That’s the story of a young Zimbabwean man, who joined the army in recent months, but is now actively involved in the politically-motivated violence in the country, that has left over 80 people dead, the majority of them supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
He hates it all but he can’t get out of it now lest he loses his own life.The young man in his early 20s, joined the army mainly because he needed a job and thought he would be required to carry out the noble task of defending his country.Little did he know that he was going to be deployed to “fix” opposition supporters in an area where his maternal relatives come from.
“It came as a shock to me that I was going to be deployed where my family is,” he said in disgust.
His mother was born in Marange, an ordinary growth point in Manicaland, until the discovery of diamonds in recent years.And now he is doing “duty” in the area where he never imagined he would operate from, let alone kill his own people.But sadly, he can’t do anything about it. He can’t run away, he will have to live with it.
“There is no way in the Zimbabwean army that you refuse an order. If I had refused I was going to be punished but at the end I was going to be killed because our bosses meant business when they sent us to kill innocent victims and destroy their homesteads,” said the soldier.Asked how they terrorized defenceless civilians, he said: “Some of them were put in front of a firing squad and our sergeant in the intelligence department would tell us to take aim, then shoot. About three people were killed using the firing squad.
“Honestly none of us wanted to have blood on our hands, killing poor people, worse of all my grandparents stay in this area. What they may have expected from me is protection, but they are getting the opposite. Everyone else in that community expected protection from me because rural people regard themselves as one family.Â
“After firing and killing innocent people, the commander would come to us and ask us how many rounds of ammunition we each used. I confess most of us were shooting in the air or sideways because we do not want unnecessary bad luck on our hands, we are still young.”I remember one time we went to a homestead where we were told that the first-born child from that household was an MDC activist. We burnt the family’s livestock. I had never seen or done anything like that before.” This is just one account of how violence, which is being perpetrated by the ruling party ZANU-PF members in most areas of the country.
The international community has strongly condemned the violence and thrown its weight behind the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has announced that he was pulling out of the presidential run-off election scheduled for Friday, although he has yet to formalise his withdrawal.
If he indeed boycotts the poll, his rival President Robert Mugabe will get a free ticket to another term in office –CAJ News.
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