New wave of attacks on Zimbabwe opposition ratchets up the death toll

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Still and silent in the darkness last week, opposition activist Sebastian Chipiyo hid in a smelly outhouse, listening, he said, to the agonized shrieks of his brother, Archiford, being beaten just yards away by a mob of ruling party thugs. His colleague, Question Dingo, hid in the hen coop. Others roosted silently in the trees, all listening, terrified.

“I could hear the sound of the beating. It sounded like they were using heavy objects. You could hear it: Bam! Bam!” said Sebastian Chipiyo, 25. “It was very painful to hear my brother crying. I couldn’t do anything because these guys were carrying guns. We heard him crying, ‘You’ve killed me; you’ve broken my ribs.’

“We couldn’t even shed tears. We could not move from our hiding places.”

Less than two weeks before Zimbabwe’s upcoming presidential election runoff, about 15 activists of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change had been in hiding at the home of Chipiyo’s father, an MDC local councilor, in Chitungwiza, a suburb about 20 miles from Harare, on Tuesday after being driven from their own homes in previous days.

But at midnight, some 300 ruling ZANU-PF party supporters attacked the house with rocks. The MDC men tossed stones back. But the mob returned with guns.

“The last thing my brother said to me was, ‘The situation is really bad. There’s nothing we can do because we are fighting people with weapons. I hope God will intervene,’ ” said Sebastian. He couldn’t see his brother’s face in the dark but heard the fear in his voice. A chill of fear tightened in his own gut.

The mob, singing a liberation war song called “You Started the War,” closed in on the house. Sebastian and others managed to scramble over the wall to hide next door, but three didn’t make it, including his 29-year-old brother. As the attackers beat their victims, they shouted, “Where are the others? We want your father’s head,” according to Chipiyo and Dingo.

The pair saw their three colleagues and an unknown passerby being taken away to a makeshift militia camp where victims are interrogated and beaten. The location: the local kindergarten. The mob then looted and petrol-bombed the house.

“The house was in flames. They started celebrating,” said Chipiyo.

One of the activists’ bodies was found dumped the next day, his genitals cut off. Archiford’s body turned up two days later with a gunshot wound to the head, witnesses said. A third dead activist had an ax wound in his skull. The fourth was in critical condition in a hospital.

As Friday’s runoff nears, the regime of longtime President Robert Mugabe has unleashed a new wave of attacks against the opposition in urban high-density areas near the capital, according to the MDC, which had more activists killed this last week than any other since the first round of voting in which Mugabe finished behind MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights says there have been at least 85 deaths and 3,000 people injured in political attacks since the March 27 presidential vote. The independent group has described the level of election violence as unprecedented. Up to 200 activists remain missing, according to Zimbabwean human rights activists.

For many here, life has become a terrifying round of beatings, harassment, political “re-education” meetings and funerals.

Many opposition activists now believe that without peacekeepers, the MDC has no choice but to withdraw from the upcoming vote. The MDC’s government council is due to meet Sunday to vote on whether to press on.

“There’s a lot of fear,” Dingo said. “People are asking if the election should be stopped because there’s no security.”

The streets of Harare are plastered with green posters of Mugabe and the ZANU-PF slogans: “This is the final battle for total control.” “100% empowerment.” “Total independence.”

But there are few opposition posters, with the MDC forced to post any signs in the middle of the night for fear of beatings. The opposition has also been denied advertising airtime on the state media, which quotes Mugabe as accusing the opposition of lying about the violence.

Many Zimbabweans display ZANU-PF brochures and posters in their cars. Youths wear ZANU-PF T-shirts and bandannas. But some privately admit in interviews that they are showing ZANU-PF colors as an insurance policy, to avoid attack or keep their businesses running.

The runoff was called after official results said neither Mugabe, who has ruled the nation since it was created in 1980, nor his rival, MDC leader Tsvangirai, won an outright majority in March elections. The MDC leader insists he won more than the required 50%-plus-one vote to claim victory outright.

The presence of observers from the regional group, the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, has not stemmed the subsequent violence. SADC official Tanki Mothae confirmed several cases of harassment of election observers in Zimbabwe in the last three days. Speaking in Harare, Mothae said the harassment was coming from one side, but would not comment on which.

One MDC activist had his stomach sliced open in a high-density suburb near Harare Wednesday, according to MDC organizer Willis Madzimure. Another was beaten to death there Tuesday, MDC officials said.

Shortly after the initial election, reports of violence in rural areas against MDC activists were widely reported. Now the violence is shifting to urban areas and suburbs.

In Chitungwiza, mobs of ZANU-PF youth militias went from house to house today, rounding up residents for a tense and fearful “re-education” meeting by ZANU-PF officials and war veterans, threatening to beat those who refused to attend.. The five ruling party speakers warned there would be war if voters rejected ZANU-PF, according to a witness.

“We are not bothered whether the U.N. or SADC declares this election free and fair. We will go ahead and have Robert Mugabe as our leader regardless,” said one official at the meeting who gave his name as Comrade Padare.

The officials warned that from Monday, militias would go from house to house in Harare’s suburbs, checking households to ensure they were members of ZANU-PF. They also announced a 6 p.m. curfew in the area.

Even funerals have been politicized. Farai Gambe, an opposition activist, was shot in the head the night of June 14 as two truckloads of ruling party workers armed with AK-47s attacked him in his home in Makoni Central province, eastern Zimbabwe, according to an MDC activist. Several dozen ZANU-PF youth turned up at the burial Thursday.

“At the funeral, ZANU-PF youths were commanding people to put on ZANU-PF T-shirts,” said Hlanganayi Sithole, an MDC activist who was present.

Gambe’s father and two brothers were weeping, he said. ZANU-PF youths “forbade the relatives of the deceased to mourn. They shouted, ‘We don’t want to hear you cry for Farai Gambe!’ They said: ‘Put on these T-shirts as a sign you are loyal to ZANU-PF. The ones who lose the election will vacate this area and there will be war in this country.’ ”

Chipiyo fears the violence will accelerate after the election, when observers disappear.

“They’re threatening to wipe out all MDC activists. They can come for us after the election,” he said. “We feel that we are in real trouble. They are going to follow up and hunt down and kill all MDC activists.”