Tsvangirai's men blamed for savage attack on MP

Tsvangirai's men blamed for savage attack on MP

STEVENSON after the attack

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• INTERVIEW Part 2: Moyo, Raftopoulos and Robertson

• INTERVIEW Part 1: Jonathan Moyo, Brian Raftopoulos and John Robertson

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By Staff Reporter

MORGAN Tsvangirai was branded a "mirror image of Robert Mugabe" Monday after a band of his loyalists ambushed, then attacked Harare North MP Trudy Stevenson and her supporters in Mabvuku.

Stevenson and at least three other youths from the MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, which split with Tsvangirai's group last November, were admitted at the Avenues Clinic in Harare with severe head and body injuries following the attack.

Welshman Ncube, the secretary general of the MDC faction led by Mutambara said Monday: "This brutal attack on a Member of Parliament and our supporters proves that Tsvangirai and his people are a complete mirror image of Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF.

"They have established no-go areas for other political parties in Harare and elsewhere. This vindicates our position that it will make no difference to elect Tsvangirai as President because he will prove a worse dictator."

Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for Tsvangirai's group, condemned the attack as barbaric and said the assailants were "not part of the MDC family".

He said: "Any blood is special and this attack on a Member of Parliament is barbaric. If these people who committed this act masqueraded as MDC members, I can assure you they are not part of the MDC family."

Gabriel Chaibva, a spokesman for Mutambara's faction said they had positively identified at least seven of the assailants, and had passed their names to the police.

Chaibva said Stevenson and four other provincial executive members were set upon by the mob, numbering about 40 people, while on the campaign trail in the poor township of Mabvuku just after 3pm on Sunday.

Also injured in the attack was ward 23 councillor, Linos Mushonga, MDC Harare provincial treasurer, Simangele Manyere and two members of the Harare provincial youth assembly Tawanda Udzerema and Lackson Mudachira.

Chaibva said: "As the officials were leaving Mabvuku on their way to Harare, they were waylaid near Circle Cement as the thugs blocked the road and threw stones at their car, smashing the windscreen and windows.

"The mob pounced on the MDC officials and attacked them with an assortment of missiles, which included stones, iron bars and sticks. The thugs searched the victims as they lay helplessly on the ground and got away with three cell-phones valued at more than 600 million dollars, more than $20 million in cash, two hand bags, and two pairs of shoes and other important valuables including wedding rings."

Chaibva added: "Trudy was hit with a machete on the back of her head and sustained a deep cut just above the neck. Councilor Mushonga suffered two broken fingers, which doctors say may have to be amputated. Manyere was hit with a stone, and suffered broken teeth and had a swollen face. She had multiple lacerations on her face and head after she was kicked with booted feet and clinched fists."

Chaibva said some of the youths who led the attack had been positively identified as the same youths who seized a vehicle from Mutambara's campaign team, which they were later ordered to return by the High Court. It has not been returned.

Tendai Biti, the secretary general for Tsvangirai's faction issued a statement late Monday, urging the police to round up the assailants.

He said: "We hope and trust that the police will take decisive action against the perpetrators of the above barbarism. On our part, we want to restate our constitutionally guaranteed position that any member of the party who partakes in violence and other criminal activities will be expelled. Those that are violent belong to Zanu PF and not in the MDC."

The MDC split into two factions last November. Political analysts say the party, formed in 1999, is now at its weakest just five years after it nearly upstaged Mugabe's Zanu PF in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
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