National youth service training - Solidarity Peace Trust

1. Selected case histories of torture in militia camps
Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark, produced 3 major reports on torture in Zimbabwe
during 2002. Many of the cases PHR-DK document involve civilians tortured in militia camps.
Three very detailed case histories of youth militia torture victims is appended to this report.
Photographs of victims in this report relate to these three case histories, previously documented
by PHR-DK.
Some general comments were made by PHR-DK about the “green bombers” and their activities.
• The youth militia act with impunity: they are seldom if ever apprehended for their crimes
against fellow Zimbabweans
• The youth militia often act in conjunction with other ruling party official or paramilitary
groups, such as war veterans or police
• The youth militia were among the biggest groups of perpetrators being linked to human
rights violations in the first six months of 2002
• The above factors lead one to conclude that the torture of others by youth militia is
acceptable to the authorities, and in accordance with official government policy
Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark: Zimbabwe 2002. The Presidential Election: 44 days to go,
Johannesburg 24 January 2002.
Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark: Zimbabwe: Post Presidential Election – March to May
2002. “We’ll make them run”, Copenhagen, 21 May 2002.
Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark: Vote ZANU-PF or starve: Zimbabwe August to October
2002; Johannesburg, 20 November 2002.
The following two cases were first documented by PHR-DK in the May 2002 report and are included
here because photographs of these victims have been used in this report. In all thr ee cases, militia were
among the perpetrators.
Out of 13 cases in the PHR -DK report, 6 implicated militia, making them the most regularly indicated
perpetrators. The PHR-DK conclusions are also appended. The full report and other reports by PHR -
DK on Zimbabwe can be found on www.phrusa.org/healthrights/phr_denmark.html
Case 1: N, aged 32 years (see photo 5)
Peri-election torture of a supposed MDC supporter
Date of incident: 3 rd March 2002
Place: Bulawayo
Date of interview: 2 nd May 2002
Present violence:
N was with a friend, next to the Central Police Station at around 4 pm, when a group of men came,
seized his resisting friend and then himself, right in front of the police. They recognised their attackers
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