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Research students harassed
Students Solidarity Trust
January 31, 2006

Four university of Zimbabwe students were briefly detained by the police in Harare for conducting a research on the effects of Operation Murambatsvina at Hopley Farm. The four, who included the President of the Zimbabwe National Students' Union, Washington Katema, the Secretary General Promise Mkwananzi, Munyaradzi Tsunga and Tilda Mutambanashe were accused by the police of operating without accreditation. The police had mistaken them for journalists. It is a criminal offense for journalists to work without permits from the controversial Media and Information Commission, accused by many of arbitrarily closing down publications opposed to the government.

In a related incident, police arrested Last Madzivanyika, a law student at the University of Zimbabwe who was carrying out a similar research in Epworth. The students are carrying out the research on behalf of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).

The research seeks to lay ground for national and international mitigation against the government for losses incurred during the government's brutal campaign to destroy people's livelihoods.

Many people lost lives, property and incurred some permanent injuries. Reports of people who died surfaced in the media. In such circumstances, compensation for the losses is inevitable; the government has an obligation to compensate victims of Operation Murambatsvina.

The Students Solidarity Trust unreservedly condemns the harassment of students exercising their right to gather information. We hold that such harassment is a brazen attack on the right to information and academic freedom. Such fundamental freedoms should never be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

We call on the responsible authorities to leave the students to carry out their researches without any hindrances; any further harassment of these students will further give credence to the widely held view that Harare is running a tyranny that stifles the free flow of information.

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