(Transcript of s statement by Bothwell Pasipamire, a Kadoma councillor who was abducted by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) on Saturday, December 13 at approximately 12.30 am.)
MY NAME is Bothwell Pasipamire and I am an elected councillor on the Kadoma Town Council [Ward 3].
The board has a total of 17 members, of which 16 are from my party, the MDC and one represents Zanu-PF. When the MDC was formed in 1999 I became involved with the party and am well-known in the area as an outspoken activist. Like most of my colleagues, I have been verbally threatened by members of Zanu-PF and accused of being a traitor to Zimbabwe, but I just put that down to the usual nonsense of politics.
On Friday 12 December, I attended a Council meeting and returned at around 7.30 pm to my home in the Rimuka suburb, about one kilometre south of the CBD (Central Business District). My wife, [name withheld from transcript], prepared supper and, being tired from a very full day’s work, I went to bed early.
Abduction
At around 12.30am, my wife and I woke to the sound of someone trying to force open our front door. Another was at the window. I rose and opened the door. Two men confronted me, one put a gun to my neck and they told me to walk with them. The third, who had been at the window, joined us and we walked to the street where a white Toyota twincab was waiting. It had tinted windows, but I could see that a forth member of the team sat at the wheel.
My wife had run to the vehicle, but the man with the gun shouted, “Go back to your house now. I will kill you at gun point.” For her safety, I also told her to wait at the house. The car door was opened and at the same time something was sprayed into my eyes. It burned and made me sneeze, but it was not tear gas or pepper spray because I was not choking, but I could not see. I was pushed onto the back seat with one man either side of me. The gun was lowered and we drove on in silence.
After a short time we pulled up at a nearby bus stop known as the Waverley Terminus and the man who had held the gun hit me on the head and asked,” Are you Bothwell Pasipamire, the councillor?” I said I was. He had what appeared to be photographs taken of me at the council chambers. The gunman asked me why I was with MDC and told me that I had been very vocal in Chambers and at party meetings, and that I was a problem to Zanu-PF in the district.
Arrival at the base
We drove for more than two hours, through Harare and onto the Mutare road and near Goromonzi, we left the tarred road and, though it was dark, I think we went to a farm. There were lots of outbuildings. At this place, I was told to get out and was led to some kind of small storeroom with a tiny barred window, and I was locked inside. The place went quiet and I think it must have been close to 4am.
Interrogation
By the light in the sky, I believe it was around 6am when two men in dark clothes unlocked the door and led me to another building. From the way they spoke, I know they were Shonas and I would place their accent as coming from somewhere near Chinhoyi, but I can’t be sure. They were both in their mid-30s.
Inside the second building, I was offered a seat and ordered to give my name, date of birth, ID number and so on. These were written down. “Why did you join the MDC?” one of the men asked. “It is the party I believe in.” “What’s wrong with Zanu-PF? Why do you not support the ruling party?” I replied: “Just as a man is free to choose his own wife, so he can choose his own party.” The questioning went on like this, with nothing of any importance being discussed. I got the feeling that the two men were bored with their work.
I was now taken to a larger room in the same building. I remember it well because there was wood panelling on the walls. The same two men were with me, but we were soon joined by another who introduced himself as Army Warrant Officer Mabhunu. He told me that his job was to sort out people like me and that, in time, he would “finish off all MDC members”. Foolishly I thought he was joking and I said, “MDC is like HIV. You can never finish it off completely.”
He pushed me over, I fell to the ground and he kicked me. He was very angry. There was a steel table in the room with a hole in the middle. I was told to take off my shoes and slip headfirst into the hole. My hands were cuffed behind me and Mabhunu started beating the soles of my feet. “The MDC has been blowing up trains and they tried to blow up Harare railway station,” he said. “Who was responsible for this? I want the names.” I said I didn’t know. “It is Morgan Tsvangirai security people. I want their names.”
“You must ask at Harvest House (MDC HQ),” I said.
He was now very angry and told me to climb out of the table and take off all my clothes. I stripped to my underpants, but he shouted for me to remove them. I was then told to lie on the table and he began playing with my private parts. It seemed he was trying to embarrass me in front of the other two who were still in the room. He would fondle me like a lover, and then suddenly squeeze my testicles so that I cried out in pain. There followed some humiliating abuse, which I do not wish to talk about except to a doctor. Suddenly, after hurting me so badly, Mabhunu told the other men to leave the room and he started speaking to me nicely.
“I don’t want you to suffer, but we do need your help,” he said. “All I want you to do is to kill one of the soldiers we have here at the camp.” He produced a crowbar and said, “The soldiers have already been beaten, they won’t fight with you. But I need you to hit one of them on the head with this and kill him. Can you do that for me?”
“I have never killed anyone in my life. I can’t do that.”
He said: “Okay, can you pretend to do it? ”
I wasn’t sure what he meant, but at that point he told me to put on my clothes and I was escorted back to the little barred room. It must have been close to midday and, in the afternoon, someone brought me sadza (porridge) and a little meat and I ate. For the rest of the day, I could hear other men being tortured nearby. It was terrible to hear people screaming and crying. There was only one blanket in the room and I held it around my head to keep out the sound. Late that night, some officials opened my door, and when I came out, I saw other men like myself standing in front of other doors and rooms where they had been kept. A hose was turned on and we were all sprayed and then our rooms were sprayed, including my blanket.
