HARARE - Members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and the police have been fingered in an orgy of gang-rape in which Zanu (PF) militias sexually assaulted hapless MDC-T supporters in the run-up to Zimbabwe's elections over the past decade, a new report revealed last week.
The joint report by the Harare-based Research and Advocacy Unit, Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) and self-help organisation Doors of Hope Development Trust showed that soldiers and police officers participated in politically motivated rape in Harare, Manicaland and Masvingo provinces between 2001 and 2008.
They allegedly worked in cahoots with Zanu (PF) youths and so-called war veterans who terrorised MDC-T supporters in Bikita, Birchenough Bridge, Buhera, Chikomba, Chitungwiza, Epworth, Gutu, Headlands, Honde Valley, Murehwa, Mutoko and Harare’s Whitecliff. The report, which was based on 27 sworn affidavits and medical examinations of women, showed that the victims were raped because of their political activities or the activities of their husbands.
“The sexual assaults reported by this sample are ruthless, with horrific reports of gang rape. Some of the women were raped by numerous perpetrators until they lost consciousness,” the report said.
Senior officer
Members of the ZNA were implicated in eight of the cases, with one senior officer being fingered in five of these rapes. In one of the incidents, a woman from Manicaland province testified that she was attacked in April 2008 by an army officer who was in the company of Zanu (PF) youths.
“At the beginning of April 2008, at about midnight I heard some youths singing and playing drums in our yard. I was in my bedroom sleeping with my daughter. Suddenly the door was broken down and two people came into the room. They dragged me outside and when I was outside, I saw our yard was surrounded by Zanu (PF) youths, about 12 or 13 of them,” she narrated her ordeal.
She was force-marched to a bushy area where she met the unnamed top army official and a well known war veteran. The army official allegedly told the youths pin her down and raped her. “He raped me in a violent way and while he was raping me, he was shouting ‘You prostitute, do you know I fought for this country? the victim told the researchers.
Our wife
In a separate incident, another victim from Manicaland province said she was gang-raped by a group of Zanu (PF) supporters who included a policeman. “On the 22nd of June 2002 at 1pm three men came to my homestead. They entered the kitchen where I was and stood by the door. The policeman said they had come for a final search for a gun,” the victim recalled.
She said after finding nothing the militias threatened to burn down her house but later decided to rape her. “Then one of the men covered my head with a cooking pot and told me not to remove it. Then they kept beating me with sticks on my left leg around the hip area. I fell down and the pot fell off my face and they put it back and continued beating me. They said, ‘You refused to give us the information that your husband is hiding, so we are going to make you our wife,'” she told the researchers.
Most of the cases occurred in the run-up to the disputed June 2008 presidential election run-off between President Robert Mugabe and then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who had won the first round polls held in March of the same year. Buhera in Manicaland province recorded the largest number of politically motivated rape cases, with 10 incidents or 37 percent of the reported cases.
All in all Manicaland accounted for 15 of the 27 cases sampled in the study, followed by Mashonaland East with four cases, Mashonaland West with four, Harare with two and Masvingo with two cases.
Zanu women
Another interesting finding by the researchers was the active participation of some Zanu (PF) women in the rape of fellow women.
“Four women came to my home. They were Zanu (PF) supporters from my neighbourhood. One of the women told me that Zanu (PF) youths were planning to come to take me and beat me so I should go with her and sleep over at her house because I would be protected since she was a Zanu (PF) supporter,” a woman from Harare said.
She said the women instead took her to a Zanu (PF) base in the neighbourhood where they allowed a war veteran and others to rape her. “We arrived at the base at about 10 pm. I was handed over to the war veteran in charge. He told me to go and sit behind the big boulder of stones that was a few metres from where I had been beaten. Five men followed me and two of the men raped me,” she narrated her ordeal.
One of the women reported being raped by 13 people while 14 of the victims said they were abused by at least three perpetrators.
“While the second person was raping me I fainted and I do not know whether the other men raped me as well but the women who were also detained at the base told me when I woke up that I had been raped by about 10 youths after the commander of the base,” another Harare woman recalled.
Psychotic depression
Most of the victims did not bother to report the rape at all while those that reported to the police where refused assistance. “The policemen at the reception told me that they were not attending political violence cases. He also told me that I deserved it and I should go back and beat my perpetrators. I left and never went back to report my case,” said one of the victims from Masvingo.
According to the report, many of the victims suffered severe psychological disorders following their ordeals.
At least 14 were observed as having symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder while two displayed symptoms of psychotic depression “Women in the study exhibited high levels of sleeplessness, nightmares, flashbacks, and hopelessness. A third of the women reported these symptoms, which are commonly associated with experiences of trauma,” the report said.
Post published in: News