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Testimony
on
torture in Zimbabwe
*Gabriel
Shumba
March 10, 2004
House Committee
on International Relations
Subcommittee
on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights
Mr Chair and
Members of the Committee, I thank you for the singular honor that you
have accorded to me. To be given the opportunity to address the opening
of the One Hundred and Eighth Congress at a time when my country, Zimbabwe
is facing an unprecedented social, economic and political crisis is a
manifestation of the Free World's concern with democracy and human rights
the world over. Further testimony of this commitment is evident in the
2003 United States Department Report on Human Rights Practices, which
devotes significant space to the human rights issues affecting my country.
Mr Chair, I am a human
rights lawyer from Zimbabwe who was last year condemned to live in exile
in South Africa because of unrelenting persecution, death threats and
torture at the hands of President Robert Mugabe's regime. Allow me to
narrate the ordeal that forced me into exile.
Pursuant to the call of my profession, on the 14th of January 2003 I consented
to represent an opposition Member of Parliament, Mr Job Sikhala. He had
engaged me to represent him in a matter in which he alleged political
harassment by members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). At that moment
in time, the MP was hiding from the police.
My young brother,
Bishop Shumba accompanied me to take instructions. I found the MP in the
company of one Taurai Magaya and Charles Mutama. I proceeded to take instructions
and confer with Mr Sikhala. However, at or about 23:00 hrs, riot police
accompanied by plain-clothes policemen, the army and personnel who I later
discovered were from the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), the
spy agency of the government, stormed the room. They were armed with AK
47's, tear gas canisters, grenades and vicious-looking dogs.
I identified myself
as a lawyer and enquired as to the nature and purpose of the police actions.
Thereupon, one of the officers confiscated my lawyer's Practicing Certificate
and informed me that there was 'no place for human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe'.
Others grabbed my diary as well as files and documents. All of us were
prodded with guns in the back and bundled into a police defender vehicle.
Several acts of assault and violence were perpetrated upon my person.
In particular, I was slapped several times and kicked with booted-feet
by amongst others, a certain detective inspector Mbedzi, the officer in
charge of Saint Mary's Police Station. They also threatened to let the
dogs maul me, and boasted that this had been done before.
Moments later, we
were driven to Saint Mary's Police Station but no charges were preferred.
We were denied access to legal representation and were abused and insulted
for allegedly working in cahoots with 'western powers' in an attempt 'to
reverse the gains of the liberation struggle'. Our mobile phones were
also confiscated, and we were denied contact with our lawyers, relatives
and friends.
At or about 01:00 am, we were driven to Matapi Police Station, some 7
kilometers from the initial place of 'arrest'. Here Mr Sikhala and Bishop
were booked into the holding cells. I was taken to Mbare Police Holding
Cells, a further three kilometers away from Matapi, whilst, as I subsequently
discovered, Mr Magaya and Mr Mutama were taken to Harare Central Police
Station, which is about 5 kilometers away. The tactic of separating arrestees
and taking them to locations removed from where they have been arrested
is a favorite of the police in Zimbabwe. This is designed to prevent their
relatives or lawyers access to them when they are tortured in torture
chambers scatted all over the country.
I was only booked
into the cells at around 03:00 am. I was denied blankets and had to sleep
on a concrete floor. The cell that was about 3m X 4m housed over 20 inmates.
I had to spend the whole night squatting in a pool of urine and human
waste. This revolting mixture had maggots and worms that irritated or
bit at me the whole night. As if this was not enough, I had to endure
the torment of other denizens of the cell, which included lice and bed
bugs bites.
Around 12:00 pm on
the next day, personnel from the CID (Law and Order Section) of the Harare
Central Police Station booked me out of Mbare holding cells. Even now,
I had not been informed of the nature of the charges preferred against
me, nor had any official entry been made to indicate that I was being
held at Mbare, another notorious police tactic. The police were under
the charge-ship of one Detective Inspector Garnet Sikhova. In spite of
my bruises and the pain that I felt, I was dragged to a yellow mini-bus
whose registration numbers I was prevented from looking at. My constant
pleas for legal representation, food and water were in vain.
