A serving soldier has confessed that he committed at least
one rape in a violent crack down in Harare.
"Our lieutenant told us to go in and find them. We got
our information of where the Movement for Democratic Change activists live from
members of our party, Zanu PF," the soldier told the Telegraph this week.
According to his own account, the soldier would take part
in systematically breaking legs and would personally commit at least one rape
in a door-to-door operation on the night of January 15.
The soldier the Telegraph said he had no regrets and freely
admitted to committing a rape. “It was night. We were looking for someone in
the MDC. We had an address, this lady was sleeping with a light on. I asked is
her husband there, and she said she doesn't have one. I was done in a
minute," he said.
The man also said his unit, who wore civilian overalls and
no insignia during the operation, broke “many bones” of MDC supporters by
pinioning them to the open back panel of an army pick up truck and then
smashing it closed on their legs.
"We are going to deal with people calling for
demonstrations. They will hide under doors, under beds. The schoolchildren who
joined the demonstrations, most of them are MDC, and most of them are taught by
their parents to do this.
"And so we have to beat them. We stopped them. Don’t
believe we didn’t stop them. We did. We will do this again,” he said.
A solider in a different regiment said he had been sent on
a similar punitive expedition in poor townships last week.
Trade Unions and the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change called protests and a strike after President Emmerson Mnanagagwa
announced a hike in petrol prices on January 12.
Hundreds of people were arrested in the subsequent
crackdown on protests, which the government says was a justified response to
street violence and looting.
Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she had not
received any reports of rape.
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