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afrol News, 17 January - The Zimbabwean Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition party today accuses the police of poisoning and torturing its leaders and activists in custody. The party leadership presents a list of several MDC activists that were "made to drink an unspecified liquid" - most of them needing medication after their "treatment". Revelations that MDC parliamentarian Job Sikhala, who had been tortured while in police custody, "was also made to drink an unspecified liquid," had been the final confirmation of the opposition's fears that something frightening was going on. According the MDC Secretary-General Welshman Ncube, this further proved the party's suspicions that "all MDC leaders and activists who have been in police custody in the last few months have been poisoned." Examples of these included MDC parliamentarian Tichaona Munyanyi, "who fell extremely ill immediately after his release from police custody as he developed a serious headache and an incessant diarrhoea that lasted 10 days after his release." Munyanyi had to spend 5 days at West End Clinic as a result of his illness. Further, Solomon Silas Chikowero, an MDC Security employee, had been "forced to drink a substance from a bottle while he was blindfolded on 27 August 2002 after his arrest and torture at Chinamora Police Station in Domboshava. Ever since he continues to experience an incessant diarrhoea and dizziness," the MDC statement reads. Stephen Chasara and Davies Mtetwa, who were in the MDC Chitungwiza provincial executive, were "arrested and tortured in police custody and told of being forced to drink an unnamed substance. They both subsequently died within 7 months." Mtetwa died on 26 April 2002, while Chasara died on 15 June 2002. - The two had been abducted on 14 November 2001 at 3 am from Chasara's home where Mtetwa also lived, Ncube recalls. "They were tortured the whole day and Chasara was released the same day at around 6pm while Mtewa was released on 15 November. They both had serious injuries under their feet and on their backs from being beaten with sticks at Harare Central. They had also been tortured by being subjected to electric shocks." Also Robbie Siyanai, an MDC Provincial Information Officer, had been abducted on 7 April 2002 from the party's provincial offices and "severely tortured by state agents and was also made to drink an unnamed white liquid." Siyanai was said to immediately have "felt dizzy and remains seriously ill thereafter." He has been on medication ever since. His sense of hearing was severely affected and now he can hardly hear. Ex-MDC spokesman Learnmore Jongwe had died under similar circumstances at Harare Remand Prison on 22 October 2002, "after chloroquine had been introduced into his body. One day we will know how and by whom that chloroquine was introduced into his body," Ncube says. Further, last year, MDC Treasurer-General Fletcher Dulini Ncube, who also holds a seat in Parliament, "was held in handcuffs while in a hospital bed where he had just underdone surgery to remove his eye. His eye had developed an infection as a result of the fact that he was denied his special diet and treatment while in police custody." Dulini is a diabetic patient. The MDC Secretary-General protested what he calls the "reign of terror that Robert Mugabe has unleashed." He also used the opportunity to protest the disputed organisation of the World Cup Cricket in Zimbabwe. "The World Cup authorities must know that they bear the responsibility for the current terrorization of Zimbabweans by the Mugabe regime in a last ditch effort to silence its critics before the start of the World Cup cricket games," Ncube stated.
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