having been instigated by one headman, Antony Jongwe and Viola Muchenje, a District Chairperson for ZANU PF in the area and other war veterans. The attacks involved harassing, assaulting observers and their relatives, vandalising homes of observers, looting of their property including school uniforms, blankets and food reserves. However four observers and two of their relatives sustained serious injuries as a result of the attacks. The six have been hospitalised and their conditions are said to be serious but stable. In another distressing case, a relative of a ZESN observer died after he was beaten by suspected ZANU PF supporters in Mt Darwin East. The observer had fled the village after his home was burnt down. Furthermore, junior officials working for the ZEC have been targeted, with scores arrested on charges of miscounting handfuls of votes. Junior officials spent weeks in jail without bail, and in the first week of May, five ZEC presiding officers were sentenced to jail terms of between three and 16 months, after each failing to account for between 11 and 16 votes during the exercise! 52 In no case did the miscounts result in a wrong result being announced. Of these five ZEC officers, four were school teachers and one a headmaster. One wonders who will be brave enough to work for ZEC – or ZESN - in a run off, which is undoubtedly the intention behind the intimidation. 5. Deaths The numbers of those beaten or shot to death remain unclear at this time. However, during May there has been an undeniable escalation of beatings resulting in deaths. There have been 22 confirmed deaths [since 1 April] but at least double that number has been reported but is yet to be confirmed. It is alleged that some of those killed have been buried on the orders of state agents before documentation can take place. 53 On 5 May, an 84 year old man was killed in Gokwe Nembudziya, which is in the north Midlands. This death has been confirmed by an NGO outreach visit to the affected area. On 14 May there was a confirmed report of a man axed to death in Shamva: his wife who was also axed but survived is now receiving treatment in Harare. Reports both confirmed and unconfirmed continue to come in daily from Mashonaland, but the besieged nature of much of rural Mashonaland and the obstructiveness of officials makes it very difficult to pursue most of these claims. In some hospitals where the dead have arrived beaten and mutilated, brave doctors are filling in death certificates accurately stating injuries and cause of death, but in other cases, bodies are buried without medical examination. 6. Abductions and disappearances In the second week of May, there were increasing numbers of reports of well known activists being abducted, including the night time abduction in Mabvuku (a suburb of Harare) of Tonderai Ndira. He was taken from his home by a truck with false number plates on Tuesday 13 May and has not been seen since. Another activist, Beta Chakurarama (see photo 5) was beaten in the early weeks of April and had both legs in plaster casts. He was abducted off the back of a vehicle on the way to Murehwa a few weeks later, in early May: Beta was brutally killed – he couldn’t run away - and a companion, abducted at the same time, is disappeared. These are but a few examples of such abductions and disappearances in the last few weeks. 52 53 The Herald, Harare, 7 May 2008. ZADHR, 8 May 2008. 24