Zimbabwe
Violence, and more violence,
more violence …
March 11th, 2008
Today is the one year anniversary of the unbeliveable violence perpetrated
against our opposition and civic leaders last year. It’s the sort of horror
we should never forget, especially a few days before elctions when the
perpetrators of the violence have the audacity to ask us to vote for them.
So here is a reminder of what happened a year ago:
“They
[soldiers] were dressed in police uniform and had bloodshot eyes. They told
us they were police officers, but I managed to identify them as commandos
because of the green army belts they were wearing on top of the uniforms.
“Only commandos wear those. One of them announced that they had smoked a
special grade of marijuana for the special mission. I witnessed the whole
incident. Police officers from Machipisa were not involved. We were stunned
at the ruthlessness.
“They were shouting and telling Tsvangirai that they could kill him on that
night and nothing would happen to them,” said the officer.
The police officer said the beatings started at 11.45pm and lasted for more
than two hours.
“Tsvangirai was the first to be attacked. They said they wanted to show the
others that they meant business. Tsvangirai’s colleagues openly wept as
their leader was being beaten.
“I think they were feeling for Tsvangirai as well as pondering their own
fate,” he said.
Using sjamboks, army belts and gun butts, the soldiers attacked Tsvangirai
until he passed out, said the police officer.
“The soldiers then shifted attention to the remaining suspects, as one of
the soldiers poured cold water all over Tsvangirai to resuscitate him. They
came to the women, and identified Grace Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland.
“The male soldiers began beating the two, while their female colleagues
concentrated on Madhuku. The rest were watching, awaiting their turn.
“When Tsvangirai regained consciousness, one of them shouted: ‘Look their
boss is ready for more action’, and they all pounced on him again until he
passed out for the second time.
“Tsvangirai regained consciousness again at around 1:30am. One vicious woman
was left to work on him. She removed an army belt from her waist and used it
to assault Tsvangirai until he passed out again.
“I thought he was dead but she appeared unmoved. She simply moved to join
her colleagues who were now indiscriminately beating the other suspects.
“Mutambara was assaulted but not as severely as Tsvangirai, Madhuku and
Kwinjeh.”
One disabled MDC supporter was so severely assaulted that he begged the
soldiers to finish him off.
“The guy was a sorry sight,” he said.
Pleas by the MDC leaders to stop beating the disabled man fell on deaf ears
with one woman soldier retorting that it [beating] would teach him to live
without challenging President Robert Mugabe’s authority.
Let’s hope that March 29th will see an end to blogs that detail police
brutality in Zimbabwe.
Violence