Shepherd Jani, the late MDC senatorial candidate for Murehwa, was burnt alive and shot five times by his abductors, believed to be CIO agents, a torture awareness workshop heard recently.

Last week, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) held a workshop for torture victims and over 100 people from Matuku village in Murehwa North attended.

One of those to testify at the workshop was David Mangwende, an eyewitness to the abduction. He said Jani was beaten and kidnapped around 11am on Thursday 22 May 2008 from his office at Murehwa centre. His body was discovered two days later.

The four men were driving a blue twin cab, registration number AAA 9248. Jani was abducted in full view of his MDC colleagues who tried without success to rescue him. They were forced to back off when the suspected CIO agents pulled out guns and threatened to shoot. They then sped off with Jani in the car.

A source told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that from Murehwa centre, the vehicle was waved through a police roadblock, manned by officers from the area. The police officers clearly saw a frightened Jani in the car and also appeared to know the other four occupants of the vehicle as it made it's way past them.

Another eyewitness who spoke to the officers who manned the roadblock said; 'They're terrified of what would happen to them if they talk. They know the guys who killed Jani. But perhaps when the time is right they will eventually reveal their identities.'

Then opposition leader Tsvangirai fought back tears at Jani's burial, where he blamed Mugabe's death squads for his death.

When Jani's body was discovered it was first taken to Murehwa hospital, where a pathologist was forced to falsify what caused his death. But an independent forensic test at Parirenyatwa hospital revealed Jani's killers pumped five bullets into his body and fractured both his legs and arms. ZimRights said while the workshop managed to break the political ice in Matuku, it was urging other organizations to assist the traumatized victims.

Human rights lawyer Nqobizitha Mlilo told us Thursday that what ZimRights has started was very important in that it affords space for victims of violence to express the things they've gone through.

'From a victim's perspective, this confession is important in the sense that it gives them an opportunity to air out things they would be holding within themselves,' Mlilo.

The former MDC regional co-coordinator in Johannesburg, South Africa added; 'Equally on the part of the perpetrators themselves, it creates an opportunity for them to own up to the truth.'

At the formation of the inclusive government the Principals created the organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration. But the organ has been heavily criticised for being a mere politicking tool which does not have the will or capacity to achieve its mandate under the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Victims of violence claim the organ exists only on paper and is meant to create a false impression that government is committed to dealing with the scourge of politically-linked human rights violations, when it is doing absolutely nothing

By SW radio