Zimbabwe: Assault and sexual violence by militia
State-sponsored militia are continuing to carry out assaults and acts of sexual violence in reprisals against the opposition. Militias are also controlling the distribution of food supplies in rural areas and it is feared that this is systematically being used as a tool of repression against opposition supporters.
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
5 April 2002
AFR 46/032/2002
59/02
State-sponsored militia are continuing to carry out assaults and
acts of sexual violence in reprisals against the opposition.
Militias are also controlling the distribution of food supplies
in rural areas and it is feared that this is systematically being
used as a tool of repression against opposition supporters.
"We are alarmed at reports that reprisal attacks and
abductions by militia members are continuing in rural communities
of Zimbabwe suspected of voting for the opposition in the recent
presidential elections," Amnesty International said.
Using the published lists of names and addresses of those
who acted as polling agents for the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), militia have attacked, abducted and destroyed the
homes of these middle-ranking opposition officials. In the rural
area outside Gokwe, for example, six homes of polling agents were
burnt down. During this past weekend a crowd of 50 militia
members in the Bulawayo suburb of Sizinda beat residents in two
homes, robbed them of money and destroyed valuables such as
televisions and refrigerators. When the outraged community tried
to evict the militia from their town hall, police tear-gassed
them and arrested 42 people on charges of trying to destroy the
building.
"Eyewitnesses report that police officers told the
residents that the militia were 'untouchables' and could not be
removed nor restrained," Amnesty International said. "The
Zimbabwe government has an absolute obligation, in accordance
with international human rights standards, to protect all its
citizens from human rights violations. Instead, the government's
condoning of militia violence serves a political purpose:
destroying an opposition party and taking revenge on Zimbabweans
who may still support the MDC."
Amnesty International is particularly concerned at
mounting reports of rape and sexual torture by the militia,
continuing the pattern seen in the run up to the 9 - 11 March
2002 presidential elections. During its recent visit to Zimbabwe
in March, Amnesty International interviewed women in the towns of
Kwekwe and Chinhoyi who described rape and sexual abuse by
militia members.
In January 2002, a respected Zimbabwean human rights
organization, the Amani Trust, had reported a new pattern of
sexual violence after interviewing victims who were forced to
rape other victims -- at the instigation of the militia -- in
Mashonaland Central Province. By the end of March 2002, the Amani
Trust documented further sexual assaults by militia, including
incidents in which men were forced by militia to commit sexual
assault on one another. In the town of Gokwe in Midlands
province, the Amani Trust reported that militia members and army
soldiers continued to rape women and teenage girls or forced them
to perform humiliating sexual acts in public, in revenge for the
"crime" of living in a community perceived to support the
opposition.
Another human rights organization, the Zimbabwe Women
Lawyers' Association, estimates that some 1,000 women are being
held in militia camps. In Masvingo, newspaper accounts describe
farm workers being beaten and forced to watch their wives raped
by militia because they may have voted for the opposition.
Amnesty International estimates that dozens -- perhaps
scores of people -- are being held in illegal detention in some
50 militia camps around the country. While many are held for
"re-education", some are beaten and reportedly tortured. In the
recent case of Ephraim and Faith Tapa, a High Court judge
successfully forced the police to rescue the couple who had been
abducted in Marondera and held at a militia camp for some 22
days. The High Court Judge issued the court order on 8 March 2002
forcing Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri to intervene, but
deliberately struck out of the draft order submitted by Tapa's
lawyers the directive to police to rescue others who were held in
illegal detention by the militia.
The Zimbabwe authorities' political retribution carried
out by the militia may become even more widely felt as the risk
of famine in Zimbabwe deepens. The UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation's (FAO) Global and Early Warning System predicted at
the end of 2001 that more than 700,000 people were at risk of
food shortages, with another 250,000 urban dwellers already
experiencing food difficulties.
Amnesty International has already received evidence that
ZANU - PF officials in charge of distributing food supplies in
many rural areas are discriminating against those believed to be
supporters of the MDC. ZANU - PF affiliated youth militia
stationed outside long queues to buy grain are reported to be
targeting MDC supporters for assaults and intimidation to prevent
them from getting food. In the rural town of Mvurwi, for example,
a man standing in line to buy maize meal was beaten after being
recognized as an opposition activist by militia members who beat
him.
Human rights lawyer Innocent Gonese confirmed this week
that war veteran-led militia control the Grain Marketing Board
food distribution facilities in the Matabeleland North Province.
They demand a ZANU-PF party card before allowing people to buy
maize meal. He confirmed similar acts of discrimination in the
towns of Masvingo and Gutu. Amnesty International has also
received individual reports confirming militia control of food
distribution from Kwekwe, Norton, Plumtree, Beitbridge,Victoria
Falls, Chipinge, Kariba and Tsholotsho, north of Bulawayo.
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