Zimbabwe war veteran leader dies

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Chenjerai Hunzvi -- who led Zimbabwe's war veterans movement -- has died.

Hunzvi, 51, died in hospital on Monday morning after contracting suspected cerebral malaria, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation state radio said. No official details of his death have been revealed.

Hunzvi had led the National Liberation War Veterans' Association which has controversially taken more than 1,700 white farms, often through violence and bloodshed.

President Mugabe has targeted more than 3,000 white-owned farms as part of his plan to redistribute land in the run-up to general elections.

He says the land was stolen by British settlers more than a century ago. Mugabe's supporters say the farmers back the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

At least 31 people, mostly MDC supporters, including five white farmers, have died during the seizures.

War veterans had been holding a vigil outside the coronary care unit at Parirenyatwa hospital north of the city centre.

Hunzvi, believed to be aged around 51, had been accused of spurring on followers to carry out the violent occupations, personally leading may of them.

He also commanded raids on nearly 200 factories and businesses by militants claiming to be mediating in labour disputes, the Associated Press said.

He had recently been charged with a string of fraud offences in connection to veterans' compensation funds and medical claims, but the court dismissed the cases for lack of evidence.

He was jailed in 1966 for his involvement in black nationalist politics before training to be a medical doctor and becoming chairman of the veterans' association in 1995.

The veterans' leader is the third senior member of Mugabe's inner political circle to die in the last four weeks.

Mugabe lost his defence minister Moven Mahachi a week ago in a car crash in the mountainous region in the east of the country.

Mahachi had worked as lands minister, responsible for rural resettlement policies, before switching to home affairs minister and then defence.

Three weeks before that, Mugabe's minister for gender and employment creation, Border Gezi, also died in a car crash.

Hunzvi, who preferred to be called "Hitler," collapsed on May 28 in Bulawayo, the African nation's second-largest city after visiting war veterans.

Political analysts say his death will be a major blow to Mugabe and his supporters. Hunzvi is expected to be given a state funeral, though no date has yet been set.

A senior official in the ruling ZANU-PF party, was quoted by Reuters as saying: "We are sorry to hear about comrade Hunzvi's death."

He added that "able comrades" were ready to take his place.