Press reports for week ending 26 May 2000
This section contains a selection of the press reports on political violence. The facts contained in these reports have not been independently verified. (..Continued)

Violence spreads to towns Mail and Guardian 23 May 2000.
Political violence is continuing to spread from the countryside to the towns as general elections near, the main opposition party said on Tuesday. Several suspected supporters of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party briefly invaded a village secondary school at Raffingora north of Harare on Monday and disrupted classes before police arrived and chased them off. There was no violence, but it was the latest in a series of attacks on schools and businesses suspected of promoting opposition to Zanu-PF in the run-up to next month's elections. "They are targeting anyone who can read and write," a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said.

Orphan’s house damaged Daily News 22 May 2000.
Suspected war veterans and Zanu PF youths damaged the Budiriro house of a 17-year-old orphan, Tawanda Neshiri, among property they targeted in political violence in the suburb last Tuesday. Takundwa Chipunza, 38, an MDC supporter, died and five buildings, including a surgery belonging to war veterans’ leader Chenjerai Hunzvi, were damaged following stone and petrol bomb attacks in the clashes between the MDC and Zanu PF.

The skirmishes were sparked off by a fight between Chipunza and another man in a commuter omnibus arriving in the suburb from the city and spilled into the high-density suburb when they disembarked. Neshiri said, he did not know who was responsible for the attack on the house he inherited from his late parents, Mercy and Godfrey Neshiri. He said it occurred while he was attending school at Highfield Mhuriimwe Secondary. "It happened at about 4pm and I was still at school studying for my Ordinary Level examinations in November," said the small-built Neshiri. However, one of Neshiri's neighbours, who was present during the mayhem, said the war veterans and Zanu PF supporters were responsible for the damage. Neshiri said four window panes were broken and a bed and clothes belonging to one of his four lodgers were burnt. The room's walls and asbestos roofing were blackened by soot. His neighbour said after the Zanu PF youths had dragged Chipunza out of the bus and left him for dead, some MDC youths attacked Hunzvi's surgery which is alleged to be a centre of "interrogation" for suspected MDC supporters. They were chased by war veterans and ruling party youths based at the surgery, he said. Some of the MDC youths fled past Neshiri's house, at number 6967, and the war veterans thought one of them went into the house, said Neshiri's neighbour. "They threw stones at the house and one of them threw a ball of fire through one window," he said. "They later went around telling residents to stay indoors. Those who refused were taken to Hunzvi's surgery where they were allegedly assaulted," he said. Neshiri's father died in August 1994 and his mother succumbed in the same month four years later. Houses belonging to MDC supporters, Beauty Chakanyuka and Spiwe Chirimuta, and Mostaff Chirau, were caught in the cross-fire. They were damaged in the ensuing violence. Police arrested 30 people in connection with the violence in which other 17 people were injured.

Brutal murder of father and son in Mutoko Financial Gazette 25 May 2000.
Nyamhanga. Those who saw the signs escaped to Harare with their few belongings. Few of the people who failed to see death and mayhem as it came are alive to tell the tale. Mationa Mushaya, a headman of Nyamhanga village in Mutoko, about 250 kms from Harare, was one of those who did not flee. Last Tuesday night, he was beaten to death by a group of youths chanting ZANU PF slogans. When the young thugs were convinced that he was dead, they walked a few metres over to the homestead of Mushaya’s eldest son Onias. They dragged him out of his hut and beat him up, broke his hands and left him for dead. He died mid-morning the following day.

Murder and political violence have distressingly become routine in Zimbabwe since supporters of the ruling ZANU PF party and former independence war guerrillas — with the open blessings of President Robert Mugabe — unleashed an orgy of killings, arson and beatings against white farmers and members of the opposition three months ago. Political analysts say the cold-blooded murders, in which at least 23 people have been killed, are meant to crush the opposition ahead of the June 24-25 parliamentary election. An increasingly powerful MDC poses the first serious threat to ZANU PF’s reign since independence 20 years ago.

