Robert Mugabe Militia Hacks, Burns Alive Opposition Leader's Wife

[Jacob]

The men who pulled up in three white pickup trucks were looking for Patson Chipiro, head of the Zimbabwean opposition party in Mhondoro district. His wife, Dadirai, told them he was in Harare but would be back later in the day, and the men departed.

An hour later they were back. They grabbed Dadirai Chipiro and chopped off one of her hands and both her feet. Then they threw her into her hut, locked the door and threw a petrol bomb through the window.

The killing last Friday — one of the most grotesque atrocities committed by Robert Mugabe’s regime since independence in 1980 — was carried out on a wave of worsening brutality before the run-off presidential elections in just over two weeks. It echoed the activities of Foday Sankoh, the rebel leader in the Sierra Leone civil war that ended in 2002, whose trade-mark was to chop off hands and feet.

About 70 local supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change gathered Wednesday in Patson Chipiro’s small yard in Mhondoro to protect him.

Inside the hut where his wife of 29 years died, women sang softly to a subdued drum beat next to the cheap wooden coffin. The thatched roof had been destroyed in the fire so they sat under the open sky. The lid could not be closed because Dadirai Chipiro’s outstretched arm had burnt rigid. Her charred hand was found as women swept the hut.

[Jacob]

What a piece of shit. Hang him by the fucking balls and behead him.

[sniper]

When I was in that country in1980...as part of the ADF   this sort of thing was seen as minor to the real atrocities  that went on........to my mind  certainly distasteful,,

but minor crap.  One life   dramatised  by the press.

[Jacob]

When I was in that country in1980...as part of the ADF   this sort of thing was seen as minor to the real atrocities  that went on........to my mind  certainly distasteful,,

but minor crap.  One life   dramatised  by the press.

I have to admit I'm a bit oblivious to the situation over there. The death of his wife wasn't even on the news here, so I only found out today. But that report was dated June 11, 2008 - which was 4 days ago.

[sniper]

Starting to smell by now

[Jacob]

Starting to smell by now

I'd assume it would be. It'd be worrying if it wasn't..

[OBie]

An unfortunate aspect of us 'musungas' being exposed to more of the world's niceties - this doesn't rate in the usual daily scum that we get, but rubbish like footballers and cricketers who've got more money than sense, does.

It's a tough world where some of us work, and if a little of what we do helps, then we're the better for it - unfortunately, the scum don't see it as newsworthy as there's no shock in getting people fed/protected.

Soap-box stowed, over.