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Arrested WOZA children tortured in police custody
Violet Gonda, SW Radio Africa
August 23, 2006

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news230806/woza230806.htm

The pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) reports that some of the 26 minors who were arrested on Monday were allegedly tortured while in police custody. More than 190 people were arrested on Monday during peaceful demonstrations in Bulawayo and Harare . Although there were no arrests in Harare - 183 adult activists, 26 minors and 13 babies had been in custody for 48 hours until they were released on free bail Wednesday by a Bulawayo magistrate.

Although the 13 mothers with babies and 26 minors were temporarily released in the evenings, they had to report back each morning and spend the day with the others at the police station before being released again for the evening.

WOZA coordinators Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu both confirmed in separate interviews that some of the 26 children were subjected to brutal treatment by police in the Law and Order Section where they were allegedly beaten on the knees with broomsticks and baton sticks. The pressure group said the officers were trying to extract information regarding how WOZA mobilises, and were not satisfied until the terrified youths ‘confessed’ to fabricated information.

Manhlangu said; "They were made to sit on ‘air chairs’ – they said sit, but they were sitting on air. They were trying to dig information from these youngsters. We are really disturbed by this brutality."

Williams also added that the police were trying to extract information from the teenagers about the whereabouts of the WOZA coordinators, "Asking them where I live, who are the leaders? Information they already had, as the police don’t even ask me for my ID number as they already have it. This was just an excuse to intimidate, harass and beat them. They were beaten with broomsticks and baton sticks."

The coordinator said the pressure group is in the process of compiling medical records to sue the police over the abuses.

The group is also the first to be charged under the new draconian Criminal Procedures and Evidence Act. If convicted the charge will have a 5-year jail term or a level 10 fine (ZWD 2,000).

WOZA said it is looking at making a constitutional challenge saying this new law is worse than the Public Order and Security Act.

The activists were arrested on Monday when they had held a procession, which intended to hand over an open letter to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono over the currency reforms he introduced at the end of last month.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said in a statement that the arbitrary arrests are deplorable and crude; "The arrests are divorced from the dictates of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which grants human beings, by their virtue of being human, some fundamental rights such as freedoms of assembly, choice and association."

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