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Mugabe men 'use rape as revenge'
Electronic Telegraph ^ | 25/08/2002 | Christina Lamb in Manicaland

Posted on 08/24/2002 4:27:44 PM PDT by aculeus

Hundreds of girls as young as 12 are being raped or forcibly kept as concubines in rural Zimbabwe by President Robert Mugabe's youth militia as part of a campaign that human-rights lawyers have branded "systematic political cleansing" of the population.

A Rape victim in Mutare

"They are raping on a massive scale," said Frances Lovemore, a counsellor at the Harare-based Amani Trust which monitors torture. "Girls as young as 12 or 13 are being systematically taken and used and abused because of their families' political views."

The organisation is compiling video evidence that it hopes to use to help to bring Mr Mugabe to trial at the international court of human rights. An investigation by The Telegraph found that rape camps had been set up for youth militia and riot police in rural areas.

Victims living in hiding related how they had been gang-raped by police and self-styled war veterans, and had their genitals burnt with iron rods. They said that they had been abused in revenge for their parents not supporting Mr Mugabe, 78, in the presidential poll in March.

Other opponents of the government were badly beaten. As a final indignity, in a land where half the population is on the verge of starvation, victims claimed that militia members often urinated on the family food.

A former militia member recounted how he and others were instructed to attack wives and daughters of opposition sympathisers.

Human rights activists believe that this is part of a programme to drive out, kill or terrify into submission all those who oppose the president. Didymus Mutasa, the of Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF, has even spoken of halving the population to six million.

Details of the violence have emerged as world attention focuses on Mr Mugabe's campaign to evict white farmers while famine threatens.

Critics say the land reform programme is a cover for his war on opposition. "This isn't about race or land, it's about a political tyrant who wants to kill, break down and cripple all opposition," said Roy Bennett, a farmer who is an MP in Manicaland, eastern Zimbabwe, for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: africa; africawatch; balkans; deathcultivation; hyundai; rhodesia; un; zimbabwe
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To: St.Chuck
They do have a vast platinum supply.
41 posted on 08/25/2002 5:43:03 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: Avoiding_Sulla
Didymus Mutasa, the [sic]* of Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF, has even spoken of halving the population to six million.

Gives a whole new meaning to "divide and conquer," doesn't it?

42 posted on 08/25/2002 5:48:29 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: Carry_Okie
Not only that, if Mugabe were to employ the Rwandan Hutus' methodology of 1995 (also while the rest of the world just stood by), I could quite literally say those were now "mincing" words you uttered.

Please forgive my bleak humor -- I haven't quite gotten over the utter contempt I feel right now for more than a few people.

43 posted on 08/25/2002 6:14:40 PM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla
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To: Avoiding_Sulla
If you couldn't enjoy a little macabre humor you'd probably end up taking it out on the undeserving. Forgive me if I don't leap on the vast array of puns available at the moment. Just watch what you eat in a Belgian restaurant from now on.
44 posted on 08/25/2002 6:19:25 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: Avoiding_Sulla
I haven't quite gotten over the utter contempt I feel right now for more than a few people

Africa has been descending to Hobbes' state-of-nature ever since the end of colonialism. PC prejudices in the West will prevent anything more than hand-wringing to be done for the unfortunate populations in those countries. At the same time the moral collapse in the West has those of us here well started on a similar path. In future years, dim memories of what we now remember as the 'Dark Ages' may be regarded as a nearly paradaisical high point of civilization. Just trying to be cheerful.

45 posted on 08/25/2002 6:28:47 PM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla
I presume you mean where life has become "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Yes, the Marxist Mugabe, has started a "war of every man against every man" as do all "peoples" democracy strongmen.

I'm not at all surprise YOU agree with me. Now, how about opening the eyes of a few more of our friends?

Need I remind you General that your namesake died puking on his own bile while being cheerfully murderous?
46 posted on 08/25/2002 7:01:54 PM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla
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To: Avoiding_Sulla
Need I remind you General that your namesake died puking on his own bile while being cheerfully murderous?

We should all be so lucky!

47 posted on 08/25/2002 7:38:10 PM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla
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To: ClearCase_guy
Do you count Egypt as being part of Africa? What about some of the ancient Christian kingdoms in Ethiopia?
48 posted on 08/25/2002 8:08:38 PM PDT by ganesha
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Why? Is hell better for him than those who ignor the lessons to be learned from his failures? If there ever was a man for whom it could be said "the good men do is oft interred with their bones while the evil they do lives on."* it is Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
*Still another irony that this was eulogized by Antony over LCS' figurative progeny, Julius Caesar, eh?
49 posted on 08/25/2002 8:50:31 PM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla
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To: Avoiding_Sulla
Is hell better for him than those who ignor the lessons to be learned from his failures?

I am begining to be convinced that hell is better than most folks deserve!

50 posted on 08/25/2002 8:58:02 PM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla
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To: *balkans; vooch; Spar; boston_liberty; konijn; DTA; Andy from Beaverton; Tropoljac; joan; ...
Gee, Didn't Yugoslavia get bombed for (alleged) activities such as these?  And isn't Milosevic, the power-mad former leader in the Hague getting a sham trial from the ICTY?