We were locked up again and I was glad this was the middle of summer or I would have suffered with cold by sleeping wet. Even so it became cold in the early hours of morning and I was afraid of what might be coming with the new day. Late into the night, there were still the screams of people being tortured and beaten. I cannot properly tell you how terrible it is to be cold, wet, and unable to sleep and surrounded by the sounds of men crying in pain. This was the worst torture of all and it will be with me all my life.
On camera
By the next morning, I decided that I must cooperate with these officials if I was to survive, though I would not harm another person if ordered to do so. I had not slept since being abducted 36 hours earlier and was very tired. There was no food in the morning, but I was led from the cell to an area of open ground between the buildings where other young men were gathered. I did not recognise any of them, but we were a long way from Kadoma. One officer asked whether he should bring some of the women and I believe there were female prisoners in another block. He was told not to bring them. By this time, human-rights worker, Jestina Mukoko had been missing for more than a week and I was hoping to find her alive at the camp, but I never got to see the women prisoners.
However, from the brief description given by her lawyer about how she had been kidnapped and held, I believe she may well have been at the same place near Goromonzi.
Mabhunu arrived and told us that we had to pretend to beat up a soldier. There was someone with a large video camera, the kind you see when ZTV are filming. A young soldier in camouflage uniform was brought to stand in front of us. I remember thinking that he looked more scared than I was and I think he had been abused or threatened, though there were no marks on his face. We were made to pretend we were beating and kicking him and he rolled on the ground crying.
The film crew covered it all. Now I was again separated from the others and handed a hand-written script with questions and answers, in English. “We need you to answer questions as they are on the paper,” Mabhunu told me. “I will give you some time to read it and I will be back soon.” When he returned with the TV crew, there was another man in a suit who asked me the questions, just like they do on TV and I replied with the answers I had been given. When I made a mistake, they stopped and I had to do that one again. I was handed a microphone and I cannot remember everything, and some of the words will be different, but it was like this:
Q Why have you been beating and killing soldiers of the Zimbabwe National Army?
A It is because they are keeping Mugabe in power.
Q You have murdered at least one soldier. Is that true?
A Yes it is true.
Q When did you kill him?
A It was today, before being caught by the police.
Q Had the soldier committed some offence that made you kill him?
A No. But soldiers like him are supporting Mugabe and we have been ordered to kill them.
Q Who gave you those orders?
A Our party president, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Q Where were you trained for killing soldiers?
A I was trained in Botswana.
Q Did Tsvangirai give you money?
A Yes, he gave me [US] $1000.
Q Did he tell you where the money came from?
A He said there was plenty of money coming to MDC through Mr Pocock the British Ambassador and Mr Mcgee the US Ambassador in Harare. He said the money was paid by the US and Britain through Ian Khama of Botswana.
Q How many were with you in the gang that killed the soldier?
A We were 10.
Q Do you believe that Tsvangirai will be president of Zimbabwe?
A Yes.
Q How many people are being trained at camps in Botswana?
A There are many thousands.
Q How many from Harare?
A I think at least 2500.
Q Who is in charge of recruitment and where is it being done?
A It is Tsvangirai’s security staff and it is all based from Harvest House.
When it was over, we [Bothwell plus Mabhunu and ZBC team] were all laughing at the questions and answers and they said I had done a good job. One of the officials patted me on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry if it is true or not. It’s what we need, nothing more.” I did not reply and was taken back to my room and given food and water.
Escape
I was held for three days. During that time I was not allowed to meet or talk with other prisoners. Each night we were again sprayed with water. By the third night I was so cold and depressed I thought of hanging myself with the wet blanket. I was convinced that these people would kill me, before they put my interview on TV, otherwise I was sure to tell someone that it was a lie. On the fourth day after my abduction, I was injected twice in the buttocks but I was not told what medication I was being given. I was not given food that day and, in the evening, I was driven to Harare. No one gave me any information on where I was going or why, but I had a feeling that they were planning to kill me. At this time, I cannot reveal any details of my escape because it will be a danger to the people who helped me. There are some inside Zanu PF and CIO who do not believe in what they are doing.
Training camps in Botswana
I am not on the MDC national executive and am not in a position to comment on allegations made by the Zimbabwe government about training camps in Botswana. As a councillor, I am often approached by residents asking why we have not taken up an armed struggle. I do believe that if the MDC did go to war then, as happened with Mkontho we Sizwe in South Africa, thousands of youth would join up to free Zimbabwe. When asked, in reply I just quote the stated MDC policy that we are not a party of violence.
However I can say that, after almost 10 years in the MDC I do know a lot of people in the party and never once have I heard anybody talking about arms, violent tactics or training camps. And I have not met any person who claims to have been asked to go for training in Botswana. This convinces me in my own mind that the story is false. And if there was any truth, why would CIO need to abduct people like myself to tell lies on video about such camps.
My life now
It was I who told the MDC that I wanted to put my story out to the media. After this I will not be able to return home safely, but I do believe that change will come soon and then things will be okay in Zimbabwe. The above is my statement and mine alone. Every word is true and, in time, I hope to appear in court where the CIO members who abducted me and who, with Mr Mabhunu, so humiliated me, will be on trial. I will give the same testimony under oath in court, and my only plea to the MDC is that those who have killed and tortured must not be allowed to just go free.
Justice must be done in a new Zimbabwe.
