THIS IS WHAT TSVANGIRAI IS TO FORGIVE MUGABE FOR!

PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS
Psychological torture too defies easy description, but all forms identified share common elements in the creation of extreme fear in a situation of uncontrollability. However, uncontrollability is a factor common to most torture methods, and, furthermore, it is difficult in practice to make clear distinctions between the effects of general psychological torture, and the specific anguish caused by "witnessing" and "disappearances". The clearest distinctions can always be found between what are termed "impact torture" and "non-impact torture" where the presence of physical injuries is the major difference. As can be seen below in the findings reported by Rasmussen, the variety of forms of psychological torture is very wide.

TYPES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE (from Rasmussen.1990)
Threats 85%
Threats of execution 60%
Undressed 45%
Threats towards family members 43%
Sham execution 31%
Sexual verbal assaults 20%
Changing attitudes(hard/soft) 12%
Noise torture 5%
Excrement abuse 3%
Non-therapeutic use of drugs 4%
Torture via exposure to animals 1%

Physical torture in itself must always have psychological consequences, and psychological torture therefore is probably the most common form of torture used. Psychological torture is also frequently applied on its own, and can be very successful in causing both short-term and long-term damage to a person. Psychological torture should therefore not be seen as a lesser form of ill treatment. Threats, verbal abuse, mock executions, and the like are all intended to convey fear and instill obedience and, furthermore, usually convey some threat for the future. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE IN THE 1980s
 Entire communities consisting of thousands of people were subjected to psychological torture. The "Commander Jesus speech" above is a good example of the way the 5th Brigade often prefaced their arrival in an area with dire threats against all residents of Matabeleland. Any subsequent meeting with 5th Brigade after such a speech would cause acute fear and anxiety for civilians. 5th Brigade also often used the salutary execution of randomly selected people as a threat of further executions in communities. People would also be detained and threatened with executions which were then not carried out.

Forced nudity was also a psychological weapon at times: the Tsholotsho case study reports the forced stripping of entire village communities before mass beating and other cases where people were selectively stripped in front of their communities. The effectiveness of this strategy in causing extreme humiliation, anger and helplessness is evident from the interviews. In Matabeleland South in particular, there were frequently verbal sexual abuse and insults. Some interviews report 5th Brigade making sexual suggestions to naked victims, including suggesting forced sex between related family members, or between school children, or between people and animals. In addition, some political detainees were interrogated while naked.

The following statement is part of a far longer statement made to project personnel in October 1996 by a man who was sixteen in 1984 - Interview Case Number 3737. He was detained with 12 others from his village on the day the curfew began, and was among the first ever to arrive at Bhalagwe. As in all the previous testimonies, his case serves to illustrate several types of physical and psychological torture: threatened execution is just one.

The 5th Brigade herded everyone in our village together, about 70 or more people. From 6 a.m. until 11 a.m. we were beaten, including women and children, with sticks and fan belts. Then they chose 12 people to come to Bhalagwe - 4 women and 8 men. 2 of the women were old and 2 were schoolgirls. 3 of the men were schoolboys, including myself: I was sixteen.

We were taken first to Kezi, and the 5th Brigade told us we were being taken there to be shot. When we arrived, they told us we would be taken two by two at 1p.m. and be shot. When 1 o'clock came, they told us they had decided to throw us down a mine instead. They then loaded us in a truck and drove off. We thought we were being taken to be killed, but we were brought to Bhalagwe....

At Bhalagwe the charge office was full of blood. We had to sit in lines outside the office waiting our turn to be beaten. When you were in front of the line, you knew it was your turn next. The beatings started at 5.30 a.m. I saw 2 people being shot, and 7 being beaten to death. Very many died, but I helped to bury only these 9 I saw die. I dug their graves. People were buried two or three to a grave....
There are large numbers of persons who reported witnessing others being abused. This is reported from the mass beatings, the "pungwes", and the places of detention, both interrogation centres and Bhalagwe camp. The following case illustrates the point by reference to a pungwe. This case was recorded in the form of a sworn statement by a 31 year old man from a village near Donkwe Donkwe, in Matobo, made to CCJP officials on 8 March 1984.

