Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum: Report on pre-election political violence in Mberengwa all the forms and then were taken to hospital in Zvishavane. I was given a bed and was receiving all treatments. The CIOs were coming day and night to our house. The doctor knew the CIOs and the following evening they came again and he threatened to fight them if they persisted. He called for police assistance. The police spent the night and arrived at the hospital gate to prevent the CIOs from coming. One of the CIOs was brought in a wheelchair to put in the bed next to mine. The doctor realised and was furious. Then yesterday my colleagues came to see me and the doctor told them that I had to disappear. So I was taken out and brought to Harare. I have burns all over my back, front, buttocks, private parts, thighs and legs. I was taken to the theatre to remove the thorns in my feet. Case 12: I was beaten while at home by about 20 men. They then kidnapped me and detained me for 4 days, took away my ID and only let me go on the 5th day. I was assaulted with sticks, chains and stabbed with knives. They told me not to move away from my home but I ran away to Gweru. Case 13: I am an ordinary MDC member based in Mberengwa. On 10 June 2000 I repaired two punctured tyres for an MDC official who had come for a rally in Mberengwa. 5 Zanu (PF) supporters came to my house, but they could not locate me. Three people came back on 24 May 2000 and they accused me of being a sell-out. The people were Chitova, Svinurai and another whose name I have forgotten. They ordered me to lock my doors and follow them. I asked them our destination, but they refused to tell me. One of them entered my room and grabbed me by the hand, and I pushed him away. He signalled for his other colleagues to come, and they surrounded my place (there were about thirty of them). They started assaulting me with booted feet and open hands. They tied my hands ad ordered me to go to Texas Farm, which is about thirty kilometres away. I was being forced to dive into the water whenever we came across a pond or river, and was assaulted all the way to the farm. At the farm I was assaulted by yet another group of people, who were singing Chimurenga songs. Two other people who had been abducted were also brought. They started assaulting all of us with sticks. We were forced to go to the cattle dip and made to swim. We were not allowed to come out of the tank, even when we began to tire. They had surrounded the tank, and they assaulted any one of us trying to come out of the tank. After that we were ordered to come out and wriggle on the ground like snakes for a distance of about 20 to 30 metres, but we could not. They then continued assaulting us, but saw that we couldn’t take much more. We were then told to jump like frogs, but we couldn’t. They allowed us to walk to their base. Some of them told us to climb into a trench then jump out of it headlong, but we refused. The assault then continued. They took some hot ashes and poured them down the trousers of the other two people. Then one of their commanders (Makoni) arrived and told them to stop. We then warmed ourselves by the fire, and we slept there. The following day we could not walk, so we put up there for another night. They then escorted us back to our villages. We were told not to report to the police or to seek medication, but I had to. I went to Munene Hospital and received some treatment. They could not take an X-ray because there was a power cut, and I did not go back when they asked me to, for fear of another abduction. Murder [Extra-judicial killings] Case 14: An MDC activist, Fainos Kufazvinei Zhou (23) died on 9 June 2000. He had been abducted together with his brother from a Growth Point in Mberengwa by a mob of Zanu (PF) supporters. They took the brothers to nearby Texas Ranch farm that was being used as a base by the war veterans. They were held and tortured for five days. Over that period they were interrogated and viciously beaten up. Fainos was injured so badly he died shortly after they were released. His brother had to be rushed to hospital for treatment for serious injuries including a broken leg. 9