The Zimbabwe opposition leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, threatened yesterday to retaliate against supporters of President Robert Mugabe after three more opposition followers were killed in the latest wave of political violence. The death toll from political violence in Zimbabwe rose to seven in five days yesterday, with the confirmed death of a second farm worker.
His comments came after Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party boycotted church-organised peace talks with the opposition on the country's farm occupations crisis and farmers held back supplies for first auctions of the crucial tobacco crop.
Mr Tsvangirai, president of the Movement for Democratic Change, said two men had been beaten to death on Tuesday in the town of Kariba, about 350 km north-west of Harare.
Another MDC supporter was killed in Harare on Monday night, he said, bringing the number of party followers killed in the last three days to five.
"The MDC will no longer sit back and watch our supporters being killed. We cannot stand by and watch while our people are being murdered," Mr Tsvangirai said.
At least 12 people, including farmers, labourers and opposition members have been killed in two months of strife.
Religious leaders had invited ZANU-PF and the MDC to a meeting in a new attempt to resolve the crisis. But no representatives of ZANU-PF or the self-styled independence war veterans were at the meeting.
Tobacco auctioneers said only 30 per cent of the normal quantity of tobacco - Zimbabwe's leading foreign exchange earner - had been delivered for the opening auction of the season, evidence of the disruption the marauders have inflicted on the economically vital farm sector.
The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association advised farmers to delay delivering tobacco until early May in the hope that the situation would improve.
Falling farm output is straining Zimbabwe's already battered economy with inflation and interest rates well over 50 per cent.
Mr Chenjerai Hunzvi's Zimbabwe National Liberation Veteran's Association, which groups war veterans and young followers, argues that its members are enforcing an equitable redistribution of land in the former British colony.