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Reports of Militia Bases Spur Fact-Finding Mission by Zimbabwe Home Co-Minister


Zimbabwean Co-Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa said Tuesday that he will conduct a nationwide fact-finding mission to look into reports from the country's largest teachers union and civic groups that violence has resurfaced in many rural communities.

Mutsekwa, a legislator of the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, shares control of the ministry with Kembo Mohadi of the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe in the country's power-sharing government.

Teachers and political activists say that militias connected to the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe have established bases in schools as they did during the post-election wave of violence that swept the country in April-June 2008. Other reports said militia members have harassed perceived enemies in the context of ongoing constitutional revision.

Mutsekwa told reporter Sandra Nyaira of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that though he won't be accompanied by Mohadi, militia camps will be dismantled if he finds them.

But political analyst Farai Maguwu, director of the Center for Research and Development in Mutare said Mutsekwa and the MDC don’t have the power to abolish militia bases.

More reports from VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe...

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