A shocking view of Zimbabwe prison

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Newly released images that give a rare look inside a Zimbabwean prison show emaciated inmates too weak to stand and eating as if they can barely lift food to their mouths.

Producer Godknows Nare spent four months on the behind-the-walls documentary, training insiders to capture the footage.

Hell Hole aired Tuesday on SABC, the South African state broadcaster, and was being syndicated internationally by Associated Press Television News yesterday.

Nare said he hoped the footage would persuade Zimbabwe's new coalition government and the international community to step in to help.

"Just hearsay, without visual proof, is not enough to change people's minds," he said. Human-rights activists and former prisoners have spoken of horrifying conditions.

Attempts to reach the cabinet minister in charge of prisons yesterday were not immediately successful.

In one scene from Hell Hole, a man stands shirtless in a prison yard, his ribs and pelvic bone shockingly prominent.

In other scenes, emaciated prisoners, wasting away because of vitamin deficiencies, according to SABC, are shown on mats in cells furnished with only blankets and the thin mattresses.

Nare said prison menus had been reduced to daily bowls of corn porridge, which the inmates are shown eating slowly, as if they barely have the energy to bring the food to their mouths.

The Associated Press could not independently determine if the prisoners' infirmities were caused by jail conditions or by an illness or malnutrition before being incarcerated.

Annah Moyo, a Zimbabwean lawyer who works with the Southern African Center for Survivors of Torture, said conditions in Zimbabwean prisons were "a form of torture."

Moyo, who was not involved in making the documentary, said soaring inflation and shortages of basic goods had made it difficult to supply prisons. But she said corruption also played a role, with prison officials taking food meant for prisoners and selling it on the black market.

Recently, Roy Bennett, a former opposition politician who is now part of the unity government, spoke about harsh jail conditions he endured for a month before being granted bail. He said prisoners survived on one meal a day and were given salty water.

He said five people died during his incarceration.