A Report on Pre-election
Political Violence in Mberengwa
November 17, 2000

Nature of human rights violations
These are described under the various headings indicated earlier. The table below shows the frequency of the various types of human rights violations reported. As can be seen, torture, ill-treatment and property damage are the most frequent violations reported. Rape and indecent assault are not reported with any frequency, but it should be remembered that these violations are generally under-reported and more so in civil conflicts.

Frequency of human rights violations in Mberengwa East

Torture
Zanu (PF) members and war veterans established a base for torture and assault at Texas Ranch Farm in Mberengwa. Several persons took part in the torture that included burning and cutting members of or suspected members of the opposition. Torture and assault at the base was lead by a man known as ‘Biggie’ Chitoro whose name is actually Wilson Kufa Chitoro.

I am an MDC member from Buhera. I was one of those who went to Mberengwa to escort the MDC candidate for Mberengwa East, Mrs Holland for nominations. On 3 June we went back to Mataga growth point so we could make signatures on the nomination form. We did this successfully. On our way back, the truck in which five of us were travelling broke down about 10 kms outside Mberengwa. We left it there overnight and we got a lift to Zvishavane. We thought it was a problem of fuel so the next day we went back with 40 litres of fuel. We found the car and filled it up, but when we tried to start it the truck would not start. So we found we had another problem. It was around 4:00 pm. I was looking at the engine, when suddenly I saw a crowd of people coming from nowhere, there were plus or minus 60 of them. They were carrying weapons, sjamboks etc. There were only four of us so we just had to surrender. I don’t know how the identified us as MDC. We were even wearing Zanu (PF) T-shirts for disguise purposes. They suspect anyone they don’t know. If you are a stranger it is a no-go area. They made us lie down. They took ropes and tied our hands and legs and they started assaulting us. They were beating us with sjamboks. While this was happening, a police defender reached the scene. The driver was a sergeant. They had someone inside they were taking to hospital I think. Then he drove away saying he would come back, but he didn’t. Around 7:00 pm, they took us to their base at Texas farm. Most of them were of school-going age. They are staying there and killing the cattle from the farms to eat. They made a fire and they began assaulting us using fire. First it was my friend Matika. They tied plastic round his hands and legs and then lit it. He is now being treated in Zvishavane. Next it was my turn. They beat me first. Then they used all the same tactics, wrapping my legs, hands and private parts and lighting the plastics. They also lit some plastic and then dropped it on us as it melted. They were taking hot ashes and spreading them on my body. My hands and legs were tied. [The victim has visible, severe burns all over his back, arms and chest consistent with this description, he was on his way for further treatment at the hospital at the time of the interview].

The main reason I was tortured so badly was because I am from Buhera and that is where our president [Morgan Tsvangirai] is also from. There was one guy among the attackers who is from the same rural home as me and recognised me so I couldn’t deny it. After they had finished with me, it must have been around 3:00 am, they began on the third guy, Masumba. But he became possessed and was speaking in tongues. This saved him because they were scared of that and they stopped. He was only beaten and not burnt. The fourth guy who was with us had escaped at the scene. We were then told that the boss, Biggie Chitoro, would come back in the morning and his mission was to take off one of our eyes. I anticipated greater danger and I planned to escape. I told them I had diarrhoea and I was taken to the bush and back very often, every five minutes. It was not true, I just aiming for them to give me an old man to escort me who could not catch me. Fortunately, around 4:00 am, they gave me an old man who was even afraid to go in the bush. I was making sounds as if I had diarrhoea, but I was removing the rope around my legs. When I got it off, I ran away. I only heard the old man shouting to the gang that I had escaped. They left four people guarding my colleagues and they started pursuing me. I managed by all means not to be captured. I went onto the mountain. I was there from about 6:00 am. I spent the whole day there and found nothing to eat. I was hungry and my legs had thorns in them. I was completely naked. Around 4:00 pm I decided to get onto the road and stop a vehicle. I did so but with difficulties. I had made crutches out of sticks. A car stopped and picked me up and took me to Mberengwa. He refused to take me to the police for fear of victimisation. But when we were a short distance from the police I saw my friends and stopped to pick them up. They had been released because of that boy who was possessed. When we got to the police we filled in all the forms and then were taken to hospital in Zvishavane. I was given a bed and was receiving all treatments. The CIOs were coming day and night to our house. The doctor knew the CIOs and the following evening they came again and he threatened to fight them if they persisted. He called for police assistance. The police spent the night and arrived at the hospital gate to prevent the CIOs from coming. One of the CIOs was brought in a wheelchair to put in the bed next to mine. The doctor realised and was furious. Then yesterday my colleagues came to see me and the doctor told them that I had to disappear. So I was taken out and brought to Harare. I have burns all over my back, front, buttocks, private parts, thighs and legs. I was taken to the theatre to remove the thorns in my feet.

