Re: [A-List] US Imperialism: Zimbabwe

["Patrick Bond" <pbond@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Comrades, I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but each time someone's
impressed with Mugabe's Talk-Left, I really am compelled to give you
evidence of Act-Right.

So here's a scattering of articles (below Moorehead), drawing on the last
week or so of repression and corruption -- albeit from the bourgeois press
(though that doesn't falsify the empirical material below), since the only
lefty source in Zim, Indymedia, is temporarily down (though try the
human-rights crowd at http://www.zvakwana.org)... For longer/deeper
analysis, if anyone wants the 2003 second edn of a book I co-authored,
*Zimbabwe's Plunge: Exhausted Nationalism, Neoliberalism and the Search for
Social Justice*, published in London by Merlin, I'll be happy to send the
manuscript if you let me know offlist.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Black" <bar@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 7:03 AM
> Thanks for this. I just returned from Tanzania and other points in East
> Africa and can tell you that Mugabe is widely admired and the
Anglo-American
> plot against him is clear to everyone...
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <mstainsby@xxxxxx>
> > BUSH ATTACKS ZIMBABWE WITH SANCTIONS
> > By Monica Moorehead ...
> > Why do these imperialists hate Mugabe so much now? After all, they
> > accepted him for many years. But for the past couple of years, Mugabe
> > has supported the mass seizures of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe and
> > their transfer to landless Black veterans of the national liberation
> > war. These farms, established on the most arable lands, were first
> > confiscated from the African people in the 19th century by British
> > colonialists, led by Cecil Rhodes, who violently conquered what came to
> > be known as Rhodesia...
> > As the Bush administration prepares to launch another genocidal war
> > against Iraq, the anti-war movement must not forget that not far beyond
> > on imperialism's radar screen, along with North Korea and Iran, is
> > Zimbabwe--a country whose only "crime" is to defend its sovereignty. To
> > quote Mugabe, Zimbabwe is taking back the land for the people to "right
> > an historical wrong."

***

Zimbabwe Independent, 14 March

Probe into leaked land report


Mthulisi Mathuthu


The government has launched an investigation to find who leaked the
controversial land audit report to foreign newspapers before it had been
discussed in cabinet. Among those being questioned are officials close to
the audit team which was led by the Minister of State for the Land Reform
Programme, Flora Buka. The contentious interim report exposed evidence of
multiple farm ownership. But political pressure could lead to an airbrushing
of some of the findings. Press reports last weekend said London-based
Ugandan fugitive David-Nyekorach Matsanga is also a suspect although he
denies any connection to the audit team. Last week Buka told the Zimbabwe
Independent she was investigating who had leaked the report based on what
she called "unverified information". Matsanga, who was in Zimbabwe from
December to February, told students at the Zimbabwe Open University that he
was involved in a land research programme on behalf of the government. But
in letters sent to newspapers this week Matsanga reacted angrily to the
allegations and threatened to sue the South African Sunday Times which
carried the reports of his involvement. "The most naked lie and distortion
is to say that I leaked a report I have never even seen or which I did not
know existed," he wrote. "I have never said and never been near the Hon
Flora Buka leave alone ever sat down to compile a report with her. Which
report is this? How does it look like? Where is sanity in Zimbabwe politics
gone? Who in Zimbabwe politics is trying to damage my good work I have done
for the Zanu-PF in Britain against the British oligarchy? How on earth can I
spoil the same plate that I am trying to repair?" The report has already
caused a stir among Zanu PF heavyweights who stand accused of using their
influence to get more than one farm under the resettlement scheme. Release
of the substantive report has been put on hold as ministers and others argue
they were not consulted about its contents. The list is not exhaustive, the
report said, "as the people interviewed were afraid to reveal any
individuals lest they might be victimised by the multiple-farm owners who
seem to have their loyalists within the various land committees".

***

Sunday Times (SA), 9 March


Who leaked Zimbabwe report?


