{"id":908,"date":"2008-06-19T12:21:05","date_gmt":"2008-06-19T16:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/?p=908"},"modified":"2009-03-09T17:46:34","modified_gmt":"2009-03-09T21:46:34","slug":"four-activists-found-dead-in-zimbabwe-as-violence-mounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/four-activists-found-dead-in-zimbabwe-as-violence-mounts\/908\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Activists Found Dead in Zimbabwe as Violence Mounts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"e4vg\" title=\"Four opposition activists were found dead on Thursday\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/africa\/7463034.stm\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none;margin: 5px;float: left\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/files\/2008\/06\/2008032819.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"270\" \/>Four opposition activists were found dead on Thursday<\/a>, according to Zimbabwe&#8217;s opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).<\/p>\n<p>One of the victims was <a id=\"hjfv\" title=\"Abigail Chiroto, Harare mayor's wife\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2008\/WORLD\/africa\/06\/19\/zimbabwe.violence\/\" target=\"_blank\">Abigail Chiroto, the wife of Harare&#8217;s mayor<\/a>, whose body was found badly beaten. On Tuesday, Chiroto was kidnapped along with her four-year old son, Nelson, who was released unscathed. Her husband, Emmanuel Chiroto, is an MDC member and was recently elected as mayor.<\/p>\n<p>The violence comes in the lead-up to a runoff election between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, scheduled for June 27. <a id=\"zd3g\" title=\"Seventy MDC members have been killed\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/africa\/7463034.stm\" target=\"_blank\">Seventy MDC members have been killed<\/a> since the March 29 elections. With just nine days to go before the runoff election, a reported 25,000 have been forced from their homes.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC reported that <a id=\"sv4.\" title=\"Zimbabwe's military has played an active role\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/world\/africa\/7450638.stm\" target=\"_blank\">Zimbabwe&#8217;s military has played an active role<\/a> in Mugabe&#8217;s re-election campaign. <a id=\"w2.y\" title=\"Zimbabwe's public broadcaster\" href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/stories\/2008\/06\/19\/2279898.htm?section=world\" target=\"_blank\">Zimbabwe&#8217;s public broadcaster<\/a> also said it would no longer broadcast MDC campaign advertisements.<\/p>\n<p>MDC charges Mugabe&#8217;s ZANU-PF party with the state-sponsored violence, arrests and the <a id=\"yq\" title=\"impending food scarcity\" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/06\/18\/AR2008061802861.html\" target=\"_blank\">impending food crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"dij7\" title=\"South African president, Thabo Mbeki\" href=\"http:\/\/afp.google.com\/article\/ALeqM5ilJ6P_C8jBVYXJSluVuynaVsPLHQ\" target=\"_blank\">South African president, Thabo Mbeki<\/a>, who was chosen by regional leaders to mediate the political crisis in Zimbabwe, met with Mugabe yesterday and urged him to cancel the runoff vote and work toward a national unity government. Mbeki joins the <a id=\"n7y9\" title=\"United Nations\" href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/apps\/news\/story.asp?NewsID=27072&amp;Cr=zimbabwe&amp;Cr1=\" target=\"_blank\">United Nations<\/a>, <a id=\"pepu\" title=\"Southern African Development Community\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/3d410f8a-3de9-11dd-b16d-0000779fd2ac.html\" target=\"_blank\">Southern African Development Community<\/a> and other international leaders stating that fair and free election are impossible. U.S. ambassador to Harare James McGee said today that a <a id=\"aq1b\" href=\"http:\/\/afp.google.com\/article\/ALeqM5hmsNM07vZBkuf_pnegiBrPggnqfw\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;negotiated government&#8221; is not the answer<\/a> to the crisis in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>This summer, WIDE ANGLE reports from inside Zimbabwe as part of its new web-exclusive documentary series, FOCAL POINT.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four opposition activists were found dead on Thursday, according to Zimbabwe&#8217;s opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). One of the victims was Abigail Chiroto, the wife of Harare&#8217;s mayor, whose body was found badly beaten. On Tuesday, Chiroto was kidnapped along with her four-year old son, Nelson, who was released unscathed. Her husband, Emmanuel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9892,1],"tags":[394,307,396,395,309,310,311,393,250,313,314,335],"class_list":["post-908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wa-blog","category-uncategorized","tag-abigail-chiroto","tag-focal-point","tag-food-crisis","tag-harare","tag-mdc","tag-morgan-tsvangirai","tag-robert-mugabe","tag-thabo-mbeki","tag-united-nations","tag-zanu-pf","tag-zimbabwe","tag-zimbabwe-blog"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Four Activists Found Dead in Zimbabwe as Violence Mounts | Wide Angle | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/four-activists-found-dead-in-zimbabwe-as-violence-mounts\/908\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Four Activists Found Dead in Zimbabwe as Violence Mounts | Wide Angle | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Four opposition activists were found dead on Thursday, according to Zimbabwe&#8217;s opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). One of the victims was Abigail Chiroto, the wife of Harare&#8217;s mayor, whose body was found badly beaten. On Tuesday, Chiroto was kidnapped along with her four-year old son, Nelson, who was released unscathed. Her husband, Emmanuel [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/four-activists-found-dead-in-zimbabwe-as-violence-mounts\/908\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wide Angle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-06-19T16:21:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-03-09T21:46:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/files\/2008\/06\/2008032819.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"lisa biagiotti\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"lisa biagiotti\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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