Death never far away, say released convicts
From The Zimbabwean
Written by TAKESURE BIZURE
Monday, 14 September 2009 00:00
HARARE – Prison inmates released through a presidential amnesty on
Friday say they are lucky to survive their stay in the country’s jails,
described by Amnesty International in July this year as deplorable and unfit
for humans. Close to 1,000 prisoners are said to have died of hunger and
disease in Zimbabwe’s jails between January and June this year. Emaciated,
starving and sick – prisoners released early from Zimbabwe’s overcrowded,
disease-infested jails say they were lucky to survive. This picture comes
from film footage shot secretly in one of the country’s prisons for an SABC
documentary.
Released inmates interviewed by The Zimbabwean said they were thankful
to god for sparing them from the hunger and disease that have plagued the
country’s jails in the past years.
“Prison life was so tough. There was lots of disease and persistent
hunger. We were continually subjected to plain beans, boiled cabbages and
sometimes porridge,” said 25-year-old Chazika Chazika, a burglary convict
who was released from Harare central prison after completing 10 months of a
20-month sentence. An international outcry over rights abuses by President
Robert Mugabe’s government pressured the government into the early release
of 2,500 convicts under a presidential pardon.
Zimbabwe’s judge president Rita Makarau had said sentencing people to
jail terms under the current situation was tantamount to passing death
sentences on them. Film footage, shot secretly in the prisons, alerted the
world to the dire conditions faced by the starving prisoners, and
humanitarian groups sent in supplies of water, food, clothing and medicines.
Reports say the rate of deaths has since dropped from three to two per
week. Former prisoner Costa Vinyu (19) said he would rather brave poverty in
the outside world than steal and go back to the life he had experienced
during the 10 months of his incarceration. “Life was so unbearable inside.
Our prisons are not places one should go back to. Diseases were rampant and
hunger was persistent,” he said. “I thank god I survived the cholera
outbreak. Several of my friends died through the disease. Our cells were
always overcrowded. “Our diet only changed on July 12 this year, when the
Red Cross came in to donate foodstuffs. Before that, our meal times were
irregular.”
Tawanda Murodzi, another ex-inmate released after serving two years of
a five-year sentence, said inmates were constantly subjected to long periods
of starvation. “We could spend the whole day without eating anything,” he
said. “Most of the time we would go up to 9pm without taking any meal. We
would then each be given a cup of boiled cabbage. The next morning we would
drink a lot of water to stave off hunger. “We experienced diseases such as
pellagra. We saw the whole cholera havoc wreck our jails. Colleagues died in
our midst. It was a question of when the disease would catch up with us,”
said Murodzi. Among those freed were women prisoners, those in open prisons
and life inmates who had served 20 or more years. The amnesty excluded
prisoners jailed for serious crimes, including murder, rape and vehicle
hijacking.
Jubilant scenes as 2 500 prisoners freed
From The Zimbabwe Times – 12th September 2009
A television documentary produced with hidden cameras in Beitbridge in March 2009 featured these emaciated prisoners.
By Our Correspondent
HARARE – There were scenes of jubilation and celebration at Harare Central Prison on Friday as relatives reunited with their loved ones as they were released freed from prison after serving terms of incarceration.Prison authorities began releasing hordes of inmates who are beneficiaries of a recent order of clemency extended to 2 500 convicts by President Robert Mugabe.
While the total number of beneficiaries of the presidential amnesty was first reported in the state media last week as 1 544, Zimbabwe Prison Service public relations officer, Elizabeth Banda, told journalists Friday the actual number of those to be freed was 2 513.
Among those granted amnesty were all women prisoners, inmates serving three-year terms who had completed a quarter of their sentence, as well as those in open prisons and life inmates who had served 20 or more years.
The amnesty excluded prisoners jailed for serious crimes including murder, rape and vehicle hijacking.
Officials say that while Zimbabwe’s prison have a holding capacity of 17 000 inmates, the current population is about 13 000.
Elated relatives said they had been living in fear of losing their loved ones to hunger and disease in Zimbabwe’s notorious jails.
Close to 1 000 prisoners are reported to have died in Zimbabwe’s jails between January and June this year.
The death rate is said to have since dropped from three per week to two.
“I cannot believe this. For the past two nights I have not had sleep trying to contain my happiness. I will never move near a jail again,” said a visibly elated Lovemore Bvuno (63), who was released from Harare Central prison after serving for 23 years.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1986 for murder.
Christopher Munyoro (64), who had served 25 years of a life sentence for the murder of his employer, said he felt born again.
Munyoro, whose entire family died of hunger and disease while he was in prison, said he was apologetic to both his victim and family.
Toendepi Mahaso, who volunteered to speak on behalf of a batch of 30 newly freed prisoners who were paraded for their final briefing by prison officers, said he was thankful to President Mugabe for the clemency.
