In Zimbabwe, the hunters are now the hunted

November 19 12:05:02 PM, LA Times

As Robert Mugabe's grip on power has slipped, the thugs who carried out preelection terror in his name find themselves in the cross hairs of those they tormented. The "green bomber" dropped into Club M5 the other day to get a bottle of Lion beer to go, but he wasn't fast enough. Right away he was surrounded by five members of the opposition, people he used to beat up, in a township bar where he used to be king.

Reporting from Harare, Zimbabwe -- The "green bomber" dropped into Club M5 the other day to get a bottle of Lion beer to go, but he wasn't fast enough. Right away he was surrounded by five members of the opposition, people he used to beat up, in a township bar where he used to be king.

"They just surrounded me. They started accusing me of this and that. They just wanted revenge. They said: 'Now we got you alone. You used to trouble us during your heyday. Now it's our day.' "

  Zimbabwe power-sharing talks collapse This Mugabe says God is on Zimbabwe's side He ran, chased by the drunken group.

The green bombers were the ruling party's shock troops, thugs who killed and terrorized in the name of President Robert Mugabe before elections this year. Just a few months ago, the thought of challenging one of them was unthinkable in Harare's townships, stagnant and hopeless places where young men hung around sharing cheap beer in plastic bottles and waiting for the "Old Man" to die.

But after Mugabe was forced into a power-sharing deal with the opposition in September, there was a quickening: People were impatient, exuberant, hopeful and fearful of betrayal all at once. Now that the deal has collapsed, the frustration in the capital's townships is palpable, and the specter of spiraling violence looms over their shabby streets.

People want justice -- and without it, some warn darkly, they'll take matters into their own hands.



Out of hiding

Amos, a 24-year-old activist for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, spent nearly seven months in hiding after the first-round presidential election in March. During that reign of terror by ruling party thugs, his stepmother was badly beaten in her rural village. Sheep belonging to the family went missing. Eight people in the area were killed, he says, and many houses burned.

Round-faced and boyish, Amos looks about 18. When he left the safe house in September and went to his home village, he was after revenge.

"I had someone who I wanted to fix," he says.

He woke at dawn feeling brave and powerful. He ran to the hut of the thug who had beaten his stepmother, banged on the door, raised his catapult and a large stone, and waited. When the door opened, he let fly.

"It hit him in the eye. He was just screaming," Amos remembers. "I was happy. I was feeling brave, that whatever happens, if it's war, I'm prepared to stand up and fight him."

Samson Bopoto also spent months hiding in the countryside. Every night, he and other MDC activists expected to be killed.

"Now the tables have turned. It's now ZANU-PF are panicking," said Bopoto, 34, an MDC youth organizer who lives in a Harare township. He and his comrades have taken back the local bar. They sit for hours singing MDC songs, and the former ZANU-PF thugs are nowhere to be seen.

Sometimes the ex-thugs come to his house secretly at night, trying to buy forgiveness or at least protection.

Bopoto says it isn't easy to stop the MDC members from taking revenge. Many are waiting until Cabinet posts are settled and the MDC takes its share of power.

"Still, our wounds are open. . . . Just imagine seeing somebody who's the guy who beat up your mom. They say, 'Sorry guys, I was forced to do that.' But we still have a lot of pain."

The power-sharing deal leaves the way open for prosecutions. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says Mugabe should not be held responsible for past crimes, but the question of immunity or prosecution for others hangs unanswered, poisoning the talks.

But without justice, Bopoto said, there could be violence.

"Those people should be brought to book, rather than a relative taking revenge. If that person killed my brother, you should allow justice to take its course. If that doesn't happen, then a person will take it into their own hands. It will cause a sort of uprising because I can't be happy if I see you, who killed my brother, still at the beer hall, living your daily life whilst I'm missing my loved relative."




Single Page     | 1 | 2 | Next  »


Thanksgiving guide: tryptophan fantastic It's November and it's officially fat-pants season. That's right.   Support your local restaurant Go ahead and cut back on dining out if you need to, but don't cut it out of your budget altogether. Southern California's restaurants need your dollars.   Save over 50% off the newsstand price. Click here to subscribe to The Times.   // JavaScript Document if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Firefox")>-1){ aa=document.body.getElementsByTagName("h1"); if (aa.length>0){ if (aa[0].className=="orgurl" && aa[0].childNodes[0].tagName=="A") { aa[0].childNodes[0].style.color="#666"; aa[0].childNodes[0].style.textDecoration="#666"; aa[0].childNodes[0].style.cursor="default"; } } }
Email | Print | Text  |Single Page | RSS
Most Viewed Most E-mailed

Source

Related articles

More Politics
back to top
Your Ad Here
News Buzz © 2007. About Us Politics | Entertainment | Business | Tech