Mugabe's thugs bash workers

[Green Left Parramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Can comrades seriously consider such actions the work of a party that
deserves ``critical support''. It Zimbabwe workers that are bearing
the brunt of ZANU-PF's violence, not white farmers.

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Johannesburg, South Africa. May 8 2000

Mugabe terror moves from farm to factory

President Mugabe's supporters invaded a factory on the outskirts of
Harare this
weekend, claiming the staff were supporters of the opposition Movement
for
Democratic Change.


By ANDREW MELDRUM in Harare


RESH violence erupted in Zimbabwe yesterday as one group of President
Robert Mugabe's supporters beat a white farmer unconscious and another
went
on the rampage in a Harare factory.

Violence from Mugabe's supporters is blamed for the deaths of 19
supporters of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) since April 1.

Alan Dunn, a farmer in the Beatrice area, 50 miles south of Harare, had
his skull and
both arms fractured by a gang of Mugabe's supporters yesterday
afternoon. He died
early this morning.

Four more farms in the south of the country were also invaded.

Another group of 200 war veterans invaded the factory and workers'
quarters of the
Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company, on the outskirts of Harare.

The war veterans had warned the factory manager last week that his staff
were all
supporters of the opposition MDC and that he should hire Zanu-PF
supporters or risk
violence.

Yesterday the war veterans broke in and
began beating up workers, 300 of whom
live in staff quarters at the factory.

Mugabe's supporters went from house to
house, smashing the windows, dragging
out the inhabitants and beating them.
Police were present but they took no
action.