Humanitarian Crisis in Zimbabwean Prisons: Death Camps!

Zimbabwe, the country of poverty, hunger and death… Zimbabwe, the country where the annual inflation rate is over 231 million percent, the unemployment rate is over 90 percent and thousands of people die just because of cholera every year… This country has witnessed almost every kind of incomprehensibly dramatic event, yet here the Mugabe government has plumbed new depths in its disregard for basic humanitarian values- weak and diseased inmates living in the squalid conditions of Zimbabwe's overcrowded jails succumb to starvation at the hands of the authorities:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sficbH6QvUI[/youtube]

As can clearly be seen from the images taken by a hidden camera, prisoners are deliberately left hungry and given no medication. Only a bowl of corn is given daily to each prisoner, while many prison officers are selling these meagre supplies on the black market. Even prisoners given food can barely bring it to their mouths. Annah Y. Moyo, a Zimbabwean lawyer who is working with the Southern African Center for Survivors of Torture, stated that the conditions in Zimbabwean prisons were “a form of torture.” This is more than torture. The corrupt regime of the Mugabe government is committing a crime against humanity.

To those who think that there is exaggeration or manipulation at work here, the recent statement of Roy Bennet, a former opposition politician who is now a part of Zimbabwe's unity government, illustrates the tragic level of the situation. He stated that during his one month imprisonment before being granted bail in an arms case, five people died and it took authorities 24 to 48 hours to collect the bodies from the jails.

While some are losing factories as a consequence of the financial crisis others have been suffering in Zimbabwe...