THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN: AN UPDATE ON ZIMBABWE PRISONS

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SUBJ: THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN: AN UPDATE ON ZIMBABWE PRISONS

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SUMMARY

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1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Six months following the release of the film

documentary "Hellhole," which graphically depicted the deplorable

Zimbabwe Prison System (ZPS),the Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) has

responded by permitting more access to prisons from non-governmental

organizations (NGOs) including the International Committee of the

Red Cross (ICRC). However, some of these NGOs have been forced to

enter into a devil's bargain with the government, agreeing not to

publicize the failures and abuses of the ZPS. While this "bargain"

has resulted in a short-term improvement of some prisoner

conditions, the price for this limited improvement has been silence

on the appalling conditions that remain.

2. (SBU) Malnutrition, an almost complete collapse of the prison

medical system, and the failure to protect the most vulnerable

prisoners within the ZPS are just a few of the conditions cited by

our interlocutors. While there has been a marked decline in the

death rate in the prisons, there is continuing concern over an

unchecked HIV epidemic compounded by the ZPS' failure to provide

adequate anti-retroviral therapy for prisoners. Equally troubling,

because the ZPS has failed to provide adequate and correct types of

antibiotics, there has been a notable increase in microbial

resistance amongst prisoners. For far too many Zimbabweans,

incarceration in prison has resulted in a death sentence. END

SUMMARY.

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BACKGROUND

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3. (SBU) Zimbabwe's prisons have long been renowned for their

inhumane conditions, overcrowding, and growing health problems. In

April 2009, an undercover film crew went into the prisons and

produced a shocking documentary, "Hellhole," that showed prisoners

/>experiencing serious malnutrition and living in unsanitary

conditions that directly contributed to cholera outbreaks in

prisons. Cholera has resulted in untold numbers of deaths. After

the documentary was released, and with the encouragement of the

Deputy Minister of Justice, Jessie Majome (MDC-T),the government

has allowed certain NGOs increased access to prisons to relieve

overcrowding, and to improve nutrition, sanitation, and living

conditions.

4. (SBU) However, some elements of the GOZ continue to discourage

investigation and discussion of the on-going human rights crisis in

Zimbabwe, as evidenced by their continued refusal to permit

inspection of Zimbabwe prisons by diplomatic missions. Embassy

consular and political officers have requested permission to visit

Zimbabwean prisons in the last year. Prison authorities have never

responded to these requests. The Embassy Consular Section was

permitted to visit a detained American citizen only after he had

been transferred to a deportation holding cell. This particular

Qbeen transferred to a deportation holding cell. This particular

American citizen had languished two months in a remand prison in

Mutare before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided notification.

Other diplomatic missions have experienced similar problems

accessing their nationals in prison. Recently, an Australian

diplomat traveled to Bulawayo to visit an incarcerated Australian

citizen and spent several hours arguing with prison officials, who

refused to grant her access. Eventually the officials allowed her

in, but only after a protracted argument.

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5. (SBU) To better understand current conditions in prisons, we

spoke with three organizations who have been working with prisons

throughout the year, the ICRC, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

(ZLHR),and the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and

Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO). All have been granted

varying levels of access, with ICRC enjoying the closest

relationship with the government. ZLHR has played an important role

in hosting workshops for prison officials and helping inmates

navigate the legal system in order to bring their cases to trial.

ZACRO, which works with local churches, helps provide food and

brings pastors into prisons to work with prisoners and prison

officials.

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Cloaked In Secrecy

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6. (SBU) In order to ensure continued access by the ZPS, the ICRC

entered into a non-disclosure agreement with the GOZ in which it

agreed not to release information critical of the GOZ's handling of

the prison crisis, in exchange for greater prison access. In a

recent off-the-record conversation with Emboffs, the ICRC declined

to answer many specific questions citing their agreement with the

ZPS, despite our assurances that we would not make the information

public. While they did provide information about their therapeutic

feeding and guard uniform programs, they refused to comment on

health conditions, medical supplies, or cases of prisoner abuse.

The ICRC's security officer, who attended the meeting with two other

ICRC staff members, flatly refused to answer specific questions

about the lack of doctors within the prisons and the incarceration

of juveniles. When confronted with statistics provided by the ZACRO

and ZLHR, the ICRC stated that these NGOs had not been in the

prisons every week and therefore could not provide up-to-date

information.