Why is Zimbabwe and Mugabe different?

51 posted on 08/25/2002 9:02:57 PM PDT by Incorrigible
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Please tread lightly here my old friend. I'm convinced each of us constructs our own hell.

One error leading there is permitting our frustration to manifest itself as overly harsh condemnation of those with less understanding of what they're doing than we see. For those, repentence could be but a short reprimand away if only we'd summon the charity and courage to utter it.

I cannot be sure, but it seems to me quite just that it is an unforgiveable sin to see an opportunity to save another from themselves and then keep it to onesself. Once you tell them, but they persist -- well, you're off the hook.

Sins of that nature would make whatever portion of hell we sinners earn quite distasteful.

With that being said, and as far as being in the context of this thread, I find it again hard to disagree too much with you. Those who see Mugabe atrocity and yet turn a blind eye and never say anything would indeed be destined for a quite hot portion of hell.

52 posted on 08/25/2002 9:40:19 PM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla
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To: Incorrigible
It's not. Blaair would happily bomb Mugabe, especially after he said that Blaair's Britain was being run by a gay mafia, but the Mouse that Roars is ineffective when the US isn't involved.
53 posted on 08/25/2002 9:43:12 PM PDT by Kate22
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To: Le-Roy
"Better yet, why don't we try minding our own damn business across the board?"

He interjected.

54 posted on 08/25/2002 9:44:09 PM PDT by Roscoe
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To: Incorrigible
Why is Zimbabwe and Mugabe different? Because they don't have any Muslims. Clinton did everything he could to save Muslims for 8 years with disregard for what was right. Do you really think the press would stand behind Bush for wanting to protect a bunch a rich white farmers?
55 posted on 08/25/2002 10:12:31 PM PDT by Andy from Beaverton
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To: Le-Roy
So, we intervene in Kosovo, and we're fixin' to in Iraq, but this, and the massacres in Rwanda are not even a blip on the radar screen. We're going to destroy Hussein, ostensibly because he might kill hundreds of thousands of people...yet we don't even raise an eyebrow when that happens in actual fact somewhere else. And many here still maintain there is nothing wrong with US foreign policy?

talk to The Hand, le-roy.
Just part of the perils of being the World's Pragmatic Policeman.

CHARLIE ROSE: What are the implications for the future in terms of those who say, ``If you go to Kosovo with your bombs, then you have to be prepared for every other moral issue to take a position and be willing to use and employ your treasure and your men and women in the armed forces''?

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: That's a very troublesome question. And it's a very good question, and one to which there is no easy answer. But there is, nonetheless, an answer. Just because we cannot stop a crime everywhere we should not fail to stop a crime where we can stop it. The fact is we are in Europe. We have an alliance in Europe, therefore we can do something about what is happening in Kosovo. We can't go into Tibet without starting a massive, huge war with China. We are not present in other parts of the world with our forces and with allies and so forth. And then, last but not least, even a self-serving argument. What happens in Europe impacts on us much more. so, in that sense, yes, we cannot do it across the board. We cannot have a moral imperative on a universal scale. But it doesn't excuse us from the obligation of doing it where we can do it.

CHARLIE ROSE: So, we say to the Tibetans, ``You know, we can't do it because we don't want to get into a big deal with China, a fight with China.''

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: That's right.

CHARLIE ROSE: ``They're too big and strong.''

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: That's right.

CHARLIE ROSE: We said with Chechnya, ``We can't do it because morality plays no issue here because, you know, we don't want to get into a big conflict with the Russians.''

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: That's right. That is unfortunately--

CHARLIE ROSE: And we say to the Africans, ``We don't have a big stake here. It's Africa. It's not Europe, and so -- therefore -- we can't get involved.''

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: And we can support the African states doing-- You're absolutely right, Charlie. That's exactly the reality.

"Events in Kosovo" BRZEZINSKI SCOWCROFT LAVROV Interviews of 3/25/99


56 posted on 08/26/2002 12:14:33 AM PDT by Askel5
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To: annalex
The great age for Africa was the age of Colonialism. Left to their own devices, the Africans cannot build a stable society

I haven't forgotten the Keunnelt-Leddihn post on colonialism I promised.

57 posted on 08/26/2002 12:16:36 AM PDT by Askel5
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To: aculeus
Women are into revenge, not men. The men who are into revenge are women to begin with.
58 posted on 08/26/2002 12:19:15 AM PDT by A CA Guy
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To: ganesha
Thank you.


59 posted on 08/26/2002 12:26:28 AM PDT by Askel5
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To: Askel5
That's not reality, it's just rationalization. The big question is why exactly did the folks involved so desperately want to carry out those actions that they would float such a (seemingly) high-minded, but obviously pathetic excuse.

The only idea I've seen that even begins to explain the idiocy that has now carried on through several administrations, is a geo-strategic chess game with Russia/the Asian continent as the foreseeable goal (which requires one to accept the postulate that there are forces controlling our gov't. that are independent of particular administrations - and able to direct events/political figures spanning decades...an idea I will never accept, even if it turns out to be the truth).

60 posted on 08/26/2002 2:24:43 AM PDT by Le-Roy
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