Mugabe's boy militia flee after murders

Hundreds of President Robert Mugabe's notorious youth militia – nicknamed the "Green Bombers" – are fleeing to South Africa because they say they are tired of "killing for nothing" and are being starved.

Fourteen boys and men aged between 15 and 28 have provided testimonies about life in the youth wing of Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe's ruling party, to The Sunday Independent newspaper in South Africa. They say they were taught how to kill people in ways that "would be quick and silent and leave no evidence".

They did not previously know each other and came from different youth militia training camps, many of which were based at secondary schools. Most of them fled in December and January, some swimming the Limpopo river, and risking its crocodiles, to get to South Africa.

One former militia member said he fled Zimbabwe after being forced to take part in the murder of his uncle, a supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Another said he fled after being instructed to murder his father, an MDC supporter. A third militiaman said he was involved in the murder of an MDC party chairman.

One youth said: "We jumped on to a goods train, then before it reached the border we got off. We went across a low point in the river and through a fence; we wandered around the bush for five days; we only had water, there was no food. We started off as five but lost some because they became too hungry and weak to continue."

The Sunday Independent said it was withholding the real names of the escapers to protect their families in Zimbabwe.

The arrival in South Africa of the former Green Bombers has been confirmed by civic organisations which have reported large numbers of boys and young men seeking asylum.