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It takes great wickedness for those in power
to be prepared to sacrifice a whole generation, the youth of the
nation, in order to maintain their own hold on power. But that
is precisely the wickedness revealed in this report. The youth of
Zimbabwe are being used, and abused, in a most cynical and calculating
way by the very people entrusted with responsibility for their welfare.
Behind the mask of a programme bearing the innocuous
title “national youth service training” lurks a pernicious evil
that threatens not only to destroy the nation’s youth but also to
subvert many of the core Christian values upon which the nation
was built. It is the great merit of this report that it tears off
this mask and exposes to full view the inner workings of this scheme.
With the publication of this report no longer will there be any
possible justification for the old excuse “I didn’t know”, whether
coming from a Zimbabwean or the international community.
The national youth service training programme masquerades as
a youth training scheme that imparts useful skills and patriotic
values. As this well-documented report makes clear, nothing could
be farther from the truth. The reality is a paramilitary training
programme for Zimbabwe’s youth with the clear aim of inculcating
blatantly antidemocratic, racist and xenophobic attitudes. The
youth militias so created are used as instruments of the ruling
party, to maintain their hold on power by whatever means necessary,
including torture, rape, murder and arson. Having been thoroughly
brain-washed, the youth militias are deployed to carry out whatever
instructions they receive from their political commissars, on the
understanding that they will never be called to account by this
regime for any of their deeds. The
report details the use of the militias by those who control them
to carry forward the ZANU-PF political agenda in everything from
manipulating election results to controlling the food distribution
process to the party’s advantage.
While the militias are trained and incited to commit grievous
violent crimes against their fellow citizens, it is also a fact that many of them have become victims of human
rights’ abuses themselves in the course of training. The most conspicuous
example of this abuse is the rape, and multiple rape, of young
girls by the boys undergoing training with them, and by their military
instructors. The resulting pregnancies and infections with sexually-transmitted
diseases, including HIV, not only devastate the lives of the youth
concerned but are creating a terrible legacy for the nation.
Those responsible for instigating this vile
system have introduced into the body politic, a cancer, which now
spreads through the nation unchecked and leaves destruction in its
wake. The nation’s youth are being deliberately corrupted and brutalized,
and then deployed to wreak havoc among the people, for no other
purpose but to carry forward ZANU- PF’s political agenda. The moral,
spiritual and physical well-being of a whole generation of Zimbabweans
is being sacrificed for the short-term political advantage of those
in power, with incalculable long-term
effects upon the very fabric of the nation. How, we ask, will it
ever be possible to reintegrate these young people into the communities
that they have terrorized?
In our view this is an outrage against which every single peace-loving
Zimbabwean, together with the whole international community, should
rise up in angry protest. Every youth whose future is thus threatened,
every parent, every grand-parent, every brother and sister – indeed
every responsible citizen with a care for the well-being of the
nation – should stand, shoulder-to-shoulder, and say “No!” to this evil scheme.
As Church
leaders, to those who are responsible, we reiterate the words of
the prophet Jeremiah: ‘“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying
and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord’ (Jeremiah
23/1) And we remind those who deliberately corrupt the nation’s youth of our Lord’s
most severe warning: “If anyone causes one of these little ones
who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large
millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of
the sea.” (Matthew 18/6)
In the final
analysis there is no impunity for those who break God’s law, and
especially terrible is the judgment of those who deliberately lead
others into sin.
The appalling danger posed by the
youth militia training must be faced
with the utmost urgency. It requires a united response across the
nation. Our particular constituency is the Church, and therefore
our call for an urgent and united response is first directed to
the Church, which nominally accounts for some 70 per cent of the
population. But the call is wider and should embrace all men and
women of good will who desire peace and harmony for the nation.
We appeal to all
Zimbabweans to join us in addressing the following urgent demands
to those who exercise power in our nation today:
1.
The immediate cessation of the national youth service training programme
2.
The closing of all training camps across the country
3.
The surrender to lawful authority of all weapons now in the hands of
the youth militias
4.
The thorough investigation of all crimes committed by the youth militia
and prosecution of those responsible for murder, rape, torture and
arson, with priority being given to bringing to justice those responsible
for inciting and encouraging these brutal crimes
5.
The setting up of a truly national forum of civic and church leaders
to determine a comprehensive programme for the rehabilitation and
reintegration of former members of the youth militias into society.
We appeal to our
colleagues in the SADC region to speak out and condemn the Zimbabwean
Government for promoting the militarization of youth in Zimbabwe.
We appeal to Commonwealth countries to maintain and intensify the
isolation of the Zimbabwean government and to make disbandment of
the youth militia one of the conditions that must be met before
our nation can be readmitted into the international community.
Signed: Zimbabwe National Pastors Conference
Ecumenical Support Services, Zimbabwe
Harare Ecumenical Working Group
Christians Together for Justice and Peace, Bulawayo
Archbishop Pius Ncube, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Bishop Rubin Phillip, Kwazulu-Natal,
South Africa
Bishop Kevin Dowling, Rustenburg,
South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, 5 September 2003
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