Statement concerning ongoing cases of organised violence and torture, and of intimidation of medical personnel, from April 22nd to April 24th 2008

This was released yesterday, 25 April 2008. We are reproducing it here in full:

Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights

Statement concerning ongoing cases of organised violence and torture, and of intimidation of medical personnel, from April 22nd to April 24th 2008

dated April 25th 2008

The number of victims of organised violence and torture presenting to members of ZADHR continues to escalate, with 62 patients being documented in the last 3 days alone. The numbers quoted under-reports the true total as full documentation (e.g. confirmation of suspected fractures by Xray) of a number of cases has not yet been completed.

Sixty two cases were assessed and treated, including 9 women, one of whom is 84 years old and sustained serious facial injuries when she was struck in the face with stones on opening her door to unknown assailants. The youngest patient seen was a one year old baby boy who suffered gastroenteritis with dehydration following sleeping in the ‘bush’ with his mother after their home had been burnt down. 23 cases were from Karoi; otherwise there was still a concentration in Mudzi, Mutoko and Murewa with 12.

As in previous reports, the commonest problem was soft tissue injury, frequently with large haematoma formation, sometimes with ulceration and sepsis requiring surgical debridement, especially if there had been more than 24-48 hours between injury and presentation.

In this series there were 20 facial injuries, including 13 of the eye. A 34 year old man was beaten, lost consciousness for a few minutes, and woke to find that his right ear had been cut off, and a 26 year old had such a deep laceration of the base of the nose that it appeared to be falling off. Several days after suturing the nose was healing well.

Four cases of burns were seen, two in which people had been trapped inside their houses which had been set on fire. There were 5 further cases of falanga (beatings on the soles of the feet which frequently result in chronic pain on walking). One sixty year old man had clinical fractures of his left ulna (forearm) and three bones in the left hand, and there were 2 cases of radiologically confirmed fractures of the (left) ulna. Many patients had multiple wounds, for example a 50 year old man with an axe wound to the back of the head, extensive soft tissue injuries especially to the buttocks, with haematoma formation, and injuries to the soles of the feet due to falanga.

Severe psychological stress is common to all these cases, including the few without major physical findings. One 37 year old woman who related that her husband and son had been killed during the violence accompanying the 2002 election suffered moderate soft tissue injury from being beaten but presented, essentially, with extreme anger resulting from her cattle being stolen, her crops destroyed and her house burnt.

Increasing numbers of reports have been received by ZADHR of medical and other health personnel suffering intimidation and physical threat. This is either because they have been perceived to be ‘opposition’ supporters or to have voted for the ‘opposition’, or because they have treated or might in the future treat ‘opposition’ people who have been injured. To date few of these reports have been confirmed. However, in one mission hospital where most of the medical and nursing staff (amongst others) were said to have been put on a list of people to be beaten up for perceived political affiliations, three cases of beatings were indeed attended to by medical personnel. However the police were called, four arrests of perpetrators of the violence were made. The hospital never closed. As recently reported in The Lancet (2008;371:1059-1060), the resilience and dedication of health workers in Zimbabwe is remarkable.

We re-emphasise that we can only report on those who have been able to access health facilities staffed by ZADHR members. We have received reports of widespread violence in remote rural areas where victims have no access to medical care, and there have also been reports of perpetrators blocking access of victims to medical attention. It is therefore likely that the numbers reported here represents only a small fraction of those injured.
ZADHR again appeals to the international community of health workers, including the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Zimbabwe Medical Association to bring whatever effective pressure is within their capability to bear on the Government of Zimbabwe to stop these grotesque, cruel and shameful acts of violence, and to be prepared to actively defend their colleagues facing intimidation and physical threat.

Share This