The following shortenend article is about a Vineyard Church family who have bravely stuck out Mugabe's unrelenting abuse. Ben is a leader in the church there and has taken Mugabe to court over the seizure of his farm.
Our friend Costa just visited the Freeths. Now, thank God, we've just heard of major developments in Harare which will be well documented by the Western press. Meanwhile, please keep these dear folk in your prayers as things are not stable yet and they are still in recovery.
From Harare
"The Campbells and Freeths are no strangers to aggression from Robert Mugabe’s thugs. But this time was different. After being tied up and kidnapped, they narrowly escaped with their lives from a nine-hour ordeal of beatings, torture and mock executions.
Mike Campbell, 75, his wife, Angela, 66, and their son-in-law, Ben Freeth were taken to a pungwe, one of the thousands of indoctrination meetings where people must chant pro-Mugabe slogans and are beaten if they fail.
The three were dragged in front of the mob of 50 thugs and doused in cold water. “Then they beat them severely,” Mr Freeth’s wife, Laura, said yesterday. “They put burning sticks in my mother’s mouth. They beat my father on the back and on the feet, and with a shambok, an animal hide.”
Mr Freeth, who is in his 30s, was hit on the back of his head with a rifle butt and then with sticks, causing a wound that nearly cost him an eye.
After that, they were bundled, bleeding, into the car again and taken to a local site called Pixton Mine. “They got them out of the car and held a revolver to their heads,” Mrs Freeth said. She said the family, who have led a landmark case before the Southern African Development Community regional court that stands to reverse Mr Mugabe’s policy of farm seizures, were then told to sign a piece of paper declaring that they would not go to the court. They were told they had to sign it or would be shot.
The men also forced them to sign a statement promising that they would not go to the police. Last night The Times visited all three in hospital in Harare, where they were lying heavily sedated, recovering from their ordeal. Only Mr Campbell was conscious, nursing a broken collarbone and hand, his face a mass of blood and bruises.
His wife lay unconscious in a room across the corridor, awaiting surgery today for her two smashed arms. Mr Freeth had fallen asleep after hours of vomiting from concussion, his head split open at the back, his eye hugely swollen from where he was beaten with sticks.
The attack on the Campbell farm at Chegutu, west of Harare, began at 3pm on Sunday. almost the exact moment that Zimbabwe’s Election Commission announced Robert Mugabe’s landslide victory in Friday’s tainted election."
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