In the morning of 5 February, 1984, soldiers came to our village and told us to go to Dingi Store. We were made to wriggle like snakes towards the store. When we got there I saw other people already gathered, and some of them were being beaten while lying down, by about nineteen soldiers.
When we joined the gathering we were made to run around while being beaten; others were beaten lying down. There were men, women and children who could roughly fill two and a half buses (200?) The soldiers hit us with mapani sticks and kicked us with their boots.

The soldiers were speaking Shona and through an interpreter they were saying, "You support dissidents."We were being beaten at the shop from about sunrise until about 10 a.m. Then afterwards we were all taken behind our houses to a spot about 100 metres away where there are two mapani trees and we were made to sit down. The soldiers asked for two picks and two shovels and they were brought to them.

While some were being beaten, others were told to fight each other while at the same time being beaten by soldiers. Others were lying down while being beaten. As this was going on soldiers were selecting six young men at random. Three were put on one side and three on the other side of the crowd. Two soldiers then shot dead the three in one group, and two other soldiers also shot dead the three young men in the other group.

The other men and women and children who were sitting down were asked to sing while soldiers went among them beating them up. We were singing things like "Pansi loNkomo, Pambili loMugabe." Some songs were in Ndebele and others were in Shona.

two groups the older people were asked to dig two graves quickly or they themselves would be buried in the graves. The rest of the people in the meantime were being asked to sing and dance while being beaten. I dug the grave in which my brother was buried - two faced one side and the other in the opposite direction. The graves were shallow, about thigh deep. They were buried in their clothes. The burial arrangements for the second grave were the same as for the first. We covered the graves after which we were made to join the others in the singing while being beaten.

At about 4 p.m. a group of about nineteen young men carried the bags of the soldiers and went away with the soldiers. These young men had come along with the soldiers in the morning. We were told by the soldiers to wait for five minutes after they left before we could go back to our homes. My younger brother heard one shot as they left, and the following morning we heard that soldiers had killed GD near the store.

I arrived in Bulawayo on 11 February at about 2 p.m. having left home on foot on 5 February at night. I was sick and bleeding through the mouth and that is why it took me so long to get here. I used to sleep in the bush. I spent two days without food, and afterwards I would ask for food at kraals along the way.
There are a significant number or reports that mention being witness to an execution. This is also a factor that many survivors from the Chimurenga mention. In Mount Darwin, survivors of such multiple abuses were all found to be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: the same would be expected for 1980s survivors. People in Matabeleland and the Midlands have now been subjected to two successive periods of intense violence and the witnessing of violence. It is therefore important for the future that the effects of the massed, public violence be examined.

WITNESSING OF ORGANISED VIOLENCE
Some earlier workers in the field of traumatic stress argued that civilian populations were little affected by war. Rachman, for example, claimed that there was little evidence of increased psychological disorder during the Second World War in the United Kingdom (Rachman.1986). However, there was little direct investigation of trauma in civilian populations until the last decade, and, following the invention of PTSD (see section following), there has been the continual demonstration of psychological disorder in populations in situations of war and civil conflict. These situations are usefully described by the term "High War Zone Stress", but can equally be described as "witnessing".

The term, High War Zone Stress, was originally applied to differentiate soldiers in combat settings from those in non-combat zones, and examined how frequent experience of military fighting, or proximity to people being killed, affected fears about oneself being killed. Sadly, High War Zone Stress is today not unique to military personnel, and describes the daily life of many civilians. It is particularly relevant to situations of guerrilla war, and obviously to Southern Africa. Modern wars are distinguished by the strategic involvement of civilians: up to 80% of the casualties of wars now are civilians, mostly women and children. Civilians worldwide not only frequently suffer physically from conflicts, but inevitably they also witness violence and death.

Furthermore, deliberate massacres, executions, threats and abuse are frequently forced upon ordinary people by military and paramilitary forces in an attempt to remove support for guerrillas or political parties. This frequently leads to both sides terrorising civilians in order to prevent support for the other side. This creats a situation of sustained fear and stress for the ordinary person. The experience of being "The Man in the Middle" was common in the Liberation War, throughout Zimbabwe. And as this report has documented above, this situation was repeated in Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s, with civilians trapped between the dissidents and the security forces.

Witnessing can vary in terms of the degree of resulting psychological torture depending on the element of controllability. A person among thousands of people at a mass rally where beatings are taking place, for example, could close his/her eyes or look the other way. However, such an option was not open to people in the rally described above, where proximity to the executions and the accompanying beatings and demands being made by the soldiers would have made witnessing of violence almost impossible to avoid, if one were lucky enough to avoid an actual beating. One should not minimise the seriousness of witnessing extreme violence, nor the depth of fear that it can create.

