Opposition leader beaten

last updated 8 January 2015

Harare, Zimbabwe

Police beat Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader so badly this week that he lost consciousness. Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested with more than 100 of his supporters, on their way to an anti-government rally. One of his companions, who managed to phone the Los Angeles Times from prison, said Tsvangirai could barely talk and that his clothes were matted with blood. The crackdown on the opposition comes as President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s despotic leader since independence in 1980, is struggling to cling to power. Thokozani Khupe, vice president of the Movement for Democratic Change, said police are trying to beat the opposition into submission. “I would like to warn Robert Mugabe,” she said, “that no amount of police brutality can either stop or delay the people’s march to freedom.”