9 off my underwear and they took turns to rape me, while holding me down by the neck," she testified.17 Forced concubinage involves the conscription or kidnapping of young girls to wash, cook, porter and have sex with soldiers and militiamen. As stated above, this occurred during the second Chimurenga18, the young women were known as zvimbido. This began again in 2000 when the government introduced the youth militia. There have been girls who escaped the camps and have told horrific stories about what goes on within the confines of the camp19. Political rape punishes individuals, families or communities who hold different political views. According to Amnesty International’s Report on Zimbabwe in 2003, the number of reported cases of rape and other forms of sexual torture perpetrated against women suspected of supporting the political opposition increased. For example, in a film20, 16-year-old Sarudzai (not her real name) recalled how she was alone in the family home with three younger siblings when militiamen surrounded it. Her father was at a funeral. Her mother was in the bush, hiding from the militia. Fearing they would set the hut on fire, Sarudzai stepped out. She was raped right there, she said, to punish her mother for supporting the opposition party. Genocidal rape, as in Rwanda and the Balkans, seeks to destroy an ethnic or political group perceived as being the enemy. In the Forum data, rape was reported in 3% of cases (8 cases). Press data indicates a frequency of 6% (26 cases). 35% of these rapes were gang rapes and in most cases the rapes were carried out in full view of the woman’s community. This accords with the view that the intention of the perpetrator is to use rape as a means of attack on the community as a whole, as indicated above. The rape having been publicly perpetrated, it may also be indicative that the reason why these rapes are reported and not others, is that silence is no longer an option. 4% of the women reported sexual abuse in press cases, which included being stripped naked in public, having their genitals poked with rifles, iron rods and fingers, as well as being ordered to simulate sexual motions. It appears as though in most cases the rape is witnessed by a number of people as some of the women are raped in front of their families or they are raped together with other women, but this is not substantiated by the legal cases. As mentioned above, the stigma of rape seems to outweigh the desire to have the perpetrators prosecuted. 17 18 19 20 “Zim women speak up” News24, 11, August, 2003 See The Man in the Middle: Torture, Resettlement and Eviction and Civil War in Rhodesia, reports by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia See the Solidarity Peace Trust report ‘'Shaping youths in a truly Zimbabwean manner” 2003 "In a Dark Time", a documentary film about sexual abuse in Zimbabwe perpetrated by pro-government militia premiered at Witwatersrand University at an event organized by the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, April 2003. “A Woman’s Place is in the Home ?” – Gender Based Violence and Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe.