3 PAST AND PRESENT TORTURE As was pointed out previously, it is not surprising that torture would emerge on an epidemic scale in 2008, since all governments since 1965 have resorted to its use when the political stakes were raised high enough. Nonetheless, there seems a correspondingly poor appreciation of the long-term consequences of the widespread use of torture, and it is fortunate that there are a good number of studies that demonstrate the long-term effects of torture. Before examining the prevalence and nature of the torture since 2000, and especially 2008, it is worth looking briefly at what are the likely consequences to the victims of this recent epidemic. This section is based on a series of unpublished reports by the Amani Trust, and involves a contrast between chronic survivors – those from the Liberation War of the 1970s – and a sample of acute survivors seen by the Amani Trust between 2000 and 2002. For this report, there were 988 cases available, which were obtained from a data base relating to the 1970s [402], as well as the data relating to the period 2000 to 2002 [586]. This data was combined into a single data set, using all the indicators that were common to the two periods. Since the assessment procedures were not exactly the same, there were some indicators and measures that were unique to one of other of the periods, and these were eliminated from the data set. At any rate, the unique indicators or measures had been previously reported upon36. This gave 40 fields in common for the two data sets. Some measures could be edited for the purposes of comparison. For example, the 1970’s assessment used the Self-Reporting Questionnaire [SRQ-20], whilst contemporary assessments made use of the SRQ-8. However, since the items forming the SRQ-8 are drawn from the SRQ-20, the study was able to extract the common items, and hence compare the two groups on a common psychiatric screening instrument37. As regards the whole sample [988], there were some interesting findings, but, demographically, there were no surprises: 70% were male, nearly half [45%] were married, just over 70% had either primary or secondary school education, and over 75% were unemployed. About 11% had been detained, whilst 35% had had an adult witness their ill-treatment, and 23% had had a child witness such ill-treatment. There were a high number of different torture types reported, with psychological torture being the most common, and certainly the most common if combined with witnessing. Of the physical abuse reported, beatings and severe beatings were far and away the most common forms of abuse reported, as is generally the case in all studies of torture. The probability of experiencing Impact torture38 and Psychological torture39 together was very high, which was unsurprising. The survivors reported many symptoms, both physical and psychological. On the Present Health Status Questionnaire40, they reported more physical than psychological symptoms, and some had so many symptoms than they could be diagnosed as suffering from somatoform disorder. 46% reported a problem with sleeping. More than a third of the sample [34.9%] reported scores on the SRQ-8 that were in the clinically significant range. However, the instruments used in assessment appear to have different properties, as was noted in other Zimbabwean studies41. It would appear that the Present Health Status Questionnaire [PHSQ] picked up symptoms related to physical abuse, whilst the SRQ-8 picked up psychological disturbance, as would be expected. When the data was examined with regard to time period, then a number of differences emerged between the 1970s and post-2000. The 1970s group reported significantly higher rates of Impact torture, as well as many more types of torture overall, as well as there being a much greater probability of a survivor’s abuse being witnessed in the 1970s. However, there were much higher rates of detention taking place in the recent time period [2002 to 2002]. The mean SRQ-8 score was significantly higher in the 1970s group, which suggests that chronicity may be operating here. Reported sleep problems were more common in the 2000-2002 groups. 36 37 38 39 40 41 See Amani (2005), The Medical and Psychological Consequences of the Liberation War. A report on survivors from Mashonaland Central Province, Zimbabwe. HARARE: AMANI TRUST [unpublished]; Amani (2005), Organised Violence and Torture in Contemporary Zimbabwe [2000 to 2002]. A Report prepared by the Amani Trust. September 2005. HARARE: AMANI TRUST [unpublished]. The Self-Reporting Questionnaires [SRQ-20 and SRQ-8] are psychiatric screening instruments, originally developed by the WHO, and widely used in Zimbabwe and throughout the Third World. See Reeler, A.P.(1991), Psychological disorders in primary care and the development of clinical services: An African perspective, THE PSYCHOLOGIST, 4, 349-353. Impact torture was defined in the Amani studies as both forms of physical abuse and deprivation. Simply, each of these categories resulted in physical pain, either by inflicting abuse, such as a beating, or removing something (to the same effect), such as deprivation of food or water. Psychological torture was defined as psychological torture, such as threats, sensory overstimulation, and witnessing. The Present Health Status Questionnaire [PHSQ] is a 22-item self-report questionnaire comprised on items on symptoms commonly seen in torture survivors and was derived from an early study of torture survivors. Here see Rasmussen,O.V. (1990), Medical Aspects of Torture: Torture types and their relation to symptoms and lesions in 200 victims, followed by a description of the medical profession in relation to torture, DAN. MED.BULL., 37, 1-88. See also Amani (1997), Assessment of the Consequences of Torture and Organised Violence: A manual for field workers, (revised), HARARE: AMANI. See, for example, Amani (1998), Survivors of Torture and Organised Violence from the 1970 War of Liberation, HARARE: AMANI. Page 9