Row erupts in Harare's corridors of power over probe into how Mugabe's pals
grabbed land meant for landless peasants.


A Zimbabwe government audit which exposed a pattern of wholesale farm
seizures by government officials has provoked a storm of controversy in
Harare's corridors of power. Official sources said this week that Land
Reform Minister Flora Buka, who is linked to the compilation of the report
and has acknowledged its existence, came under fire from her senior
colleagues for allegedly leaking the report. "She is now under extreme
pressure from her senior colleagues mentioned in the report as land
grabbers," a government source told the Sunday Times. "The problem is that
the report was leaked before some of the officials knew about it and that is
why Buka is bearing the brunt of this official rage." The report, published
in last week's Sunday Times, accuses President Robert Mugabe's senior
government ministers, his hangers-on, and ruling Zanu PF party officials of
seizing farms from peasants. Those implicated in the report include Local
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, who is also chairman of the Land Audit
Committee; Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi; air force of Zimbabwe
commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri; Information Minister Jonathan Moyo;
provincial governors Josiah Hungwe and Obert Mpofu; Home Affairs Minister
Kembo Mohadi; Mines Minister Edward Chindori-Chininga and many Zanu-PF MPs,
including the president's sister, Sabina Mugabe. Several businessmen are
also mentioned.


Moyo, in particular, has denied taking land, as suggested in the Buka-led
audit. In a faxed letter to the Sunday Times, his attorneys stated: "Our
client takes great exception at your deliberate and calculated fabrications,
which are devoid of the basic truth and obviously premised on unrelenting
colonial and apartheid hangovers bent on perpetuating white domination in
this region." The attorneys maintained that, instead of three farms, as
suggested in the audit, Moyo has only one - Patterson. The other farms,
Little Connemara and Lot 3A of Dete Valley, in Lupane, were unknown to Moyo,
they said. Of Little Connemara , they added: "For all we know this piece of
land is still owned by white people as there is no peasant on that land."
Last weekend, Zimbabwe's Sunday Mirror quoted unnamed officials as saying
that Buka's land audit did not exist. But it did report that Zanu PF
Mashonaland West provincial chairman Philip Chiyangwa confirmed some
reported facts in the document. Another Zimbabwean newspaper, The Tribune,
also reported on the matter this week, saying that Buka was grilled by
Vice-President Joseph Msika, who also chairs the National Land Acquisition
Committee, over the report. It quoted Rural Resettlement director Edward
Samuriwo as saying: "We don't know anything about that report. We only read
about it in the newspapers." The Cabinet also reportedly dismissed the
report this week.


Although some officials were anxious to dissociate themselves from the
report, Buka confirmed the report was compiled by the government and would
be debated in Cabinet. "I am not going to release the report to anyone
because I know government procedures," she said. "I need to first discuss it
with Cabinet and I will do soon. I will not stoop so low as to release the
report to any media despite rumours I leaked it to the international media."
Speculation is rife in Harare that Buka produced the report with
London-based Ugandan researcher David Nyekorach-Matsanga, who describes
himself as Mugabe's adviser. Nyekorach-Matsanga, a former spokesman for the
Ugandan rebel group Lord's Resistance Army, heads a shadowy research outfit
called Africa Strategy and has tirelessly defended Mugabe in the media. He
frequently visits Zimbabwe and is thought to have leaked the report in
London, although it is not clear why he would have done so. Commercial
farmers previously produced their own land audit which also revealed that
Mugabe's ministers and party leaders had grabbed large farms for themselves
despite official claims that the process was largely meant to benefit
landless peasants.

