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witnesses, but to Amnesty International's knowledge have made no arrests to
date.
On 15 May, Blessing Chebundo was at home when petrol bombs were thrown into his
house, burning it down completely. He said that he survived this attack by
stabbing one of the attackers, an alleged ZANU-PF youth member, with a knife,
and fought the aggressors back with the help of MDC youths. Blessing Chebundo
said that he telephoned the police while his house was burning and the attackers
were still outside. The police, who were stationed only 500 metres from the
house, informed him that they had no transport. He said that they only arrived
on the scene 20 minutes after the attackers had been chased away.
In an instance of alleged direct state involvement, two MDC members, Tichaona
Chiminya and Talent Mabika, were killed on 15 April near Buhera, Manicaland
province, when a petrol bomb was thrown into their car. Police deployed in the
area reportedly failed to intervene. Police subsequently were given the names of
two alleged culprits - believed to be members of the state intelligence service,
the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO). To the best of Amnesty
International's knowledge, as of this date no arrests have been made nor any
witnesses questioned. Amnesty International is greatly concerned about the
police inaction in this case.
In another incident David Stevens, a member of the MDC and a farmer in Macheke,
Mashonaland East, was killed on 15 April. In this case a witness to the killing
was abducted by war veterans from the police station in Murehwa, where he had
gone to report the earlier abduction of David Stevens. The witness informed
Amnesty International that war veterans took him to their office where he found
Stevens, all beaten up and bleeding. The witness said that he and Stevens were
beaten further before being bundled into a car and driven away from Murehwa.
They were then forced to walk up a hill. After complaining that they could not
walk further, they were returned to the car. Their captors shot David Stevens
fatally at point blank range in the presence of the witness. No arrests have
been made in this case to date.
Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
Amnesty International is concerned that systematic assaults, amounting to
torture acquiesced in by the state, have been inflicted with impunity on real or
perceived opposition supporters held illegally in different parts of the country
by ruling party supporters, especially by the war veterans.
A number of these incidents took place, in the first half of May, in a doctor's
surgery in Budiriro, a suburb in the outskirts of Harare. The surgery is run by
war veteran leader Dr Chenjerai ''Hitler'' Hunzvi. It is reported that people
were taken there to be tortured because of their alleged connections to the MDC.
On 17 May one of the torture victims was killed while fleeing from the surgery,