On Saturday morning when the Financial Gazette arrived at the headman’s village, Onias’ widow and children had moved to the headman’s home for the family to mourn together under one roof. The clan was worried because they had no idea when they would be able to bury their father and grandfather. The police had taken the two bodies to Kotwa Hospital, 30 kms away, for a post-mortem. "We have been informed that the doctor at Kotwa who was supposed to do the post-mortems said he could not come up with the cause of death. Frankly, we think he is just scared of what the ZANU PF youths will do to him. "People are being intimidated left, right and centre. The police told us that the post-mortems would have to be done in Harare. As we speak, the bodies are still at Kotwa, which means there could be several days’ delay to the burials," said Mationa Mushaya Junior. Fresh graves for father and son had been dug in the family cemetery in a nearby thicket.

There were pools of tears in Junior’s red eyes as he bravely narrated how a mob of rowdy young men came in the middle of the night, killed his grandfather (his namesake) and beat up his father, leaving him for dead. Speaking in muted tones, he said: "My grandfather and father were killed because they supported Bishop Abel Muzorewa’s United Parties (UP). But the funny thing is that only a week ago the whole village was rounded up by war veterans and ZANU PF youths and frog-marched to a rally. "We were ordered to bring UP or MDC party cards, T-shirts or any literature we had. When we got to the rally, we were asked to surrender all that material and to denounce opposition parties, which we did because we had been threatened with death. We were then assured that no one would harm us anymore because we had returned to the fold," he said.

Junior’s grandmother Mereniah Mushaya picks up the story. "You can imagine our shock when at midnight on Tuesday a group of people came bashing our doors and demanding that we come out. My husband was trying to dress up when they broke into our bedroom and dragged him out. They immediately started beating him," she recalled. "One of them made sure that he was no longer breathing and ordered me to carry his body into the house. They then said they were going to deal with my eldest son. I could hear Onias’ cry for help as I stood helplessly in my own yard," said the old woman, tears streaming down her wrinkled cheeks.

The family had nursed Onias throughout the night and the better part of the following morning. He was badly hurt and was drifting in and out of consciousness. At the same time, they also mourned the headman in isolation because other villagers were scared to be seen consoling them. Neighbours only came when a war veterans leader identified as Shepherd Mutesva told them it was fine to attend the funeral. "At mid-day Onias died and the war veteran who had given the go-ahead for our neighbours to attend the funeral reported the two murders to the police. The police came to investigate and after that we had visits from members of the Central Intelligence Organisation but we refused to talk to them," she said, wiping off the tears with the multi-coloured wrap dress favoured by women of her age. The family had already spent five days mourning but the arrival of relatives and friends from outlaying areas brought fresh memories and more mourning.

Thirty-year-old Junior picks up the story again. Pointing at the mountains that separate Zimbabwe and Mozambique, he said his family and others here had provided nourishment to Zimbabwe’s independence war fighters as they criss-crossed the border on missions during the 1970s campaign. "Even then several people died at the hands of the guerrillas, most accused of being sellouts. We now have a black government — a government that is staffed with selfish men and women who think nothing of shedding blood, all because they want to remain in power," he said. "Nothing will make me vote for such brutal people. I have lost very important people in my life. ZANU PF must understand that other people place a lot of value on the sanctity of life. I now have to look after my mother, six siblings and my grandfather’s three widows."

Moving around the Mashaya homestead, one could detect the wire-taut tension. A group of women cooking on open fire spoke in low tones, all the time checking to see if there were any unknown figures lurking around. Although three of the suspected murderers were caught on Friday and paraded by the police to the Mushaya family the same night, family members still feared for their lives. They were convinced that the assailants would be released and come back to finish them off.

While the Mushaya family mourned its loss, many villagers were nursing others severely beaten by the suspected ZANU PF youths. At the UP’s offices in Harare, a makeshift refugee camp has been set up to assist party supporters who escaped the terror of Murehwa and Mutoko. Those without relatives in Harare and who did not belong to the UP were forced to sleep in the open at the capital’s sprawling Mbare Musika. The last time many were forced to turn to the thief-infested market for shelter was at the height of the war during the late 1970s. Nights for many people in the rural and urban areas are no longer peaceful times to rest. They are a time to hide.