***

VOA News, 12 March
'Corruption infected all society,' says Zanu PF founding member


Harare - A veteran ruling party politician in Zimbabwe has unexpectedly
criticized the country's senior officials and their friends, accusing them
of corruption, which he says has infected all of society. A founding member
of the ruling Zanu PF party, Edison Zvobgo, electrified parliament late
Tuesday when he called for the urgent establishment of an anti-corruption
commission. Mr. Zvobgo, who was close to President Robert Mugabe until about
five years ago, accused the ruling elite of massive corruption. He said this
class of people has built mansions which he described as obscene, and which
he said cost more than the owners lawfully earned. He said he had personal
knowledge that some corrupt individuals had taken the opportunity during the
recent land reform program to seize up to five formerly white owned farms
each. He said this should be investigated by a well-staffed anti-corruption
commission.


Recently, several local and foreign publications have published photographs
of massive houses owned by top military officers. Local media have
identified many leading politicians in the ruling party who are reported to
have illegally seized several white-owned farms each. Mr. Zvobgo said
Zimbabwe's government institutions are inefficient and corrupt. He said
their corruption has poisoned the whole society. Unlike many senior
ministers who were appointed by President Mugabe, Mr. Zvobgo was popularly
elected to parliament. He was one of the few ruling party members to keep
his majority intact at the last general elections in 2000. He is known to
oppose draconian security legislation which was pushed through parliament
last year and is seen to be a major player in the emerging reformist wing of
Zanu PF. Mr. Zvobgo is trusted by the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change and the business community. But he has shunned joining the
opposition. Several political analysts say Mr. Zvobgo is destined to play an
important role if there is any move from the present administration to a
transitional authority leading to fresh elections.

***

Financial Gazette, 13 March

Green Bombers' assault Binga council chief


Staff Reporter


Dete - Youths believed to be trainees of Zimbabwe's controversial national
service programme have severely assaulted Herbert Sinampande, the chairman
of the council in the Matabeleland North district of Binga, an opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) stronghold, it was learnt this week.
Eyewitnesses told the Financial Gazette that the youths, derisively referred
to as "Green Bombers" because of their uniforms, physically assaulted
Sinampande last Wednesday at Siansundu Secondary School in Binga, the only
rural district that overwhelmingly voted for the MDC during the 2000
parliamentary election and last year's presidential poll. The witnesses said
Sinampande was in the company of Binga Rural District Council chief
executive Shadreck Mudimba and Dube Mukombwe, a councillor. They said the
secondary school where the assault took place was the venue of a rally that
was addressed by Elliot Manyika, the ZANU PF national commissar who is also
the Minister of Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation. Manyika's
ministry is in charge of the national service programme, which critics say
is being used by the ruling party to train youth militias that are accused
of violence against opposition party members and the general public.

"The Green Bombers swooped on him (Sinampande) at the school without any
provocation," said an eyewitness who spoke to the Financial Gazette after
the burial ceremony of victims of last month's Dete train disaster. The
witness added: "They were shouting at the old man, accusing him of being a
supporter of the Movement for Democratic Change. People just watched as the
boys used fists and sticks and booted the chairman. He missed death by a
whisker. He had to be rushed to hospital with a series of head and body
injuries. The councillor was gasping for air. Initially, the Green Bombers
were adamant he should not be taken to hospital, saying MDC supporters were
not supposed to be treated at ZANU PF hospitals." Mudimba, who witnesses
said was saved by senior ZANU PF officials from a serious beating by the
youth militia, confirmed the incident but would not comment further. "There
is nothing I can tell you, go to the chairman (of the district council),"
said Mudimba. "You should get all the information you need from your
sources. I don't want any trouble." Mudimba was forced to flee from members
of the youth militia several times in the run-up to last March's
presidential election.


Efforts to secure comment from Sinampande this week were unsuccessful as he
was said to have travelled to Hwange for treatment at Wankie Colliery
Hospital. Jealous Sansole and Peter Nyoni, legislators for Hwange East and
West respectively, also confirmed the assault on Sinampande. "He passed
through here (Dete) on his way to Hwange for further examination. He was in
serious pain," said Nyoni. "It is sad that no one has been arrested yet it
is an open secret that the people who assaulted him are the Green Bombers."
A Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spokesman in Hwange, the headquarters for
the police force in Matabeleland North, however told the Financial Gazette
that the incident had not been brought to the attention of the ZRP.

