Two Zimbabwe opposition politicians were arrested yesterday as they entered parliament to be sworn in, their party said.
One of the men, Eliah Zembere, was among seven Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists police have said they were seeking, alleging they were involved in election violence. The other, Sure Mudzingwa, was not on the list, and the two uniformed and three plainclothes officers who made the arrests did not say why nor where the two were being taken.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he was unaware of yesterday’s arrests, and added: “It would be illegal for anyone to be arrested while they were proceeding to parliament.”
Independent human rights groups have said Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s forces were responsible for most of the violence since the opposition won the most seats in March 29 legislative elections.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe and two other candidates in presidential elections held alongside the legislative balloting, but did not gain the simple majority of votes needed to avoid a runoff. Mugabe and Tsvangirai have entered into power-sharing negotiations.
Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the MDC remained determined to take up seats in parliament, which Mugabe was to open today for the first time since the elections nearly five months ago. Chamisa charged that the arrests were politically motivated, an attempt by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party to regain control of parliament. ZANU-PF had controlled parliament from independence in 1980 until the March vote.
“ZANU-PF are in a desperate attempt to try and stop or abort our victory,” Chamisa said. “It’s a struggle. We have to fight it out.”
Tsvangirai’s party has 100 seats in the 210-seat legislature; Mugabe’s party holds 99; and a faction that broke away from the opposition has 10. An independent politician who broke away from Mugabe’s party has the remaining seat.
Tsvangirai had criticized the reconvening of parliament given the deadlock in power-sharing talks mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Leaked documents from the talks show Tsvangirai balked at signing a deal based on an offer making him prime minister with limited powers and answerable to Mugabe, who would remain as president.
The documents show the prime minister would be deputy chairman of the Cabinet, and the president and the prime minister would need to agree on ministerial posts. With the prime minister reporting regularly to the president, Mugabe’s power would be left virtually intact.
The political impasse has worsened Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown.
Official inflation is given as 11 million percent, but independent financial institutions say it is closer to 40 million percent amid acute shortages of food, gasoline, medicine and most basic goods.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS