Torture widespread – UN expert

BY CHIEF REPORTER
HARARE
The use of torture in Zimbabwe, mainly by the state, is widespread, Professor Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, told The Zimbabwean in an exclusive interview this week.
Although government has the means to prevent it, that the high number of indictments for torture filed by the Attorney General’s Office showed that it is widespread.
Nowak, who was a special guest at the 10th anniversary of pro-democracy group Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum in Harare this week, said the nature and level of organized violence and torture was widespread and was perpetrated mainly, but not exclusively, by state agents.
The Forum has expressed concern at election violence, police brutality; forceful removal of “illegal occupiers” of urban housing, transitional justice, and gender-based violence as well as the use of hate language and intolerance in Zimbabwe.
Nowak said that during the course of his visit to the country, he received “numerous consistent and credible allegations” from former detainees who reported that they were ill-treated by the police and army to extract confessions, or to obtain information in relation to other criminal offences.
He urged Government to ban torture through an Act of Parliament and said that was the only way to criminalize torture and bring perpetrators to justice.
Nowak decried the fact that no one had so far been convicted by criminal courts for torture, yet the practice was so widespread.
While the Government does not agree that torture is widely practiced, “I’m convinced and I think I have enough evidence for that,” Nowak told The Zimbabwean.
He said the most serious allegations of human rights violations, including torture, had reportedly taken place in government facilities and he was not in a position to speak about that as he had not able to visit any detention facilities.