32 Since the discovery of the Marange diamond fields in June 2006, the impoverished but previously peaceful Chiadzwa district has been the epicentre of horrifying violence, vicious cruelty and massscale exploitation. Five years on, gross human rights abuses are still taking place, perpetrated by soldiers from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the Zimbabwe Republic Police. Witnesses who met with the BBC Panorama crew at a remote rendezvous on the Mozambique border told of a torture camp, known locally as ‘Diamond Base’, located in the diamond fields and run by soldiers and police. Ringed with razor wire, it is near an area known as Zengeni and is less than 2km from Mbada. A second camp is located in nearby Muchena. 134 The prisoners are mainly civilians recruited to mine diamonds for the police or military and they’re being punished for demanding too much pay or for mining for themselves. “It’s a place of torture where sometimes miners are unable to walk on account of the beatings,” a victim who was released from the main camp in February told the BBC. 135 A released prisoner explained, “They beat us 40 whips in the morning, 40 in the afternoon and 40 in the evening….” 136 In South Africa, the BBC spoke to a former member of a paramilitary police unit who had worked in the camp in 2008. He admitted to torturing prisoners by carrying out mock drownings, burning or setting trained dogs on them. 137 A former member of a paramilitary police unit told the BBC that a woman was bitten on the breast by the dogs while he was working in the camp. 138 “I do not think she survived,” he said. A witness saw a dog trainer set his dog on a prisoner whose hands had been handcuffed behind his back. He was bleeding profusely, his ear was torn off and his finger was nearly severed. His whole body was covered in blood.” 139 Witnesses said the camps had been operating for at least three years. “The three top officials implicated in ordering the operation are Robert Mugabe, Constantine Chiwenga and Perence Shiri – the same men behind the Gukurahundi massacres of the mid- http://dclacertificationlaboratory.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html 134 BBC Panorama, ‘Diamond field: Zimbabwe torture camp discovered’, 8 August 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14377215 135 BBC Panorama, Marange diamonds: ‘Zim denies torture camp’, 9 August 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14468116#story_continues_1 136 BBC Panorama, ‘Diamond field: Zimbabwe torture camp discovered’, (notes from script) 8 August 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14377215 137 BBC Panorama, ‘Diamond field: Zimbabwe torture camp discovered, 8 August 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14377215 138 SW Radio Africa, ‘Chiadzwa torture camps exposed’, 8 August 2011: http://www.swradioafrica.com/news080811/chiadzwa080811.htm 139 BBC Panorama, ‘Diamond field: Zimbabwe torture camp discovered’, (notes from script) 8 August 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14377215