“I say thank you very much to the President Robert Gabriel Mugabe,” he said, speaking in English. “I say thank you very much for the clemency.
“Sometimes justice has got to be tempered with mercy. Justice must have a human face and we have seen the human face of justice today by being released before our EDR (Expected Date of Release).
“We promise we are going to behave, to do very well out there. This is not the end of the world. Imprisonment is not the end of life, this is actually the beginning of a new life. Our old life has been destroyed and we are given a new lease of life.
“That is what we have received.”
The amnesty is an attempt by the current inclusive government to ease congestion in Zimbabwe’s 42 jails.
The jails are now viewed as death camps because of their poor sanitary conditions and a perennial shortage of food and medical drugs.
The country’s prisons did not survive the deadly cholera epidemic which broke out mid-last year killing 4 000 and living more than 80 000 hospitalised.
The epidemic was only contained after the intervention of humanitarian aid groups which brought medicine and other forms of assistance that helped suppress the continued spread of the dreaded disease.
Released Zimbabwe inmates relate prison horror
From www.Zimnetradio.com
By KING SHANGO
Published on: 8th September, 2009
ZIMBABWE – HARARE – The spotlight was on Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on the outskirts of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, as 1500 prisoners were freed on a presidential amnesty decree.
The released prisoners said they were confined in overcrowded cells, measuring 9m by 4m. Typically speaking there are 25 men per cell.
Each day the men are confined to their squalid cells between the hours of 3:30pm and 7:00am. Four to five times a week they are also locked up for the guards lunch break, between the hours of 11:30am and 1:00pm.
zim NET radio was told there are no beds and so the prisoners have to sleep on mats spread out over the crowded cell floor.
Some inmates refused to wash, which resulted in blankets becoming lice infested. There is a predominance of HIV positive, practising homosexuals within this rat and lice infested prison.
The cells are shared with people in the terminal stages of AIDS, Tuberculosis, Herpes and other highly infectious diseases, as well as some prisoners who are mentally ill. This was apparent on prisoners freed Tuesday. Most of them were sick to the point of death.
Many of the infected prisoners were unable to control their bodily functions. They described scenes of prison floors and blankets being contaminated with body fluids; pus, phlegm, blood, urine, faeces.
Human rights groups said this was in contravention of Article 24 of the International Bill of Human Rights, which covers the state providing a safe environment.
The sanitary conditions they were forced to live under were a terrible threat to their well being.
———————————–
Where Were You Mr President?
Editorial from The Zimbabwean, 4 Sept 2009
The decision by President Robert Mugabe last week to grant
amnesty to more than 1 500 prisoners in order to ease congestion in jails more than anything else demonstrates all that is wrong with Zimbabwe’s leader.
His total failure to appreciate the urgency of the disaster that is Zimbabwe today, is made worse by utter contempt for the lowly minions that we ordinary Zimbabweans must be in his eyes.
Announcing the amnesty, Ministry of Justice permanent secretary David Mangota said Mugabe had finally acceded to pleas by prison officials to grant the amnesty as a “short-term relief option to try and contain some of these challenges seriously and negatively impacting on the effective and efficient administration of prisons”.
Really? Where has the President been living that he is realising only now that the country’s under-funded and over-crowded jails are essentially death camps where, to use Judge President Rita Makarau’s words, all inmates face death from disease and hunger.
In April, a South African television documentary showed shocking images of half-naked, skeletal prisoners wasting away from hunger and disease that were smuggled from some of Zimbabwe’s jails.
What did the government (read Mugabe and Zanu (PF) who control the justice system) do?
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa vehemently denied the prisoners shown in the documentary were from Zimbabwean jails, while prison commanders immediately launched a witch-hunt to identify and punish prison guards who had allowed South African journalists into the jails.
When Amnesty International condemned last June the inhuman conditions in Zimbabwe’s jails where, according to the world human rights watchdog, nearly 1 000 inmates died of hunger and disease in the first six months of this year alone, again what did Mugabe and company do?
They merely buried their heads in the sand and dismissed all these reports as propaganda by Western-funded NGOs out to tarnish the “good name” of Mugabe to aid a British and American plot to oust him from power.
That the government could deny the crisis in jails while prison mortuaries where running out of space to store corpses of dead prisoners and at the same time as it allowed the Red Cross to supply food to prisons because it was failing to do so, shows such disregard for human life you would never expect even from Zanu (PF).
And when Mugabe finally awakened to the mess in jails, it took three weeks for him to sign the amnesty order because, according to Mangota, there were “some delays” in the relevant papers reaching him.
But when you consider the fact that even after the order was signed no prisoner was released because officials are yet to identify who qualifies, it becomes difficult to avoid concluding that some of these people in government actually belong in jail.
