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 number s 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.
Post published in: News