Dr. Selwyn Spray, the American missionary doctor who was imprisoned and eventually deported by the Smith regime in June 1977 on suspicion of assisting guerillas (see FOCUS 11 p.12), has since presented graphic evidence to the United Nations of the use of torture and atrocities by the Rhodesian security forces. Dr. Spray, who appeared before the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in July 1977, worked for 2½ years at mission hospitals run by the United Church of Christ at Chikore and Mount Selinda, south of Chipinga and close to the Mozambique border in south-eastern Rhodesia. He was declared a prohibited immigrant by the regime in March 1977, and subsequently arrested and held for two weeks in Chipinga prison after two alleged guerillas had been shot and killed by the security forces close by his house.
According to Dr. Spray, systematic torture was carried out by members of the Police Special Branch and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Beatings by the army were more spontaneous, and for punishment rather than interrogation. Torture was routine in local police stations, involving beating with fists and feet, whipping with hoses, beating with sticks and clubs, electric shocks, pushing the head under water and banging it against a wall. Techniques were used to cause great pain, but without mutilation or permanent signs of injury. Medical charts of torture victims admitted to the mission hospitals were presented by Dr. Spray to the Working Group.
The security forces used many means of intimidating the local African population according to Dr. Spray. Any incident in the vicinity would be followed up by a security force swoop in which every resident man, woman and child would be arrested, held in detention and interrogated for periods of up to a month. Individuals would be picked out by the security forces and beaten up in public as a warning to others. The dead bodies of alleged guerillas killed by the troops would be dropped into a village or in front of a school and residents or students forced to look at them. The corpses were treated in a "disgusting" way, without respect. In one such incident, passengers on two buses passing Mount Selinda were stopped and brought out to inspect two dead guerillas, accompanied by a lecture on the evils of "terrorism".
African informers constituted a crucial part of security force operations. Africans already employed in government service were given monetary rewards or promotion in return for passing information on to the police. While this system operated unofficially, rewards were also offered publicly to local villagers at meetings organised by regime officials - R$1,000 for anyone who could lead the police to a guerilla camp, R$500 for an AK rifle, R$100 for a landmine. In some cases the most trusted African civilian informers were provided with radio telephones to communicate with the police about anything suspicious. An atmosphere of widespread mistrust had resulted between friends and neighbours and even between members of the same family. Informers were regarded as evil people, who were prepared to allow others to be arrested, tortured, imprisoned and even executed by the regime. In many cases, Dr. Spray told the Working Group, local people "will help the guerillas to find (informers), get rid of them, get them out of the community, because of the damage that they do to the social structure of a community."
Further evidence submitted by Dr. Spray included:
- Prison conditions - Africans in Chipinga gaol were kept in open pens or concreted areas surrounded by a high fence with a small roof from which to get shelter in the rain. 15-20 people were kept in each pen, measuring 25 ft. by 25 ft., and shared a single flush toilet. No beds were provided and the prisoners slept on the concrete with a minimum of blankets. There was no routine for cleaning the cells or toilets and conditions were insanitary. Food for African prisoners consisting mainly of beans and cornmeal was served up in large buckets and four or five prisoners had to share a single plate.
- Curfew regulations - men, women and children were shot dead without warning by the security forces when found breaking the curfew. In April 1977 the curfew regulations applying to the Chipinga and Melsetter areas were amended to prohibit the movement of all vehicles between sunset and sunrise, other than on metalled and tarmacadam roads. Both the Chipinga District Commissioner and the white officer in charge of Chipinga Police Station confirmed that moving vehicles would henceforth be fired upon without challenge. Previously people travelling by car or other vehicle after curfew hours had been first stopped and questioned. (Order in terms of the Emergency Powers (Maintenance of Law and Order) Regulations 1976, dated 17 April 1977)).
- Protected villages - the entire farm population of Chikore mission had been removed into three protected villages. (See FOCUS 6 p.13). In addition to the other hardships of life in the fenced camps, the mission medical staff, who ran a clinic in one protected village, had noted a "rather marked increase" in malnutrition and an increase in communicable diseases among the small children. The protected villages had badly disrupted morals and traditional relationships within the community. The African guards were in general poorly educated and ill-disciplined and there were many reports of the threat and rape of young women in the camps. There was a "very high" incidence of venereal disease among the guards.
(Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts, U.N. Commission on Human Rights, 452nd and 453rd Meetings, 27 July 1977, Geneva - Testimony of Dr. Selwyn Spray).
