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PART III — COUNTRY PROFILeSIn February 2011, the MDC alleged that war veteranleader Jabulani Sibanda closed schools across awhole district in Masvingo and forced teachers andschoolchildren to attend his pro-Zanu-PF meeting,where he said MDC members would be killed. He hadreportedly used the same tactics in other parts ofMasvingo, Mashonaland Central and Manicalandprovinces over the previous year. 1777 The PTUZconfirmed that teachers in Gutu had left their jobsbecause of death threats from Sibanda. 1778There were also several reports of Zanu-PF militiaimposing their ideology on school curricula. In somecases, Zanu-PF leaders forced teachers to attend ‘reeducationcamps’, allegedly so that they could‘experience the pain and suffering endured by liberationwar heroes’. 1779 The threat of violence wasever-present, as Zanu-PF set up bases in some areas tointimidate, beat and torture people who refused tocomply with their demands. 1780 PTUZ claimed thathistory teachers found it hard to teach the subjectwithout being accused of attacking Zanu-PF andavoided teaching ‘true history’ for their ownsafety. 1781 In one case, a head teacher was told that warveterans were going to visit his school to teachhistory. 1782Zanu-PF supporters threatened at least one headteacher and two teachers because they accepted giftsor grants for their schools from political opponents ofZanu-PF. A head teacher at Mapor Primary School,Mutare North, fled, fearing for his life, when Zanu-PFcame looking for him at the school after they learnedthat he had accepted funds under the ConstituencyDevelopment Fund (CDF) from an MDC-T senator. 1783Two teachers left Chatindo Primary School in NyangaNorth after Zanu-PF youths threatened them foraccepting five rolls of barbed wire paid for by theCDF. 1784Military use of schoolsAlthough the exact number is unknown, human rightsorganizations found evidence of some schools beingused as bases by militia groups, including Zanu-PFyouth militia, in Masvingo province, Manicalandprovince and several other rural areas. In one incident,Zanu-PF youth militia allegedly camped at Chikurudzoprimary and secondary schools in Masvingo North,causing fear among teachers and schoolchildren bythreatening to set up torture bases on the premises. 1785In another, a militia base was set up at ChifambaPrimary School in Guruve South, Mashonaland Centralprovince, where militia members conducted nightpatrols and political meetings and forced people toattend Zanu-PF events. 1786 In August 2011,Zimbabwean human rights groups indicated thatsome 200 youth militia members were being trained atSherenje Secondary School in Manicalandprovince. 1787 War veterans and the Simudza Makoniyouth group, allegedly linked to Zanu-PF politicianDidymus Mutasa, also reportedly seized control ofRainbow Crèche in Rusape, forcing its staff to flee. 1788Attacks on higher educationReports suggest that police and security forces usedexcessive violence to quell student protests on severaloccasions, resulting in at least two deaths and 64 1789injuries. 1790 For example, in September 2010, twostudents reportedly died after being brutally assaultedby security guards and ‘unknown assailants’ whosought to prevent students with unpaid fees fromattending a graduation ceremony at BinduraUniversity. Sixteen other students were injured,according to the Zimbabwe National Students’Union. 1791 In a separate incident, around 10 studentsfrom Great Zimbabwe University were reportedlybeaten by police for pressing other students to join aboycott of lectures. 1792The Student Solidarity Trust reported seven cases ofabduction and torture of university students fromJanuary 2009 to July 2012. 1793 In one incident, twostudents were organizing a protest against high fees atMasvingo Polytechnic when Central IntelligenceOrganisation agents allegedly arrested and torturedthem. The students then had to pay an ‘admission ofguilt’ fine to be released. 1794At least one academic was reported to have beentortured during detention by the Zimbabwean authorities.On 5 December 2012, a lecturer at BinduraUniversity was arrested, put in solitary confinementand tortured for claiming in a research paper thatpolice had been ordered not to arrest Zanu-PFmembers committing crimes during the 2008conflict. 1795206