This passed week has seen the government of Mugabe reach an all time low in the violence committed against Zimbabwean citizens. Following the murder of the MDC activist, Gift Tandare, and the arrest and torture of senior MDC officials, including leader Morgan Tsvangirai, one begins to wonder whether this is the final push of Mugabe before he falls over the abyss and the people of Zimbabwe can begin finally to rebuild the country he has devastated economically and morally.

A message from some of the activists beaten last Sunday reads.

'The assaults on Sunday were so terrible and surreal. Like watching a movie except that one was part of the characters. Strangely if it were to happen again many of us would love to be in the front line again. They were hitting us but they were the ones afraid. Our wounds will heal but the scars on their souls are permanent and they will take them to hell.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/295/blog_thisiszim.gif - presents a photo essay of the arrest of Mogan Tsvangirai and writes a list of atrocities committed by the government.

'Gift Tandere murdered by the police; MDC faction leader beaten and seriously injured; Activists shot while attending a vigil; Arrests continuing two days after the rally; Police searching for ’subversive material’; Evidence of widespread use of torture against high profile civil rights activists; Senior opposition figures ‘missing; Denial of legal representation; Ongoing police intimidation of civilians in Highfields, including possible use of violence; Scores of activists arrested.'

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Enough is Enough - reports that all of the 48 activists who were injured by the police were kept waiting for medical attention.

'Silence gripped the courtroom as the 46 arrested activists found their place among the chairs. It looked more of a hospital ward that a courtroom. In fact, the whole bruised lot deserved to be in hospital and not in a courtroom. ….Those who were seriously injured included Tsvangirai, the National Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku, the MDC’s deputy national treasurer, Elton Mangoma and deputy secretary for international affairs Grace Kwinje.'

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Final Push - has a report from SABC on how the Zimbabwean government justifies it’s violent actions against opposition leaders - Nathan Shamuyarira, secretary for information and publicity Zanu (PF), says Morgan Tsvangirai, has been 'asking for trouble for a long time'.

'Tsvangirai has been provoking violence in urban townships. "If you ask for that kind of trouble you'll get it," he said, referring to Tsvangirai. Morning Live's Vuyo Mbuli asked: "Was Tsvangirai beaten because he asked for it?" and Shamuyarira replied, "Yes he asked for it!"…………The Zanu (PF) representative maintains that the meeting held on Sunday was unlawful and all the people who attended it ignored government's call to ban mass meetings. He says all meetings, including those of the ruling party, have been barred. "The MDC is always playing to the gallery of the international community. They want to demonstrate to Britain and America that there is violation of human rights in Zimbabwe. So they provoke action with the purpose of impressing their overseas bosses.'

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Cry Beloved Zimbabwe - comments on the what he sees as the complicity of the South African government in the violence committed by Mugabe against the Zimbabwean people….

'The fact that South Africans cannot see nothing wrong even with surmounting evidence that MDC leaders have been tortured in custody means two things, they are complicit with the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and they are also heading the same way. Mandela once said it "the greatest question one has to ask is what did I do to help another human being in need" when he was invited to the British Labour Party in 2000 South Africans are intellectually challenged its no secret, most of them South African politicians waffle, there is little substance to what they say, most of the times its not their waffle which surprises me but the amount of waffle they are capable of producing. While the whole world over condemns the unlawful arrest, detention and torture of Zimbabwean political figures such MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai'

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Black Looks - publishes at obituary to murdered activists, Gift Tandare. Zorora Murugare by Zimbabwean feminist, Isabella Matambanadzo.

'His death is the result of repression. His grave will be a marker of how rights denied, end.In Zimbabwe, we live in a country where police run riot. Where our rights to lawyers and doctors are denied because certain elements of the state want to hold on to a kind of power that they can see they no longer have.'

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, and is Online News Editor of Pambazuka News.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at pambazuka.org