Mr Chair, the mini-bus
that I was hauled into had no seats inside. Even more sinister was the
fact that it had black curtains and a black carpet lining the windows
and the floor. In the extreme end of the vehicle was a raised platform
whereupon some of the Police Officers sat. I was nonetheless ordered to
sit on the floor facing the back of the vehicle. A black hood was then
slipped over my head. It was made of nylon and did not have any breathing-holes
in it. In a short while I became claustrophobic, sweated heavily and had
difficulties breathing. My requests that part of the hood be pulled slightly
over my nose to allow me to breathe were rudely denied. Instead, I was
asked to use 'the mouth that you use to defend the MDC to breathe'.
After what appeared
like an hour's drive, the vehicle pulled over and my hands were handcuffed
behind my back. I was bundled out of the car to find myself in a tunnel
of some sort, judging by the echoes that our footsteps made. I was advised
that 'you are now a blind man and have to act like a blind person'. After
several twists and turns, in what appeared a labyrinth of some sort, we
descended to about 3 floors of stairs underground.
Off to the right,
I could hear the sounds of horrible screaming. I was thrown against the
wall and the hood was then removed. I was stripped utterly naked, then
had my hands and feet handcuffed and bound so that I was in a foetal position.
The police then thrust a thick plank between my legs and hands. Other
planks lined the room and the light was dim. In a corner to my right side,
there was a pool of what my tormentors told me was acid, into which I
could be dissolved without a trace. I was also informed that I could be
crucified on the planks against the wall, or have needles thrust into
my urethra if 'you are not co-operative'. In the middle of the room were
a small table and a chair. About 15 or so interrogators stood over me
and some of them began assaulting me with booted-feet and fists all over
the body. I was then given the option of either 'telling the truth or
dying a slow and painful death'.
Several questions
were asked about my background as a student activist, my allegiance to
the MDC, the political affiliation of judges, my scholarship to pursue
the Master's Degree in South Africa, my alleged involvement in the burning
of a government bus, my political ambitions, as well as the arms caches
that the MDC was alleged to have had. At some point I was hung upside
down on the planks and assaulted beneath the feet with wooden and rubber
truncheons, as well as some pieces of metal.
Running concurrently
with the other assaults and ongoing interrogation, various electrical
shocks were introduced into my body. A black contraption resembling a
telephone was placed on the small table. It had several electric cables
emanating from it. One cable was tied to the middle toe of my right foot,
whilst another was tied to the second toe of the left foot. Another copper
wire was wrapped tightly around my genitals. Again, another one was put
into my mouth. Still in the foetal position, I was ordered to hold a metallic
receiver in my bound right hand and I was then forced to place this next
to my right ear. A blast of electric shocks was then administered to my
body for about 8 to 9 hours.
On several occasions,
I lost consciousness only to be revived to face the same ordeal. A chemical
substance was applied to my body. I also lost control of my bladder, vomited
blood and was forced to drink my urine and lick my vomit. I was also urinated
upon by several of my interrogators. Whilst the questioning was in process,
several photographs were taken of me cringing and writhing in pain and
in nakedness.
At the end of this
ordeal, and around 19:00 pm, I was unbound and then forced to write several
documents under my torturers' dictation. In the documents, I incriminated
myself as well as senior MDC personnel in several subversive activities.
Under pain of death, I was also forced to agree to work for the Central
Intelligence Organization, the government spy agency. In addition, I was
compelled to swear allegiance to President Robert Mugabe, as well as to
promise that I would not disclose my ordeal, either to the independent
press or the courts. I later did.
Around 19:30 pm, I
was blindfolded and taken to Harare Central Police Station, where I was
booked into a holding cell even more horrendously inhumane than that at
Mbare Police Station. On the third day of my arrest, my lawyers, who had
at that point obtained a High Court injunction ordering my release to
court, were allowed access to me. I had not had food or water throughout
the period of my detention, which was three days. I had also not been
formally notified of the nature of the charge against me. Subsequently,
however, I was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order and Security
Act, which deals with organizing, planning or conspiring to overthrow
the government through unconstitutional means. These charges were dismissed
in a court of law after medical evidence established that we had been
tortured. Subsequently, I was threatened with death and had to flee for
my life.
I worked at the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania for two months and was threatened
by the High Commissioner of Zimbabwe to Tanzania. I then had to flee to
South Africa. In spite of psychiatric and other medical treatment, I continue
to experience nightmares, suffer depression, sexual impotence as well
as extreme fatigue.
