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Posted on 09/29/2002 1:10:51 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition said on Sunday police had arrested a prominent white politician and beaten other opponents as President Robert Mugabe's supporters stepped up violence and intimidation at local government polls.
The Movement for Democratic Change said Roy Bennett, an opposition legislator, and eight others including his bodyguard were in custody. It was not clear what the charges were.
Police officials contacted by Reuters declined to comment.
"Roy is in the cells along with eight others. He is not hurt but the rest have been badly beaten," said Doug Vanderuit, a friend of Bennett and MDC member. An MDC official who declined to be named for fear of arrest confirmed the report.
The two-day polls ending Sunday are seen as a test of Mugabe's traditional rural power base and come amid a deepening economic and food crisis in the southern African country.
Zimbabwe has been in turmoil since pro-government militants began invading white-owned farms in early 2000.
Bennett, a soldier in the former Rhodesia, has often been a target of Mugabe's anti-white rhetoric. Just weeks ago, he was warned by the government for making a public statement urging former colonial power Britain to invade Zimbabwe to resolve the political crisis in the country.
ALLEGATIONS OF INTIMIDATION
The MDC says 700 of its candidates have been barred from registering or intimidated from running in the polls.
On Sunday it said it had received reports from various parts of the country showing the ruling ZANU-PF had stepped up violence to prevent Zimbabweans from voting freely.
"Several MDC candidates and their agents have been blocked from entering the polling stations while some have been assaulted and a few have been reported missing," the MDC said.
Police and electoral officials said they had not received any reports of intimidation and Mugabe's ZANU-PF party dismissed the charges as "a pack of the usual lies."
"The truth is that the MDC is frustrated at its failure to win the support of a majority of the people of this country," a ZANU-PF spokesman said.
The allegations were also dismissed by Thomas Bvuma, a spokesman for the Electoral Supervisory Commission, who told Zimbabwe state radio the elections were going smoothly and the authorities had not received any complaints.
The MDC, which accuses Mugabe of stealing victory in a presidential election in March, says Mugabe has resorted to political violence in the council elections because he knows he would lose any free and fair poll.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, says his land drive is aimed at correcting colonial injustice, which left 70 percent of the country's best land in the hands of white farmers.
The opposition says the land policies have contributed to a severe food shortage which is affecting nearly seven million people, or half the population. The government insists the shortages are solely the result of drought.
Election results are expected from late Monday.
Khadafy tried so hard to convince the world he had stepped away from the axis of evil, 10 years ago, a Libyan chemical-weapons plant, operating with the illegal help of German firms and scientists, was shown blazing in flames. Intelligence reports indicated, however, that Khadafy removed the weapons and equipment before staging the fire. But in the last month, Western intelligence agencies gained details of Khadafy's latest adventure - his bid to join the Nuclear Club. At first, intelligence analysts suspected that Egypt was helping him in this project.
But now it is certain that Iraqi scientists and engineers, who developed their expertise in the last 25 years under Khadafy, are leading the underground Libyan effort. Sharon said a secret weapons effort "is taking place in Iraq, and a similar process is going on in Libya - which probably will turn out to be the first Arab state with weapons of mass destruction." ***
This will induce a known law of physics....
For every action there is a equil and opposite reaction. . . .
They will be the first Arab State to have their brand new weapons of mass destruction vaporized by a weapon of pinpoint accuracy.
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