WITNESSING IN THE 1980s
Forcing civilians to witness violence was a deliberate facet of 5th Brigade behaviour, both in Mat North and the Midlands in 1983, and in Mat South in 1984. Tens of thousands of civilians can be estimated to have observed violence, if one considers, for example, the high forced attendance at political rallies during these years, and the prevalence of public beatings at these. In addition, possibly thousands witnessed executions, particularly in 1983, when it was common practice for the 5th Brigade to execute people in the village setting. All those who have reported their experiences at Bhalagwe in 1984 also witnessed killings in this camp, and if their experiences are typical, which they seem to be as they coincide to a remarkable degree, then thousands at Bhalagwe also witnessed executions. All the testimonies already included in this chapter give ample support for the prevalence of witnessed violence during these years.

DISAPPEARANCES
One very sinister form of psychological torture is the use of forced disappearances. This refers to the abduction of individuals, who may be kept in secret detention for long periods, but are often executed in secret. This is a strategy that has been growing in recent decades, and some of the most tragic examples can be found in Latin America. For example, about 10 000 individuals "disappeared" in Argentina during the rule of the military junta in the 1970s. It is also a strategy that has been used in Zimbabwe, both during the Liberation War and the 1980s disturbances. Disappearances are used for two reasons. Firstly, the disappeared person is usually some kind of an opponent of the government, and it serves a strategic purpose to get rid of opposition. Secondly, it puts extreme pressure on the targeted group and particularly the families of the disappeared.

It creates enormous psychological and social problems for the surviving people, and this has been well documented by several Latin American groups who work with the families of disappeared persons. For example, in Argentina it has been argued that the life-expectancy of the fathers of the disappeared is reduced below the national average, and it has also been shown that the surviving children often have marked psychological difficulties (Lagos.1995).

In Africa, disappearances may have even more profound effects. Since death and misfortune are always events of extreme concern for the entire extended family, a disappearance that may or may not be a death creates a wide range of problems. African families are compelled by spiritual belief to undertake proper rituals for the burial of the dead, and anything that prevents this happening can leave the family with the expectation of future misfortune (Mupinda.1995). For example, it was frequently observed in the refugee setting that many Mozambican refugees were preoccupied with worries about not having properly buried their dead when they fled into exile (Reeler.1995).

It has also been observed in Zimbabwe that many families were deeply distressed by the non return of family members from the Liberation War: large numbers of young men and women left home to join the guerrillas in Mozambique, and large numbers never returned. The families have no information about the fate of their relatives, and some have even engaged in lengthy searches to find out what happened, to find where they were buried if they died (Mupinda.1995).

So disappearances in Africa can range from forcible abductions to disappearances in the sense of "missing in action" to disappearances in the sense of an individual never being heard of again. These seem to have identical effects on the surviving members of the family, and we need to understand much more about these effects. 

DISAPPEARANCES IN THE 1980s
Disappearances were a deliberate part of the state strategy in the 1980s, although to date there are only 354 named "disappeared" victims. Even this number is indicative of disappearance having been an official policy. Many dozens of others were picked up in midnight raids by mysterious government agents, and held incommunicado for some months before their release. The manner of their removal from their homes, and the uncertainty this resulted in, generated intense psychological stress for their families. The timing of disappearances was also significant: they coincided with the months prior to Zimbabwe's general election, targeted opposition party officials, and generally added to a climate of fear and intimidation already prevalent at that time.

As we mentioned above there are some reasons for considering disappearances to be an especially broad-reaching form of abuse. The effects of disappearances have been partially documented in Mashonaland (Mupinda.1995). Anecdotal evidence and Richard Werbner's comments in his anthropological work Tears of the Dead suggest that the effects of disappearances are profound on surviving family members in Matabeleland and the Midlands.

There is evidence to suggest that disappearances cause long-term depression, family dysfunction, and even long-term community disruption. The number reported in this report is modest, but it should be borne in mind that this abuse targets whole families, and has long term effects. For many of the families of the disappeared the burden of living without a death certificate for a loved one has been enormous - stopping them getting state-aided education for orphans, for example - and every encounter with the bureaucracy a reminder of the event. Bear in mind, further, that many disappearances took place in forcible abductions, often in very frightening circumstances.

