Mugabe faces Massive Protest by Peta Thornycroft , Harare The Guardian 12:27pm 19th Mar, 2003   Harare, March 19. 2003    Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans were preparing for a general strike yesterday called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the first mass action against President Robert Mugabe since his rigged re-election last year.    Supermarkets, coffee shops, newsagents, even in Harare's upmarket suburbs, all said they were not opening for business.    "We didn't close down before, but this time, it is make or break," said the financial director of a major industrial company east of Harare.    Protests are planned along with the strike, and a woman in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, said: "There won't be room in the jails, they will be full by tomorrow night. That's how it has to be."    The strike follows a decision at the weekend by Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon to extend Zimbabwe's year-long suspension until the heads of government meeting in Nigeria in December. "Zimbabwe deserves its continued suspension," he said. "The situation is worse, not better, than a year ago."    South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo had campaigned for Zimbabwe's readmission.    The protests come to a head as human rights workers and church groups report that rape is being used as a political weapon by the youth militia and other groups allied to Zimbabwe's ruling party.    Zimbabwe's human rights forum reports seven cases of politically motivated rape last year, alongside 58 murders and 1061 cases of torture. But the reported rapes, verified by medical examinations and interviews, are just the tip of the iceberg, human rights workers say.    "There is a serious problem of political rape in Zimbabwe. The documented cases are low, but there is considerable stigma and fear about reporting rape," said Tony Reeler, human rights defender for the Institute for Democratic Alternatives for Southern Africa.    "From enormous anecdotal evidence, we know the number is much higher. The victims are mostly young females, relatively uneducated, poor, rural, the most vulnerable members of society. Many urgently require anti-retrovirals for HIV infection."    The trauma of rape is evident in the dull gaze of Sithulisiwe, 21. For eight months she was held captive at a "youth camp" for President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, where, she says, she was repeatedly gang raped and tortured. She said she was abducted in December 2001 and marched to a camp in a Bulawayo suburb.    "It was surrounded by security guards so we could not get out," she said. "There were hundreds of us. We were fed horsemeat and rotten food . . . We were raped by the boys. I can't even count how many times by how many different men. If we complained . . . we were beaten and they would call us sell-outs to the MDC."    - Telegraph, Guardian Visit the related web page
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