Political violence continued unabated in Zimbabwe this week despite expressions of concern by regional leaders including South African President Thabo Mbeki and an impending briefing Thursday in the United Nations Security Council.
The latest death occurred in Bindura South constituency in Mashonaland Central province where activist Chenjerai Kahari of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was shot to death by war veterans backing President Robert Mugabe in the presidential run-off June 27 in which he will face MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
MDC sources said Kahari was shot dead by self-styled war veterans at the Chireka shopping center following an incident earlier Tuesday in which war veterans and ruling party youth militia members forced villagers to a ZANU-PF meeting there. The MDC sources said the militia has set up a torture base at a Chireka primary school.
In Bindura, Mashonaland Central, a source said that the homes of four opposition members were attacked by ZANU-PF supporters Tuesday night and a married couple was beaten. The sources said 200 ZANU-PF youths in party regalia believed to be from Mount Darwin, Mashonaland Central, were dropped at Tendai Hall in the mining town on Wednesday in preparation for another attack later in the night.
Opposition activist Taurai Chiveso of Bindura South told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Kahari's body was still lying in a pool of blood in the store where he was murdered, as police refused to take the body to the mortuary.
The Zimbabwe Medical Doctor's Association on Wednesday issued a statement urging an immediate end to political violence, days after the European Union terminated the consultancy contract it maintained with ZIMA President Paul Chimedza upon receiving information accusing him of inciting violence in Gutu, Masvingo province.
Dr. Chimedza denied the charges and accused the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights of launching the allegations, which that association's chairman, Dr. Douglas Gwatidzo, denied, as correspondent Sylvia Manika reported.