Prison officers allegedly tortured
From The Zimbabwe Times – By Owen Chikari, 7th September 2009
MASVINGO – At least 10 prison officers based at Mutimurefu Prison on the outskirts of Masvingo city are battling for their lives at Masvingo General Hospital after they were allegedly tortured by the military police for indiscipline.
The Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has reportedly deployed military police at the main prisons countrywide to curb cases of indiscipline. Some dangerous criminals have escaped from custody while prison officers were on duty.
The 10 officers said yesterday said they were tortured for reporting for work late while senior prison officers said they were punished for unspecified cases of indiscipline.
Two of the victims were unconscious when they were brought to hospital.
“We were just told that we had reported for work late hence we were supposed to be disciplined”, said one of the officers.
“Some of us sustained serious injuries and our seniors have barred us from making a police report”.
The officer in charge of Mutimurefu Prison, Finos Masango, yesterday confirmed the prison officers were disciplined but pleaded with the media not to publish the story.
“The ten were just disciplined in a normal way and to say they were tortured is very untrue”, said Masango. “I plead with you not to publish this story because it is sensitive. Only two sustained serious injuries while others were just treated for minor injuries.”
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice David Mangota yesterday professed ignorance over the issue but vowed to investigate the case.
“I am not aware of that but right now I am going to institute investigations so that a full report is forwarded to me within two days”, said Mangota.
Zimbabwe’s prisons are overcrowded. Last week President Robert Mugabe pardoned about 1500 prisoners.
Cases of inmates escaping from custody after paying bribes to prison officials are on the increase in the country.
According to reliable sources this has prompted the ministry to deploy military police at its main prisons to curb cases of indiscipline.
“The military police have been deployed in all the country’s prisons to instill discipline among officers”, said the source.
“However, in some cases some of the military police personnel beat people severely hence the incident at Mutimurefu”.
Last year about six inmates, most of them facing serious criminal charges, escaped from Masvingo Remand Prison after allegedly paying cash in return for their freedom.
Two of the inmates were re-arrested while the rest are still at large. Four prison officers were later arrested while the officer in charge has since been fired.
Amnesty for petty offenders as thousands die in jail
From The Zimbabwean – 2nd September 2009
HARARE-With nowhere else to run and few people left to blame, President Robert Mugabe has conceded that the country’s prison system has collapsed while inmates continue to succumb to treatable diseases.
So serious is the situation that President Mugabe was forced to make an order that has been cited as the Clemency Order No 1 of 2009 through the government gazette Vol LXXXVII, No 60 of 21 August 2009 which serves to release inmates from custody in a variety of categories.
At least 1 544 inmates are expected to benefit from the President’s mercy.
The dire circumstances had led to trials failing to take place effectively trampling on the constitutional rights of suspects and prisoners.
Last month, the Justice Ministry committed itself to alleviating the plight of prisoners whose death toll had risen to over 1000 in the first four months of the year.
In light of the above and the in concurrence with the 100 day government plan, the Zimbabwe Prison Service through its acting public relations officer Elizabeth Banda said: “Due to inadequate financial resources coupled with the unfavorable economic environment, the ZPS has faced challenges in fulfilling its set objectives and statutory obligations which include provision of prisoners’ rations, clothing and bedding, toiletries and transport among others.
“As a short term relief option to try and contain some of these challenges seriously and negatively impacting on the effective and efficient administration of prisoners, a proposal to have a general amnesty granted to inmates was submitted to the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs.”
Categories which have been cited include; full remission of remainder of sentences for convicted female prisoners, save for those serving for specified offences, full remission of remainder of sentences for convicted juveniles, full remission of sentences for prisoners sentenced to 36 months and below who will have served a quarter of their sentences save for those serving specified offences, full remission of remaining period of imprisonment to all terminally ill prisoners upon certification by a prison medical officer of government medical officer of the fact that they are unlikely to survive their prison terms provided they are not serving for specified offences.”
Banda said a full remission of sentence has been granted to all inmates serving terms of imprisonment at open prisons provided they are not serving specified offences.
She added that all inmates sentenced to life in prison or to long terms of imprisonment on or before May 31 1989 and have served 20 years of more have also been granted full remission of the remaining period of imprisonment.
Prisoners excluded from amnesty include those on death row, habitual criminals serving a sentence of extended imprisonment, any person who escaped from custody and is still at large, person on bail pending appeal against conviction or sentence, persons serving sentences imposed by a court martial and persons serving sentences of imprisonment for a specified offence.
Specified offences include murder, rape or any sexual offence, carjacking, armed robbery, stock theft, tampering with apparatus for generating, transmitting, distributing or supplying electricity with results of electricity interruption or cutting off and damaging destroying or interfering with any apparatus for generating transmitting distributing or supplying electricity. Conspiracy and being an accessory to the offences above.