***

Mail & Guardian (SA), 10 March


Twenty-seven MDC members arrested


Harare - Twenty-seven members of the main opposition party in Zimbabwe were
arrested in Harare over the weekend, as political tensions run high in the
capital ahead of two key by-elections, the state-run Herald newspaper said
on Monday. Twenty-one of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were
arrested in the low-income suburb of Kuwadzana for allegedly holding an
illegal meeting, while seven other party members were arrested in the
Highfield suburb for allegedly attacking ruling party supporters.
By-elections are due to take place in the two suburbs, which are both
opposition strongholds, at the end of the month. Police representative
Bothwell Mugariri told The Herald that the group in Kuwadzana stoned police
officers who came to break up their meeting, injuring four officers and
damaging two vehicles. "The group was violent and as a result the police
called for reinforcements before they managed to arrest 21 people," Mugariri
told the paper. He said the group had not sought clearance from police to
hold their meeting, which is required under tough security laws here.

***

 Daily News, 11 March


Villagers flee Zanu PF terror


By Precious Shumba


About 10 villagers from Buhera South fled their homes following Zanu PF
incited violence. They have since sought refuge at the ZimRights offices in
Harare where they are seeking legal assistance. Zanu PF youths allegedly
mounted attacks on the villagers from their bases. Arnold Tsunga, the
ZimRights chairman, confirmed yesterday they had received victims of
political violence from Buhera and Cashel Valley in Chimanimani. He said the
victims had sought refuge in Harare. Tsunga said in Cashel Valley, about 53
people, 21 of them school children were displaced by the massive violence,
perpetrated by Zanu PF supporters since last week. He said violence against
the opposition has been intense in Manicaland since 16 November last year.
He said the political situation in Chipinge, Chimanimani and Buhera was of
"extreme concern to ZimRights". He urged the authorities in Manicaland to
preach tolerance and help enforce the rule of law so that peace could
prevail. He could not give figures of affected people, saying the magnitude
of the violence and destabilisation in the province remained high. Nathan
Shamuyarira, the Zanu PF national secretary for information and publicity
dismissed the reports as "untrue" and not worth commenting on. But Tsunga
said: "properties were burnt when violence erupted in Buhera last week.
Political violence has gone on from 2000 and Buhera has not known peace
since. People can't be integrated into normal life. Until government ensures
that there is tolerance towards opposition supporters, it's unlikely that we
will witness peace in that area." He said villagers in Chimanimani and
Chipinge were being driven away from land they were settled on soon after
independence.

***

Zimbabwe Standard, 9 March


Women arrested


By our own Staff


Bulawayo - Armed riot police wielding baton sticks yesterday violently broke
up a peaceful demonstration by city women to commemorate the International
Womens' Day and arrested 15 women who included three national executive
members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The group of
about 500 women, who were carrying placards denouncing abuse of human rights
in the country and the suffering women are subjected to as a result of the
food shortages, were sent scurrying in all directions when the riot police
pounced on them. The demonstration which took place at the main car park of
the City Hall turned nasty when police tried to whisk away eight of its
organisers. The women defied the pounding rain and blocked the path of the
police vehicle carrying the organisers of the demonstration leading to riot
police being called in. Women, some of them carrying babies, were kicked and
beaten with baton sticks while a group of about five policemen took turns to
beat an elderly woman as she lay on the ground pleading for mercy. The three
MDC national executive members who were arrested are Thokozani Khuphe (MP
for Makokoba), Gertrude Mthombeni and Zodwa Sibanda, the wife of the MDC
deputy president Gibson Sibanda. Jenni Williams the spokesperson for Woman
of Zimbabwe Arise was arrested by police who questioned her for allegedly
using her mobile phone near the demonstrators. Meanwhile, the director of
the UNFPA Thoraya Obaid said woman across the world continued to face
difficulties. "I challenge all nations to join hands in the global effort to
improve women's health. Universal access to reproductive health services by
year 2015 remains an affordable, cost effective and achievable international
development goal," she said.

