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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Mugabe’s youth militias ’raping women held captive in camps’ |
| 2003-03-18 |
| From the Al-Guardian - Edited for brevity Rape is being used as a political weapon by the youth militia and other groups allied to Zimbabwe's ruling party, according to human rights workers and church groups. Investigations by the Guardian reveal allegations of politically motivated rape against opposition supporters. "Thanks for the moral support, Jacques" According to victims' testimony, members of President Robert Mugabe's militia are also forcing young women to be their concubines with impunity. Zimbabwe's human rights forum reported seven cases of politically motivated rape in 2002, alongside 58 murders and 1,061 cases of torture. But the reported rapes, verified by medical examinations and interviews, are just the tip of the iceberg, human rights workers say. Tell me why Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu aren't 'soapboxing' the international news media about this? Oh yeah, the Americans and Jeewwsss aren't to blame "The victims are mostly young females, relatively uneducated, poor, rural, the most vulnerable members of society. Many urgently require anti-retrovirals for HIV infection." ..... Sithulisiwe says she felt sorry for the young girls, of just 12 and 13, picked out by the camp commander and taken to a nearby hotel to be raped. Her voice is flat and only when she talks to her five-month-old child does her face light up. "I have named her Nokthula, which means peace. I want her to find peace — imagine, I do not even know who her father is." Sithulisiwe and others were caught trying to escape. She says they were buried up to their necks. "We were beaten and thought we'd be killed, but the camp commander rescued us. They made us roll in mud, then would not let us take a bath." The camp closed in July 2002. Many of the youths went to government training camps, and Sithulisiwe was sent away. Aided by a church group, she and other women then reported the rapes at Hillside police station near Bulawayo. "Then the doctor gave me a blood test. He told me I was HIV positive." |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #2 I predict by November of this year Martin Sheen and his Hollywood commie friends will put together a telethon to raise money for the starving in Zimbabwe ala the 'We are the World' crowd, ignoring Mugabe's hand in the creation of this famine, his racism, his brutality and his hatred. But the really hilariously funny part is that those efforts will probably be wildly more successful than the 'We are the World' thing, and we will never find out that the ZAPU will use the proceeds to throw a drunken, whore-mongering party in Libya |
| Posted by: badanov 2003-03-18 19:42:06 |
| #1 Beyond the sick cruelty, how smart is it to rape someone whos got HIV, or to gangrape someone when one of your gang has HIV. That whole rape gang is probably now infected. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-03-18 12:12:34 |