http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4133
by http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4163
Zimbabwe’s post-election violence is hampering the activities of humanitarian organisations and making the country’s already dire food situation even more precarious. One-third of the population, or about four million people, are receiving food aid.
An official of the National Association of Non-governmental Organisations (NANGO), an umbrella body for humanitarian and civil http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4163, who declined to be identified, told IRIN they were “concerned that post-election violence is brazenly denying people access to already scarce food … It is becoming very difficult for humanitarian workers to get out there and extend food to needy communities.”
Zimbabwe is expecting another poor harvest after incessant early rains were followed by a prolonged dry spell this season, coupled with a shortage of agricultural inputs and the under-utilisation of farming land by http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4247, all being compounded by an upswing in political violence.The areas hardest hit by political violence, the NANGO official said, were rural communities in the districts of Mutoko, Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe and Dande, in Mashonaland Central Province in northern Zimbabwe. These were once political strongholds of the ruling ZANU, but had backed candidates of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the elections on 29 March.
The official said there were “many other disturbing cases”, and cited incidents of political violence in Mashonaland East Province, in the northeast of the country, as well as in the Mutasa and Rusape districts in Manicaland Province, in eastern Zimbabwe.
“Some of our members have told us it is now risky to continue with operations in violence-prone areas. Any contact with communities can be perceived as political, and that becomes dangerous when the government has banned rallies,” she said.
“For instance, a child rights organisation reported that their meeting with village heads in Rusape became tense because there were people who thought that the use of the term ‘rights’ meant that the NGO [non-governmental organisation was out to campaign for the opposition.”
“Operation Mavhoterapapi” (Who did you vote?)
Veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war, the youth militia of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU party, and soldiers have reportedly established bases in the country’s rural areas, where they are assaulting alleged opposition supporters as part of “Operation Mavhoterapapi” (Who did you vote?).
According to victims of the operation, it is a strategy to flush out those who campaigned for the MDC ahead of an expected second round of voting in the presidential elections, although the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has yet to publish the results of the first round.
The MDC claims its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the first round of voting by the required 50 percent plus one vote, and that a second round of voting is unnecessary, but Mugabe’s party, ZANU, claims there was no outright winner.
The ZEC, whose functionaries are appointed by Mugabe, has also begun a recount in 23 constituencies.
The ZEC parliamentary results gave Tsvangirai’s MDC 99 seats, while Mugabe’s ZANU secured 97. A breakaway faction of the MDC garnered 10 seats and ZANU’s former minister of information, Jonathan Moyo, who ran as an independent, won his seat.
The African Union (AU) said it was concerned about the delay in announcing the presidential results, as this “creates an atmosphere of tension”; the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, said Zimbabwe was in a “rather dangerous situation”.
Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the MDC party led by Tsvangirai, said at a press briefing on 20 April in Johannesburg, South Africa, that 10 MDC members had been killed since the 29 March poll, 3,000 had been displaced and 500 hospitalised in political violence.
“There is a war in Zimbabwe being waged by Mugabe’s regime against the people; the regime has unleashed violence on the people. The police have been turning a blind eye,” Biti said.
Johnson Chibuya, 43, of Donzve village in Mashonaland East province’s Mutoko district, about 190km northeast of the capital, Harare, is among hundreds of villagers seeking refuge from ZANU’s retribution at the MDC headquarters in the capital, awaiting “whatever form of help” he can get, he said, supporting himself on a pair of crutches.
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A week ago, Chibuya, his wife and three school-going children were force-marched to a bush camp near the village by militias led by a soldier known only as “Crunch”, where they joined other suspected MDC supporters who had been rounded up in the area.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804211904.html