Human Rights Forum Report: Who was responsible? pointing their guns at us. Then the police drove up just next to my car. It was the Officer-in-Charge for Mt Darwin. He must have heard something was going on and he came with six other police cars. But Kasukuwere went to the policeman and said: “We told you we don‟t want to see these MDC people here. This is a no-go area for MDC.” He hit him across the face with his hand, and the police cars pulled over to the side to watch from a distance, like it was a football match. Then Kasukuwere took an iron bar and started hitting my windscreen. He broke through the window and then the bar hit me on the face and when I got out of the car he hit me in the eye. I have now lost that eye. He then went to the next car and with the others they were hitting them. The windscreens and all the lights were all broken. Then there was a helicopter above and when I heard it I began to run and I managed to run into the bushes. But although I escaped, he made others lie down in a circle, like they did during the war and they were beating them with sticks. The other Zanu PF supporters had by now arrived in their trucks and were helping them and some were pointing their guns. We couldn‟t fight back because of these guns. It was past 4 pm when we ran away. [The incident happened around 3 pm]. I went running through the bush, with about six others. I was in terror. My eye was bleeding. I just kept running. All night we kept going towards Madziwa. In the morning we reached there and went straight to the police station. The police wrote letters and we were given a car to go to the clinic and given some Panadols and sent to Bindura. I haven‟t yet had a chance to make a full report to the police, but will do when I get to Bindura. At the hospital in Bindura, he sent four CIOs to see if I was there. I saw them and told a nurse and they transferred me to Parirenyatwa. I got out of hospital two days ago and will try to go back to Bindura tomorrow. There is another guy who was with me whose name I remember. He was also from Bindura. He had an injury to his left shoulder, but mostly bruises. His name is Phillip Mabika. These Zanu PF people are burning everything. They have destroyed everything in Mucumbura. They have destroyed everything in Dotito, where Border Gezi has his shop. They are burning MDC houses. People are just running away. They killed someone in Mt Darwin four days ago. He was an attendant at the service station. It was Kasukuwere who did it. Border Gezi is paying people and he is taking ex-combatants to Nicholas Goche [Vice-minister]. He‟s one of the people who is doing these killings. Chen Chimutengwende has a farm near Glendale on the Bindura road and he‟s organising the burning of houses there. John Chiteve Case 23: T.J. (Male) — 24 May 2000 On the 24th May 2000, I was at Glendale coming from Bindura, and heading for Harare. There were four of us travelling in a Mazda B1600. A white Hilux Twin cab 4x4 was following us, although we did not know it at the time. I alighted in Glendale in order to buy a cigarette. A councillor for Chipadze, John Chiteve (Bindura District Councillor) confronted me. He alleged that I was responsible for the destruction of his house in Bindura by MDC supporters. I denied the allegation, and he stabbed me in the stomach with a knife. I fell down, and again he stabbed me in the thigh three times. A lot of others joined in assaulting me. I lost consciousness, and was ferried to Concession Hospital by an ambulance, and then was referred to Bindura Hospital. I needed to have 16 stitches in my leg. I requested to be released from Bindura Hospital because they had tried to kidnap and kill me before on the 27th of May. I was then taken to Ponal Surgery, where I was referred to Parirenyatwa for an operation. I was operated on the 31st of May, and was discharged on the 2nd of June. The case was reported at Concession Police Station, and my statement was then taken at Glendale Police Station on the 16th of June but no arrests have been made so far. On the 9th of June 2000, the stitches were removed but the wound opened and I can hardly walk. I am currently staying in Bindura, where there is no peace. Mazowe East Mclean Tapfumaneyi, Henicha Tapfumaneyi, Takundwa Chironga, Tonderai Mashiri and Michael Kanengoni Case 24: W.M (Male) — 26 June 2000 At a rally on the 16th of June at Mufuka village, the district Zanu (PF) chairman (Thomas Mudziwa) and youth leader (Simba Chikasha) said, “After maelection tichapisa dzimba dzevanhu ve MDC” (“after the elections we will burn down the houses of MDC people”). On the 26th of June, Zanu (PF) youths were given cash and new t-shirts by the district chairman. At 1am on the 27th of June, Zanu (PF) youths burned down his kitchen. Two shelves, his kitchen unit, one and a half tones of maize and all his cooking utensils, valued at $35000, were destroyed. His assailants were known to him: Henicha Tapfumaneyi, Mclean Tapfumaneyi, Takundwa Chironga, Tonderai Mashiri and Michael Kanengoni. The case was reported to the police. 18