Attackers in Zimbabwe are also victims
To save themselves, young men say, they are forced to beat President Robert Mugabe's opponents.
HARARE, ZIMBABWE — The first time Andrew was forced to beat an opposition party supporter, he wanted to weep in sympathy. But it would have been suicidal to show pity on his victim in front of the ruling party youth militia leaders forcing him to commit the violence.
"You feel like you want to cry, but you don't expose your tears," he said. "I feel pity beating someone, but there's nothing I can do."
For Andrew and thousands of other young men in Zimbabwe, life has come down to a painfully simple equation: If you don't beat your victim hard enough, you may be the next victim.
On the eve of Zimbabwe's discredited presidential runoff today, The Times spoke to three people who said they were forced to be part of an intimidation force that has killed, beaten and threatened opponents of incumbent President Robert Mugabe.
Reports from independent human rights organizations support the accounts by the three, who said they had been forced into ruling party militia bases.
In door-to-door searches in recent weeks, youths acting on behalf of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party have randomly rounded up thousands of men to join them in operating about 900 "reeducation" bases across the country, designed to intimidate voters into supporting Mugabe.
Andrew said militia members spent their nights drinking beer, smoking marijuana, singing ZANU-PF liberation war songs, beating drums, patrolling the neighborhood and beating supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, sometimes with deadly results.
The forced "volunteers" are divided into groups of 15 or 20 and given iron bars to beat people, Andrew said. The militia members who lead the attacks carry axes, machetes, knives, and bows and arrows.
"Two times, my group beat someone to death," Andrew said. "I am sure those people died, because their relatives came to collect the deceased for burial. They're MDC people. They're the ones being targeted."
Andrew's surname and age and the location of his base are being withheld because of the risk that he could be killed if identified.
"We beat them hard, even killing them," said Andrew, in his 20s, who has been forced to go to a base with about 200 other men every night since June 1. "I have seen six people die."
His hands are rough, but his face is youthful and unlined. His calm expression belies his internal struggle. Sometimes he feels he's going mad.
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