The Zimbabwe Child Soldier Victim Foundation
The Zimbabwe Child Soldier Victim Foundation is a non-profit organisation aimed at creating global awareness of the plight of children used as Child Soldiers in the Zimbabwe Youth Militia and at assisting those who have managed to escape the militia camps with a recovery plan, as well as assisting the victims persecuted by the child soldiers.
The ZCSVF is a legitimately authorised charity registered in Denmark; its bank account, lawyers and accountant are also all registered in Denmark and the Board of Directors, though international, meet twice yearly in Denmark. The ZCSVF is transparent in its accounting and happy to publicly disclose or publish its accounts. Most importantly, the ZCSVF is managed and administered by volunteers. This means that every cent donated goes directly into helping the child soldiers and the victims of the Youth Militia.
The main objective of the Zimbabwe Child Soldier Victim Foundation is to have the militia camps closed down with immediate effect and to help every victimised child into a rehabilitation program. For the fugitive former child soldiers who are refugees in South Africa, a rehabilitation programme is being put into place; this includes counselling, reconciliation, reuniting them with their families, art and drama therapy, as well as essential food and shelter.
Stills of MUGABE INSPECTING A YOUTH MILITIA CAMP taken from BBC Panorama programme broadcast on BBC One on Sunday, 29 February 2004 at 2215 GMT. The secretely filmed programme was titled Secrets of the Camps.
The Zimbabwean Government estimates suggest that 80 000 youths have been through these training camps since 2001 but the actual numbers are thought to be much greater.
The Zimbabwe government, under the 30-year rule of dictator Robert Mugabe, has announced through its Ministry of Defence, that Youth Militia training be compulsory and should involve weaponry tuition, and that all youth must form a reserve force under military command to defend their nation against imperialists and neo-colonialists, as well as any political opposition party. The age indicated by government policy is as young as 10 years old. The Youth Militia falls under the Youth Training Act, which is administered by the Ministry of Gender, Youth Development and Employment Creation.
Children are forced into the camps under this regulation; those that do not comply are abducted under force from the streets, their homes, schools and even churches.Conditions in the training camps are severe; there is little food, yet drugs and alcohol are liberally distributed. The children are forced to march, chant songs, and are taught ZANU-PF campaign materials and speeches that glorify Mugabe, plus weaponry, military defence tactics, and how to beat up and torture MDC party activists with sticks, shamboks, metal pipes, acid and burning plastic. The Youth Militia training also includes systematic beatings to instil fear and submission and there is rampant sexual abuse on the girls and boys by the Camp Commanders and the other youths who are forced to rape the girls as initiation processes; they are also sent out to rape villagers. Therefore child pregnancies within the camps and beyond as well as sexually transmitted infections including HIV are prevalent The children are forced to go out on “operations” to commit these atrocities, even upon their own family, the main aim being to eliminate family ties and all political opposition, to recruit other children and rampage villages and shops for their own food.
There is widespread "talk" of elections to be held in Zimbabwe in May 2011; ground sources have informed that governmental/Zanu PF election posters are being printed, pamphlets distributed and intimidation is already rife. In preperation for these forthcoming elections, the Zanu PF government is restructuring existing camps and opening up new militia camps all over the country, where children are being forcibly trained to intimidate, brutalise, torture and kill all opposition to Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party.All these actions, both having occurred and still being organised and executed by the Zanu PF against these children, fall under each and every International Treaty and Law as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Yael Danieli, Ph.D. Director, Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their Children
Please support us in our struggle for Peace, justice and international pressure to give these suffering and victimised children a voice.
Some have even had their tongues removed. Others saw the hands and feet chopped off their relatives; yet others were forced into burning their parents alive in their huts. Please help us to help these children; they are victims – not perpetrators. Zimbabwe has lost an entire generation of young adults, who have, under the worst possible circumstances, lost their childhood. We have less than a year to help all Zimbabwean children by getting every Youth Militia camp closed and to lend a hand to their recovery, as well as preventing a national genocide. For this we need your public support and your financial assistance.