SEE WHAT BEING AN OPPOSITION LEADER IS ALL ABOUT IN ZIMBABWE 

Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe hospital 

Cut and bruised, Morgan Tsvangirai could barely walk


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Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been taken to hospital after appearing in court with injuries following two days in police detention.
He was taken from Harare magistrates court with several other activists, many of them bandaged.

They were badly beaten in custody after being detained at an opposition rally on Sunday, supporters said.

One person was shot dead as riot police broke up the meeting, called to pray for the political and economic crisis.

  One of us was killed. They shot my friend Gift Tandare dead

MDC activist


Eyewitness: Brutal clash
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BBC reporter Brian Hungwe, who was at the courthouse, said the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader appeared with 10 of about 50 detainees who were brought to the court.

He says Mr Tsvangirai was badly swollen, his right eye was shut, he had deep cuts and several stitches and could barely walk.

The other detainees had similar injuries, our reporter says.

Mr Tsvangirai stood next to Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a rival MDC faction, while many of the activists sang and chanted, AFP news agency reported.

A lawyer for the group, Beatrice Mtetwa, said they will be charged with incitement to violence, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The detainees were taken to hospital after prosecutor Florence Ziyambi said they would be allowed to receive medical attention.

'Brutal' crackdown

The police action against Sunday's meeting in Harare, which they say was banned, has been strongly condemned by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and by the United States and European Union.

TSVANGIRAI'S LEGAL TROUBLES
2003: Charged with treason - later dropped
2002: Lost election to Mugabe, charged with treason - later dropped
2000: Charged with treason - later dropped
2000: MDC won 57 parliamentary seats
1999: Helped form MDC


Media anger over crackdown
Q&A: Zimbabwe meltdown 

Mr Ban's spokeswoman said the arrests "violate the basic democratic right of citizens to engage in peaceful assembly".

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, urged Zimbabwe to conduct an "immediate, impartial and comprehensive investigation" into what happened.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for Mr Tsvangirai's immediate release.

"The world community again has been shown that the regime of Robert Mugabe is ruthless and repressive and creates only suffering for the people of Zimbabwe," she said.

However, few of Zimbabwe's neighbours have condemned its policies.

A South African foreign ministry spokesman said: "We have constantly maintained that the solutions to the problems of Zimbabwe will be resolved by the people of Zimbabwe."

MDC politician Roy Bennett, who is now living in exile in South Africa, regretted that stance.

"It is very sad that our neighbours continue to keep quiet about the brutal situation," he said.

'Beating police'

Zimbabwe's Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the police's action was justified as they were attacked by opposition activists.

"The opposition has been involved in violence, caught by police with weapons of destruction and destroying cars and stores and beating up people," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

"They've been beating up police you know. That is what government cannot tolerate."

The government said the rally breached a ban on political gatherings imposed after violence at a demonstration last month.

Civil discontent in Zimbabwe is rising over the country's economic crisis, with chronic unemployment and inflation running at more than 1,700% - the highest in the world.

N/B This is not intended to defend OBJ's democratic records.

mckren, i dey with you for this one. o'boy, atiku should be thanking God for small mercies o ;

o'boy see face

come to think of it, this is not funny, i shouldn't be laughing at such inhuman treatment.it's hightime somebody takes care of mugabe

unfortunately, zimbabwe has no oil. so no us/uk intervention

Here we go again:

we should never never compare ourselves to failure.
Sorry, I'm not impressed; even with all the political issues in Nigeria, we should always classify our Nation with the best, not with the ones that are lacking success.

Please, forget Zimbabwe; this is not a benchmark for us and don't forget that we used to be the Giant of Africa.

BigB1 nobody is doing any benchmark here. this is just too funny

I intentionally did that caption to attract people to it.

Well, if that is the case I'm with you and it is very funnnny.

Damn, the man is U  G  L  Y!

I have a question:
Who gave the poor man a hair cut?
The hair stylist must be sentenced to death by stoning.

i like ur attitude big b1,

i'm with you . . . . .  wait a minute . . . . is that not what i just said to mckren?    anyways, big b1 i'm now with you

Big B1:

Well, if that is the case I'm with you and it is very funnnny.

Damn, the man is U G L Y!

but u spoilt it by aligning with mckren again. . . . anyhow sha. . . i'm with you guys

A very good democrat indeed have you been to Odi in Rivers State before?

A very good democrat indeed have you been to Odi in Rivers State before?

Do you know what happened at Odi??

OBJ in his magnanimity and spirit of fairness levelled out the community when the people in the community killed soldiers in 1999

About Odi: I think the Army boys acted on their own in retaliation for the killing of their colleagues.
You know what our Army boys are like. Remember all those stories about them burning police stations?

dayokanu:

OBJ in his magnanimity and spirit of fairness levelled out the community when the people in the community killed soldiers in 1999

Seun:

About Odi: I think the Army boys acted on their own in retaliation for the killing of their colleagues.
You know what our Army boys are like. Remember all those stories about them burning police stations?

You guys should focus on issues you are clear about.

No soldiers were killed in Odi. About 6 policemen were kidnapped and later killed by some miscreants in Odi.

The incident concerning soldiers was in Benue State where about 30 soldiers were killed by the townsmen of the former amry chief Gen. Victor Malu who had his hoiuse burnt down and uncle killed when soldiers retaliated in his village. Funny enough he justified the Odi attack but wondered why his uncle had to be killed by the same Nigerian army he was the chief of army staff for before retirement.

OBj is not a democrat.Nigeria is a country of over 140 million.If OBJ does this to Atiku,the military would take over government immediately.