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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Post-election violence 2008 - Index of articles & images
Ongoing
organised violence & torture, & intimidation of medical
personnel, 22-24 April 2008
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)
April 25, 2008
The number of victims
of organised violence and torture presenting to members of ZADHR
continues to escalate, with 62 patients being documented in the
last 3 days alone. The numbers quoted under-reports the true total
as full documentation (e.g. confirmation of suspected fractures
by Xray) of a number of cases has not yet been completed.
Sixty two cases were
assessed and treated, including 9 women, one of whom is 84 years
old and sustained serious facial injuries when she was struck in
the face with stones on opening her door to unknown assailants.
The youngest patient seen was a one year old baby boy who suffered
gastroenteritis with dehydration following sleeping in the 'bush'
with his mother after their home had been burnt down. 23 cases were
from Karoi; otherwise there was still a concentration in Mudzi,
Mutoko and Murewa with 12.
As in previous reports,
the commonest problem was soft tissue injury, frequently with large
haematoma formation, sometimes with ulceration and sepsis requiring
surgical debridement, especially if there had been more than 24-48
hours between injury and presentation.
In this series
there were 20 facial injuries, including 13 of the eye. A 34 year
old man was beaten, lost consciousness for a few minutes, and woke
to find that his right ear had been cut off, and a 26 year old had
such a deep laceration of the base of the nose that it appeared
to be falling off. Several days after suturing the nose was healing
well.
Four cases of burns were
seen, two in which people had been trapped inside their houses which
had been set on fire. There were 5 further cases of falanga (beatings
on the soles of the feet which frequently result in chronic pain
on walking). One sixty year old man had clinical fractures of his
left ulna (forearm) and three bones in the left hand, and there
were 2 cases of radiologically confirmed fractures of the (left)
ulna. Many patients had multiple wounds, for example a 50 year old
man with an axe wound to the back of the head, extensive soft tissue
injuries especially to the buttocks, with haematoma formation, and
injuries to the soles of the feet due to falanga.
Severe psychological
stress is common to all these cases, including the few without major
physical findings. One 37 year old woman who related that her husband
and son had been killed during the violence accompanying the 2002
election suffered moderate soft tissue injury from being beaten
but presented, essentially, with extreme anger resulting from her
cattle being stolen, her crops destroyed and her house burnt.
Increasing numbers
of reports have been received by ZADHR of medical and other health
personnel suffering intimidation and physical threat. This is either
because they have been perceived to be 'opposition'
supporters or to have voted for the 'opposition', or
because they have treated or might in the future treat 'opposition'
people who have been injured. To date few of these reports have
been confirmed. However, in one mission hospital where most of the
medical and nursing staff (amongst others) were said to have been
put on a list of people to be beaten up for perceived political
affiliations, three cases of beatings were indeed attended to by
medical personnel. However the police were called, four arrests
of perpetrators of the violence were made. The hospital never closed.
As recently reported in The Lancet (2008;371:1059-1060), the resilience
and dedication of health workers in Zimbabwe is remarkable.
We re-emphasise that
we can only report on those who have been able to access health
facilities staffed by ZADHR members. We have received reports of
widespread violence in remote rural areas where victims have no
access to medical care, and there have also been reports of perpetrators
blocking access of victims to medical attention. It is therefore
likely that the numbers reported here represents only a small fraction
of those injured.
ZADHR again appeals to
the international community of health workers, including the Zimbabwe
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Zimbabwe Medical Association
to bring whatever effective pressure is within their capability
to bear on the Government of Zimbabwe to stop these grotesque, cruel
and shameful acts of violence, and to be prepared to actively defend
their colleagues facing intimidation and physical threat.
Visit the ZADHR
fact
sheet
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