Politicisation of healthcare alleged

Zimbabwe's Deputy High Commissioner to Pretoria has rejected allegations, contained in a report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), that opposition supporters are denied healthcare at state institutions.

The report was authored by Shari Epple of the Amani Trust, a non-governmental organisation that documents torture, and Dr Hans Draminsky Petersen, a founder of PHR in Denmark. They have documented cases of severe torture and harassment of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters, allegedly by ruling ZANU-PF militants, in rural Zimbabwe.

In Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), President Robert Mugabe reportedly faces the toughest challenge to his 22-year rule. Zimbabweans go to the polls on 9-10 March, but the run-up to the election has been marred by violence and intimidation.

"Of concern to us is the politicisation of hospitals and healthcare, in the district of Mberengwa East (in southern Zimbabwe) it's a clear policy that if you are (an MDC victim of) a politically motivated assault you cannot get treated without police authorising treatment," Epple said.

Epple told IRIN that she and Petersen had come across victims who had been tortured, but who had to send families to get a letter from the police before they could receive medical care. "If the police refuse you don't get treatment," she explained. "One victims' family took him on a donkey cart to the hospital, but without a letter from police the hospital refused to treat him and he lay outside for 24 hours."

Hospital treatment "is also abysmal, you pay Z$220 (US $4 at the official rate) for treatment and for that you get a few paracetemol. These people had been whipped with barbed wire and their wounds were not washed. One lost an eye because of a screw driver (assault), he lay there until we arranged for a rescue. There was no dressing of wounds no sutures. A lot of hospitals are interfered with by war veterans, in some cases veterans run the hospitals. Doctors are either too scared or are (ZANU-PF) sympathisers," she alleged.

"Healthcare is a very dangerous process for MDC victims. This situation goes completely against the tenets of the Hippocratic oath and anything humanitarian."

However, Danson Mudekunye, Zimbabwe's Deputy High Commissioner in Pretoria, denied the accusations.

Mudekunye said: "I've never heard such utter nonsense in my life. It's not a policy in Zimbabwe, go to casualty in any hospital or clinic and they attend to you. If you are treated for something that may involve criminal action the doctors and nurses are duty bound to inform the police. They do not say 'we need a report from police first'. The normal thing is that first and foremost the medical personnel will attend to you."

The report by PHR states: "In three cases, the police issued documents apparently necessary at any hospital in this particular district in order for health staff to be allowed to administer treatment to people who arrive with obviously politically motivated injuries. In one case in this district they refused to write the needed letter, resulting in a 24 delay of treatment at the hospital. Treatment was eventually given only as the result of the victim having a relative on the hospital staff."

The PHR report also highlighted the theft of identity document (IDs) and the alleged collusion of police with ZANU-PF militia. "All human rights violations observed by us were reported to have been committed by supporters of the ruling party and government. Similarities in the four torture cases (recorded by the PHR team) clearly indicate planning and organisation of torture. This together with the reported robbing of ID documents necessary for voting, various types of harassment, including destruction of properties, and threats including killings, point to deliberate strategies to undermine democratic processes in the current pre-election context."

Mudekunye described the report as "sickening disinformation". He said: "To steal national ID card is an offense. But everybody knows his own (ID) number, you report it (the theft) to police and immediately there will be a case opened and you can use that case number to vote ... there are copies (of IDs). You go and report that my name is so and so my voter registration number is so and so. There is a provision that within a day you can go and get a replacement national registration card, stamped by the registrar-generals office."

The first part of the PHR report can be found at http://www.zwnews.com/Phys1.doc and the second at http://www.zwnews.com/Phys2.doc