Gruesome Killings by Mugabe Supporters Detailed

Villagers Suffered Zimbabwe's Worst Violence in 20 Years; New Vote Set for June 27

CHAONA, Zimbabwe -- President Robert Mugabe's post-election campaign of violence has reached a level and intensity not seen in Zimbabwe in 20 years, according to human rights workers struggling to track a surge of killings, torture, beatings, false arrests and arson attacks ahead of a presidential runoff.

Election officials announced Friday that the second round of voting would take place June 27, nearly three months after the original election in which Mugabe, of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF, came in second, behind opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change.

The opposition confirmed Friday that it would participate in the runoff despite the violence.

"We are going to defeat Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF any time, any place, any how," spokesman Nelson Chamisa said, speaking from Harare, the capital. "We have to make sure we defeat the dictatorship once and for all."

The most lethal attack so far happened here in Chaona, a village 65 miles north of Harare. Witnesses say that dozens of armed men, led by ruling party officials, rampaged through here the night of May 5, battering seven opposition activists to death. Large splashes of dried blood were still visible on the ground and on the sides of buildings a week later.

One man said he was beaten as if he were "an animal." The attackers stoned another man, beat him with clubs, then left him to die in a cornfield. One group grabbed a 79-year-old widow, yanked up her skirt, then lashed her bare buttocks with barbed-wire whips as two dozen terrified relatives looked on. The woman, Martha Mucheto, said she cried in pain and shame.

"If none of you confesses, we will hit this granny until she's dead," Mucheto, a great-grandmother and former nurse's aide, recalled hearing. She spoke from a hospital bed in Harare.

Political violence has been most severe in the rural areas that once were Mugabe strongholds. Analysts say that weakened support in these areas contributed to Mugabe's historic second-place finish in the March 29 election. The runoff is necessary because neither candidate got a majority of votes, according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

ZANU-PF also lost control of parliament for the first time since the country's founding in 1980. A surge of opposition support in towns and villages was key to that loss as well.

Political analyst Eldred Masunungure said the attacks are intended to win back support for the ruling party through terror.

"ZANU-PF is really saying that act of betrayal, of ingratitude, will not go unpunished," he said. "The idea is to teach the rest of the villagers a lesson by isolating an individual."

Human rights groups put the death toll from the violence at 25 but say it may be far higher. More than 1,000 people have been injured, according to official counts, and tens of thousands have fled their homes.