Special forces unit ‘Department 5’ allegedly behind wave of violence

By Lance Guma
04 April 2007

Online website Talk Zimbabwe.com reports that it has impeccable information that a special police department has been given the green light to detain and beat up people active in organising protests. The website claims the new force is named ‘Department 5’ and is composed of specially trained hit squads that are specifically targeting ‘civilians.’ Members of this unit do not wear uniforms and stick to civilian clothing. Opposition officials have confirmed their members are being abducted by individuals in civilian clothing.

Itayi Garande who edits the website says their sources have fingered Zanu PF political commissar Elliot Manyika as the driving force behind the new department. He said Manyika has already called on Zanu PF youths and war veterans to prepare for a campaign of violence against the opposition and that the minister was quoted as saying they had to be "silenced at all costs." He says it was Manyika who led the cheerleading when the ruling party’s central committee met on Friday to endorse Mugabe running for a further five-year term.

Unemployed youths within and outside the Zanu PF ranks are being recruited and allegedly offered as much as US$1000 per day during special operations. Garande says Department 5 has been used to intimidate people into going to work despite the 2-day stay away called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. According to Garande its not yet clear whether the name ‘Department 5’ is meant to draw traumatic images of the 5th brigade which murdered close to 20 000 people in Matabeleland, but the similarity appears deliberate.

Talk Zimbabwe says this department has been in training since last year and is a secret force whose presence some senior Zanu PF members are not aware of. ‘They are a swift and brutal group. They are trained in torture and sniping tactics. This force is the most brutal force in dealing with civilians,’ a source told the website. ‘They operate in civilian clothes and will often make friendships with members of the civilian population to gain the information they need. Your neighbour could be a member of Department 5. They are highly paid and supported,’ the source added.

Garande was keen to emphasize that Department 5 is a developing story and more information would become available with time. The unit is also allegedly linked to the Special Air Services but Garande says that angle of the story is still being fully investigated. There was however a significant use of helicopters in their operations, he conceded. The unit is being used to create incidents of violence to justify brutal responses by the security forces. Already a Zanu PF vigilante group known as Chipangano is recruiting bus rank marshals from places like Mbare and has been identified as leading some of the abductions of opposition activists. Whether they also fall under Department 5 is still unknown.