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Army locks up 430 gold panners
ZimOnline
November 29, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=531

HARARE - The Zimbabwe army has detained 430 civilians including children and refused to hand them over to the police since arresting them last Friday for illegally panning for gold at one of its farms, authoritative sources told ZimOnline.

The army does not have arresting powers under the law and it is also illegal to detain suspects for more than 48 hours without taking them to court.

The gold panners, many of who our sources described as being "in a state of shock" are being held at an army camp at Battlefields, about 250km south-west of Harare.

"The gold panners, who included more than 10 children, were rounded up by a group of soldiers who bundled them into some armoured trucks and took them for detention in their barracks," said a senior police officer, among a team that has been trying unsuccessfully to have the panners released into the custody of the police.

It was not possible to establish from the army under which law they were holding the panners or how it intended to deal with its captives.

The Zimbabwe army that is fiercely loyal to President Robert Mugabe is notorious for victimising opposition supporters and its generally high-handed treatment of civilians.

Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said he was unable to comment because he was "yet to be briefed on the incident".

Deputy police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka flatly refused to take questions on the matter. "This is not an issue to discuss with the Press," Mandipaka said before switching off his mobile phone.

According to sources, the panners had ignored repeated warnings by the army to stop digging for gold on its farm near Battlefields forcing the soldiers to launch a massive crackdown against the illegal miners.

Illegal gold panning has become rampant in most pasts of the country as thousands of Zimbabweans battle to make ends meet because of a severe seven-year old economic crisis that has spawned shortages of jobs, food and other basic survival commodities, while inflation has shot to more than 1 000 percent.

But the gold panners are accused of wreaking havoc on the environment through their rudimentary mining methods. The police have in the past launched several campaigns to stamp out gold panning. But this is the first time that the army has arrested gold panners.

This is however not the first time that the army - that is accused by churches and human rights groups of committing human rights abuses - has acted outside the law to arrest and detain civilians. For example in 1999, the army detained and tortured journalists Ray Choto and the late Mark Chavhunduka for days in open defiance of a High Court order to release the journalists.

Mugabe, who has heavily relied on the army and police to keep public discontent in check in the face of a worsening economic crisis, backed the army for arresting the journalists. - ZimOnline

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