Where missing a ZANU PF rally could mean death Financial Gazette 25 May 2000.
Nyajena, Masvingo — In one of ZANU PF’s rural strongholds in Nyajena communal lands, 400 km south of Harare, the pover-ty and human suffering suggests that the ruling party has done nothing over the past 20 years to uplift the lives of millions of rural peasants. As we drove to the venue of ZANU PF’s election rally at Nyajena’s Guwa business centre, we passed half-naked and malnourished children playing by the roadside and barefooted mothers scratching for survival in small gardens not far away from the road. I couldn’t help but wonder just how ZANU PF was going to convince the voters here and in other rural areas to vote it back into power next month when it was so glaring that the party had failed to deliver on promises for a better life made in 1980 and every other five years since.

In the city of Masvingo just before the rally, party stalwart Eddison Zvobgo, ZANU PF candidate for Masvingo South under which Nyajena falls, had told me: "There is no question that ZANU PF will win in Masvingo province. "It is good that you are coming to the rally. You shall see for yourself the kind of support the party enjoys here." It was a jovial and impressive crowd of more than 2 000 people we found gathered under the big mango trees a few hundred metres from the shops of Guwa. There was a cross-section of society — the elderly, the women and the children. Dzikamai Mavhaire, the outspoken chairman of ZANU PF in Masvingo who was addressing the rally jointly with Zvobgo, broke into a traditional song. The crowd joined in. Someone expertly thumped a traditional drum, giving the whole proceedings a certain warmth and togetherness. Zvobgo and Mavhaire are perhaps among few top ZANU PF party leaders who still enjoy the confidence and respect of ordinary people, I concluded.

Then the chairman of the local ZANU PF district who identified himself only as "Comrade Mundoga" called the crowd to order. Before Zvobgo and Mavhaire could address the gathering, he said there was a need to know who within the local community and party leaders had come to attend the meeting. First to be called to stand up were the kraal heads. They were counted before being ordered to sit down. A count was also taken of the teachers and policemen at the meeting. Then the local ZANU PF district leaders, branch chair-men, agricultural extension workers, all were asked to stand up and be counted.

I could see Mavhaire counting and jotting on a piece of paper each time a group of people was called to stand up. I could not establish whether or not he was also recording their names. I wondered what could be the reason for this mini-census. At that moment, I thought I noticed some anxiety on the faces of the women sitting just a few metres away from me. Tichatonga Mabhunu, a veteran of Zimbabwe’s 1970s war of independence, stood up. Violently Mabhunu punched the air three times, shouting: "Forward with ZANU PF!" Then he punched down again three times with the same vigour. This time his message was ominous. "Death to the opposition MDC; Death to Morgan Tsvangirai and all his followers!" The crowd thundered in unison.

It dawned on me then that what had started off as a relaxed election campaign had once again become a replay of the political education meetings of the 1970s liberation-war era. At the political education meetings during the armed struggle, villagers, kraal heads and community leaders would be asked to report those among their own who had not turned up for the meeting. Instant death and beatings would be meted out on people for failing to attend or for mere suspicion that they supported the Rhodesian government. It appeared to me that ZANU PF no longer felt confident anywhere in Zimbabwe. Not even here in Nyajena, where its heavyweights Zvobgo and Mavhaire seemed to command genuine support from the people. The threats of death and violence were now employed to ensure the support of these poor, rural people who, it was apparent, were so unhappy with the government’s mismanagement of the economy.

Another former combatant stood up. He said his liberation war name was Takesure and that he had operated in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands during the war. "I was trained to kill. That is all I know and I can promise that blood will be spilt in this area if you continue to support the opposition," Takesure warned.

I looked at Zvobgo’s face. I thought in my mind the respected politician and astute lawyer would not allow Take-sure, an obvious junior to him in the party, to continue with this illegal intimidation and threats of murder and violence against the people.

Zvobgo did not intervene.

Another war veteran warned the people that even if they all voted for the MDC, its leader Tsvangirai would never rule the country because the veterans would go back to war.

The enthusiasm had gone away from the peoples’ faces. They still continued to sing and clap hands in approval when asked to. But I detected the same deceiving compliance that I used to see in my mother’s eyes whenever the white Rhodesian soldiers passed through our home during the independence campaign.

