[I spotted this story on TheBeardedMan’s blog spot in his daily bulletins and would like to add some thoughts on to this.

Two years ago, when I was involved with Zimbabweans who had fled to S.Africa, I had many interesting conversations with them. I was introduced to many different people, some of whom were particularly interesting. I was especially fascinated when I heard stories of poisoning. One will find that Communist defectors from Russia, for example will talk of poisoning. Poisoning is something these totalitarian freaks of the Far Left have quite a liking for. It is a way of quietly getting rid of nuisance people. Anyone who has lived in Zimbabwe will tell you that from the earliest days of Mugabe’s rule, there has been a lot of talk about him murdering people, even in his own political party. But I would now like to mention things I heard directly from Zimbabweans, some of whom were members of the MDC. These are the things people told me, and which I will relate as best as I can remember:-

1) I was told prior to the June 2003 Mass Action by the MDC, that there were soldiers in Mugabe’s army who began fearing a mass uprising might actually come about. I was told that some secretly approached people in the MDC saying: “Please don’t kill our families. If the uprising starts, we will switch sides”.

2) I was told that Mugabe’s Military Intelligence was constantly monitoring the loyalty of soldiers. If they suspected soldiers were starting to become disloyal, and were associating with the opposition, they would then be killed. I was told that soldiers would disappear suddenly, without warning. Apparently, their Military Intelligence had a procedure whereby they would kidnap soldiers in their beds at night. These soldiers would never be seen or heard from again. It was rumoured that they were killed and their bodies were buried in a graveyard on the outskirts of Harare.

3) I was told that there was somebody in the MDC, who was poisoned, and that it was quite a well known that this person was poisoned. I cannot remember the exact circumstances of the poisoning. As best I recall, the guy was arrested, taken to a Police station where he was beaten. Later he began coughing blood. He was taken to a private clinic in Harare. He was ill for quite some time after the beating, and then he died. Apparently one of the Doctors at the clinic told his wife that he had an unnatural substance in his lungs, and the doctor was quite sure that the man had been poisoned.

4) I was told that the doctors in the various private clinics around Harare, were fully aware that some of the patients in their care had been poisoned. However, out of fear for their jobs, they did not discuss this.

5) I always thought, after hearing these stories of possible Government poisonings of people, especially in the political opposition, that perhaps this is the ideal situation for investigative journalists – for them to meet up either secretly with doctors inside Zimbabwe, or with those who had fled, to see if they could get expert testimony about poisonings and then detail this and submit it to various governments and humanitarian bodies around the world.

6) One man told me that a friend of his was a mid-level officer in the Zimbabwe army. This guy told him that several army officers had recently been sent to Cuba for training in the art of poisoning. Apparently, the Cubans have a very efficient methods of killing people by injection.

7) I was told that the Cubans had developed poisons which would make you die “from natural causes”. I was told that diarrhoea was one of the possible symptoms of poisoning.

8) I was told that one method of killing people was to have them arrested and taken to a Police station. Once in the Police station, this person would be harrassed and beaten. While he was distracted in this way, a person trained in assassination by injection would come up behind him, and would quickly inject him with a poison without the victim realising it. Later, this person would develop symptoms and die. I refer back to (3) above, about the MDC person who developed strange symptoms after he had been beaten by the Police – but which were not directly related to the beatings themselves.

9) I was told about a camp not too far from Harare, where they tortured people and sometimes murdered them. I think they said it was on the way to Banket. Apparently the commander of this camp was known to people as “Black Jesus”.

I have never been able to corroborate these stories. But I did question the people directly. If anyone comes across any more information regarding poisonings in Zimbabwe, then feel free to drop me a line on the Contact us page on my website.

I often wonder how many people Mugabe has really killed in the last 5 years, and whether there were many cases of poisoning which Mugabe’s people got away with?

I also wonder if there are any Cubans out there, perhaps who have fled to the USA, who can confirm whether Fidel Castro also makes use of poisoning?

As you will see in the story below, doctors confirm that the victim was poisoned. I still think, that poisoning by the Mugabe Dictatorship could be a big untold story that still needs to be properly investigated. How many people might have been killed, that we don’t know about? Mind you, another untold story are the many rumours about political allies and people in his own party who died under mysterious circumstances. This is also another huge, untold story which I have never seen the Mass Media touch on. Jan]

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) strongly condemns the poisoning of the former Zimbabwe National Students’ Union president, Philani Zamchya, by suspected security agents. Zamchya was kidnapped by six men gang in town on Wednesday 13 July 2003. The men jostled him into an unmarked Defender vehicle which had no number plates. After making him drink some liquid and assaultin him, the men dumped Zamchya along Seke Road where he started experiencing severe stomach pains. Zamchya only managed to be taken to hospital after he phoned Donald Lewankia, a friend who took him to the Avenues Clinic where doctors confirmed that he had been made to drink chlorine. The NCA deplores such murderous acts that are aimed at suffocating democracy. The men who kidnapped Zamchya accused him of planning an NCA demonstration, threatening that he would lose his life if he continues participating in activities of the NCA. Associated story. Source: http://www.zim-movement.org/br>
The same story also appears as:-
NCA Condemns Attack On Philani Zamchya

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) strongly condemns the poisoning of the former Zimbabwe National Students™ Union president, Philani Zamchya by suspected state security agents.

Zamchya was kidnapped by a six men gang in town on Wednesday 13th July 2005. The men jostled him into an unmarked Defender vehicle which had no number plates. After making him drink some liquid and assaulting him, the men dumped Zamchya along Seke road where he started experiencing severe stomach pains. Zamchya only managed to be taken to hospital after he phoned Donald Lewanika, a friend who took him to the Avenues clinic where doctors confirmed that he had been made to drink chlorine.

The NCA deplores such murderous acts that are aimed suffocating democracy. The men who kidnapped Zamchya accused him of planning an NCA demonstration, threatening that he would lose his life if he continues participating in activities of the NCA.

The NCA sees this as an open attack to the cause for a democratic constitution in Zimbabwe. Zamchya™s tormentors are part of the clique that is benefiting from the status qou and are against an open democracy that will help spread the proceeds from national coffers to the majority of Zimbabweans. The existence of such reactionaries will certainly not stop the NCA from wedging the struggle for a democratic constitution in the country. More demonstrations and other forms of mass action in protest against the prevailing bad governance are on the cards.

In applauding his bold steps in fighting a regime that thrives on an anachronistic constitutional framework, the NCA wishes Zamchya a speedy recovery.

Jessie Majome
NCA Spokesperson
14 July 2005
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URL: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/jul15_2005.h…/p>