SOLDIERS went on the rampage during the weekend, assaulting and abducting a number of opposition MDC officials and supporters in Harare's high-density suburbs.

In Mabvuku, the MDC women's league provincial secretary, Margaret Kulinji, together with her family, were severely assaulted by soldiers in a midnight raid. Kulinji said two truckloads of soldiers descended on their home around 1am. She said they jumped the gate and banged the door. When her father opened the door, the soldiers grabbed him and locked him in one of the bedrooms. Kulinji said they then started assaulting her mother. The soldiers dragged Sonile, Kulinji's mother, into her bedroom and forced her to open her legs and stuck a gun into her private parts. Kulinji and her brother, Crispen, who is still missing, were also assaulted. "I don't know what they are doing to my son, I fear for him," said Kulinji's mother.

The soldiers proceeded to Albert Gatsi's family home where they severely assaulted him and his wife leaving them for dead. In a statement, the MDC secretary for information and publicity, Paul Themba Nyathi, said in Mufakose, a relative of Glen View MP Paul Madzore was severely assaulted by members of the army who demanded to see the MP and his wife who were not at home. "The relative received injuries all over his body and he is now in hospital," Nyathi said. In the same high-density suburb, a group of army officers and suspected Central Intelligence Organisation operatives raided Jack Chimuza's home on Saturday night. They beat up his wife and two children before bundling Chimuza and his brother Kennedy into a truck. They proceeded to abduct Epheas Kondo, the councillor for ward 35. Nyathi said Chimuza was severely assaulted and left for dead in a bush near Manyame Air Base. He was only picked up yesterday morning and is now in hospital. The other two members abducted together with Chimuza are still missing.

Cephas Matotote was abducted from his Mbare home on Saturday night and severely assaulted. He is now in hospital, Nyathi said. In St Mary's, Chitungwiza, Moses and Tabeth Kuvarega were assaulted by soldiers who raided their home at 3 am. The soldiers also raided Harare's Deputy Mayoress Sekesai Makwavarara's nightclub in Mabvuku on Saturday night. The staff and patrons were assaulted and property worth millions of dollars was destroyed.