I received an e-mail this morning from a Zimbabwean, whose name I’m withholding to not subject the writer to any additional danger:

“Living here is like sheer hell. We don’t know from hour to hour what is going to happen and who is going to knock on our door next. There was another incident in Harare a few days ago when the War Vets or the Henchmen went into a school and walked into a class of kids being taught and shot the teacher in front of all those kids. Imagine what those kids went through. Nevermind now, what about in ten years time or so.”

Today the South African Development Community (SADC), holding an emergency meeting in Swaziland, urged Robert Mugabe to postpone Friday’s runoff election altogether. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, meanwhile, briefly left his refuge at the Dutch embassy after three days in seclusion (which, mind you, wasn’t exactly just a reflective period, but most likely operating on the reality that his life is, once again, in serious danger) to hold a press conference. More from the Times of London:

“The opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called today for ‘armed peacekeepers’ to be sent to Zimbabwe as an African leader warned of a Rwandan-style genocide if the crisis is not brought under control.


…He was asked about comments made in The Guardian today in which he called for the United Nations to move towards ‘active isolation’ of Zimbabwe, which required ‘a force to protect the people.’


‘I didnÂ’t ask for any military intervention, but for armed peacekeepers,’ he told reporters at his Harare home before returning to his refuge at the embassy.”

The leader who warned of a genocide was Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who aptly called Zimbabwe “a disaster in the making.”

Also today, Abigail Chiroto, the 27-year-old wife of the recently elected Movement for Democratic Change mayor of Harare, Emmanuel Chiroto, was laid to rest. Abigail was kidnapped from her home last week along with the couple’s 4-year-old son. Her body — beaten so severely with rocks and metal rods that it was difficult to identify her — was dumped in a field; the boy was released. Her family was not allowed to attend her funeral, reports SW Radio Africa, adding that the police were searching cars headed to the burial, hunting for Emmanuel Chiroto, who remains in hiding, or any other relatives.

Chiroto said that Mai Bwititi, the ZANU-PF candidate whom he defeated in the March 29 elections, called the murder of his wife “a job well done.”

The story also has a roundup of the various MDC officials attacked or missing in just the past few days. It makes it crystal clear that Tsvangirai’s decision to drop out of the runoff will not stop the attacks on the opposition.

(Photo by Getty Images)