3
Table 2.
Impact torture reported by survivors.
Beating
Severe beating
Exposure
Suspension, hanging
Sustained posture
Submarino(wet & dry)
Burnings
Electrical shock
Rape
Other
76%
81%
20%
36%
15%
20%
10%
24%
7%
10%
However, physical torture was not the only form of torture experienced, as Table 3 below indicates, and psychological
torture too was common. It is unwise to underestimate the consequences of psychological torture, for there is
considerable clinical and experimental data to demonstrate its adverse effects. Furthermore, Table 1 above indicates the
scale of the witnessing of violence, and supports the notion that the community was a target.
Table 3.
Psychological torture reported
by survivors.
Verbal abuse
Threats against person
False accusations
Sexual abuse
Threats against family
Simulated execution
Abuse with excrement
Other
74%
62%
63%
12%
33%
29%
7%
4%
These data have dealt with the individual or conventional forms of torture, those aimed at individuals, usually political
activists, but they do not accurately describe the more social purpose of torture, that of destroying communal action and
political will. In Zimbabwe, this purpose can be described clearly, particularly in respect of the post-Independence
violence. During the 1970’s, a policy of forced villagisation was instituted: termed "keeps" or "protected villages", the
population was forced to reside in these villages by night with a strict dawn-to-dusk curfew imposed. Between 1973 and
1978 almost 750 000 rural people were forced into keeps throughout Zimbabwe. The life within these villages was
extremely hard, and malnutrition, starvation, overcrowding, and inadequate sanitation were commonplace, as the
investigations of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) demonstrated (CCJP.1976; CCJP.1975). The
aim of this policy was to destroy the possibility of support for the guerrillas, but popular support for a just cause could
not be suppressed, and Table 4 (over) illustrates, just how they saw themselves as active in the process of liberation.