The following statement, Interview Case Number 1099, is about an incident that took place in Tsholotsho in May 1985. It is typical of those on file.Late at night, people knocked at our door, while we were all sleeping. I went to open and two men asked for my husband. I told them he was blind, and asleep. They asked for him and took him to the gate, where there were many others. I did not hear what they said to him; although I heard him reply that he did not know whatever it was they wanted to know.

They returned him to the house and said he should get his ID card and come back with me. This man in cross belts noticed I was in an advanced state of pregnancy. He ordered me back into the house and they went away with my husband. The next morning we found my husband's ID card. It was 2 km away from our home, and broken into two pieces. A little further on, we found blood clots, sticks and vehicle tracks. The footprints ended here. We have not seen or heard of my husband since. We are destitutes.

Internationally, disappearances have become the focus of major attention, with even the United Nations laying down principles to be applied in cases of disappearance. The long-term effects are only beginning to be understood, but it is continually stressed, by those working in this particular area, that the effects are exceedingly widespread and long-term. The disappearance of a person by the state strikes at the foundations of the state's trustworthiness: survivors seem rarely to feel any confidence or safety in the state's protection after this, and especially when no investigations take place to determine the legality of this behavior.

Various Argentineans and Chilean researchers have commented that corruption, increased violence, voter apathy and a climate of silence frequently follow undisclosed disappearances. We might speculate here on a reason for declining voting attendances at elections, and not just in Matabeleland, for the same comment might easily be made of all areas in Zimbabwe that have experienced epidemic violence.

CONSEQUENCES OF ORGANISED VIOLENCE
The consequences of repressive violence are many and complex, and include both physical and psychological effects. The psychological study of the effects of organized violence is a new field, and there are still controversies about the effects and how best to classify them. However, the physical effects of torture are generally clearer cut. Before considering the current findings, it is pertinent to consider some local and regional evidence as regards violence and its effects.

In Zimbabwe it is estimated that between 20-30% of primary care patients are suffering from psychological disorders (Reeler & Todd.1993; Reeler et al.1991; Reeler.1986), but there are no accurate estimates of the prevalence or incidence of disorders due to violence. However, one of the earlier studies of psychological morbidity, carried out by Hall and Williams at Karanda Mission Hospital in 1984, estimated morbidity at 39% of all outpatients, and this was carried out in an area that experienced extreme violence during the Second Chimurenga. The Hall and Williams study has provided one of the highest estimates of psychological morbidity, and, although the authors made no comment about violence, more recent observations at the same site suggest that disorders due to violence may explain this high rate (Reeler & Mupinda.1995).

There are good grounds in Zimbabwe for already suspecting high rates of disorders due to organized violence, but there are no good estimates of the physical consequences of organized violence. This is a general comment of many observers of the effects of recent Zimbabwean conflicts, and there is nothing remarkable in this assertion. Studies of Mozambican refugees and reports from the Zimbabwean community all indicate that many patients suffer from the effects of war, torture and ill-treatment, but all this data is drawn largely from the field of psychiatry, and the data that deals with physical sequelae is mostly self-report. There are therefore no good estimates to help in the assessment of likely morbidity as a result of the 1980s violence. However, comparisons with international studies, especially as regards physical effects, are possible. 

PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF ORGANISED VIOLENCE
  In general the physical effects of organized violence can be classified into 2 categories: one group of people who have a wide range of non-specific somatic complaints and another group who describe specific symptoms corresponding to the type of violence they experienced (Juhler.1992). To some extent this is an arbitrary classification, for some survivors can present with both types of complaints. We will briefly summarise the general findings here.

a.) Non-specific somatic complaints: this refers to people showing signs of general stress, or psychological reactions to torture. As Juhler has commented (Juhler.1991), the most frequent complaints come from 4 organ systems: the central nervous system (headaches), the musculo-skeletal system (joint and muscle pains), the cardio-vascular system (palpitations), and the gastro-intestinal system (abdominal pains). These are very common symptoms in Zimbabwean primary care settings, but there are clear differences between general psychological disorders (due to ordinary stresses) and disorders due to organized violence.

