Two days after the world observed International Human Rights Day, a report was made public that exposes horrific acts of violence committed by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his political party, ZANU-PF during last years election.
The final 65-page report, "Electing to Rape," can be found at aids-freeworld.org here.
It is shocking to think that the rape of women from the opposite political party was systematic, strategic and ordered from Mugabe and ZANU-PF's top leaders. As a woman in America, I can not imagine being sexually assaulted, along with my mother and sisters, solely based upon my membership in the democratic party. Robert Mugabe is pure evil.
Rape was political weapon, report says
Violence against foes of Zimbabwe president decried
By Celean Jacobson
Associated Press / December 11, 2009
JOHANNESBURG - Supporters of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe used rape to terrorize the political opposition during last year’s contested elections, international human rights activists said yesterday.
AIDS-Free World, led by former UNAIDS envoy Stephen Lewis, released a 64-page report that documents 380 rapes it said were committed by Mugabe loyalists.
Some 70 women linked to Zimbabwe’s opposition detailed to the group how they were raped, kept as sex slaves, and forced to watch their daughters being raped. Ten became pregnant, and many believe they were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
“These women were raped because they were politically defiant,’’ said Betsy Apple, the organization’s legal director. “It was meant to punish them and their communities.’’
Efforts to get comment from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party were not successful yesterday.
Groups monitoring the March 2008 elections reported scores of deaths and thousands of illegal arrests, assaults, and rapes by militias operating in cities and out of countryside camps. Election officials declared a runoff was necessary after the vote, but opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai dropped out, citing attacks against his supporters. Mugabe, later declared the winner, formed a unity government in February, with Tsvangirai as prime minister. Many fear the coalition will collapse, however.
“The politically orchestrated and systematic campaign of sexual violence unleashed against women who supported the opposition carves yet another chapter in the annals of Robert Mugabe’s legacy of depravity,’’ Lewis said. The rapes documented by Lewis’s organization began in 2007 but increased dramatically in 2008.
All of the women said their rapists were clearly identifiable as ZANU-PF supporters. Many arrived at the women’s homes late at night wearing party T-shirts or singing party songs.
“When the 10th man finished raping me they said they were going to rape my daughter . . . My daughter was 5 years old,’’ one woman told interviewers.
Activists are calling on the international community to help ensure perpetrators are brought to justice. The group fears the victims’ stories will be lost as the world throws support behind the unity government.
Showing posts with label violence against women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label violence against women. Show all posts
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Mob Strips Woman in Street
Let me preface this news story by saying that this was reported with little to no coverage. The context of this horrendous act are not clear at this time. However, the images tell a story of human rights abuse and sexual violence and that is why it appears on our blog.
The reason for this crime DOES NOT matter. No one should be persecuted by the public, in public under any circumstance. The fact that this mob of men man-handled this women in the busiest part of the city with no police interaction shows you just how poorly women are treated and ignored by the state.
There is a small child watching the mob strip this woman. The look in his eyes is eerie. His stone cold face is the face of the future. That is the saddest part of the story. He sees this type of violence as normal, acceptable and fun (as the smiling men in the background look on). He will grow up and perpetuate the cycle of discrimination that has kept women in Nepal from achieving any remnants of equality. This is heart-breaking.
I was just there, in the place were this woman was assaulted. I rode my bike past it everyday and now to see this, from thousands of miles away I am more horrified than ever. Justice in Nepal does not exist. Lawlessness prevails and the mob rules all.
Mob parades woman naked in Kathmandu
30 May 2009, 0019 hrs IST, TNN
Times of India
KATHMANDU: Watched by fearful children and passersby, a mob of nearly 50 young men beat up a woman and paraded her naked in the heart of capital city Kathmandu with no one daring to protest even as Nepal’s political parties said they were writing a new constitution that would empower women and other disadvantaged people.
The unidentified woman, who looked to be in her 30s, was stripped of her red printed salwar-kameez and white dupatta. Then the crowd tore off her undergarments and rained abuse and blows with lathis.
The shocking incident occurred in the Ratna Park area of Kathmandu, one of the busiest spots in the capital where new Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Friday laid down the foundation of a martyrs’ memorial.
The area, teeming with public transport and shops, is also close to a main police station. Though the cornered woman repeatedly cried out in fear, asking people to save her, nobody dared to intervene.
The woman could have been a sex worker, who abound the area, or mistaken as one. Though it happened on May 20, it came to public notice only this week with a passerby taking photographs of the scene and sending them to a Nepali blog site, Mysansar.com The blog is now appealing for justice, saying the attack is all the more shocking as it happened in the heart of the capital.
The reason for this crime DOES NOT matter. No one should be persecuted by the public, in public under any circumstance. The fact that this mob of men man-handled this women in the busiest part of the city with no police interaction shows you just how poorly women are treated and ignored by the state.
There is a small child watching the mob strip this woman. The look in his eyes is eerie. His stone cold face is the face of the future. That is the saddest part of the story. He sees this type of violence as normal, acceptable and fun (as the smiling men in the background look on). He will grow up and perpetuate the cycle of discrimination that has kept women in Nepal from achieving any remnants of equality. This is heart-breaking.
I was just there, in the place were this woman was assaulted. I rode my bike past it everyday and now to see this, from thousands of miles away I am more horrified than ever. Justice in Nepal does not exist. Lawlessness prevails and the mob rules all.
Mob parades woman naked in Kathmandu
30 May 2009, 0019 hrs IST, TNN
Times of India
KATHMANDU: Watched by fearful children and passersby, a mob of nearly 50 young men beat up a woman and paraded her naked in the heart of capital city Kathmandu with no one daring to protest even as Nepal’s political parties said they were writing a new constitution that would empower women and other disadvantaged people.
The unidentified woman, who looked to be in her 30s, was stripped of her red printed salwar-kameez and white dupatta. Then the crowd tore off her undergarments and rained abuse and blows with lathis.
The shocking incident occurred in the Ratna Park area of Kathmandu, one of the busiest spots in the capital where new Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Friday laid down the foundation of a martyrs’ memorial.
The area, teeming with public transport and shops, is also close to a main police station. Though the cornered woman repeatedly cried out in fear, asking people to save her, nobody dared to intervene.
The woman could have been a sex worker, who abound the area, or mistaken as one. Though it happened on May 20, it came to public notice only this week with a passerby taking photographs of the scene and sending them to a Nepali blog site, Mysansar.com The blog is now appealing for justice, saying the attack is all the more shocking as it happened in the heart of the capital.
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