I am convinced that
my torture and ill treatment was authorized and condoned at the highest
level of the Zimbabwean state. It is inconceivable that President Mugabe
is unaware that his police, army and intelligence officials are using
torture. The President has been aware that torture is being used against
human rights activists and those suspected to be linked to the MDC, as
is exemplified by the case of journalists Mark Chavhunduka and Ray Choto.
The two were brutally tortured by the army and Chavunduka died later.
Mugabe was however on TV gloating that those who write stories about the
army should expect 'army justice'
I lodged a report
of what transpired to me with the police, but up to now no action has
been taken. I have also instructed my lawyer to institute civil proceedings,
but am not hopeful, as the Executive has largely subverted the judicial
system. Furthermore, the police in Zimbabwe are notorious for defying
court orders.
Mr Chair, I should
also point out that members of my family who are still in Zimbabwe are
in mortal danger as I speak. I cannot afford to lose them as we are a
very small family, having been orphaned early in life. I am the first
born in a family of four. Both my parents are deceased. My father died
of cancer of the liver when I was 10 years old. I became the sole breadwinner
of the family after my mother passed away some years later. My mother
succumbed to the AIDS virus in 1995, having spent many years trying to
raise us.
Eventually, I struggled
through education with the help of a kind white couple, Mary Austin and
John Ayton. I mention this couple to dispel the myth that the crisis in
Zimbabwe is a tug of war between black and white. I have often been shocked
at how Mugabe can use this propaganda to mislead some black brothers like
Coltaine Chimurenga of the December Movement in this country. Several
African leaders have also not seen behind this and the misinformation
that confuse the need for a land redistribution process and human rights
abuses.
At the University
of Zimbabwe where I obtained a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree, I was
a student activist. In 1995, I led demonstrations against police brutality.
This culminated in my suspension from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ)
for a period of two years. Whilst on suspension, I wrote articles on student
rights and addressed seminars on academic freedom in Zimbabwe. After readmission
to the University in 1997, I mounted a one-person demonstration to protest
the heavy handedness of the police in quelling student disturbances. For
this, I was abducted and tortured at a torture Chamber situated in the
basement of Harare Central Prison.
Mr Chair, to date
I have been arrested and assaulted or tortured 14 times under the regime
of President Robert Mugabe. At my graduation on the 18th of August 2000,
I was again arrested and taken into police custody for attempting to hand
over a petition protesting the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe,
especially on the farms, to President Robert Mugabe. As I approached Mugabe,
who is also Chancellor of the University, his bodyguards whisked me away.
As a result, I could not graduate with my fellow students as I was in
prison, complete in my academic regalia. This incident was reported in
the press. Mr Chair, I submit that all that which transpired to me should
be seen as a microcosm of the brutality visited upon human rights and
opposition activists in Zimbabwe.
It should be noted
that Mugabe's regime has since independence intimidated, tortured and
murdered political opponents and human rights defenders. As early as the
1980's opposition Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) commander Lookout
Masuku was tortured and subsequently died in police custody. Ethnic Ndebele
civilians were raped or at gunpoint forced to commit incest, buried alive
in mass graves, or murdered by the notorious North Korean trained Five
Brigade. More than 20 000 Ndebeles lost their lives in this genocide.
President Mugabe is on record calling the wanton massacre 'a clean-up
process'. He also boasted that '…when we get there we eradicate them.
We don't differentiate when we fight because we can't tell who is a dissident
and who is not'. Results of two Commissions tasked to probe this genocide
have been suppressed.
Mr Chair, with the
emergence of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999, President
Mugabe has shown even more determination to encourage the commitment of
rape, murder and mayhem in the name of the ruling ZANU (PF) party. The
army has been the mainstay of Mugabe's illegitimate regime. During the
2002, Presidential Election the army led the police in threatening a coup
in the event that the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai won the election. In another
incident, they stormed into a nightclub that was patronized by MDC supporters
and forced them to have group sex without condoms. The army has also forced
MDC supporters to eat human waste and has not denied murdering Christopher
Giwa and MDC activist Lameck Chemvura recently.
The police and the
CIO have been involved in the killing of Batanai Hadzinzi, a student activist,
Tonderai Machiridza, MDC MP David Mpala and many others who died in 2003
and I cannot name for want of space.
