Posted on 06/17/2002 4:30:22 AM PDT by Clive
THE first signs of rebellion among President Mugabe’s supporters have emerged with threats of an uprising by members of the youth militia he created.
Jabulani Sibanda, the chairman of Zanu PF in Bulawayo, was forced to lock himself in a lavatory at his office last week when he was threatened by a knife-wielding gang from the Green Bombers, the unofficial name for the force.
One militia commander, who asked to be known only as David, said he had orchestrated the attack “to show our bosses how angry and hungry we are, and that they are no longer safe”.
They are furious at being left with no pay and little food after waging the brutal campaign that helped keep Mugabe in power in Zimbabwe’s 9-11 March presidential election.
David said he was discussing with senior colleagues from other battalions a violent uprising that would topple Mugabe. “There is no end to this while he is in power,” he said. “Even if we tried to leave the militia, our colleagues would be ordered to find us and kill us.”
In a frank interview with The Telegraph, David and two of his men admitted their violent role in the election build-up.
They spoke of trying to kill an opposition MP, on the orders of government ministers, after the false promise that they would receive cash and land seized from white farmers.
“We’ve turned ourselves into killers and thugs – and for what?” asked David, 35. “We have no money, no jobs and no future. All we have are hungry stomachs and bad dreams about what we’ve done.”
He described the missions of murder, abduction and arson on which he sent young men and women earlier this year to help keep Mugabe in power.
“We did everything they wanted,” he said. “We won the election for them, but they have treated us no better than donkeys. They have used us and thrown us away.”
The 40,000-strong youth militia was formed as part of the re-introduction of compulsory national service in 2000 and reports directly to the government. At camps across the country, thousands of young men and women have received political indoctrination and training in weapons, torture and violence. During the election campaign, they were ruthless.
Unhampered by threat of arrest, and often drunk or high on drugs, they unleashed terror and intimidation on voters and political rivals. Now they are resentful of their bosses’ neglect.
Sam, 19, was part of the gang that attacked the Bulawayo party chief. He said: “Every month we are told the same – that the money will come, but it never comes.” Joshua, 21, added: “We are nothing to them.” David and the other two talked freely about their brutal campaigns.
David had assigned Sam – “a more naturally merciless man” – to the “killing gang”, while Joshua had been confined to “abduction and arson”.
Joshua revealed that he had helped to raze St Peter’s village, near Bulawayo, after its inhabitants failed to turn up at a Zanu PF election rally.
Sam admitted trying to murder David Mpala, the Lupane MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, in March after being offered a cash reward.
“I stabbed the man and ran away, certain he was dead,” Sam confessed, unwilling to make eye contact. “But some people from a village found him and took him to hospital. I never got paid after it was reported in the newspaper that he had lived.”
David said the three of them had witnessed the attack on Martin Olds – one of the first white farmers killed – in April 2000. He died after holding off 70 raiders during a two-hour siege at his farm in Matabeleland.
“I was driving the Jeep to bring the militia in,” said David. They had gone there to help the self-styled “war veterans”, who were on a mission to seize land. “We had orders from the highest level that someone important wanted Mr Olds’s land,” said David. “He was also a supporter of the MDC, we were told.” After the farmer was killed, the militia helped to loot the farm.
A year later, Olds’s mother Gloria, 68, was also shot dead by war veterans. David said: “I think that woman had become an irritation to our bosses. She was outspoken and a supporter of the MDC. That’s why they wanted her out of the way.”
Sam said: “We didn’t always agree when we were told that the white men were our enemies and that they had stolen from us in the past and now we had to steal from them. A lot of them did good things for the black people. They gave them work and built schools and clinics.”
David said he had been promised £30 (Z$22,500 on the parallel market) a month to command a 500-strong group, but had never received the full amount and had not been paid since February. He said Sam and Joshua had received £5 (Z$ 3,750) on joining the militia, but nothing since.
Before the election in March, life had been easier. The militia, housed in camps around the country, had been given three meals a day, beer and various narcotics. “We had to have full bellies and to be drunk or high on drugs to carry out our jobs,” said Sam. “We had everything we needed so we didn’t notice the money so much.”
Now, the atmosphere at the camps has worsened. Food is scarce and the dormitories are full of resentful, hungry young people, plagued by drug withdrawal symptoms and restless nights spent reflecting on their crimes.
“I want to be paid so that I can go and see an n’anga (traditional healer) and be cleansed,” said Joshua. “I feel the spirits of the people I have harmed visiting me all the time. I want to go back to being a nice man – the man I was before.”
Council elections will be held in August, however, and militia members are again under pressure to intimidate voters and break up opposition rallies. Zanu PF chiefs have visited the camps for the first time for months, seeking to whip up support and to crush any opposition.
“I don’t want to do those things any more,” said Sam. “My parents are so unhappy.” David added: “We’re in a jail of our own – never free to leave and always being punished for what we do. We’ll never have our lives back until Mugabe is gone.”
– Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Incredible. Mugambe has these hired thugs, his own Murder Inc., he's not paying them and they're complaining. Poor babies, it's time to kill big Daddy.
But even if Mugambe was killed, what would they do? They have no skills and are hated in Zimbabwe.
“We did everything they wanted,” he said. “We won the election for them, but they have treated us no better than donkeys. They have used us and thrown us away.”
.... “I don’t want to do those things any more,” said Sam. “My parents are so unhappy.” David added: “We’re in a jail of our own – never free to leave and always being punished for what we do. We’ll never have our lives back until Mugabe is gone.” ***
Bump!
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