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Youth activists arrested as police crackdown continues
Youth Forum
July 18, 2011

Two youths who were part of Youth Agenda's "Our Constitution, Our Future" soccer tournament that was held at St Dominic's Nora Primary School were yesterday arrested at Rusike Growth Point in Goromonzi. The Youths, Moses Nhau (26) and Pepukai Kwangwari (age not given) were arrested by Goromonzi Police on trumped up charges of inciting public disorder and criminal nuisance. Allegations are that the two were picked up by police details who were monitoring the goings on at the Youth Agenda organized soccer tournament after they were heard playing MDC jingles from their mobile phones and were immediately taken to Goromonzi Police station where they were immediately charged for disturbing business at the Growth point. The two were detained by Sergeant Marava of Goromonzi Police who refused to shed more light on the matter and cited that his superiors had given orders that he should not entertain questions from the media or other stakeholders.

The arrest of the two is a clear indication of the continued efforts by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to curtail Zimbabweans' constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly. It is also ironic that the ZRP have the morality of arresting political activists for playing their party music whilst the state sponsored media is regularly playing ZANU PF jingles at the expense of taxpayers' money. The arrest also confirms the unconstitutional interference of the ZRP and the other securocrats in the country`s politics. The arrests came in the wake of recent calls by army general, Douglas Nyikayaramba that the MDC president and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is a security threat. The Youth Agenda calls upon the ZRP to discharge its constitutional duties that is to maintain order, to protect civilians amongst others in a non partisan manner. It is our view that young people should be allowed to express their political views and affiliations without any interferences from the security forces. The Youth Agenda also calls upon all those who are working to resolve the multifaceted political crisis in Zimbabwe to urgently deal with the subversion of the calm and tolerant political environment brought by the inclusive government and the ongoing SADC mediation.

Meanwhile lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights are battling to seek the release of the detained youths.

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