The aides were burned to death in front of several witnesses. The assailant, a CIO5 operative, was named in a petition before the High Court challenging the election results for the constituency in which the murders occurred. The Judge directed the Attorney General to investigate a charge of murder against the CIO operative 6 . Four years on, nothing has been done. The operative has been transferred to Chimanimani where he has organised a violent campaign against MDC parliamentarian, Roy Bennett.7 In addition to this culture of impunity, those areas which had voted for the opposition during the elections, were visited with violent reprisals as pre-election pledges in this regard were dutifully kept8. In contrast, the violence so far reported in the run up to the 2005 elections might seem insignificant. This is certainly not the case. Below is a sample of instances of politically motivated violence recorded between 21/02/05 and 07/03/05: 21 February: MDC activist Tendai Matsine and his wife were severely beaten up by Zanu PF youth in Hurungwe East. They were attacked after being caught putting up MDC posters. The incident was reported to the police but police informed the MDC officials that they had been given instructions by their superiors not to arrest Zanu (PF) activists engaged in acts of violence. (MDC SADC Protocol Watch Issue #8) 5 March: An opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party candidate and another party official were, on Thursday, tortured by ruling ZANU (PF) party militants and later detained by the police when they attempted to press charges against their torturers. Chibanda, who is standing for the MDC in Zvimba North constituency and [is] the opposition party's information officer for the area, Paidamoyo Muzulu, were by late yesterday afternoon still detained at Chinhoyi police station. (Zimbabwe Independent) 5 March: One soldier, sporting the party's distinctive red-and-white T-shirts, announced, "This is a no-go area for MDC." According to the activists, who later described the encounter, the soldier added brusquely, "We've been tolerating you for a long time. Get into your car as quickly as you can and leave this place." Then, as the activists started to pull away in their pickup truck, the soldiers began hurling stones. One candidate for Parliament, Gabriel Chiwara, 39, stumbled as he tried to climb into the front seat. Chiwara, an electrician, said the soldiers tackled him to the ground and kicked him for several minutes with their boots. As he begged for mercy, he said, the soldiers shouted: "You have to die! You are selling the country to the whites!" (Washington Post) 6 March: Last week, the MDC candidate for Mount Darwin South, Henry Chimbiri, 5 Central Intelligence Organisation. State security agents continue to be referred to as part of the CIO although the body has been reconstituted as the Department of National Security. 6 SeeTsvangirai v. Manyonda, HC 8139/2000 7 See D. Matyszak – Political Persecution in Zimbabwe: The case of Roy Bennett Zimbabwe Human rights Bulletin February 2005. 8 “Are they Accountable?” Examining alleged violators and their violations pre and post the Presidential Election March 2002 - A report compiled by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum December 2002 4