7. (SBU) ZACRO and ZHLR, which have not signed non-disclosure

agreements, have only limited access to prisons. Both have been

candid about the continuing humanitarian crisis with the ZPS. They

cited severe, ongoing issues with malnutrition, extended periods of

remand (detention before trial),non-existent medical care, and

archaic rules that govern prisoner clothing. Both ZACRO and ZHLR

continue to press for increased humanitarian access by all relief

organizations in order to address the crisis.

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Overcrowded, Under-funded, and Forgotten

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8. (SBU) Both human rights watchers and the GOZ estimate the

current ZPS population at 11,000 in 72 major incarceration

facilities across the country. This contrasts sharply with the

estimated 22,000-24,000 prisoners during the height of the Zimbabwe

prison crisis in 2008. Through release and death, the prison

Qprison crisis in 2008. Through release and death, the prison

population has been cut in half in the last year. In September

2009, for example, ZPS released 2,513 prisoners from various

facilities across Zimbabwe in order to reduce overcrowding.

However, even with a 50 percent decrease in the population, severe

and chronic problems remain, creating what many human rights

observers call one of the most deplorable prison systems in the

world.

9. (SBU) Among the glaring shortcomings of the Zimbabwe judicial

system is the issue of protracted pre-trial remand. Pre-trial

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detention is referred to as remand in Zimbabwe, and pre-trial

detainees are held in remand prisons. The majority of the prisoners

interviewed by ZLHR have spent at least one year in a remand prison

while some have spent three to five years on remand before ever

having a pre-trial hearing. The two major causes are the failure of

the criminal justice system to dismiss cases when witnesses do not

appear, and lack of available vehicles to transport prisoners. Lack

of transport has resulted in some prisoners not appearing in court

for more than a year. In one case, a prisoner spent 11 years in

remand before being released, more than the maximum sentence

possible for his crime. ZLHR admits that some of these long remand

periods are also caused by prisoners whose ignorance of the criminal

justice system leads them to believe that it is better to languish

in a remand prison than to be convicted and incarcerated in a

regular prison.

10. (SBU) Recently, however, some prisoners have benefited from

proactive judges. Since October 2009, approximately 400 prisoners

have been released from Khami Remand Prison in Bulawayo on

compassionate/medical grounds after spending long periods in remand.

Masvingo Remand Prison has also granted bail to several inmates

accused of lesser offenses to reduce the number of inmates spending

long periods in remand. ZLHR, ZACRO, and ICRC continue to lobby the

government to release prisoners who have committed only misdemeanors

and whose incarceration puts pressure on the already over-crowded

prison system.

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Malnourishment Continues, but to What Extent?

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11. (SBU) While food shortages have become less severe since the

ICRC was granted access in June 2009, nutrition remains a problem.

Shortly after gaining access to prisons, the ICRC began therapeutic

feeding programs in 14 of the 70 facilities to help prisoners with

severe nutritional deficiencies. The ICRC reports that currently

only 100 prisoners are receiving treatment under the program and

that the rest of the prison population does not meet the medical

definition for severe malnutrition.

12. (SBU) While the ICRC, ZLHR, and ZACRO agree that the majority

of prisoners in Zimbabwe are receiving only one to two meals a day,

they disagree as to whether the prisoners are suffering from

nutritional deficiencies. During a prison tour conducted by ZLHR

from April 14-17, ZLHR noted that the majority of prisons still had

no meat, vegetables, or oil to supplement prisoners' daily ration of

sadza (the local staple starch made from maize meal),and that

nutritional deficiency was a critical prison issue. Also, ZACRO and

ZLHR still report cases of pellagra, a serious illness caused by

QZLHR still report cases of pellagra, a serious illness caused by

protein deficiency, which causes severe diarrhea, dermatitis, and

dementia. People who subsist solely on maize are highly susceptible

to developing pellagra, which if left untreated, can lead to death.

However, the ICRC categorically denies that nutrition deficits are a

serious problem, contending that because ZACRO and ZLHR are not

given full and unrestricted access, they are ignorant of the current

situation and forced to rely on outdated information.

