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Murder, torture and teen rape: the price of opportunity in Zimbabwe
Murdo Macleod, The Scotsman
July 10, 2007

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1063832007

AS A member of team Charlie Four, Washington Mabada was taught to strike a victim so he fell to the floor paralysed, ordered to rape a teenage girl and help construct a concrete "jacket" for a member of the opposition.

Casual murder, extreme violence and the meting out of degrading punishments were all part of the day's work for the graduate of Robert Mugabe's torture academy.

Despite his training and his newly-comfortable lifestyle, Mabada, who was recruited as a poverty-stricken teenager with four siblings to feed, dreamed of escape away from his Zimbabwean handlers. Last December, having earned their trust, he boarded a bus to neighbouring Botswana and is now in hiding in Namibia. Although being hunted by the Zimbabwean dictator's security gangs, Mabada has decided to tell all about his former life to the German news magazine Stern.

Mabada, 22, told the journal: "If I die, the world must know what I have done. Many nights I cried, but I was afraid to flee. I had seen the places where they brought traitors."

Mabada has revealed a world of brutality and brainwashing, where young men are trained to torture and kill without remorse and where any lingering doubts or misgivings are banished by drugs and alcohol.

Selected for his ability to unflinchingly beat the life out of victims chosen by the Mugabe regime, Mabada says he was used as a means to cement the tyrant's grip on the country despite mounting international condemnation and a chronically mismanaged economy.

An orphan whose parents had died of Aids, he had to provide for his four siblings through odd jobs. His school marks were good and he hoped to go to university, but didn't have the money.

So he was one of a number of teenagers who signed up for an ideological training programme - the innocent-sounding National Youth Service - which he hoped would pay for education in return for patriotic work for the state. The reality was a school for thugs.

Mabada was sent to a camp in Bindura in the north of the country where, for months, the most he had to endure was physical labour and long speeches by party chiefs.

Then came his introduction to the brutal world of Mugabe's torture gangs. Mabada and three others were ordered by an instructor into a room where a naked 15-year old girl lay chained to a table.

The official said: "This girl was working in the office and was secretly using the telephone. You are her punishment."

The boys were handed cannabis joints to ease misgivings and went on to rape their victim.

Later that night, Mabada and a friend awoke from the haze of the drugs and realised what had happened. They attempted to flee but were caught by guard dogs and beaten as a punishment. His friend died.

Despite his escape attempt, his senior officers still believed he had "potential" and he was chosen for special training. When he refused, he was told: "There is no place here for refusing. We pull the strings and you dance."

He continued his training as agent 18026 of Team Charlie Four, taking an apprenticeship in the art of torture and political sabotage. He was taught to kill or stun with a single blow and sent on his first missions.

His first assignments were low-level sabotage designed to frame opponents of the regime. They involved attacks on railway lines and on the houses of members of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party, which were then blamed on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

It was not without rewards. The team were housed in a plush flat in an eight-storey block in the centre of Harare. In a country where food is now expensive and scarce, the group had fresh bread daily and fridge shelves groaning with fresh produce. They received regular drugs consignments and the services of prostitutes.

In January, 2006, Mabada and his team were summoned to a new training camp and led into a blood-stained room. Their instructor told them: "Today, you will learn how to torture."

A "practice prisoner" was brought in and the team were ordered to beat him up. The instructor observed: "No one will miss him."

The body was dumped in the corner and a second victim was brought in. The team were told: "Stage two. This time hit where it really hurts."

A third victim was given electric shocks, while the instructors passed cannabis and alcohol around the team.

On one occasion, Mabada and a team of government commandos surrounded an opposition meeting and asked the 40-strong group of men and women who had voted for the MDC. When two men put up their hands, the agents told them they could go because they had been "honest".

The rest were ordered to drink alcohol until they were "senseless" and forced to have unprotected sex with each other, changing partners at the whim of the agents. In a country where a fifth of the population is HIV positive, the order was as good as a death sentence.

Shortly before he fled, Mabada's team received their most chilling order, to fill a metal coffin containing a battered but living opposition member with concrete. They mixed the concrete and poured it in until only the man's head was free. They then carried the coffin to a lakeside boat, where an agent was waiting. When the boat returned, the coffin was nowhere to be seen.

Last month, because of his long record of brutality, Mugabe was stripped of the honorary degree awarded to him for services to education in Africa in the 1980s by Edinburgh University following a campaign by Scotland on Sunday.

Last week, however, he was still being allowed to parade his credentials as a statesman, despite a blistering attack on his rule by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, who said that the state of the country was now so bad that foreign governments, particularly Britain's, should intervene to "remove" the dictator from power. At an African Union summit in Ghana, Mugabe was, as usual, feted by his fellow African leaders, where he promoted pan-African unity.

Mabada says he has spoken out even though it will most likely lead to his death.

He said that after the evening with the murdered opposition member he knew he "couldn't handle it any more. Maybe it was the look from that man in the coffin. I don't know exactly. I just knew that I had to get away, even if it cost me my life trying".

African leaders 'turning a blind eye to brutal neighbour' In April, human rights group Amnesty called for an end the "culture of impunity" that has been allowed to build up, particularly among other African leaders, around Zimbabwe's violations.

UK campaigns director Tim Hancock said it was "clear" that there are incidents of torture in Zimbabwe and the organisation had called on the Mugabe government to improve the human rights situation.

"As Zimbabwe commemorates 27 years of independence, many of its citizens are either in police custody, nursing injuries inflicted by the police and other state security agents, or are living in fear of daring to exercise their right to peaceful protest," he said.

"Many Zimbabweans are spending sleepless nights afraid of being abducted or of being subjected to torture simply for choosing to belong to an opposition political party."

Since 2000, there has been a rapid erosion of human rights in Zimbabwe, including destruction of the homes and livelihoods of 700,000 people in 2005.

On March 11 this year, police in Harare arrested political opposition leaders and other activists who tried to take part in a prayer meeting. Many were severely beaten at Machipisa police station. They injured included Morgan Tsvangirai of the main opposition party, the MDC, who suffered a fractured skull.

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