ZIMBABWE: Torture centres operating, say human rights NGOs

JOHANNESBURG, 20 February (IRIN) - Opponents of the Zimbabwean government
are being abducted to "torture centres" across the country that serve as
bases for ruling party militia, Zimbabwean human rights groups allege.

"Violence on an organised basis has continued without decline throughout
the country," the latest Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum report on political
violence said. "In most cases victims are abducted to bases where they are
tortured and then released. These bases are springboards for militia
operating in the area and also serve as torture centres."

The report, released on Tuesday, said 26 people - 15 named as opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters - were killed in political
violence between 1 January and 16 February. It identified 24 "militia
bases" across the country allegedly run by war veterans or ruling ZANU-PF
party members where torture has taken place.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, an umbrella body of nine human rights
NGOs said: "It is of particular concern to the Forum that the use of
sexual torture ... has resurfaced. This has included forced rape by men,
witnessed by both the perpetrators and others."

Zimbabwe's Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa, Danson Mudekunye,
denied the allegations.

"Foreign ministers of SADC [Southern African Development Community] were
recently in Zimbabwe and they give a different picture to what this report
is giving," he told IRIN. "They say there is a decrease in politically
motivated violence. Most of these foreign ministers have missions in
Zimbabwe. How could they get it so wrong?"

According to the report: "Victim statements have increasingly indicated
that the youth militia involved in organised violence [have] received
formal training in it. Internationally recognised torture techniques are
being implemented as in the case of a ZANU-PF base at Mahusekwa Growth
Point [in Marondera, 50 km southeast of Harare]."

A member of the human rights group told IRIN that the report was compiled
based on newspaper accounts, feedback from monitors in the field, and
testimonies from victims. She said that a catch-all description of the
assailants as "youth militia" was used, because it was difficult to
clearly identify whether the culprits belonged to the government's
national youth service, ZANU-PF, or the war veterans.

"People being tortured are people identified in the community as MDC
supporters," she added. "They are taken from their homes and tortured.
Some escape, some are taken to police stations where they go through an
interrogation process and then they are released."

Forum reports are available at:
http://www.hrforumzim.com
[ENDS]

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