Human rights

Zimbabwe: May 2007 Monthly violence report - Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum

2007-07-13, Issue 312

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/42575

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Abuse of state power by Zimbabwe's state security agents, disregard of court orders by the police, harassment of lawyers, intimidation of opposition and civic society activists continued unabated in May according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum's monthly violence report . The Human Rights Forum records its dismay at the continued harassment and intimidation of lawyers representing civil and political rights activists who might have been arrested.

OVERVIEW
Abuse of state power by state security agents, disregard of court orders by the police, harassment of lawyers, intimidation of opposition and civic society activists continued unabated in May as will be shown by this report. Of note in May was the arrest of human rights lawyers Andrew Makoni and Alec Muchadehama by the police in Harare. A number of charges were laid against them but more importantly the charges were related to the MDC members whom they were defending. The incarcerated MDC members were being accused of taking part in the spate of countrywide petrol bombings at police stations from January to April 2007. Following the lawyers' arrest, the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) decided to petition the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to express disapproval at their illegal detention. The demonstrating lawyers were dispersed outside the High Court in Harare with brute force by police officers some of whom were armed but all of whom wielded baton sticks. The police also took away 5 prominent lawyers, including the President of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Beatrice Mtetwa and dumped them near Eastlea, a Harare suburb, but not before they had savagely assaulted and tortured them.
In a related but different case, the police arrested renowned lawyer, Jonathan Samkange at his home. Samkange was arrested for allegedly breaching a section of the Immigration Act. He was being accused of falsifying information on a visa application for a defence witness that he brought into the country to testify in Simon Mann's case. To the contrary, the alleged witness failed to gain entry into Zimbabwe. Samkange was later released but reportedly subjected to serious interrogation.

The police continued to disrupt demonstrations by the NCA in May. Moreover, there has been resurgence in the harassment and brutalisation of student leaders from higher and tertiary education institutions in Zimbabwe. Of concern is the collusion by the different University security officers and members of the ZRP. Cases that were reported in May to the Human Rights Forum reportedly revealed that the University security officers were responsible for apprehending the student leaders, assaulting and then handing them over to the police where they are in most cases tortured in police custody.
The Human Rights Forum records its dismay at the continued harassment and intimidation of lawyers representing civil and political rights activists who might have been arrested. Furthermore the Human Rights Forum would like to remind the Government of Zimbabwe that lawyers are not just ordinary citizens but officers of the courts and the judicial system and should be treated as such when they are engaging in their work. Finally, the Human Rights Forum continues to deplore the heavy - handedness with which peaceful demonstrators are treated and the criminalisation of political and civic activity by the government of Zimbabwe.



Cases of Political Violence

Note: The identities of victims whose names have not been published in the press and are not public officials are protected. This is done in order to protect the victim from further violence, intimidation and possible recriminatory attacks.

The purpose of this report is to record the nature of the politically motivated violence and intimidation that continues to prevail in the country. The Monthly Political Violence Reports are primarily based on victims' accounts, accompanied by medical evidence where possible, obtained from member organisations of the Human Rights Forum and other partner organisations. Use is also made of press reports. Furthermore, in this edition we include reports on police violence in non - political matters. This serves to demonstrate the way in which violent actions of the state and state agents exceed their legitimate limits and powers; and which indicates an increasing and more widespread politicisation of violence. The Report cannot be considered as the exhaustive record of all incidents of politically-motivated violence in Zimbabwe in the period under review. Nevertheless, every incident reported to the Human Rights Forum directly or through its members is meticulously documented and included in the reports. Care is also taken to record the incidents in the language in which they were reported to the Forum.

The situation prevailing in the country is such that it has not been possible to verify all of these accounts. The Human Rights Forum has done what it can to verify the reports, and is satisfied that the vast majority of them are substantially true. It is also not possible to rule out whether a victim's account is exaggerated or contains inaccuracies.

BULAWAYO Bulawayo East
8 May Students at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) demonstrated over the deteriorating standards at the institution. Plain - clothes officers from the Police Internal Security Intelligence (PISI), ZRP and the CIO were allegedly involved in the dispersion and arrest of the demonstrating students. 53 students were arrested and 48 of them were released on the following day. The rest of the students were taken to court and remanded out of custody to 23 May. Some of the arrested students included Clever Bere, Mehluli Dube, Venancio Jachi, Themba Mapenduka, Samson Nxumalo, Kurai Hoi, and Vivid Gwede. The case has since been heard and the students have been further remanded out of custody to 3 September 2007
29 May 2007 NUST security officers arrested Clever Bere and Mehluli Dube after a students' disciplinary hearing that arose from the student's demonstration on 8 May 2007. No allegations were leveled against them and they were detained at the University security officers' control room under tight security before they escaped.

