Tortured So Hard They Have Spent A Month In Hospital - And They Are Still Not Free

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is seen in this file photo after he had beaten up by police while in custody. Worse treatment has been meted out to his personal assistant, who remains in detention under police guard at the Avenues Clinic, even as Tsvangirai "runs" government

Those who know and have worked with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai will tell you that he adored Ghandi Mudzingwa, his former personal assistant.

Mudzingwa abducted along Mutare Road in the Industrial Area of Msasa, Harare, in December last year only to surface in court days later, charged with banditry and terrorism together with a freelance photographer, Andrison Manyere and Chris Dhlamini, now has no hope of being released, despite intense lobbying by Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mudzingwa and Dhlamini were tortured so hard while in prison that they have now spent more a month at the Avenues Clinic in Harare being treated for their injuries. They are still there.

Yesterday, the High Court denied all of them bail, although it was granted weeks ago to Jestina Mukoko and others, including the mother and father of two-year old Nigel Mutemagau, who spent months at Chikurubi Maximum Prison with his parents, some of it in solitary confinement.

Meantime, to show that nothing has really changed as a result of this Unity Government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, eight white farmers were arrested last week and appeared in court yesterday, where it was revealed that they had been severely beaten up by the police while in custody.

The farmers are accused of kidnapping ZANU PF youths and assaulting them with bicycle chains. The police also claim that one of the kidnapped ZANU PF youths is still missing and may even have been murdered by the farmers.

But these are not the reasons for their arrests. Instead, they were arrested for resisting the Tsvangirai government's attempts to finally evict them from their forcibly acquired farms.

Amongst those arrested for this and in court yesterday is one of Zimbabwe's most succesful farmers, Digby Nesbitt. He is also owner of the world famous Nesbitt Castle Boutique Hotel in Bulawayo.

Andrison Manyere, the freelance photographer charged with Gandi Mudzingwa, was refused permission to go to the clinic where his fellow prisoners have been for more than a month now. He remains the only "political prisoner" still at the notorious Chikurubi Maxium Security Prison.

Question: what sort of torture sends a person to hospital for more than a month? And counting. We will not have a full answer until these men come out, but they have already revealed in court that it included electrocution of their private parts and horrific beatings.

One of those who have now been freed on bail (the cases have not been dismissed), a 72 year old man, told of having a brick tied to his penis and being asked to jump up and down naked, with the brick attached.

He also said that he had been locked in a deep freezer as part of the torture.

The denial of bail to the three men yesterday signals the tone of this Inclusive government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. And it shows just how powerless the Prime Minister is. Mugabe is still in charge and vindictively pursuing MDC supporters.

Even as I write this, there are MDC supporters who have been missing for months and whom the police say they have no information about. They are feared dead, because if they were still alive, they would have been brought to court as was done with Mudzingwa, Mukoko and the rest of the group that disappeared between August and December 2008.

Still, Mugabe and Tsvangirai, with all this going on, believe that the world will come to Zimbabwe's aid.

They are pressing ahead with efforts to send a team to Europe and America to ask these countries for money and for the lifting of sanctions and "restrictive measures."

This is not likely to happen before Jesus comes back down to earth on a cloud and accompanied by a choir of whistling angels. Just yesterday, the German Ambassador to Zimbabwe told Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara that his country is not going to lift snactions until it was satisfied about the rule of law and "protection of BIPAs (Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements, which the Tsvangirai government has now said it would legal to violate)."

Anyone who is putting faith in this government to turn the country around will obviously need to have their head examined. All things point to the fact that Zimbabwe will remain a pariah state for some time to come.