Half-way through a 25 month sentence for theft, Brian Gumbo is literally rotting - his skin peels from malnutrition and the muscles in his legs have withered to the point where he can barely walk. Mr. Gumbo, believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s, is one of several inmates portrayed in an expose on Zimbabwe jails that will screen Monday night on “Special Assignment,” a weekly television news feature of the South African Broadcasting Corp. The program, entitled “Hell Hole” is likely to put further pressure on Western governments to maintain sanctions against the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The United States has personal sanctions in place against Mr. Mugabe and more than 200 of his closest advisers, including prison commissioner Paradzai Zimondi.
The executive producer of the program, Johann Abrahams, said his crew used hidden cameras and worked with prison officers who wanted to expose the abuse. “As an investigative journalist I’ve seen a lot of human misery,” Mr. Abrahams said, “but when I first viewed the Zimbabwe prison tapes it shocked me. I was reminded of the German death camps at Dachau and Auschwitz.” He said that several inmates featured in the film had since died. In one segment, the camera follows Mr. Gumbo as he shuffles from his cell to a hall where he is given his daily meal: one bowl of corn porridge. Like many prisoners, he suffers from pellagra caused by a lack of protein and one of the B vitamins. Left untreated, the deficiency leads to a loss of teeth, skin lesions, blindness and, ultimately, death.
Joseph Musonza, who now lives as a refugee in South Africa, was released from jail shortly before Christmas. He said that while it was rare for prisoners to be beaten or physically abused by warders, many died of neglect. “It is hard to tell people my story because they accuse me of lying or exaggerating,” he told The Washington Times. “In remand, before I was sentenced, I lived with 19 people in a cell built for maybe six. Nearly every night, someone died and it can be days before the bodies are [taken] away. In summer there would be maggots in the man’s flesh and he is still lying next to you.” Mr. Musonza served 12 months for assault, but claims the charge was political. He said that people were often convicted because they belonged to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which is now in a coalition government with Mr. Mugabe’s Zanu PF “When MDC was the opposition, if you were too active in the party, police would say you tried to assault them and they would lock you up and bring in Zanu PF supporters to witness against you,” he said. “They use the fear of jail to silence those who speak out. People know that, once you are inside, no one in the system cares if you live or die.”
UN agencies estimate that up to three-quarters of Zimbabwe’s 12 million population is malnourished and dependent on some form of food aid. Critics blame this on bad governance and a land-redistribution program that began in 1999 and which has left a majority of farms lying idle. Until 2001, Zimbabwe was a net exporter of food. But Mr. Musonza said that food was delivered to the prison, only to be sold by warders. “There is not much to eat, but any meat or vegetables will be grabbed by the warders and taken for their families, or sold outside the jail. Inside you get one cup of sadza [corn porridge] or sometimes a thick slice of bread.” Cells, he said, were plagued with fleas and there were frequent outbreaks of dysentery. “Older prisoners used to speak of the days when there were rats, but they have all been eaten.” Efforts to obtain comment from either Mr. Zimondi or Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa for this article were fruitless.
In Johannesburg Sunday, the lobby group, Zimbabwe Democracy Now (ZDN), called for the resignation of the prison chief and suggested he could be tried for crimes against humanity. ZDN acting spokeswoman, Ethel Moyo, said the SABC images showed that “a crime is taking place inside the jails.” “These people are days away from death, having been starved, and abused. It is cases like these for which the International Criminal Court was set up at The Hague,” she said. On Thursday, the State Department called for the release of all political prisoners and said that the U.S. would not engage the government of Zimbabwe until there was “respect for human rights and personal security, and full access to humanitarian assistance.” President Obama and his predecessor, President Bush, have urged rapid progress towards a free and fair election in Zimbabwe, where Mr. Mugabe has ruled since 1980.
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