13. (SBU) In addition to insufficient quantity and variety of food,

another challenge is the lack of resources to prepare and distribute

food to the prisoners. According to ZACRO and ZLHR, kitchen

utensils, such as plates, pots, and cups are in short supply. At

Mutare Remand Prison there is only one pot to cook both sadza and

vegetables. Often inmates must wait for other prisoners to finish

eating so they can use the same plate, which is not washed between

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usages.

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Archaic, Cruel Rules Leave Prisoners Cold

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14. (SBU) ICRC, ZLHR, and ZACRO all agree that the majority of

inmates do not have adequate clothing. The ICRC is in the process

of providing uniforms to every prisoner (approximately 11,000

uniforms) and states that they have distributed around 7,500

uniforms so far. ZLHR contends that the number of uniforms that

have actually reached the prison population is substantially lower.

The ICRC also reports that they are providing uniforms to guards,

which the ZPS has been unable to provide for several years.

15. (SBU) Another issue facing the ZPS is a set of archaic rules

that adds to prisoner mistreatment and misery. Numerous observers

have noted that one of the most onerous is that prisoners are only

allowed to wear one layer of clothing at any given time while being

held in a remand prison, which effectively restricts female

prisoners from wearing bras. It also means that prisoners must

choose between wearing a shirt or a sweater during winter.

Prisoners are also generally not permitted to wear shoes. This is

not a safety measure since even prisoners who have Velcro closures

are not allowed to keep their shoes in prison. Interestingly, the

ICRC states that all the prisoners they have met with did have shoes

and that they are not aware of any ZPS rules that forbid prisoners

to have shoes. However, the consular section and other NGOs confirm

that the prisoners they have visited have not been permitted to keep

their shoes. A ZLHR lawyer reports that during his 10-day

incarceration in June 2009, he picked up three different types of

bacterial infections from walking barefoot on excrement-covered

floors.

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The Most Vulnerable: Juveniles, Women and Children

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16. (SBU) Juveniles are particularly vulnerable to deplorable

prison conditions, as they are routinely incarcerated with adults.

ZLHR reports many instances of juvenile complaints of physical and

sexual abuse, although the ICRC reports no such complaints.

Compounding the problem of shared quarters with adult offenders, is

the fact that juveniles must have a guardian present before they can

be brought to trial. Because the police are not required to notify

families of a juvenile's arrest, juvenile offenders often are unable

to find a guardian to represent them in court proceedings. As a

result, bail hearings and trial proceedings are often delayed until

a guardian comes forward or a lawyer is appointed on a minor's

behalf. Because of this, juvenile offenders routinely spend more

time in remand than adult offenders. In 2008, according to ZLHR,

Qtime in remand than adult offenders. In 2008, according to ZLHR,

approximately 200 juveniles were incarcerated in adult jails.

17. (SBU) According to ZLHR, female prisoners have generally fared

better than males in the ZPS. First, they appear to have suffered

appreciably less from malnutrition, generally receiving more food

from their families than male prisoners. Prison officials also

appear to have prioritized food distribution to women. On another

positive note, there have been no reports of rape or physical abuse

from female prisoners, which ZLHR routinely hears from males.

18. (SBU) ZLHR credits better treatment of female prisoners to

gender differences and female guards who are more diligent about

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protecting female prisoners. However while the safety and food

security has been better for women, they have conversely endured

more medical hardship. For example the ZPS currently provides no

sanitary supplies for women, which has resulted in numerous fungal

infections, as female inmates are forced to reuse torn pieces of

dirty blankets during their menses. Additionally, pregnant and

nursing mothers are not provided additional care or food rations.

Female offenders also receive disproportionately longer sentences

than male offenders for the same crime. The ZLHR estimates that

women will spend, on average, two to three years longer in prison

than their male counterparts for the same crime.

19. Children also face unique difficulties. For example, the ZPS

does not have a separate budget to provide food or medical care for

children living with their mothers in prison. Because of this,

there are no food allocations directly provided to these children

and they are instead required to share their mothers' food

allocation. ZLHR claims that these children are suffering from

malnutrition and related illnesses, particularly those whose mothers

are HIV positive and are unable to breast feed. ICRC states that

there are no children in the therapeutic feeding programs and that

prisons are adequately supplying enough food for children living

with incarcerated mothers. While both ZLHR and ICRC agreed that

there are few children in the prisons, neither can provide an

accurate number. ZLHR estimates the number to be around 20

children, and notes that children are generally not allowed to live

with an incarcerated mother past the age of two.