The most important of these relates to musculo-skeletal symptoms. Studies carried out in Denmark have concluded that two main symptom clusters can be identified: those in joints (due to overstretching), and those in muscles, that are due to general stress. Joint pains are therefore an importantly different symptom in the complaints of survivors, but it is also clear that it is very difficult to find objective evidence of pathological lesions or injuries.

It is also clear that many survivors associate their pains with the torture or ill-treatment in an almost symbolic way, often as a consequence of the way in which the torture is delivered. Here we can give the example of electrical shocks given to the genitalia leading to later sexual dysfunction. It is rare that the sexual dysfunction is due to any physical lesion, but the conditioning effect is extremely powerful. This kind of conditioning effect is common to many forms of torture, and rape would be another good example.

b.) Specific Symptoms: the more violent the torture the more likely there is to be sound evidence of physical damage. There is endless medical evidence of brain injury, paralysis, fractures, damaged organs, and altered functions. There are a large number of studies which show the pathological damage of falanga, burnings, beatings, cutting, head injuries and the like.

In the current study there were a large number of interviewees who gave anecdotal evidence of deafness and partial blindness which they attributed to beatings in the 1980s. Such reports are in accordance with other studies, which report a high frequency of deafness in survivors who have been beaten on the head. There were also many reports of permanent damage to limbs and to reproductive and urinary functioning. While there is archival medical evidence for many injuries being suffered in the 1980s, the current medical status of those who suffered then still remains to be established.

As mentioned above, it is difficult years after the event to provide objective evidence of what originally caused a physical injury. It is enough to reiterate here that the only thing that distinguishes torture from other similar damage is the intent and the legal responsibility of the perpetrator. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ORGANISED VIOLENCE:
Post-Traumatic Stress DisorderThese effects are perhaps not as well-known, but are certainly better understood than they were two decades ago. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the most commonly used current term to describe the psychological effects of organized violence, and it provides a catch-all description for all disorders and symptoms in which the stressor is of a "catastrophic" nature. Earlier descriptions of these effects had been classified mainly by reference to the precipitating event, and "concentration camp syndrome", "post-Vietnam syndrome", and "rape trauma syndrome" are all well-known examples of this approach to classification (Rasmussen.1990).

The prevalence of post traumatic disorders is rather variable, and has been assessed in two ways: one approach has been to examine prevalence in the general population, whilst the other has been to examine prevalence in "at risk" groups. As Shay has commented, the prevalence rates for PTSD amongst Vietnam veterans are 32 times greater than the comparable prevalence rates amongst demographically similar civilians (Shay.1996).

This is an extremely high prevalence, but data derived from studies of military veterans may not be directly useful for this report: many Vietnam veterans report both experiencing violence as well as perpetrating severe human rights violations themselves. Thus, data from persons who are both victims and perpetrators may not be useful for the understanding of persons who are victims alone. This does not mean that we should not understand the perpetrators, merely that we are here concerned with victims alone.Despite some conflicting findings, current research suggests a dose-response effect due to the magnitude of the stressor, and, according to this argument, torture will represent the most severe of all stressors, and the prevalence of PTSD should be highest in this population.

In terms of psychological torture and witnessing, if a stressful situation lasts an afternoon or several weeks, or several years, its consequences for survivors should differ. In the 1980s, the situation of high war zone stress lasted from 1982/3 until the Unity Agreement in1987: although the 5 Brigade, the most feared unit, was disbanded in 1986, civilians still felt under siege from multiple forces until December 1987. Indeed, some still do not rule out the return of persecution in the future.

The way in which the violence developed exacerbated this: 5 Brigade impact was unexpected, profound and unprecedented. Having once experienced the utterly unexpected, civilians in affected areas still believe it could happen again. The slow build up of violence which typified the Second Chimurenga differed significantly from the sudden epidemic violence of the 5 Brigade, and its psychological consequences can be expected to have differed accordingly, with the 1980s violence being perceived as worse by sufferers.

Recent studies of Holocaust victims suggest clinical disturbance in third-generation survivors (Hardi & Szilagyi.1993), but it is not clear that the disturbance measured in the grandchildren of concentration camp victims can be described as PTSD. Perhaps the significant aspect of these studies is that there is a pattern of disturbance in descendants of torture victims: this clearly has a bearing for the report on hand, and for other parts of Zimbabwe.

