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Statement on International Day against Torture
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
June 26, 2006

The United Nations (UN) International Day in Support of Victims of Torture was first observed on 26 June 1998. This date, 26 June was chosen by the United Nations because on the same day in 1987, the UN Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) came into force – and on 26 June 1948 the United Nations Charter was signed. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum marks this day annually to recognize the pain and suffering that victims and survivors of torture in the pre- and post- independence era have gone through and to rekindle society’s efforts towards the eradication of torture in Zimbabwe.

Torture is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity" as defined by The UN Convention Against Torture and other cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).

As the world commemorates the international day against torture, the Human Rights Forum notes with great concern that even though incidents of torture decreased in 2005 when 136 violations were recorded by the Forum, this trend has drastically shifted with the first quarter of 2006 alone recording 39 incidents up to April 2006. On 8 May 2006, following class boycotts at Bindura State University, the police, CIO operatives and ZANU-PF activists, reportedly tortured 16 students. The students were made to crawl all the way to the Charge Office from the car park. They were further forced to frog jump from the Charge Office to the holding cells, a distance of about 60 to 70 meters. The students were also forced to walk in a bending posture as if they were going underneath an imaginary fence, wire or line and they were also forced to touch the ground with a finger and then run in circles until they became dizzy and fell down.

On 14 April, Military Intelligence agents tortured an NCA activist. A woman who was with the agents sexually assaulted him and his cousin. The Military Intelligence agents plucked his dreadlocks using their hands until they were all torn off his head. On 7 March 2006, in the "Arms cache case", in Mutare 5 people were reportedly assaulted and tortured by the police, the army and the CIO. All these cases attest to the fact that torture is on the rise. Torture cannot be justified under any circumstances. The Human Rights Forum deplores these horrendous, barbaric and shameful acts of torture and implores the Government to comply with international norms on torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment as stipulated in the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). The Forum further urges the Government to ratify CAT without delay.

The Human Rights Forum also recalls with great sadness, Operation Murambatsvina (remove the filth) carried out a year ago from 18 May 2005 "with disquieting indifference to human suffering". This operation was profoundly distressing and represented a "catastrophic injustice" on the poorest segments of Zimbabwean society. 700 000 people in the informal sector were reported to have lost homes or livelihoods or both with the impact being felt by a further 2.4 million people. Operation Garikai (live well/better lives) has hardly corrected the injustices that befell Zimbabwe during those dark days one year on. The Government has used justifications rather than actions as regards the restoration of the houses, incomes and lives destroyed by Operation Murambatsvina. The people affected are deserving of an apology from the Government for this disastrous venture and should be provided with alternative accommodation by the State as a matter of right, with or without international assistance.

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