At the end of the weekend meeting, I confronted Zvobgo. I asked him why the party found it necessary to use threats if ZANU PF enjoyed much support among the people. "The bottom line is that there will be no violence here because we do not even have the so-called opposition in this area. Ask the people and they will tell you they do not know about the MDC," he said.

During his address, Zvobgo had started by politely apologising for having failed to fulfil earlier promises to come to address the villagers. He explained the problems over the land issue. He admitted the failures of his party but expertly reminded the crowd of some of the achievements it had made such as building schools and health facilities. He reminded them of the irrigation schemes he had facilitated in the area. He did not condemn the threats of violence and death made by the veterans against the people in his own constituency. Zvobgo, undoubtedly one of the most open-minded and progressive ZANU PF leaders, did not care to correct the wrong assertions by some ex-combatants that they would be appointed polling officers and would identify all people voting against ZANU PF and deal with them later.

As we negotiated our way back to Harare along the rugged and dangerous road, again being exposed to harrowing scenes of poverty, I told myself it was a tragedy that good men in society had decided not to speak out against violence and lawlessness devouring the nation.

Zanu PF terror targets rural professionals Independent 26 May 2000.
Texas Farm, about 2km from Mnene Hospital in the heart of Mberengwa’s prime commercial farming area, is a nondescript wasteland suitable for cattle ranching. The tranquillity that hovers over the place is misleading. The people in the neighbourhood still drink and chat as usual. But the underlying mayhem being silently orchestrated by a marauding band of war veterans is chilling.

A nurse at Mnene Hospital and a teacher at a primary school were abducted at night and whisked to the self-styled "concentration camp" where the victims are not Jews, but MDC supporters. A hospital official at Mnene chronicled the testimonies of Nurse Chirodzo who was abducted last week and taken to Texas Farm. An old man, an orderly, said they came during the evening and took the two separately after which they frogmarched them to Texas Farm. Texas is understood to be run by an absentee landlord in London whose local representative was referred to as Mr Smith. The farm stretches from Mnene into Mazvihwa, Zvishavane, and the surrounding Mberengwa area.

"They were picked up and frogmarched to Texas," the hospital official said. "They were stripped naked. We are told they were forced to climb up trees from where they would force them to jump down from about three metres. "They were beaten up with electrical cords, sticks, and they used guns to threaten them with death," he said. "When they came back, they had swollen faces. One of them, the nurse, could hardly talk," he added. The teacher spent the whole night in captivity at the farm where the war veterans took turns to beat him until he was unconscious.

Most people were tight-lipped about the development for fear of reprisals, as the veterans have cultivated and entrenched their grip within the community. The authorities at Mnene school indicated that it was not necessary to give interviews to the press. Why? "The situation is not ripe," a headmaster said.

The Zimbabwe Independent was unable to track down the nurse and the teacher. The Lutheran church, which for the past two months had been quiet while its nurses and teachers were being terrorised, eventually said "enough is enough" and issued a press release. "Our people and our institutions are being harassed, threatened and intimidated left, right and centre. We can no longer remain silent," they said. "There is chaos reigning at Mnene mission in Mberengwa which is our biggest mission. "Members of staff were last week abducted from the hospital and beaten up. Groups of people come threatening people, we are concerned about the situation ... in our institutions," the church lamented. They remained a voice crying in the wilderness. "If you are a member of the MD) and you are a teacher, you can’t teach in Mberengwa," said the church. That is the rule, the "gospel" according to the war veterans.

It has been declared a no-go area by a marauding band that is unleashing mayhem amongst the rural communities.

Nurses were victimised as Big Chitoro, a war veteran who moves around carrying bayonets in both pockets, led the band of war veterans that are camped at Texas. What was baffling was the fact that the police at the Mberengwa station decided to look the other way while those master-minding the terror were still operating in daylight and no action had been taken against them, according to the locals. "We feel let down," a local villager said.

The member in charge at Mberengwa police station, Inspector Zvinawaya, referred inquiries to the Gweru provincial office. "We cannot say anything. That is being dealt with at provincial level," Zvinawaya said.