All of this epidemiological work has been substantially supported by empirical work. Studies of sleep show a wide range of differences between PTSD sufferers and other populations, both civilian and military, with PTSD sufferers showing greater problems with falling asleep and maintaining sleep.
Some of the key features of PTSD - sleep disturbance, intrusive cognitions, psychological reactivity and physiological distress - seem to be supported empirically, and there is support for the notion of a specific disorder produced by trauma, and capable of being delineated from other disorders.

It seems clear that exposure to violence has severe, persistent and delayed sequelae, with an apparent dose-response effect, but there still remain some difficulties, and some critics. The major critics come from amongst those working with torture survivors, who are critical of many aspects of the PTSD definition, and suggest that there may still be such a thing as a "torture syndrome" apart from PTSD. 

TORTURE - PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES
Torture clearly represents an extreme form of exposure to violence, in that the effects are premeditated and designed, the process usually involves attacks of both a physical and psychological nature, and, most importantly, torture has an explicitly political purpose in a clear socio-political context. One estimate sees "government-sanctioned torture" as being present in 78 countries in the world (Jacobsen & Vesti.1992), whilst another estimate reckons that between 5% and 35% of the worlds refugees have suffered at least one torture experience (Baker.1993).

It may seem to be hair-splitting to raise the socio-political in a consideration of psychopathology, but it is obvious that it is just this aspect of torture that sets it aside from disasters, catastrophes, wars, accidents and abuse. Torture and repressive violence are specifically targeted at individuals and groups with the specific intention of causing harm, forcing compliance, and destroying political will, frequently in the absence of war, but always in a situation of civil conflict (Somnier & Genefke.1986).

The deliberate and systematic attacks on people, and the attempt to destroy personality and political will, are felt to be such intrinsic features of torture that a narrow definition, such as PTSD, may miss this. In fact, torture survivors suffer a wide range of adverse consequences, and this frequently means that the process can carry on over a very extended time period. For this reason, many workers feel that "ongoing traumatic stress disorder" would be a much more accurate expression of torture (Straker.1987).

"The deliberate infliction of harm seems to place torture in the position of a distinct form of stressor, and the specific purpose behind torture makes it very different from random violence or catastrophe, whether natural or man-made. Furthermore, the violence is decidedly purposive, with the aim of the systematic destruction of individual and community identity, and it is very hard to know how to include in a definition what is surely a notion of "evil", however unpalatable this notion might seem to a scientist." (Reeler.1994)

The argument in support of a discreet and recognizable `torture syndrome', has been partially resolved by some recent British research (Ramsay et al.1993; Gorst-Unsworth et al.1993; Turner & Gorst-Unsworth.1990). In Zimbabwe, this model has received partial validation in a study of war veterans (Reeler & Mupinda.1996).

CONSEQUENCES OF ORGANISED VIOLENCE FOR SOCIETY
Repressive violence is not just an issue that affects individuals, but, as was pointed out above, much modern violence has the purpose of terrorizing whole communities. So we have to consider the consequences for society as a whole, and not just merely for the affected individuals. It is not a simple task, however, to identify the societal: not even attempts to explain the Nazi phenomenon have proved wholly satisfactory. Some general consequences can nonetheless be briefly indicated.

Firstly, there is frequently a sustained climate of fear amongst the affected population, and this is borne out by all contacts with people who were involved during the various wars and disturbances in Southern Africa. This affects all aspects of peoples' lives, may be exaggerated during times of political disturbance, and profoundly affects peoples' ability to live full, social lives. There is now a considerable literature from South Africa speculating about the consequences of the decades of organized violence, and the persistence of fear, helplessness and insecurity in social groups has been noted in many other national settings. One South African study, one of the best studies to date, followed up school children affected by the township violence of the 1980s, and found marked differences in how well the children adapted in later years (Straker et al.1992).

Secondly, there may be an increase in violent behaviour in the affected population. Here the focus is not so much on the increase in violent crime per se, but in the increase in violence of a random or motiveless nature: reprisal killings, rampage killings, violent outbursts, etc. It is generally observed that sustained civil violence results in a general increase in all violence, not merely political violence. Northern Ireland provides a good case example here, where studies of children show a marked increase in child violence, violent attitudes amongst children, as well as higher levels of anxiety, depression, and family pathology. South Africa is an even more relevant example, and all observers are agreed that the violence in South Africa is of epidemic proportions, and is not merely a political phenomenon (Michelson.1994).

