10 Time for accountability supporters in the area]. He asked me to accompany him and I immediately felt that something was going to happen. “I was taken to the soldiers who ordered me to lie on the ground, but someone said I should not be beaten in public. I was then ordered to get into the army truck. In the truck the soldiers started questioning me about MDC meetings and the activities of other MDC members. They ordered me to do a ZANU-PF slogan but I wouldn’t. After a while the vehicle stopped and we got off. I was forced to lie on the ground and was assaulted by about 15 soldiers with thick sticks on the buttocks until I passed out. When I regained consciousness they started assaulting me again and I passed out for the second time. When I came around again Colonel [name] kicked my head and I felt pain in my ear and I passed out for the third time. When I came around, they ordered me to roll on the ground. I pleaded with them to just shoot me since I was almost dead. They said they had no bullets to waste. They then continued assaulting me with sticks. They told me that it was the last day of my life. I felt pain close to my heart after they gave me two lashes on my back. They then removed my shoes and started hitting me underneath my feet. When they thought I was dying they ordered one woman to smear ashes on my face so that my spirit would not avenge. I think I passed out because when I regained consciousness there was water all over and the soldiers were gone. “I called on God to give me strength to walk and got up but collapsed before I got home. Other villagers helped me to get home. I only got medical help on 27 June. Before then other villagers were threatened with violence if they were to assist me to get medical help. When I went back home on 12 July I found that all my chickens had been taken to feed the people at the [ZANU-PF] camp.” At the time of the interview, Beatrice was still being threatened by local “war veterans” and ZANU-PF leaders.17 Soldiers behind politically motivated violence in Gokwe Before the announcement of the results of the 29 March presidential election an army major toured parts of Gokwe, Midlands province, holding meetings to address residents and accusing them of not having voted correctly in the March election. In one incident the army major ordered local “war veterans” to call a meeting of all village heads in the area. At the meeting he ordered village heads to support the setting up of ZANU-PF camps from which ZANU-PF supporters and “war veterans” could operate, and to mobilize resources to feed the people at the camps. After the camps were set up, “war veterans” recruited youths to beat suspected MDC supporters. Initially they just recruited ZANU-PF youths, but later they forced Amnesty International AI Index: AFR 46/028/2008