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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Documentary shows emaciated Zimbabwe prisoners |
| 2009-04-03 |
| [Mail and Globe] New released images that provide a rare look inside a Zimbabwean prison show emaciated inmates too weak to stand and eating as if they can barely bring food to their mouths. Human rights activists and former prisoners have spoken of horrifying conditions in the country's jails and prisons but there has been little firsthand evidence available. Producer Godknows Nare spent four months on the behind-the-walls documentary, training insiders to capture the footage. His work, Hell Hole, aired on Tuesday on the South African Broadcasting Corporation, and was being syndicated internationally by Associated Press Television News on Wednesday. Nare said he hoped the footage would persuade Zimbabwe's new coalition government and the international community to step in to help. "Just hearsay, without visual proof, is not enough to change people's minds," he said. Attempts to reach the Zimbabwe Cabinet minister in charge of prisons on Wednesday were not immediately successful. In one scene from Hell Hole, a man stands shirtless in a prison yard, his ribs and pelvic bone shockingly prominent until he pulls on a ragged T-shirt. In other scenes, emaciated prisoners, wasting away because of vitamin deficiencies, according to SABC, are shown on mats in cells furnished with only blankets and the thin mattresses. Nare said prison menus have been reduced to daily bowls of corn porridge, which the inmates are shown eating slowly, as if they barely have the energy to bring the food to their mouths. The Associated Press could not independently determine if the prisoners' ailments were caused by the jail conditions or by an illness or malnutrition they were suffering before being incarcerated. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Swart on swart crime and inhumanity are off limits That is, unless they wanna blame Bush for not stopping it. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-04-03 17:59 |
| #3 Expect the Western world's elites, journalists, academics, etc to express outrage on the level of the Gitmo protests in 9...8...7, oh, wait, never mind. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-04-03 09:14 |
| #2 Swart on swart crime and inhumanity are off limits there as well as here it would appear. They're not off limits. It's just that nobody cares just as nobody cared about Rwanda. One of the benefits of throwing the colonials out. Sub-saharan Africa is being allowed to regress to its precolonial culture, just as has much of South Asia. There's really little to be done unless someone wants to pick up the white man's burden. The Chinese are interested in the area's resources. But I doubt they'll shoulder the burden. So it's back to the Hobbesian jungle. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-04-03 08:15 |
| #1 Shocking I tell you! Absorootry Shocking! Amazing how little of this is mentioned by the African genocide crowd or appears in the MSM. Swart on swart crime and inhumanity are off limits there as well as here it would appear. No mention of it by African Union (AU) Chairperson Leader Muammar Gaddafi in the AU website or African Union Commission (AUC) newsletter either. There was a however, an inspiring story about Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) and their meeting with Mama Sarah (Barry's grandmother) at her residence in K'ogelo Village. The AUC newletter also contained a congratulatory note to Barry from AUC Chairperson Ping. Lots and lots of other happy-talk and photos as well. Grab your vuvuzela and stay tuned for the football rundown. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-04-03 07:04 |