ZIMBABWE: 'Raped By Mugabe's Thugs '

Rutendo Munengani, wife of MDC-T legislator for Glen View North Fani Munengami, says she will never forgive President Robert Mugabe after she was raped by a soldier while her nine-month old son watched in horror.

Mugabe, who is the commander-in-chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), has always used the security services whenever he feels cornered in his three-decade-long rule.

In an emotion filled testimony at the launch of a report, Cries from Goromonzi: Inside Zimbabwe's Torture Chambers by Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on Thursday, Munengami said she was still traumatised by the brutal rape in 2003 at their lodgings in Harare's Glen View suburb.

She said at least 10 soldiers clad in military gear forced their way into her bedroom, beating her up and demanding to know where her husband was.

When they failed to locate the husband one of the soldiers turned on her. "He went ahead to ask 'sei wakashamira mutengesi?" (why are you dressed in skimpy clothes for a sellout)," she narrated with tears flowing down her cheeks.

"He walked towards me and lifted my nightdress and raped me once in front of my nine-month old son."

After the ordeal, Munengami said, she was force-marched outside and positively identified the late Zanu PF political commissar Elliot Manyika who was seated in one of the cars.

She sustained broken hands and fingers. One of her fingers is now dysfunctional.

Due to the rape and torture, Munengami was hospitalised for several weeks at a private clinic in Harare. She was tested for HIV/Aids and luckily for her, the results were negative.

When she was discharged from the clinic, she found out her children had been neglected as there was no one to look after them because her husband had fled to Botswana.

"Upon my release, I discovered that my two children were suffering from kwashiorkor and this further traumatised me because I was not there to look after them," she said.

As if the rape was not enough, Munengami was evicted from her lodgings because the landlord feared that the soldiers would come for her again. Even her own relatives could not accommodate her.

Munengami's marriage nearly collapsed after relatives heard about the rape.

Even her husband had a hard time accepting her back, she said.

"My marriage was affected as it took my husband time to get over the rape ordeal," said Munengami, who is now expecting her third child.

Although the courts ordered the army to compensate her, nothing has materialised.

Efforts to get a comment from the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) spokesperson Colonel Overson Mugwizi were fruitless.

Another female victim, Rosy Mupfawa of Mutoko in Mashonaland East province said she was in June 2008 force-marched to a "base" manned by Zanu PF militia where she was severely tortured.

Her assailants tore her clothes off including underwear, touching her private parts and teasing her that she was MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's "prostitute".

"One of the men started beating me again with planks and just when I thought the worst was over, he stuck a thick tree stump into my vagina tearing off part of my 'vaginal bean'(clitoris)," said Mupfawa in the report.

"At that moment, I collapsed and when I awoke, I found myself at a grave site near the base.

"I am sure these barbarians dumped me there thinking that I was dead."

Mupfawa was a member of the MDC-T electoral team during the 2008 general elections.

Munengami said the national healing process by the unity government was problematic because it does not address the issue of compensation.

"Some women who were, like me, raped are now HIV positive, others lost their husbands, yet the government has done nothing to assist us," she complained.

The 83-page report details accounts of 23 people who were allegedly tortured in detention camps by state agents and Zanu PF members.

The launch of the report coincided with the third anniversary of the March 11 2007 arrest, assault and torture of civil society activists and then opposition leaders on their way to a Save Zimbabwe Campaign Rally in Highfield.

Those arrested and tortured included Tsvangirai and national Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman Lovemore Madhuku.