Prisoners eat rats as death toll rises
May 18th, 2009
This article, reproduced in full below, was recently published in The Standard and widely circulated yesterday by ZWNEWS. At the end of March, we published a comprehensive article describing conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons titled Zimbabwe’s prisons are death-traps. It was released before a secretly filmed documentary within Zimbabwe’s prisons was aired on SABC TV. The exposure of terrible conditions resulted in the launch of a ‘prisons campaign’ by one of our readers. This latest article reveals that conditions are still unbelievably bad – please take note of the section which describes where the rats may be feeding!
(Links to all revelant posts provided at the end of the article.)
Over 720 male prisoners have succumbed to severe hunger and treatable diseases at Harare’s Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison alone since May last year, in a shocking indication of the extent of collapse of the country’s prison system. Sources told The Standard the situation is so dire that the inclusive government has appealed to charity organisations to come to the rescue of the prisoners with food aid, clothing and drugs to prevent mass deaths at the country’s largest jail. The Standard learnt last week that at least 721 prisoners died from diseases linked to serious food shortages such as pellagra during the past 12 months. Pellagra is a deficiency disease caused by a lack of vitamin B3 and proteins. This means that on average 60 prisoners were dying each month, a startling figure coming from a single prison. “These figures are only for male inmates,” said an official at Chikurubi. “Very few women die while in custody because their conditions are much better than of their male counterparts.”
Chikurubi, with 1 300 inmates, is among the most congested prisons in the country. Prison officers last week said some cells designed to hold only 10 inmates were currently taking up to 30 prisoners. The majority of them wrap torn and lice-infested pieces of cloths and blankets around their skeletal bodies due to the critical shortage of clothing. Apart from pellagra, tuberculosis, HIV/Aids related illnesses and chronic diarrhoea also took their toll on inmates at Chikurubi for the period March 21, 2008 to December 12, 2008. Prosper Rukasha (34), who was slapped with a 26-year sentence for murder with actual intent in July last year died of pellagra four months later, The Standard learnt. He is one of the estimated 400 inmates who died from pellagra during the period under review. During the same period, the prison presided over 300 pauper burials for inmates whose relatives could not be located or failed to raise money to collect bodies of their beloved ones.
Prison officers who spoke to The Standard on condition of anonymity said at one time last year all 1 300 inmates at Chikurubi were being fed only on sadza and 10 cabbages cooked with two litres of cooking oil every day. The Standard also understands that last November and December, as well as January this year, had the highest death figures of 96, 113 and 118 respectively recorded. “This was the most difficult period because there was virtually no food for prisoners. The lucky ones were getting their food from their relatives,” said one senior prison officer. MDC deputy minister of agriculture-designate Roy Bennett recently spoke about his period of incarceration at Mutare Central Prison where five people died and that authorities took over a day to dispose of the bodies. He said inmates were being served sadza with salt and water once a day. A local prisoners’ rights group, the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender, said at least two inmates die everyday from hunger and disease at Chikurubi Prison.
Prisoners who have no relatives to bring them extra food are virtually guaranteed a slow and very painful death. As a result, prison officials said, weak and emaciated inmates would go for two or more days without their daily rations because it was now “survival of the fittest”. “This is when some of them resorted to killing rats and roasting them for food,” said another prison officer. “What was worrying was that the rats would feed on corpses in a room which had been converted into a mortuary.” The prison officer said the “mortuary”, which was at one time a TB ward had 108 corpses, most of them with missing noses, eyes and lips devoured by rats. The “mortuary”, which is a couple of metres away from the prison kitchen, had a choking stench that attracted huge green flies.
Prison officers said the situation had improved slightly at Chikurubi since April following the intervention of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Food Programme which are feeding the prisoners. “We only recorded 31 deaths in April and four as of May 12. This shows a great improvement. The situation is changing very fast,” said another ZPS official. A new mortuary powered by electricity and standby generators is now functional. Under pressure to overhaul its prison facilities the government in April allowed the ICRC to work on improving conditions at the prisons. The government reached an agreement with the ICRC following shocking revelations of prison conditions that attracted international condemnation. In March, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Special Assignment programme captured the extent of the collapse of the country’s prison system. The programme showed inmates who looked like living skeletons, suffering from severe malnutrition-related conditions, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids.
The Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa claimed then that the SABC footage was from other countries, but recently he appealed to donors to come to the rescue as prisoners were facing starvation. Critics say the situation in the country’s jails started to deteriorate following the appointment of Retired Major General Paradzai Zimondi as the head of the Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS). Zimondi, a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe, was appointed in 1999. Zimondi was not immediately available for comment. His critics say prior to his appointment, prisons across the country could grow enough food on prison farms to feed the inmates. But most of the farms are derelict despite receiving seed, fertiliser, tractors and other agricultural implements from the Reserve Bank’s controversial farm mechanisation programme. While ZPS spokesperson Granitia Musango said she could not comment because she was on study leave an official with the public relations department, Mayor Kaunda, said she needed questions in writing. Zimbabwe has 42 prisons around the country housing criminals and political detainees.
Articles and Zimondi action page:
Blogs and campaign info:
- An update on the Zimbabwe prisons campaign
- ACTION ALERT: Donate money towards food for Zimbabwe’s prisoners
- Disgraceful responses from Paradzai Zimondi and Patrick Chinamasa
- YouTube footage extracts from ‘Hell hole’ and interview with Godknows Nare
- Undercover programme on Zimbabwe’s prisons to be aired tomorrow night on SABC TV3 (South Africa)
- ACTION ALERT : Harare Central Prison has run out of food