HARARE Glen View
14 May 2007 The victim, who is an MDC member, alleges that he was in a bar when 3 suspected plain-clothes police officers approached him and demanded to talk to him. He reportedly refused which led to an altercation. The skirmish only broke up when one of the suspected plain - clothes police officers fired a shot into the air. However, on the following day, 4 unidentified men in a Mazda 323 came to the victim's house around 05:00 hours demanding to see him. He tried to flee but he was waylaid and caught by the 4 men who then assaulted him with baton sticks and kicked him with booted feet on his chest. Hatfield
2 May 2007 The victim, an MDC member was arrested by six plain clothes ZRP officers in Epworth and taken to Mbare Police Station. The police reportedly searched his house for information on the MDC and its Democratic Resistance Movements. At the police station, the police allegedly sat him on a table with a hole in the middle whereat they started asking him the same questions. The victim reportedly failed to answer the police properly and they started beating him with baton sticks and empty Coca Cola bottles under the soles of his feet whilst he was handcuffed. The police reportedly put the victim in police cells around 05:30 hours of the following day where they denied him food, water and any form of communication with the outside world. Around 13:00 hours, the police allegedly forced him to put his feet in a dish full of ice blocks before releasing him at 16:00 hours.

26 May 2007 The victim alleges that he was assaulted by two men at Hatfield Shopping Centre for wearing a T - shirt inscribed 'Say No To Police Brutality'. The assailants reportedly kicked the man with booted feet and hit him with clenched fists on the face and head. The assailants reportedly asked the victim whether he knew anyone at the MDC Headquarters.

Mabvuku
19 May 2007 The victim in question was reportedly abducted by 7 suspected ZANU PF supporters for wearing an MDC T - shirt. The abductors allegedly dragged him into a commuter omnibus and told him that they were taking him to a police station. The victim was then blindfolded with thick cello - tape and driven to Goromonzi. On arrival, he was assaulted with sticks and attacked with knives losing consciousness. When he regained consciousness his assailants had fled the scene leaving him naked and had stolen his cell phone. Mbare
20 May 2007 It is alleged that the victim was walking past the ZBC Studios when two ZNA officers guarding the ZBC premises approached him and escorted him to their guard - room. The victim reportedly found 12 more men and women in the guard - room. The soldiers ordered them to pair up (a man and a woman) and have sex. The victims refused to do so. 2 other men in plain clothes ordered the women to initiate the sex, which they again refused. The victims were then reportedly taken to the back of the ZBC buildings where they were forced to spray each other with water from a hosepipe all over their bodies before being released. The male victim in question was also assaulted with a baton stick on his buttocks and right ankle.

Harare Central
2 May 2007 The Zimbabwe government's Media and Information Commission (MIC) banned an independent journalist for a year. The MIC said it removed Nunurai Jena from the roll of journalists beginning on 3 May 2007 - ironically World Press Freedom Day - until March 2008. The state - controlled Commission said Jena was banned after he was caught using an expired license. Under the government's tough Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, journalists must obtain licenses from the MIC to practice with those failing to do so facing up to two years in jail. The MIC had also accused Jena of freelancing for various foreign news networks some of them banned in Zimbabwe. He denied the charges and argued he had submitted an application for the renewal of his license.
4 May 2007 Members of the Law and Order Section of Harare Central Police arrested Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni, two senior lawyers of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and partners in the law firm Mbidzo Muchadehama and Makoni, outside the High Court in Harare. They were taken to the Harare Central Police Station 'for interrogation' but were not provided with reasons for their arrest. Following their arrest, lawyers attending at the Law and Order Section were able to confirm the presence of the two lawyers but were chased out of the offices by Detective Inspector Rangwani, who also threatened to physically assault Mr. Dzimbabwe Chimbga, a project lawyer with ZLHR and threatened all lawyers present with arrest if they persisted with seeking a reason for their clients' detention. Moreover, Messrs. Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni were denied access to their relatives and were also denied food and medication. An urgent application was filed by ZLHR at the High Court of Zimbabwe. In the evening, the Court granted a "temporary order" directing the police to allow lawyers access to Messrs. Makoni and Muchadehama and to allow them access to food, medical attention if necessary, and visitation by their relatives, pending the hearing of the matter the following day. In spite of this, the police defied the court order and transferred Mr. Makoni to Stoddart Police Station and Mr. Muchadehama to Matapi Police Station. They also denied them any access to their lawyers, relatives, food and medication.

