By DPA,
Harare/Johannesburg : Police in Zimbabwe have put seven elected opposition members of parliament on a wanted list in a move that is likely to further jeopardise the possibility of a resumption of talks between President Robert Mugabe and his political rivals.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told DPA that the seven were wanted in connection with crimes that range from inciting public violence and attempted murder.
Luke Tamborinyoka, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party’s director of information, said Mugabe was talking peace but acting differently.
“This tells that this government is not serious about talks. How can we go to the table when half the leadership is either on the run or in police custody,” Tamborinyoka said.
“We have more than 100 supporters who have been killed in broad daylight, but no one has so far been arrested in connection with that.”
Tamborinyoka said the strategy of Mugabe’s government “is to vilify the members of parliament and to reverse our majority in parliament after convicting them using subverted judiciary.”
“These are mainly MPs from rural areas where Zanu-PF has instilled fear in the electorate to cow them ahead of by-elections if they are convicted. The regime is not serious about talks,” he told DPA.
The MDC has demanded the release of political prisoners as a precondition to the resumption of talks with Zanu-PF, and the arrests of the seven will almost signal the stillbirth of the talks.
Meanwhile about 250 MDC supporters were Friday still encamped at the US embassy in Harare. The MDC supporters were displaced in the current wave of politically motivated violence.