Organised Violence and Torture
in Zimbabwe in 1999

4. Torture and inhuman treatment
Police and other law enforcement agencies frequently use torture and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment to extract confessions and other information that they require. The majority of torture and ill-treatment cases reported are on people accused of routine criminal offences. It appears that those who are not represented by a lawyer are at a higher risk of being tortured or treated in an inhuman and degrading manner. Not all cases reported were seen by the Human Rights Legal Unit and those reported immediately below were identified from press reports.

There were several reports of beatings. The Zimbabwe Independent [22nd October 1999] carried the story of Fortune Sithole who sustained permanent head injuries after police in Sunningdale severely assaulted him. He had been arrested after a dispute with his girlfriend. He was handcuffed and beaten throughout the night with chains, truncheons, fists and planks. He was also kicked. The doctor’s report confirmed multiple blows. A criminal report against the assailants was made and they were identified.

A policeman in Birchenough Bridge was reported in the Eastern Star [20th August 1999] to have grabbed a woman, felled her to the ground and started caressing her while sitting on her stomach. He stripped her of her petticoat and demanded to have sexual intercourse with her. The woman continued to fight and he handcuffed her and detained her for the night. The woman filed a complaint and the policeman was charged with indecent assault. He was convicted and sentenced to five months imprisonment with labour.

In Mutare’s Dangamvura suburb Crispen Masengere died after police details, who wanted to question him in connection with a suspected theft, set dogs in his two roomed house. According to the Eastern Star [26th March 1999], a passerby who witnessed the police unleashing the dogs said loud cries were heard from the house and there was blood all over. In Sakubva, three people were seriously injured when police dogs were let loose in their homes. The police were hunting for suspected criminals.

In another case fifteen people residents of Nyanga were wounded after police, who were searching for suspected thieves, unleashed dogs in their homes. The residents received various degrees of injuries from dog bites. They were treated at Nyanga District Hospital. Police promised to investigate the matter.

Three Americans, Gary Blanchard, Joe Pettijohn, and John Dixon were arrested for illegal possession of firearms. There was proof that torture and general use of force had occurred during interrogations. The medical report submitted to the court showed that the men had been subjected to electric shocks to the genitals, repeated assaults with leather straps on bare feet, made to sit up against a wall as if on a chair for lengthy periods with arms outstretched and sometimes holding shoes or a chair, near suffocation using a typewriter cover and plastic bag, threats of sodomy and death, having the head held under water, as well as being denied access to a lawyer or the American embassy.

Subsequent to their torture, the three Americans were kept in inhuman conditions under maximum security: kept in isolation, manacled and stripped naked at night, constant lighting, and minimal exercise. The State was forced to alter their conditions following a successful court action on behalf of the three. The final outcome was that the three Americans were charged with relatively minor offences, convicted and given very small sentences. There was clear anomalies between the allegations by the State and the inhuman treatment to which the Americans were subjected during interrogation and incarceration, and the minor crimes with which they were finally charged and convicted.

The most celebrated example of State-sponsored torture relates to the kidnapping and torture of two journalists for the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper. Following a story that there had been a minor coup in the Zimbabwean National Army, the two journalists, Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto, were held by intelligence officers for nine days. During interrogations they were taken to a torture chamber. Methods of torture used include death threats, assaults all over the body including genitals and electrical shock. They were also made to face a beam of extremely bright light shone in their faces. This case attracted a lot of outcry both at home and abroad. European Union member states summoned Zimbabwean diplomats and told them how deeply concerned they were with the harassment of the press and the attempted defence of the grave human rights violations committed against the journalists.

There were also allegations of torture by students from the Harare Polytechnic who were arrested following disturbances in October, and also allegations that three University of Zimbabwe students were tortured by security guards of the University. It is noteworthy in both of these reports that there are allegations of the use of "falanga", or beating on the soles of the feet, by both the Police and the security guards. TOP