Zimbabwe: 'A Brother-Kill-Brother Situation'

Mugabe's Zimbabwe: Citizens tell of mass beatings, torched homes.

ByABC News
June 18, 2008, 2:32 PM

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 18, 2008 — -- Horrifying tales of mass beatings, torched homes and systematic murder are trickling out of Zimbabwe in the days before the presidential election runoff, scheduled for June 27, despite the government's continuing crackdown on journalists and civil society.

On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that four activists from Zimbabwe's opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were killed in a firebombing near Harare. The MDC's allegations were not confirmed by the Zimbabwean police.

This is only the latest in a long string of allegations levelled by the opposition against President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

Silas Gweshe, an MDC parliamentary candidate in one of Zimbabwe's rural areas, told ABC News that even after he lost the election, he and his family were targeted by Zanu-PF.

"They came in the night, put petrol to my house, and they destroyed everything," he said. "It wasn't only my house which was burnt down, but my councilor's as well."

Gweshe also said he witnessed a 78-year-old man being beaten to death.

He added that he knew of an educator who was kidnapped, accused of being subversive to the state for his support of MDC, and was later found dead.

Tales like Gweshe's are beginning to become more and more common throughout Zimbabwe.

One researcher who works with the National Constitutional Assembly, a civil society group, has been documenting the reports of incidents of violence in the country.

During an interview, a rural opposition supporter said he doesn't sleep in his home anymore for fear of being attacked. Both the researcher and the supporter asked to remain anonymous out of fear of the Mugabe regime.

"At 6 or 7 [p.m.] I go to a different district for the night and then come back in the day," the supporter said.

"One time they caught me as I was about to leave for the night," he said. "They said, 'Here comes the white servant.' They attacked me and I tried to retaliate with a screwdriver. I carry a screwdriver as a weapon. There were five of them. They had sticks. I didn't recognize them. They were brought in from another district. They are always brought in from the outside."

At a press conference in Nairobi, civil society groups alleged that Mugabe has set up "structures of violence" all around the country in preparation for mass violence should he not win the runoff.