ZIMBABWE:Pro-democracy activists believe this week's brutal attack on Zimbabwe's opposition leadership could prove to be a turning point in the battle to oust president Robert Mugabe from power, writes Joe Humphreysin Pretoria.
The Rev Nicholas Mkaronda, co-ordinator of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, said the attack - which left opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai with a suspected fractured skull - would serve to unite and strengthen the democracy movement.
In recent months, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - the political party which Mr Tsvangirai leads - had been dogged by in-fighting and recriminations over its policy towards Zimbabwe's rigged elections.
Mr Tsvangirai has been increasingly marginalised and had struggled to gain recognition abroad.
Since last Sunday's police offensive, however, the former trade unionist has received messages of support from Washington to Accra and has even been hailed in sections of the international media as "Zimbabwe's Mandela".
"We will see a unity of purpose, if not a unity of structure, out of this," said Mr Mkaronda. "I see people putting their differences behind them now and coming together in a broad alliance to deal with one, common enemy. We are committed. We are going to continue. We are not going to be intimidated."
Mr Tsvangirai spent yesterday in intensive care in a hospital in Harare after more than two days in police custody, during which he received serious wounds to the head and face, as well as a broken arm and blows to his knees.
Speaking to a radio reporter from his hospital bed, he said he was attacked after arriving at a police station to check on supporters who had been detained with him on Sunday when the government broke up a planned prayer rally.
"It was almost as if they were waiting for me," he said in remarks broadcast on South Africa's national radio.
"Before I could even settle down I was subjected to a lot of beatings, in fact it was random beatings, but I think the intention was to inflict as much harm as they could."
Zimbabwe received an uncharacteristic rebuke from a fellow African state yesterday when Ghanaian president John Kufuor described the events as "very embarrassing".
Mr Kufuor, chairman of the African Union, said the organisation was "very uncomfortable" about the situation.
"I know personally that presidents like [ Nigeria's Olusegun] Obasanjo, [ South Africa's Thabo] Mbeki and others have tried desperately to exercise some influence for the better, but they came up against stiff resistance," Mr Kufuor said during a state visit to London.
Defending the South African president's policy of "quiet diplomacy", he added: "What can Mbeki as a man, alone, do against Zimbabwe? In our own various ways we are trying very hard to exercise some influence . . . I tell you we are serious."
The Zimbabwean government has threatened to further clamp down on the MDC and allied groups. Information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said: "Those who incite violence, or actually cause and participate in unleashing it, are set to pay a very heavy price, regardless of who they are."
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Labour councillor Aidan Culhane said yesterday it was no longer appropriate for Ireland's cricket team to play Zimbabwe in a match in the West Indies today.
Mr Culhane said Mr Tsvangirai's only crime was to have attended a protest rally against the Mugabe regime. Fine Gael's spokesman on foreign affairs Bernard Allen has also condemned the attack on Mr Tsvangirai.