 |
|
|
|
|
| author/source:Daily Telegraph (UK) |
| published:Mon 9-Jul-2007 |
| posted on this site:Mon 9-Jul-2007 |
|
| Article Type : News |
|
| The assault came a day after she told the then army commander that 5 Brigade was massacring civilians |
 |
|
By Sebastien Berger in Johannesburg
In Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe terror is so endemic that not even the daughter of a former prime minister known as a supporter of black rights is immune from rape. Judith Todd's father Sir Garfield Todd was Rhodesia's last liberal leader and she was imprisoned, force-fed and exiled under Ian Smith's rule for her efforts to promote black majority rule. After independence she returned to head a development agency working particularly with the war veterans who had fought for Zimbabwe. But when she criticised Mr Mugabe's regime she was detained and raped by a senior army officer, she revealed yesterday. It was, she said - both for her and her attacker - an example of the culture of fear used to preserve Mr Mugabe's rule. The assault came a day after she told the then army commander and another senior officer that the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade was massacring civilians in a campaign of atrocities in Matabeleland.
The next morning another senior officer picked her up in a car and drove to a house she believed was in the Chikurubi prison complex. "A servant let us in, not looking at us," she wrote in a newly-published memoir, Through the Darkness: A life in Zimbabwe, in which she names the man. "The [senior officer] led me into a bedroom, opened a bottle of beer for each of us, unstrapped his firearm in its holster, laid it on the bedside table next to my head and proceeded. I did not resist." In her first interview on the subject, she told The Daily Telegraph: "It was rape. I was in a state of complete terror. Now and again you have to face destiny. I had just been reading these documents which were full of rape, terror, mass murder. I knew something was going to happen when that car came. What happened was actually a relief because I thought I was going to be killed. At least I was alive."
A quietly spoken woman now in her sixties and living in Cape Town, she bears no animosity towards her attacker, no desire for vengeance. Instead, having stayed in Zimbabwe for many years afterwards, even after being stripped of her citizenship in 2003, she sees him as a victim in the same way she was. "I have no reason to believe he wanted to do what he did, quite the opposite. It's so complex because he was obviously so troubled and so unhappy. I just regard him as a fellow victim … maybe someone was watching him. That's what has happened to so many people in Zimbabwe." Mr Mugabe, who was once a teacher in the Dadaya network of rural schools set up by her parents, has entrenched himself in power through both money and fear, she said.
Although 24 years ago, the rape was typical, she added, citing an incident earlier this year when police beat up lawyers who were protesting outside the high court in Harare. The officers had been ordered to assault the group, she was told. "They knew there were people watching them and that if they didn't beat them properly they themselves would be beaten," she said. That's Zimbabwe now. Zanu PF is the instrument of evil in Zimbabwe. For the future wellbeing of Zimbabwe Zanu PF must be eliminated. We need to be cleansed." Ms Todd's alleged attacker went on to have a distinguished diplomatic career. He could not be reached for comment yesterday, and calls to Zimbabwe government spokesmen went unanswered.
Judith Todd has signed a declaration waiving her right to anonymity as a rape victim for this interview. Through the Darkness: A life in Zimbabwe is available on www.amazon.co.uk
back to top |
|
|
|
|
