PF youths grabbed a 76-year-old woman and made her lie in front of the crowd on her
stomach. They said, “We will beat this woman if people don’t come forward.” They
started beating her with logs on her buttocks. After 10 minutes, three men came
forward and said they were MDC just to stop the youth from beating the woman.
Cairo Mhandu said this is what he wanted, more people to come forward.
The ZANU-PF supporters also had a list of about 20 MDC activists who they called out.
They proceeded to beat these people and demand that they each reveal the names
of at least five other activists. In pain, the victims would shout out the names of any
people and they too would be called out and beaten.
The ZANU-PF youths and supporters would bring forward three or four people at a
time. They tied the legs of the victims and handcuffed their hands, before forcing
them to lie prone on their stomachs. Three ZANU-PF youths with thick sticks would
stand on either side of the victim and take turns beating the victims on the back,
back of the legs and buttocks. The ZANU-PF youths and supporters either stripped
the women naked or down to their underwear before beating them. In some
incidents the perpetrators tied barbed wire around the genitals of the men and tied
the other end of the wire around logs. The perpetrators then forced the men to use
their genitals to pull the logs as they continued to beat them. Several men sustained
serious injuries to their genitals as a result.
The beatings continued all that afternoon and evening. More than 70 people were
beaten, of which 30 were hospitalized at Howard and Concession hospitals in
Mashonaland Central, while others were transferred to Avenues clinic in Harare. The
beatings only ended that evening when five police officers arrived. The 300
assailants dispersed but police caught and beat one of the assailants before
releasing him. To date no arrests have been made.
Six men subsequently died from the horrific beatings and torture that took place that
day. Two of them, Alex Chirisiri and Tapiwa Meda died on the spot after the beatings.
Joseph Madzuramhende died later that day. Geoffrey Jemedze and Wilson Emmanuel
37
Human Rights Watch 2008
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