Zimbabwe's police chief denies political bias

Zimbabwe's police chief denies political bias

CHIHURI

• Zimbabwe accredits election observers

• Website: Diaspora Vote Action Group

• 'Half Zimbabwe's voters in foreign countries'

• Supreme Court hears case by exiled voters

• Zim exiles petition Supreme Court over vote

• Chinamasa says exiles will NOT vote

• Zimbabwe hints at postal voting for 3,5 million exiles

• Zimbabwe says civil servants to monitor polls

• Mugabe puts military in centre of election

• Zim opposition demands voters' roll review

• MDC cries foul as constituencies erased

• MDC: 'Delimitation an exercise in deception'

• Zimbabwe voters' roll 'inflated by a million'

• Mugabe bars Western observers from polls

• Sparks fly over voters' roll tampering

• Zimbabwe bars election observers

• 'Mugabe's compliance the litmus test for SADC protocol on democratic polls'

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S police chief rejected accusations on Tuesday that his force had sided with government supporters in political clashes ahead of month-end elections, saying police had acted against members of the ruling party.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accused the security forces of colluding with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party in attacks on its members.

It also said violence against MDC activists was on the increase in the run-up to the March 31 parliamentary vote.

But Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri said his force was acting against Mugabe supporters involved in violence.

"The Zimbabwe Republic Police position is that we are not going to tolerate any political violence from any quarter ... even after elections we will still be hunting those who ... have committed offences and we will not tire of this obligation," Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri told a news conference.

Chihuri said police had arrested 67 ZANU-PF members in violence-related cases so far this year, compared to 42 MDC supporters.

Among them were 31 ruling party militants detained last month after attacking opposition supporters, invading a police base and stabbing an officer during a pre-election rampage.

Chihuri said campaigning had so far been 'overwhelmingly peaceful'.

But the MDC said in a statement things had taken a turn for the worse.

"Sensing defeat, ZANU-PF has intensified violence against MDC activists countrywide. Several incidents of violence, some of them involving police and army personnel, continue to be received from various parts of the country," it said.

Analysts say ZANU-PF is almost certain to hang on to power this year, as it did in 2000, when the MDC also accused it of killing, torturing and harassing opposition supporters.

The MDC insists it would have won that election and a presidential poll two years later were it not for attacks and vote-rigging by the ruling party.

The opposition also blames the government for a political and economic crisis that has ruined the once prosperous southern African country.

But ZANU-PF insists it won fairly in both elections and in turn accuses the MDC of fanning most of the election violence.

Mugabe, 81, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies mismanaging the country and says the MDC is a puppet of Western powers who have sabotaged Zimbabwe's economy in retaliation for his policy of seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks - Reuters
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com