'I want the world to know we are living in Hell in Zimbabwe'

Ben Chipwanyira is frightened. He is recovering from a broken arm and vicious wounds on his back, legs and feet that he says come from repeated beatings and torture by Zimbabwe's police.

He is afraid that police will arrest him again or inflict beatings on his wife and children, but is eager to tell his story. 'I want the world to know we are living in Hell in Zimbabwe. Anyone who supports the opposition has no safety or protection,' says the determined Chipwanyira. 'Maybe if people know what we are going through then the international community will put pressure on Mugabe to stop this.'

His harrowing story highlights the persistence of reports of state-sponsored violence and torture in Zimbabwe.

Chipwanyira, 34, is from the Buhera district of southeastern Zimbabwe. 'I am a peasant farmer and the deputy constituency secretary for the MDC [the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe's opposition party].

'On 14 July four riot police and two members of the CIO [Central Intelligence Organisation] came to my house. They fired guns at me. I was very much afraid and I fell down. They beat me with their fists and baton sticks. My arm broke and I fainted. I only woke up at the police station.

'The police told me that I was selling Zimbabwe to the British and that I did not fight to liberate Zimbabwe. They told me to go to Britain. They asked me what we discussed at MDC meetings, especially when the party's president, Morgan Tsvangirai, was present. I did not want to disclose anything,' said Chipwanyira. 'For three days the police kept beating me. They held me down and beat my feet until they were swollen like big balls. They beat my back and my legs. They smashed my fingernails. This was at the police station. I know the names of some of the police constables who did this.'

Then the police told Chipwanyira that he and nine other MDC supporters would be charged with attempted murder for allegedly burning down the home of a government education officer.

'That man told police that two different people burned down his home, but they arrested more than 10 MDC supporters anyway. That shows us it was all politically motivated,' says Chipwanyira. 'The police denied medical treatment, even though my arm was broken and I was urinating blood and I had bad wounds all over my body.'

In early August, the 10 men were formally charged and released on bail but barred from returning to Buhera. 'Zanu-PF [Zimbabwe's ruling party] is doing this because they fear defeat in the Buhera council elections in September. They don't want any MDC officials to be able to campaign. But even though we are not in Buhera, we are not safe. We are in hiding.'

Chipwanyira has been separated from his wife and four children, aged 14, nine, five and 18 months. 'I haven't seen my family for six weeks. I am so worried about them that I have trouble sleeping. Are they safe? There is no food so how can they sustain themselves? Other peoples' homes have been burned. Where is my family? This is Hell for me right now.'

He is staying in a safe house with many other victims of Zimbabwe's political violence. 'People from the MDC are here and other people who were not even in politics. Look at the plight of the workers on commercial farms. Thousands are being evicted and they have no jobs, no homes, no blankets. They are now desperate because of one man,' he said. 'The government must stop this brutality on its citizens.'

Chipwanyira's story is not unique. Several others staying at the safe house crowded round to recount similarly grim experiences.

Zimbabwe's police say they do not assault or torture those under arrest. 'We will investigate all reports of assaults,' said police spokesman Andrew Phiri. 'Reports of assaults should be filed at any police station; it does not have to be at the station where the assault allegedly occurred.'

However, Zimbabwean human rights groups charge that there has been an alarming rise in reports of torture by police.

'We are seeing a definite increase in the number of reports of violence at the hands of police,' says Tony Reeler, director of Amani Trust. 'In addition, many people report being held much longer than the legal period of detention. It looks like a sustained campaign by police to harass MDC supporters, particularly in the Buhera area where there are upcoming local council elections. We have reports from more than 100 people arrested in Buhera and a high proportion show signs of torture at the hands of police.'

Reeler charges that many people have been badly beaten on the soles of their feet. 'This torture technique is called "falanga" and in the past two years it has spread across Zimbabwe. It is compelling evidence that torture methods are being taught across the country.'

Amani Trust provides assistance to victims of political violence and is one of a coalition of groups that are documenting ongoing violence in Zimbabwe.

'The use of torture has reached epidemic proportions in Zimbabwe,' says Reeler. 'Our data suggests between 400,000 and 600,000 people have experienced some form of torture in the past two years. This is a terrible wound on the national psyche that will take years to heal.

