Bulawayo. Good Friday evening (24 April): Six men brandishing iron bars and axes stormed Togo Khupe's home in Nketa 9 township in Bulawayo. She was out but her children, twins aged 16 and a six-year-old girl, were at home. "Where is your mother? We are going to kill her," the men said. Khupe, an MDC candidate for Parliament, had addressed a rally in Pumula three days earlier. The men who identified themselves as war veterans, ransacked the bedroom, smashed some plates and left. Togo Khupe's children told her not to give up. "They said, 'Mommy, we are behind you. Things have to change,'" says a proud Khupe.

Shamva. Last week, in this mining town 90km north east from Harare, a dozen schoolteachers and two headmasters of primary schools known to be pro-MDC were severely beaten up and chased out of their staff houses. "These are for Zanu- PF!" shouted the assailants, a gang of 30-odd men. The teachers are now homeless and afraid to return to Shamva.

Wedza: Hospital staff refused to treat people beaten up by Zanu (PF) youth. A NGO worker who brought in his injured relative asked why they would not treat him. He was told that a local war veteran leader had said so.

Murewa. A gang of youths burnt a second hand car belonging to a teacher who had campaigned for the MDC.

Chipinge. On Easter Monday (24 April) a crowd mounted a roadblock with their cars at the entrance of town. They stopped a group of MDC supporters returning from a rally and tore off their T-shirts in a skirmish. The person leading the crowd at the roadblock was the Zanu (PF) provincial political commissar for Manicaland.

The Kariba police was alerted. Khupe and Musava reported the attacks to police. So did the school staff in Shamva. The police did nothing. "We have hundreds of countrywide reports of wholesale intimidation," says David Coltart, lawyer, human rights activist and MDC director for elections.

Coltart tells of thugs attacking villages and farm compounds in a style reminiscent of Mao's Red Guards in China. Farm workers are beaten, forced to insult the MDC, praise Zanu-PF and to move with the gangs on to the next farm for another terrorising session.

Black-owned businesses are petrol- bombed. Black-owned homes are torched, cars burnt, household goods stolen. MDC candidates have stopped counting the death threats by phone and mail.

With six reports over the Easter weekend of rapes and indecent assault of farm labourers' wives and daughters, a group of MDC women want to set up a rape crisis centre and obtain AZT for survivors. The Musasa project for women victims of violence would like to send its mobile units to attacked farms but fears for its counsellors. Police will not protect them.

The violence has stepped up sharply since last Friday's summit at Victoria Falls, when South African President Thabo Mbeki extracted a promise from President Robert Mugabe to stop farm invasions. War vet leader Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi is touring the country telling white farmers they have nothing to fear - as long as they live peacefully with the invaders on their property. The handful of new farm invasions that took place over Easter are on farms near Harare - a crude attempt to woo urban voters, the opposition's power base. Ruling party candidates Irene Zindi and Stalin Mau Mau told Mbare residents to carve out residential stands. Thousands followed. Plots are sold for less than Z$50 ($1). Somebody is making money.

Meanwhile, government strategy has changed. Mugabe, ever the cunning politician, realised the attacks against white farmers were attracting too much negative international attention. Repression of blacks perhaps would not elicit that interest. So, in a repeat of the pre-Gukurahundi days, state terror is unleashed against the most vulnerable people - those without an association to speak on their behalf, without economic clout. Those who cannot afford to send their wives and children to South Africa or New Zealand, even to another township or village. True, Gukurahundi could not happen again today. Mugabe does not have the unequivocal support of the army, not even of his party. Civil society is stronger. The world's media is here. There would be international condemnation. But there are similarities in the approach. One is the general use of violence to attain a political objective (to crush Zapu then, MDC today). Another is not to go for the leadership (Joshua Nkomo then, Tsvangirai today) but to undermine their support by terrorising the rural and urban poor. "South Africa must realise how blacks are suffering," says Coltart. "This violence will undermine the region just as much as attacks on white farmers. Obviously Mugabe does not want peaceful elections."

On Tuesday, a daily paper quoted Vice-President Simon Muzenda at a rally, saying he did not regret the brutal murders of two white farmers. His remarks were published on the day when 1000 people attended a moving memorial in Harare for slain farmer, David Stevens. Regularly, Mugabe and his Cabinet insult the opposition, calling them dogs, sell- outs, even unprintable terms. Such hate speech from national leaders has not been heard in Africa since Radio Mille Collines preached ethnic cleansing before the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The climate of intimidation makes it increasingly difficult to conduct free and fair elections - a condition laid down by Mbeki - in this climate. The MDC is in a Catch-22 situation. If it campaigns, it endangers its members. At the memorial, MDC candidate Trudy Stevenson privately dwelt on the moral dilemma the party faces. "I was in Marondera three weeks ago, urging people to support the MDC, and now Stevens is dead," she said. The farmer was taken from a police station and killed near Marondera. Stevenson says the party will have to rethink its campaign strategy to protect supporters but will not be cowed.

The violence will make villagers fearful of voting and poll monitors reluctant to work; a low turnout may result. This is just what Mugabe wants to ensure the survival of Zanu-PF and his cronies. Despite Mbeki's reassurances at Victoria Falls last week, Zimbabwe is engulfed by savage state-sponsored violence. At the press conference following the meeting of the Southern African heads of state, Mbeki, Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano and Namibia's President Sam Nujoma took turns in exalting Mugabe as a champion of the rule of law.

