Where intimidation is the name of the game

Robert Mugabe's regime is dramatically increasing repression of its opponents in preparation for the cricket World Cup, and taking steps to conceal Zimbabwe's economic collapse before players, journalists and a brave few cricket fans arrive.

One of the latest victims of the crackdown is Edison Mukwazi, 29, a youth leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who died last week. Arrested at an international cricket match last November as he distributed anti-government leaflets, he never recovered from the injuries he received at the hands of the police, who later released him without charge.

Central Harare bristled with police last week as the treason trial of the MDC's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, and two top party officials began. They face the death penalty if convicted of plotting to assassinate Mr Mugabe – charges they vehemently deny. Whatever the verdict, however, the approach of the case has hamstrung the movement's leadership for months, and is likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Lower-ranking members of the opposition are less gently dealt with. In the past three weeks at least 10 opposition supporters have been arrested and several tortured, among them an MP, Job Sikhala, and three colleagues, one a human rights lawyer. "It was a terrible experience, gruesome and horrendous torture," Mr Sikhala told The Independent on Sunday.

The 30-year-old MP was arrested – for the 17th time in three years – for alleged "insurrection", and taken by police to an underground torture chamber. There he was beaten, urinated on, tortured with electric shocks to his mouth and genitals, and poisoned before being released after two days on charges that a court threw out last week. So severe were his injuries that he had to be hospitalised. "This regime has lost its senses. It should not be recognised by anyone," he said.

Elias Mudzuri, the elected MDC mayor of Harare, was recently arrested, roughed up and threatened with death for holding a civic meeting. He was held for two days without access to his lawyers, but the charges against him were also thrown out of court. It was, he said, a "shocking experience". Subsequently, people who attended another civic meeting called by Mr Mudzuri were beaten and tear-gassed by the police. Both he and the elected MDC mayor of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, will soon be stripped of their powers in favour of new "city governors" appointed by the ruling party, Zanu-PF.

The authorities have insisted that any journalists accompanying the cricketers will have to confine their reporting to what happens on the pitch. Just to make sure, however, in anticipation of protests police roadblocks have reappeared after being largely dismantled last year following the highly controversial presidential election. Zimbabwe's match against India in Harare on 19 February – the one deemed most likely to go ahead – is seen as the most likely to be targeted by opposition groups.

Under Mr Mugabe's increasingly tyrannical rule, the economy has collapsed and millions are threatened with famine. In the past week a man was killed when tempers flared in a queue for maize, and riot police attacked a crowd threatening to storm a food shop in Bulawayo. Also last week, riot police in Harare were called in to quieten thousands of angry people who had spent days seeking passports.

But the government has at least taken action to shorten the queues of cars which often stretch for half a mile at the few petrol stations that have fuel. "We've had more petrol deliveries than usual since last weekend," said an attendant at a Shell garage in Harare. "We think it's because of the cricket. More garages are getting petrol before the foreigners come."