VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN

information from Lobengula member of Parliament-elect, Sam Nkomo.

Sam Nkomo shares his thoughts on the violence in the country in the following article.

Yesterday I was physically ill having presented a briefing on the post election political violence. Over the past ten years I have seen the results of, and personally witnessed, a lot of brutality. However, the events of the past five weeks have left me shell shocked. The calculated, evil state sponsored and perpetrated violence against, and beating to death, anyone construed to be oppostion, as well as MDC office bearers is to say the least barbaric. A Doctor friend who is involved in Human Rights abuses almost 24/7, told me yesterday that she felt the same. We are living in a dark tunnel that is close to overwhelming those closely involved with the tragedy unfolding in our beloved Zimbabwe . The perpetrators are mostly the young militia dressed in camoflage army uniforms and a few of the war vets, commanded by military officers of high rank.

Below are some of the cases of violence

T.C. (38 years) from Kavasha village, Mutoko was beaten on the 27th April with big sticks on the buttocks by youth militia saying "stop supporting MDC". This resulted in extensive deep tissue bruising that has not received medical attention. He has a long road to recovery.

little Samson (3 years) was beaten on Golden Star farm, Shamva. His parents are ex farm workers who remained living on the farm after their white employer was evicted. They were beaten on 21st April by militia who were saying " Whites left you on this farm, you are MDC, you want whites to come back and look after you". Their houses and everything they owned was burned. The mother is at the hospital with Samson and her husband and other two children are somewhere in Shamva. She does not know where they are.