JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 130 ____________________________________________________________________ An MDC activist who spoke to Amnesty International identified the CIO as key coordinators of the security forces’ campaign of abductions, torture and intimidation in Chimanimani. The activist, who was sent to Chimanimani to prepare MDC rallies, asked to be identified only as Oliver (not his real name). He told Amnesty International that army soldiers, CIO agents and the police were forcing the villagers to invade the farm of Member of Parliament Roy Bennett. State agents began dividing the farm into small plots while the farm workers were under instructions not to resist or react to the occupiers. On 1 November 2001, CIO officer Joseph Mwale identified himself to Roy Bennett when he arrived at the farm to accuse him of training an army and hiding arms caches. Joseph Mwale, who was accompanied by police, an army lieutenant colonel and air force officers, also claimed that helicopters had been seen flying to the farm. [Amnesty International interview, November 2001.] Roy Bennett later told journalists that he believed that there was a state plan to plant an arms cache on his property and then charge him with possessing illegal weapons. [Zimbabwe Standard, ‘Soldiers invade MP’s Farm’, 5 November 2001.] On 29 November 2001, five MDC activists left Roy Bennett’s farm on a public bus, travelling from Chimanimani, when the bus was halted at a roadblock by soldiers in army uniform, accompanied by police and CIO officers. Two of the five MDC activists were detained. ‘They never said why they were arrested, they just pointed at them, saying 'you and you', and then put them into a blue Mazda truck that is used by the CIO,’ Oliver said. The bus was allowed to proceed, but within a few minutes, the CIO agents pursued the bus and stopped it once again at the roadside community of Wengezi. Oliver was detained and describes his subsequent treatment: ‘They took me to the Cashel Valley Police Station, and beat me on the soles of my feet with a gun butt, and then put the barrel of the gun in my mouth,’ Oliver said. ‘They accused Bennett of training MDC soldiers and of keeping guns hidden... CIO agents beat me, and asked me questions, and told me they would kill me like they had killed my other two colleagues.’ Oliver was beaten and interrogated in handcuffs for two hours. He was then taken back to Chimanimani Police Station for further questioning, where he met two other detained colleagues before he was released in the early hours of the morning. Oliver summarised his allegations: ‘The soldiers there on Roy Bennett’s farm are harassing, beating the workers. But it is the CIO committing the torture.’ [Amnesty International interview, December 2001.]”