MP warns of army revolt
Giles Mutseyekwa (Mutare North), the MDC shadow minister for defence, yesterday warned the government from pushing the army into a revolt against the Zanu PF leadership.
The warning comes in the wake of accusations that government was using the Zimbabwe Defence Forces to beat up and intimidate people to cow them into voting for President Mugabe in the 2002 presidential elections.
Mutseyekwa told Parliament that in Romania in 1989 dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed by once loyal soldiers.
“I must warn that it is dangerous to test soldiers’ degree of loyalty to the extreme. Lessons must be learnt from Romania where Ceausescu and his wife were captured when the soldiers turned against them, executed them and threw their bodies into the sea,” Mutseyekwa said.
He also said the MDC had strong and reliable information that morale had sunk to its lowest ebb in the army and that the armed forces were fed up with the continued military intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
He said the DRC military campaign, was being prolonged for the financial benefit of certain leaders in the government.
In his maiden speech when the House resumed sitting after a two-week recess, Mutseyekwa, a retired army major, said: “It is sad and certainly difficult to comprehend why the Zanu PF government has used our forces to beat up people, torture and intimidate our brothers and sisters in the high density areas.
Members of Parliament (MPs) on the MDC benches loudly hailed Mutseyekwa’s reference to Ceausescu’s demise and two or more voices loudly interjected in Shona: “That is what is going to happen to Mugabe!”
Apparently stung by the mention of the President’s name, the Leader of the House, Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, immediately objected on a point of order, saying the remark was unparliamentary.
Taking exception to the interjection from the MDC benches and mentioning by name the MP for St Mary’s, Job Sikhala, Deputy Speaker Edna Madzongwe, in the chair in the absence of the Speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa said: “Don’t say things which are unparliamentary. I have to remind you that in this honourable House we use honourable language, we use parliamentary language.”
Continuing with his speech, Mutseyekwa said soldiers should not be used to “terrorise” their parents.
He said the military should not be involved in the redistribution of land for resettlement.
“The military has no business whatsoever in the land redistribution exercise. There have been reports that army personnel were seen with the farm invaders,” said Mutseyekwa.
“It is an attempt to use the army to cow voters not to vote for the MDC in the presidential elections.”
Mutseyekwa said the troops were no longer happy about being deployed in the DRC to help Laurent Kabila fight rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
He said: “We in the MDC have information to suggest that the morale of our troops is very low. The back-up system is very erratic and the casualty evacuation is not guaranteed because there is no money. The soldiers must be withdrawn.”
He said only top politicians in Zimbabwe stood to benefit from the DRC which was costing the taxpayers $1,5 billion a month as they had private mining concessions racking in around US$500 million (about $26,5 billion).
Mutseyekwa said the presence of more than 11 000 Zimbabwean troops in the DRC was contributing to the continued suffering of the Congolese people.
He said that for as long as Zimbabwean soldiers remained in the DRC, Kabila would not move towards a peaceful settlement of the political crisis in his war-torn country.