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From: as on 9 Aug 2010 17:56
War vets holding constitutional outreach to ransom in Masvingo

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

by Irene Madongo
09 August 2010

The constitutional outreach exercise has been forced to suspend its
activities in Masvingo, because of a terror campaign unleashed in the
province by war vets supporting ZANU PF with the police's knowledge,
according to officials in the area.

On Saturday the MDC members of the outreach team refused to continue
with
their work because of increased threats of violent attacks and after an
MDC
committee member's house was torched by suspected ZANU PF operatives.

Angry outreach workers say police are also deliberately allowing the
war
vets to intimidate locals, making it impossible for them to complete
the
constitutional outreach exercise in a safe and democratic manner.

According to the MDC, war vet leader Jabulani Sibanda has been in
Masvingo
for up to three weeks, holding several meetings, especially in Bikita
West
and South, and is understood to be planning to move to Daka. His
speeches
have been very threatening, and he has said he would burn down the
houses of
anyone believed to be opposed to Robert Mugabe and he would 'kill these
dogs.'

And he has made good on one of his threats. On Friday night David
Holman, a
Bikita MDC-T district committee member, lost property after his house
was
torched by suspected ZANU PF loyalists. The MDC says it is also
hopeless
reporting these matters to the police.

Tongai Matutu, the MDC-T's provincial chairperson for Masvingo said:
"Like
we have said before, the attitude of the police has never changed,
especially towards ZANU PF war veterans and militias, they are very
sympathetic towards them. The meeting that he had on Friday at Mashoko
in
Bikita South, the officer in charge of Mashoko police station was
actually
present when Jabulani incited violence against the MDC."

Matutu added that: "He threatened violence against any villagers who
dared
to oppose the Kariba Draft. So the officer in charge was there and also
the
police are very clear of Jabulani's activities. He was camped at a
training
centre which also houses the officer commanding the district for the
particular area. It is the same story, the same tune, the same style of
management where all police are actually not doing anything when it
comes to
war vets among other ZANU PF sympathizers."

On Monday Matutu said the position of MDC members of the outreach
exercise
was still that they would not participate, because of Sibanda's
activities,
meaning the COPAC programme remains suspended.

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