HORROR IN ZIMBABWE

Sometimes they come for you at night. Sometimes they come for you in the morning.A few months ago, they came for Tonderai Ndira at 6:45 a.m. There were 10 heavily armed masked men with AK-47s. When they hauled Ndira out of bed he was in his underwear. His three young children watched him being beaten until he was bleeding.Tonderai Ndira was a 33-year-old human rights activist in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe's thugs rule with an iron fist.By making a donation to Amnesty International today, you can help the Zimbabweans who are suffering so much.A week after Ndira's abduction, his friends went to the morgue to claim the bodies of two human rights activists who had been assassinated. They heard there was another body that had yet to be identified. It was Ndira. His brother had to identify the badly decomposed body whose face had been beaten to a pulp.Please make a gift today for the children of Tonderai Ndira, and all the other children whose parents are disappearing, so that these deaths are not in vain -- and so they can grow up in a country with peace, safety, and respect for human rights.
You can provide the people of Zimbabwe with hope.

photo credit: Desmond Kwande/AFP

Mourners attend the burial last May of human rights activist Tonderai Ndira, who was murdered in the aftermath of the March general elections.
Following weeks of atrocities like those described above, Mugabe "won" re-election on June 27th in a blatantly stolen election. More recently, he began talks with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and we are hopeful that they will bring about an end to the government's campaign of murder and intimidation of its political opponents. But regardless of the outcome, we are determined to see that those responsible for the killings are held accountable.Amnesty International needs your help to expose what is happening, and campaign to make sure it stops. Our staff monitors Zimbabwe's human rights situation closely and cooperates with activists on the ground and in neighboring countries -- to keep the spotlight on this crisis and pressure governments to act.We must do everything we can to protect human rights defenders like Tonderai Ndira so they can help their fellow Zimbabweans chart a new course founded on respect for the rule of law -- not brute force.Please make a special donation today to honor Ndira and his courage and to safeguard a future for his children -- and all the children of Zimbabwe. Sincerely,Larry CoxExecutive DirectorAmnesty International USA