Tsvangirai lists Mugabe thugs in hope of prosecution
ZIMBABWE'S opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has said he is gathering the names of government thugs to prosecute for attacking his supporters during the election campaign.
Mr Tsvangirai said he would defy intimidation and go on campaigning for the June 27 election. "My party is compiling names of those perpetrating the violence and is sending them to the attorney general's office,'' he said. "Any chances of prosecuting are slim under the current circumstances, but those are some of the issues we will look at in our new government.''
He was speaking after his arrest by the police, who have worked with the ruling Zanu-PF party to prop up President Robert Mugabe since the first round in March. The authorities have confiscated Mr Tsvangirai's bulletproof car, which he fears could be a prelude to an attempt on his life.
There has been an unofficial bar on MDC rallies -- whatever about a High Court decision to overturn a police ban on opposition this weekend -- so Mr Tsvangirai has adopted lower-profile 'walkabouts' on the campaign trail.
At Somene village in Plumtree, 350 miles south of Harare, villagers mobbed him waving placards bearing his party's open-hand symbol.
"Help us President Tsvangirai,'' shouted a woman in her eighties. "We are hungry, we are tired of being beaten. You are our only salvation.''
Nearer the capital, the regime's hand was more visible: the candidate was led away by police after briefly meeting supporters.
"We were afraid of even coming to meet Tsvangirai as we were warned by war veterans we will be killed,'' said a man too frightened to give his name. "Some people were beaten just this morning.''
Over the past week, the opposition leader has twice been arrested, once spending nine hours in detention.
He has called on the UN to send peacekeepers, and urged the Southern African Development Community, which monitored the first round of polling, to put observers in place as soon as possible. "We were made to believe that the observers would be on the ground by June 8,'' he said.
The regime appears determined to ensure no monitoring of the poll and has banned foreign charities. © Telegraph
