Zimbabwe: ASSAULTED AND ARRESTED NEWSPAPER CREW STILL LANGUISHING IN POLICE CELLS

17 JUNE 2002
>
> ASSAULTED AND ARRESTED NEWSPAPER CREW STILL LANGUISHING IN POLICE CELLS
>
> Three Daily News staffers arrested on Sunday 16 June are still languishing
> in police cells and medical attention has been denied to them and a number
> of other people arrested on the same day.
>
> The Daily News's reporter Guthrie Munyuki, photographer Urgunia Mauluka
and
> driver Shadreck Mukwecheni were arrested while they covered an opposition
> gathering that the police brutally clamped down on. The three were beaten
by
> the police resulting in Munyuki sustaining a fracture on his right hand
> wrist. Mauluka's elbow was swollen according to a doctor who was granted
> access to the three on Sunday. The police have since denied medical
> attention to the three and many other opposition Movement for Democratic
> Change (MDC) party supporters who were arrested on Sunday.
>
> On the day, Mauluka's camera was smashed on the ground by the police and
the
> three were made to lie on the ground were the police took turns to beat
them
> with baton sticks and rifle buts. 85 MDC supporters were also arrested in
> the process and they are also languishing in police cells.
> Speaking on his mobile phone from his cell at Harare Central where he and
> what he estimated to be 44 other men and 40 women were being held, Munyuki
> said also in the cells were Highfield MP Munyaradzi Gwisai and Newton
Spicer
> of Edwina Spicer Productions, a Harare media production house. Munyuki
said,
> also held was Stuart Mukoyi of Kuwadzana 3, who sustained serious injuries
> when he was allegedly assaulted by the police. A doctor was called in to
> examine Mukoyi who, according to Munyuki, was lying motionless on the cold
> cement floor with no blanket last night. It is this doctor who also
examined
> Munyuki in the cells.
> "The doctor examined me 10 minutes ago and has just left," Munyuki said at
> 8.45pm. "He said I sustained a fracture above the right wrist. The whole
arm
> is now swollen and very painful. I cannot move my fingers. After they
> arrested us the riot police ordered Urginia, Mukwecheni and myself to lie
> face down. They assaulted us on the buttocks with rifle butts and batons.
I
> counted six officers who assaulted me. The same was happening to Urginia
and
> Mukwecheni. I tried to block one blow with my arm and received a heavy
blow
> above the wrist."
> Munyuki said Mukoyi had sustained more serious injuries and had been lying
> motionless in the cell.
> "He is stretched on the cold floor and cannot talk, walk or even sit. The
> doctor said he was concerned about him and has gone to see the police
> officers about him." The doctor later spoke to The Daily News on Sunday.
He
> said he preferred not to be mentioned by name for professional and
security
> reasons. He confirmed Munyuki had sustained a fracture and said Mukoyi was
> in a bad condition and was starting to have convulsions. "I suspect Mukoyi
> sustained serious abdominal injuries consistent with severe beating," said
> the doctor late last night. "He is now having convulsions." Munyuki said
he
> was sharing the same cell with Gwisai, Spicer, Mukwecheni and one Alf
> Nyahunzwi, a legal consultant who lives somewhere in the Avenues area of
> Harare. He said apart from Gwisai, Mukoyi and himself, three other people
> had been injured, including another woman who allegedly sustained a broken
> leg. He said the woman was released.
> Trouble started when the riot police descended on the rally organised by
the
> MDC in Africa Unity Square and at the MDC offices in Mbuya Nehanda Street.
A
> total of 60 people, including the journalists, were arrested at the MDC
> offices, while 25 more were rounded up in the square. Eyewitnesses said
the
> police had driven a Puma vehicle, registration number ZRP 316X, into a
crowd
> of about 2 000 gathered outside the MDC offices in Mbuya Nehanda Street,
> causing people to flee in all directions. They said armed riot policemen
> arrived at the MDC offices 20 minutes after the rally started and used
brute
> force to break it up. Learnmore Jongwe, the MDC official spokesman, said
the
> police had fired shots into the air to disrupt the rally, before arresting
> people "most of whom were just passers-by caught in the crossfire". A
> security guard on duty in the area said he counted five gunshots. Munyuki,
> Mauluka and Mukwecheni, who arrived on the scene after the rally had been
> dispersed, were arrested at 1.15 pm.
> "The police said they had known people from The Daily News would come to
> cover the rally because 'your newspaper always acts in cahoots with the
MDC.
> You always lie about the police. After this you can write about real
police
> brutality.'" Mauluka's camera was seized and smashed on the tarmac.
Munyuki
> said the police had recorded the details of the arrested men and women but
> had not formally charged them. "They merely herded us into the cells," he
> said. "They did not even search us or ask us to remove our shoes, as
> normally happens." As a result Munyuki had his cellphone on him last night
> and was able communicate with his office from the third floor of Harare
> Central.
> A police officer said last night that the detained people would be charged
> under Section 31 (c) of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). The
> section states that: "Any person who, at a public gathering behaves in a
> threatening, abusive or insulting manner intending to prevent the
> transaction of the business for which the gathering is called together,
> shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding a $50 000
> or two years in jail, or both." Bvudzijena said the police stopped the
rally
> because MDC activists had gone around the city beating up people and
trying
> to provoke trouble. "We had told the organisers they could not hold their
> rally at the Harare Gardens because that venue and the atmosphere in the
> city are not conducive for political gatherings," he told Reuters news
> agency. "We based our decision on POSA but we had agreed that they could
> hold their rally at their offices. We intervened when their people went
> around trying to provoke a situation." Meanwhile in Bulawayo, the police
> dispersed a crowd of about 2 000 people from Stanley Square in Makokoba
> Suburb near the city. They then detained Thokozani Khupe , the MP for
> Makokoba, and Gertrude Mtombeni, a member of the MDC national executive.
> The lawyer for the three daily News staffers, Lawrence Chibwe said that
his
> please to have three surrendered to him so that a private doctor could
> attend to them has fallen on deaf areas and the police insist that a
> government doctor would attend to them.
> "Munyuki, Mauluka and Mukwecheni are a sorry sight. They are actually in a
> state of shock. The police refused to take them to hospital despite my
> pleas," said Chibwe.
> Under the Public Order and Security Act, the police can hold "prisoners"
for
> seven days without preferring any charges.
> END