VOA常速英语2008年-Widespread Political Violence Reported in Zimba

By Peta Thornycroft
Harare
21 April 2008

Zimbabwe's private hospitals are full of people who have suffered violence since results of parliamentary elections were announced early this month. Peta Thornycroft reports from Harare that the victims, mostly from President Robert Mugabe's traditional political strongholds, say that the people who attacked them accused them of supporting the opposition¹ Movement for Democratic Change.

Tafadzwa Chinogure, a 31-year-old peasant farmer, lies in a Harare hospital [Sunday]. His right leg is broken, his left leg has a deep stab wound, his left arm is broken, and he has heavy bruising² across his back.

Chinogure says his attackers were ruling Zanu PF supporters who came just after midnight one night last week and beat him and his wife, who is also in the hospital.

He said the Zanu PF broke into his home and accused him of being MDC, and started beating him with big sticks, and they used a knife on his leg. He said they broke the window and door of his house and took away his ground-nut (peanut) harvest.

Chinogure, who is married with two children, comes from a village about two hours drive northeast of the capital. He can name his attackers, among them the local winning Zanu PF councilor. He says after destroying his home, they took all his property including his summer harvest, which was in a shed.

Chinogure is one of hundreds of people from deep rural areas hospitalized in Harare as a result of similar attacks. Without exception they say that their attackers, and they can name many of them, were local Zanu PF political personalities³, youth militia⁴, sometimes soldiers, and groups of men calling themselves war veterans.

Most of the attacks have been in the northeastern part of the country in the Mashonaland East province, which has been a ruling Zanu PF stronghold since the 1970's, in the latter years of Zimbabwe's liberation war.

The best known Zanu PF legislator in this region is long serving Health Minister David Parirenyatwa. Numerous attempts to contact him were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Mutare, in the east, was also busy as people streamed into urban areas for help. Reports from independent sources in different parts of the country indicate political violence is spreading across many parts of the southeast, north and western parts of the country.

The Movement for Democratic Change says that at least 10 of its supporters have been killed, hundreds hospitalized and about 3,000 displaced. MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti said at a press conference in South Africa that Zimbabwe resembles a war-zone.

"By yesterday (Sunday), at least 500 people one way or the other ... had actually been hospitalized," Biti said. "As we sit here, hundreds of huts and houses are being burnt. And a case of internal refugees has developed, internally displaced people have developed in Zimbabwe."

Relatives of a 55-year-old MDC activist⁵ who was killed last week near Karoi, about 200 kilometers north of Harare, say his attackers were driving vehicles supplied by a well-known Zanu PF politician in Mashonaland West, who is living on a confiscated⁶ white-owned farm he was given in 2003. The politician did not answer his mobile phone last week.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told VOA he did not know about the incidents because he was off duty. There was no one else available from the police to comment. No one has been arrested in connection with any of the violence across the country.

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 bruising   

adj.殊死的；十分激烈的v.擦伤(bruise的现在分词形式)

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• He slipped and fell, badly bruising an elbow. 他滑倒了，一只胳膊肘严重擦伤。 来自辞典例句

3 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

4 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

5 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

6 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。