Zimbabwe violence escalating
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Zimbabwe violence escalating*
From correspondents in Harare
May 13, 2008 09:28pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
LEVELS of post-election violence in Zimbabwe are escalating in urban and
rural areas and could reach crisis proportions, the United Nations'
senior representative in the country said today.
"These incidents of violence are occurring in communal farming and urban
areas and there are indications that the level of violence is escalating
in all these areas and could reach crisis levels,'' Agustino Zacarias,
the UN's resident representative in Zimbabwe, said.
Zacarias said most of the violence appeared to have been inflicted by
supporters of President Robert Mugabe on suspected followers of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change but the MDC had also carried
out attacks.
"There is an emerging pattern of political violence inflicted mainly but
not exclusively on rural supporters of the MDC,'' he said.
"There are reports that MDC supporters are also resorting to violence.''
The diplomat said that aid workers, human rights activists and large
numbers of civilians had also fallen victim to violence since a March 29
general election, when Mr Mugabe's party lost control of parliament to
the MDC.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai also beat Mr Mugabe but fell short
of an overall majority and the pair must now do battle in a run-off
election, the date of which has still to be announced.
"The UN country team is particularly concerned that this level of
violence, reports of threats, intimidation, abuse and violence directed
against NGOs, election monitors, human rights defenders and other
representatives of civil society,'' Mr Zacarias said.
"The UN country team is deeply concerned about the number of internally
displaced people that have fled their homes for fear of reprisals by
party activists without food and other basic social services.''