Time for accountability 9 They ordered us to come out. When we didn’t they started breaking doors. They went through each and every room in the house until they got to the room where I was sleeping. On that day I was not feeling well. I was five months pregnant at the time. They dragged me outside and started hitting me with thick sticks. They accused me of being misled by Morgan Tsvangirai. They said they wanted to teach me a lesson. At the same time they were also assaulting my sister. She collapsed. They were hitting me on the buttocks. They ordered me to roll on the ground and were stamping on me saying they wanted to inflict internal injuries. At some point some people in the group felt sorry for me and were calling on their colleagues to stop beating me since I was pregnant, but others said I should be beaten as a lesson to other MDC supporters. “While the beating was going on, others were throwing out furniture from my rented room. They poured water onto the wardrobe. My sister was made to sing MDC songs while I was ordered to chant ZANU-PF slogans. I couldn’t because I was feeling cold and shivering. Then the beating stopped. They took my sister’s identity card to prevent her from voting [in the 27 June election]. They could not find mine. All our furniture was left in the open. Before the mob left they assigned five people to guard us. They took away all the money I had and our food. After the ‘guards’ left we then went to the home of another MDC activist we knew but he had also been attacked. “I went to report the case at Gutu Mupandawana police station. We were given forms to request medical examination. When we got back home we were told that the ‘war veterans’ had come and told the landlord to evict us. I then left for Masvingo to seek medical treatment after borrowing some money. “On 17 June another large group of ZANU-PF supporters came to our house accompanied by soldiers in uniform. It was a very large group. They ordered my sister to take all our furniture out of the room we rented. My sister was again assaulted by the youths under the supervision of the soldiers. Another tenant at the house, a schoolboy in his early teens, was also assaulted. The mob took our maize, mealie-meal, cooking oil and soap. The soldiers were guarding the property as the ZANU-PF mob ransacked the place. They were singing ZANU-PF songs while destroying furniture.” MDC woman activist assaulted by soldiers and left for dead Beatrice is a local official of the MDC-Tsvangirai party in Gutu. She said: “On 18 June ZANU-PF called for a village meeting [at the local primary school]. I refused to go and surrender my [t-shirt and membership card]. I told them that I could not surrender an MDC t-shirt to ZANU-PF. I then went to the business centre to have my hair plaited. At around 1pm I saw a truck full of soldiers but it did not stop for long. After a while the soldiers returned. I heard [named ZANU-PF activist] calling out my name. He was carrying with him a list of names [of known MDC activists and Amnesty International AI Index: AFR 46/028/2008