Achain of government terror camps, in which young men are indoctrinated with propaganda and trained in violence, intimidation and torture, is being re-established in Zimbabwe in advance of next year's election.
The camps are part of the so-called national youth service training scheme set up in 2001. Graduates were formed into hit squads who terrorised President Mugabe's opponents in the 2002 election campaign. Now Mugabe associates, including Intelligence Minister Didymus Mutasa and Deputy Minister of Youth, Saviour Kasukuwere, have been told to reinvigorate old camps and establish new ones. A source said: "The strategy is to set up three camps in each main city, and four more in rural areas known to be sympathetic to the opposition MDC."
A camp has already been set up in Bulawayo's Mpopoma suburb.
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‘We were told anyone who did not agree with the policies of Mugabe deserved to die’
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are recruited using threats and promises; they are told they will not be accepted at colleges or employed in the public sector without a certificate of attendance.
The government says it is educating youths in the nation's history. Critics say it's the Hitler Youth all over again.
One camp instructor admitted: "They will learn how to handle guns and how to effect physical and mental torture."
Past experience indicates that squads from the camps will turn parts of the country into no-go areas for supporters of the opposition MDC, setting up road blocks and threatening, beating and turning away anyone who cannot produce a Zanu-PF membership card.
In town, they will target grass-roots MDC activists, and use torture and violence to make them abandon their constituencies.
In January 2002 an Amnesty International  |
