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Police
attack students at UZ on eve of Tsvangirai judgement
Students Solidarity
Trust
October
20, 2004
Zimbabwe Republic
Police (ZRP) members and state agents, armed to teeth with assault riffles,
baton sticks and tear gas canisters, descended on the University of Zimbabwe
and brutally assaulted in excess of 17 defenceless students on the night
of 14 October 2004.
The Secretary General of the Student Executive Council (SEC) at the University,
Miss Gladys Kudzaishe Hlatswayo was arbitrarily detained for 4 hours during
which she sustained bruises all over her body, and a swollen head and
feet, before being released just after 1 am without any charges cited.
Students at the University reported shots being fired and the residences
of leading SEC office bearers being ransacked, in a bid to locate the
President Gift Nyandoro and Treasurer Washington Katema, who together
with Gladys stood accused of distributing T-shirts written:
'Trial for
democracy " in front and
" He is not guilty " at the back.
The armed forces,
who are said to have been led to the above halls of residence by known
ruling party supporters at the University are said to have kept vigil
at the college all night. They were apparently on the look out for the
said two, amid allegations that they were distributing the T-shirts in
order to mobilise students to attend the verdict hearing for the Opposition
party MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai - supposedly with intentions of
disrupting the proceedings if the judgement was not fair and possibly
intending to march on the city centre in protest. Katema and Nyandoro
were however able to escape to relative safety after using the windows
of their residences as exits.
The heavy police presence and assault of targeted SEC members at the institution
came on the back of the arrest of 3 Student Union members, Collin Chibango,
Aurther Masuka, both Students Representative Assembly Members and the
third who was only identified as Killian, for pamphleteering, pasting
posters and writing graffiti on the walls bearing the same message as
was on the t-shirts.
In a separate but related incident on the same night, the President of
the Zimbabwe National Students Union, ZINASU, Phillan Zamchiya sustained
head injuries, a bust lip with 9 stitches, a swollen neck and feet, after
being beaten up by some men , who threw him into the back of a Mazda B18
pick up truck citing the same allegations as above. Phillan who was waylaid
in the Avenues area of Harare on his way home from the Students Union
offices, was able to master the courage to jump out of the moving truck
into a block of flats where an unidentified lady was able to take him
to Parirenyatwa Hospital for treatment after he had fallen unconscious
outside her door. He was able to receive further treatment at the Avenues
Clinic, before being moved to a more secure location for treatment after
further victimisation by state agents.
The targeted beatings and detention of these student leaders is symptomatic
of the injustice that is prevailing across the board in the country, and
serves to highlight what they are fighting against.
This systemic harassment of anyone who dares to raise their voice in thought
or in action against some of the wanton disregard for people's rights
by the ruling regime is a clear affront to students, and indeed to citizens'
rights to an opinion, organisation and association. These are actions
that deserve to be roundly condemned by all progressives within and without
the boarders of Zimbabwe.
Visit the Students
Solidarity Trust fact sheet
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