On the following day, the court reconvened and declared that the arrests were unlawful and that Messrs. Makoni and Muchadehama should be immediately released. When traveling to Matapi police station, lawyers from ZLHR were informed that Mr. Muchadehama had been taken back to the Law and Order section at Harare Central Police Station for further interrogation. Lawyers proceeded to Stoddart Police Station, where they confirmed the presence of Mr. Makoni, but were advised that the Officer in Charge was not available and therefore he could not be released.

On the morning of May 6, 2007, as a second application was being filed, Chief Inspector Manjengwa and several police officers from the Law and Order Section at Harare Central Police Station visited the offices of the law firm of Messrs. Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni taking the two detainees with them. Mr. Lawrence Chibwe, Deputy Secretary of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Mr. Otto Saki, Acting Programmes Coordinator at ZLHR, was threatened with arrest when they sought to scrutinize the Search Warrant. Police proceeded to remove certain files and documents from the offices and did not allow the lawyers to take an inventory or remain present during the search. Messrs. Muchadehama and Makoni were then taken back to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Law and Order Section.
Mr Muchadehama and Mr Andrew Makoni have since been placed on remand out of custody pending their trial whose date has not yet been set.

8 May 2007 A group of about 50 lawyers peacefully gathered at the High Court in Harare in protest against the arrest of lawyers Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni. Armed members of the police dispersed the lawyers violently. Some of them were badly beaten in the process. Beatrice Mtetwa, the Law Society of Zimbabwe President and four others, were then singled out and arrested. They were driven to an open space in Eastlea (close to the city centre) and, in full view of passers - by and motorists, brutally beaten with batons on the buttocks, feet, legs and backs and then left to find their way to safety and medical attention.
14 May 2007 Jonathan Samkange, a lawyer representing Simon Mann , was reportedly arrested on allegations of violating sections of the Immigration Act. Samkange was accused of misrepresenting facts when he claimed that a foreign witness in the Mann case he had reportedly accommodated at his home was a friend. The police led by one Superintendent Nyamupaguma also accused Samkange of tipping the witness to check out of the hotel in which he was staying. To the contrary, all the allegations were found to be false as the alleged witness failed to gain entry into Zimbabwe and Samkange did not at any time sign declaration to support the witnesses' immigration forms. Samkange's arrest came a few days after he had filed an urgent chamber application to reverse a decision by a lower court to extradite his client to Equatorial Guinea to face charges of trying to topple President Teodore Obiang Nguema Mbasongo.

15 May 2007 Two University of Zimbabwe former student leaders, Collen Chibango (former UZ Students Representative Council Vice - President) and Wellington Mahohoma (former UZ Students Representative Council Secretary for Legal Affairs) were arrested by members of the ZRP for protesting the arrest of informal traders in the city centre. They were detained for three days at the Harare Central Police Station during which time they were tortured.

16 May 2007 The police reportedly arrested about 20 NCA members for marching in Harare without first notifying them in writing, four days in advance of their intention to do so. The police at Africa Unity Square allegedly assaulted three female protesters and one of them was reportedly admitted to hospital after sustaining serious injuries on her legs. The NCA members had gone on the demonstration to protest some of the provisions in the Constitutional Amendment Number 18 currently before Parliament.
17 May 2007 A photographer for The Independent and The Standard, Boldwin Hungwe, was reportedly summoned to Harare Central Police Station by a police officer who identified himself as Inspector Chinembiri in connection with a photograph he took of a battered and bruised Beatrice Mtetwa, which appeared on the front page of The Standard newspaper. The photograph showed the battered arm and thigh of Law Society of Zimbabwe President Beatrice Mtetwa. It is alleged that the police officer claimed that the photograph was in violation of the Public Order and Security Act.
19 May 2007 The victim was reportedly passing through Africa Unity Square when he met a group of anti - riot police officers who then asked him to produce his Identity Card. As he was searching for the ID card in one of his bags, he was allegedly struck hard on the head with a baton stick by one of the police officers. Four other police officers reportedly joined in assaulting him. The victim tried to flee but the police reportedly gave chase, caught him and started assaulting him again. He was then handed over to the police post at First Street whereat he was transferred to Harare Central Police Station. He was released without charge. The victim identified one of his assailants as one Constable Maredza.
26 May 2007 It is reported that members of the ZRP stormed the MDC Harvest House Headquarters where a Provincial meeting was taking place. The police reportedly forced all the people who were in the meeting to lie on the ground while they searched the MDC offices. 40 MDC members were then taken to Harare Central Police Station where they were made to sit in a courtyard from 10:00 hours to 21:00 hours. It is alleged that one Inspector Pikirai then ordered the 40 victims to be incarcerated. Police officers from the Law and Order Section then allegedly started calling the victims one by one and tortured them using baton sticks on their heads and backs. The police also reportedly used clenched fists on some of the victims. After being tortured, the victims were reportedly taken into unlit cells where urine and faeces flowed incessantly.

