| |
Back to Index
53
ZINASU General Council members under "house arrest"
Students Solidarity Trust
September 09, 2006
Police in Mutare
( Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe), armed to the hilt, have detained
the entire Zimbabwe National Students Union General Council, numbering
53 councilors from 42 institutions, plus support staff of the union,
and other observers, bringing the total number of those they have
detained to 70. The ZINASU General Council, which comprises Student
Union presidents from all the tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe,
was meeting in a closed session of the council meeting at the Wise
Owl hotel in Mutare. The councilors were detained at about 12 noon
soon after taking a break from their proceedings; where they were
discussing among other things, the petition from students and parents
around the exorbitant tuition fees that students are being coerced
to pay, that they are due to submit to government and university
and college authorities on the 14 th of September.
De Facto house
arrest
The
Student leaders, due to their large number, have been detained in
the hall in which they were meeting, while the police work out,
logistics of moving them to the central station in Mutare, and possibly,
think up charges that might stick. The Premise under which the students
are being detained is, holding an illegal gathering, as they had
not sought the consent of police in Mutare. However, it is clear
that the detention, is just another act of harassment by the coercive
arms of the state, as the students union, and any other organization
for that matter, is not compelled even under the draconian, Public
Order and Security Act, POSA, to seek permission to hold an internal
meeting, as the clause on permission, has been interpreted to refer
to open public meetings and political gatherings, a description
which is far from matching any description of the General council
meetings of ZINASU.
Systematic
clampdown of student leaders
The
detentions also come on the heels, of the arrest of 8 members of
ZINASU in Harare on Friday the 8th of September also
on the flimsy grounds of violating POSA at a Harare Lodge where
the ZINASU executive was staying in preparation for the Disrupted
General Council meeting, and the petition submission next week.
Among the 8 were the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe national
Students Union, Beloved Chiweshe, and the Vice President, and another
Executive member of ZINASU. Police in Zimbabwe, now effectively
have the entire top leadership of the student's movement in Zimbabwe
behind bars or under the guard of armed officers. This systematic
detention, arrest and victimization of student leaders in Zimbabwe
is not a new phenomenon, and the disruption of the General Council
meeting is reminiscent of the disruption of the ZINASU Congress
in December 2003 by members of the same force IN SIMILAR FASHION
Standing in
solidarity
While
Human Rights lawyers from the Zimbabwe lawyers for Human Rights,
are assisting with working the legal angles to get the students
freed, and the Students Solidarity Trust, is working, on ensuring
that other social and material needs of the students in jail, like
food and water, are met, we would like to urge, all progressive
organizations, movements and individuals, to stand in solidarity
with the Zimbabwe National Students Union, which due to its progressive
work in fighting for the rights of students in Zimbabwe, and its
assertion and dedication to fighting for a free and democratic dispensation
in Zimbabwe, has found itself under constant attack from the state,
its legal arms and its extra legal arms.
The Students Solidarity
Trust, joins, ZINASU President, President Promise Mkwananzi, in
his condemnation of this systematic victimization of student leaders
and activists, and further asserts, police and the State, should
respect students fundamental rights to associate, and share information,
and should desist from the cruel and inhumane treatment that they
are subjecting student movement leaders to, but fundamentally, should
address the ills that afflict the Education Sector in Zimbabwe,
which have seen Education being turned into a preserve of elite
due to the exorbitant user fees attached.
Visit
the Students Solidarity Trust fact
sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
