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You may know that newsnight tonight (BBC 10:30) will include details of horrific state sponsored violence in Zimbabwe designed to intimidate people against voting for peaceful change.

You may also know that last Sunday a large congregation worshippers
were beaten by police when they refused to leave a service of holy
communion in the capital city Harare.

A detail to emerge from tonight's programme is the fact that
non-governmental agencies, aid workers, health workers, and others have collected more than 1500 signed affidavits since the elections some weeks ago as to the horrific nature of the personal injuries received on account of their peaceful support for the "wrong" politics.

Details copied from the Panorama blurb follow.

"Beatings, Torture and Horrific Violence in Zimbabwe:
Tonight, an exclusive interview with the US ambassador to Zimbabwe.
James McGee was held for investigating what he knew to be obscene and violent attacks on members of the opposition by Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. He graphically describes what he saw first hand - the
vicious attacks on old women and young men alike - and his own
response to the authorities that [illegally] tried to detain him. Yet more proof of these attacks comes from the British journalist Peter Oborne who recently emerged from Zimbabwe with first hand accounts and the pictures to prove it. As the authorities set a date for the presidential run-off, finally, we bring you these distressing but crucial testimonies to the ongoing Mugabe reign of fear."

update:

08:11 17 May 2008