The youth of Zimbabwe were being sacrificed to keep the country's
ruling party, Zanu-PF, in power, according to a report by the
Solidarity Peace Trust released yesterday.
The trust is an organisation of South African and Zimbabwean bishops and compiled the report based on state-controlled and independent media reports, training material from youth militia camps, interviews with those tortured by the militia and the youth militia themselves.
The national youth service training programme, introduced two years ago and now referred to by the Zimbabwean government as compulsory, "masquerades as a youth training scheme that imparts useful skills and patriotic values," said the report.
"The reality is a paramilitary training programme for Zimbabwe's youth with the clear aim of inculcating blatantly anti-democratic, racist and xenophobic attitudes".
According to the report, "The youth militia have... become one of the most commonly reported violators of human rights, with accusations against them including murder, torture, rape and destruction of property".
"They have been blatantly used by Zanu-PF as a campaign tool, being given impunity and implicit powers to mount roadblocks, disrupt MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) rallies, and intimidate voters".
Anglican Archbishop of Matabeleland and member of the Solidarity Peace Trust, Pius Ncube, told reporters yesterday: "Up to 50 000 people have gone through such training".
The report maintained: "Having been thoroughly brain-washed, the youth militias are deployed to carry out whatever instructions they receive from their political commissars, on the understanding that they will never be called to account by this regime for any of their deeds.
"...many of them have become victims of human rights' abuses themselves in the course of training. The most conspicuous example of this abuse is the rape and multiple rape of young girls by the boys undergoing training with them, and by their military instructors.
"The resulting pregnancies and infections with sexually-transmitted diseases, including HIV, not only devastate the lives of the youth concerned but are creating a terrible legacy for the nation," the report stated.
Three former youth militia members spoke to reporters yesterday, on condition of anonymity as they were allegedly sought by Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation for escaping from the country.
Thabo, 22, said he was involved in the killing of Halaza Sibindi, the chairperson of the MDC in Tsholotsho, 150 km north of Matabeleland.
In January 2002 they beat Sibindi to death with crowbars, iron bars and sjamboks, in front of his sons and daughters.
He said he had come to South Africa because the things he was promised when he joined the militia - land, money, a better future - never happened.
But the situation in South Africa is not easy for refugees.
Thabo has no relatives, no money and no job and lives on the streets.
He is also severely traumatised by what he has been through, but is unlikely to receive counselling.
"If my country is going to be ok, I'm going back," he said.
Eighteen-year-old Wesley was taken from school to join the militia when he was 15-years-old.
He escaped to South Africa some months ago.
He told reporters he had raped and petrol-bombed white farmers. Wesley described being involved in an incident when 100 youth militia surrounded "Jaco's Farm" in Beit Bridge. Twenty-five of the youth entered the premises.
They tortured the farmer, raped his wife and two daughters, aged four and 12, then burnt them all to death.
"We were told the farmer was from the MDC. I feel very terrible for the things that I was doing," he said.
Debbie, 19, said she was forced to join the militia, otherwise her aunt's house where she was staying would be burnt down.
She was taken to a training centre, about 40 km from Bulawayo, where she was woken at 3am, and made to run 20 km.
f they fainted or stopped, they were thoroughly beaten, she said.
They trainees would then do physical exercises and sing revolutionary songs.
"We shared a room with the boys and at night they would rape us the whole night," she said.
If anyone reported the rape, their leader ... would bring out his gun and tell them he was going to shoot them, because anyone complaining of rape belonged to the MDC, she said.
Debbie fell pregnant, and has a one-year-old baby. She was HIV-positive. She did not know who the father of her baby was or the HIV-status of her child.
Ncube said "In the end does politics matter? All that matters is food, shelter, a future for your children and peace at night when you sleep".
"If our African leadership is truly concerned about the ideals of Nepad... Zimbabwe is the test case," she said. – Sapa.
The trust is an organisation of South African and Zimbabwean bishops and compiled the report based on state-controlled and independent media reports, training material from youth militia camps, interviews with those tortured by the militia and the youth militia themselves.
The national youth service training programme, introduced two years ago and now referred to by the Zimbabwean government as compulsory, "masquerades as a youth training scheme that imparts useful skills and patriotic values," said the report.
"The reality is a paramilitary training programme for Zimbabwe's youth with the clear aim of inculcating blatantly anti-democratic, racist and xenophobic attitudes".
According to the report, "The youth militia have... become one of the most commonly reported violators of human rights, with accusations against them including murder, torture, rape and destruction of property".
"They have been blatantly used by Zanu-PF as a campaign tool, being given impunity and implicit powers to mount roadblocks, disrupt MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) rallies, and intimidate voters".
Anglican Archbishop of Matabeleland and member of the Solidarity Peace Trust, Pius Ncube, told reporters yesterday: "Up to 50 000 people have gone through such training".
The report maintained: "Having been thoroughly brain-washed, the youth militias are deployed to carry out whatever instructions they receive from their political commissars, on the understanding that they will never be called to account by this regime for any of their deeds.
"...many of them have become victims of human rights' abuses themselves in the course of training. The most conspicuous example of this abuse is the rape and multiple rape of young girls by the boys undergoing training with them, and by their military instructors.
"The resulting pregnancies and infections with sexually-transmitted diseases, including HIV, not only devastate the lives of the youth concerned but are creating a terrible legacy for the nation," the report stated.
Three former youth militia members spoke to reporters yesterday, on condition of anonymity as they were allegedly sought by Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation for escaping from the country.
Thabo, 22, said he was involved in the killing of Halaza Sibindi, the chairperson of the MDC in Tsholotsho, 150 km north of Matabeleland.
In January 2002 they beat Sibindi to death with crowbars, iron bars and sjamboks, in front of his sons and daughters.
He said he had come to South Africa because the things he was promised when he joined the militia - land, money, a better future - never happened.
But the situation in South Africa is not easy for refugees.
Thabo has no relatives, no money and no job and lives on the streets.
He is also severely traumatised by what he has been through, but is unlikely to receive counselling.
"If my country is going to be ok, I'm going back," he said.
Eighteen-year-old Wesley was taken from school to join the militia when he was 15-years-old.
He escaped to South Africa some months ago.
He told reporters he had raped and petrol-bombed white farmers. Wesley described being involved in an incident when 100 youth militia surrounded "Jaco's Farm" in Beit Bridge. Twenty-five of the youth entered the premises.
They tortured the farmer, raped his wife and two daughters, aged four and 12, then burnt them all to death.
"We were told the farmer was from the MDC. I feel very terrible for the things that I was doing," he said.
Debbie, 19, said she was forced to join the militia, otherwise her aunt's house where she was staying would be burnt down.
She was taken to a training centre, about 40 km from Bulawayo, where she was woken at 3am, and made to run 20 km.
f they fainted or stopped, they were thoroughly beaten, she said.
They trainees would then do physical exercises and sing revolutionary songs.
"We shared a room with the boys and at night they would rape us the whole night," she said.
If anyone reported the rape, their leader ... would bring out his gun and tell them he was going to shoot them, because anyone complaining of rape belonged to the MDC, she said.
Debbie fell pregnant, and has a one-year-old baby. She was HIV-positive. She did not know who the father of her baby was or the HIV-status of her child.
Ncube said "In the end does politics matter? All that matters is food, shelter, a future for your children and peace at night when you sleep".
"If our African leadership is truly concerned about the ideals of Nepad... Zimbabwe is the test case," she said. – Sapa.
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