Foes Harass Opposition in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe —  Ruling party militants hurled burning tires and blocked approaches to a key opposition election rally Friday, forcing organizers to cancel it just one week before Zimbabwe’s presidential election.

Authorities didn’t attempt to stop militants from harassing and assaulting people headed to the rally in Marondera, about 50 miles southeast of Harare, the capital, said Gift Chimanikire, deputy secretary-general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC.

Six opposition supporters were reported injured, including a man into whose back the 10-inch-high letters “MDC” had been carved with a knife.

Zimbabwe has been racked by political violence as President Robert Mugabe, 78, fights to extend his 22-year rule. His main rival in the March 9-10 election is MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai.

The MDC says more than 100 of its supporters and activists have been killed since 2000.

“What is happening there is completely unacceptable,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday after arriving in Australia for the 54-nation Commonwealth summit of Britain and its former colonies.

Blair said the Commonwealth was unlikely to back his call to suspend Zimbabwe from the group.