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Abuses of power
Andrew Meldrum, Guardian (UK)
September 23, 2006

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/andrew_meldrum/2006/09/zim.html

Broken bones, head injuries, battered feet, beatings to the point of unconsciousness - these forms of torture were inflicted by Zimbabwean police on 15 Zimbabwean trade union leaders last week (13 September), according to their lawyers and doctors.

"We were taken to the cells in pairs and five young men with batons beat us for about 15 to 20 minutes each," said Lucia Matibenga, vice president of the Zimbabwe congress of trade unions. Mrs Matibenga, 52, suffered a fractured arm, perforated eardrum and possible kidney damage from her beating. "Seven of us have broken arms. Others have internal injuries. We want the world to know what is going on in Zimbabwe," she said.

The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, blithely dismissed the abuse as the work of "one or two overzealous" officers, in a rare interview while at the United Nations on Thursday. Significantly he did not say that any police would be punished for the torture.

Tragically, the brutal police treatment of the labour leaders is only the latest of hundreds of cases of torture by Zimbabwean state agents. According to a growing dossier compiled by human rights groups, Zimbabwe's police, army and secret service - the Central Intelligence Organisation - have tortured people with electric shocks, genital mutilations, near-drownings and gang rapes in the past.

In recent months the use of torture has increased, according to statistics from Zimbabwe's Human Rights Forum, which reported 68 cases of torture in August. The group concluded that torture has become "widespread and systematic" against those identified as opposition or critics of the Mugabe regime.

"The Zimbabwe government is one of the most persistent and brutal torturers in all of Africa today," said Zimbabwean lawyer Gabriel Shumba, himself a torture survivor now in exile in South Africa. "But Zimbabwe is a silent atrocity because African leaders do not want to say anything, even though they know what is going on. The South African government and the African Union should condemn the use of torture and violence in Zimbabwe."

What can be done about Zimbabwe's torture? Considerable effort is needed to understand the roots of the abuse, how to help the victims and how to stop it. Torture was used in the country in the years of white minority-ruled Rhodesia. Once Zimbabwe won majority rule, the police continued to use beatings as a form of interrogation.

Mr Mugabe employed agents from East Germany's Stasi and Romania's Securitate to train the security forces. North Koreans trained the Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwean army, known as Mr Mugabe's Praetorian guard, which carried out widespread torture and mass killing in the southern Matabeleland region between 1983 and 1987, during which an estimated 20,000 civilians were murdered.

Torture grew alarmingly in 2000 when Mr Mugabe faced a serious challenge from a new opposition. Camps were established across the country where police, Mr Mugabe's youth brigades and others inflicted savage violence upon supporters of the opposition.

With Zimbabwe's economy in freefall, inflation above 1,200% and hunger growing, even the aloof and isolated Mr Mugabe has become aware of the restiveness of the population and is resorting to intimidation by his security forces to maintain his control. This has led to the increase in torture reported by local organisations. Consistently, the Mugabe government has refused to take action against perpetrators of abuse. State torturers know they enjoy impunity from prosecution for their crimes - at least for now.

How can the victims be assisted? There are dedicated doctors inside Zimbabwe who are providing medical treatment and counselling to torture victims, at considerable risk. Hundreds of survivors have fled to South Africa where the Zimbabwe Torture Victims Project provides assistance.

I have interviewed many survivors including a teenager who survived electric shocks that caused him to bite through his tongue and a policeman whose penis was skinned. These people want to tell their stories so the world will know the atrocities being committed in Zimbabwe. These brave survivors compile the facts of their cases with affidavits from lawyers, doctors and the victims themselves. A growing number of offenders in the security forces have been identified.

This is how to stop the torture: document the abuse and hold the perpetrators accountable. Government agents must know that the impunity they currently enjoy will not last forever. The cases must be publicised across Africa and throughout the world. The AU's commission on human and peoples rights has already written a damning report on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, although the Mugabe regime succeeded in getting it pushed to the side of the AU's July summit in Banjul, Gambia. The soon-to-be-launched African court of human rights already has a list of Zimbabwean cases to be heard.

Other international bodies are becoming involved. The London-based anti-torture group Redress and Amnesty International have produced compelling reports on the extent of torture in Zimbabwe. The International Bar Association has urged the international criminal court to press charges against Zimbabwean torturers, from Robert Mugabe on down.

The South African government has so far avoided publicly condemning the Mugabe regime. But recently President Thabo Mbeki has spoken out against human rights abuses in Africa and he could be moving towards condemning torture in Zimbabwe.

The UN has not been effective on this front. Zimbabwe has been shielded from rebuke by nations still friendly with Mr Mugabe. When a known Zimbabwean police torturer was exposed in a UN peacekeeping force in Bosnia, the UN refused to arrest the man and put him on trial. Shamefully, he returned to Zimbabwe where he has been identified in new abuses.

In a symposium held in Johannesburg scores of Zimbabwean civic leaders said the country needs a thorough process of truth, justice and reconciliation where crimes dating back to the Rhodesian days are exposed, perpetrators taken to trial and only then can lasting reconciliation be achieved.

Robert Mugabe wants the world to view him as the scourge of white farmers, but he does not want to be revealed as the torturer of black Zimbabweans. It is time that his filthy secret is exposed and that African leaders condemn it.

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