Zimbabwean gives account of gang rape
TWO white Zimbabweans were violently raped by a gang of
government supporters on Tuesday, hours after President Mugabe branded white farmers the enemy of the state.
The husband of Sarah, the 25-year-old victim, gives his account
of the attack. The other victim, Jane, is her 18-year-old sister, who was
visiting. The family are not farmers but live in a cottage on a small-holding a
few miles outside Harare. The names have been changed. "Sarah went to the
verandah at about 9pm to pick up a tea tray. She saw this man run round from the
side of the house. She tried to scream but one of them grabbed her around the
throat.
About four others came in through the door for me. Two of them
held me, one of them hit me repeatedly in the face with a brick till I went
down. They were threatening me with a knife as well. They told me not to make
any noise.
They continually threatened me with a knife, even putting it on
my wrist. They were intimidating, telling me not to make any noise. At the same
time they were strangling me. They held my throat until I stopped moving.They
used neckties and an electric cable to tie my feet and arms behind my back and
pushed me to the ground.
They were speaking Shona. I understand it pretty
well. I don't think they knew that. They were discussing whether they should
kill me or not. One said to me, 'If you don't make any noise we will let you
live', while the other two were discussing whether to kill me or not.
They
took my wife through to the bedroom and they tied her feet and hands behind her
back and they gagged her. They found Jane in the spare room and they only tied
her arms and legs behind her. She was hiding in the cupboard but they found her
pretty quickly.
Then they kept asking all of us, 'Where is the gun? Where
is the money? Where is the safe?' That's how it started off. They dragged me
through to the main bedroom where Sarah was. That is when they held the knife to
my wife's leg and told her not to make any noise.
Then one of them put his
knee between her legs and demanded that she open her legs, which she couldn't do
because she was tied up. Then one of them cut the ties. Then they cut her
shorts. And the first one raped her. Then the second one.
Jane was in the
other room. They were questioning her, asking her where the keys were for the
safe and for the cars, which she repeatedly told them she didn't know. They kept
on asking her, repeatedly asked her who she was going to vote for. She told them
she didn't know any party. ZanuPF [Mr Mugabe's ruling party] they wouldn't
believe and if she said MDC [The Movement for Democratic Change, the main
opposition grouping], it would go the wrong way. The main question was would she
vote for MDC. Then they raped her as well. Two of them. I could hear.
Then
they ransacked the house, taking all the electrical goods. They were loading up
the Mazda truck. They found a bottle of Mukwa oil [furniture oil] in the
kitchen, about two litres. They spread this all over the house in all the rooms.
Then they tried to ignite it. It is not at all inflammable. They poured it
over Sarah, she thought it was petrol. They tried to ignite it with matches,
they failed, they tried to ignite it with a log from the fireplace but they
failed with that. When they were questioning Jane, they held a pellet gun
to her head, saying they would shoot her if she didn't speak. Then they moved me
out of the bedroom and into my office area. They thought I was dead. I was
barely conscious but I understood what was going on. They were speaking in Shona
again. One said, 'Is he dead?' The other one said, 'No, he is faking'. They came
and had a kick at me to see if I was alive. 'Are you sure he is not dead? said
one. 'No, he is faking', the other said. One said, 'Shall I stab him to
see if he's alive? The other said, 'Don't bother, he is definitely alive'. They
were still pouring the mukwa oil around. They thought it was petrol. They
loaded up the truck, then it went quiet. This all took at least an hour. We
heard the cuckoo clock go at 10 o'clock. We heard it again at 10.30.
Sarah
was first up. She managed to get her hands out of the braces they tied her with
because they were elasticised. Then she called to me. At that stage I didn't
answer. I wasn't sure if people were still there. Sarah ran through to
Jane and untied her. Sarah thought I was probably dead, but she came back and
found I was alive. She undid me. They really tied me up tight, I had no feeling
in my hands and my feet. Once she had untied me she ran to the front where
they had come in and locked the door. We gathered up our passports. They had cut
the telephone and stolen four cellphones in the house. They had taken money out
of the safe. They also took travellers cheques and some US dollars.
We
discussed what we should do. We thought we should go and find the owner of the
farm but we thought they might still be around. We didn't want them to see us
again. We climbed over the fence at the bottom of the garden and we went through
the farm in the dark. We crawled under the electric fence on the main road. We
walked 5km to the international airport. I was barefoot because they had taken
all our shoes, our clothes. We asked the information desk to let us phone
a relative. They said the phone didn't phone out. We would have to speak to
police. We were a bit apprehensive about speaking to the police. We thought it
was politically motivated. We wanted moral support. We didn't want to do it
ourselves.
They offered to take our details. We said we needed to use the
phone to phone a relative. I said I needed to go to hospital. I was bleeding. He
wanted me to fill out a report. He eventually persuaded us to take police
medical report forms so that when we went to hospital we would have a report
number for police. We told police it was an assault and rape case.
A
bystander came to assist us. He managed to get his cellphone from his car. He
said he was involved in the MDC when he saw us and heard we were from a farm. He
wanted to offer us as much assistance as he could. Then we waited for a
relative who collected us. He took us to the trauma centre but they said they
didn't fill in medical report forms. We went to the Avenues Clinic because they
would fill out a report. I was seen to first because I was more seriously
injured. There was a lot of blood.
We needed a police rape kit (for internal
forensic examination of evidence of rape). There were none to be had, except at
Mbare police station, and they said they would deliver at 8am. The gynaecologist
saw to my wife and Jane. We finished up at 4.30am and spent the night at a
relatives' place.
We went back this morning at 8.30am for the rest of the
check-up and the police report. They put Sarah and Jane on a triple anti-HIV
cocktail, also tablets for anti-pregnancy and antibiotics. They will be on the
cocktail for a month. The gynaecologist said he was pleased with their
condition.
I have no idea who the attackers were. They looked about 30.
They were not very well organised. They just had a brick and a knife between
them.
Nothing will get done. I just don't have any faith in the police.
I
had a break-in into a guest cottage the week before and reported it. The police
never pitched. They took the Mazda pick-up. Also mainly electrical goods and
money and so on. Sarah and Jane are coping pretty well, considering what
they have been through. At least we are alive. From the questioning, I would
probably say it was politically motivated.
I had stitches between my eyes,
probably a broken nose. Minor cuts from the knife. Bruising all over from where
they hit and kicked me.
Sarah and Jane have bruising where they were tied up,
and around their throats where they were strangled. Sarah lost consciousness at
the beginning.
There are no squatters on the farm but several thousand on
the surrounding farms."