50 000 of the equivalent
of the Hitler Youth, the Youth Militia 'graduated' last month from 'bases'
scattered across the country. Some are as young as 13. A few of them have
escaped to South Africa and confessed that at the camps, they are indoctrinated
to rape, torture and kill MDC supporters and human rights defenders. Young
women like Debbie Siyangapi, who had to flee to South Africa are living
examples of this callous corruption and militarisation of Zimbabwe's future.
Because of rape at the militia camps, Debbie has now given birth, and
is infected with HIV-AIDS. Her testimony is on the Internet and has been
recorded in some of the electronic evidence presented to the Committee.
Mr Chair, does the Free World have to wait until we are another Rwanda?
The democratic space
in Zimbabwe has been unremittingly eroded. Human rights and MDC activists'
wives, children and even men are abducted and raped by President Mugabe's
killing machines. The testimonies of rape victims, which are also available
on the video In Dark Time, are poignant indications of this trend. To
make matters worse, the only independent newspaper in the country has
been closed under draconian media laws like the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act. President Mugabe's Goebbels and a fugitive
from Justice, Minister Jonathan Moyo has defended this repressive legislation
on the grounds that countries like Sweden have these laws, when in fact
our media law has striking resemblance to that obtaining in Sri Lanka.
The Public Order and
Security Act under which I was detained, a successor to the colonial Law
and Order Maintanance Act, has assaulted freedom of Assembly and Movement.
The recently introduced Statutory 37, Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures)
(Amendment of Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act) Regulations 2004 provide
for detention on suspicion of economic or political crimes for up to a
month without the benefit of bail or trial.
The Zimbabwean people
endure a daily dosage of unmitigated terror, famine and disease. Records
released by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that 1 in every
4 adults is infected with HIV-AIDS. The World Food Organization (WFO)
has warned that about 7 million people face starvation. Whilst this Dantean
scene unfolds, Mugabe has the insulting temerity to tell the world that
he is 'Hitler tenfold' and that 'I have degrees in violence'.
Mr Chair, because
of the closure of all democratic space, Zimbabwe is on the brink of a
civil war. It seems futile to appeal to the law for protection. The courts
have been packed with ZANU (PF) loyalists. Lawyers like Beatrice Mtetwa
and Gugulethu Moyo have been assaulted in the course of their duties.
Lawyers have been invariably prevented from accessing clients held for
'political crimes'.
The humanitarian catastrophe
that the brutality and dictatorship in Zimbabwe has occasioned is unparalleled
in post-independence Southern Africa. Yet, SADC, in particular South Africa,
continue to half-step and head-scratch. For example, it is now accepted
that Botswana hosts about 80 000 illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe, while
of the 3 million or so Zimbabweans in South Africa, 41 207 were repatriated
back to Zimbabwe between January and September last year.
In conclusion, I wish
to thank the Chair and the Members of the Committee for allowing me to
present this testimony to the Free World. I would like to show appreciation
to you even more for sharing our suffering. Only last week, the United
States extended targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his close lieutenants.
This is an indication that the Free World cares. Nevertheless, allow me
to appeal further to the protection of the United States. All of us who
stand for human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe would like to see Mugabe
removed from power as a matter of urgency. We would like him and his lieutenants
to answer charges of crimes against humanity and in this, we need your
help. We would also be obliged if the United States and other countries
would consider expelling these dictators' kith and kin from their countries.
Furthermore, we also
appeal to the United States and other democracies to have Mugabe and his
henchmen arrested as soon as they enter another political and legal jurisdiction.
Towards this end, I implore you to support the efforts of organizations
like the Accountability Commission-Zimbabwe and Redress Trust that have
been compiling affidavits from victims as well as attempting to secure
Mugabe and his henchmen's arrest outside Zimbabwe.
I would also like
to entreat the Free World not to support African initiatives like the
New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) as long as African leaders
do not speak out and act against dictators and gross human rights violators
on the Continent.
Lastly, I beseech
you to grant support for infrastructural and other needs to civil society
and human rights activists in Zimbabwe and abroad, in particular those
that name and shame as well as offer support to torture and other victims
and those who like myself have been forced into exile. Among these are
the Zimbabwe Exiles' Forum, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Amani
Trust.
I thank you Honorable
Members.
*Gabriel Shumba
is a (Human Rights Lawyer, Doctor of Laws Candidate, Legal Regional Director
(Africa) for the Accountability Commission-Zimbabwe)
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