Zimbabwe: Election Campaign Revives Memories of State Brutality

At first glance Lupane seems no different from other rural districts in Zimbabwe. Its tranquillity, coupled with a canopy of luxuriant forest, gives no indication of the recurring droughts that plague the area. Situated 170 kilometres south-west of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, this is a place where appearance masks, rather than reflects, reality. Ironically, it is the district’s lesser revealed life and issues the media and politicians are now interested in. So too are observers and human rights officials, who have zoomed in on the district as the upcoming parliamentary by-election - scheduled for May 15-16 - draws near. The government of President Robert Mugabe is determined to win this one seat, after it lost all eight in the province to the opposition in the 2000 parliamentary elections.