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Govt
accused of using 'trumped up charges' against opposition
IRIN News
April 03,
2007
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71169
HARARE - Human rights
activists have dismissed the recent arrest of several members of
Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for allegedly playing
a role in the recent spate of petrol-bombings across the country
as an attempt to discredit the main opposition party.
"It does
not take a rocket scientist to see that the MDC activists were arrested
by the police, which is increasingly becoming a political arm of
the government, on trumped up charges," Jacob Mafume, a human
rights lawyer working with Crisis
in Zimbabwe, a coalition of more than 300 civil society organisations,
told IRIN.
Zimbabwe has been simmering
for the past three months, but the situation has taken a violent
turn since the police imposed a ban on political rallies in February.
Strikes and protests to highlight the worsening economic situation
have now given way to bombings of several police stations, a passenger
train and a supermarket, among other targets across the country.
In midnight raids last
week, police picked up MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's advisor, Ian
Makone, party member Piniel Denga and their wives, and arrested
31 other party activists, accusing them of possessing military weapons
and organising terror attacks across the country.
Mafume asked, "If
the government was convinced that the MDC had been behind the attacks,
[why] only a few individuals and not the leadership of the opposition
had been arrested?"
The MDC has claimed that
some of those arrested have been tortured while in police custody.
Makone and another arrested opposition supporter, Shame Wakatama,
were put on a life-support system after the alleged torture.
Assistant Commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena, the national police spokesman, said he was unable
to confirm or deny the torture claims, but described the allegations
as "an attempt [by the MDC] to divert attention from the serious
charges".
Some of the suspects
were taken to hospital under prison guard after they appeared before
a Harare magistrate on 31 March, according to their lawyer, Aleck
Muchadehama. He told IRIN that the arrested MDC members appeared
in court again on Tuesday, and were transferred from hospital to
a remand prison in Harare. None of the arrested MDC members have
been granted bail.
The official daily newspaper,
The Herald, said the police believed Makone was the mastermind behind
the bombings and, as the leader of a so-called 'Democratic Resistance
Committee', allegedly ran a training programme for the activists.
The MDC has denied the existence of the committee or any connection
with the bombings.
Bvudzijena told a press
conference on 28 March that in separate raids on the homes of the
suspects and the party headquarters in the capital, Harare, MDC
members had been found in possession of explosives, two unlicensed
pistols, loud hailers and communication radios, as well as party
regalia and tins of paint.
The member of parliament
for Glen View, Paul Madzore, and Luke Tamborinyoka, a former journalist,
were also arrested.
David Chimhini,
chairman of the rights group Zimbabwe
Civic Education Trust, said it would be difficult for the arrested
MDC members to expect fair treatment in such a politicised climate.
"In an
environment like the one that exists today, where there are so many
allegations of suspects being brutalised in police custody, it is
legitimate to suspect that the whole process of arresting and trying
people is determined by the political interests of those in power,"
he commented.
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