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Post-election violence 2008 - Index of articles & images
Zimbabwe
beating deaths tied to ruling party gangs
Craig Timberg, Washington Post
May 08, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2008/05/08/zimbabwe_beating_deaths_tied_to_ruling_party_gangs/
Gangs of ruling
party youths beat to death 11 opposition activists in a remote Zimbabwean
town Monday, setting a gruesome new standard for the post-election
violence surging through that nation, according to opposition party
officials.
Two large truckloads
of youths, led by two senior members of President Robert Mugabe's
party, marauded through Chiweshe, a rural area about 90 miles north
of Harare, the capital, and beat prominent members of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change with branches, gun butts, bicycle
chains, and whips, party officials said. Four of the victims were
teachers, and at least two were elderly.
The deaths brought to
at least 32 the number of opposition activists killed in the past
two weeks, said party spokesman Nelson Chamisa. Thousands of others
have been beaten, tortured, arrested, kidnapped, or chased from
their homes since the March 29 election, opposition officials say.
"They converged
and they attacked," said Shepherd Mushonga, a lawyer and newly
elected opposition member of parliament who visited Chiweshe yesterday.
He spoke extensively with witnesses, including several relatives
of the victims, and provided a list of all 11 of the dead. Mushonga
said that two were relatives of his.
He said the violence
was intended to weaken opposition resolve ahead of a possible runoff
election. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the election but
failed to reach the majority necessary for a first-round victory,
according to official results.
A second vote has not
yet been scheduled, but violence has been focused in areas that
supported the opposition. The attacks have been especially vicious
in areas, such as Chiweshe, that once were strongholds of Mugabe's
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front but supported Tsvangirai
in the election.
In the neighborhood where
the 11 people were killed Monday, Mushonga said, Tsvangirai got
70 votes compared with 15 for Mugabe.
"They want to instill
as much fear as possible so either you run away and don't vote,
or you succumb and vote for the ruling party," Mushonga said.
His account was backed
by a close relative of one of the victims, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity out of fear that he could be assaulted. He said he
received a text message on his cellphone Monday night saying that
the relative had been "murdered by ZANU-PF youth."
When he arrived in Chiweshe
on Tuesday, he found his relative's body severely battered and bloodied.
Funerals are scheduled to begin today.
"When people
do that to people, it's not even human," the man said. "I
don't know what will happen tomorrow."
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