***

Sunday Independent (SA), 9 March


'I was ordered to kill my father'


By Charlene Smith


Hundreds of Zimbabwe's notorious youth militia, nicknamed the "green
bombers", are fleeing to South Africa because they say they too are being
beaten and starved, and are tired of "killing for nothing". This week The
Sunday Independent interviewed 14 green bombers aged from 15 to 28, giving
the first insight into the terror organisation. One youth said he fled
Zimbabwe after being forced to take part in the murder of his uncle, a
supporter of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Another said he was
involved in the murder of an MDC party chairperson and claimed that within
hours of that death, Jonathan Moyo, the Zanu PF minister of information,
visited the area, followed by President Robert Mugabe. A large consignment
of food was moved in while green bombers exhorted villagers to chant Zanu PF
slogans. Yet another said he fled to South Africa after being instructed to
murder his father, an MDC supporter. Hundreds of youths have fled to South
Africa, according to human rights organisations, churches and law offices.
The stories of the youths interviewed - who come from different areas of
Zimbabwe and who did not previously know each other - provide chilling
details of the green bombers, their training and methods. They come from the
hundreds of youth militia training camps which have sprung up in Zimbabwe,
many at secondary schools where pupils are forced to take part in activities
or risk death. Most of those interviewed fled in December and January, some
swimming the Limpopo and risking crocodiles to get to South Africa. Their
real names are being withheld to protect them and their families in
Zimbabwe. Camps that the boys were trained at include the infamous Border
Gezi in the north of the country and Tsholotsho training centre (a former
training centre for nurses and police officers). At Tsholotsho, the green
bombers claim, there are 2 000 trainees. Camps are sometimes much smaller,
however, with only 100 trainees.


The green bomber operatives have alleged that:


  a.. They were taught how to kill people in "ways that would be quick and
silent and leave no evidence".

  a.. Before a killing mission they were given alcohol and dagga to smoke by
their instructors and Zanu PF political commissars, because then "you feel
nothing for anyone".

  a.. At Border Gezi, they claim, they were taught how to kill. "Maybe two
of us would approach you like we were lost, one would grab you on the front
of the neck and others would push you down and hold you so that you don't
have a chance to scream before you die."

  a.. At camps they would have rigorous programmes of running from 5am to
8am, often after a night of toyi-toying and singing party slogans.

Instructors at Border Gezi allegedly gave instructions that led to the death
of a man in his 30s near Bulawayo. The man was walking along the road and
when asked what political party he belonged to, he said that he did not
believe in politics. And so the militia killed him. Instructors at a camp
near Khami prison, Bulawayo, allegedly gave instructions for youth militia
to kill Michael Sibanda, 41, secretary for the MDC Nkulumani branch. They
gave a group of 10 young men dagga and alcohol before they sent them on the
mission. In March last year, one 22-year-old green bomber claims, a woman
instructor at Border Gezi and a Zanu PF political commissar instructed 13
youth militia that the MDC chairperson of the Siphepa branch, a Mr Sibindi,
was to be killed. "She said it would need a strong person to kill him. We
went to his house at 1am. His wife and seven children ran away. We beat him
and broke his neck. It was so bad. They told us to burn him. We refused. We
laid him next to the railway line. Later that morning we made a rally at
Siphepa for Jonathan Moyo - everyone had to come, if we found someone in
their house, we beat them. The Tsholotsho police tried to investigate but no
one told them the truth."


