5. Impact of violence on children The above figures do not take into account the impact of displacement on children. It is winter in Zimbabwe, with temperatures dropping at night, and many families are sleeping in the open for days at a time. Children of displaced families are showing up in Harare weak with hunger and suffering from bad colds and flu as a result of being exposed to very poor living conditions. A doctor recently reported a young mother whose arms had both been broken, who was unable to carry or care in any way for her one month old, breast-feeding baby. It is stating the obvious to say that the welfare of children, both emotional and physical, is severely compromised when a parent is beaten, particularly in front of that child. The shock and damage to a child’s sense of the world that occurs when its homestead is burnt down, or its parents are publicly insulted and /or beaten in their presence cannot be adequately conveyed. The consequences of this violence will live on as these children grow. Displacement right at the beginning of the school term has seriously jeopardised the welfare of children, particularly those due to write public exams this year. Furthermore, school teachers are among those being targeted in rural Zimbabwe, and war veterans have set up bases either at or in the vicinity of schools. This has resulted in difficulties in both teachers and children attending schools in many areas of Zimbabwe, including in areas not as yet badly affected by violence, such as in rural Matabeleland. The numbers of children whose welfare has in one context or another been detrimentally affected thus runs to thousands beyond those who have - shockingly - been actually assaulted in the last few weeks. 6. Gender • • Pre election 6 women reported violations, which was 9% Post election 101 women reported violations which was 16% Of these, 18 were women injured in a single WOZA demonstration in Bulawayo. Women of all ages have been injured, with a grandmother of over 80 being axed in the head. The violence has clearly been brutally indiscriminate at times. Women have not been spared the violence, and while few have so far reported rape, the prevalence of reports of women being abducted into torture camps to “cook” for the war vets and the youth, would suggest that such reports could surface in the months to come. 7. Reported violations and medical findings The violence of the past six weeks in Zimbabwe has been savage. Results here pertain only to April and by mid May a further 1,000 victims had been seen by ZADHR. • Out of 681 people reporting violations, 440 had sufficiently severe injuries to warrant seeing a doctor (65%). • Of these 106 were admitted to hospital. (25%) • 104 people reported beatings and ill treatment sufficiently severe to qualify as torture. • 52 people had suffered fractures by the end of April, and 6 had dislocations (14%). • During the first weeks in May, the number of fractures and lacerations, particularly from Mashonaland Central, had escalated to such a degree that every hospital in the region ran out of Plaster of Paris and suturing material. (Exact numbers of fractures in May not yet to hand) • 23 people showed evidence of falanga – beatings to the soles of the feet, which is a pernicious form of torture that does long lasting damage to nerve endings resulting in pain in the feet for decades afterwards. • There were 674 types of soft tissue damage noted in these 440 clients, including welts, lacerations, haematomas, bruising, swelling and abrasions. 45