The Zimbabwean army distanced its members from post-election attacks on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which said Thursday 30 of its members had been killed in attacks by supporters of President Robert Mugabe, according to dpa. The MDC says soldiers and Zanu-PF militia are behind the month-long campaign of violence in mostly rural areas, which it says is aimed at punishing those who voted against Mugabe in March 29 presidential elections ahead of a possible second round of voting. A runoff was called for after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai topped the poll but failed to win an outright majority of more than 50 per cent. Tsvangirai took 47.9 per cent to Mugabe's 43.2 per cent in official results. The MDC said Thursday six of its members had died in hospital in Chiweshe, 100 kilometres north of the capital Harare, since Monday of injuries sustained in an attack by soldiers on Sunday, bringing to 30 its election dead. A high-level South African delegation, which is in Zimbabwe for talks on conditions for a runoff election and to investigate political violence, travelled to Chiweshe to investigate the report, official sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Zimbabwe National Army spokesman Major Alphios Makotore, in a statement sent to state media obtained by dpa, said the people in army uniform terrorizing people were bogus soldiers. "The army categorically distances itself and any of its members from such activities." But MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the party had information that more than 200 soldiers had been deployed in the countryside to attack opposition supporters. "Only those who are not in Zimbabwe cannot believe that some members of the army have turned against the people it is supposed to protect," said Chamisa. Zimbabwe's police have repeatedly refuted the MDC's violence claims and in turn accused the MDC of retaliatory attacks. Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told the state-run Herald newspaper Thursday that one of the people the MDC said was killed by Zanu-PF militia had died of an illness. Bvudzijena said the MDC polling agent that the MDC said had died of injuries sustained in an attack had in fact died of "chronic meningitis, disseminated tuberculosis and clinical immuno- suppression." Bvudzijena did concede, however, that the dead man clashed with a Zanu-PF supporter two weeks before his death. The violence, which rights groups say runs both ways between the Zanu-PF and the MDC but with Zanu-PF supporters accounting for the far greater share, has cast doubts over an imminent election runoff. On Wednesday one southern African and one African election observer group said a runoff election was unadvisable in the current political climate. A farmworkers' union said Thursday that 40,000 black farm workers had been chased off the land by Zanu-PF youth militia during a fresh spate of invasions of white-owned farms. Because Zimbabweans are obliged to vote in their ward, the internally displaced would probably not be able to vote in the mooted presidential runoff. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has yet to announce a date for the second round but has hinted it could be anytime within the next 12 months. Mugabe has promised to take part but Tsvangirai, who claims he won outright in March, has yet to announce his intentions.
