NEHUMBA - The militia are back.The militia, wielding crude weapons, including sticks and whips, carefully separated out the influential MDC supporters, and charged at them. Everyone ran.
Then, say villagers, the men laid waste to the village, burning huts, pillaging depleted shops, carrying off any loot they could find, including livestock, and threatening anyone who stood in their way.
This was the terrifying story residents told MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti during a party-sanctioned probe on rising violence against MDC supporters in the Mashonaland provinces.
Widow Sarudzai Taodzerwa described how she hid in her hut, praying it would not be set on fire.
I have never been so afraid, she said.
She was dragged out of the hut by the militia, and accused of seeking to oust President Mugabe through the constitution-making process. The message was unequivocal: the same fate would befall anyone who dared stand in the way of the Kariba draft.
Her thatched two-bedroomed hut was razed to the ground. She lost everything: two beds, a television set, a radio and two chairs.
Everything is gone: clothes, grain, fertiliser, she told Biti.
Biti, who visited the homestead last Saturday, said: Violence is evidence of lack of thinking. Because we are gathering support in their so-called stronghold in Mashonaland East, Zanu (PF) targets those MDC members who are said to be influential, and they attack them. But this year they wont succeed. They cannot frustrate the people of Zimbabwe any longer.
The attacks by the militia, loyal to President Mugabes Zanu (PF) party, were a return to the tactics that terrorised Zimbabwe in the run-up to the 2008 presidential run-off.
The resurgence of such brutal, three-pronged attacks of this scale involving close co-ordination of militia in areas where MDC is getting increasing support resembles the bloody campaigns that followed Zanu (PF)s defeat in the 2008 elections.
Aid workers, diplomats and analysts say the return of such attacks is an ominous sign that the friction in the ruling coalition, which has grown more complex and confusing, is entering a new and deadly phase one in which Zanu (PF) is planning a scorched-earth campaign against the MDC, as efforts to find a negotiated settlement flounder.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai, who toured Masvingo, Midlands and Manicaland this week, heard sad stories of militia making desperate attempts to derail the constitution-making process.
Torture bases have sprung up at Checheche, he was told by villagers at Zimunya.
Please help us Prime Minister, one terrified villager told Tsvangirai.
In Zimuto in Masvingo North a torture base had been set up at Zimuto Siding Business Centre, he was told.
In Mwenezi East, Tsvangirai was told that militia camps had been established at Neshuro Growth Proint. In Gutu East, a militia base was operating at Eastdale Ranch Estate.
The MDCs Changing Times newsletter said the party was aware of a plot to unleash violence against the MDC.
Without a cogent message, Mugabe and Zanu (PF) want to have another go at us. Under the cover of indigenisation and sanctions, there is yet another attempt to mount a serious assault on us. There is simply no willingness on the part of Mugabe and Zanu (PF) for Zimbabwe to make any meaningful move, said the newsletter.
The stand-off has sucked in Jacob Zuma, SADCs mandated broker, who has been in Zimbabwe since Tuesday seeking to save the tottering coalition.
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