Zimbabwe official injured in shooting

Air Force Commander Perrance Shiri was shot in the arm. President Robert Mugabe says it was an assassination attempt by opposition party members.

By Huma Yusuf

posted December 16, 2008 at NaN:NaN p.m. EST

On Tuesday, Zimbabwe's state media reported that Air Force Commander Perrance Shiri was shot and injured by unknown gunmen. This is the first time in years that such a senior official has been targeted and the government has termed the incident an assassination attempt. Other sources claim, however, that the shooting is the result of an internal ZANU-PF party conflict. The attack is expected to worsen relations between Zimbabwe and Botswana as Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, has accused Botswana of training terrorists in an attempt to further destabilize the country, which has been rocked by internal power struggles and a deadly cholera epidemic.

According to Agence France-Presse, Mr. Shiri – a Mugabe loyalist who sits on the joint operations command that advises the president – was shot on Saturday.

The [state-owned] Herald newspaper reported that Shiri had been shot in the arm he drove to his farm in northwestern Zimbabwe on Saturday night by unidentified gunman waging a campaign of terror against high-profile officials.

News of Shiri's shooting was kept secret until Tuesday, reports ZimbabweJournalists.com, the news website of the Association of Zimbabwe Journalists.

A zimbabwejournalists.com correspondent in Harare says Shiri was hospitalized after being shot on his arm by the unknown assailants. The Zimbabwe government has kept the incident as a closely guarded secret.

Following the weekend attack, Zimbabwe's military has been placed on high alert. Security around ZANU-PF's top leadership, sources reveal, has also been boosted.

According to the South Africa Press Association, Shiri "is one of the most feared soldiers in the country, having been commander of the Fifth Brigade, the North Korean-trained army that is blamed for the massacre of 20,000 mostly civilians during the 1980s Matabeleland disturbances."

According to the BBC, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had claimed that the joint operations command, with which Shiri serves, was responsible for violent attacks on its supporters before June's presidential runoff. The Zimbabwean military denied the accusations.

Mr. Mugabe's government has claimed that the attack is an attempt to destabilize Zimbabwe, reports the BBC.

"The attack on Air Marshal Shiri appears to be a build-up of terror attacks targeting high-profile persons, government officials, government establishments and public transportation systems," [state media] quoted Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi as saying.

However, Reuters Africa reports that the Mugabe government has been known to accuse the opposition MDC of terrorism when under pressure.

Dozens of MDC members have been arrested on terror charges but have been cleared by the courts.

The MDC says Mugabe uses such charges when under pressure, especially from the West.

According to ZimbabweJournalists.com, the shooting could have resulted from an internal ZANU PF conflict.

The former guerrilla fighter during Zimbabwe's struggle for independence [Shiri] is aligned to retired General Solomon Mujuru and the attempt on his life could, according to sources in ZANU-PF, be part of the power struggles in the ruling party as the country continues to go down the abyss.

The sources say Shiri, long sidelined by President Robert Mugabe for his relationship with Mujuru, was further ostracised by his boss following Simba Makoni's launch of his failed Mavambo project.

Mugabe believed, the sources say, that Shiri ... supported Makoni's bid for the top office.

Shiri, according to the sources, was against Mugabe's continued stay in office resulting in Mugabe not extending his term of office as he did with his other colleagues in the Joint Operations Command (JOC) such as Constantine Chiwenga and Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri.

Those who believe that the attack on Shiri stems from an internal party feud see the assassination attempt as a follow-up to the mysterious death of ZANU-PF national political commissar Elliot Manyika on Dec. 6. Mr. Manyika's family alleges that his death resulted from party politics. According to The Zimbabwe Guardian, Mr. Manyika was killed in a car crash.

The Shiri incident is expected to worsen relations between Zimbabwe and Botswana. Last month, Mugabe accused Botswana of training MDC party workers to carry out attacks that would destabilize the government, reported ZimOnline.

President Robert Mugabe's government has accused Botswana of interference and that it was training youths from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party to destabilise Zimbabwe, in a dangerous twist to a diplomatic row between the two neighbours.

On Monday, Botswana rejected claims that it was training MDC members in an attempt to facilitate regime change, reports The Harare Tribune.

Botswana has rejected claims by Zimbabwe it is involved in a plot to oust Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe's justice minister had told state media they have "compelling evidence" Botswana was hosting military training camps for opposition rebels....

But Botswana said it was "nothing more than distorted or concocted evidence, none of which is supported by facts."

A statement from Botswana's ministry of foreign affairs said: "Zimbabwe has signally failed to produce any tangible, much less compelling, facts in support of its allegations."

This attack comes at a time when the MDC says the Mugabe government is planning to impose a state of emergency in Zimbabwe, reports the South Africa Press Association.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change yesterday accused Mugabe's government of planning to institute a state of emergency as an excuse to disregard rule of law....

"We have no doubt as a party that they are going to declare a state of emergency. We are aware of a document that runs into tens of pages," [MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti] said in Harare.

The Christian Science Monitor reported that the country is also embroiled in a cholera crisis that threatens to destabilize the entire region.

Combined with chronic malnutrition, rampant inflation, a cash shortage, and now-constant strikes by unpaid workers – including riots by Army soldiers – Zimbabwe's bout with cholera puts increased pressure on neighboring countries to act, if only to protect the health of their own citizens. To date, Zimbabwe's neighbors have been reluctant to intervene in Zimbabwe's affairs, pleading for the on-again, off-again power-sharing agreement between Zimbabwe's two rival parties to take effect. But with a UN-estimated 783 deaths and 16,000 infections, time and patience seems to be running out....

Noting President Robert Mugabe's statement on national TV this week that the cholera epidemic was under control, [political science professor Simon] Badza says the government is in denial, and appears more concerned about the political crisis with its rivals, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which defeated Mugabe's party in the first round of elections on March 29. A power-sharing agreement with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, signed in September, has still not taken effect, as Mugabe and Prime-Minister elect Tsvangirai bicker over cabinet ministry appointments. Mr. Mugabe has insisted on holding onto all key security and financial ministries.

"When threats to State security abundantly increase, normally the human security is relegated and compromised," says Badza. "I consider the cholera to be [an equally important issue] of human security."