Zimbabwe: they dragged me behind a truck to make me vote for Mugabe
...Areas across Matabeleland, Masvingo and Manicaland, which swung away from the ruling Zanu (PF) party for the first time, have found themselves at the forefront of the brutality.
White-owned farms were the first targets of the Zanu (PF) youth militias and so-called war veterans but from there the militias have moved on to party activists and even independent election observers. Insiders say that the campaign is being co-ordinated by 200 handpicked military and intelligence officers, each of whom is responsible for regional militia cells.
On Tuesday in Matabeleland South, to the east of Bulawayo, youth militia armed with AK47s stopped traffic and ordered people off buses, rounding them up and forcing them at gunpoint to chant slogans in praise of the ruling party. If they could not, they were beaten. “There will be a rerun for the presidential election and if you try and vote for the MDC again we will go to war,” the militiamen said. “We are not asking you to vote Zanu, we are ordering you - or else you will be killed.”
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