The girls were eventually released when their fathers came to the camp and demanded to know if they were there. They were taken to hospital and treated for their injuries. They were lacerated from the repeated rapes and also bruised and sore from several days of being manhandled and tied up. The police refused to investigate the rape cases, saying they were “political”. After leaving hospital, Thoko was terrified of remaining in her home area because the youth militia camp was still there. She immediately ran away. She went to the Midlands in Zimbabwe where she had a girlfriend who was one of a group of female gold panners. Within two weeks of her arrival there, she heard that her mother had died. Her mother had been an invalid and Thoko had been very close to her. She heard that her mother had died of a broken heart because of what had happened to Thoko. She was too scared to go to her mother’s funeral, because of the youth militia, and still feels very bad about that, and somehow guilty that her rape caused her mother to die. Thoko remained with the gold panners for a year, trying to earn enough money to buy Rands to get to South Africa. She felt very unsafe all of this time, and avoided men. She felt she would be unsafe as long as she was in Zimbabwe, because youth militia were everywhere. When she had enough money to leave, by early 2004, she went to Beitbridge with friends who intended to cross the border. She was one of 73 who crossed the river one night in January 2004. The river was very full, and she was terrified. Crocodiles closed in on them and she said it was the worst experience of her life. She cried a great deal talking about this night. Thoko and her friends took a taxi to Johannesburg. She had her aunt’s address, which is near the main road between Pretoria and Johannesburg, so the taxi driver took her straight there and her aunt took her in. On arrival, Thoko went into emotional decline and became very depressed. Thoko’s aunt is also a political refugee, having been in MDC structures and having been harassed. Her brother (Thoko’s uncle) was beaten to death during the same election period in which Thoko was raped. Neither the aunt nor Thoko has an ASP, to date (October 2004). One of the other girls who was raped at the same time as Thoko has since died. Thoko has had psychological support through the NGO network in Johannesburg and her condition is much improved. However, if she was ever deported back to Zimbabwe, there is a strong likelihood of her becoming suicidally depressed again. She is convinced that if she went back, the youth militia would seize her and rape her again. Case Two: “James” Interviewee: James is around 40 years old, an MDC middle ranking official from Mashonaland Central. He is married with children and was harassed by war veterans on several occasions ahead of the presidential elections in March 2002. James is a car mechanic by profession and worked in a garage prior to fleeing Zimbabwe. He had never been to South Africa prior to 2001. Comment from interviewer: James was interviewed in Durban in March 2004. He presented as somebody in a deep state of existential despair. At one point during the interview, when he talked about missing his family, 84