Across hundreds of miles of seemingly idyllic Zimbabwean countryside, similar stories were repeated again and again last week.
Mthoko Ncube, 25, was in hiding at a 'safe house' occupied by the opposition in Matabeleland. He had been released from hospital 24 hours earlier after being seized, with 12 other friends, as he walked through a rural area last month. None of the group, which included three girls, was carrying a Zanu membership card.
They were taken to a camp on a farm commandeered as a base for 300 militiamen. One of the girls was taken to an outbuilding. The rest of captives were told to do physical exercises: press-ups, sit-ups and running on the spot. They were then forced to strip and graze on grass. Attempts to resist brought blows from clubs and sjamboks . Then they, too, were tortured under running taps.
'I did not ask the girl they took about what happened to her,' said Ncube. 'I could see different men going over to the outbuilding while they were beating me.'
………… Asked whether MDC supporters would be too scared to vote, he added: 'The people have had enough. This election is about life and death. People have had enough and they will turn out in their millions to rid Zimbabwe of Uncle Bob. The people will vote for change. The people want change.'
………. The opposition, which believes in non-violence to achieve its aims, fears that there will be a mass uprising if Mugabe rigs the election or introduces martial law. Senior MDC officials claim they do not have enough weapons to wage a war against Mugabe, who has reportedly ordered home more than 8,000 soldiers fighting over 'blood' diamonds in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
'We don't know what will happen,' said Sibanda as the sun burned below the African horizon, heralding another night of violence in isolated rural communities. 'If things are fair, we will win. If they are not, who knows? The people blame Mugabe, not whites, for our troubles. We cannot hold the people back forever.' [End Excerpts]
Mugabe cash flow hints he might flee-- PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has sent millions of dollars through the Channel Islands over the past three months, hinting he may flee Zimbabwe if he loses next weekend's presidential elections. Most of the more than $27 million that Mr Mugabe has moved through financial institutions without their knowledge has ended up in Malaysia, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
It was a net exporter of grain, gold, chromium, citrus, tea, coffee and meat. Whites and blacks in the capital city of Harare (the Salisbury of my youth) talked happily of its future.
Unfortunately, people who were not affected turned a blind eye to the warning signs that Mugabe was bent on dictatorship at any price to anyone. The principal daily newspapers came under government control. And Mugabe dispatched his North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade to practice genocide in Matabeleland against the minority there, who had been traditional enemies of his Shona majority.
Still, to many, Mugabe was the West's best hope of a new kind of African leader. The West hoped mightily, and Zimbabwe's tiny white minority also hoped.
The commercial farmers, nearly all white, hoped too, and hid their fears in the love of the land.
In Zimbabwe, the sun shines as steadily and benignly as it does in San Diego, and it is easy to count your blessings and hard to innumerate your fears. So people ignored the growing megalomania of the president and his steady erosion of their civil liberties. People in Zimbabwe are always saying, "All will come right." It is a kind of national mantra.
All has now gone hideously, horrendously and, possibly irrevocably, wrong. [End Excerpt]