CRS-11 supporters of ZANU-PF’s political rival at the time, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). Gukurahundi is now better known as the Matabeleland Massacres, which resulted in the deaths of as many as 20,000 civilians, mostly from the Ndebele ethnic group in the southwest.47 That 5th Brigade was led by then-Lt. Col. Perence Shire, now commander of Zimbabwe’s Air Force. Other security officials involved in the campaign now hold senior government posts, including Defense Minister Sydney Sekeremayi and Rural Housing Minister Emerson Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa, then Minister of State Security in charge of intelligence, once reportedly warned that the government would burn down “all the villages infested with dissidents.” He has been considered a possible successor to Mugabe within the party and is rumored to be in charge of Joint Operations Command (JOC), a secretive group of the country’s security chiefs and top commanders that some allege now control the government.48 Zimbabwe’s rural areas appear to be the hardest hit by the violence; the U.S. Embassy in Harare has documented thousands who fled the countryside for urban areas in the months after the March elections. Most Harare medical clinics are at full capacity, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).49 Zimbabwe’s largest farmers’ union reports that militias have displaced over 40,000 farm workers, and there are widespread reports of burned homes, granaries, and livestock.50 Human Rights Watch detailed the “re-education” and torture of more than 70 MDC supporters, seven of whom reportedly died from their injuries, in Mashonaland province on May 5.51 Amnesty International reports that victims are often denied medical access and that humanitarian organizations have been targeted by militias for providing assistance.52 The United Nations’ resident representative in Zimbabwe warned of an impending crisis, stating, “there is an emerging pattern of political violence inflicted mainly, but not exclusively, on suspected followers of the MDC.” The level of violence was confirmed by an 8-person SADC mission, “we have seen it, there are people in hospital who said they have been tortured, you have seen pictures, you have seen pictures of houses that have been destroyed and so on.”53 Some who have fled to the cities have faced further intimidation. Police have repeatedly raided the offices of both the MDC and ZESN. Hundreds have been arrested in the MDC raids, many of whom had reportedly suffered attacks in their rural homes and fled to the MDC offices for refuge. In these raids, the police, allegedly looking for subversive documents, took computers and documents. On May 47 For further information on Operation Gukurahundi, see the report by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and the Legal Resources Foundation, Breaking the Silence - Building True Peace: A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands 1980-1988, April 1999, available at [http://www.sokwanele.com/pdfs/BTS.pdf]. 48 See, for example, “The Opposition Goes for Broke,” The Economist, May 17, 2008, and “Zimbabwe Under Military Rule, Former Minister Claims,” Pretoria News, May 12, 2008. 49 USAID, Zimbabwe: Complex Emergency and Drought, Situation Report 1, May 16, 2008. 50 “Hunger Drives Post-Election Violence, Deepens Poverty,” IRIN, May 9, 2008. 51 “Zimbabwe: End Violence Before June Runoff,” HRW Press Release, May 16, 2008. 52 Amnesty International, “Zimbabwe Violence Reaches Crisis Levels,” May 16, 2008. 53 “Call for State of Emergency Over Zim Violence,” Mail & Guardian, May 14, 2008.