CHIRUNDU – Top MDC Alliance leader Tendai Biti made a daring escape into Zambia with the help of 300 Zimbabweans in dramatic scenes on Wednesday.
Biti, a former Finance Minister, has sought asylum in the neighbouring country, fleeing what his party says are trumped-up charges of inciting public violence and declaring Presidential Election results.
Meanwhile, the BBC reported late Wednesday that Biti’s asylum application had been turned down because it was not “meritorious”. He was being held “in custody” in the capital Lusaka, and would be returned to Harare, Foreign Minister Joe Malanji told the BBC.
An internal police memo obtained by ZimLive.com reveals how Biti arrived at Zimbabwe’s border with Zambia in Chirundu just after 6AM with three other men and avoided Zimbabwean immigration formalities.
“The wanted person (Biti) then gave a Zambian agent their passports who avoided Zimbabwe Immigration formalities and presented the passports to Zambian Immigration officials,” says the memo addressed to CID regional headquarters.
Zimbabwean police say Biti was involved in protests on August 1 which ended with at least seven people shot dead by Zimbabwe’s military.
Police say on July 31, he “unlawfully and unofficially declared” MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa the “duly elected presidential candidate for the Zimbabwe 2018 harmonised elections” in breach of the Electoral Act.
An affidavit signed by a police detective detailing further allegations also states that on August 1, Biti, “while acting in consent with his accomplices still at large (and) while armed with firearms, ammunition, and stones” committed acts of public violence at the Zanu PF provincial headquarters in Harare where they set fire to a bus and several vehicles.
Biti has eluded arrest so far, and the CID memo details how a diplomatic incident nearly ensued at Chirundu as they pursued him onto Zambian soil.
The memo says after Zambians stamped Biti’s passport, a team from the Central Intelligence Office and the CID had tried to take him into custody.
“The accused person and his associates were approached, and he strongly resisted arrest arguing that he was protected by international law since he had already crossed the Zambezi River and was in the process of applying for asylum. He went further to state that police officers had no right to interview him on foreign soil hence all the accused persons refused to furnish their full particulars,” Detective Makonde wrote.
Biti, it goes further, “shouted at the top of his voice saying that he was being abducted and called for assistance.” Help did not take long arriving for the popular opposition leader.
The memo says an estimated 300 Zimbabweans travelling to Zambia answered his call and “refrained security agents as they were effecting arrest on the accused person and his associates.”
The memo says Zambian authorities then stepped in and took Biti to their offices.
“The Zambian state agents then had an interview with the wanted person and his associates. They ordered the Zimbabwean security agents not to enter their offices,” according to the memo.
The Zambians, it is reported, then threatened the Zimbabweans with arrest for “executing their mandate on Zambian soil.”
“A team of Zambian Para Military Troops armed with AK47 rifles came to the border and escorted the accused person, his associates and the Toyota Hilux vehicle which had not been tendered for clearance by Zambia Police Service Chirundu,” the memo added.
The MDC Alliance says the charges against Biti are trumped up and calculated to scatter the party’s leadership and prevent a legal challenge to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s narrow election win declared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on August 3.
MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa says he was robbed of victory and described the outcome as “illegitimate”. His lawyers are expected to go to court by Friday to challenge the result.
Last Friday, Senator Cory Booker, a key member of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Zimbabwe had taken a “disturbing turn” with the regime’s post-election crackdown on the opposition.
“I’m deeply disturbed by attempts to abduct Tendai Biti. The election was the hope for future normalisation of relations between our two countries, but this is a disturbing turn of events,” Senator Booker said on Twitter.
It is unlikely that Biti will be returned quickly to Zimbabwe. Having entered Zambia legally, it was unclear why the Zambians were keeping him “in custody”, as stated by the Foreign Minister.
His lawyers can take the Zambian government to court to challenge the denial of asylum, which could take weeks to resolve.