It is difficult to think that politics could polarise relations amongst educated people, creating an alien culture of mayhem where helpful nurses and teachers that have long been an integral part of the community are declared "enemies of the people". "You can’t shout an MDC slogan and attend rallies," Thessyl Hove, an MDC supporter told the Independent. "If you take a stroll and they suspect that you are an MDC supporter, and you do not produce a card, they immediately descend on you. "If you want to be safe, buy a Zanu PF card," he said.

The Independent spoke to several teachers in Mberengwa West. A group of war veterans forced at least two teachers at Ruvabvu to go and victimise Nkomo, a teacher who had to flee from Chegato Primary School. At Maringambizi Secondary School, about 20 km from Chegato, they de- scended on the female head and threatened two male teachers before setting the library on fire. It was partly burnt. On Tuesday last week, the war veterans planted sticks and heavy stones on the head’s veranda. "It was a clear warning that they were saying she should go," a local teacher said.The head was being accused of supporting the MDC. At Chegato High School they singled out several teachers and members suspected of being MDC supporters. The Independent understands that they were local war veterans from Ruzengwe that came carrying a pistol and demanded to see the teachers who were forced to produce their MDC membership cards. "That disturbed the peace of the place. It disrupted lessons and there are very few local students attending school there," he said. One of the teachers said the war veterans were accusing them of supporting MDC, betraying the faith the government had in them after the 65% salary increment. "We have been suppressed and have suffered for too long," a secondary school teacher said. "The increments cannot make up for the desperation and troubles we went through over the years. How can we be remembered now before the crucial parliamentary election?" he asked.

The local Zanu PF members mobilised and armed the war veterans who then got the licence to butcher MDC supporters. Locals suspect strongly that senior politicians in the area are behind the disturbances since no decisive action is being taken to stop the mayhem. "Some are openly armed, Like Big Chitoro," a local villager said. "People have been abducted and taken to Texas Farm. No action has been taken against the war veterans. The police said it was a political issue and there was nothing they could do."

The selection of teachers has now been localised, with a councillor and headmaster conducting the whole interviewing process. Teachers are now being selected on the basis of political affiliation. Those suspected or known to belong to the MDC cannot secure temporary teaching posts.

A moving testimony by George Madiro (not his real name) showed the fundamental rot underlying the political process. In the company of three other young men, he went for an interview at Chegato primary school where he was asked to go to Zvishavane to fill in the necessary forms. After paying the transportation costs, medical fees and application fees, he was asked to go back and resume teaching. When he got back, Madiro told the Independent that he could not teach because he was believed to be an MDC supporter and had to go back to Zvishavane to clarify his position with the staffing officer. "He told me that there was nothing he could do since he had been informed by the sitting councillor," Madiro said. Despite an acute shortage of teaching staff, Madiro is staying at home or spends his time at Jeka business centre. His potential has been put on ice and he cannot teach because he is a suspected supporter of the MDC. "The pupils at primary level are too young to vote. They do not even understand politics. I do not know why we are being harassed," he said.

CIO visits Archbishop Daily News 24 May 2000.
Amid fears of a psychological warfare in Matabeleland in the run-up to next month's parliamentary elections, Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube has had a visit from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). Archbishop Ncube on Monday confirmed in Bulawayo he had been interviewed by two CIO officers who identified themselves simply as Moyo and Chibango. The operatives asked Ncube to explain his church's involvement in politics. The visit comes at a time of increasing tension in Matabeleland, especially in Bulawayo, over the presence of military personnel sporting red berets, the type that was worn by the now-disbanded 5 Brigade during the reign of terror on civilians in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the 1980s following an armed dissident uprising in the three provinces. And Archbishop Ncube was adamant that the presence of military personnel in red berets was not just coincidental. The government was waging a psychological war to gain votes in the forthcoming parliamentary elections slated for 24 and 25 June, Ncube said. "It is clear the government is afraid of losing the election so they have embarked on a psychological war," he said. "These people in red berets are meant to cow the ordinary people into voting for the government in the election. "The message is clear: ‘Remember what we did to you in the 1980s? If you do not vote for us we will be back to repeat the torture,’ is what the presence is saying. "It is an intimidating tactic to ensure people vote the government back into power."

