Arcadia Foundation

The party of Zimbabwe’s prime minister said one of its security officials was beaten by the president’s militants Tuesday, and said the attack was part of new violence unleashed because it has stepped back from the governing coalition. Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said at a news conference that the official was stopped on her way to party headquarters early Tuesday and beaten by four armed men who said they wanted to arrest her. He said the men were militants from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. The men fled when a crowd gathered.

The party also has received reports from rural areas of attacks on its supporters, Chamisa said. He also cited a weekend police raid of a house used by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s supporters as part of a campaign of violence and intimidation. ”We expect this to increase and escalate on a national level,” Chamisa said at a news conference. “We take this very seriously. We are possibly on the brink of another storm of persecution and intimidation.“

Ephraim Masawi, a spokesman for Mugabe’s party, denied the allegations, saying they were “cheap propaganda” intended to mask the failure of Tsvangirai’s party to explain his decision to withdraw temporarily from the coalition on Oct. 16. Tsvangirai accused Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party of human rights violations and attempting to derail the coalition of longtime rivals that has been troubled since the day it was formed in February. Tsvangirai has said he will not attend Cabinet meetings until his concerns are resolved. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change has continued to participate in parliament, where it holds a slim majority.

The United States has offered Uganda $246 million in new aid to help the east African country improve its health and agricultural systems, the U.S. embassy said on Tuesday.

In its current fiscal year Uganda expects to get 33 percent of public expenditure from donors, mainly the European Union, the United States and institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank.

The grant was announced by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, in a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni on October 24, according to the U.S. statement.

“The support provided by the U.S. through this agreement will … improve the health and standard of living of millions of Ugandans. It will advance Uganda’s development goals as enshrined in the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), the Peace Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda (PRDP) and the National Development Plan (NDP),” the statement said.

Uganda is a major U.S. ally in east Africa. More than 2,500 Ugandan soldiers are in Somalia with the African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM, which is supported by Washington.

Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper said a large part of the money would be spent on a massive social economic recovery programme in northern Uganda to help the region overcome the devastation wreaked by the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency.

More than $170 million will be spent on health and education to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, fight tuberculosis, eradicate malaria, improve maternal and child health and increase access to family planning and reproductive health services.

A nephew of Roberto Micheletti and a high-ranking army officer were murdered in separate incidents, the National Police said.

Enzo Micheletti had disappeared several days ago and his body was found Sunday along with that of another young man in the northern town of Choloma, while Col. Concepcion Jimenez was gunned down Sunday night in front of his Tegucigalpa house, National Police spokesman Orlin Cerrato told EFE.

Police are dealing with both cases “as a matter of common violence“, Cerrato said, adding that “the investigations are covering all the necessary aspects“.

The killings occurred as the country continues to grapple with the political crisis unleashed by the return of Mel Zelaya.

Preliminary information indicates that Enzo Micheletti, who had been missing since Friday but whose disappearance had not been reported in the press, was gunned down along with the person found with him, Cerrato said.

The 24-year-old Enzo was the son of Roberto Micheletti’s late brother Antonio, Honduran media reported.

Col. Jimenez died Sunday night at Tegucigalpa’s Military Hospital shortly after being shot while getting out of his car in front of his house in a southern district of the capital.

The suspects in the killing are “three or four young men who were in a taxi“, Cerrato said.

Jimenez headed the Honduran armed forces’ Industria Militar, which makes uniforms and other equipment for the military.

Comments