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ZINASU condemns the disruption of ZCTU International Women's Day celebrations
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
March 09, 2011

The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) castigates the disruption by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) of celebrations to mark the International Women's day by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).Sixteen women were arrested in Bulawayo as they gathered to celebrate the global event. The arrests were made regardless of the fact that this was a High Court sanctioned event.

ZINASU believes the arrest is not a coincidence but is part of the ongoing national arrests and harassment of human rights or civic activists witnessed since the fall of Ben Ali and Mubarack.A number of activists including the ZINASU vice board chair Hopewell Gumbo have been arrested for plotting to remove the government. Last week two National University of Science Education (NUST) were picked up by men claiming to be security agents who claimed they were working in cahoots with ZINASU in plot to destabilize the country. A number of MDC-T provincial meetings and rallies have been banned on the basis of an assumption that the mass based gatherings may escalate into an Egypt or Libyan style of revolution.

In a clear display of an impartial application of law, the police are allowing ZANU-PF gatherings and meetings to proceed and many a times with police escort. This impartial application of law is in direct contradiction with the concept of the rule of law and works in defiance to the recently launched ZANU-PF proclaimed campaign against sanctions.

ZINASU implores the commissioner general Chihuri to realize and acknowledge that laws are meant to protect all citizens regardless of political affiliation. It is the right of all Zimbabwean citizens to fully enjoy protection by the police whose execution of duty corresponds beyond mere sloganeering or empty political party rhetoric and affiliation. It is also the right of the citizens to enjoy the right to freedoms of assembly as well as association guaranteed by the constitution and enforced not threatened by the police.

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