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A Sick Populace

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20. (SBU) Healthcare within the ZPS is effectively nonexistent. In

theory, the intent is for each prison to have a nursing team to

handle daily needs, while regional doctors are called for serious

cases. However, with the exception of the Bulawayo region, most

regions have no doctors.

21. (SBU) To overcome the lack of health professionals in the ZPS,

some prisons have entered into partnerships with the military or

civil organizations. For example, the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA)

assists Mutimurefu Prison in Masvingo Province by providing a doctor

for a bimonthly clinic in the prison. The ZNA doctor attends

difficult cases that are initially pre-screened by the nurses. In

Chipinge prison located in Manicaland, the NGO, Medecins du Monde

(MDM),provides drugs for malaria, HIV, and other illnesses, while

medical services are provided by the Chipinge District Hospital.

However, because the Chipinge Prison has no vehicles, often these

services cannot be provided. Significantly, no prisons in Zimbabwe

are medically staffed or equipped to deal with emergency medical

Qare medically staffed or equipped to deal with emergency medical

care.

22. (SBU) In addition to the lack of medical personnel, prisons

experience severe drug shortages. Routine drugs for asthma,

hypertension, and diabetes are in short supply, and prisoners may go

days without receiving proper medication. The lack of some

antibiotics has resulted in sexually transmitted diseases and

urinary tract infections being treated with inappropriate

antibiotics. This practice has contributed to a growing problem of

microbial drug resistance, which is transmitted to the non-prison

population as inmates are released.

23. (SBU) By far, the mentally ill are the most affected by the

collapsed medical infrastructure within the ZPS. Under Zimbabwean

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law, inmates with psychiatric conditions are required to be examined

by two doctors, who must both confirm the mental illness and then

recommend that patients either be released or their conditions

stabilized before they are returned to a prison facility. However,

mentally ill prisoners routinely face long waiting periods, as much

as three years, before being evaluated. In Masvingo Remand Prison,

with a prison population of 263, as many as 42 prisoners suffering

from mental illness have never been examined by doctors. This has

resulted in trial delays and exacerbated mental illness.

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The HIV Crisis

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24. (SBU) ZLHR estimates that 52 per cent of the prison population

in Zimbabwe is HIV positive. ZLHR describes the incarceration of any

HIV infected prisoner as "a death sentence," citing the government's

failure to ensure consistent access to anti-retroviral therapy and

an inability to provide adequate nutrition. While ZPS regulations

permit prisoners who were enrolled in an anti-retroviral therapy

program prior to incarceration to continue to receive medication,

the reality is that without prison transport, it is practically

impossible for prisoners to receive medications from the clinics.

Additionally, because not all prisoners are tested for HIV upon

admittance to the prison, many are unaware of their HIV status until

they have full-blown AIDS.

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A Dramatically Reduced Death Rate

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25. (SBU) In spite of the wretched conditions, all of the NGOs we

spoke with agree that the death rate has decreased dramatically this

year. However, since the ZPS does not keep statistics on the death

rate in the prisons it is impossible to accurately quantify. During

the height of the prison crisis in 2008, human rights watchers

conservatively estimated that approximately 40-50 prisoners died

each week. The ICRC currently estimates only 40 deaths a month.

Most observers attribute the dramatic decrease in the death rate to

ICRC's feeding program. However, some more cynical observers

believe that the weakest inmates have already died and the death

rate has decreased because only the strongest inmates are left.

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COMMENT

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26. (SBU) Without doubt, the ICRC's robust response to the Zimbabwe

prison crisis has produced immediate results. Thousands of

Zimbabwean prisoners who would have previously starved to death have

been saved. However, their agreement with the GOZ also means that

the one organization that has unlimited access to the prisons will

not share information about the true extent of the crisis, which

could help address remaining problems. This permits the GOZ to

continue to deny culpability, while allowing it to use the ICRC as a

Qcontinue to deny culpability, while allowing it to use the ICRC as a

rebuttal to charges of continued human rights abuses. Although the

"devil's bargain" has saved lives, it has also contributed to

continued secrecy about conditions in Zimbabwe's prisons. END

COMMENT.

RAY

THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN: AN UPDATE ON ZIMBABWE PRISONS

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