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ZCTU National Labour Protest - Sept 13, 2006 - Index of articles
Harare
police 'savagery' under fire
Business
Day (SA)
September 18, 2006
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A273344
HARARE — An alliance
of independent human rights groups yesterday demanded the immediate
prosecution of police and soldiers who allegedly assaulted and injured
labour leaders attempting to stage antigovernment protest marches
across the country.
The Zimbabwe
Human Rights Forum said torture in the troubled southern African
nation was "both widespread and systematic" as evidenced
by what it called the savage ill-treatment of the main labour federation's
leaders while in custody after they were arrested in Harare on Wednesday.
It said that
the leaders of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions had been subjected to beatings and
torture that left them with fractures and other serious injuries.
Wellington Chibebe, the
federation secretary-general, suffered a broken arm, hand and severe
head injuries.
Harare magistrate Peter
Mufunda held a court hearing at the state Parirenyatwa hospital
on Saturday and deferred court action against Chibebe until October
3. He is accused of inciting protesters to cause a breach of the
peace.
Mufunda ordered an investigation
into the treatment of at least 16 labour leaders in Matapi police
cells, one of the capital's harshest jails, after their arrest.
About 30 labour activists
were released late on Friday. Most hobbled into court, some sporting
slings and bandages.
From his hospital bed,
Chibebe told human rights campaigners the activists held at Matapi
were taken into cells in pairs where they were beaten by police
and attackers who he thought — from the language they used
— to be soldiers.
Lovemore Matombo, the
head of the opposition-allied labour federation, suffered head injuries
and a broken finger, and the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change said Lucia Matibenga, both a federation activist and an opposition
official, also suffered fractures.
The opposition party
said in a statement it was "appalled" by the ferocity
of the assaults and the flagrant violation of the victim's
rights in custody.
The government has made
no comment on the assaults which have been condemned by western
states.
Police sealed off streets
and thwarted protests on Wednesday last week , arresting nearly
200 activists nationwide.
Zimbabwe is reeling from
runaway inflation, record unemployment and acute shortages of food,
fuel and imports, along with an HIV/AIDS epidemic that kills at
least 3000 people a week.
An International Monetary
Fund report last week said inflation was heading for 4000% by the
end of next year.
Meanwhile, police denied
reports yesterday that shots were fired at Anticorruption Minister
Paul Mangwana home.
"Only stones were
thrown . . . and police fired warning shots at the assailants,"
a police spokesman said of the attack.
Earler reports
said shots had been fired at the home Mangwana, who is also the
acting information chief. With DPA
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