MDC senator's house attacked: MDC

MDC senator's house attacked: MDC

• Police say war veteran killed by MDC supporters

• Tsvangirai released, told to suspend rallies

• Mutambara says Mugabe seeks to decapitate MDC

• Tsvangirai detained, then released

• Mutambara freed on bail, lawyer challenges charges

• Bush says Mutambara's arrest 'deplorable'

• Mutambara arrested over Mugabe attack

• Text: Tsvangirai speech to MDC parliamentary caucus

• Tsvangirai leaves door open for unity government

• Tsvangirai's tears for slain activist

• Morgan Tsvangirai: Zimbabwe restoration about to begin

• Arthur Mutambara: Rethinking the African economic model

• Arthur Mutambara: A shameful betrayal of our Independence

SUSPECTED ruling party militants stoned an opposition senator's home and torched his car on Tuesday as election-related violence gathered pace in Zimbabwe ahead of a run-off election, the party said.

"Zanu PF thugs attacked the house of our senator for Gutu, Empire Makamure, and burnt his car to ashes early this morning," Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told AFP.

In a separate incident, Chamisa said that followers of President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF attacked a local businessman and torched two of his lorries after accusing him of being an MDC sympathiser.

"We are now witnessing a disturbing trend of coordinated violence involving arson, assault, abductions and killing," Chamisa added.

"The targets are mainly key MDC members, our supporters and election agents. Zanu PF knows they will not win a free and fair election -- that is why they are resorting to this violence."

Meanwhile state media reported that a veteran of the 1970s liberation war was killed and four Zanu PF supporters injured by MDC followers in the southern Bikita region over the weekend.

The Herald daily said that the victims had been set on by several dozen MDC followers with axes, machetes and clubs.

There have been growing reports of election-related violence with less than three weeks before Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai square off in the second round of a presidential election on June 27.

According to the MDC, more than 60 of its supporters have been killed by pro-Mugabe militias since the first round of voting on March 29.

Mugabe in turn has accused the MDC of "terrorising" Zanu PF followers, although the UN says the vast majority of victims of the spiralling violence have in fact been opposition supporters. - AFP
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com