ZIMBABWE OPPOSITION LEADER TSVANGIRAI KIDNAPPED, TORTURED, SKULL CRACKED
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, LEADER OF ZIMBABWE'S OPPOSITION TO THE REGIME OF ROBERT MUGABE, WAS HELD INCOMUNICADO, BEATEN TO UNCONSCIOUSNESS
14 March 2007

This week, Zimbabwe's supreme court ordered the government to provide the detained opposition leader with legal counsel, access to family and aid groups, and immediate medical treatment. His wife described his condition as being unable to walk or see. The government denied him treatment for several days, and he is now in hospital with a cracked skull.

The government of Robert Mugabe has become increasingly authoritarian, after taking control of Zimbabwe with the intention of democratizing the troubled nation. Mugabe has chosen to cling to power by banning the opposition, closing newspapers, prohibiting access to the nation for foreign journalists, and destroying nearly 1,000,000 makeshift "squatter" homes where the urban poor were forced to take shelter.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) held a rally to oppose Mugabe's rule, on Sunday, and police attacked the demonstrators, taking the organization's leaders into custody and accusing several with conspiracy against the state for voicing opposition to Mugabe. They were reportedly held without charge, severely beaten and tortured, while denied access to any legal counsel.

The nation's supreme court ordered the Mugabe government to provide the detained with hearings and access to lawyers and medical treatment or release them immediately. The government did not follow the order immediately, but some 30 MDC leaders have now been released and transferred to hospital for treatment of reportedly severe wounds suffered in the police assaults over several days in custody.

The US government officially denounced the police assaults as "ruthless and repressive", calling on Mugabe to respect fair legal process and habeas corpus. South Africa, often neutral on internal Zimbabwean politics, called on Mugabe to respect the rule of law and international standards for judicial proceedings. [s]

• Reuters: "Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai has cracked skull"

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