MUZARABANI -- Villagers in the politically volatile district of Muzarabani in Mashonaland central province have pledged to sell their chickens and goats, to help finance foreign election observers for next years elections. At a recent Heal Zimbabwe meeting at Machaya village in the district, one villager asked if any foreign observers would be deployed to monitor If we are to have elections next year we want the UN and EU to come and observe the elections. What does it take for them to come and protect us? If it is money, we villagers in Muzarabani are prepared to sell our chickens and goats to pay them to come, a villager identified as Goto said.
Goto added: We cannot have a repetition of 2008 when SADC observers were relaxing in hotels while we got beaten here.
Before the 2008 elections, Muzarabani was considered a bastion of the ruling Zanu (PF) party. But voting patterns from polling stations in the district showed that the MDC had made significant inroads in terms of supporters, sparking a bloody backlash from the Zanu (PF) loyal militias and war vets.
Muzarabani, as a result, witnessed one of the bloodiest campaigns of violence in 2008, when Zanu (PF) militias, aided by party youths and war vets, went on a murderous trail, leaving broken bones, dead bodies and traumatized victims on the way.
The district is still reeling from the effects of the politically motivated violence and intimidation witnessed in the area between the 4th and 6th May 2008, at the instigation of Chief Kasekete, who ordered the murder of villagers who subscribed to MDC ideologies.
According to Heal Zimbabwe Trust, in June 2008 22 people died in Muzarabani while scores more were seriously injured in the orgy of violence waged by Zanu (PF).
Post published in: Politics