14 important clue to the nature of the violence and whether the sexual violence is part of planned programme as in Bosnia or Rwanda. There are four broad categories that can be distinguished here: • Genocidal rape where the intention is to destroy an ethnic or political group; • Political rape, where there is intention to use sexual violence against women as a tool to punish individuals, families, or communities; or to create fear in individuals, families, and communities; or to force individuals, families, and communities to accept a particular political power; • Forced concubinage, where women are forced into sexual relationships for their and their families survival, usually occurring during wars, civil wars, or in situations of massive internal conflict; • Opportunistic rape, which usually occurs during wars and the like, where military personnel or militia take advantage of the destabilised situation and lack of civilian control to rape women. There is no assertion here that the first category has been found in contemporary Zimbabwe, although there are assertions that this might have occurred during the Gukurahundi period in the 1980s. However, there have many reports of rape since February 2000, and these reports illustrate all the latter three categories. It is worth firstly noting that women have not been spared from torture during the violence that has occurred since February 2000. One study, of commercial farm workers, showed firstly a very high prevalence of torture, but also those women were a substantial percentage (42%) of the total xxiv. Where women and girls are not exempt from torture, then rape is more probable. The prevalence of political rape is unknown, but several reports quite clearly indicate political rape has occurred. It should not be thought that sexual violence is confined to women, although it is rarely reported that men are sexually assaulted. The following case is thus unusual, but illustrates sexual violence aimed at both men and women, and seems a combination of both political and opportunistic rape. Case: AG (2 January 2002) AG was abducted from his home at night by 4 men and taken in a car to a farm (thought to be called ‘Chidikamwedzi’ in the MZB forest). He was beaten with sticks all over his body, particularly on his buttocks and put with a group of about 50 others who are made to work in the fields and deprived of proper food. He was forced to have sex with women whilst the others were watching. They were also forced to watch war veterans having sex with some of the women in the group and men were made to have sex with other men. He was kept at the base for 2 weeks then they took him and left him on the road to Centenary. He found his way home, but fearing for his life he sought refuge in Harare. His wife has now joined him and tells him that his house has been burnt down. AG was very tearful and disturbed at the interview, had bad chest pains and a STD. The issue of forced concubinage has generated enormous controversy in Zimbabwe during the past year. With both young men and women being forced to attend meetings at militia bases, there have been continuous allegations of young women being forced to undergo intercourse. In a parody of the Liberation War, women have been forced to live at the bases and provide cooking and other domestic duties for the men. This has led to one highly publicised protest by the mothers of young women, and continual comment in the pages of the local press xxv. The Perpetrators of Gross Human Rights Violations in the current violence in Zimbabwe.