ZNA trains Zanu PF crack unit Independent 26 May 2000
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces is training a quasi-military unit recruited from Zanu PF supporters at the King George VI Barracks (KGVI) in Harare, the MDC has alleged. MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube told journalists at a press conference in the capital on Wednesday that his party, which represents the biggest challenge to Zanu PF’s 20-year grip on power, was aware of the military training taking place at the army’s biggest barracks. "We are aware that some people are undergoing quasi-military training at KGVI and we also know about Operation Tsuro which has been unleashed throughout the country," said Ncube. Operation Tsuro is reported to be a government-sponsored campaign to eliminate specific opposition figures and destroy properties belonging to MDC members.

A British newspaper, the Sunday Times, reported last weekend that Zanu PF operatives were being paid $22 750 for killing a particular person and $7 000 for burning homes.

Ncube chronicled a series of events which he said had been perpetrated against members of the MDC and said there had not been any improvement in the security of their members despite promises from the police. He said violence, which was initially confined to the rural areas, was now widespread in the urban areas. "There has been a great deal of violence in urban areas and people in Harare, Bulawayo, Kwekwe, Marondera, and Plumtree have been forcibly taken from their houses for torture sessions and beatings," Ncube said. "The language remains the same: Vote MDC and you die; vote Zanu PF and you live," he said. He said Zanu PF youths and war veterans were targeting civil servants in rural areas because they were educated. "It is in this context we firmly believe government is not committed to free and fair elections".

Ncube said "there was no doubt" Zimbabweans knew that the ruling party and the government had tarnished their reputation in a deep and irredeemable manner. "This is a ruling elite that will use any means to secure power, including destroying its own people and their economy and manipulating the people’s genuine desire for land," he said. Ncube said the MDC had no colour barriers and was open to all Zimbabweans willing to take up membership. "We have said as a matter of policy, black or white Zimbabweans of whatever ethnic description are welcome. We will not be sidetracked by racist propaganda attitudes. It will not affect our programme for change," said Ncube.

He said the technical inadequacies in the electoral process and the political violence were a clear indication that the election would be a farce. He called on President Mugabe to renounce violence and said the government had not made any effort to create a conducive environment for free and fair elections.

"We call on Mugabe who is personally sponsoring the violence to stop it forthwith. We call upon those who have influence on Mugabe’s government to push him and his government towards ending violence and obeying the laws of Zimbabwe," he said. Ncube dismissed reports in the London-based weekly Observer which said the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust had organised the visit of MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai to Washington and London.

Allegations that assassins being trained Sunday Times (London) 21 May 2000.
A campaign of terror codenamed Operation Tsuro is being mounted with the specific approval of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, against opponents of his regime. Henchmen of the ruling Zanu-PF party in the operation are promised payment on a sliding scale, from £379 for killing an opposition member to £117 for burning a house.

Operation Tsuro was named after the hare, which, in Zimbabwe, is considered smart and fast. Young party members are selected by their local branches and sent for seven days of training and indoctrination at the King George VI (KG6) army barracks in Harare. They are taught assassination skills and paramilitary manoeuvres. They are then sent out at night in small squads to kill members of the MDC or burn their houses. Twenty-three people have died in political violence in the run-up to elections called for June 24 and 25, including four white farmers who were known to have supported the MDC.

Tsuro recruits are sent into action far from their homes so that they will not be recognised or constrained by social or tribal rules. Rewards are offered in the chilling language of a killer accountant.The £379 is earned only if the opposition member is murdered "on directive"from the party leadership. A civil servant qualifies for an initial fee of £69 if he agrees to spy on fellow employees in the hunt for MDC sympathisers, and gets another £34 for each person denounced. 

