Mugabe calls for peace as the police continue persecution of MDC officials

While Robert Mugabe called for an end to political violence at the burial of Rtd. Gen. Vitalis Zvinavashe at Heroes Acre today, pro-ZANU-PF police elements arrested Admire Mukorera, an MDC official and Deputy Mayor of the City of Mutare.

In a case of either acute amnesia or hypocrisy, Mugabe told mourners at the Heroes Acre that: "Zimbabwe is ours together, the land is ours. Why should we continue fighting each other?"

This is the same Mugabe who less than a year ago condoned ZANU-PF militia violence across the country that left almost 200 MDC activists and supporters dead.

In a spirit of unity, MDC officials, led by PM Tsvangirai attended the burial of Zvinavashe, the former MP for Gutu who was declared a National Hero by the ZANU-PF Politburo this week. He died Monday and was 63.

Mugabe had in the past used the burial of ZANU-PF cadres to attack the west, the MDC, and other perceived enemies of ZANU-PF.

The Harare Tribune heard that MDC officials attended the event with trepidation, thinking that Mugabe might launch new attacks on his list of enemies and derail efforts to get funding from the West.

Instead of attacking the West, Mugabe merely called on the MDC to work together with ZANU-PF to make sure that Britain and other countries lift targeted sanctions imposed on ZANU-PF leaders.

"We should refuse the sanctions. We should tell them to remove the sanctions so that we improve the lives of our people," Mugabe said. The issue of "illegal" sanctions, as ZANU-PF cronies call them, has become Mugabe's ralling call in recent weeks.

Western nations said they will lift sanctions after they had been convinced that ZANU-PF cronies, who promoted human rights abuses over the years, are committed to peace.

Despite Mugabe's call for peace, ZANU-PF militia units went on the rampage out in Buhera District, Manicaland Province, where several houses belonging to MDC supporters were burnt to the ground in renewed political violence.

According to eyewitnesses, the victims of political violence reported the names of the ZANU-PF militia members involved in political violence, but the pro-ZANU-PF police has refused to arrest them.

Instead, the police Saturday chose to arrest victims of political violence, including the Deputy Mayor of Mutare.

"They said his vehicle was used during political disturbances in Buhera but they did not give details," Pishayi Muchauraya, an MDC official in Manicaland Province, said of Mukorera's arrest.
"He is detained at Mutare central police station but they plan to take him to Buhera. When we went to see him he had not been charged."

Lawyer Trust Maanda confirmed Mukorera was detained in Mutare.

"Initially they had said they were not going to charge him and that they only wanted to record statements from him as a witness in connection with some incidents in Buhera," Maanda said.
"Later they said they were locking him up and that they were going to charge him. But for what? I don't know."

There has been several reports of political violence across the country in recent weeks. Several people have been injured, lost their homes and property in the new politically motivated violence.