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Zim army code for hunger: 000
Peta Thornycroft, The Star
July 30, 2008

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=vn20080730060558455C960002

Peter Choto's take-home pay after nearly 10 years of service in the Zimbabwe National Army is R200 a month. He stays in the army only because any job is better than none, with more than 2-million percent inflation, and prices doubling several times a week. He and three-quarters of his colleagues will not go to war for President Robert Mugabe, because they are "tired of him", and "want change". Choto was paid on July 16 directly into his building society account, but for the second month got no pay slip. The army has an arrangement with banks allowing troops to draw a trillion dollars a day while the public can only pull a hundred billion, not enough for a loaf of bread if there is any. Choto's previous salary, for June, was 120-billion Zimbabwe dollars, and before the elections lower ranks were paid twice a month. Tall, skin stretched tight across high cheekbones, he says he has been hungry for "at least a year". His wife, who lives in his tribal home about 80km south of his barracks, has a duplicate building society withdrawal card. "She needs it all to survive." A private in the army earns R165 a month as of last Friday. "On a good day breakfast is black tea. There is never milk and sugar. On a bad day we go to parade with nothing. Three years ago we got porridge, sausage, bacon sometimes eggs. We always got meat at least once a day. At lunch and at dinner we get a small plate of sadza (cooked maize meal) and cabbage. There is no cooking oil in the food. So when we are talking about food we say 011 equals lunch and supper, but not breakfast. 001 mean no breakfast, no lunch, but supper. The number 000 means nothing all day."

The first election on March 29 was won by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe, but with not enough votes to avoid a run-off. "We had meat twice before the first election, and we got some strange meat another day. There was nothing on the plastic (wrapping), so we think it was Chinese geese because it wasn't chicken, but it was a bird, and it was another colour. Maybe it was a penguin? There are 500 recruits at the cantonment. If the world saw pictures of them, the world would be shocked, as they are so thin. At least 100 report sick every day. They are passing out next week and they haven't been to the rifle range even once, because that ammo is being reserved for emergencies, in case MDC wins, or the British come to fight. They believe there is going to be trouble.We will not shoot our people. At least three-quarters of us would not take up arms for Zimbabwe. We will not go to war for Zimbabwe, I am not going to take a risk with a rifle for Zimbabwe. That time is gone. Our boots are Chinese plastic. I borrow friends' boots when they are away, because Chinese boots only last a few days on patrol before they are in ribbons. I have only one camo uniform (camouflage) and wear it for the week. There are no berets, so we have a camo cap. We have to provide our own soap. I cannot go home because I cannot afford the transport. There is a television at the mess, but there is never power so there is nothing to do, nothing."

Before the March 29 election he was on duty far from his base, and no postal votes were provided, so he did not vote. "It was peaceful. On April 5 we were back at the barracks ... the (presidential) results were not yet out." But the parliamentary results were, and three-quarters of the brigade - now half the size it was three years ago - had voted for MDC in the simultaneous parliamentary election. Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, who lost his parliamentary seat, went to campaign for Mugabe in the cantonment ahead of the second round of the presidential poll on June 27. The brigade commanding officer, who cannot be named for fear of identifying the soldier telling his story, pledged his men would vote for Mugabe in the run-off. The soldiers were deployed into the large dry Buhera district, about 240km south of Harare, which had turned out strongly for MDC on March 29. Corporal Choto and his colleagues concentrated around the business centre and in two townships, Murabinda and Mukombo, and 120 of them lived in six small rooms for the next six weeks. "Our job was to support the militia and Zanu PF youth, intimidate the MDC people and do a lot of beating. I was deployed to intelligence, in plain clothes, so I didn't have to do the beating myself, but I saw it. You have to do the beating or you are labelled MDC. Then you will just be discharged and sent to prison. We took the ID (identity discs) of people so they couldn't vote. We only got a few minutes' notice before we went on every operation, so we couldn't warn people.

"One night the dog section went to this MDC's man's house. They broke his windows, and the person came out and he was bitten all over. There was this woman in her 60s or 70s. She died after beating. My friend came back and confessed and was shaking. We spoke and we said this was not the way it should, be as we were supposed to be protecting, not making people suffer. The colonel was there. The youth and the green bombers were paid much more than us. It was Zanu PF people provoking MDC. Sometime the MDC reacted, but not much. They arrested this (MDC) MP (Eric) Matinenga, and they accused him of giving MDC people money to do violence. It wasn't true, it was us doing the violence. Now I am on rest and recuperation from Buhera. I am tired now. I will leave the army next year. Most are leaving, or going Awol, or dying. Many are dying.' He said ZNA colonels and above had been given Japanese 4 x 4 double-cabs ahead of the elections. He suspected their salaries were large enough to convert to foreign currency on the streets, as the Zimbabwe dollar becomes increasingly irrelevant. Choto said he had admired Zanu PF and Mugabe during the 1980s and '90s, and respected the struggle against minority white rule. The MDC has the names of 80% of perpetrators of the violence which followed the first round of elections.

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