Case 12

I was beaten while at home by about 20 men. They then kidnapped me and detained me for 4 days, took away my ID and only let me go on the 5th day. I was assaulted with sticks, chains and stabbed with knives. They told me not to move away from my home but I ran away to Gweru.

Case 13

I am an ordinary MDC member based in Mberengwa. On 10 June 2000 I repaired two punctured tyres for an MDC official who had come for a rally in Mberengwa. 5 Zanu (PF) supporters came to my house, but they could not locate me. Three people came back on 24 May 2000 and they accused me of being a sell-out. The people were Chitova, Svinurai and another whose name I have forgotten. They ordered me to lock my doors and follow them. I asked them our destination, but they refused to tell me. One of them entered my room and grabbed me by the hand, and I pushed him away. He signalled for his other colleagues to come, and they surrounded my place (there were about thirty of them). They started assaulting me with booted feet and open hands. They tied my hands ad ordered me to go to Texas Farm, which is about thirty kilometres away. I was being forced to dive into the water whenever we came across a pond or river, and was assaulted all the way to the farm. At the farm I was assaulted by yet another group of people, who were singing Chimurenga songs. Two other people who had been abducted were also brought. They started assaulting all of us with sticks. We were forced to go to the cattle dip and made to swim. We were not allowed to come out of the tank, even when we began to tire. They had surrounded the tank, and they assaulted any one of us trying to come out of the tank. After that we were ordered to come out and wriggle on the ground like snakes for a distance of about 20 to 30 metres, but we could not. They then continued assaulting us, but saw that we couldn’t take much more. We were then told to jump like frogs, but we couldn’t. They allowed us to walk to their base. Some of them told us to climb into a trench then jump out of it headlong, but we refused. The assault then continued. They took some hot ashes and poured them down the trousers of the other two people. Then one of their commanders (Makoni) arrived and told them to stop. We then warmed ourselves by the fire, and we slept there. The following day we could not walk, so we put up there for another night. They then escorted us back to our villages. We were told not to report to the police or to seek medication, but I had to. I went to Munene Hospital and received some treatment. They could not take an X-ray because there was a power cut, and I did not go back when they asked me to, for fear of another abduction.

An MDC activist, Fainos Kufazvinei Zhou (23) died on 9 June 2000. He had been abducted together with his brother from a Growth Point in Mberengwa by a mob of Zanu (PF) supporters. They took the brothers to nearby Texas Ranch farm that was being used as a base by the war veterans. They were held and tortured for five days. Over that period they were interrogated and viciously beaten up. Fainos was injured so badly he died shortly after they were released. His brother had to be rushed to hospital for treatment for serious injuries including a broken leg.

Case 15

Also on 9 June 2000 in Mberengwa a Zanu (PF) supporter died after being stabbed by an MDC member. The police say that the Zanu (PF) man was drinking beer at a business centre when a suspected MDC supporter ordered him to take off his Zanu (PF) T-shirt, saying it was out of place, This resulted in an altercation between the two. It is alleged that the MDC supporter pulled out a knife and stabbed the Zanu (PF) supporter in the chest and the victim died before he could be taken to hospital.

This latter case is not an extra-judicial killing in the strict sense, emerging as it does from an altercation.

Property damage/Arson
Homes and food stores were deliberately and callously razed to the ground leaving the victims homeless and without food. Food stores in granaries are used to feed families throughout the year and carry them over to the next harvesting season. Therefore the victims concerned will be unable to feed themselves for the next year even if they are able to rebuild their homes or to construct some sort of temporary accommodation.

