Mike, Angela and Ben were taken by a “war vet” named Gilbert Moyo and approximately twenty thugs to Pixton Mine (Pixton Mine is currently being used as a youth militia torture camp). Implicated in the attack is a Zanu PF party member named ‘Mazambani’ and an army General.

Cold water was thrown over them before all were beaten.

Mike Campbell, who is 74 years old, was beaten with rifle butts. Mike has serious concussion and a broken collar bone and fingers.

Mike’s wife Angela (70) was thrown to the ground by the abductors resulting in a double fracture of her arm/shoulder, requiring surgery. One of the militia took burning twigs from the fire and put them on her lips.

Ben Freeth, their son in law, was also beaten with rifle butts. He has a badly swollen and totally closed eye. His feet were severely beaten. Beating people on the soles of their feet is a form of torture that is widespread in Zimbabwe and is known as “falanga”.  Falanga can leave a victim permanently unable to walk normally.

The motivation for the attack is tied to the farmers’ engagement in a SADC tribunal challanging the Zanu PF regime’s efforst to compulsoraly take their farms.

Mike and Ben are the architects and at the forefront of the SADC Tribunal litigation. Fourteen farmers in the Kadoma/Chegutu farming community spearheaded the joinder applications with the Campbell Mount Carmel case in SADC.

They were viciously beaten and tortured until they agreed, under extreme duress, to sign a formal withdrawal of the Campbell Case from the SADC Tribunal.

The case is due to be heard in Windhoek from 16th July onwards.

We are so grateful the Campbells are alive and have been found. It must be kept in mind that thousands of Zimbabweans have been abducted and their whereabouts and their safety is still unknown.

Via a ZCTU Press Release:

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has learnt with dismay the harassment of labour leaders during the Presidential Run Off by ruling party militia, supporters and State security agents. The current information we have is:

1. The ZCTU district chairperson for Chivhu, Tinashe Murau, was seriously beaten up by Zanu PF militia just before the 27 June Presidential Runoff and has had his hand broken and is currently seeking medical attention. He was beaten after the militia questioned why he wears ZCTU t-shirts and attends ZCTU meetings. (more…)

Africa’s top security body discusses Zimbabwe crisis (AFP)
The 15-member African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) held closed-door talks on the crisis in Zimbabwe on Sunday. The African Union (AU) summit is taking place at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. There has been much disagreement amongst the 54 member states of the AU as to what course of action should be taken with regard to the political crisis in Zimbabwe. Mugabe, sworn in for another term, will be attending the AU summit. The outcome of the PSC meeting would in all probability determine the kind of reception Mugabe will receive on his arrival. In an apparent effort to appease regional leaders, Mugabe called for “serious dialogue” between the political parties in Zimbabwe and heaped praise on his staunch ally, South African President Thabo Mbeki.

China balks at US calls for Zimbabwe arms embargo (AFP)
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that it was time for strong international action to stop the political violence in Zimbabwe. Rice took part in discussions with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing, China. The US is planning to introduce measures against Robert Mugabe at a UN Security Council meeting this week. Measures would include an arms embargo and a travel ban on Robert Mugabe. China has however proved to be reluctant in lending support to the suggested measures. Jiechi would only say that, “The most pressing task now is to stabilise the situation in Zimbabwe,” said Yang, the Chinese foreign minister. (more…)

Update from this morning

Mike, Angela and Ben were dumped in Kadoma at around 01h30 this morning.

This update was from last night – a forwarded email

Police at Chegutu have now provided six armed personnel after receiving instructions from PROPOL (Provincial Police Officer. They have attended on Stockdale and cannot locate the Campbells and Freeth. The police and Bruce Campbell have been out to Bronkhorst’s whose farm was looted. The maid at Bronkhorst confirmed seeing the Campbells and Freeth badly beaten up. They were in the back of a red pick up truck. The satellite device to track Mike Campbell’s Prado is not functioning. (more…)

Find, at the end of this post, links to the preliminary statements by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Pan-African Parliament (PAP) Election Observer Missions (EOM) to Zimbabwe. We’ve provided a snapshot of some of what they said below, but you must download and read the statements for the full details.

SADC EOM:

“There was a low turnout during the runoff compared to the 29 March 2008 harmonised elections”

“The pre-election phase was characterised by politically motivated violence, intimidation, and displacements. (more…)

We have spent the weekend anxiously waiting for people NOT to vote. So different and so bizarre, because for the past eight years we have agonised over low voter turnout. Now we got low voter turnout, and check out the figures ZEC has come up with! Anyone want the job to be the ZEC acturial scientist?: its up for grabs, because you only have to be “smarter than a fifth grader” to qualify. (more…)

On March 29th 2008, Robert Mugabe polled total votes of 1,079,730. Somehow, despite mass intimidation, gross violence, increasing poverty, murders, and hyper-inflation, Robert Mugabe’s popularity accelerated faster than our inflation figures (which is quite something) and he managed to secure himself an extra 1,070,539 votes on 27 June 2008. He has effectively doubled his vote.

Do not forget that Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from this poll and a call to boycott the elections was circulated and supported in many areas (see Sokwanele round-ups on the day of the polls here and here). The Pan African Parliamentary observers  have independently also confirmed an extremely low turnout, but this is not reflected in the turnout figures below.

There are two rows per province in the table; the yellow highlighed row shows the results for March 29th 2008, excluding the other two candidates who competed on that day. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) have not released the results on a constituency basis so we cannot make detailed comparisons.

* This 100% figure includes the other Presidential candidates who competed on March 29th 2008.

Election results are being announced province by province – no constituency level  detail – obviously to hide the humiliating detail and prevent analysis. 8 provinces in so far and I can tell you right now that the results are a complete and utter joke. Staggeringly farcical. We’ll bring them to you as soon as we have them all, and send out on Twitter as well.