Fear has gripped opposition supporters in rural Zimbabwe after a police crackdown on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the past few weeks.

Dubani Mlotshwa, a small-scale farmer and grassroots opposition party official in the rural Nkayi district, in the western province of Matabeleland North, said unknown assailants, whom he suspected were ruling ZANU-PF party agents, had visited his homestead and threatened his family for supporting the opposition.

"We are now living in constant fear. The tension is high here; we are seeing people we don't know these days, who move around saying they are looking for all MDC supporters. We are now even scared of attending community gatherings. I, for one, have been warned, and the people who came to my homestead were strangers to me," said Mlotshwa.

Most rural areas have traditionally been part of ZANU-PF's support base.

Tension has been mounting in Zimbabwe for the past two months, marked by protests and running battles with the police over a worsening economic crisis compounded by shortages of foreign currency, food, fuel, electricity and medicines.

An opposition supporter was killed last week, and Morgan Tsvangirai, who leads an MDC faction, was among the pro-democracy leaders arrested and beaten by the police, allegedly for inciting violence.

The leader of the other MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, was arrested with Tsvangirai and 47 other members of the MDC when they gathered on Sunday (11 March) in the populous suburb of Highfield in the capital, Harare, to attend a prayer meeting.

The gathering was dispersed by heavily armed police who arrested and allegedly beat up the activists, resulting in Tsvangirai and Mutambara being hospitalised.

Abednico Bhebhe, the MDC legislator for Nkayi, confirmed the anxiety felt by the opposition in rural Matabeleland as well as other provinces. He said MDC supporters were being punished because the authorities feared that the recent defiance campaign by the opposition in urban centres might spread to the countryside.

"The regime is on the path of war with the people of Zimbabwe. They were shaken by the spirit of defiance that was shown by the MDC in major cities and now they want to move swiftly to cow rural people into silence, but the time has absolutely run out for them," he told IRIN.

Police instilling "law and order"

Nathan Shamuyarira, the ZANU-PF spokesman, denied the claims. "It's only the police who are instilling law and order across the country. They have to do this in view of the violence unleashed by the MDC thugs recently on civilians and the police. Police have a right to move around, even in rural areas; there is nothing new here."

In a statement the MDC said it was "getting disturbing reports of police officers and youth militias working hand in glove to punish our supporters in rural areas. The systematic violence, which started with the assaults and torture of our leadership in Harare and Bulawayo [Zimbabwe's second city], including other cities, is deplorable and uncalled for".

The ruling ZANU-PF should rein in its supporters or "we are headed for widespread violence across the country", the MDC statement warned.

Earlier this week, Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC, was beaten while he was preparing to travel to Brussels for a meeting of parliamentarians from African, Caribbean and Pacific states as well as the European Union.

Mutambara was among three people arrested as they attempted to leave the country. The police said he could not leave because he was facing charges in court.

Western envoys warned

Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the Mutambara-led faction of the MDC, claimed the members' arrest "was an obvious attempt by an increasingly paranoid government to ensure that the outside world does not get the true version of how the rights of members of the opposition are being abused."

Ncube said, "The police acted in direct defiance of last week's High Court order that directed that Mutambara be released unconditionally. It is a mystery to us why they decided to take him again, and deny him the basic human right of freedom of movement."

Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi summoned western envoys to his office on Monday, including those from Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden, while the United States Ambassador, Christopher Dell, walked out before the minister arrived at the meeting.

"Zimbabwe's tolerance is being stretched to the limit," Mumbengegwi told the diplomats. "You must scrupulously observe the relevant provisions of the Vienna Convention governing the conduct of diplomatic relations. Any failure to do so will leave us with no option but to invoke the relevant conventions, so as to bring to an end any interference in our domestic affairs."

He accused some of the envoys of interfering in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe. He also accused the eight unnamed ambassadors of visiting the police stations where MDC members were being held in custody last week and giving them food.

The government has justified its crackdown as an act of safeguarding public order across the country, maintaining that the protesting parties were agents of Western countries, notably the US and Britain, which have been accused of trying to effect regime change in the country.