Slow-motion genocide unfolds

A band of MDC youths is patrolling the ruins about 6kms east of Murehwa centre, bows and arrows slung over their shoulders, boomerangs and knives at the ready.  

But their decision to form a self-defence group has come too late. The Zanu (PF) militia, led by war veterans and soldiers who swept through the village on their bloody rampage have long since vanished.

It is a tragically familiar scene in Mashonaland East, the province of eastern Zimbabwe where dozens of people have been killed and at least two thousand families brutally forced from their homes – a genocide unleashed and sustained by the Zanu (PF) militia, war veterans and army officials – but this man-made inferno now sweeping across the plains is taking place across the entire Mashonaland East province.  

The pattern is identical in Mutoko, Uzumba, Pfungwa where the well-armed Zanu (PF) militia and troops, all in brand new government issue AK-47 assault rifles and fierecly loyal to Mugabe are setting villages ablaze, raping the women, and leaving a trail of dead MDC supporters in their wake.

In all these instances, it is Zanu (PF) militia being accused of being behind the violence in Mashonaland East, an accusation which is rejected by Robert Mugabe.

Joseph Mushonga surveys the steaming rubble in a remote Murehwa village. His village was attacked by a force of 50 Zanu (PF) militiamen.  

“We knew most of them. They are from this village,” said Mushonga, the leader of the self-defence group, pointing to a cluster of huts right next to his.

About 20,000 people have fled their villages to find shelter in nearby towns, with many of them arriving in safe houses already crowded with internal refugees who fled the violence mainly in Mashonaland.

The wave of slow-motion genocide began two months ago. But the most recent attacks around the farming province of Mashonaland East have raised the stakes. There is palpable fear here.  

Over the past week, several villages around Murehwa centre, and the outskirts of the growth point, were raided. A headmaster at a local school was shot at point blank range and died instantly.

Local district MDC officials say at least 10 have been  killed in the raids on the settlements here. They say eight villagers were found with their eyes gouged out and one civilian was burnt to death. The claims of mutilations could not be independently verified.  

According to Mushonga, whose village is four kms east of Murehwa Centre, two columns of Zanu (PF) militia made their first attack last week on Friday morning.  

“They were armed with automatic rifles and AK-47 rifles  and were in Toyota Hilux vehicles,” he said. “Some of them were in army uniforms. They shot at everything that moved, and then drove our cattle away.”  

As he spoke, thick white plumes of smoke were billowing on the horizon. Mushonga said the smoke was rising from the next village, five kms away.  

“We have reports that it is being attacked right now,” he said.

Zimbabwean human rights doctors said on Sunday they had so far treated nearly 3,000 victims of political violence over the past two months.

“We have noticed with great concern the increase in politically motivated violence to our fellow Zimbabweans,” the Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights said in a report.

“Many victims, including children, are currently under our care with severe injuries sustained over the past few weeks.”

The doctors said a total of 2,900 victims had been recorded throughout the country, adding that some 200 among them had to be hospitalised.

“Sadly, a number have succumbed to these injuries,” the group said.  

Mushonga said there was no doubt that Mugabe was arming the Zanu (PF) militia and war veterans, who are fighting anyone who voted to end the 28-year rule of the octogenarian dictator. The Zanu (PF) militia remains strangely faceless, since the terror troops carry their attack in remote places and threaten to kill anyone who spills the beans or vote for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential election run off on June 27.  

There is a conspiracy of silence among the victims, who fear a violent backlash if they report the cases.