A trainer at Tsholotsho allegedly told green bombers they must "beat white
people because the MDC wants to give the country to the whites". A
19-year-old former operative said: "We were not paid. They gave us pap only.
We sold mealiemeal in the shops to those with Zanu-PF cards. If MDC people
came we chased them away. We were very rough." Some joined after being told
they would get jobs. MN, 22, who was taken to Tsholotsho training camp, said
he became tired of singing chimurenga songs all night so he went home to
sleep. As punishment they "stripped me and made me roll over and over while
they sprayed water on to me while I was beaten." BN, 18, said he was forced
to burn the houses of opposition supporters. "I was in form four, all I
wanted was education. One day we were told to beat an old man coming from a
shebeen. He was MDC. We used broomsticks and donkey pills [truncheons]. I
think he died."

***

Toronto Star (Canada), 9 March


Zimbabwe running on empty


Wilson Lee

Mugabe keeping terror campaign in high gear, endless line-ups legacy of last
year's rigged election


Bulawayo - "The president is lying," Jacob Undenge says angrily. "Look
around you and you will see that Mugabe is not telling the truth. Everything
is falling apart," the 34-year-old unemployed hotel clerk adds with a wide,
sweeping gesture at the kilometres-long vista of vehicles lined up for
gasoline near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. Undenge, who asked
that his real name be withheld for fear of reprisals, joined the line at 3
o'clock the previous afternoon to refuel his battered but beloved 1974
Datsun. Now, next day, the hundred vehicles behind him and the hundred
ahead, many with only fumes left in their tanks, await the weekly, sometimes
biweekly, arrival of tanker trucks that dole out gasoline in Mzilikazi
township. As the line begins to glacially move again, most throw their
ancient cars into neutral, get out and push to conserve every drop of
increasingly scarce fuel. They do this for hours in the merciless heat.
Justice is rough and swift when a queue-jumper tries to edge into the line.
The offending vehicle is quickly surrounded by a mob, picked up and moved to
the middle of the road - a warning to the impatient.


The fuel shortage and consequent paralysis of the country's industrial
sector is only the most visible indicator of the steady economic decline
that grows deeper as President Robert Mugabe's death grip on the country
grows ever tighter. It was one year ago this week that Mugabe won yet
another term in a rigged election condemned in Canada and throughout the
West. Today, Mugabe's main rival in that election, Morgan Tsvangirai of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is on trial for his life, fighting
treason charges in a Harare courtroom. On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department
condemned Zimbabwe for using intimidation and violence in a "sustained
campaign" to suppress opposition to Mugabe. State Department official
Richard Boucher said more than 100 participants in various political events
have been arrested since Feb. 28 while pursuing basic rights such as
attending rallies and engaging in free speech In addition, Boucher said, 23
clergymen were detained while protesting police brutality. "The government
of Zimbabwe has done nothing to address fundamental concerns about human
rights, rule of law and basic respect for democratic values," Boucher added.
"Indeed, conditions in these areas continue to deteriorate."


"We are hungry," says a 47-year-old mother with a baby strapped to her back
as she waits in yet another endless line-up, hoping there will still be a
loaf of bread at the end. "There is no bread, no milk, no mealie meal,
nothing. "Things are not good," she adds, shuffling forward lest she lose
her spot in line and a chance at a meal. The lives of average Zimbabweans
have become a series of interminable line-ups for food, fuel and other basic
necessities. The lucky ones, those with wads of increasingly worthless
Zimbabwean dollars, turn to the burgeoning black market, where basic
commodities can be purchased at mark-ups as high as 1,000 per cent. Despite
tonnes of international food aid donated by Western nations, an estimated
6.7 million of Zimbabwe's 13 million people risk starvation. Opposition
politicians say that's because much of the food aid is being distributed
only to Mugabe's Zanu PF supporters and many of the black marketeers operate
in collusion with the police or senior Zanu PF members, hoarding goods
purchased at official prices and selling them for obscene profits.
"Initially, they would ask for cards and people got clever and started to
buy Zanu PF cards," says Abednico Bhebhe, an MDC member of parliament.
"After seeing that, they were very quick to modify the system ... and fish
out all those they know to be opposition supporters."


