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Police raid youth forum offices
Youth Forum
February
04 , 2008
In a clear case of the intolerance
and partisan nature that continues to characterize our police force, 10
police officers on Saturday 2 February raided the Youth Forum offices
in Harare. They arrested Terence Chimhavi the Youth Forum's Advocacy
Officer as well as Farirai Mageza, a member of the Youth Forum in Harare.
The two were arrested at around 1600hrs and were detained at Avondale
Police Station where they were thoroughly interrogated for more than 8
hours. The two were accused of being the masterminds behind the spraying
of graffiti messages denouncing gross misgovernance on walls around Avondale
Shopping Center. The police based their allegation on the fact that they
had seen posters of civic society leaders who were brutalized by their
colleagues on March 11 2007 and other posters depicting gross human rights
violation and the general meltdown of social service delivery in Zimbabwe
at Youth Forum offices. The two were released after midnight without any
charges leveled against them.
The two had gone to the Youth Forum's offices to do some office
work and were surprised to see ten plain clothes officers from Avondale
Police Station from the Police Internal Security Intelligence (PISI) unit.
The police officers were in the company of one Mapfumo, a Harare property
mogul who owns the premises that house the Youth Forum offices. Apparently
Mapfumo who had an axe on his person had led these officers to the offices
on the pretext that he wanted to evict the Youth Forum from his property
as he felt that he personally did not like the nature of work that the
Youth Forum was undertaking. Mapfumo said he wanted to evict the Youth
Forum and create space for the Ministry of Policy Implementation in the
office of the President. Mapfumo told the two in the presence of the police
officers that the Ministry of Policy Implementation in the Office of the
President had raised serious concerns with him on the activities of the
Youth Forum when they had visited the premises to view them as they wanted
to acquire the property as they gear up for the harmonized March 29 elections.
Mapfumo further alleged that some of the posters that were in the offices
were subversive and denigrated the President whom he personally had no
problems with. Mapfumo said he preferred to have more progressive people
on the premises rather than the Youth Forum who are into the 'business
of politics'. Mapfumo further gave a directive in front of the police
officers that he wanted the Youth Forum out of his premises before Monday
the 4th of February, failure of which he promised to take decisive action
which he said was not going to be very pleasant for the Youth Forum. He
also further threatened to take the case to higher offices.
The behavior exhibited by the police is shocking but not surprising as
they temporarily allowed Mapfumo to be above the law. The Youth Forum
offices have for the past 5 months been under surveillance by people who
are suspected to be from the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO). These people who are in the habit of changing vehicles with tinted
windows everyday, usually park their vehicles a few meters from the Youth
Forum offices, a clear tactic to intimidate the Youth Forum workers and
members who frequent the offices.
This case is just but a tip of the iceberg. Cases of harassment of civic
rights activists are clearly on the rise, mainly attributed to the impending
harmonized elections slated for March 29. The Youth Forum is fully aware
of the tactics used to silence pro-democratic institutions by the police
as they seek to jealously guard Mugabe's quest to remain Zimbabwe's
president. The behavior exhibited by police clearly shows their partisan
nature. It is quite surprising that the police could not lay any charges
against the two despite having detained and interrogated them for such
a long period of time. What is also shocking is how the police could tolerate
a man wielding an axe, a weapon which is classified as a very dangerous
weapon, to execute an eviction. Surely there are legal procedures in place
for any evictions to take place.
Such conduct from the Zimbabwe Republic Police deserves condemnation of
the highest order and the Youth Forum urges police officers to desist
from executing unlawful and illegal arrests lest history will judge them
accordingly. How then can we trust such an openly partisan police force
to facilitate the holding of free and fair elections? The police force
must stop this clear abuse of office and gross violations of constitutional
provisions of freedom of association and conscience. The Youth Forum will
not tire in its quest to advocate for an election that is free and fair
come March 29. The Youth Forum also urges all youths to shun acts of violence
and intolerance to diverging views. The Youth Forum urges all the youths
of Zimbabwe to vote against this clear abuse of the police by the state.
The youths should vote against arbitrary arrests and torture, state sanctioned
violence aimed at innocent civilians including women and children, repressive
legislation(AIPPA,
POSA,
BSA etc),poor justice
delivery system, state sanctioned impoverishment of the masses by the
gluttonous man and women in the ruling regime and unaffordable life.
Youth Forum Information and Publicity
youthforumzim@yahoo.co.uk,
+263 23 353 291, +263 11 925 759
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