I was detained for 4 days and no food was supplied to me. All my MDC campaign materials were taken and my house was burnt together with my granary and everything belonging to me.

Case 17

Some Zanu (PF) members came at night and set my home on fire. When I came out to investigate I was hit on the chin before I ran away to report the matter to the police.

Case 18

I was beaten on my chest with logs and my home was burnt to ashes. Everything in my granary was destroyed.

Case 19

I was made to sing and chant Zanu (PF) slogans and move I was beaten on my chest with logs and my home was burnt to ashes. Everything in my granary was destroyed. The attackers remained around the village all night.

Case 20

Zanu (PF) youths approached me at about 11:25 pm and asked me to produce my Zanu (PF) card. Seeing that I had failed to produce it they began to beat me. They went on to set my homestead alight.

Intimidation and threats
People were commonly intimidated and threatened in order to get them to support the ruling party Zanu (PF). They were forced to buy Zanu (PF) membership cards even though they had no wish to be members of the party. It was also common practice to force people to attend Zanu (PF) rallies in order to make it appear that support for the ruling party was widespread. Supporters or suspected supporters of the opposition were threatened with beatings if they continued to support the opposition movement.

I was forced to buy Zanu (PF) cards and accused of supporting MDC I was also forced to attend a Zanu (PF) meeting at Rwavamutagwi that openly abused teachers who supported MDC I was also forced to contribute money towards feeding Zanu (PF) youths.

Case 22

Zanu (PF) supporters came demanding MDC membership cards and T-shirts. They threatened that if I did not produce these things they would kill both my husband and myself.

Indiscriminate assaults
The assaults carried out by Zanu (PF) members and war veterans were totally indiscriminate in nature. They ill-treated and assaulted people regardless of their age or disposition. People in their late 70’s and pregnant women were assaulted. This resulted in one woman having a miscarriage.

A group of Zanu (PF) youths came to my homestead in search of my husband. I was 7 months pregnant at the time. They demanded my MDC card. They beat me severely on my stomach leading to the death of my unborn baby. They also damaged my radio and stole 3 blankets.

Case 24

I was taken from home around 12noon and forced to jump the fence surrounding my home and forced to accompany the Zanu (PF) supporters to where my friends were. I had no other clothes. Although I was pregnant I was forced to move very fast and was led to Garinyama School. As a result my baby arrived prematurely on the 27th of July instead of in September. I was forced to sleep outside out of fear.

Targeting teachers
Attacks upon teachers directed mainly at opposition supporters were part of a policy of intimidation against those who had the capacity and influence to inform their communities. Schools in some areas were unable to function as a result. It seems that educated individuals were regarded as a threat because they were capable of exercising their choice at the ballot box and were not influenced by the false story spread by Zanu (PF) in rural communities that Zanu (PF) would know which individuals have voted for the opposition, and would target them after the elections.

In Mberengwa the educational delivery system was highly affected by the unrest. Twenty-five teachers were affected by incidents of political unrest, which undoubtedly impaired their ability to teach their pupils. Seventeen students were either intimidated or beaten up. A ten-year-old student was forced to drop out of school after he was beaten up by Zanu (PF) youths because his family were MDC supporters, while a girl aged 13 was living in the bush for one and a half weeks after being threatened by Zanu (PF) members. She attended school coming from the bush every day for the full week and a half.

I was forced to buy Zanu (PF) cards and accused of supporting MDC. I was forced to attend a Zanu (PF) meeting at Rwavamutagwi which openly abused teachers for supporting MDC I was also forced to contribute money towards feeding Zanu (PF) youths.

Case 26

I and all the staff at the school were threatened. We were forced to attend a Zanu (PF) meeting at Rwavamutangwi and forced to buy Zanu (PF) cards. We were also forced to donate money to Zanu (PF) youths. They came back on several occasions.

Case 27

Zanu (PF) youths came to my school and demanded Zanu (PF) cards from all the staff members. They then threatened us and intimidated us and asked us to produce our MDC cards. If we failed to do so they said they would invite other Zanu (PF) members in other places to come and beat us up.  TOP