Thirdly, there is the reappearance of silence in group situations, which is usually related to fears about reprisals. This fear, seen as fear of speaking out in groups or fears about being overheard can severely impair the ability to indulge in social and political activities. This can obviously have profound economic and political consequences, and it is worth noting that even the World Bank now views psychopathology as a significant impediment to social and economic development. Disorders due to violence should be included in the general category of psychopathology.

Fourthly, there is a concern amongst human rights workers for the future, albeit a speculative concern. It has been noted in several international meetings that the transition from strong repressive government to weak democratic government, which is the case for Zimbabwe, can often lead to highly destabilized situations in which violence increases rather than decreases. Here we should note carefully the recent events in the Balkans.

Clearly, none of these situations, especially the last, is desirable in the future, and suggests that, unless a determined effort is made to redress the wrongs and rehabilitate the survivors, there are likely to be long-term sequelae from war, destabilization and human rights violations. At the societal level there is the need for action.

RELEVANCE TO MATABELELAND AND THE MIDLANDS
There are several conclusions that emerge from the reports on the violence in the 1980s. The first has to do with the way in which the violence developed. As was seen earlier, there was a massive escalation in violence in the early years (1982-1984), with a marked decline in violence subsequently. This is very different to the violence seen during the Second Chimurenga, where the violence began at low levels and then increased over the years to reach the highest levels before the end of the war in 1980. It is fair to conclude that the violence in the 1980s was of an epidemic nature in which there was very widespread exposure to violence for many people.

There is a significant group of individuals, not fewer than 7 000, for whom active help may be needed now, and it is very probable that the total number is much higher. There are hospital records describing some of the injuries in the 1980s and their consequences, supporting the general assumption of epidemic violence made above. We should bear in mind here the findings from other settings and countries, which mostly suggest the dose-response effect - that there is an association between high levels of violence and the frequency and severity of disorders due to violence. There is an urgent need to investigate the current status of victims.

CONCLUSION:
The findings of this report give much cause for concern. However, until it is possible to establish the numbers of people affected, the frequency and severity of the injuries sustained, and the range of long-term effects, all conclusions must be tentative. It is probable that the numbers of survivors is much higher than this study has indicated, and some epidemiological study is called for in the likely debate over numbers affected.

Torture and ill-treatment are the most common experiences reported, and these have severe long-term effects. Given that beatings were the most common experiences reported, there must be concern for the extent of the physical damage to the survivors, and this will require detailed medical examination by doctors and physiotherapists. Similarly, psychological disorders are also likely to be common, and we would expect PTSD, Depression, and Somatization Disorders to be among the most common if the studies from other Zimbabwean settings are anything to go by. There has also clearly been a very high rate of witnessed violence in affected parts of the country, particularly in 1983 and 1984.

Thus, the possible effects - individual, familial, and community - are serious indeed. There are those living now in our country that have been tortured, watched others being tortured too, seen deaths by execution, and even had a close family relative abducted, never to be seen again. It also pertinent to observe the very real poverty of many of these survivors, and to remember the findings on property loss. The general air of economic stress scarcely provides a climate for healing and rehabilitation, and may, worse than this, be a source of continued trauma, or what one South African worker has termed "continuous traumatic stress" (Straker.1987).

There is very little in the reports of the survivors that is surprising or unusual, and very little that is not found in other settings in Zimbabwe, or even in other countries. There is little reason to expect that the findings from this investigation will be any different to previous findings. The survivors of Gukurahundi will show physical and psychological injuries and disorders, and will probably have little faith in these being addressed; given it is the same government that inflicted the injuries that they must go to for help. As one Chilean worker has expressed this dilemma:

"... how can we continue to help to relieve others of their sorrow and liberate them from the sufferings of grief if society keeps shutting the door on truth and full redress? Is it at all possible to imagine peace of mind for a person if you force him/her completely to give up any hope of finding out the whereabouts of a son, a spouse, the most beloved? How do we succeed in making a survivor of cruel and inhuman torture feel completely rehabilitated if this society continues to disgrace the survivor and lets the torturer go unpunished?"(Simona Ruy-Peres.1996)

Perhaps Zimbabwe can be different to Chile, and perhaps it will not take another 10 years before we heal the wounds and assuage the grief. The task will be difficult, but not impossible without the will and commitment to change the future by acknowledging the past.

Stanley Mauro Jensen