates Court to face public order charges in connection with a general strike last week called by the opposition in a bid to force the result of last month's general elections.
Prosecutors say they were behind a series of violent incidents during the strike on Tuesday of last week, including the burning of commuter buses.
As the first two defendants were marched into the dock, their lawyer urged the court to adjourn their case, claiming they had been assaulted while in the custody of the security forces.
"We urge the court to direct that the state investigate allegations of assault," said their lawyer, Alec Muchadehama.
"We are applying that the trial be postponed to a suitable date for us to have access to all state papers and take instructions from the accused persons who are denying the charges."
Frivolous charges
MDC secretary for legal affairs Innocent Gonese said opposition supporters were being hauled before the courts while none of the ruling party militias had been arrested for the alleged murders and assaults of opposition sympathisers.
"We have made numerous reports of attacks on our supporters and the police usually don't take any action," Gonese said outside the Harare court.
"On the other hand we have lots of our supporters arrested on frivolous charges. We have gone through this route before and at the end of the day the charges are dropped for lack of any evidence."
In a press conference on Sunday, the party's secretary general Tendai Biti charged that 10 MDC supporters had been killed and thousands forced to flee their homes following attacks by pro-Mugabe vigilantes.
However Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said on Monday the claims by a "desperate" MDC should be treated with contempt.
"The vigilante groups are those that you find in the media, in ... Mr Biti's head," Matonga said on SA public radio.
"There is nothing of the sort. These are imaginary vigilantes."
"Fatally flawed"
The MDC's initial euphoria at having apparently wrested control of parliament from the ruling Zanu-PF has also subsided after the electoral commission - a body whose leadership is appointed by Mugabe - began a partial recount which could reverse that gain.
The MDC says the recount is a blatant bid to reverse the loss of parliament.
That accusation was echoed by former colonial power Britain on Monday, whose Foreign Secretary David Miliband questioned the security of the ballot boxes held by the authorities since March 29.
A SA opposition member of parliament, Dianne Kohler-Barnard, who took part in a regional observer mission monitoring the recount, called the process "fatally flawed".
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