Human rights group uncovers evidence of torture in Zimbabwe.

317 Evidence of severe torture in Zimbabwe, which is experiencing unrest in the weeks leading up to the country’s presidential election in March, has been uncovered by a human rights organisation. A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark, which visited Zimbabwe last month, has reported finding “a series of persons who gave consistent and similar accounts of exposure to torture.” Members interviewed 14 people, of whom four were classified as torture victims, while another four gave accounts of ill treatment, one of whom was a sitting MP. The four torture victims had physical wounds consistent with the accounts of their treatment. The group, which has published its report on a website sponsored by the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust, says it is “very concerned about the politicisation of health care and the harassment of human rights organisations offering treatment to victims of political violence.” Dr Hans Draminsky Petersen, who led the delegation, told the BMJ, “In medical literature acute lesions that beyond any reasonable doubt indicate torture are very rarely described in a series of victims. We think the medical profession should be aware of severe human rights violations that are occurring daily in Zimbabwe ahead of the elections and should report their findings internationally, thereby assisting in putting pressure on the Zimbabwean government to restore human and democratic rights.” The delegates’ report states: “We visited Zimbabwe for five days in mid January 2002. We documented human rights abuses including torture. Four of the examinees came from two small adjacent rural communities. They gave the following consistent descriptions of torture: they were consecutively attacked by a group of approximately 15 Zanu-PF supporters [the political party which supports President Mugabe] on 14 January, from 10 pm until 2 am the following morning. “The perpetrators used simple weapons consisting of wooden handles with lengths of barbed wire or stripped electrical cables attached. All four were beaten all over with these instruments. Furthermore, one was stabbed close to his eye with a screwdriver, which left him blind, and one was cut with knives. “Three were stripped naked; one of the spouses, four months pregnant, was also beaten, as well as a spouse with her nine month old baby in her arms. Two had their homes and possessions burnt—including in one case the clothes the family had been wearing before being stripped naked. “The clinical examination of all four, carried out three days after the assaults, showed hundreds of partly-encrusted, irregular and linear lesions up to 40 cm long on all parts of their bodies.”