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Issue 00442 |
October 21 - 27, 2006 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Features |
| The unspeakable ordeal of Habiba Shabani By Issa Toure Associate Legal Officer UNITED NATIONS “There can be no justice without respect for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.” (Message from Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations). The above quoted statement of Mr. Kofi Annan expresses the strong link which binds justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law. Justice must be done through the observance of a number of rules and principles. In Africa these rules and principles are frequently breached particularly in the field of law enforcement activities related to the arrest and the pre-trial detention. The following is an illustration. It occurred in Tanzania It is a verbatim record of the testimony by a peasant woman, Habiba Shabani (in the Case RV I bya and 4 others, High Court Criminal Sessions, Case No 8 of 1980 at Mwanza, from the record of Appeal, in the Court of Appeal Registry, quoted in Shivji, State Coercion and Freedom in Tanzania, PP. 92-97). “(…) we stayed in prison at Shinyanga for one month. We were then taken to Mwangh’ola.There came a tipper with policemen (…) on entering we were ordered to undress very quickly. We were then ordered to line up along the wall. An old man who was ahead of me was ordered to lie on his back. He complied. One of us was ordered to smear the old man with pepper solution in the mouth, nostrils, eyes, private parts. It was done. His prepuce was pulled and pepper stuffed therein. He was not circumcised. He was ordered to stand and go aside- being beaten with each such order. The old man was crying from the irritation of pepper and he was beaten to stop making noise. Next came my turn. I was ordered to lie on my back. I complied. The pepper was put on my eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears and in my private parts. Husks and seeds of pepper were on orders forced into my vagina in plenty. It swelled up like a loaf of bread. The youth who was doing the stuffing was ordered to stuff pepper even into my anus. The man was a Mhaya. He had to comply. It was all painful. If I tried to wipe the pepper off I was beaten up. I was then – under beating – ordered to join the old man. All of us were treated with pepper then our names were called out. But before that we had to wait lying on our backs, one leg raised. Then we were called one by one to the second store. (…) We were driven back to Shinyanga. Kang’ombe was with us. But on the way Kang’ombe gave up his soul. He had been vomiting blood. At Shinyanga we were taken to the Prison. We came down. .Kang’ombe’s body was brought down and deposited at the prison door. The prison officer refused to accept the body saying he does not receive bodies in his prison. We left the body at the door and we were driven into the prison. . The Mwangh’ola operation was very savage. My left leg is now lame and, I no longer enjoy sex. The vagina had sores for about 2 years and it is now all but scars. I have lost the sex urge.” From the recurrence in Africa of widespread police brutality and the use of unlawful violence we are made to understand that police forces in Africa actually need to be efficiently re-structured, better trained and firmly made accountable to the national and international rule of law.
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