The details were disclosed by Bright Salani, a teacher in his forties who was recruited in his home town of Checheche, near Zimbabwe's border with Mozambique. Police in Checheche, working with Zanu-PF, arrested him hours before he was due to meet me yesterday to discuss Operation Tsuro. Party members had searched his house on Friday, accusing him of being a traitor. Salani feared he would be held or killed, so left a written statement. He also told a friend about his experience. "Bright was talking like he was haunted,"said his friend. "He called the operation ‘the killing project’." Salani, a war veteran who teaches at Garawha secondary school, was recruited as a card-carrying Zanu-PF member and activist. He also spied on fellow teachers. But after his experiences in KG6, he began to have doubts, and agreed to reveal the organised campaign of atrocities.

It was known that the occupation of farms and the intimidation of MDC supporters had been ordered at a high level and implemented by the state security services after voters rejected Mugabe's proposed constitutional reform in February.But Salani's story shows it is directly orchestrated by the president, who was described last week by Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth secretary-general, as a man who wanted to stop the violence and ensure free and fair elections. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Some of the activities at KG6 were banal. Recruits would chant Zanu-PF slogans and take breaks for tea and meals of sadza (maize porridge) and meat. Other activities were not. They were shown how to stab someone in the chest and advised to throw their knife in a river or sewerage drain so that it could not be traced. The recruits were also given instructions on burning the homes of opponents. Mugabe himself was the speaker at their "graduation" ceremony at the Sheraton hotel in Harare. His words left them in no doubt as to their duty. According to Salani, the president said in Shona: "When we are speaking of the struggle, we are talking about killing people so the country can be free." He referred to Zimbabwe's fight for independence, won in 1980, and added: "Now we are at war again . . . If one of you is asked why you are killing, you say it is not us, it is the president. But behave like hares. The baboons have a big build, but the hares are more clever."

Life at the barracks was regimented. After instruction during the day, Salani and other Zanu-PF recruits carried out several operations at night. "When we were told to burn a house, six of us got into a pickup truck," Salani said. "The driver alone knew the address. One member had a petrol container; the most senior member carried a gun. The rest had knives or clubs. The man with the gun knocked on the door. The rest of us had to surround the house. When the house owners came out, we went in, escorting the petrol-carrier." Salani said they doused every room, poured the petrol out to the front gate, and then lit it. He believes he took part in the killing of seven MDC members during his stay in Harare, and their bodies were dumped in the Mukuvisi river or in sewers.

They never said the word kill: they used the code "Tsuro Four", which meant assassinate, he said. It was one of these operations that led to Salani's return to Checheche. He and his group were about to dump a body when the victim suddenly jumped up. He slashed at Salani's face and escaped. To compensate for his injury, the Zanu-PF leadership promised to give Salani and five friends who had also taken part a diesel-run mill for maize. But his dreams of a small business ended with his arrest.

Political violence, intimidation flare up in Murewa South The Zimbabwe Mirror 26 May 2000.
On the night of Sunday, May 14, a group of toyi-toying youths armed with sjamboks and clubs descended on Solomon Bangure’s home in Murehwa’s Nyakate Village. Chanting revolutionary songs, the youths doused three huts with paraffin before setting them alight, destroying property worth thousands of dollars. Fortunately, there was no one at the homestead as its occupants had fled. "What I attained in 40 years of hard work went up in smoke," moaned Solomon Bangure who was in Harare when a group of alleged Zanu PF youths reduced his homestead to ashes and rubble.

Bangure, who was a leading MDC campaigner in Mashonaland East’s Murehwa South constituency, said accounts of the incident indicate that Zanu PF wanted to eliminate him and his family. "They came looking for me, ransacked my huts and retrieved MDC T-shirts and cards before setting alight the homestead. "My mother who lives close to my homestead watched helplessly as the youths burnt everything they came across including food," narrated a tearful Bangure. A former member of the Rhodesian army, Bangure said after the arson, the youths sent word to him to come to Murehwa and denounce the MDC if "I did not want to die." Due to this ordeal, Bangure has since renounced his MDC membership and rejoined the ruling party. Speaking in a slightly quivering voice at a Zanu PF rally at Chizanga township last Saturday, the pint-sized Bangure said he had joined the MDC because of ignorance. "I didn’t know that MDC has an intention to return the country to the whites," Bangure told the rally, after surrendering his membership card.

