The letter goes on: “You may wish to note that the curriculum for this programme covers important subjects such as entrepreneurship, technical skills development, health education, sport, art and recreation, disaster management and national resources management and not the activities claimed by Mr Mbanga.” Attached to it was the text of a press briefing by Zimbabwe’s minister of foreign affairs, in which he accused the BBC of “naked lies”.
Zimbabwe’s state television has joined the fray in true paranoid fashion, describing the Panorama programme as part of Britain’s “plan to control the world”. But what all these furious denials ignore is that Zimbabweans themselves have repeatedly called for the camps to be closed down. Their voice has been totally ignored. Even the Zimbabwe Liberators’ Peace initiative – a breakaway grouping of war veterans – has publicly endorsed the BBC report, stating that it had interviewed some of the camp deserters who confirmed that the situation was “exactly as highlighted by Panorama”.
Zimbabwe’s independent press, together with the opposition MDC and numerous NGOs, have been documenting for years the human rights abuses of the “green bombers”. These are the graduates of the minister’s “Zimbabwe National Youth Training Programme”. Countless women have been raped and thousands of people abducted, tortured and thrashed to within an inch of their lives by the “graduates”. What is the common denominator in all these atrocities? The victims are always supporters, or even only suspected supporters, of the MDC and there is always an election scheduled in that area. Their modus operandi is well established: a few weeks before polling day the green bombers move into the area, set up camp – often right outside the polling booth – and start causing mayhem. Technical skills development indeed!
Since the training camps were set up after Mugabe lost the referendum in early 2000, we have not seen one of these students establish her/himself in business, produce anything useful for the nation or in any way demonstrate that s/he has benefited from the noble sounding curriculum outlined by the minister. In fact the only word which can truly be associated with the products of the training centers is the reference to “disaster management”! I suppose one could blame the teachers – I understand many of them are illiterate war veterans. It is interesting that the minister makes no mention of the unarmed combat which the government itself initially admitted would be taught in the camps. Maybe this has been replaced by his euphemistic reference to “sport and recreation”. I also take issue with his preposterous statement that Zimbabwe is merely falling in line with the “international movement of youth centers”. Youth centers in other countries are there to make the kids into better citizens, not to create and train private armies of child soldiers for despotic heads of state who are prepared to go to any lengths to cling to power for life.
All columns by Wilf Mbanga
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| Wilf Mbanga, one of the founders of the independent Zimbabwean daily newspaper "The Daily News", is currently living in Tilburg, the Netherlands. He writes about the differences between Tilburg and Harare. His column is printed weekly in "Het Brabants Dagblad". |
