Sekai Holland--battered by Mugabe's thugs: my wife, Sekai Holland, is a 64-year old grandmother. For the crime of being a member of the opposition MDC in Zimbabwe she has recently suffered one of the most brutal attacks imaginable at the hands of the ZANU-PF regime's sadistic thugs.

Brutalised by police

Sekai's ordeal began when she and fellow activist Grace Kwinjeh went to Harare's Highfield Police Station looking for those who had been arrested for trying to attend a Zimbabwe prayer vigil on Sunday, 11 March. When they arrived they were taken to the yard and locked in with those already detained. Then the beatings started. Over a hundred people were forced to lie on the ground while they were viciously attacked. Later Sekai and the other members of the MDC leadership were called in one by one to the charge office where they were made to repeatedly run a gauntlet of thugs who beat them mercilessly.

Sekai was first hit in the face, her glasses smashed, her earrings and watch were ripped off. She was hit with clubs and batons. They accused her of being United Kingdom PM Tony Blair's girlfriend, to which she responded, "No. He is my son. How can you call me his girlfriend?"

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The beatings went on for over a period of hours. A woman repeatedly jumped on Sekai with booted feet--fracturing three of her ribs. Her clothes were covered in blood--her own and that of others suffering the same brutality. She passed out several times. At one stage one of the torturers left the room, but was called back by another who said "What about her legs?" He then used an instrument to break her leg, after which they forced her to stand up and hobble around on it. When satisfied that they had indeed broken it they left.

From Highfield, Sekai was taken first to Central Police Station and then to the suburban Avondale Station. When she was ordered to get out of the prison truck at Avondale, she replied that she was unable to do so due to her injuries. They pushed her out and she fell and landed hard on her head.

Sekai spent two full days in detention without medical treatment. She suffered filthy conditions without proper sanitation. When the courts finally forced the police to take the injured for medical treatment, it was first thought that she had a broken arm and foot, as well as the massive bruising over most of her body. Later on they discovered that she in fact had a broken leg not foot, and that she also had three broken ribs as well as a fractured knee.

At the hospital

I managed to get back to Harare from Tanzania on the evening Sekai was admitted to hospital. The place was still crawling with riot police, and the atmosphere was very tense. However a local human rights organisation had managed to negotiate proper treatment for all the injured and Sekai was put into very good medical hands. She was in excellent spirits when I finally saw her, in spite of being so sadistically brutalised. She said that neither she nor any of the other leaders she saw being battered uttered any cries, adding that this must have infuriated the torturers.

In hospital Sekai had surgery to insert pins and a plate in her broken leg, and had her broken arm set. That operation went well, but it was agreed that she needed specialist treatment outside the country for the fractured knee. Sekai and fellow MDC activist Grace Kwinjeh were scheduled to be evacuated the following weekend from hospital in Harare to South Africa, where the atmosphere was calmer and safer and where medical facilities were better than in Zimbabwe. Arrangements were made for them to be taken by air ambulance from Harare airport to Johannesburg. However, when their ambulance drew up next to the aircraft they were met by members of the Central Intelligence Organisation who refused to allow them on board. Discussions with our lawyer followed, but he was told that the injured women required a clearance letter from the Minister of Health before they could leave the country. That of course was a total fabrication as there is no such provision in the law or indeed in practice.

Illegally Detained

The ambulance was ordered to proceed under police escort to the Central Police Station where their lawyer was advised that the women were not allowed to leave the country but should return to hospital under police escort. No justification or explanation was given. They were taken back to hospital and placed under the guard of four uniformed police officers--two fully armed men and two women. No explanation was forthcoming for another hour or so, at which time they were informed that they were under arrest as they were to be charged with some unspecified offence to be determined in due course.

It should be noted that on the day of their appearance before the court, the magistrate ordered that everyone should be released from custody and that no further arrests should be made, and that if the police wanted to proceed against any of those arrested at a later stage it should be by way of summons and not arrest. The treatment they received was in direct violation of that court order.

Making it to SA

It took several more days before a further court order could be obtained to confirm that there was no legal basis for their detention under armed guard in hospital, and to require the police to return their passports and allow them to leave the country. They were finally allowed to leave on Wednesday 21 March for South Africa, travelling by air ambulance to a small airport 40 km outside Johannesburg where a crowd of Zimbabweans gave us all a moving welcome. On arrival the plane was surrounded by police vehicles, but it turned out that this time they were there for protection rather than for intimidation. They provided a VIP escort through the traffic to the hospital--a most appreciated gesture.

Sekai has undergone treatment in hospital here in Johannesburg since her "escape" from Harare. She has had further operations to put pins and a plate in her broken arm, they have reset her broken leg, and she has had skin grafting on one leg to repair flesh destroyed by a whip used by her torturers.

She is in excellent spirits in spite of her injuries, knowing what an impact this appalling brutality has had on the outside world, and that she faced down the 15 men and one woman who brutalised her without once begging for mercy. Her prognosis is good--she has started using crutches and is now learning to walk again. However it is likely that some of the injuries will cause pain that could last for the rest of her life.

Support from around the world

The regime has massively miscalculated with this brutality. Messages of solidarity have been coming in from all over the world, and I can see this leading to real pressure on the neighbouring African countries who have shielded Mugabe and his regime for so long. The most moving development of all for us has been to hear of the support coming from so many members of the Australian Aboriginal community with whom Sekai campaigned over the elimination of Apartheid and other colonial systems in Africa, and in support of Aboriginal Land Rights back in the 1970s. They say they are not going to let this pass without action that may surprise everyone.

Sekai was a vigorous anti-Apartheid activist in the 1970s, and joined ZANU (the predecessor of the present ZANU-PF) in 1974. However her experiences and criticism of the abuse of women as well as of the general brutality in the camp used by the liberation army ZANLA's freedom fighters in Lusaka later that year led to her being expelled from the party and put on its death list. She sees the current violence against the opposition in Zimbabwe as a continuation of the violent and patriarchal ethos that was spawned in that very camp.