Bangure’s story is just one of the many incidents of political violence and intimidation in Murehwa South where businessman Joel Matiza is seeking re-election to the House of Assembly on a Zanu PF ticket. Matiza’s would-be challenger from the MDC, George Jiti, withdrew his candidature and abandoned the party to rejoin Zanu PF after alleged victimization from war veterans and the youths. War veterans from Macheke were ferried to Jiti’s home area last week where they allegedly assaulted villagers for rallying behind the MDC. "Information I got from the villagers was that the war veterans wanted to assault me if they had found me at home," said Jiti, who is the president of the Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union in Mashonaland East. Jiti said while his supporters were wantonly intimidated, he voluntarily decided to re-join Zanu PF.

In the past three weeks, Zanu PF youths under the leadership of war veterans, allegedly went on the rampage in Rhodzi area sniffing out MDC supporters and assaulting them "black and blue." An active member of the MDC in the Rhodzi area, Jealous Mawonde, has since fled his homestead after he was assaulted for distributing party literature. When a Zimbabwe Mirror news crew visited Mawonde’s homestead at the weekend, it was told that the Zanu PF youths had instructed Jealous’ mother to find her son. "Her mother left for Harare yesterday. She was told to bring him. Mwanangu kuno hakusi kugarika nenyaya yeMDC iyoyi, (there is trouble here), said an old woman at Rhodzi business centre. She said Zanu PF youths were force-marching people to rallies and any one suspected of supporting the MDC is beaten up.

On its way to Rhodzi business centre, the Zimbabwe Mirror crew passed a large group of people near Musami Mission who were waiting to be ferried to a rally at Chizanga business centre, about 40 kilometres away. A similar group was also seen at Rhodzi business centre. At the rally, people could be heard murmuring that they were not interested in political rhetoric and come June 24 and 25, they will know who to elect. The Zimbabwe Mirror established that over 10 schools in Murehwa South did not open for the second term. Munamba, Mabika, Gezi, Chemhondoro, Chitimbe, Mugabe, Mutavatava, Pakati, Zorizozo, Chikuko, Mhembere and Nhowe were closed as teachers feared for their lives. "Schools must be re-opened with immediate effect," said the Minister of State Security, Sydney Sekeramayi, at the Chizanga rally. "But we don’t want teachers to lecture MDC politics." Sekeramayi said some school teachers had departed from school curriculae and were now preaching the MDC manifesto in class. Sekeramayi, who is also the chairman of the Zanu PF Mashonaland East province, implored the youths to desist from violence. "When MDC provoked us, we retaliated but enough is enough. International observers will soon be in the country and let’s exhibit to them that there will be free and fair elections," he said. Since February, political violence throughout the country has claimed at least 23 lives, caused over 100 injuries and damaged substantial amounts of property. The prevailing wave of political violence in Zimbabwe is seen as a replica of what took place in the run up to the 1980 and 1985 elections when Zanu PF supporters were engaged in running battles with opponents from the then PF Zapu.

In its first pre-election conditions report, the US-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) this week said conditions for credible "democratic elections do not exist" in Zimbabwe at this time. "The violence has created an atmosphere of anxiety and fear. It has substantially restricted the exercise of freedoms of opinion, expression, association, assembly and movement, as well as the right to be secure from physical harm due to political affiliation," reads the 16-page report.

Zimbabwe Police Open Fire; 1 Killed Associated Press report 26 May 2000.
Police opened fire on a group of ruling party supporters, fatally wounding one man, when they attempted to free 19 people jailed for political violence, police said Friday. For three hours, about 50 ZANU-PF supporters attempted to storm the police station in Mvurwi, 90 miles north of Harare, prompting paramilitary police to fire tear gas and live rounds over the heads of the mob, said Assistant Inspector Tarwireyi Tirivavi. One man was hit at close range by a tear gas canister and later died in a hospital, Tirivavi said from police headquarters in the capital. The mob was attempting to free 19 fellow party members who had been arrested for attacking opposition supporters. But the 19, arrested during rioting with opposition supporters Sunday and Monday, had already been transferred to Bindura prison, 60 miles north of Harare. The killing marked the first time a member of President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party has been slain in political violence that began in February.