5 held in Zimbabwe in slaying described as politically motivated

April 25, 2000
Web posted at: 7:51 p.m. EDT (0251 GMT)

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From staff and wire reports

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Police in Zimbabwe have detained five suspects in connection with one of two fatal attacks that apparently were politically motivated.

A police spokesman said two men had died Monday after separate clashes between members of the ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The arrests were made in connection with a death in Shamva, about 50 miles northeast of the capital, Harare. The Associated Press reported that MDC spokesman Nomore Sibanda said attackers hit David Nhaurwa on the head with an ax Monday after he was asked to show his ruling party membership card.

VIDEO CNN's Mike Hanna reports on the funeral for a white farmer. (April 25) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD Zimbabwe land invasions

Police were investigating a separate incident in Harare where the victim, Sibanda said, was opposition organizer Robert Mbuzi.

The incidents bring the number of MDC supporters killed in political violence in the last two weeks to at least six, not including deaths linked to the invasion of hundreds of white-owned farms by veterans of the 1970s war of independence.

There have been four deaths linked to the farm occupations -- two white farmers, a farm worker and a policeman. Both the farmers killed had links to the MDC.

A memorial service was held on Tuesday for one of the farmers, David Stevens.

"I hope for the sake of those who lost their lives, including David, that something good will come out of this dreadful and intimidating situation, and that our troubled country can go back to its normal, happy self and get the change we all deserve," Stevens' wife Maria said in a statement read for her at the service.

Among those attending the service were survivors of the attack on Stevens, who was abducted, beaten and then shot in the head on April 15.

Stevens was the first farmer to be killed since the land occupations began in February. Farmer Martin Olds was killed on April 18.

Veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war have justified their occupation of farms as an effort to liberate land seized under British colonial rule and to redress the balance of ownership in a country, where 4,000 whites own one-third of the productive farmland.

But the MDC has accused President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party of using the land occupations to distract attention from Zimbabwe's economic crisis and build political support ahead of upcoming elections.

The MDC and international observers such as British Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain have said the farm occupations are being used as an excuse for attacks on opposition supporters by members of ZANU-PF.

The occupations began in February shortly after the government lost a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would have given it the power to seize land without compensation.

The defeat was a rare political setback for Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

The recently formed MDC provides the most potent electoral threat to Mugabe in the last 20 years. Parliamentary elections are expected to be held in the next few months.

Farmers are worried that the violence will delay the scheduled opening of tobacco auctions, due to start on Wednesday.

Officials of the mainly white Commercial Farmers Union say that work to grade and pack tobacco has been disrupted by the occupations.

A barn containing $240,000 worth of tobacco was destroyed in an attack on a farm over the weekend.

Zimbabwe is the world's second largest tobacco exporter after Brazil and the crop is the nation's primary source of hard currency.

The head of the tobacco auction floors, Pat Devonish, said 6,000 bales of tobacco had been delivered to the auction floors, compared with the 20,000 bales normally expected by the weekend before the sale.

Senior International Correspondent Mike Hanna, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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