Zimbabwe opposition on the run

Roy Bennet with injured worker Frederick Muyocha

By Joseph Winter in Harare

The headquarters of Zimbabwe's opposition United Parties has been turned into a refugee camp.

Around 50 activists and parliamentary candidates have fled their homes in areas to the north and east of Harare.

They said they were going to kill me

Simon Chikazi

All tell the same story: bands of Zanu-PF supporters came to their house at night, singing war songs and brandishing knives and clubs.

Simon Chikazi, from Mudzi near the border with Mozambique, had his arm in a sling when I went to see him.

He says he was dragged from his home, taken into the bush and beaten for several hours because he wanted to stand for parliament against Zanu-PF.

"They said they were going to kill me" he recounts in a muted but matter of fact voice.

"They were looking for their 'chefs' (leaders) but couldn't find them and so decided to let me go."

Beaten to death

On Tuesday, two UP supporters were beaten to death in the same area. Musakanyi Musakanyi brought news of the deaths when he fled to Harare. He left his wife and three children behind.

They would have killed me if I hadn't run away

Musakanyi Musakanyi

"They're probably living in the mountains, in case Zanu-PF find them and beat them up," he said.

"I didn't have the bus fare to bring them all to Harare. I'm the UP District Chairman, I'm the one they were after. They would have killed me if I hadn't run away."

The refugees are reliant on fellow party members for food and clothes, and those without relations in Harare are spending the cold winter nights in bus stops.

The United Parties is unlikely to win any seats in the parliamentary elections, scheduled for 24-25 June.

It is led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the prime minister of the short-lived "internal settlement" regime in 1979 and is tainted by this history of collaborating with Ian Smith.

Farming families are sticking together for safety

But Zanu-PF is obviously trying to wipe out the entire opposition, however small.

Bishop Muzorewa says that Robert Mugabe is behind the violence and said that in 1985, the pre-election period was exactly the same as that currently being experienced.

He says that the poll "cannot possibly be free and fair" and said his party had not yet decided whether or not to participate.

In hiding

After a week, MDC candidate for the south-eastern town of Chimanimani, Roy Bennet is still on the run, along with his black campaign manager, James Mukwaya.

I just feel so helpless, there's nothing I can do

Roy Bennet

Zanu-PF supporters have invaded his farm and threatened both of them with death. Mr. Bennet says that his house has been looted, while his workers are being beaten up and told that if they try to leave the farm, they will be killed.

They are spending each night in a different location and told me not to reveal where I had met them.

Faced with the lack of police action, Mr Bennet, a well-built farmer used to being able to solve his own problems says, "I just feel so helpless, there's nothing I can do, no-one I can ask for help. It's absolutely unbelievable".

Mr Mukwaya says that his house has been stoned and his family threatened. Both of their wives are also in hiding.

Determined

Nevertheless, Roy Bennet is determined to stand for parliament.

How can anyone vote for the people who are beating them up?

James Mukwaya

Asked how they could campaign while on the run, James Mukwaya says, "I've finished my campaign. The people know what is right and what is wrong and they want what is right.

"I say 'Thanks to Zanu-PF' How can anyone vote for the people who are beating them up? The MDC will win in Chimanimani. All I have to do is to stay alive."

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is not optimistic about the future. He says that "the well-orchestrated campaign of terror" began with the white farmers, then moved to their black farm workers, next the peasant farmers and now "it'll be the urban areas".

Already, several MDC supporters in Harare have spoken of being abducted and beaten for hours on end. War veteran's leader Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi himself admits that people were abducted but "only after they stoned my surgery".

Optimists say the violence will end when elections are held but pessimists doubt that the losers, whether MDC or Zanu-PF, will accept the results lying down.