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ZIMBABWE: Prisoners forced to go without food
IRIN News
June 12, 2006

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53885

HARARE - Zimbabwe's economic crisis is reaching into prisons cells, often forcing inmates to go without food for days, the findings of two parliamentary committees revealed.

Shortage of food and a lack of water, sanitation and health services were some of the problems in police cells and prisons across the country. According to official sources, Zimbabwe is holding at least 21,000 prisoners in 42 facilities that were designed to hold roughly 16,000 inmates.

After a visit to the Highlands police station on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Harare, the parliamentary portfolio committee on defence and home affairs, headed by MP Claudius Makova, told parliament last week: "The shortage of food was said to have been exacerbated by the shortage of maize. Suspects were said to have gone for two days without food and some were relying on food brought by relatives."

The parliamentary portfolio committee on justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, led by Faber Chidarikire, a member of parliament for the ruling ZANU-PF party, described the situation in the prisons they visited as "disturbing", and said malnutrition and disease outbreaks were common as a result of food shortages.

"There were serious shortages of foodstuffs, such as sugar, mealie [maize] meal, cooking oil, beans, meat and most basic commodities. The committee was informed that as a result of these scanty allocations it was very difficult to maintain the basic human standards, resulting in prisoners suffering from malnutrition," Chidarikire told parliament.

He pointed out that resources in the undersupplied Zimbabwe Prison Service had been strained by the number of prisoners suffering from AIDS-related illnesses. "There were a lot of sick prisoners suffering from pellagra [a vitamin deficiency disease], TB [tuberculosis] and other HIV-related diseases. It is the committee's view that while the objective of imprisonment should be maintained, prisoners should be allowed to get adequate basic requirements."

"Terminally ill and old prisoners should be granted affordable bail so that courts do not end up remanding undeserving prisoners in custody. This will help reduce prisons population to manageable levels," he suggested.

Interviews with police officials and inmates revealed that the security services had run out of funds to provide health services and food.

Constable Jairos (not his real name) at a police station near Harare, told IRIN: "We have gone for more than a week without rations for prisoners. At the beginning of each year we are given ... [an allocation in the national budget] to buy food. However, that money has since been exhausted and our officer-in-charge has applied for additional funds that we are still awaiting. We have been told that the budget ran out fast because of inflation."

The Central Statistical Office (CSO) recently said annual inflation had surged to 1,193.5 percent, up from 1,043 percent last month.

"We give them sadza [maizemeal porridge] and matemba [dried fish] boiled in water once every day in the afternoon, when resources are available," Jairos said. "At the beginning of the year, when we still had money, we would give them plain tea in the morning and sometimes also feed them in the evening before locking them up for the night."

Stella Chitando, 23, who was accused of stealing by the owner of a shop where she worked and spent four days in police custody before being released because of lack of evidence, told IRIN she had to depend on relatives for food. "My aunt, with whom I stay, would make sure she brought me food every evening ... I shared the same cell with around six other women and we would share the little food that I or another inmate had been brought."

She said visitors were sometimes barred from giving food to their relatives and friends. Jairos defended the move, explaining it was necessary to turn away visitors for security reasons.

Sanitary conditions in the cells were poor. "I bathed only once during the time I was in detention, because water supplies were irregular," Chitando said. "We relieved ourselves right inside the cell and the room always stank, since we could not flush down our waste." There were no sanitary pads, and the women were forced to use old newspapers the police officers gave them.

A female suspect who could not get medication for her asthmatic condition had to be rushed to the nearby Harare General Hospital.

Often there was no light in the cells, as there were no electric bulbs. Chitando said she had to share three thin, lice-infested blankets with other inmates.

"The shortage of blankets is, however, common at other police stations," Jairos explained. "Since it is winter, we are forced to wash blankets that we would have used to cover the dead, some of which would be heavily bloodstained, and give them to the prisoners." The washed blankets do not always dry before evening comes and they have to be used.

Zimbabwe is trying to cope with four years of food shortages caused by erratic rainfall, the impact of the chaotic fast-track land-reform programme on the agricultural sector and a critical lack of foreign currency to import inputs, such as fertiliser and fuel.

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