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November 2004
You often hear those of us in the MDC talking about 400 politically
inspired
murders of MDC activists since 2000. Not one of these has been
investigated
or prosecuted in the past 4 years. You would have also heard about our
taking 38 of the 62 Zanu PF victories in the June 2000 elections to
Court,
asking that they be set aside on the grounds of violence and
intimidation as
well as various forms of electoral fraud.
It is so easy to pass over this information without appreciating what
actually happened on the ground during these incidents. Here, in a
chilling
report based on Court documents, a South African news service catalogs
what
happened in Makoni in 2000. The news report also shows what Zanu PF
does to
one of their number who is guilty of murder. The use today, of this man
as a
SADC Observer of the elections in Namibia extends this gross mockery of
everything that human decency stands for. Think of this young mans
mother -
let alone his comrades in the MDC who still weep for him.
This is just one of many such cases, what about the ones who have just
disappeared? We have been looking for an activist who went home
recently to
visit his family. He was picked up at home in the rural areas, beaten
so
severely that when he was taken before a Magistrate, the Magistrate
ordered
him taken to a hospital. We have searched the hospitals in a 300
kilometre
radius - there is no sign of him.
Just last week the Dutch Government issued a visa to Kumbirai Kangai -
a
Minister in Mugabe's government to enable him to attend an ACP/EU
meeting in
Europe. Once there, this man, with blood on his hands, will strut into
the
meeting to be greeted by the ignorant as a hero of some sort. We
despair
when a State known for its principles allows such things to happen on
their
soil. We need to stand firm on such issues, these guys are monsters who
are
destroying the country they control illegitimally.
Observer 'Zim violence veteran'
15/11/2004 15:25 - (SA)
Harare - A senior member of an African observer group monitoring
Namibia's
elections which began on Monday had his own election in Zimbabwe's 2000
polls annulled because of violent intimidation in his constituency,
according to court records.
Shadreck Chipanga, a former director of Zimbabwe's notorious secret
police,
was identified by witnesses as being at the wheel of a pick-up truck
carrying ruling party supporters who disembowelled a young man on the
bonnet
of the vehicle for having opposition pamphlets during the run-up to the
violence-wracked 2000 parliamentary elections, according to a judgement
in
the case.
Zimbabwe's state-controlled daily Herald reported on Thursday that
Chipanga
had been appointed as one of two deputy chairs of the observer
delegation of
the parliamentary forum of the Southern African Development Committee,
the
14-nation regional political bloc, to the two-day elections in Namibia.
Appointed deputy minister
In October last year, high court judge Paddington Garwe ruled that the
attack was sufficient to order the cancellation of the election result
in
the constituency of Makoni East about 180km east of Harare. Chipanga
won by
fewer than 100 votes. However, he has remained in his seat and last
year
was appointed by President Robert Mugabe to be deputy minister of home
affairs.
An appeal by Chipanga against the ruling was noted, said Sheila
Jarvis,
lawyer for Nicholas Mudzengerere, who stood against the former director
of
the CIA. Nothing has happened since then. The hearing took place in
2001 and
it took Garwe, the head of the high court, two years to come to a
decision.
The court heard that Francis Chigonzo and a friend were walking home
from
work in the constituency shortly before the elections when they stopped
to
pick up election leaflets scattered on the road by the opposition
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC). A pick-up truck loaded with supporters of
Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party stopped and seized them, ramming the head
of
one of the two young men under one of the vehicle's wheels and making
as if
they were about to drive
forward.
Man's stomach slit open
Chigonzo, 23, told the court that Chipanga was the driver. The other
young
man was allowed to flee while Chigonzo was then pinioned on the bonnet
of
the truck and Chipanga's campaign manager slit open his stomach with a
knife. They drove off, leaving him for dead. The young man pushed his
entrails back into his stomach and walked to the nearest clinic, the
court
heard. He was able to give evidence in the case, but died of his wounds
soon
after. Chipanga told the court he gave Chigonzo's mother ZIM$500 (about
US$3) for medical expenses.
The constituency is one of 38 that the MDC challenged after the 2000
election, but only a small proportion of the cases have been heard. -
16th November 2004
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