Kuwadzana
12 May 2007 Members of the ZNA reportedly assaulted fish vendors in Kuwadzana high-density suburb for displaying baskets of fish to President Robert Mugabe's passing motorcade. Soldiers who were accompanying the motorcade, who were armed with rifles and truncheons, allegedly returned to the scene, about 20 minutes after the President passed through the suburb and asked the vendors why they had displayed their 'smelly fish' to the President. Thereafter the soldiers reportedly started beating up the vendors indiscriminately Harare North Mount Pleasant
10 May 2007 The University of Zimbabwe security officers reportedly assaulted the victim, a male student from the University after there had been a demonstration by students at the campus. The victim alleges that it was around 21:00 hours when students started singing, chanting and throwing stones at windowpanes. He tried to flee from the New Complex Hostels to his room but was caught by the security officers before he got there. He was then reportedly escorted to the UZ security offices where he was assaulted. The victim was taken to Avondale Police Station where one Munyaradzi Sarudzai, a police officer, then reportedly assaulted him with a baton stick causing injury to his left ear. On 12 May the victim was transferred to Harare Central Police Station where one Detective Muchemwa continued to threaten him with assaults. He was only released on 16 May.

7 May 2007 Clifford Hlatywayo, a University of Zimbabwe student, was reportedly attacked by suspected CIO agents at a Residence Hall. The assailants allegedly forced Clifford to jump from the second floor of his residence causing him to break his arm on landing. On the same day, Munyaradzi Chikorohondo and Prosper Munatsi, both students at the University of Zimbabwe, were allegedly arrested by the University's security agents and handed over to the ZRP for allegedly taking part in a Students Executive Council elections campaign at the University. The University authorities have banned all gatherings at the campus. The two were only released after spending two days at Harare Central Police Station.

Buhera North
10 May 2007
16 MDC Buhera North choir members were reportedly assaulted by 10 suspected ZANU PF youths wielding baton sticks at around 22:00 hours for holding a rehearsal at one of victims' house. There was a rally scheduled for 16 May in the constituency. The victims were reportedly indiscriminately assaulted on the buttocks, faces and arms because they were chanting anti ZANU PF songs.
16 May 2007 The victim, an MDC member, alleges that suspected ZANU PF supporters attacked him at his home after attending an MDC rally in Buhera. The assault was carried out by five men led by one Nyasha Chivhuna. The victim alleges that he was dragged for 2 km from his home where he was then kicked with booted feet in the chest, stomach and face. Bindura
17 May 2007 Two Bindura University students, Tinashe Madamombe and Moreblessing Mabhunu, reported that they were arrested by CIO officers who indicated that they had been looking for them for two weeks in connection with their involvement in the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU). The two were reportedly detained in custody for 4 days.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (also known as the "Human Rights Forum") is a coalition comprising 17 member organisations. It has been in existence since January 1998 when non-Governmental organisations working in the field of human rights joined together to provide legal and psychosocial assistance to the victims of the Food Riots of January 1998. The Human Rights Forum has now expanded its objectives to assist victims of organised violence, using the following definition:
"Organised violence" means the inter-human infliction of significant avoidable pain and suffering by an organised group according to a declared or implied strategy and/or system of ideas and attitudes. It comprises any violent action, which is unacceptable by general human standards, and relates to the victims' mental and physical well-being."
The Human Rights Forum operates a Research and Documentation Unit and offers legal services to assist victims of organised violence and torture claim compensation from perpetrators through its Public Interest Unit.

Member organisations of the Human Rights Forum are:

Amnesty International (Zimbabwe) (AI (Z))
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP)
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ)
Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (SAHRIT)
Legal Resources Foundation (LRF)
Media Institute of Southen Africa (MISA)
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Nonviolent Action and Strategies for Social Change (NOVASC)
Transparency International (Zimbabwe) (TI (Z))
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and the Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO)
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET)
Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights)
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP)
Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA)
The Human Rights Forum can be contacted through any member organisation or through:
The Administrator, P O Box 9077, Harare - email: admin@hrforum.co.zw The Public Interest Unit, P O Box 9077, Harare - email: legal@hrforum.co.zw The Research Unit, P O Box 9077, Harare - email: research@hrforum.co.zw Address: 8th Floor Bluebridge North, Eastgate, Harare; Telephone: 250511 - Fax: 250494 The International Liaison Office, 56- 64 Leonard Street London EC 2A 4JX- email: IntLO@hrforumzim.com Telephone+44-20-7065-0945 Website: www.hrforumzim.com Previous reports of the Human Rights Forum can be found on our website.

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