How many more people have to lose their lives and livelihoods before the international community - the Organisation of African Unity, the Commonwealth, the European Union, the United Nation - realise the real issue is not land reform or black-on-white violence, but state terrorism against the people of Zimbabwe?

Bombing of property belonging of Gweru MDC candidate
On 27 April 2000 in the middle of the city of Gweru a bomb was thrown at the shop belonging to Mr Timothy Mukahlera who is the MDC parliamentary candidate for the Gweru Central constituency. The explosion occurred at about 11.40 p m as Mukahlera was about to close his shop. The bomb was apparently planted under Mukahlera’s Mercedes Benz which was parked near to the shop. It extensively blast shattered the shop’s plate glass window front. It also damaged the engine of his Mercedes Benz vehicle which was parked near to the shop. No one was injured in the blast. Mukahlera accused Zanu (PF) of being behind the bombing.

One person was arrested by the police in connection with this incident and he has subsequently appeared in court on a charge of malicious injury to property. This person is Steven Makasva. Makasva admitted that he was at one time an MDC member but left the party to join other land hungry persons invading commercial farms. It is alleged that Makasva dressed in an MDC tee shirt went to Mukahlera’s premises and planted a home made bomb under his vehicle.

Firebombing of property belonging to Dzivarasekwa MDC candidate
Suspected Zanu (PF) supporters allegedly petrol-bombed a hammer mill belonging to Mr Peter Karimakuenda. Mr Karimakuenda is the MDC parliamentary candidate for Dzivarasekwa, in Harare. The value of the property destroyed was put at $100 000.

MDC election candidate beaten
Members of Zimbabwe's ruling party stepped up political intimidation overnight, an opposition official said on Thursday, accusing them of beating at least one election candidate from the MDC. "There will be very little let up. Intimidation is rife, beatings are rife,'" a spokesman said. In Insizi, a district northeast of the country's second city Bulawayo an MDC candidate and several aides were set upon and left cut and bruised, allegedly by Zanu (PF) supporters. "Our candidate was badly beaten up and is now in hospital," said David Coltart, legal affairs secretary for the MDC.

MDC deputy president Gibson Sibanda cancelled a speech in Nkayi, about 180 miles southwest of Bulawayo, on Wednesday night after receiving threats that he would be abducted.

Violence spreads to rural areas

This story appeared in The Standard 30 April – 6 May. It was written by a staff writer. Although the story is speculative and sources are not named, it has been included in this report because it seeks to anticipate what it believes will be the next phase of the campaign by the ruling party. The story is as follows:

Report on situation in Mwenezi
Ten people were admitted to hospital and five schools were closed in Mwenezi District as a result of politically inspired violence carried out allegedly by Zanu (PF) supporters and war veterans. The violence comes a week after the MDC held a rally in the area. Police in Mwenezi described the situation as chaotic and said that violent clashes between Zanu PF and MDC supporters continued. Mwenezi District’s Deputy Officer-in-Charge, Inspector Shadreck Basera, said the situation has degenerated into a "mini civil war" with Zanu (PF) supporters and war veterans on the offensive against MDC supporters. "The situation here is chaotic and violent clashes are continuing. Some teachers have fled and we are not sure whether they will come back as they have become targets of the clashes," said Basera. The affected schools include Mushava and Neshuro.

Outlets selling The Daily News in Mwenezi are also being targeted by Zanu (PF) supporters who say that the paper is critical of both Zanu PF and the government.

War veterans, members of the Central Intelligence Organisation and villagers camped on invaded farms were believed to be the ring-leaders of the wave of violence. They raid the villages during the night and when outnumbered they retreat to the nearby invaded commercial farms. President Mugabe has directed that no police officer should go into the invaded farms, making it difficult for law enforcement agents to bring to book perpetrators of the clashes.

However, the police on Friday said members of the police support unit have been deployed to beef up operations in the area.

Violence in Harare
This report was carried in The Independent 5 May 2000.

The campaign of violence by Zanu (PF) supporters spread from the rural hinterland to urban townships. The spate of violence is manifesting itself in Harare’s high-density areas which have so far seen 47 cases of violence, according to statistics provided by the police. The figures are considered to be conservative as a lot of cases have gone unreported while some have not been noted in police records despite reports having been made. Urban violence has increased. Incidents of violence reported to both police and the Movement for Democratic Change’s headquarters in Harare indicate freedom of association is no longer guaranteed. The Independent this week carried out a survey in the high-density areas where violence is believed be encroaching from the rural hinterland. A Chitungwiza-based businessman is alleged to be offering Zanu PF youths cash incentives for them to harass suspected members of the opposition. The businessman, who runs a bus company, is said to be offering $75 for every MDC card confiscated, $200 for a T-shirt and $500 for burning houses belonging to active MDC members. In Budiriro, two houses were destroyed and burnt using petrol bombs by suspected war veterans and Zanu PF’s youth wing. The MDC said one of their youths was arrested by Zimbabwe National Army officers on Tuesday and detained at the ZRP support Unit at Southerton police station. In the same area, an MDC chairman was arrested in connection with the spate of violence but later on released from after paying a $100 fine. MDC officials said all incidents of violence against their members were reported to the police and suspects identified but no arrests have been made. In Mufakose, a security guard at Rukudzo bar was severely assaulted by a group of more than 30 people believed to be Zanu PF youths who were seen putting up posters of a Zanu (PF) candidate. Eyewitnesses said someone tipped them off that the guard had an MDC T-shirt inside.