Police in early morning raid on MDC in hotel
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=3167
August 26, 2008
By Our Correspondent
HARARE - The police besieged a central Harare hotel in the early
hours of Tuesday morning and threatened to arrest a number of
MDC legislators who are booked there.
The police say the names of the targeted Members of Parliament
appear on a list of persons wanted by the police.
Officers from the Harare Central Police Station's Law and Order
section threatened to break down the door to hotel room number
512 at the Quality International Hotel around 4 am Tuesday. The
MDC's Chipinge East legislator Mateo Mlambo is booked in that
room.
Mlambo told The Zimbabwe Times by phone that he was holed up in
the hotel room together with his wife after refusing to
entertain the police at that time of the night.
The officers claim Mlambo beat up a war veteran in his
constituency during election campaign in March.
"They are here and they are waiting to take me," he said. "They
came around 4am and demanded that I get out but I told them it's
too early. They threatened to break down the door but I dared
them to try it."
Hotel staff said the officers demanded the guest register at the
hotel at gun-point. Terrified reception staff handed over the
list and the officers frisked the entire hotel, located in
central Harare, re****tedly on the hunt for MDC MPs on their
"wanted" list.
The Zimbabwe Times heard that Makoni North MP and MDC deputy
secretary-general Elton Mangoma was arrested as he departed from
Parliament after the swearing-in ceremony Monday. His
whereabouts remain unknown.
Mangoma is one of the key negotiators of the MDC in the SADC
brokered dialogue between Zanu-PF and the two MDC parties.
Mangoma's arrest came hard on the heels of the detention of two
other MDC MPs Shuwa Mudiwa, MP for Mutare West and Eliah
Jembere, MP for Epworth, as they made their way to the
swearing-in ceremony Monday.
Mudiwa was recently acquitted on trumped up charges of public
violence while Jembere was acquitted on rape charge, also said
to be fake, in May.
Mudiwa has since been released but Jembere is still in police
custody.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the police action was part of
a campaign of retribution by the defeated Zanu- PF after the
party lost the key post of Speaker of Parliament to the MDC on
Monday.
MDC national chairman Lovemore Moyo was voted Speaker Monday
beating Paul Themba-Nyathi a nominee sponsored by a coalition
between Zanu-PF and the breakaway faction of the MDC led by
Arthur Mutambara. MPs representing the Mutambara faction
embarrassed their leaders when they voted for the candidate
nominated by the rival mainstream MDC.
"It is clear Zanu-PF is on a retributive campaign after bitterly
losing the post of Speaker in Parliament,"
Chamisa told The Zimbabwe Times. "We have been magnanimous in
victory; they must also be distinguished in defeat."
Chamisa said it was appalling that the police were harassing MDC
MPs who were themselves victims of violence and yet not even a
single person who murdered any of the at least 125 MDC activists
and sympathizers had been arrested.
He railed the police for disturbing the peace at the hotel and
for embarrassing guests.
The police have issued a list of wanted MDC legislators. The
list includes the names of Highfield East MP, Pearson Mungofa,
Mazowe Central MP, Shepherd Mushonga, Piniel Denga (Mbare),
Broadwin Nyaude (Bindura South), Bikita East MP Edmore Marima
and Mangoma, who was arrested yesterday.
Chamisa said his party was privy to a revised list of 15 MDC
legislators said to be wanted by the police. Mudiwa, Jembere and
Mlambo are among the latest additions, he said.
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