'First, the torture must stop. Clearly this cannot happen without the political will of the government and the insistence on a wholly non-partisan role by the police. Then it will take a concerted effort of treatment and counseling and some national inquiry, such as a truth commission, to help Zimbabwe break out of this cycle of violence.'

Reeler said Zimbabwe must see a restoration of an even-handed rule of law and an end to the situation in which government supporters and officials can inflict violence upon critics with impunity.

'As South Africa's Justice Richard Goldstone has stated, "Peace does not create justice. Justice creates peace".'

Companies don't like civil unrest and uncertainty.

Only when they own the producing assets. The history of colonialism is rife with the induction of civil strife to ease a takeover.

Actually the histories of South Africa and the American Southwest parallel more closely than you think. The Boers and English took over a sparsely populated region and killed, enclosed, or chased out the natives. They found vast mineral wealth (as the Southwest still has BTW). As they industrialized they started importing labor (at one time whites were a majority in South Africa). The imported labor bred like crazy and took over demographically on a platform of class warfare using communist ideology. Once they took over there was a subsequent meltdown.

Sound familiar?

As they industrialized they started importing labor (at one time whites were a majority in South Africa). The imported labor bred like crazy and took over demographically on a platform of class warfare using communist ideology. Once they took over there was a subsequent meltdown.

Sound familiar?

Ancient Rome?
Modern day Israel?
Oooooohhhhh... you meant a different "familiar."

The problem with this is that the government that took over had to be friendly to your interests and it had to stay friendly and stable.

I don't see any company friendly stable government popping up. In fact the only place with anything to gain from the turmoil in Zimbabwe is Libya. And Gadiffi has been whispering in Mugabe’s ear quite a bit lately.

If you think that he is behind it in his quest to become King of Africa I would likely agree. But I would think the plan would be just to let the civil war continue until both sides were badly depleted and then ride in to bring “Peace and Stability” in a direct takeover rather then though a puppet regime.

a.cricket

Muammarbaby owns Mugabe lock, stock, and oil barrel. He's been loaning Zimbabwe money to buy oil for years. I suspect he's pulling a few of Mugabe's strings, but the general meltdown of Southern Africa started with Rockefeller's boys Jimmy Carter, Andrew Young, and Zbig. Reagan was able to reverse the trend for a while, but it started heading back into the tank around 1990. An African meltdown fits right in with the rest of the globalist agenda which is all about depopulation.

What a pathetic, sad, heartbreaking and desperate situation for all the good people of Zimbabwe.

. . .and here we are; the ever, self-congratulatory good people of the enlightened West, sitting on our humanity. . .

Yes and this country along with the UN allows this to go on. Anywhere else in the world with this going on and the race reversed we would have our as--- there protecting the people.This is an abomination on the UN and US!

can't help but wonder if mugabe and the majority were white and the farm owners were black...would bush be involved in trying to resolve this or would he stay away to avoid losing the black vote here...i really wonder

So do I. I'll tell you why he's not going in. Whites generally don't care about race, so he won't win many white votes by helping them out. He would stand to lose votes in the Hispanic, black, and even white liberal communities, who would say he is doing this just because they are white. It's unpopular to be white right now.

"He would stand to lose votes in the Hispanic, black, and even white liberal communities..."

Amen. And that's only on the domestic front. I can't begin to imagine the field day Libya, N.Korea, China etc. would have with this. Even now any BBC report on this mess is hedged with some reference to the West's "imperial legacy."

But it's not like we couldn't see this coming! It was clear that it would come to this as early as seven years ago. Why did they remain?

Does anyone know of any humanitarian organizations evacuating those people that we could contribute to? Beyond that there's nothing else to do.

Familiar only if there was also a mass influx from neighboring state(s) accompanied by a near hysterical fear of insulting those neighbors on the part of the governments then in power.

As I remember it, the Afrikaaners and Rhodesians actually tried to stop the tide, and that the tide was made up of native born people hyped on a foreign ideology. Not a foreign born people hyped on the symbiotic hysteria of two neighboring states.

Aside from that, no arguement.

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