HARARE – Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader suffered a suspected skull fracture, brain injury and internal bleeding, doctors reported yesterday, after what his lawyers said were savage beatings while in police custody.
Morgan Tsvangirai was moved to the intensive care unit where he could be more closely monitored and was awaiting the results of a brain scan carried out earlier yesterday, added Tafadza Mugabe, one of his lawyers. Tsvangirai was among a dozen allegedly beaten by police who remained hospitalised yesterday, their lawyers said.Another 34 were released early yesterday from the private hospital in Harare where they had been taken after a court appearance on Tuesday, Mugabe said.All were arrested as police broke up an opposition prayer meeting on Sunday.Those freed were told to return to the Harare magistrates’ court when it opened yesterday, but amid chaos at the court no proceedings were held and the activists returned to their homes.Beatrice Mtwetwa, another lawyer for the group, and police were not present at the court.”If they want us, the police can call us,” she said.Innocent Chagonda, another Tsvangirai lawyer, said police withdrew from the Harare clinic where the opposition leader was being treated later yesterday.He noted that because a High Court order issued late Monday ordered police to charge or release the opposition leaders and activists by noon on Tuesday, and none was charged.”As far as we are concerned, they are now free men,” Chagonda said.Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and colleagues from other opposition and civic groups were ferried in ambulances and buses from the magistrates’ court Tuesday after the state agreed to let all those detained receive medical attention.Many of them sustained severe bruising and internal injuries after police raided a prayer meeting Sunday that authorities had declared illegal.One opposition activist, identified as Gift Tandare, was shot dead by police Sunday.Mtetwa said the police forced Tsvangirai and many of the others to lay face down and then beat them savagely and repeatedly with truncheons both at the scene of the arrests and at police stations.The events have renewed questions about how long Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe can maintain his tight grip on power amid deteriorating economic, political and social conditions.The violence also has drawn international condemnation.”The world community again has been shown that the regime of (President) Robert Mugabe is ruthless and repressive and creates only suffering for the people of Zimbabwe,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.The British ambassador here, the United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and the human rights committee of the International Bar Association also have expressed concern and condemnation..Nampa-APTsvangirai was among a dozen allegedly beaten by police who remained hospitalised yesterday, their lawyers said.Another 34 were released early yesterday from the private hospital in Harare where they had been taken after a court appearance on Tuesday, Mugabe said.All were arrested as police broke up an opposition prayer meeting on Sunday.Those freed were told to return to the Harare magistrates’ court when it opened yesterday, but amid chaos at the court no proceedings were held and the activists returned to their homes.Beatrice Mtwetwa, another lawyer for the group, and police were not present at the court.”If they want us, the police can call us,” she said.Innocent Chagonda, another Tsvangirai lawyer, said police withdrew from the Harare clinic where the opposition leader was being treated later yesterday.He noted that because a High Court order issued late Monday ordered police to charge or release the opposition leaders and activists by noon on Tuesday, and none was charged.”As far as we are concerned, they are now free men,” Chagonda said.Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and colleagues from other opposition and civic groups were ferried in ambulances and buses from the magistrates’ court Tuesday after the state agreed to let all those detained receive medical attention.Many of them sustained severe bruising and internal injuries after police raided a prayer meeting Sunday that authorities had declared illegal.One opposition activist, identified as Gift Tandare, was shot dead by police Sunday.Mtetwa said the police forced Tsvangirai and many of the others to lay face down and then beat them savagely and repeatedly with truncheons both at the scene of the arrests and at police stations.The events have renewed questions about how long Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe can maintain his tight grip on power amid deteriorating economic, political and social conditions.The violence also has drawn international condemnation.”The world community again has been shown that the regime of (President) Robert Mugabe is ruthless and repressive and creates only suffering for the people of Zimbabwe,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.The British ambassador here, the United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and the human rights committee of the International Bar Association also have expressed concern and condemnation..Nampa-AP
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