HARARE, Zimbabwe - Opposition officials are accusing Zimbabwe's ruling party of orchestrating a campaign of violence in remote areas in an effort to intimidate opponents of President Robert Mugabe.
Tendai Biti, secretary general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, says there has been "massive violence inside the country'' since the March 29th presidential election.
He says much of the violence has been in traditional ruling party strongholds that voted for the opposition in the election, including the rural areas of Murewa, Mutoko, Gweru.
The latest accusations come amid growing reports that ruling party thugs have been escalating their invasions of white-owned farms and driving the owners off their land.
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe for 28 years with an increasingly dictatorial regime, has virtually conceded that he did not win the March 29 presidential elections.
Though results of the poll remain secret 10 days after the election, he already is campaigning for an expected run-off against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai by intimidating his foes and exploiting racial tensions.
Biti said Tuesday that ruling party militants, used previously to intimidate government opponents, were being rearmed.
"There's been a complete militarization and a complete rearming of mobs who led the terror in 2000 and 2006,'' he said.
Reports of violence in remote rural areas -- including the torching of opposition supporters houses -- have circulated through Harare in recent days. The reports cannot not be confirmed because of the danger in travelling to those areas.
In addition to that violence, about 60 farmers have been forced off their land since Saturday, said Mike Clark, a spokesman for the farmers' union.
"The situation is escalating very rapidly,'' said Trevor Gifford, president of Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmer's Union, adding that many farmers were not allowed to take anything with them.
"They had to leave their keys behind,'' Gifford said.
