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ZIMBABWE: "Green Bombers" deserting poor conditions in camps
IRIN News
January 23, 2004

Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39106

Some volunteers to the Zimbabwe government's controversial youth service programme are deserting because of the poor conditions and allegations of brutality, according to former recruits and human rights NGOs.

Twenty-year old Brighton Mukunga says he is a bitter man. He finished his A-Level studies two years ago and although he passed well, he could not obtain a place in college to do journalism, the career he had always wanted to pursue.

Six months ago he met an old schoolmate, now attending college, who said he had only managed to secure a place after undergoing a national youth service programme.

"Even though I had heard about the youth training centres, I never wanted to join them because I had been told so many negative things about them. However, because I was desperate to get into college, I joined one of the training camps, since it had become difficult to get a place without a certificate from the youth service programme," Mukunga told IRIN.

But he had ran away after only two weeks of training. "The situation at that camp was terrible - so much so that I resolved I would rather roam the streets than be in that hell."

Despite the youth brigade training centres experiencing a host of problems, the government has indicated its intention to establish more camps, while analysts say the centres are not sustainable because they were not properly planned for.

The first centre, the Border Gezi training camp in Mount Darwin, about 90 km north of Harare, was set up in 2001 and was quickly followed by four more in Matebeleland North, Mutare in Manicaland, Kamativi in Mashonaland West and Zvishavane in the Midlands province.

The youth brigade camps have churned out several thousand graduates, who have come to be popularly known as "Green Bombers", because of the colour of their uniform. Many youths join because some colleges apparently give preference to those who have undergone training. The civil service also prefers graduates.

But the centres have reportedly been plagued by desertions, acute food shortages and squalid living conditions.

The government has argued that the training programme, for those aged between 10 and 30 years, is meant to instill national pride, while equipping the youth with vocational skills.

Instead, according to testimonies from graduates and human rights groups, the training courses emphasise military drill and the doctrines of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

David Chimhini, a human rights proponent and chairman of the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (Zimcet), charges that the "quasi-military camps ... were set up, not to promote patriotism as the government claims, but to ensure the survival of ZANU-PF. In the frenzy to churn out militias, whose main purpose is to terrorise perceived enemies and members of the political opposition, the government forgot to set up proper structures to ensure permanence and durability of the programme."

Graduates from the training centres have often been accused of mounting terror campaigns against opponents of the ruling party.

Poor Living Conditions
Mukunga described the conditions he experienced at Mushagashe training centre in Zvishavane.

"One night, I silently packed my bag, threw it over a fence and fled from the training centre. I knew that if I got caught, I would be in trouble with the instructors, but I could not take any more of it. We had gone for a whole week surviving on porridge, which was extremely rationed. When I arrived, senior trainees told me that they used to receive two meals a day, but supplies had run out because there was no money to buy more supplies," he said.

"I was told that the ministry (of youth, gender and employment creation) had exhausted its budget and it was proving difficult to get an additional vote because the government did not have the money. It had become a daily thing to see recruits fainting on parade due to hunger."

Three days before he decided to run away, he was rushed to a local clinic, suffering from dizziness and general exhaustion. He said several trainees had to be sent home after falling seriously ill because the camp did not have drugs or money to cover the medical expenses of those affected by disease.

Mukunga said the shortage of food at Kamativi training centre was made worse by the grueling military routines the trainees were made to undergo. "The instructors would make us run for more than 10 km on empty stomachs, saying that was to test our endurance. When we finished the road runs, we could hardly lift our feet. I thought it was inhuman, considering that military exercises [made up] most of the curriculum."

The pro-government newspaper, the Daily Mirror, recently reported that hunger at Mushagashe was forcing recruits to steal and slaughter cattle from neighbouring farms. The paper quoted an unnamed police officer confirming that they had opened several dockets against some of the youths for reportedly stealing foodstuffs from the farms, or raiding nearby shops and coercing the owners to give them food.

The barracks they were living in were rundown. "When it rained, the roofs leaked and we were forced to huddle in a corner," said Mukunga.

But a senior instructor at Mushagashe, who identified himself as Comrade Sam, said the situation at his training camp was normal. "It is only those who would have proved to be too weak who spread lies about our training programme," he said. "We test the recruits for endurance, and anyone who thinks he is coming here for a picnic should forget it."

He denied that trainees were being taught terror tactics.

Chimhini said Zimcet was obtaining testimony from a significant number of former trainees, including girls who had faced systematic sexual abuse in the camps.

"I have received harrowing accounts from girls who were forced to have sexual relations with officials at the centres. The girls say they are promised food, and preferential treatment and jobs after finishing training," he told IRIN.

In September last year the Solidarity Peace Trust observed that girls who had joined the training camps were being victimised.

"Female youth militia have reported rape on a systematic basis in some camps, involving girls as young as 11 years of age. Youth militia pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, have been reported as resulting from youth militia training experiences. Camp instructors are commonly implicated as among the rapists. Some youth militia show signs of severe depression and guilt as a result of what they have seen and done," the NGO said in a statement.

Chimhini said some graduates who approached Zimcet were also concerned they were also not being readily accepted by their communities, because of the Green Bombers' reputation for brutality in the service of ZANU-PF.

ZANU-PF has also acknowledged that trainees face social reintegration problems. At the party's annual conference in the city of Masvingo in December last year, the ZANU-PF central committee admitted that some graduates faced ridicule.

"In view of the [challenges they face] it is requested that the party and government double their efforts to assist this category of graduates," said a central committee report presented at the conference.

The committee reported that it was sponsoring student representative councils at universities and colleges, so as to counter the party's "detractors".

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