Zimbabwe Govt trained 50,000 Children in Torture Camps

Original Post Date: 2004-03-01  Posted By: Jan

From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 3/1/2004 2:06:52 PM
Zimbabwe Govt trained 50,000 Children in Torture Camps

[When I associated with black Zimbabweans I heard a lot about the Border Gezi training camp. But I heard many other things too. I heard of other camps where opposition party members were systematically tortured. Blacks often come up with descriptive names for people. The commander of one camp was called “Black Jesus”. This was because he had the power of life and death over people. I also was told that the government had sent Army Officers to Cuba for training in how to kill people with lethal injections. Apparently, there are people who have been killed in this way. According to the Zimbabweans, people were injected (often unknowingly) during torture. These injections would make them ill and they would later die of natural causes. They told me that doctors in some of the clinics and hospitals knew of this because they could tell that these people had been injected with substances that one would not normally come across. In one instance they mentioned a close friend who developed a lung problem. When doctors examined him they realised that he had been injected with a deadly substance. The doctors are apparently too afraid to talk because they will lose their jobs. The things I heard from the Zimbabweans were horrific. I know that these allegations were written down and passed on to American officials. Jan]

Zimbabwe’s ruling party is training children as young as 12 to torture and kill its political opponents, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Sunday.

The BBC’s investigative programme Panorama said it had interviewed dozens of veterans of training camps for youth militias loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.

They reported being subjected to rape and beatings inside the camps and to being taught to torture and kill Mugabe’s opponents, the BBC said.

“In their training camps the Zimbabwean government is subjecting thousands of innocent youths to rape, brainwashing and brutality,” the BBC said in a statement about the programme issued before its broadcast on Sunday.

“It is all part of an horrific process designed to mold youths loyal to Robert Mugabe and his Zanu party.”

The programme included an interview with a young woman identified as Debbie, who said she was repeatedly raped at one such camp. She said she was told that “no one can complain because it’s part of training”.

Another youth, Daniel, said he was taught how to torture people using electric shocks.

The BBC said an estimated 50,000 youths had passed through the camps, which the Zimbabwean government says are job training centres.

A man identified as a former government employee named George told the BBC that rape was common in the camps, and senior officials avoided sending their children there.

“You are moulding someone to listen to you, so if it means rapes have to take place in order for that person to take instruction from you, then it’s OK,” he said.

Mugabe’s regime has been widely condemned for human rights abuses, especially since his disputed 2002 presidential election victory. Opposition leaders and independent observers said Mugabe used intimidation and vote rigging to win re-election and continue his authoritarian rule.

Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, has stepped up a crackdown on dissent, arresting opposition and labour leaders and shutting down the country’s only independent daily newspaper.

Over the last few years ruling party militants have attacked opposition supporters, firebombing opposition party offices and white-owned farms, attacking homes and business and allegedly killing, kidnapping, torturing and beating those seen as Mugabe’s opponents. Scores of people have been killed, mostly black opposition supporters. – Sapa-AP

Source: Daily Mail & Guardian
URL: http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=31961br>

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