But even as the country suffers critical shortages - not to mention massive
unemployment, an alarming HIV/AIDS crisis and violent political repression -
Mugabe denies that any of this is happening. Indeed, Mugabe is attempting to
project to the international community a state of normalcy even as he uses
ever-more violent means to silence political opponents, human-rights
activists and average Zimbabweans who dare to speak out. In major cities
such as Bulawayo and Harare, police use truncheons to routinely break up
rowdy and impatient bread and fuel queues. Most journalists, with the
exception of foreign correspondents and reporters for the handful of
remaining independent newspapers, are compliant and ignore such events. "We
carry stories that say maize is in abundance, but people are hungry," says a
reporter for a state-controlled weekly. "We keep carrying stories that fuel
is on the way, but it never gets here. But if I don't write it that way,
chances are I'll get that famous phone call from the professor (Prof.
Jonathan Moyo, the minister of information and publicity) and he asks" `Why
did you write this?' "And then you're told that, if you want to keep your
job, you need to know which side your bread is buttered on." Foreign
journalists are also subject to Mugabe's pressure. "Each day when I go out,
I don't know what I'll be facing, what kind of harassment, threat of
violence or threat of arrest," says Andrew Meldrum, correspondent for the
British newspaper the Guardian, who was one of 16 journalists charged last
year under the state's new draconian media-control laws. "And that is what
all journalists in Zimbabwe face. But I and many others don't want to give
into being afraid. It's simply an attempt to cow us into a state of
fearfulness so we stop doing our jobs."


Harrowing tales of arbitrary arrest and torture of opposition politicians
and human-rights activists are also increasingly common. "I was captured by
soldiers based in my Nkayi constituency," says Bhebhe, who has been arrested
four times and tortured twice, most recently in January. "There was heavy
shooting and we were all assaulted. I was with 37 members of my provincial
party and we were all thoroughly beaten by the soldiers. We were then taken
to the police station and we thought that was the end of the beating, but
when we got there, we found Zanu PF supporters and we were further assaulted
as the police watched. I was axed on the head then locked up for two days
with no water or food." Also in January, MDC legislator Job Sikhala and
human-rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba were arrested in a police raid on
Sikhala's residence. They say they were held for two days and tortured with
electrodes placed on their tongues, feet and genitals.


"We've recorded 590,000 cases of serious human-rights violations ... from
arson to assault," says Brian Kagoro, co-ordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition, which includes more than 350 human-rights groups. "We've seen
rapes and over 180 people have died in incidents of political violence.
We've seen a very ugly turn in our politics that is inconsistent with the
democratization of the rest of the southern Africa region." Kagoro says the
terror campaign is being organized by Mugabe's Zanu PF and perpetrated by
police, soldiers and two Zanu PF militias - the War Veterans, ostensibly
representing soldiers who fought for liberation in the 1970s, and the
National Service Youth, often referred to as the Green Bombers because of
their members' army fatigues. Despite claims by the government that many
youth militia units and training camps have been dismantled, Green Bombers
can still be seen roaming the streets of Harare and Bulawayo, terrorizing
opponents of the regime, both real and perceived. The escalating violence
began in February, 2000, when Mugabe used these two militias to confiscate
white-owned commercial farms, after a national referendum rejected proposed
constitutional reforms that would have given the president additional
powers.


The farm confiscations - aimed at giving land to the landless - have led to
the near total destruction of the country's agricultural sector and failed
to win Mugabe the support he thought his "land reforms" would bring. A key
reason is that many of the best farms went to senior members of his ruling
party. When opposition parties sought to point out the ruse and win greater
political support, Mugabe escalated the terror campaign against them and
stole the 2000 parliamentary election as well as the March, 2002,
presidential election. Now, there are growing fears that, as the regime
intensifies its terror campaign, the opposition could retaliate and ignite
further civil strife. Says Kagoro of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition: "One
does foresee that the sort of pressure that people are living under, and the
sort of deprivation they are suffering, is just not sustainable. Either
people will continue to die in silence or, one of these fine days ... people
may take the law into their own hands."