President Robert Mugabe’s government raided the offices of the main opposition movement and rounded up foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous indication that he may use intimidation and violence to keep his grip on power.
Police raided a hotel used by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and ransacked some of the rooms. Riot police also surrounded another hotel housing foreign journalists, and took away several of them, according to a man who answered the phone there.
“Mugabe has started a crackdown,” Movement for Democratic Change general secretary Tendai Biti told The Associated Press. “It is quite clear he has unleashed a war.”
Biti said the raid at the Meikles Hotel targeted “certain people … including myself.” Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was “safe” but had canceled plans for a news conference, he said.
Biti said that Thursday’s clampdown was a sign of worse to follow but that the opposition would not go into hiding.
Terrible news, just horrid. The poor people of Zimbabwe have suffered so under this revolting marxist tyrant.
This is an important time to pray for this nation, for the courageous people who are seeking to move things in a new direction, for the church’s witness, and for the interim Anglican bishop of Harare, Sebatian Bakare.
And people are surprised? Why? Why is one man’s desire to hang onto power at all costs surprising?