KENYA: Zimbabwe's opposition has accused the government's military intelligence of plotting to assassinate party leader Morgan Tsvangirai

Record ID: 361864

  • Title: KENYA: Zimbabwe's opposition has accused the government's military intelligence of plotting to assassinate party leader Morgan Tsvangirai
  • Date: 19th May 2008
  • Summary: (BN10) NAIROBI, KENYA (MAY 19, 2008) (REUTERS) TENDAI BITI, SECRETARY GENERAL FOR MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE (MDC) TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) SECRETARY GENERAL FOR MDC, TENDAI BITI, SAYING: "There is a list there in Zimbabwe which they are running with, there are snipers that they have trained, 18 snipers that they have trained. The military intellige
  • Embargoed: 3rd June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9T5ZRPQXQ57BHE9GOIEJJJCU4
  • Story Text: Zimbabwe's opposition has accused the government's military intelligence of plotting to assassinate party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
    Zimbabwe's opposition accused the government's military intelligence division on Monday (May 19) of plotting to assassinate party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is due to contest an election run-off with President Robert Mugabe.
    Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai postponed his return to Zimbabwe on Saturday (May 16) after his party said it had discovered a plot to assassinate him. Tsvangirai had spent more than one month abroad.

    "There is a list there in Zimbabwe which they are running with, there are snipers that they have trained, 18 snipers that they have trained.
    The military intelligence directory is fully in charge of this, but the bottom line is that it is a violent regime," Tendai Biti, secretary general for MDC, told Reuters in Nairobi.
    Official results showed Tsvangirai beat Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for three decades, in a disputed March 29 poll, but not by enough votes to avoid a run-off.
    Tsvangirai was due to return from Europe on Saturday to campaign ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off, and Biti said he would still return "very soon."
    The opposition also accuses the aid agencies of complicity in the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe.
    The MDC blames the government for violence in which it says 40 of its members have been killed, scores have been wounded and more than 1,000 homes burnt or destroyed in attacks by gangs wielding whips, axes and clubs.

    "The sad thing here is that the local agencies of bodies like the UN, the local agencies or bodies such as the Red Cross have been in complicity with the regime for a long time, so they are afraid to acknowledge the crisis and to intervene in a decisive manner because once they intervene in a decisive manner, it means camps are going to be set up where people are going to be received and they will receive drugs and once you have got camps you have got visible evidence of the murder that is taking place there and so they are keeping a back seat," said Biti.
    Biti said Mugabe's Zanu PF party was known to use violence to intimidate the opposition and it's supporters even in past elections.

    "In 2005 they displaced over violently over a million of our people (had) destroyed houses, so violence is nothing new to them, between the 29th of March to now they have displaced over 100,000 people, they have killed people, they have tortured people, hospitals are full as it were and of course if their aim is to reverse the people's will of the 29th of March 2008, their number one target has to be Morgan Tsvangirai because Morgan Tsvangirai is the face of our struggle," said Biti.
    Zimbabweans hope the June poll will help end political and economic turmoil which has brought 165,000 percent inflation, 80 percent unemployment, chronic food and fuel shortages and sent a flood of refugees to neighbouring countries.
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